Byzantine Wars: A LitRPG Adventure by Ian Schwartz

Author:Ian Schwartz [Schwartz, Ian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kaveh Press
Published: 2025-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

35

Floorboards

Little time remained before the approaching Roman ship captured the Paralos. The four fugitives became frantic. They had no idea what to do. If the wind were blowing—or if they had a rowboat! Then maybe they could escape. Alexios even considered swimming, but he was afraid of asking if the others knew how. Regardless, there was a good chance of drowning. Land was too far. Plus, they would have to swim around the oncoming Roman ships without being spotted. He also hated the idea of swimming above those depths. Sharks could be down there—or worse.

Alexios shuddered. Soon he was belowdecks again, searching for a solution. He checked the naphtha tanks—which reeked of gasoline—but they were empty.

Maybe the Romans won’t even try to capture us, Alexios thought. They’ll burn us alive to avenge their buddies back in that harbor.

Alexios was pacing over the floorboards near Herakleia—still asleep and ignorant of the terror threatening them—when he had an idea. If he could pry up the floorboards in the hold, get everyone underneath, and then cover the boards with supplies, they could hide. Later, when the Romans weren’t looking, the fugitives could escape. This assumed, of course, that the enemy would refrain from destroying the ship. But the Paralos was a beauty—flawlessly designed and also expensive. The Romans would try to recover it. Maybe they also wanted Herakleia alive. They could have killed her earlier, but they had chosen to torture her instead.

Alexios climbed the ladder out of the hold and shouted his plans to Gontran and Diaresso. The two merchants looked at each other, then ran past the horses and joined him belowdecks, snatching hammers from the carpenter’s chest and prying up floorboards. This was noisy, but Herakleia remained asleep. Under the floor they found a space sloshing with seawater. Located at the ship’s center, it could barely conceal them if they lay down. By then the splashing oars and pounding drums of the approaching ships were audible through the hull.

Alexios woke Herakleia and led her to their hiding spot, where Diaresso had already sequestered himself.

“Good job getting down there first!” Gontran shouted.

“Silence!” Diaresso whispered.

Gontran pulled some heavy sacks of flour close to the hiding spot, then replaced the nails and hammers in the carpenter’s chest. After everyone else was below, he joined them and fitted the floorboards into place. Just as he was reaching through the last gap to drag the sacks over their spot, something clanged against the hull, and the Paralos lurched to the side. The Romans had hooked them and were reeling them in.

Soon heavy feet were plodding over the upper deck, but otherwise the Romans kept silent as they examined the ship. They must have been whispering or signaling with their hands, afraid their quarry would ambush them. Within seconds the legionaries were belowdecks throwing barrels aside and prying them open while hurling grain sacks back and forth. The floorboards smashed Alexios’s face as men stomped over them. An amphora was shattered; drops of wine stung his eyes.

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