"David Gemmell - Troy, Lord Of The Silver Bow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gemmel David)

deeper water.

The storm had arrived with sickening speed, strong winds gusting down from the high cliffs. The galley
had been making for a bay where they would shelter for the night. Gershom, rowing on the starboard
side, had not been worried at first. He knew nothing of the sea, and thought this might be normal. Then,
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seeing the anxious looks on the faces of the rowers, he glanced back. The ferocity of the gusts increased,
heeling the ship sideways, and driving it further from the shore. Gershom could see the headland which
marked the entrance to the bay. It seemed so close. The rhythm of the rowers began to fail. Two oars
crashed together on his side, throwing the line into disorder. One broke away. With the oars no longer
working in unison the galley turned beam on to the wind, driven round by the rowers on the port side.

A large wave broke over the side, swamping Gershom and the starboard rowers. The heavily laden ship
began to tip. Then it slid into a trough, and a second wave swamped it. Gershom heard a rending sound
as planks gave way beneath the weight of the water. The sea surged in, and driven down by the mass of
its copper cargo the galley sank within moments.

It occurred to Gershom, as he clung to the ruined decking, that he himself had probably mined some of
the copper that doomed the ship he sailed on.

The stern face of his grandfather appeared in his mind. тАШYou bring your troubles on yourself, boy.тАЩ

That was certainly true tonight.

On the other hand, Gershom reasoned, without the back-breaking labour in the mines he would not have
built the strength to endure the power of the storm.

No doubt it would have pleased his grandfather to see Gershom working the mine in those early days,
his soft hands blistered and bleeding, to earn in a month what he would, at home, have spent in a
heartbeat. By night, in a filthy dugout, heтАЩd slept beneath a single threadbare blanket, as ants crawled
upon his weary flesh. No servant girls to tend his needs, no slaves to prepare his clothing. No heads
bowed now as he passed. No-one to flatter him. At the palace and the farms his grandfather owned all
the women told him how wonderful he was, how masculine and strong. What a joy it was to be in his
company. Gershom sighed. On Kypros the only available women for mine workers said exactly the same
- as long as a man had copper rings to offer.

Lightning lit the sky to the south. Perhaps the storm is passing, he thought.

Thoughts of grandfather came again, and with them a sense of shame. He was being unfair to the man.
He would not glory in GershomтАЩs downfall. Any more than he would have taken pleasure from the public
execution he had ordered for his grandson. Gershom had fled the city, heading out to the coast, where he
took ship to Kypros.

He would have stayed on there had he not seen a group of Egypteians in the town a few days before.
He had recognized two of them, both scribes to a merchant who had visited grandfatherтАЩs palace. One of
the scribes had stared at him. By now Gershom was thickly bearded, his hair long and unkempt, but he