«Yes,» he said finally. «I think Avenger is a very good name for our flagship.»

That was the end of the conference. Blade went in search of Haleen. Somewhat to his surprise, he found that she did not need much consolation for Dzhai's death.

«He always knew that he would not live to grow gray,» she said with a sad smile. «That was his fate. Indeed, he was fortunate, for he died a warrior's death in a great battle for a good cause, and he never hoped for that much even in his dreams. I do mourn him, Blade. But-I would not care to be alone here, at least at night.»

Blade took care to see that Haleen was not left alone during the next three nights. On the fourth day, the fleet set sail from Parine.

Chapter 25

The fleet descended on the Sulphur Islands, off the southern coast of the Empire of Saram.

Blade and Prince Durouman chose the islands as the point of attack because of something Duke Tulu had said. As Blade put it at one conference:

«Somewhere there has to be something so important to Kul-Nam that an attack on it will bring him and his fleet down on us at once. We cannot afford a long campaign. It will exhaust our supplies and wear out our ships and crews. It will also give time to rebellion, other pretenders to the Eagle Throne, and to the Steppemen.»

So Duke Tulu suggested the Sulphur Islands. «From their mines comes nearly all of the sulphur used in making the Empire's gunpowder. Kul-Nam certainly cannot afford to lose them.»

«Is he short of powder?»

«He has far less than he needs. Much was used against Parine. If he has to fight another great battle, there will definitely not be much left.»

Then rebels could spread everywhere. The Steppemen could cross the borders with relative impunity. Even Kul-Nam's vast and expensive fortresses and castles would be far less formidable without powder for their artillery and muskets.

«We will move against the Sulphur Islands, then,» said Prince Durouman.

The islands fell without any resistance worthy of the name. Their garrison had been stripped of ships and men in order to reinforce the Imperial fleet after the losses at Parine. Four galleys and less than a thousand men remained to defend the islands against the attack of a hundred and forty galleys and twenty-five thousand men.

The galleys fled. A few of the men threw themselves off the cliffs or down the mine shafts. Most surrendered. A few of the bolder ones joined the attackers.

Along with the guns on the island, Blade found a number of old-fashioned non-explosive siege engines, designed for throwing large stones. He had them taken aboard the larger galleys, to be used for throwing barrels instead of stones. Some of the barrels would be filled with gunpowder and bits of iron, designed to explode murderously; others would be filled with sulphur, to spread flames, fumes, and ghastly smells across the decks of an enemy.

«With these coming down on their heads, I don't imagine even the best gunners will be able to shoot very well,» said Blade.

After they had loaded the siege engines and their ammunition, it was finally time to reveal the secret weapons. Blade called all the captains aboard Avenger to tell them what he had done and what the new weapons ought to accomplish in the coming battle.

The captains cheered him and they cheered Prince Durouman. They also stood silently for a moment in memory of the barrel-makers of Parine. They would gladly have drunk enough wine to float one of the largest galleys, but there was none aboard. So they cheered some more, then went back to their own ships.

From Avenger's foc'sle Blade and Prince Durouman watched them go.

«If the barrels work as well as the captains expect them to, Kul-Nam and all his fleet are doomed,» said Blade.

«Yes, but are they expecting too much?» said the prince.

«There is no way to answer that until we fight our battle.»

The allies did not have long to wait. Toward sunset of the fourth day a scouting galley hove into view, one mast gone and the signal for the approaching enemy flying from the other. The fleet weighed anchor and crept out to sea as the last light drained from both the sky and the water. They settled down to wait, the crews sleeping at their battle stations, masts bare and oars trailing, all guns loaded.

Aboard Avenger Blade, Prince Durouman, Duke Tulu, Emass, and the admirals of the Five Kingdoms held their final council of war. The tactics Blade had planned for the battle were simple-so simple he'd expected arguments against them.

He got none. Prince Durouman, Tulu, and Emass clearly understood the reasoning behind the plan; it was important to capture Kul-Nam's flagship, and every other consideration was secondary at the moment. The five admirals didn't care about that, but they did see that Blade's tactics involved a headlong charge at the enemy. That was the style of fighting they liked, the style of fighting that gave them the best chance to prove their warrior's courage.

Normally Blade would have felt like beating the admirals over the head until he'd beaten some sense into them. Commanders who thought more of courage than of skill usually led their men into disaster. This time he was able to ignore the problem.

Now all that remained was for Kul-Nam to do his part.

The Emperor seemed to be cooperating. Dawn brought the Imperial scouts up over the horizon. Two hours more and the rest of the fleet was hull-up and bearing down on the allies. Blade waited until he could count the Imperial fleet-forty armed sailing ships, a hundred galleys-and saw it shifting into its usual broad crescent. Then he ordered the formation signal hoisted on Avenger's foremast-and Prince Durouman's battle standard hoisted on the mainmast.

This was the next to the last signal he planned to make, the next to the last he could hope that the whole fleet could see. Galleys scuttled about in all directions like a swarm of mad waterbugs, as though all one hundred and forty captains and crews were suddenly drunk. Blade hoped that Kul-Nam's admirals would think just that and allow their own confidence to swell accordingly.

It was half an hour before the allied formation was pulled into the shape Blade intended. By that time Kul-Nam's fleet was only a couple of miles outside gun range, coming on now like a solid moving wall of wood and canvas, silent gun muzzles and rhythmically beating oars. The sailing ships had all their canvas spread and showed no signs of shortening it at all.

That was not good, but under the circumstances it was inevitable. There was more wind today than Blade liked — not enough for a sailing ship to outrun a galley moving at full speed, fortunately, but plenty to let the sailing ships maneuver freely. Most of Kul-Nam's admirals had more sense than the late lamentable Sukar; they would probably take advantage of the weather.

Blade-scrambled up to Avenger's foremast to take a last look over his fleet. In theory every one of the hundred and forty galleys should now be where she could do her intended part in the coming battle without any more signals. He hoped so. There was only going to be one more.

He cupped his hands and shouted down to the men on the signal halyards.

«Hoist the attack.»

They must have had the flag already bent on. A ball soared up to the masthead and broke apart into a great black flag, streaming out on the wind. Avenger's bow guns went off, one by one. Cheers floated up to him on the wind as the crews of nearby galleys jumped up and down, waving hats, helmets, and swords. Then Avenger's drummers broke into the attack stroke, and the flagship surged forward.

Behind her and around her surged a hundred and thirty-nine other galleys, in Blade's special formation. It was not the standard simple-and simple-minded-crescent. Instead, it looked like a gigantic, squared-off letter U, with the open end of the U facing astern, away from the Imperial fleet.