红堡的城垛上高高飘扬着小鬼国王的旗帜：拜拉席恩家族的金底宝冠雄鹿旗，兰尼斯特家族的红底怒吼雄狮旗。沥青火罐不断掷下，勇敢号上焰火弥漫，士兵们尖声惨叫。此时此刻，船舷下的桨手有甲板遮蔽，倒十分安全，挤在上面的步兵却不太走运。正如他所担忧的，右翼被迫承受所有攻击。马上就轮到我们了，他提醒自己，心里忐忑不安。黑贝丝号和北岸问只隔了五艘战舰，正在火罐射程之内。右舷方向，有阿拉德的玛瑞亚夫人号，笨拙的剑鱼号一一她现今落得太远，与其说是第二战列，其实更接近第三战列——以及虔诚号，祈祷号和奉献号，她们三个被放在如此危险的位置，真得希望船名所许的神灵赐福了。
Atop the Red Keep’s battlements streamed the boy king’s banners: the crowned stag of Baratheon on its gold field, the lion of Lannister on crimson. More pots of pitch came flying. Davos heard men shriek as fire spread across Courageous. Her oarsmen were safe below, protected from missiles by the half deck that sheltered them, but the men-at-arms crowded topside were not so fortunate. The starboard wing was taking all the damage, as he had feared. It will be our turn soon, he reminded himself, uneasy. Black Betha was well in range of the firepots, being the sixth ship out from the north bank. To starboard, she had only Allard’s Lady Marya, the ungainly Swordfish—so far behind now that she was nearer the third line than the second—and Piety, Prayer, and Devotion, who would need all the godly intervention they could get, placed as vulnerably as they were.
第二战列通过双子塔时，戴佛斯抓紧时间仔细观察。只见塔底有个约莫人头大的洞，一条巨型铁链蜿蜒而出，水上只见三个环节，其余都在河底。石塔只有一扇门，且离地二十余尺。北塔顶上，十字弓手正拼命向祈祷号和奉献号发动攻击。奉献号甲板上的弓箭手予以还击，有人被射落，戴佛斯听见惨叫。
As the second line swept past the twin towers, Davos took a closer look. He could see three links of a huge chain snaking out from a hole no bigger than a man’s head and disappearing under the water. The towers had a single door, set a good twenty feet off the ground. Bowmen on the roof of the northern tower were firing down at Prayer and Devotion. The archers on Devotion fired back, and Davos heard a man scream as the arrows found him.
“船长阁下。”儿子马索斯来到身边。“请戴上头盔。”戴佛斯双手接过，笼在头上。这顶圆盔除去了面甲，他痛恨视线被阻的滋味。
“Captain ser.” His son Matthos was at his elbow. “Your helm.” Davos took it with both hands and slid it over his head. The pothelm was visorless; he hated having his vision impeded.
接着，沥青火罐如雨般在船边坠落。其中一罐在玛瑞亚夫人号的甲板上炸裂，阿拉德的船员迅速将火扑灭。左舷，潮头岛之荣光号吹响号角，桨手们拼命击桨，拍出无数水花。一只足有一码长的箭自城上弩炮射出，落在离马索斯不到两尺的地方，深深没入木制甲板，颤个不停。前方，第一战列和敌舰之间已进入弓箭射程，船船之间飞箭往来，好似嘶嘶怪叫的毒蛇。
By then the pitch pots were raining down around them. He saw one shatter on the deck of Lady Marya, but Allard’s crew quickly beat it out. To port, warhorns sounded from the Pride of Driftmark. The oars flung up sprays of water with every stroke. The yard-long shaft of a scorpion came down not two feet from Matthos and sank into the wood of the deck, thrumming. Ahead, the first line was within bowshot of the enemy; flights of arrows flew between the ships, hissing like striking snakes.
黑水河南岸，戴佛斯看见士兵们正将粗制木筏拖入水中，大军整队，千旗飘扬。随处可见烈焰红心，渺小漆黑的雄鹿被禁锢在火焰之中，几乎无法辨认。我们理应在宝冠雄鹿旗下作战，他心想，雄鹿是劳勃国王的徽记，整个城市都会欣然接受。陌生的纹章只会引起反感。
South of the Blackwater, Davos saw men dragging crude rafts toward the water while ranks and columns formed up beneath a thousand streaming banners. The fiery heart was everywhere, though the tiny black stag imprisoned in the flames was too small to make out. We should be flying the crowned stag, he thought. The stag was King Robert’s sigil, the city would rejoice to see it. This stranger’s standard serves only to set men against us.
