Pirata: Sea of Blood: Part four of the Roman Pirata series by Simon Scarrow

Author:Simon Scarrow [Scarrow, Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Headline
Published: 2019-06-05T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Three days later, Telemachus stood with Bulla and Agrius in the tiny cabin built into Pegasus’s stern. A roughly drawn goatskin map of the Italian coastline had been placed on the desk occupying the middle of the captain’s quarters, the details illuminated by the light coming through a grille in the deck above. Around them the timbers groaned as the vessel rocked gently on the sea.

Poseidon’s Trident had arrived at the meeting point in the early afternoon, her stores fully provisioned and her ranks swelled by Castor and the rest of the prize crew. After coming within a hundred paces of her consort, the oars had been taken in and the sail lowered, then Bulla and Telemachus had gone across in the ship’s boat to consult with Agrius in his cabin.

‘We should hunt here,’ Agrius said as he tapped his finger on a section of the map. ‘Between Ancona and Ariminum. I reconnoitred the area closely while you lot were away. Looks promising. Plenty of vessels making landfall on the main trade route, and not many coves for them to hide in. Should be easy enough for us to snap up a few more prizes. Who knows, with all those pleasure boats and passenger ships travelling between the colonies, we might even net ourselves a high-born Roman or two. Could bring us a hefty ransom. Once we’ve had some fun with their womenfolk, of course.’ There was a dangerous gleam in his eyes as he spoke.

Bulla scrutinised the map for a moment, his face scrunched up in thought. ‘If we sail here, it’ll bring us close to Ravenna.’

‘Aye.’ Agrius nodded. ‘What of it?’

‘There are many ports on the coast, and not many safe anchorages. What happens if we run into trouble?’

‘We won’t,’ Agrius responded confidently. ‘Besides, moving further north is our best bet. We can’t continue operating to the south. Not anymore.’

‘Why not?’

‘We sighted a pair of biremes on the way back. They looked like they were heading south.’

‘Romans?’ Telemachus struggled to contain the alarm in his voice. ‘Did they see you?’

‘Of course not.’ Agrius smiled. ‘We were sheltering in a cove from a storm when one of my lads spotted ’em. We’d lowered the main spar and sail to the deck. Stupid bastards sailed right past us.’

‘But if they’re sending out patrols, that means the Romans must know we’re here,’ Telemachus remarked. ‘They’re on to us.’

‘Relax, boy. It’s a couple of patrol ships, not the entire imperial fleet. The rest of the squadron is still hundreds of miles away, running Canis’s convoy service.’

‘There’s the five biremes at Ravenna,’ Bulla pointed out.

‘They’re under orders not to venture far from the port. Besides, Canis won’t use those ships. He can’t risk leaving Ravenna undefended.’

‘But if the Romans are moving back down to Italia, they’ll be sending more reinforcements across soon,’ said Telemachus. ‘If they haven’t done so already. What happens if we run into another warship?’

‘Then we’ll give them the slip, like we always do. Our vessels are more than capable of outrunning their ancient tubs.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.