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up, the enemy boat was drifting away into the darkness, a pyramid of fire
almost from end to end. The priests and crewmen were still clustered, aft but
as Blade watched, he saw a white splash by the steering oar. Someone had
decided to accept death from the fishes, rather than from the flames. A moment
later a gurgling scream floated across the dark water as the fish tore into
the man.
The screams did not last long it would be only a matter of seconds before the
man had no lungs or throat to scream with.
Blade turned to the men who had caught him. "Thanks. Without you I'd be on the
fishes' menu tonight along with those over there."
A man Blade recognized as the Lugsa's mate nodded. "We could not do less for
you. You saved us.
Ayocan priests not use Death-Vowed on river before this. I do not understand."
"Neither do I," said Blade. "That was why I wanted to destroy the whole boat
and its crew, not just beat off the attack. If their first try at river piracy
costs them the boat and the crew, they may think twice before making it a
habit."
There was another reason, one he could not mention. The attack by the cult
boat suggested that someone high in the cult knew of Blade's presence aboard
the Lugsa. Perhaps he knew of Blade's mission also, and was sending a warning
downriver to the temple mounds of Gonsara. If so, destroying the cult boat and
every man aboard it might make sure that the Lugsa reached Gonsara before the
warning.
Chapter 13
«^»
Of the Lugsa's crew of fourteen sailors and six fighters, five sailors,
including the captain, and three of the fighters were dead. Virtually all the
others had been wounded, two of them so severely they died the day after the
battle. Shorthanded as she was, the Lugsa was in no danger from the river
itself. It flowed broad and straight and deep all the way to Gonsara, and even
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
in bad weather it had no winds or waves high enough to endanger a
well-built craft like the Lugsa. What Blade feared was another
attack by men either ordinary pirates or another boatload of Warriors and
Death-Vowed sent by the cult of
Ayocan. With half her crew dead or disabled, the Lugsa could never fight off
such an assault.
As it happened, the rest of the voyage down the river was uneventful,
unmolested, and more than a little boring. Gradually they passed out of the
belt of tropical forest and into a broad river plain. The trees there grew in
clusters well back from the river bank, with cultivated fields and
white-painted houses spreading along the bank. The air there was even hotter
than it had been in the forest belt, but less humid.
On the sixth day they passed into Gonsara itself. For all the peace between
the two countries, both sides had forts marking the border on both sides of
the river. And the river itself swarmed with the swift-moving patrol craft of
both kingdoms. These stopped and inspected ships bound in either direction.
Two Gonsaran officials boarded the Lugsa and listened to the mate's tale of
the battle that had decimated the ship's crew. It was a carefully edited tale,
that made no mention of the cult of Ayocan.
Blade had thought of giving a full account, to sound out Gonsaran opinions of
the cult. But he had decided against it. Even if the officials were against
the cult, they might talk about what they heard and others might listen. The
less said about the fate of the cult boat until Blade reached his destination,
the better.
The Gonsarans were little shorter than Blade himself, but considerably
thinner. Their bony faces were largely hidden behind bushy coal-black beards.
How they wore their hair Blade could not tell, since they wore high tightwound
white turbans. They wore black slippers, white pantaloons, and black sashes. A
curved short sword and a curved dagger, both in silver sheaths, were stuck
into the sashes. The men who rowed their boat were naked except for
breechclouts, but carried six-foot spears with barbed bronze points.
Altogether the Gonsarans looked to Blade very much like the warrior race they
were supposed to be.
On the tenth day they reached Dafar, capital of Gonsara. Sweating gangs of
naked slaves drew the
Lugsa into a great basin under the eyes of the guards on the city's walls, and
moored her to a long brick jetty. At that point the mate ceased to pay any
attention to Blade. His orders had been to take this man supposedly a
merchant's agent down the river to Dafar. He had done so. Now it was time for
him to go about his own business disposing of the Lugsa's cargo, hiring new
crewmen and fighters, renting sweep-slaves, paying port fees and customs
duties, and the like. He therefore dismissed Blade from his mind and his ship.
Blade went ashore without resentment. From this point he would be on his own
in any case. And he already had a plan, one worked out with great care on the
journey. It involved a good deal of danger, which didn't bother him. It also
involved gambling that what he had been told about Gonsara was largely
correct. That did bother him. But he didn't think he had any choice. If the
secret of his mission was out and he had to assume it was sooner or later
another cult ship would come downriver. And then the hunt would be on. He had
to move fast, whatever the risks.
Visitors from Chiribu could move about freely in Dafar. No one questioned or
challenged Blade as he drifted up the streets from the docks toward the heart
of the city. He considered for a moment making
his move here, in the dockside quarter. But the streets were narrow and
litter-strewn it would be hard to run. And the nearest temple mound was well
over a mile away. Ducking occasional salvos of garbage and bathwater falling
from the windows, Blade continued up the hill.
Another half hour of walking brought him to the marketplace. Here there were
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| Cytat |
Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
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