The Blood of Gods A Novel of Rome - By Conn Iggulden Page 0,104

both of them for a long moment, but he was proud of what he had created by the lake and part of him wanted to show them.

‘Walk with me then,’ he said.

He stalked off immediately and Virgil shared a grin with Maecenas as they followed him. Agrippa reached a ladder and climbed up it, stepping from platform to platform with the ease of practice. Maecenas and Virgil came after him at slower speed, until they were looking down on an unfinished deck. Parts of it were still bare of planking, so that they could see right down to the rowing benches below.

‘I tried four corvus bridges rather than the usual one at first. The result is at the bottom of the lake – it made the galleys top-heavy. I’ll still adapt a few, as it allows me to pour men on board an enemy ship, but if the waters are choppy, they’re just not stable enough. I still have to find a way to make the numbers tell.’ He glanced at Maecenas for understanding, but his noble friend just looked bewildered.

‘The rowers will not be slaves, not on these ships. Each one will be a swordsman, chosen by competition from Octavian’s legions. I’m offering twice the normal pay to anyone who can win his place. In terms of fighting men, we should outnumber any of Sextus Pompey’s crews by three to one at least.’

‘That is an edge,’ Maecenas admitted. ‘But Pompey has two hundred galleys at his command. You’ll need something more than that.’

‘I do have more than that,’ Agrippa said sourly, looking at Virgil. ‘If I show you this, I want your oath you will die before speaking of it to anyone. It’s been hard enough keeping my workers from vanishing back to the city and spilling details to every listening ear.’

‘Once more, you have my word, on my honour,’ Maecenas said. Virgil repeated the words seriously.

Agrippa nodded and whistled to one of the men working on the deck.

‘Bring the catapult up,’ he called.

‘Catapults are nothing new,’ Virgil said a little nervously. ‘All the fleet galleys have them.’

‘To shoot stones, which miss more often than they hit,’ Agrippa growled. ‘Accuracy was the problem, so I worked around it. They have nothing like this.’

Under the orders of the carpenter Agrippa had called, six more men brought up spars and ropes from below. As Maecenas and Virgil watched, they began to assemble a machine on the deck, hammering a circular platform into holes in the oak planks, so that it would be steady even in a storm. Onto that, they slotted cast bronze balls with pegs of the metal that fitted into slots cut for them. When another wooden circle was attached, they had a platform six feet across that could rotate easily, even under weight. The rest of the catapult was built on that foundation with the speed of long practice.

‘I see a grapnel there …’ Maecenas began.

‘Just watch,’ Agrippa said.

The catapult was wound back against bending iron spars, a miniature version of the scorpion bows legions used. Yet there was no cup to hold a heavy stone. A huge iron grapnel with four bent spikes was slotted into place and tied to a mound of coiled rope. The men below looked up for his signal and Agrippa dropped his hand. All three of them jerked as the weapon leapt and the grapnel shot into the air, trailing a snake of rope with a whirring sound. It soared up for a hundred paces before dipping down and striking the soft earth below.

Agrippa looked pleased as he turned to the two men.

‘A stone can miss or skip over the deck and drop into the sea. The grapnels will fly right over the enemy ships and catch on the wood. They’ll try to cut the ropes, of course, but I have copper wire laced into the cords. There will be three of these on each deck and when they fly, the men will drag the galleys quickly together. The corvus bridges will go down and we’ll be on board before they can organise a defence.’

Maecenas and Virgil were nodding, but they did not seem impressed.

‘You’ll see,’ Agrippa said. ‘The ships on the lake have the new weapons fitted already. I was going to test them today before you arrived to waste my morning.’

He turned and yelled an order over the lake to the nearest galley as it practised fast manoeuvres. His voice carried easily and the captain acknowledged with a raised hand.