The Samos said, "Port Kar has no Home Stone."
"Captains," said I, "accompany me to the steps of the hall."
They followed me, and I left the chamber of the council, and, in a few moments, stood on the top of the broad marbled steps leading up to the hall of the Council of Captains.
"It is Bosk," cried the people. "It is Bosk, Admiral!"
I looked out into the thousands of faces, the hundreds of torches.
I could see the canals far away, over the heads of the people, crowded even to the distant waters bordering the great piazza. And in those waters beyond there were crowded hundreds of boats, filled with men, many of them holding torches, the flames' reflection flickering on the walls of the buildings and on the water.
I said nothing, but faced the crowd for a long moment.
And then, suddenly, I lifted my right arm, and held in my right hand, high over my head, was the stone.
"I have seen it!" cried a man, weeping. "I have seen it! The Home Stone of Port Kar!"
There were great cheers, and cries, and shouts, and the lifting of torches and weapons. I saw men weep. And women. And I saw fathers lift their sons upon their shoulders that they might see the stone.
I think the cries of joy in the piazza might have carried even to the moons of Gor.
"I see," said Samos, standing near to me, his voice indistinct in the wild cries of the crowd, "that there is indeed a Home Stone in Port Kar."
"You did not flee," I said, "nor did the others, nor have these people." He looked at me puzzled.
"I think," I said, "that there has always been a Home Stone in Port Kar. It is only that until this night it had not been found."
We looked out over the vast throng, shaken in its jubilation and its tears. Samos smiled. "I think," said he, "Captain, you are right."
Near to me, tears in his eyes, shouting, was the slave boy Fish. And I saw tears, too, in the eyes of the vast crowds, with their torches, before me. There was much shouting, and a great crying out.
"Ye, Captain," said Samos, "I think that you are right."
17 How Bosk Conducted the Affairs of Port Kar Upon Thassa
I stood in the swaying basket at the height of the mast of the Dorna, the glass of the builders in hand.
It was a very beautiful sight, the great lines of ships in the distance, extending to the ends of the horizons, the sails like yellow and purple flags, in their thousands, in the sun of the ninth Gorean hour, an Ahn before noon. Port Kar had mustered what ships she could.
In the hurrying of our formations and the drawing of battle plans, I was not even certain of the numbers of ships engaged in our various ventures. The nearest estimations I could make were that we were bringing, at the time of the engagement, in the neighborhood of twenty- five hundred ships, fourteen hundred of them only round ships, against the joint fleet of Cos and Tyros, of some forty-two hundred ships, all tam ships, now approaching from the west. We had all of the arsenal ships that were available, some seven hundred out of an approximate thousand. So many were in the arsenal because of the lateness of the season. As I may have mentioned, most Gorean sailing, particularly by tarn ships, is done in the spring and summer. Of the seven hundred arsenal ships, three hundred and forty were tam ships, and three hundred and sixty were round ships. Our fleet was further supplemented by some fourteen hundred ships furnished by private captains, minor captains of Port Kar, most of which were round ships. Beyond this, we had three hundred and fifty ships furnished by the captains of the council who had not, prior to the time of the showing of the Home Stone, fled. Of these three hundred and fifty ships, approximately two hundred, happily, were tarn ships. my own ships counted in with these of the captains of the council. Lastly, I was pleased, though astonished, to accept the service of thirty-five ships of two of Port Kar's Ubars, twenty from the squat, brilliant Chung, and fifteen from tall, long-haired Nigel, like a war lord from Torvaidsland. These were all the ships that were left to these two Ubars after the fires of En'Kara. None of the ships of the Ubars Eteocles or SuUius Maximus had been pledged to the fleet, nor, of course, none of those of Henrius Sevarius, under the command of his regent, Claudius, once of Tyros. Had it not been for the finding of the Horne Stone of Port Kar, if one may so speak, I doubt that we could have brought more than four or five hundred ships against Cos and Tyros.
I snapped shut the glass of the builders and descended the narrow rope ladder to the deck of the Dorna.
I had scarcely set foot on the deck when I saw, near the mast well, the boy Fish.
"I told you," I cried, "to remain ashore!"
"Beat me later," said be, "Captain."
I turned to an officer. "Give him a sword," I said.
"Thank you, Captain," said the boy.
I strode to the stern castle of the Dorna.
"Greetings, Oar-master," said I.
"Greetings, Captain," said be.
I climbed the stairs past the helm deck to the captain's deck of the stem castle.
I looked out.
Astern there were, each separated by about one hundred yards, four tarn ships of Port Kar, and behind this four, there was another, and behind that another, and behind that another. The Dorna was thus leading a relatively close formation of sixteen tarn ships. This was one of fifty such task forces, consisting altogether of eight hundred tam ships. The attacking fleet, in order to provide its net to prevent escape from Port Kar, had overextended its lines. Their ships were only four deep and widely spaced. Our sets of sixteen ships, each in a position not to interfere with but support one another, could cut such a line easily.We would cut it in fifty places. As soon as the ships broke through the line they would spread in predesignated pairs, attacking where possible from the rear, but always conjointly. Each pair would single out a given ship by signals and as it maneuvered to meet one the other could make its strike. The balance, the great majority of ships in the joint fleet, thus, would remain, at least for the time, unengaged, apart from the battles. Once more it would not be so much a question of absolute numbers of ships as concentrating superior numbers at strategic points. With their lines cut in fifty places, for no extended handful of tarn ships, part of a great line, could resist a close-set formation of sixteen tarn ships, I hoped that many of the ships would turn to face the attackers, now in their rear. Each of my fifty sets of attacking tam ships would be followed, by some half of an Ahn, by another pair of my tarn ships, which, hopefully, would be able to take a number of these come-about ships of Cos and Tyros from the rear. I recalled the Doma, under similar circumstances, had done great damage. The original pairs, of the fifty sets of sixteen tarn ships, after cutting the line and fighting, would, if possible, regroup with their sixteen and recut the line again, this time moving toward Port Kar, and repeat these tactics. I had, however, little hope that we could successfully, in many cases, cut the line more than once. By that time the ships of Cos and Tyros would have concentrated in their numbers and shortened their lines. After the first cutting I expected a free combat, except insofar as the designated pairs of ships could continue to work together. The predesignation of fighting pairs, inciden- tally, and my injunctions to refuse to engage singly if possible, even withdrawing from equal odds, I am told, was new in Gorean naval warfare, though the pairing principle, on a more informal basis, is as old as the triangle tactic, which may be remembered from the en- gagement of my nondiversion ships with the ships which had been left behind to guard the treasure fleet. I had also arranged signals whereby my ships, those of my task forces and others, might, if the pairs became separated, switch partners, thus retaining the possibility of pair-at- tacks on single ships even if the members of the original pairs should become separated.
The first two waves of my attack consisted, thus, of fifty task forces of sixteen tam ships apiece and, following each of the task forces, at an interval of half an Ahn, another pair of tam ships. This meant the first wave consisted of eight hundred ships, and the second of one hundred.