The Warrior's Tale (59 page)

Now The Sarzana's ships were in range. Another group of machines opened fire - catapults sending long arrows ripping forward, that tore through sails, bulwarks and, often as not, Konyan soldiers. What I'd called 'firefingers' rippled out from The Sarzana's forward ships, striking Konyan galleys and sending them roaring into flame. I tried to see if there was a single source for those firestrikes that might give me a clue as to which ship The Sarzana might be aboard, but they seemed to come from everywhere.
Evidently
the Archon had perfected his spell.

A Konyan ship not far away lost headway, its oars flailing like a water-beede who panics seeing the carp striking up from the depths. Our galleys drew closer and I could see soldiers and sailors fighting desperately on its main-deck, as if they'd been boarded by a yet
invisible enemy. Then I saw what they were fighting. The decks were littered with great serpents, who thrashed and struck with unnatural energy at the men. I'd seen no trebuchet deliver such a wickedly clever load and knew the snakes had to have been transported aboard magically.

'The Sarzana has some interesting tricks,' Gamelan said when Pamphylia told him what had happened. 'That's one I'd never thought of. Worth noting, too.'

The Sarzana, or mayb
e the Archon,' Corais said quietl
y. Polillo shivered, and I surreptitiously gripped her hand to reassure her, then let it go before anyone could notice. Polillo recovered in a bare second, and was her usual battle-cold self.

'We are forgetting,' I agreed, 'the Archons ruled Lycanth not just by magic, but by their skills with armies as well.'

Xia was looking very worried, and not a little frightened, which was natural in her first battle. 'What does that mean?' she wanted to know.

I tried to find soothing words, but Stryker spoke first. 'Cap'n Antero means we'd best hope th' bull can take th' lancer b'fore his horse dances him out of the way.'

The Konyan ships were still going forward, slowly, steadily, bulllike, against the rain of fire that came down. I remembered once being forward of such an attack, I don't even remember in which border skirmish it was, and seeing long lines of infantry advancing against archers. As the shafts struck down from the skies the soldiers hunched their shoulders and bent forward as they pushed doggedly onward,
exactly
like men forcing themselves through a rainstorm. So it was with the Konyan ships.

'Look,' Xia said gleefully. 'They're breaking!'

So it appeared. The enemy centre wing had swung out of line. Signal flags went up from Trahern's warship, but Admiral Bhzana had already seen, and bunting flapped from his own masthead. His ships swung out of the main Konyan formation, away from the shallows and the lagging enemy they'd been expecting to meet, hoping to attack The Sarzana's centre on its flank. Such a bold stroke could break the enemy fleet now and end the battle before midday.

'Too soon, too soon,' I heard Polillo moan under her breath. 'Always wait to make sure the throw is real, not a bluff!' And so it was. As Bhzana's ships formed their new line, a strong, spell-created wind gusted down the gut towards us, and The Sarzana's waiting ships shot like bolts against Bhzana's own flank.

'Shit!' Stryker swore. 'Caught in th' same net they'd hoped t' cast!'

The threat was more than to just our east wing. Trahern's centre was also out of position. Perhaps he'd hoped to help exploit the enemy's mistake, which now was clearly a ruse that we'd fallen for.

The two lines of ships closed and the
battle
proper began. But it did not open as Trahern and the Konyans had wished. Trahern might've wanted to close and board with the other ships, but The Sarzana's galleys veered, trying to evade contact. Clumsy as they were, there were many instances where they weren't able to turn away and grapnels went across and Konyan soldiers leapt for the bulwarks. But even when an enemy ship was trapped, the
battle
still was not joined on Trahern's terms. Another galley would strike the Konyan ship from the rear, keeping just a few yards away and archers would pelt the ship, trying to divert it. It was just as a well-trained pack of hounds behave, savaging a bear's legs and flanks when he traps one of their brothers.

