first words, in the powerful carrying voice of an experienced naval officer:
"Are you out of your fucking mind?"
His next:
"You could have wrecked my ship!"
A minute later, after the galley was drawn alongside, the Rhodesman scampered aboard and stalked across the deck. Before he even reached Belisarius, he was gesturing with his hands. Making an odd sort of motion, as if cutting one hand with the other.
"What were you thinking?" he demanded hotly. "What were you thinking?" In full stump now, back and forth, back and forth: "Imbecile! This is a fucking artillery ship!" One hand sawing across the other: "In the name of God! Even a fucking general should have been able to figure it out! Even a fucking landsman! You stay away from the fucking enemy! You try to bring your artillery to bear without getting close! You—you—"
Hands sawing, hands sawing.
Belisarius, smiling crookedly: "Like 'crossing a T,' you mean to say?"
John's eyes widened. His hands paused in their sawing. Fury faded, replaced by interest.
"Hey. That's a good way of putting it. I like that. 'Crossing the T.' Got a nice ring to it."
Another voice. Sulky. Self-satisfied:
I told you so.
Belisarius chuckled.
"I suppose my naval tactics were a bit primitive," he admitted.
Image:
A man. Stooped, filthy, clad in rough-cured animal skins. In his hand he clutches an axe. The blade of the weapon is a crudely shaped piece of stone, lashed to the handle with rawhide.
He is standing on a log, rolling wildly down a river. Hammering fiercely at another man, armed and clad as he is, standing on the same log.
Stone ax against stone ax.
Just ahead is a waterfall.
Chapter 26
After Belisarius and Valentinian were aboard the dromon, Belisarius stared up at John of Rhodes standing on the pamphylos' wood-castle.
"Are you certain, John?" he asked.
The naval officer nodded his head firmly.
"Be off, Belisarius!" Then, with a wicked grin:
"I'll say this much—you may be the craziest ship captain who ever tried to commit suicide, and certainly the most lethal."
He waved his hand about, encompassing half the Bosporus in that gesture.
"You destroyed six out of the eight akatoi and another half dozen corbita. And I sank three corbita with the galley. That's well over a third of Aegidius' entire army and three-fourths of his cataphracts. Look at them!"
Belisarius scanned the Bosporus. Even to his landsman's eye, it was obvious that the enemy fleet was scattering in
"Are you out of your fucking mind?"
His next:
"You could have wrecked my ship!"
A minute later, after the galley was drawn alongside, the Rhodesman scampered aboard and stalked across the deck. Before he even reached Belisarius, he was gesturing with his hands. Making an odd sort of motion, as if cutting one hand with the other.
"What were you thinking?" he demanded hotly. "What were you thinking?" In full stump now, back and forth, back and forth: "Imbecile! This is a fucking artillery ship!" One hand sawing across the other: "In the name of God! Even a fucking general should have been able to figure it out! Even a fucking landsman! You stay away from the fucking enemy! You try to bring your artillery to bear without getting close! You—you—"
Hands sawing, hands sawing.
Belisarius, smiling crookedly: "Like 'crossing a T,' you mean to say?"
John's eyes widened. His hands paused in their sawing. Fury faded, replaced by interest.
"Hey. That's a good way of putting it. I like that. 'Crossing the T.' Got a nice ring to it."
Another voice. Sulky. Self-satisfied:
I told you so.
Belisarius chuckled.
"I suppose my naval tactics were a bit primitive," he admitted.
Image:
A man. Stooped, filthy, clad in rough-cured animal skins. In his hand he clutches an axe. The blade of the weapon is a crudely shaped piece of stone, lashed to the handle with rawhide.
He is standing on a log, rolling wildly down a river. Hammering fiercely at another man, armed and clad as he is, standing on the same log.
Stone ax against stone ax.
Just ahead is a waterfall.
Chapter 26
After Belisarius and Valentinian were aboard the dromon, Belisarius stared up at John of Rhodes standing on the pamphylos' wood-castle.
"Are you certain, John?" he asked.
The naval officer nodded his head firmly.
"Be off, Belisarius!" Then, with a wicked grin:
"I'll say this much—you may be the craziest ship captain who ever tried to commit suicide, and certainly the most lethal."
He waved his hand about, encompassing half the Bosporus in that gesture.
"You destroyed six out of the eight akatoi and another half dozen corbita. And I sank three corbita with the galley. That's well over a third of Aegidius' entire army and three-fourths of his cataphracts. Look at them!"
Belisarius scanned the Bosporus. Even to his landsman's eye, it was obvious that the enemy fleet was scattering in