“But the building of the boat and the sailing thereof will be bitter and full of grief. And after years, two generations as known on Earth, after great sufferings, and some joys, when you think you are at long last near the end of the long long journey, then you will find me!
“Rather, I will find you! I will be waiting on a distant boat and I will kill you. And you will never get to the end of The River nor storm the gates of Valhalla!”
Sam became cold and brittle. Even when he felt the hand slacken its grip on his ankle, he did not move. He heard the death rattle and did not move or look down. Faintly, Bloodaxe spoke again. “I wait!”
There was another rattle, more drawn out, and the hand fell away. Sam forced himself to step away, not sure that he would not break into a dozen pieces. He looked at von Richthofen and said, “Superstition! A man can’t look into the future!”
Von Richthofen said, “I don’t think so. But if things are as you believe, Sam, mechanical, automatic, then the future is predetermined. If things are ready-made, why can’t the future open up for a minute, lights blaze in the tunnel of time, and a man see down the track?”
Sam did not answer. Von Richthofen laughed to show that he was joking and clapped Sam on the shoulder.
Sam said, “I need a drink. Badly.” Then he said, “I don’t take any stock in that superstitious rot.”
But he believed that those dying eyes had seen into the years ahead, and he was thereafter to believe.
13
An hour before dusk, King John’s fleet arrived. Sam Clemens sent a man out to tell John that he wanted to discuss a possible partnership. John, ever willing to talk to you before knifing you, agreed to a powwow. Sam stood on the edge of the bank while John Lackland leaned on the railing of his galley. Sam, his terror unfrozen by a dozen whiskeys, described the situation and spoke glowingly of the great boat to be built.
John was a short, dark man with very broad shoulders, tawny hair and blue eyes. He smiled frequently and spoke in an English not so heavily accented it could not be easily understood. Before coming to this area, he had lived for ten years among late-eighteenth-century Virginians. A fluent linguist, he had disburdened himself of much of the speech patterns of his twelfth-century English and Norman French.
He understood well why it would pay him to team up with Clemens against von Radowitz. No doubt he had mental reservations about what he would do after von Radowitz was disposed of, but he came ashore to swear eternal friendship and partnership. The details of the pact were arranged over drinks, and then King John had Joe Miller released from his cage on the flagship.
Sam did not shed tears easily, but several trickled down his cheeks on seeing the titanthrop. Joe wept like a perambulating Niagara Falls and almost broke Sam’s ribs in his embrace.
Von Richthofen, however, told Clemens later, “At least, with Bloodaxe, you knew fairly well where you stood. You’ve made a bad trade.”
“I’m from Missouri,” Sam replied, “but I never was much of a mule trader. However, if you’re running for your life, a pack of wolves snapping at your heels, you’ll trade a foundered plug for a wild mustang, as long as he’ll carry you out of danger. You worry later about how to get down off of him without breaking your neck.”
The battle, which started at dawn the next day, was long. Several times, disaster came close for Clemens and King John. The Englishman’s fleet had hidden near the east bank in the early morning fog and then had come up behind the German fleet. Flaming pine torches thrown by John’s sailors started fires on many of van Radowitz’s boats. But the invaders spoke a common language, were well disciplined, had soldiered together a long time, and were far better armed.
Their rockets sank many of John’s boats and blasted holes in the cheval-de-frise along the bank. The Germans then stormed ashore under cover of a hail of arrows. During the landing, a rocket exploded in the hole dug to get to the iron. Sam was knocked over by the blast. Half stunned, he rose. And he became aware of a man he had never seen before standing by him. Sam was sure that the man had not been in this area until this moment.