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

with the sword and, grappling, kicking, I forced him back overboard.
Burning pitch spattering and exploding out of a clay vessel skidded across the deck.
I could hear battle horns to port and starboard.
Not more than a dozen feet away I could see a pirate longboat behind the chain, protected by
wicker shields.
Stones and pitch, at point-blank range, pounded and exploded between ships.
I could see, clearly, the eyes of pirates, no more than a few feet away, we separated from
them by the chain, and a few feet of water.
A man rose from behind the bulwarks of the enemy vessel, bow in hand.
Then he was reeling back, an arrow in his chest.
I heard the chain scraping at the side of the Tina, then the shearing blade on our starboard
side, swinging to starboard, struck the wood of a longboat. We slid along the chain, then, the oars on
our starboard side striking loose the wicker shielding of another longboat, too close to the chain, and
spilling men into the water.
I saw pirates, on the galley opposite, shaking their fists at us.
But the Tina, the chain cleared, was now swinging about. There was the wreckage of two
longboats in the water. Half submerged, a wicker shield floated behind the chain.
I heard men behind me extinguishing the flames on the Tina.
"Back oars," called Callimachus. And the Tina backed away again from the chain, her bow
facing it.
The pirate vessels, too, had withdrawn from the chain. It was near the tenth Ahn, the Gorean
noon.
Callimachus descended from the stem castle, leaving his officer at that post. He took some
water in his helmet and, using it as a basin, splashed his face with it.
"We have held them at the chain," I said to Callimachus. He wiped his face with a towel,
handed to him by a fellow.
"For the time," he said.
"Do you think the Voskjard will now withdraw?" I asked.
"No," he said. He handed back the towel to the fellow who had given it to him.
"What will we do now?" I asked.
"Rest," he said.
"When do you think the Voskjard will try again?" I asked.
"What do you think?" he asked.
"Tonight," I said.
"Of course," he said.

II
NIGHT


Slowly, in the darkness, the Tina prowled the chain. The sound of the oars, softly entering the
water, drawing and lifting, was almost inaudible.
"They are out there, somewhere," said Callimachus.
"Still?" I asked.
"Of course," he said.
Two ship's lanterns, suspended on poles, thrust over the bow, to port and starboard, cast pools
of yellow light on the water. In the light of the starboard lantern, here and there, where the chain was
visible above the water, as it was between certain pylons, we could see the dark links; generally,
however, it was invisible, concealed by the surface.
"Quiet," said Callimachus. "Hold!" he called, softly, back to the oar master, who stood now