I heard screams and shouts across the water and saw flames mount and masts tumble as The Sarzana's ships kept hammering the Konyans. Even boarding wasn't as simple as Trahern had imagined. I saw glints of steel from just above the bulwarks of an enemy ship and stakes protruding out and up at an angle from the rails of the galley -stakes that were so much fence-posting from the sharp strands of steel strung along them. That would be even better than the traditional sagging nets to keep boarders away. Of course, it'd keep The Sarzana's own troops from attacking, but it looked as if he had no intent of fighting a traditional battle this day. Again I knew the Archon's orders had been taken, not only in magic but in war as well.

We were too close to the fray and I shouted a warning to Cholla Yi for us to pull back, but to stand by to reinforce Bhzana's wing if it broke. We withdrew to a better position, but still there came no signal for us to join the attack. All we could do was wait. Now it was truly as if
I were above the fleets as the battle continued. From the water it appeared as confusing as any land battlefield, with men shouting, bleeding and dying, staggering back and forth, and dust and smoke everywhere, and banners waving and going down, only to rise up once more; except the soldiers were monstrous ships.

Ships were already sinking and there were sailors drowning, clinging to flotsam and shouting for rescue. Some saw our galleys and desperately began swimming towards us. But it was far, too far, and one by one their heads vanished. Other ships drifted back out of
battle
, some with fighting still raging on their decks, others showing no sign of life at all, still others with their huge deckhouses shattered by boulders. I thought there were more Konyan vessels than enemy ships. Then I saw Konyan ships start to sail back - away from the battle. Some of them were crippled, dragging the ruins of masts overboard, others were smoking and crippled. But all too many of them showed no damage.

Polillo had her axe unsheathed, and was holding it in her hand, without noticing, slapping its flat hard against her reddening palm, her face mottied in anger and helplessness.

'Weak-gutted sonsabitches,' Stryker swore. 'Rope-spined bastards are breakin' and th' day's not half-gone.'

I realized with a jolt the sun was now high overhead and wondered where the hours had gone; then my eyes were torn away, as The Sarzana's sorcerous cloud lifted and his secret weapon broke into the
battle
. It was a small fleet of ships such as I'd never imagined. They were not much longer than our Orissan ships, if somewhat broader beamed, and single-rowed galleys like ours. But what made them striking and fearsome weren't just the lurid colours they'd been painted with - the colours of blood and death - but that t
hey were solidly roofed and mastl
ess. They looked like many-legged turtles as they swept forward. There'd be no boarding these craft; small as they were, the hulking Konyan ships would hardly be able even to close with them. I was very glad I wasn't a Konyan captain in the vanguard, because for the moment I had no idea how these invulnerable-looking craft could be destroyed. There were at least thirty of them and they were attacking in a spearhead formation - striking straight for the ignored and open west side of Trahern's centre wing where a gap lay between it and Admiral Bornu's ships.

Stryker swore, and I heard Duban whine something.

Corais was unbothered. 'I don't see how they fight,' she observed. 'Maybe they're intending to scare us to death.'

But in b
are seconds we realized the turtl
eboats were as deadly in fact as appearance. They were rams, but I realized once more that The Sarzana's tactics w
ere new, as I saw the first turtl
eship strike a Konyan vessel and then pull away as if nothing had happened instead of remaining in a death-embrace with its foe. The Konyan ship rolled at the impact, then wallowed to the side as water rushed into the hole the turtleship's beak had torn. In seconds it vanished under the waves. I realized the rams must either be demountable or, more likely, grooved to snap when a certain amount of force was exerted against them. Such a device would be foolhardy on a ship intended to endure hard weather, since it was likely to snap unpredictably and rip the galley's own bows open; but here in the calm waters of the bay, it was an ideal weapon. But that wasn't the only armament the turtleships had. Hatches flipped open on the covering deck and I saw the warheads of huge arrows emerge from one
turtle
ship as it sailed close under a Konyan's stern. Smoke lifted from each arrowhead and then the catapults fired, sending the firearrows deep into the wooden counter. The hatches banged shut and the gunners began reloading safely out of sight, as flames roared up from the stricken Konyan vessel. The arrows were either pitch-soaked or, more likely, 'dressed' with an incantation.

