After the midday meal, Tssissfu told Juliassa that the Almaeic fleet had entered the Inside Passage. The marines began hoisting mines out of the hold, and Tirros volunteered to help load the to-him-mysterious objects into the cargo net. Ordinarily he rejected even the thought of labor, but felt that working in the hold, he'd be less conspicuous, and less talked about, than lying around while others worked.
Also he'd hoped to pick up something on the purpose of the trip, and what these peculiar objects were that they were handling. The marine he worked with wasn't much for talking though, and questioning him seemed unwise. The important thing was to get ashore in Djez Gorrbul.
They didn't work hard. They'd load four of the things on the net, and with a light windlass, marines on deck would hoist the net up. Then marines unloaded it and apparently did something to the objects. It felt military to Tirros, and he discarded the notion that Juliassa was an amirrial envoy to King Gamaliiu.
Twice he saw her, on deck looking down at the loading. She paid no attention to him, and he began to feel more secure.
By supper, all the mines were on deck and their timers set. The captain kept a lookout on the foremast to watch. Meanwhile, he was counting inshore islands as the only way of knowing when he was approaching Haipoor l'Djezzer. It was dusk, and had clouded over, when he spotted the south passage into Haipoor Harbor, a mile ahead, and drew his sheets to cut speed; he wanted to enter by twilight.
* * *
A large number of sullsi were on or close off the island's seaward beach. They'd seen the huge invasion fleet arrive that morning, and knew fear. The serpents with them occasionally took a read on Tssissfu as a measure of how far away the schooners were. Now they were alert and somewhat tense; the little flotilla was getting close. A serpent, head high, called out in sullsit: "They are coming! I see them!" The sullsi began to pass through the entrance channel to join other sullsi already there.
* * *
The schooners entered one at a time and anchored less than 800 yards from the nearer Almaeic ships. Each lowered a platform with floats, tied it snug alongside, and sullsi soon filled the water around them. The humans could hear gunfire from the city, and in places, fire burned yellow and russet in the near-night dark.
Juliassa and a wan and wobbly Jonkka swung down onto the platform. Jonkka insisted on helping; now that they were in sheltered water, he said, he'd be all right.
The sullsi had been briefed by serpent communicators, and had organized themselves into working pairs, crews of twelve, squadrons of thirty-six. They'd scouted the harbor, seen the lay of the fleet, assigned sectors to squadrons and subsectors to crews.
But none had ever seen a mine or wrench or lagscrew. Sleekit's two packmates swam to the other two schooners to demonstrate methods. At the flagship, Juliassa and Sleekit worked together, Juliassa on the platform talking, Sleekit in the water observing and correcting technique. He couldn't speak effectively in air speech, but underwater had no difficulty making himself understood.
After a little bit, pairs of sullsi began taking mines into the water and disappearing with them.
* * *
From the rail of the Almaeic flagship, General Lord Vendel Kryger watched what little could be seen of the battle, listened to and interpreted its sounds. He kept to the fringe of the command group—the commander in chief, the fleet admiral, and the flagship's captain. There were sporadic light drizzles, and an awning had been erected to shelter them. Kryger was keeping his mouth shut. As a brigadier general he was heavily outranked, and when he'd made a suggestion earlier, the CIC had looked annoyed. Actually, no one was saying much.
Distant rifles and grenades popped, furiously at times, and now and then artillery thudded, the sounds dull in the heavy air. The Gorballis were resisting more obstinately than he'd expected, considering the new and frightening weapons they faced.
In parts of the city, fires had spread, ruddying the low-lying blanket of clouds, but construction was mostly brick, brick and stone, and thoroughfares were wide. A city-wide holocaust seemed unlikely.
Along the rail, seamen gawked too. If anyone was on watch, Kryger thought, you couldn't tell it. Loose discipline! Under the circumstances though, he realized, it hardly mattered; there was no hostile fleet to watch for. And these would be merchant seamen impressed into naval service. Even most of the ships' officers, even most of their captains, were merchant mariners.
Kryger took a match from his match safe and struck it with a thumbnail to look at his watch. After midnight, and he'd had little sleep the night before. He put watch and match-safe back in his pockets, excused himself, and went to Werlingus, who'd been watching with two of the ship's junior officers. "I'm going to bed," he said. "Stand by the wireless room and have them tell you when there's any word about the king—his capture, his death, anything."
Then he went below, opened the porthole, and went to bed.