by Wilbur Arron
I approached Laodamus, “Megas Archon, do you have hatch covers or something you can put here at the bow that a person can hide behind to protect themselves from arrows?”
Laodamus looked at me like I had taken leave of my senses. “Why?”
“I am about to show you how you sink a trierse with magik,” I said with a grimace.
“Yes, by the gods,” Laodamus said with glee, and he ordered someone to bring two hatch covers up.
By now Carenos was coming up the stairs with Pentheus right behind him.
“Those trierse are Zilar,” I told him. “They will most likely attack us. With mostly passengers instead of warriors or rowers, we are at a great disadvantage. I am going to use magik to scare them away, or if I have to, destroy those ships. I will need help from you, Carenos, to defend ourselves. Pentheus, if you can, use your magik to remove the energy from any fire arrows that strike us. The important thing is to stay undercover until needed.”
Carenos did not look convinced, but nodded his agreement.
“STOP!” Pentheus shouted. “I forbid this.”
“What!” both Laodamus and I yelled at once.
“I said I forbid this,” Pentheus said. “Mages are not soldiers, and we will not act like soldiers. I forbid any mage to use magik against those ships.”
“You want to drown?” I shouted. “Those ships can destroy us at will,” I said.
“He is right,” Laodamus spoke up, obviously angry. “This fleet is in no condition to fight any kind of sea battle. If magik can save us, then we need you.”
“NO,” Pentheus repeated. “We mages do not fight wars.”
“We fight to stay alive,” I told him. “If you do not want to fight, then go below and send up mages who will.”
Pentheus stood upright and pointed his arm and figure directly at me. “I forbid any mage, including you Alexio Sopholus to fight those ships. You will accept my authority as the senior member of the Mage Council.”
“NO, I will not,” I told him flatly.
“Impudent mage,” Pentheus said, and I could see him invoking energy from the realms. I did the same and let the energy flow through me and my crystal.
“Energeia,” we both shouted simultaneously.
He sent a force blast at me. It was powerful enough to knock me off the ship if I had not put a countering force projection around me like Malcor taught me through his writings. I felt pressure pushing me back, but I put my own force in and countered. Pentheus’ force blast dissipated. I shouted “Energeia” again, throwing a blast at Pentheus. His defense was not as good as mine, and my force threw him back into the arms of other mages. They almost fell through the open hatch and onto the deck below. Before anyone else could react I immediately took in energy from the higher realms and put another sphere of protection around me.
“ANYONE ELSE?” I shouted loud enough, so I was heard on the nearest ship to us.
Everyone stepped back from me, including Carenos and Laodamus. All the mages and the others looked at me in fear.
“Listen to me,” I said loudly enough so everyone on the ship could hear me. Everything went dead quiet.
“Those ships out there are Zilar ships. They will destroy us without mercy if we give them any chance whatsoever. They will destroy all the other ships, too. We are in no condition to fight a battle with them. I will ask no mage to help fight if they do not want to, but unless you think magik can prevent you from drowning, you should think about helping out. If nothing else, you can use your Nature Magik to pull energy from any fire arrows that strike the ship.”
I looked around at the mages, and there must have been about thirty present. Several of them were Master Mages. All looked surprised, both at me standing there and at Pentheus just now coming to his senses. I was frankly surprised myself. As the senior Mage Council member, I thought Pentheus would have more power than that. The other mages half-carried the Mage Council member back below. The rest of them went with him, except Carenos and one other mage.
I waited a few moments until the deck was clear before I went over to Laodamus and spoke to him. “I am truly sorry that happened.”
The Megas Archon shook his head no. “You were attacked, and you were right. But I can see now why my father wanted to get the mages to fight for him.”
“Pentheus is right, however, about mages not being soldiers,” I told him. “Magik should not be used by the military unless there are no other choices. If that happens, then any war on this world will become more destructive than anyone can imagine. It could easily destroy all the lands.”
“I can see that,” the Megas Archon said. “My father cannot, but we have other things to think about.”
I turned to Carenos and the other mage standing there. The mage wore a silver ring, so he was a Master Mage like Carenos and me. He was older and looked like he had been a mage for a while.
“I am Master Mage Ennomus,” he said. The name was not familiar. “I graduated from the Academy many years ago. I do not agree with what just happened, but you are right about one thing. Being dead, a mage can help no one. Now, what do we do?”
I looked around the ship. “Laodamus, can you put something up at the stern of the ship to protect Ennomus from arrows if those ships close?”
“Of course,” he said.
“Good, then here is what we will do. Carenos and I will stay at the bow and use our magik on any ships that approach us from the front. Ennomus will be at the stern and attack anything that comes up from the rear. We will use fireballs,” I said. “I hope your fireballs are good. Aim them at either the open space between the deck and the uppermost rowers or at any archer or stone-throwers on the deck. I am hoping we hit them once or twice and they will run away. I do not want to drown those men, especially the slave rowers if it is not necessary. I am not a bloodthirsty maniac despite what others say.”
“That is a good plan,” Laodamus said. “A fire at sea can ruin your day.”
Ennomus and Carenos both smiled. Men came up from below with hatch covers and erected two shelters at the bow. Others stacked barrels at the rear to shield Ennomus.
