Valerius heard a shout from the deck and looked up to see the pale ghost of a sail on the far horizon. This was no time for talking. ‘If you are your father’s daughter you should be able to obey orders.’ He took her arm and bustled her to the hatch which led below decks. He saw Serpentius grinning and Tiberius looking on with a puzzled frown and it only made him more angry at her foolishness. ‘That sail belongs to a pirate galley. You understand about pirate galleys? Well, these pirates want you. And when they get you they will use you to destroy your father. If he pays the ransom and leaves them alive, he will no longer have his honour. If he does not, he will no longer have you, and that will be infinitely worse.’
In an instant the wildcat inside her retreated. His final sentence, and the way he said it, first confused then intrigued her. She frowned and shrugged herself free as they reached the ramp. ‘If you had explained yourself so eloquently a little earlier,’ she said sweetly, ‘perhaps we would not have had this misunderstanding. Come, Suki.’
Valerius couldn’t help noticing the way her body moved under the thin skirt as she walked down the steps into the hold. He shook his head. Idiot to think of something like that when they could all be dead in the next few hours. He ran to the stern and prepared to face the enemy.
VIII
‘They’re gaining.’ Aurelius’s voice remained steady, but the concern was written stark in the lines of his weathered features. ‘I thought we were holding them, but they are making ground on us with every minute.’ His eyes darted constantly between the heavens and the waves and the three sails that were now clearly visible on the horizon. ‘They will not use their oars until they are close, because their rowers can only maintain their hunting speed for a short time. There is no point in using up their strength until they need it. But all is not lost. We may be fortunate yet.’ His hand reached up automatically to touch the carved figure of Poseidon where years of habit and countless maritime dramas had worn a shining circle on the knee.
Valerius tried to judge the distance between the three pirate craft and the Golden Cygnet. How much time did they have?
Aurelius read his mind. ‘We have a following swell and that tells me there is more likelihood of the wind’s freshening than backing. There are still four hours till dark, but if we don’t lose a steering oar or snap a rope we should be able to stay ahead and they will not relish continuing the chase after dusk. They are cowards at heart. They will always seek a profit, but not if it is likely to cost them blood. We may be only a single ship, but we can still put up a fight. The only reason they have not turned tail already is because of the prize.’ He frowned and spat.
‘Very well, Aurelius.’ Valerius’s voice took on the authority of a man who had commanded a legion — an African legion, but still a legion. ‘You are in command of the ship, but who is in command of the defence of the ship?’
Aurelius nodded solemnly. ‘My men are not fighters, though if it is fight or die they will fight. But understand this. If it is a choice between fight and run, we will run. What do you need to know?’
Valerius signalled to the watching Tiberius, who ran to them and saluted. ‘Sir.’ The young tribune’s eyes were bright with expectation and Valerius thought: here is one man who will defend the ship to his last breath. A man to fight alongside. Another man to fight alongside was standing a few feet away, trying to look uninterested, but Valerius knew Serpentius would be listening to every word.
‘First we need to know how many weapons are on board and how many of your sailors you can spare to fight.’
‘I have a crew of twenty and in a stern chase I can give you a dozen of them, armed with either a sword or a spear, though I doubt they’ll be much use with either.’
Tiberius snorted dismissively, attracting a glare from the captain, but Valerius only looked thoughtful. ‘What about axes?’
Aurelius brightened. ‘Oh, yes, they can all handle an axe. Give a sailor an axe and watch the blood and teeth fly.’
‘So, we have seventeen, including the tribune’s cavalrymen and my servant. Tiberius, we will leave one of your troopers to provide protection for the lady Domitia and her staff. The question is how many will oppose them?’
The captain chewed his lip. ‘The Cilicians pack them in tight. A big pirate galley can ship fifty men over and above those on the rowing benches.’ Tiberius gave a short whistle. ‘But at least one of the galleys is the scout ship we saw; he will carry no more than twenty.’
The figures were double what he had expected, but Valerius hid his concern. ‘Very well. Tribune Crescens. I have my own thoughts on the defence of the Golden Cygnet, but I would value yours.’
Tiberius struggled to hide a grin. When he spoke his tone was professional and his words considered. ‘As I see it, from a military point of view the Golden Cygnet is simply a walled fighting platform and it can be defended in the same way I would defend any fortification. If we can get enough men to the point of attack we can fight off a force of greater numbers, especially a force of pirate scum.’
Valerius smiled. ‘I wouldn’t underestimate the pirate scum, Tiberius, but I agree with your conclusions. My only concern would be if we were attacked in more than one place, which I’d suggest we have to assume is a possibility.’
Aurelius nodded gloomily. ‘These pirates, they climb like the monkeys they are. Given even the slightest opening they will swarm all over the ship.’
Valerius exchanged glances with Tiberius. ‘Then we must consider another option. We can’t let them get on to the Cygnet.’
The younger man glanced uncertainly towards the pirates. ‘We fight them on their own ground?’
‘Fight them on their own ground and kill them on their own ground.’ Valerius turned to the captain. ‘Do you have anyone on board who has served on one of those galleys?’
Aurelius didn’t need more than a second. ‘Capito!’
The wizened sailor who had met Valerius and Serpentius on the wharf in Ostia ran up to them. He looked abashed to be singled out, but brightened when he realized what he was being asked.
‘Aye, they had me chained to an oar for nine months and would have thrown me and those chains overboard if yon navy lads hadn’t been so quick.’
‘Can you draw a picture of a galley and point out its strengths and weaknesses for me?’
The sailor told them, ‘I can do better than that. I can show you.’ He ran below and returned with a lovingly carved wooden model, every spar and every oar in its place. ‘Now this here is the biggest of the type. Twenty oars a side, fifty feet stem to stern, and a dozen across the beam.’ He pointed to the centre of the ship. ‘Your scouts, they have but ten a side and are maybe eight feet across.’
‘And besides the oarsmen the bigger ships carry say fifty fighting men and the smaller twenty?’
Capito frowned. ‘That would be as a rule. Sometimes less, sometimes more. A pirate chief, he would be hard put to it to fill his bigger ships these days, with the pickings so slim.’
‘They must have a weakness,’ Tiberius said, studying the little model critically.
Capito looked blank as if the thought had never occurred to him, but after a few moments his face broke into a gap-toothed grin. He patted the solid oak of the side of the Golden Cygnet. ‘Their weakness is that they won’t ram this. Their captains are savages: thieves and murderers who revel in torture and cruelty. They abused us slaves horribly. But they are also businessmen. The galleys are built for speed, light fast craft that can fairly skim across the water if the oarsmen are driven. But that strength is also their weakness. I’ve seen a Roman galley shear clean through a pirate hull.’
Capito returned to his station and the three commanders discussed the situation for a few minutes more before Valerius made his decision. Aurelius, in that curious ebb and flow of confidence that affects men before a battle, had pondered whether they should turn and use the ship as a sea-borne battering ram. It was an idea that appeared to have merits, but Valerius pointed out that while they were tangling with one ship the other two would undoubtedly converge on them and they would eventually be overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
‘No,’ he said firmly. ‘The answer is to try to outrun them if we can, but to engage them one at a time if there is no other alternative.’ He looked out over the waves. The little group of sails was closer still. ‘We need to lighten
