The tide of victory

floating bonfire. There was not a chance that any man on her deck would still be alive within a minute or two. Nor, she thought-hoped-was there much chance that any of them would be able to fight their way across the deck to the hatchways leading to the hold.

That still left the possibility that at least one priest had stayed in the hold throughout the short battle, ready to ignite the powder if necessary.

Possibility?

Antonina winced. She was absolutely certain that a priest had been stationed there. Several of them, in fact-each one charged to make sure his fellows would not flinch at the very end when the time came to commit suicide. That had been the Mahaveda plan all along, after all. The only thing that had changed was that Antonina's intervention had prevented the Circe from reaching the harbor before they did so.

Ousanas trotted up to her, his spear trailing blood across the deck. 'Only thing we can hope for is that they're still confused down there.' Clearly enough, he had reached the same conclusion she had.

'One of the few times I've ever been glad those Mahaveda bastards are such fanatics,' he said, grimly. 'They'll be reluctant to blow it, not having reached their target. So until they're certain. '

She stared at him. Then, in a half-whisper: 'They're bound to know that by now.'

Ousanas shook his head. 'Don't be too sure of that, Antonina. I got a better look at the conditions on the Circe than you did.' He glanced at Eusebius, who had emerged from the bow shield and was charging back to the stern. The glance was very approving.

'That devil cannon of his must have hit them like a flood of fury. A tidal wave of fire and destruction. As confusing as it was horrible. I doubt the Malwa command structure survived more than a few seconds.'

Again, he shook his head. 'So. who knows? The priests in the hold may have been isolated from the beginning. And still don't know what's happening-and have no way of getting on deck to find out for themselves. Even Mahaveda fanatics will hesitate to kill themselves, when they're not sure what they'd be accomplishing by doing so.'

Eusebius was shouting shrill orders. Some of the Victrix's sailors started dousing the stern of the ship with water kept in barrels. Others began dousing the rigging. That should have been done before the battle even started, Antonina realized. But everything had happened too quickly.

It was getting harder to see anything. The Circe was now two hundred yards away, and the fierce light cast by the burning ship was no longer enough to do more than vaguely illuminate the deck of her own ship. But there was still enough light for her to see that several of the sailors, apparently at Eusebius' command, were standing ready with hatchets and axes to cut away the Victrix's rigging.

'What are they doing?' she demanded. 'The last thing we want is to lose our own sails.'

Ousanas did not share her opinion. Instead, he growled satisfaction. 'Smart man, Eusebius. He's figured out already that most of the explosives on board the Circe will be incendiaries.' For a moment, he studied the ever more distant enemy ship. 'We're far enough away, by now, that we can probably survive the actual shock of the explosion. But we'll soon be engulfed in fire ourselves. If we can cut away the rigging fast enough-that's what'll burn the worst-we might be able to keep the Victrix afloat. Maybe.'

Something of Antonina's confusion must have shown in her face. Ousanas chuckled.

'Strange, really. You're normally so intelligent. Think, Antonina.'

He pointed back at the Circe. The Malwa ship was no more than a bonfire in the distance, now. 'Their plan was to blow it up in the harbor, right? In order to do what?'

She was still confused. Ousanas chuckled again.

'Think, woman! The Malwa aren't crazy, after all. Insanely fanatic, yes, but that's not the same thing as actual lunacy. The harbor itself-even the buildings surrounding it-is built far too solidly to be destroyed by any amount of gunpowder which could be stowed on a single ship. Which means that their real target was not the harbor but the ships in it. And the best way to destroy shipping is with flame.'

Finally understanding his point, she heaved a small sigh of relief. She had been imagining the Malwa ship as a giant powderkeg, which, when it exploded, would produce a large enough concussion to shatter everything within half a mile at least. But if most of the explosives were designed as incendiaries.

Matthew and Leo came up, looming above her in the darkness. Ousanas placed his hands on Antonina's shoulders, turned her around-gently, but she could no more have resisted him than she could have a titan-and propelled her back into the bow shield.

'So you,' he murmured cheerfully, 'will ride out the coming firestorm in the safest place available.'

Once they were inside the shelter, with Matthew and Leo crowding behind, he added even more cheerfully: 'Me, too. The thought of losing Africa's future because of a damned Malwa plot is unbearable, don't you think?'

Antonina put her gun back in the valise and closed it. Then, still kneeling, she looked up at the aqabe tsentsen. As she expected, Ousanas was grinning from ear to ear.

She started to make some quip in response. Then Ousanas' figure was backlit by what seemed to be the end of the universe. Armageddon's fire and fury.

Fortunately, Ousanas was quick-thinking enough to kneel next to her and shelter her in his arms before the shock wave arrived. Matthew was quick-witted enough to start to do the same.

Leo, alas, had never been accused of quick-wittedness of any kind, save his animal reflexes in battle. So the concussion caught him standing, and sent him sprawling atop Ousanas and Matthew, with Antonina at the bottom of the pile.

But perhaps it was just as well. Antonina was too busy trying not to suffocate under the weight of three enormous men to feel any of the terror caused by the firestorm which followed.

* * *

The next morning, at daybreak, Roman galleys found the Victrix. The vessel was still afloat, but drifting helplessly in the sea. It had proved necessary to cut away all the rigging before the fire was finally brought under control. Most of the sailors had suffered bad burns-which two of them might not survive-but were otherwise unharmed.

The ship itself.

'It'll take us weeks to refit her,' complained Eusebius, as he watched his sailors attach the tow rope thrown from one of the galleys.

'You don't have 'weeks,' ' snarled Antonina. 'Two weeks, the most.'

Eusebius' eyes widened with surprise. 'Two weeks? But our campaign's not supposed to start until-'

'Change of plans,' snarled Antonina. She glared to the east. The direction of the Malwa enemy, of course. Also, the direction in which Belisarius' army was to be found, marching slowly toward the Indus.

'Assuming my husband listens to the voice of sweet wifely reason,' she added. Still snarling.

Chapter 18

The Jamuna

Summer, 533 A.D.

Link awaited Narses on Great Lady Sati's luxury barge, moored just downstream from the fork of the Jamuna and Betwa rivers. The fact that the monster from the future had traveled to meet him made the already anxious eunuch more anxious still. Link rarely left the imperial capital of Kausambi. To the best of Narses' knowledge, it had never done so since it had become-resident, lodged, whatever grotesque term might be applied-within the body of the young woman who had once been Lady Sati.