Helikaon laughed, and his merriment rippled out across the water, making other men smile, easing the tension.
“It is true we are trapped here,” he answered, “but the mouse is safe only in his jug. We are seriously outnumbered, Oniacus. We cannot afford to engage the Mykene in the open sea. We would be sunk, or burned, or captured, every last ship. So we must lure the Mykene into the bay, where we have all the advantages. They have been at sea for weeks. They are bored and frustrated, and now they are tired, too. Each Mykene captain wants the honor of sinking or capturing the Xanthos. Especially Menados. I let him live, remember. He is unlikely to forgive me for that.”
Oniacus scratched his curly hair. “Then let’s hope they take the bait of the Artemisia.”
Helikaon shrugged. “They will or they won’t. If they don’t, they will attack before this day is much older. They are Mykene. They won’t be able to resist it.”
It seemed a long wait, but eventually the gallant Artemisia appeared in the distance, rounding the cape, propelled by the northerly breeze. Helikaon watched Chromis’ ship glide down the center of the bay toward them. It was clear she had been attacked. There were arrows stuck in her planks. The ship drew up beside the Xanthos, and Helikaon looked down. There were injured men, but none appeared badly hurt.
“We had a close call, Golden One,” the burly Chromis called up to him, “but I fear they have not taken the bait.”
“Take your place, Chromis,” Helikaon said. He gazed north, in the direction of the Hellespont. “It appears you are wrong.”
Around the headland appeared the Mykene fleet, dozens of ships rowing in regimented order. As the crews in the Bay of Troy watched, the enemy vessels formed up into an attack formation. Helikaon smiled as he saw that the front line was twelve ships wide. The vessels were well spaced, with plenty of room for the oars.
“Twelve abreast,” Oniacus said, grinning. “Just as you predicted.”
“Menados is not a seaman,” Helikaon explained. “He is one of Agamemnon’s Followers. He was promoted to command a fleet after his successes in the field. So he does not know the Bay of Troy. Neither, it appears, do his captains.”
The rivers Simoeis and Scamander entered the Bay of Troy at the east and the south, bringing a cargo of silt from higher lands. As the years passed, the waters were getting shallower, and hidden mud banks had formed on all sides of the bay. Captains who knew those waters took a careful course down the center of the bay to avoid the mud banks on either side.
The mouth of the bay was wide, but it quickly narrowed. No more than eight ships could travel the bay abreast. Menados’ twelve would be funneled into the central channel, where, Helikaon hoped, they would foul their oars and lose their attack formation. If the attacking ships started to swing and show their beams, the Xanthos could use her ram.
Ramming was a difficult maneuver to pull off effectively. Only a highly skilled crew and a captain with brilliant judgment and timing could count on success. At the moment of impact the ramming ship had to be traveling at just the right speed—too slow and the enemy could back water out of range, too fast and the ram could get embedded so deeply into the target’s hull that it would be stuck there, leaving the attacker vulnerable to attacks from other ships.
Khalkeus had equipped the Xanthos with a blunt-ended ram shod with bronze that drove through the sea just below the waterline. The purpose of this was not to penetrate the opponent’s hull but to deliver such a blow that it loosened all the planks around where it landed.
“What are we waiting for?” asked one of the oarsmen in a loud whisper to Oniacus.
The morning was wearing on and the sun climbing high, yet neither fleet had made a move.
Helikaon heard him and told him, “We are waiting for the Scythe.” To Oniacus he added, “Today the north wind is our friend. Perhaps Menados thinks it is his, but he would be wrong.”
The stiff northerly that whistled through the city of Troy most days of the year was as predictable as sunrise. A light wind in the morning would build up as the sun reached its height. After noon the Scythe could cut through to the bone; then it would die away again as night fell.
Helikaon looked up at the city of Troy standing high above him off the starboard beam. The golden walls shone serenely in the sunlight, and from the bay it was impossible to tell that a war was going on beneath them. He could see movement in the lower town, dust rising, and he could hear distant shouts, but they sounded like the placid mewing of seabirds from that distance. The only indication of the war was the smoke from two funeral pyres, one to the west of the city and one to the south, on the plain of the Scamander.
He turned his gaze back to the enemy fleet and at last felt the wind cutting hard against his face. Helikaon raised his sword, the steersmen ran to their stations, and he shouted, “Oars at four!”
The rowers pulled into their oars with a will, and the Xanthos leaped forward, the Trojan ships keeping pace. Out in the mouth of the bay the Mykene ships saw the challenge and attacked.
Once the enemy oarsmen had built up momentum and the two fleets were racing toward each other, Helikaon raised both arms in the air and brought them down sharply. “Reverse oars,” he cried. The powerful rowers leaned on their oars to back water. The Trojan fleet slowed sharply, as if their commander were afraid of contact. Seeing that, the Mykene ships powered on, tempted farther into the bay. For a while they maintained a perfect attack formation.
Then, as Helikaon watched with narrowed eyes, the ships at each end of the front line hit shallow water and lost their rhythm, veering into the vessels beside them, their tired rowers fouling their oars. Ignorant of this, the front line kept pressing forward into the narrowing channel. Helikaon gave the order to attack again, and once more the Trojan fleet sped forward. At last the officers on the Alektruon realized that the ships at each end of their line were floundering helplessly, oars locked, in shallow water. The order was given to slow down, but by then the second and third lines of ships, rowing hard to get in on the action and pushed by the Scythe, were unable to stop. The fast-moving galleys started ramming the back of their own attack line.
Helikaon saw a ship in the second line collide with the stern of the Alektruon, making her start to turn. The Xanthos had the Mykene flagship’s beam in her sights. “Ramming speed!” he shouted.
The Alektruon still was moving forward, her prow drifting helplessly to starboard, and the Xanthos was at full speed when the Golden Ship hit her. Only heartbeats before the impact Helikaon yelled, “Reverse oars!” Again the disciplined rowers started to back water.
The two ships came together with a sound like a thunderbolt from Zeus. The Xanthos hit her target just behind the prow, shuddered from stem to stern, then pulled away. On both ships warriors were waiting on the foredeck with ropes and grappling hooks, swords and shields, at the ready. But many were thrown from their feet by the impact, and as the Xanthos backed away, there was clear water between the ships before men from either side could jump across. Helikaon felt a cold thrill of triumph. He knew the Alektruon was doomed. At the moment of collision he had felt the fatal give in the other ship as planks below the waterline caved in.
Panic erupted aboard the Mykene vessels. Their once-proud flagship started listing to port, and ships on both sides of the fleet were foundering in shallow water and thick mud. There were angry shouts and curses as panicking crews blamed one another for their plight. Then, as Helikaon had predicted they would, they let fly with the fire hurlers.