By this time, we had separated away from the fleet and were facing both trierse on our own. Unlike the first trierse I fought, the two ships got closer and then stowed away their sails and started rowing. We did likewise. Laodamus ordered everyone to the oars and set up a beat so they could all row with the rhythm—you could tell our crew was inexperienced by the way the oars did not row in sequence. No doubt the other two ship captains noticed it too. Another trierse from our fleet had swung in behind us. Laodamus ordered them to stay behind and only attack if we got into trouble. The other ships were ordered to sail away to safety.
All the ships bore down on each other. As we got closer, Carenos took out his seeing glasses and looked over the attackers. “I do not see any stone-throwers, but there are lots of soldiers on the decks. There are about twenty fighters to a ship. Most of them have bows. That looks like their biggest weapon. Someone is signaling on the trierse to our right. No idea what he is saying?”
“It probably means they will want to board us,” Laodamus said. “If so, they might not ram us, but try to capture us instead.”
We approached at our best speed. The trierse behind was still under sail, and I saw only a dozen or so oars in the water. It was in no condition to fight a sea battle. As we got closer, I yelled to the others to take cover, and I ducked behind the cargo hatch. When we got within a stadion, the first arrows flew. They were not lit, and most fell harmlessly into the sea. The second volley hit the bow of the ship. Two stuck in my cargo hatch. The next barrage was lit and hit our deck with fire.
“Put out those fire arrows,” I yelled below.
Two mages stuck their head up and gestured to the fiery arrows. They were extinguished in an instant.
The lead trierse looked like it was going to try to rake us and break off our oars.
“Pull in your oars on the steer-board side,” Laodamus yelle
d.
I charged up as much energy as possible, preparing the best fireball that I could throw when the ship got closer. I planned to aim it so it would travel down the deck and take out the armed men. As I was about to launch it, I heard “Prya.”
I turned and saw Pentheus throw a small fireball at the lead ship as it closed in, but it dissipated before hitting the target. All that did was warn the ship’s crew who was on board, and in response, both ships veered to steer board and harbor-side turning quickly away from us.
“Leave,” the old man shouted and motioned the ship away by waving the hands.
The ship closest to me was still within reach, and I threw my fireball with as much force as I could into the opening between the deck and the top bank of rowers. The range was now further, and that weakened my fireball, but it still hit, and I heard screaming across the waves. Many of the oars on my side of the enemy ship went limp in the water. I could see the fire burn and grow.
“Prya,” I heard from my left and saw Carenos cast his fireball. The other ship was further away, and his fireball was not as powerful as mine. It barely reached the other ship and only singed some of the wooden planks. That ship sailed off out of our range and kept going.
“Hard to harbor-side,” Laodamus called out.
Our steer board men swung both steering oars over, and the ship started to turn. Just for luck, I managed to throw one more fireball at the closest ship, but it had as much effect as Carenos’.
I turned back to look at Pentheus standing there, a wicked smile on his face. “There!” he yelled at me with glee. “There will be no more fighting today.”
I was going to tell him what a fool he was when I heard Laodamus call out, “NO!”
I looked up at the enemy ships. The one I had hit was on fire, and I saw men scurrying around trying to put it out. I turned to the other and saw the problem. That ship had gone to our harbor-side and out of range. Instead of turning around however, it came back to its steer board side and straighten out. It was heading straight for the ship behind us. It was too far away for us to attack it or even for us to follow it closely. The second trierse was still under sail, something no sane captain would do, but he had no rowers and therefore almost no ability to maneuver. The Zilar trierse bore down on the ship at full speed. The Zilar captain must be flogging his rowers almost to death. There was nothing we could do. We had almost turned around by that time, but we were far out of range. Our other trierse tried to maneuver to their harbor-side, but it did no good. They were simply too slow. It was like watching a slow-moving horror. As much as the other trierse tried to evade, the second Zilar trierse adjusted. Finally, the enemy trierse straightened out and lunged forward, hitting our trierse in the center. The sound of wood breaking and the screams from inside the ship reached us, in spite of the distance.
“Ahead full,” Laodamus ordered. Unfortunately, we were going about as fast as we could. The Zilar ship was trying to reverse oars but was struggling to break free. I saw three Zilar troops go over the bow with axes and jump down onto the wrecked planking. One fell off into the water, but the other two started chopping at the wreckage of the sinking trierse. Already people from our other ship were going over the side. As they came up on deck, the other soldiers from the Zilar ship shot arrows at them. I saw several hit and fall into the water, never to surface again. The delay to free their ship did allow us to get closer.
“Clear their deck,” I shouted to Carenos, and I started to pull energy from the realms.
“No, I will not permit it,” Pentheus shouted. “I will stop you myself,” he shouted and started to invoke the power to cast.
I thought I was going to have to hit the old man with a lightning bolt when I saw Laodamus take a rope peg from the side of the deck and throw it hard at Pentheus. Because he was standing to his rear, the old man never saw it. It hit the back of his head, and Pentheus collapsed onto the deck below as though hit by an ax. I turned my attention back to the Zilar ship that was just now breaking away from our stricken trierse.
