His complexion was like green slime. He held his belly and groaned at me. "I am still ill, sire. I cannot. My belly is in my throat. Anyway I have few medicines and my splints and bandages are in short supply. I - "
I scowled at him and shoved him off the poop deck. "Do the best you can, then. Set a good example, at least. The worst is over."
When Pelops had gone Ixion looked at me from the tiller, where he had taken over, and said, "You are wrong, Captain. The worst is not over. It is yet to come."
Remember that I was as sick, tired, hungry and thirsty and beatup as any of them. I gave him a nasty look. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Ixion pointed to the sea around us. It was calm as far as the eye could see, as calm as though oil had been spread on it.
"You do not know the way of the Purple storms," Ixion reminded me again. "It will return. In an hour, or a day, or even several days, but it will return. There are always two parts to a Purple storm, and there is always a calm between. You will see."
I had to believe him. Ixion had never been wrong yet about seafaring matters. I cursed for a time - a lot of good that did - then asked Ixion if he had any idea where we were. He didn't, much, except that we had been driven south all this while and there was no land in sight. Not much help. But I knew what I had to do.
"Get the men to rowing as soon as possible." There wasn't a breath of wind. There wouldn't be, Ixion said, until the storm came blasting back.
"We'll make all the southing we can," I decided. "We've got to sight the Burning Land sometime. Maybe we can find a harbor to protect us. What would you know of this?"
Ixion shrugged. "I have never been to the Burning Land, Captain. Few Sarmaians have. I know only what I have heard of it - that it is a terrible place and is a great distance from Sarmacid. It is said that none may cross the Burning Land but the Moghs, who live beyond it."
I was not interested in Moghs at the moment. I glanced at the sky. It was yellow and shot with red. Patches of the familiar yellow fog were dotting the tranquil sea like mushrooms. Looking at that glassy smooth surface now it was hard to conceive its recent fury.
I stared at Ixion. "You are sure the storm will return?"
He made the sign of the T. "As. sure, my Captain, as I stand on this deck a free man."
"Get them rowing," I snapped. "Tell Chephron to get all he can out of them. I know they're sick and tired, and a lot of them crippled, but we have to try it. Pphira won't last out another blow like that last one."
"The second storm," said Ixion, "is always the worst."
I gave him a sour look. "You're just a little ray of sunshine, mate. That is what I love about you."
He didn't get it and I didn't bother to explain. I dragged my weary carcass down among the men and did the best I could to cheer them. They were a pretty bedraggled lot but in half an hour I had them on the benches, putting their backs into it, and starting a sea chantey. I went back to the poop.
We had lost our single mast, snapped halfway down, and I couldn't step a new one at sea. There was a spare - marvel in itself - but I couldn't risk lying to and stepping it when the new storm might catch me. I sent a man up to the splintered stub to lash himself there and let me know the instant he saw land.
That damned desert shore - which of course I took the Burning Land to be, desert - couldn't be much farther on. If we could make it and beach Pphira. I had enough men to drag her high above the tide line and dig a shallow hole for her bottom. She would be safe then and I would have a base of sorts. I knew I was going to have to cross that desert and I was not looking forward to it.
Burns said something about the best laid plans, etc. The old drunk knew what he was talking about. We had been rowing about five hours, making good speed, when the lookout on the shattered mast let out a yell and pointed off the port bow.
"A ship, Captain! A ship - sinking."
A ship in distress. With all my trouble it was the last thing I needed. I cupped my hands, and yelled at the lookout.
"What do you make of her, man?"
"I make her a pirate, Captain. There is a skull nailed to her prow. Her mast is gone and she is down by the head. Women aboard her, sir! Women!"
I could hear the muttering all through Pphira at the word. Women! More trouble.
I shot a glance at Ixion. "What do you make of it? Could it be one of the Queen's punishment ships?"
Zeena!
Ixion took the glass from me and studied the ship. With my naked eye I could see women leaping and shouting aboard her, waving their hands, and bits of colored cloth. Most of them were bare breasted. No sign of a man.
"Those are women right enough," said Ixion. He licked his lips.
"I know that," I told him coldly. "Keep your mind on the matter at hand. What of the ship?"
He nodded slowly. "She's a pirate, Captain. In bad shape, too, but I don't think she's sinking. Certainly she is not a galless, no crime ship. She's only a unireme and all gallesses are biremes at least, usually triremes. And there is the skull nailed to her prow - none but a pirate would carry that."
I tugged my beard and wondered aloud. "Then where are the damned pirates? Not women pirates, certainly?"
Ixion handed me back the glass with a cool look. "No, Captain. My guess is that the pirates attacked a galless and sank her. They took some of the women aboard their own craft."
I knew a way to find out. "Stand by to lie close to her," I said. "Battle stations. This could be a trick to lull us with women. She is probably crammed with pirates below decks."
I was wrong. It turned out that the pirates had taken a galless, one of the Queen's punishment ships. They killed the Captain, one Marius and the only man aboard - did not Queen Pphira mention that name to me? - and they had a lot of fun with the ugly women before they tossed them overboard or slit their throats. The cream of the crop, of the women crew, criminals under Sarmaian law and set to the oars, the pirates took aboard their own ship. All women, as I found out later, were communal property.
I am getting ahead of things. When we found no pirates we came alongside the unireme and took the women off. More of that later. Too much of it, by far. Sheer hell! Zeena was among them.
Ixion was right about the unireme. She could be saved. That really gladdened the old Blade heart. I hated to lose Ixion, but he was the best man I had and he was needed, I told him, in the presence of Pelops, that he was now a Captain.
"Take anything you need and repair that ship," I ordered. "Keep her afloat. Take a hundred and fifty men with you. Appoint your own officers - you know them better than I do - and work as fast as you can. I'll lie hove to until we see how it is coming out."
I saw him watching the sky and knew what he was thinking.
"Pray a little," I advised him. "Maybe the storm will hold off long enough."
To Pelops I said: "I place you in charge of the women. See if Zeena is among them. Herd them all into my cabin and keep them in it - see to their needs as best you can. No one but you to enter the cabin without my permission."
Ixion interrupted me, a thing he seldom did. "There is something, Captain, of which I must speak. It is important. Much so. Neither you nor I want a mutiny."
I knew it was coming. I said, "I listen."
"If I am to have nearly half the men, Captain, and a ship of my own, I will also need some of the women. Surely you see that? Otherwise there will be fighting and mutiny. These men are slaves, as I was, and some have not had a woman in years."