Rogue of Gor (46 page)

"Can you not hear it?" he asked.

"I hear nothing!” I cried. "You are mad!” I heard only the water at the strakes, the creaking of the chain, the sound of oars restless in the thole ports, the far-off cries of occasional Vosk gulls.

"There is nothing," I whispered.

Suddenly the hair on the back of my neck lifted and froze.

"See?" asked Callimachus, lifting his sword, and pointing out, into the fog.

"No," I said I could not see anything in the fog. But, now, clearly, I could hear it.

Then, suddenly, through a rift in the fog I saw, not more than a hundred yards away, across the chain, what seemed a countless number of ships.

"It is the fleet of Ragnar Voskjard," he said. There was an elation which I found incomprehensible in his voice.

I stood, for the moment unable to move, on the deck, at the bow, below the stem castle of the galley.

"Your sword is in your hand," smiled Callimachus.

I could not remember unsheathing it.

"Sound the battle horns!" called Callimachus to the men on the ship. "Sound the battle horns."