As it started to backwater, I stood up and threw a smaller fireball across the deck into the largest group of soldiers. The ball of flame went through them, burning several of them. Carenos did the same, and within moments, the Zilar ship’s deck was clear.
“Stop oars,” Laodamus called out, and we coasted forward. We still hit the side of the Zilar ship with a crunch, but not fast enough for our bronze ram to do any damage.
“Armed men on deck,” the Megas Archon ordered next.
Several men came up on deck, and within moments several grappling lines were thrown across, and both ships pulled together. Once we were alongside, several armed men with Laodamus leading them crossed to the Zilar ship. By now it was free of our sinking trierse. I looked around and saw people in the water trying to stay afloat by hanging on to the wreckage. I knew we had to rescue them. I turned and called down below deck.
“Everyone on deck to help with rescuing survivors,”
There was no response—which infuriated me as much as Pentheus’ stupidity. I let the energy leak into my voice.
“This is Alexio Sopholus,” I called. “Everyone who can will come and help on deck or I will come below and get you myself.”
That got their attention. Soon people came on deck and starting throwing ropes to those in the water. It took a while, but we got everyone off our stricken trierse that we could. We either fished them out of the sea, or they managed to cross over to the Zilar trierse that Laodamus captured intact. Before long, our trierse sank by the stern. When we counted survivors, we managed to save one hundred sixty-three out of two hundred.
It was a simple matter then to sail for the other Zilar trierse. They had gotten the fire out, but the ship had major damaged. We gave them a simple choice: surrender or drown. They quit.
We got our fleet back together and sailed on with the two Zilar trierse in tow. That is how we sailed into Aegae two days later.
To say the port officials at Aegae were in shock at our appearance is an understatement. They had no idea what to do. The epihipparch sent a rider off to Erinia as soon as we docked
We locked the Zilar officers up in the town dungeon and freed the slave rowers and those Zilar troops forced to fight with them. Most of them were either desert nomads that ran afoul of the Zilar conquest or citizens of Vorepolis who had been forced into slavery or service to avoid having to watch their families get their throats cut. One of the few problems we had after the sea battle was keeping the former slaves from killing their former masters. We had to put them under close guard to keep them alive. We were not being merciful to the Zilar— rather, we kept them alive for information; the dead tell us nothing. Laodamus and some of his officers spent part of that time persuading the prisoners to tell us what they knew. Their means of persuasion are best left unsaid, but a few of the rowers had the opportunity to get revenge on their former captors.
We put everyone up in the town the best we could. When we took the final count, we had one Megas Archon, fifteen senior officers, two dozen ship captains, two hundred sailors, two hundred eleven troops, two Mage Council members, six master mages, twenty-seven senior mages (more than fifty years old), eighteen junior mages, one hundred forty-seven acolytes, and seven hundred eighty-three other civilians of all types. There were also four hundred former slaves who were eager to repay the Zilar for their captivity. That was well over half of the Academy staff and students that were in Lantia. Pentheus was still recovering from his head wound and took no part of our activities.
Pallas, Diomedes, Cleon, and Xanphos all arrived in town three days later. Pallas was surprised I had brought so many trierse until I told him the full circumstances of my visit. When he found out that Pytheas also wanted his father’s diadem, he was fit to be tied. Xanphos could not believe it, but with Laodamus there, it was hard to deny the facts. Pallas sent a hurried letter off to his father still in Arginnia. No doubt our ethnarch would be just as pleased.
While wai
ting for them to come, I had worked on an idea that started while in Lantis, based on something Zila had told me. I talked it over with Melina and Zila first, who both agreed with me, and then spoke to Nomiki, Chremon, and Gyras—they all thought it was a good plan, though they were not as enthusiastic about it as Melina and Zila.
I asked permission to talk to all the mages and acolytes, along with the senior magistrates in the inn. On the second night after Pallas and the others came, we all sat down, and I explained. By now, I noticed Pentheus was there with a bandage around his head.
Briefly, I explained what had happened on our trip and Ethnarch Pytheas’ refusal to give us ships. I followed that up with his actions for the destruction of Argina and the destruction of the Academy. I asked Zila to stand up and explain her idea of founding a new school and her thoughts about having mages not only practice magik but also go around to the various poleis and settlements to aid them with solving their problems. Once she finished, I explained I thought it would be a good plan if we moved the Academy to Argina, specifically to the new polis Zila and her people were building.
“That is all very nice,” Pallas said, “However we have other problems to tend to. First, we must eliminate the Zilar threat to Argina. To do that we will need to fight. Since we can expect no help from Lantia, it is a job we have to do ourselves. For that, we will need help. I have heard what happened on board your ship, and I know of your reluctance to get involved in politics and war. Fine, I understand that, if somewhat belatedly, but I am still going to need that help. Frankly, I have doubts we can defeat the Zilar with just our military forces. I know we cannot beat both the Zilar and Lantia with our army. Would the mages help us do that?”
“I told you this would happen,” Pentheus called out. “They will try to use us as soldiers. They will force us to abandon our Mage Code. I say no, in fact, I forbid any mage here from accepting.”