He forgot about the flanks now as his mind leaped ahead, painting in seconds a complete, detailed picture of the Imperial battle plan. The sailing ships that were turning now would go on turning, swinging far out to port and starboard. By that time the Imperial galleys would have fought their way through the allied flanks. They might have to trade galley for galley to do it, but they would if they had to. There would be no holding back, not under Kul-Nam's eyes and particularly not when he now stood a good chance of living to take vengeance.

So half the Imperial sailing ships would sweep in to the allied rear. The other half-Blade could see them clearly now, and see them slowly swinging to open their broadsides-would wait where they were, hammering away with their guns, standing against the attack of the allied center. The allied galleys would be caught with enemies ahead and enemies behind, no room to maneuver, and shot whistling about their ears every minute.

It was ironic. The exploding barrels were obviously a complete surprise to the enemy and every bit as deadly as Blade had intended. It was just as obvious they weren't going to win the battle. They weren't causing any panic- no one in the Imperial fleet would fear anything half as much as the wrath of the Emperor. Nor could they do much against the Imperial battle plan-a plan perfectly designed to meet a weapon that the planners hadn't dreamed existed.

Had he miscalculated? Perhaps. Yet certainly neither he nor anyone else could have predicted this freakish coincidence. Freakish-and lethal. If something was not done and done fast, before this day's sunset the coincidence would end the lives of twenty-five thousand men and all hope for Prince Durouman's cause.

Fortunately, there were still things that could be done. Blade scanned the sea and the ships ahead, rapidly calculating speeds and distances. If the attack of the allied center could be shifted to one end of the Imperial second line instead of charging straight at it-

Blade again leaped into the rigging and slid down to the deck. He went even faster than before, stripped more skin off his palms, but ignored the pain. Then he ran aft along the port gangway, heading for the drummers and the men at the tiller.

As he leaped up onto the quarterdeck, he nearly collided with Prince Durouman. The prince seemed half hysterical with excitement and delight. Blade wondered if the man were completely ignorant of what was happening to the allied fleet, or if he'd finally cracked under the strain, or if

Then Blade noticed that the prince had drawn his sword and kept pointing with it in one direction, over Blade's shoulder. Blade turned and saw what was drawing the prince's attention.

Squarely in the center of the Imperial line facing them, half hidden by the smoke of its own guns, lay a highcastled, three-masted sailing ship. From all three of the masts floated enormous standards-red, with a black eagle in the center.

Chapter 26

Prince Durouman regained his voice. «The flagship!» he screamed. «The Imperial flagship! Kul-Nam himself! Steer for the flagship, tillermen! Steer for-«

«No!» Blade roared. Somehow he managed to outshout even the hysterical prince. Durouman jumped into the air and came down glaring at Blade, his sword raised:

For a moment Blade was certain he was going to have to knock the prince down and send him below for the rest of the battle. That would do nothing for their future relations, but letting Durouman guide Avenger in his present frame of mind would do absolutely nothing at all except lose the battle.

The moment passed. Durouman's mouth snapped shut and he turned away, shaking all over. Blade slapped the chief tillerman on the shoulder. «Get ready to swing us to port when I give the word.» Then he shouted down to the drummers. «New stroke-all oars, reverse!» The drummers broke off to stare up at him for a moment. Then they shrugged and started beating the reverse. Avenger began to back off.

There was only one way to make sure of shifting the direction of the allied attack. Avenger would have to lead it on its new course. That meant getting clear of the close formation so that she could turn and be clearly seen turning. «Follow the leader» was the only reliable signal in a battle like this.

Avenger could not break out of the formation by going ahead, into easy range of the Imperial guns. So there was nothing to do but drop back through the formation to the rear.

During the next few minutes Blade was quite sure that he would finish up this day with his hair and beard as white as milk, if he lived through it at all. As Avenger slowed, the other galleys seemed to be racing past her. For one ghastly moment it seemed that Avenger's next astern was going to ram her barrel straight up the flagship's stern and set it off almost under Blade's feet. By a margin so narrow that it made Blade sweat, that disaster was avoided.

Another galley shot up from astern and, by an even narrower margin, avoided plowing along Avenger's starboard side. That would have smashed half of the flagship's oars and flattened a good many of her rowers for good.

A third galley swerved in plenty of time to avoid coming close to Avenger. In the process she found herself almost across the bows of still another galley. This one had to swerve in turn, missed blowing her comrade to bits, but came so close to her stern that one anchor caught in the other's main rigging. Shrouds parted with dismal twangs and the mainmast went over with a tremendous crash, amid a chorus of furious yells. For the moment it looked as if those two galleys were about to start a private war of their own.

Finally Avenger slid out of the formation. As Blade watched from the quarterdeck, he could see some of the other galleys in the allied center already following his lead and coming about to port. Still others were trying to follow but were too mixed up with their comrades to maneuver safely. Around and among and occasionally on all of them the shot from the Imperial line still fell. Kul-Nam's captains either had unlimited powder or were less afraid of wasting it than of seeming not to be doing their best for their terrible master.

Avenger was now racing along almost parallel to the Imperial line, within range but not taking any fire for the moment. Blade looked away toward the rest of the battle. A bank of smoke was slowly swallowing everything astern, but he could see no real changes. He could barely make out the rest of the Imperial sailing ships. Apparently they were following through on their planned movements.

Fine. If he couldn't see the ships, neither could Kul-Nam. If Kul-Nam couldn't see them, he couldn't signal to them. If he couldn't signal new orders to them, they would go right on obeying the old ones. Fear of the Emperor was making his captains incredibly brave and stubborn. At the same time, it would also make them incredibly rigid in obeying what they thought were his orders.

Rule by fear was a two-edged sword.

Twenty galleys were now moving after Avenger in something that might be called a formation. Even better. They were gaining on the sailing ships. Soon they could swing around and cross the bows of the Imperial line. Instead of twenty sailing ships shooting at sixty galleys, there would be twenty galleys surrounding two or three sailing ships at a time, with full room to maneuver-and full room to swing in and strike with what they thrust ahead of them.

It had been a bloody battle and it would become still bloodier before it was over. But it might also turn into a victory. Blade mentally crossed his fingers-he'd done everything else that could be done for the moment.

Eventually the Imperial ships noticed Avenger and the galleys following her. They couldn't figure out what the galleys' maneuvers meant, but they could see a lot of targets. By now, though, Avenger was using the room created by all the confusion to swing still farther to port. Most of the other galleys were following her. Two-thirds of Blade's attacking force was now out of range from the Imperial line, but the Imperial captains didn't seem to realize this. They went on blazing away as if the galleys were practically alongside.