"John Norman - Gor 16 - Guardsman of Gor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman John)

GUARDSMAN OF GOR
Gor 16
John Norman


I
SHIPS OF THE VOSKJARD

Most Gorean ships have a concave bow, which descends gracefully into the water.
Such a construction facilitates the placing of the ram-mount and ram.
I watched, fearfully, almost mesmerized, as the first of the gray galleys, emerging
from the fog, moving swiftly, like a living thing, looming now, struck the chain.
Battle horns sounded about me. I heard them echoed in the distance, the sounds
first taken up by the Mira and Talender.
There was a great sound, the hitting of the huge chain by the galley, a sound as of
the striking of the chain, and then the grating sound, scraping and heavy, of the chain
literally being lifted out of the water. I saw it, fascinated, black, dripping water,
glistening, slide up the bow, splintering wood and tearing away paint. Then the whole
galley, by its momentum, stopped by the chain, swung abeam. I saw oars snapping.
"The chain holds!" cried Callimachus, elatedly.
Another galley then struck the chain, off the port bow.
"It holds!" cried Callimachus. "It holds!"
I was aware of something moving past me. It was swift. I almost did not register
it.
"Light the pitch!" called Callimachus. "Set the catapults! Unbind the javelins!
Bowmen to your stations!@
I saw, amidships, opposite our galley, on the enemy vessel two bowmen. They
carried the short, stout ship's bow. They were some forty yards away.
I looked upon them, fascinated.
They seemed unreal. But they were the enemy.
"Down!" called Callimachus. "Protect yourself!"
I crouched behind the bulwarks. I heard again, twice, the slippage of sir, sliding
and divided, marked by what I now recognized was the passage of slender, flighted
wood. One arrow struck into the stem castle behind me and to my left. The sound was
firm, authoritative. The other arrow with a flash of sparks struck the mooring cleat on the
bulwark to my right and glanced away into the water.
I heard the snap of bow strings on my own vessel, returning the fire.
"Hold your fire!" called Callimachus.
Lifting my head I saw the enemy galley back-oaring on the starboard side, and
then, straightened, back-oaring from the chain.
Some fifty yards away I heard another galley strike at the chain.
A cheer drifted across the water. Again, it seemed, the chain had held.
Across the chain I heard signal horns.
Callimachus was now on the height of the stem castle. "Extinguish the pitch!" he
called.
 I tried to see through the fog. No longer did there seem enemy ships at the chain.
Callimachus, twenty feet above me, his hands on the stemcastle railing, peered out into the
fog. "Steady!" he called to the two helmsmen, at the rudders. A sudden wind was pulling at the fog. I
heard the rudders and rudder-mounts creak. The oar master set the oars outboard, into the water.
"Look!" cried Callimachus. He was pointing to starboard. The wind had torn open a wide rift