When the first ship burst into flames, I heard Xia hide a tiny shriek of fear, which no one but me could've heard and felt a flash of admiration for her courage. She was doing better than most before their first
battle
, better than I did marching up to my first skirmish, not having learned that the waiting and the thinking are deadlier to bravery than the most brutal foe.

Now the battle's tide was in full flood - and for The S
arzana's forces. Behind the turtl
eships came the entire west wing of the fleet, possibly a hundred or more conventional ships. I didn't know what to do. The entire Konyan fleet was breaking. On my left Admiral Bhzana's ships were reeling back; in the centre Trahern's forces were locked in a smoky
melee; and on my right the turtl
eships and their reinforcements were driving a wedge through Bornu's wing. As Bornu's forces shattered I realized there wasn't anything I could've done, unless there was a thousand of me, and a thousand thousand of my Guardswomen and Cholla Yi's galleys. His still-undamaged ships changed course, oars flailing, and set full sail to take advantage of The Sarzana's wind blowing away from the city. Singly and by squadrons they tacked back towards the open sea; on their heels came the
turtle
boats and The Sarzana's large galleys.

The other Konyans must've seen or sensed what had happened, because both Trahern's and Bhzana's wings shattered at the same instant. But not all the ships would be able to retreat. There were many ships still caught in the cauldron of the centre; ships that would now be brought to
battle
and destroyed, one by one. I saw the banner of Bhzana's ship coming away from the shallows, and then spotted Trahern's flagship, its mainsail at full swell, oarsmen pulling for their lives. You bastard, I thought. You led your sailors to this death, and you don't even have the damned courage to stay and share it with them. Whatever courage the admiral had in the past that brought him greatness had vanished with age and ease.

The first ships sailed past and I heard their sailors scream to flee, flee, the
battle
was lost, and even the dead had risen from the depths to fight us. I wondered for an instant, then nearly retched as a horrible stench rolled over our galley, coming from the first Konyan ships, now not more than three or four hundred yards away.

I made a decision, but Cholla Yi had already made it for me. Flags were at his masthead, and he was crying through his trumpet to retreat, pull back, there was no standing against them.

Xia shouted in blind rage, shouted he was a coward, then spun as I snapped the same orders to Stryker. 'You can't!' she cried in her frenzy, nearly in tears, 'You're no better than—'

'Silence!' I shouted. 'You wanted to be a soldier! Now soldier!' That outcry stopped her for an instant, and in that instant common sense returned and she slumped and turned away from me.

I could see some of The Sarzana's ships clearly now, and gasped. It looked as if the fleeing Konyans were right. On their decks were horrid beings who'd once been men, some rotting from exposure, some dried up into brown wisps by a hot desert wind, others bloated and fishbelly-white from their time on the ocean floor. Some were working the sweeps, others methodically served catapults or waited patiendy with bow or spear for the range to close. For an instant I remembered my brother's tale of a city of the walking dead far away to the west, almost at the gates of the Far Kingdoms, where even the city's Lord was a living cadaver and how Amalric almost died in that horrid necropolis. But he had Greycloak with him
...
and I did not.

The charnel reek was all around us and even my hardened mercenaries were beginning to show fear, even as they obeyed orders and we turned and fled with the others.

Then I knew what the smell was, and what the corpse-sailors were. I guess I knew this because of my own spell-casting, my own sensitivity to wizardry. Just as I knew what the truth was, I knew the countermeasure. I ordered Xia below and told her to bring up her cosmetics bag. She gaped, and I snapped at her sharply. Puzzled, she obeyed. In a few seconds she'd returned and handed it to me. I found a vial of perfume, unstoppered it and sniffed. It was ideal - a heavy, strong flower-based scent.

I cast the bottle into the air, and it spun - contents spraying. I chanted, the words coming easily: