Within moments, all the Romans and Axumites were busily donning their armor and taking up their weapons. The priest was now practically gibbering.
“Anastasius,” commanded the general. “Do something impressively unfriendly.”
Anastasius immediately seized the priest by the scruff of the neck and his crotch and tossed him back toward the cluster of priests amidships. The priest managed to land on his feet, more or less, but he immediately stumbled out of control and hurtled into his cohorts, bowling two of them right over.
Venandakatra screeched with fury. A small crowd of Ye-tai warriors surged forward.
Without any orders from Belisarius, all three cataphracts immediately notched arrows and drew their bows. The two sarwen raised their javelins. Eon and Garmat hefted their stabbing spears. Belisarius drew his sword. Ousanas lounged against the rail.
“What are you playing at?” hissed Menander.
Ousanas gaped. “Me? Miserable slave! Not fit for noble type foolishness.”
“Ousanas!” commanded Eon.
The dawazz sighed. “Most unreasonable prince.” He lazed forward. “Play old game?” he asked.
Eon immediately gave Ousanas his great spear. The prince shed his baldric and sword and then began to walk, unarmed, toward the Malwa crowd. Behind him, Ousanas motioned the Ye-tai warriors to clear a lane. Puzzled, but hearing no countervailing orders from the priests, the Ye-tai did as the dawazz bade them.
Eon walked right through the silent Malwa crowd until he reached the cabin which was built around the base of the mainmast. As soon as he reached the cabin, the prince turned and backed up against it. He crossed his arms and spread his legs about a foot apart. He was standing about twenty yards from the Axumites and Romans in the bow.
Ousanas casually jabbed the stabbing spear into the deck of the ship. The huge blade sank a full inch into the hard wood and stood erect. Without a word, one of the sarwen handed him a javelin. The dawazz hefted the javelin lightly and then, with a motion whose speed and power stunned everyone watching, hurled the javelin across the length of the deck.
The weapon sank into the wall of the cabin almost the full length of the blade. The shaft of the weapon quivered like a tuning fork. About two inches from the prince’s left ear.
A moment later, another javelin was sailing across the deck. This one plunged into the wood about two inches from Eon’s right ear. Not seconds later, a third javelin thundered into the cabin wall right between the prince’s legs. About two inches below his crotch.
“Mary, Mother of God,” whispered Valentinian.
Anastasius drew a deep breath. “That’s incredible spear work. Amazing!”
“Fuck the spear work,” growled Valentinian. “The kid never even blinked! That’s amazing. I may never fuck again, just from watching.”
The prince suddenly laughed. He and his dawazz exchanged huge grins across the deck of the ship.
“Very foolish prince,” mused Ousanas, shaking his head. “But got elephant heart. Been that way since boy.”
Ousanas plucked the great stabbing spear out of the deck and sauntered toward Eon. The warriors and priests scuttled out of his way. The dawazz smiled upon them beatifically.
“Intelligent persons!” he exclaimed. “Very most sane and logical Indian people!” He bestowed a particularly engaging grin upon Venandakatra.
When Ousanas reached Eon, he and the prince assisted each other in withdrawing the javelins from the cabin walls. More than anything else, perhaps, it was the obvious effort being exerted by these two very strong men which drove home just how ferocious those javelin casts had been.
Belisarius sheathed his sword and strode over to Venandakatra.
“We are soldiers,” he told the Indian lord sternly, “not children. We will not be penned in the hold during an attack.”
He matched Venandakatra’s glare with one of his own. After a moment, the Vile One looked away.
“Besides,” added Belisarius, turning away and pointing to the approaching fleet of pirate vessels, “you may find you are glad to have us, soon enough.”
Venandakatra scowled, but said nothing. Belisarius returned to the bow of the ship and began giving directions to the Roman and Axumite warriors. After a few moments, it became clear that the Indians had decided to leave the defense of the bow in the hands of their unwanted guests.
Belisarius had never encountered Axumite warriors in battle, neither as friend nor foe. He hesitated for a moment, wondering how best to use their skills.
What he could glean of the Ethiopian way of fighting was odd. They seemed singularly unconcerned about bodily protection, for one thing. The Axumites, when not constrained by Greek custom, never wore anything except a short-sleeved tunic, kilt, and sandals. Now, preparing for battle, they removed their tunics and stood bare from the waist up. Each of them, except Ousanas, took up a buffalo-hide shield. The shields were round and small-no wider than a forearm. Those little shields, apparently, constituted the entirety of their armor.
Each Ethiopian carried a sword slung behind his back from a leather baldric which crossed the right shoulder diagonally. The haft of the sword stuck up right behind the shoulder blade, where it could be easily grasped. The swords were purely cutting implements. They were short, very wide and heavy, and ended in a square tip. They resembled a butcher’s cleaver more than anything else.
The swords, however, were obviously secondary weapons. For their main armament, each Ethiopian carried javelins and those enormous spears. The Axumite stabbing spear was about seven feet long. The blade was almost a foot and a half long, shaped like a narrow leaf, heavy and razor sharp. The spear shaft was also heavy-as thick and solid as a cavalry lance. The last foot or so of the haft was sheathed with iron bands, and the very end of the haft bore a solid iron knob about two inches in diameter. The weapon could obviously double as a long mace.
Garmat spoke quietly.
“I suggest you use us as a reserve, Belisarius. As you can see, we do not match your cataphracts for sheer weight of armor and weapons. It is not the Axumite method. But I think you will find us very useful when the enemy presses.”
“What about him?” asked the general, nodding toward Ousanas. The dawazz carried neither a shield nor a sword. He seemed content merely with his javelins and his spear-a spear which, in his case, was a foot longer and much heavier than those borne by the other Ethiopians.
Garmat shrugged. “Ousanas is a law unto himself. But I think you will have no cause for complaint.”
Belisarius smiled his crooked smile. “A miserable, ignorant slave, is he?”
As often before, Ousanas surprised him with his acute hearing.
“Most miserable!” cried the dawazz. “Especially now! With cruel pitiless Arabs approaching!” Ousanas cast a longing glance at the sea. “Would flee in abject shrieking terror except too ignorant to know how to swim.”
“You swim like a fish!” snapped the Prince.
The dawazz goggled. “Do I? Imagine such a wonder!” He shook his head sadly. “Slavery terrible condition. Make me forget everything.”
Belisarius turned away and resumed his examination of the Indians. He saw that the bamboo troughs had now been set up along the port rail of the deck, facing northward. The troughs were spaced about ten feet apart. The Malwa kshatriyas then placed great bundles of hide at the ship-end of the troughs. The grey hides were tightly rolled into barrel-shapes which were about half the size of actual barrels.
“That’s elephant hide,” commented Garmat quietly.
Now, the kshatriyas began dipping buckets into the sea and hauling them up with ropes. As soon as the buckets were drawn aboard, the seawater was poured over the hide rolls. Once the hide rolls were completely waterlogged, the kshatriyas began pouring the seawater over every exposed surface of the ship. After a hurried consultation with Venandakatra, two of the kshatriyas advanced to the bow. Making clear with gestures and facial expressions that their intentions were pacific, the kshatriyas began soaking the bow of the ship with seawater also. The Romans and Ethiopians, at Belisarius’ command, stood aside and made no objection, even when the Malwa soaked the leather walls of their own tents.