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time beside the English. Who knows? Maybe the Bloodskins were fathers to one
of them."
For a moment Blade thought his joke had backfired. Nemyet stiffened and his
face twisted up as if he'd smelled something foul. Then his eyes widened as he
understood Blade, and he laughed.
"The Bloodskins the fathers of true men? Blade, you English will believe
damned near anything! For the love of HemiGohar, stay away from the street
vendors in the City. They'll sell you theCrystalBridge ,
or even the Emperor's palace!" He turned away, chuckling to himself and still
muttering, "Men coming from the Bloodskins! The Bloodskins!"
Blade looked toward the pirate chief, hoping to see some reaction. Either the
pirate was really unconscious again, or he was determined not to give his
captors the satisfaction of seeing him react to their insults.
It took the rest of the day to put the convoy in order. There were live
pirates to be chained below and dead ones to be thrown overboard. There were
dead sailors to be prepared for burial and wounded ones to be tended. There
was cut rigging to be set up again, bloodstained planks to be scrubbed down
with sand and sea water, cargo to be checked for damage. There was plenty of
work for everybody, Blade included. After that everyone was too tired and
hungry to talk, so after a meal of salt fish and porridge, Blade rolled
himself up in a blanket on the floor of Nemyet's cabin and fell asleep.
The next morning, Captain Nemyet began Blade's history lesson.
Compared with the confusion in some Dimensions, Blade found this world almost
simple. Gohar, the
City, was the capital of an empire of the same name, with most of its
territory at the northern end of what was called theFirstSea . At the southern
end theFirstSea opened into the Ocean. Near the straits into the
Ocean was the city ofMythor , founded as a colony by Gohar several centuries
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ago.
North of Gohar lay mountains, from which three rivers flowed into the Sea near
the City. To the east of the Sea lay a land of forested hills, and to the west
broad plains. Beyond the straits to the Ocean the coast stretched away to the
southeast. The Goharans had explored as far as the mouth of an enormous river.
The prosperity of Gohar was based on carrying the trade of all the peoples
around theFirstSea and along the explored shore of the Ocean. From the
mountains to the north came metal copper, tin, iron, and silver. From the
plains to the west came meat, hides, and fine horses. From the forests to the
east came wood, resins, furs, and a stone Blade recognized as a form of amber.
From the kingdoms scattered all along the Ocean shore came slaves, tropical
woods, exotic animals, spices, and gold.
All of these things found their way into the holds of Gohar's ships, and most
of the profits of carrying them found their way to Gohar. The Goharans were
the first people in this Dimension to build seagoing ships. They still had
more and better ships than everyone else put together.
Three hundred years ago, Gohar founded Mythor on its bay near the straits to
the Ocean. This gave the City a port nearer the Ocean, letting it expand its
trade with the kingdoms there. The merchant ships of Gohar could not sail
close to the wind, but fortunately the winds of the Sea blew mostly from the
north in the autumn and mostly from the south in the spring. So Gohar's ships
sailed south to Mythor late in the year, spent the winter trading on the
Ocean, then sailed homeward in the spring.
TheFirstSea stretched slightly less than two thousand miles from north to
south, and about five hundred from east to west. Near the middle of it, a
rocky peninsula jutted out from the western shore, narrowing the Sea to barely
half that width. On thatPeninsula lived the Sarumi, also known to their
enemies as the Pirate Folk or Bloodskins.
"The gods cursed them and would not let them live among true men," said
Nemyet. "So they ran to the mountains. Then, after we built Mythor, the gods
cursed us in their turn, giving the Pirate Folk ships to prey on us."
Blade mentally translated Nemyet's account. The Sarumi hadn't been able to
survive in the face of
competition from better-armed and more numerous "true" humans. They'd fled to
the peninsula, where the Sea protected them on three sides. They'd been able
to survive there, and even increase in numbers until population pressure began
to affect them. By that time they'd gained some skill in building and handling
ships, so they'd done what the Vikings did went to sea to find their fortunes.
An old and grim story, played over and over in too many Dimensions.
Something in Blade's expression seemed to suggest skepticism to Nemyet. The
captain shook his head. "Blade, perhaps you don't believe me because of our
victory yesterday. I swear we were lucky.
We were six, and we had the galley and Degyat, who's one of the best. We also
had you."
He went on to explain that most of the time either the merchant ships had no
escorts, or the pirates were so numerous it didn't matter. At least one ship
out of every five that sailed from either Mythor or
Gohar during the past five years never reached her destination.
"We could gather the ships together more often, if there were more galleys.
But the Emperor doesn't seem to care, and Prince Harkrat " He broke off
and looked around somewhat nervously, then shrugged and was silent.
So there were Goharan politics involved in the problem of the pirates. Blade
wasn't surprised. He also didn't expect to be told the details, at least not
by Nemyet. Fortunately Goharan politics, no matter how tangled, wouldn't start
affecting him seriously until he reached Gohar the City. Between him and it
lay another ten days' sailing, with no enemies but the Pirate Folk. Dealing
with them was a fairly simple matter.
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