Barry Sadler Casca 02 God Of Death

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That some of the raiders might not be quite dead hindered their labors not at
all; they just made more bubbles. The next day the young men and warriors from
the countryside showed up ready for action. They had found the body of the
young child whom Malgak had used so badly and had come ready for battle. Glam
ordered the household cleansed and their dead buried. He ordered that none
should speak of this day unless the lord first brought up the subject. All was
as before. The warmer days were coming.
FOUR
Each day the indicators of the coming spring became more pronounced, and work
on the expedition quickened. The young warriors sharpened their weapons,
honing the edges ever finer. Old Cono, the shipbuilder whom Casca had brought
to his keep, fussed over the two longships that they would take. Like an old
hen over her chicks, Corio clucked and scolded, testing every line and seam in
the ships he had built for Casca. The ships them-selves were a blending of the
Roman galleys, less the ram, and the long, shallow draft vessels the local
inhabitants used for fishing and commerce. The local vessels used no sails.
When Casca had first come to this rockbound coast, he had been quick to
realize the value of the sea lanes. The man who could use them more
efficiently would prosper, and so would his people. Making use of his many
years as a slave on the Roman war galleys, Casca set about to exploit the
sea's potential. He bought old Corio the ship builder from a Tedesci chieftain
inland who had no use for a shipbuilder. Between the two of them, Casca and
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Gono, they had designed this mixture of galley and sailing ship. Their new
vessel could slide through the waves as light as a sea nymph.
The way the new design came about was unusual.
Casca had spent many hours on the coast watching his favorite animals at play,
the flashing and twisting sea otters. He had noticed how they turned and
twisted their bodies to slide more easily through the rough waters. He had
remarked to Corio that if a ship could do the same, it would have a much
better chance for survival in rough seas. Corio, then not so old, thought on
the problem for weeks. Finally he had the answer. He made use of an ingenious
system of interlocking planks that, even when they moved and twisted, still
remained water tight. They built the vessel. It worked. They named it the
Lida. Sure enough, on her maiden voyage, the Lida slipped like one of the sea
otters she was modeled after between the rough ocean troughs and rose swiftly
over the peaks of the waves, answering her master's desires quickly and with a
feeling of expectancy. Indeed, thought Casca, ships seem to be more alive than
anything else man has created. The wind, humming through the Lida's rigging,
appeared to agree with him.
Although Casca's years as an oar slave certainly did not qualify him as a
master mariner, they had given him a feeling for what was right in the way a
ship moved through different waters. He could tell if there was something
wrong in the basic design simply by the way the ship felt and sounded. This
instinct, coupled with Corio's years of experience as a shipwright, enabled
them to build what would be the prototype of all the Viking long-ships that
wreaked such havoc in the civilized world three hundred years later.
Now, of the three ships built and lying at anchor, the two largest were being
made ready for sea. Corio was as rigid in his demands as a Roman decurion.
Everything must be as near perfect as he could make it. After all, he knew
these young men who would be going out into the unknown waters with the Lord
Casca. He had seen them grow up. He had played with them and taught them
seamanship. They were like family, and he would send no members of his family
out on the deep without making sure that all was in order.
When Casca looked out on the combination of his young men, the ships, and the
sea, his pulse quickened in spite of himself. You'd think that after all these [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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