18: Sailing
T
he
sun was high in the heavens before the first boats hoisted their leather sails and stood out from the shore. Then the great rafts were pushed through the reeds, men straining to free them from the sucking mud, for they were heavily laden with horses and cattle, hobbled and yoked together or lying on their sides, snorting and bellowing with terror, their red-rimmed eyes wide with the smell of death from salt-water.
Once, when the men were chest-deep in the slime, a great raft heeled over as the horses plunged with terror. Men screamed, trying to break free from the wooden monster that towered over them, taking them with it. Some hung for a moment in the air before they fell beneath its smothering bulk. Others stumbled and felt the mud fill their mouths before their fell
