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Earth and Water Chapter One Here we Go |
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At once, Winds of the Gods exploded into action. Oars churned the water and the three banks of
rowers -thranite, zygian and thalamion- leapt to the task, hurling their bodies
against the bending "elatai" shafts and standing with all their weight hard
against the footboards.
The transition nearly knocked me
off my feet, but in moments the heavy ship was once again under way, the lead
thranites setting a frenetic yet disciplined pace that drove us forward with
increasing speed. Bracing myself against
the bulwark, I turned to see Hippocrotes grinning wildly at me.
"Here we go Lysis!" he said. And
then more quietly, "Just follow my lead.
We'll take this together."
I nodded and turned back, watching
the startling change in the situation catch the enemy by surprise. Contempt for their Greek foe had led the
Persians to circle closer and closer, their weather-stained sides vulnerable to
a well-placed ram thrust. Miretus and
the rest of the fleet rushed to take advantage.
In moments I could pick out the
ship our tetrarch had designated for assault. It was moving slowly from right
to left, a brightly painted blue monster trailing seaweed on the waterline and
recognizing its danger belatedly, only as we raced forward. Shouts and curses rolled across the
intervening water separating our two warships, and immediately, the enemy
vessel picked up speed. All dancing oars
and rakish hull, the swift Phoenician ship was put hard over, her captain
attempting a turn to larboard, trying to come into us, to take us in our
starboard bow if she could.
"Should've turned away," said
Hippocrotes grimly of the enemy.
Indeed, it would have been the
wiser course. She had reacted too
slowly, too late. Miretus had adjusted
course slightly, and there was no doubt who would strike first, and with power.
"Brace!" came the cry from the
Tetrarch's chair, and we threw ourselves upon the deck moments before our
surging ram pierced the larboard bow of the enemy vessel with a crunching shriek.
No practices, no imaginings, no
amount of storytelling could prepare me for the actual shock of that first
attack. The whole ship shuddered and
shook as the heavy, bronze-sheathed ram snapped the solid ribs of the enemy
like the dessicated bones of a sheep. I
could hear the groaning of our foe's timbers and the inrush of the sea as we
settled, momentarily, in place.
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