看见烈焰红心，他不由得想起梅丽珊卓在风息堡底的阴霾中诞生的影子。至少今天我们在光天化日之下作战，用的是正派人的武器，他告诉自己。红袍女及她的黑暗子孙将与这场战斗毫无瓜葛。史坦尼斯已把她和他的私生侄儿艾德瑞克·风暴一起送回了龙石岛。之前，除后党人士发出微弱抗议外，他的船长和诸侯纷纷坚持不要女人加入这场光荣的战役。不过说归说，史坦尼斯本不打算理会，直到布莱斯·卡伦伯爵的一句话逆转了潮流：“陛下，若巫魔女还跟着咱们，将来人们便会把这场胜利称之为她的胜利，而不是您的。别人会说您靠她的符咒才赢得王冠。”在激烈的争论中，戴佛斯管住了嘴巴，但说心里话，他乐于见她被遣。对梅丽珊卓和她的真主，他只想避而远之。
He could not behold the fiery heart without thinking of the shadow Melisandre had birthed in the gloom beneath Storm’s End. At least we fight this battle in the light, with the weapons of honest men, he told himself. The red woman and her dark children would have no part of it. Stannis had shipped her back to Dragonstone with his bastard nephew Edric Storm. His captains and bannermen had insisted that a battlefield was no place for a woman. Only the queen’s men had dissented, and then not loudly. All the same, the king had been on the point of refusing them until Lord Bryce Caron said, “Your Grace, if the sorceress is with us, afterward men will say it was her victory, not yours. They will say you owe your crown to her spells.” That had turned the tide. Davos himself had held his tongue during the arguments, but if truth be told, he had not been sad to see the back of her. He wanted no part of Melisandre or her god.
右舷，奉献号朝河岸驶去，放出跳板，弓箭手随即乱哄哄地涉进浅滩，将弓高举，以保持弓弦干燥。他们冲进悬崖和河水之间狭窄的滩头。城上飞石如雨，跳跃砸落，其间还混杂有弓箭与长矛。然而角度太小，在峭壁的掩护下，这些武器作用不大。
To starboard, Devotion drove toward shore, sliding out a plank. Archers scrambled into the shallows, holding their bows high over their heads to keep the strings dry. They splashed ashore on the narrow strand beneath the bluffs. Rocks came bouncing down from the castle to crash among them, and arrows and spears as well, but the angle was steep and the missiles seemed to do little damage.
祈祷号在上游二十多码的地方登陆，虔诚号则歪歪斜斜地朝河岸撞去。这时，守军出来了，他们冲下河岸，军马的铁蹄踏过浅滩，溅起水花。骑士们杀进弓箭手中，好似恶狼驱逐小鸡，大多数人还不及搭箭，便又被赶回船上，甚至落入河中。步兵连忙赶到，用长矛和战斧加以抵御，瞬间之后，整个场面便是血肉横飞。戴佛斯认出猎狗的狗头盔。他骑着骏马，通过跳板，杀上祈祷号，肩上的纯白披风迎风飘扬。不管是谁，只要近身，便被不由分说一斧砍翻。
Prayer landed two dozen yards upstream and Piety was slanting toward the bank when the defenders came pounding down the riverside, the hooves of their warhorses sending up gouts of water from the shallows. The knights fell among the archers like wolves among chickens, driving them back toward the ships and into the river before most could notch an arrow. Men-at-arms rushed to defend them with spear and axe, and in three heartbeats the scene had turned to blood-soaked chaos. Davos recognized the dog’s-head helm of the Hound. A white cloak streamed from his shoulders as he rode his horse up the plank onto the deck of Prayer, hacking down anyone who blundered within reach.
过了城堡，在环型城墙之中，山丘上的君临跃入眼帘。河滨成了一片焦土，兰尼斯特把所有建筑付之一炬，并将各色人等都赶进烂泥门。烧焦的桅杆和沉没的船只堆积在河滩，使船只无法靠近长长的石码头。看来这里无法登陆。烂泥门后，三架巨型投石机露出头来。维桑尼亚丘陵顶，艳阳映在贝勒大圣堂的七座水晶高塔上，璀璨发光。
Beyond the castle, King’s Landing rose on its hills behind the encircling walls. The riverfront was a blackened desolation; the Lannisters had burned everything and pulled back within the Mud Gate. The charred spars of sunken hulks sat in the shallows, forbidding access to the long stone quays. We shall have no landing there. He could see the tops of three huge trebuchets behind the Mud Gate. High on Visenya’s Hill, sunlight blazed off the seven crystal towers of the Great Sept of Baelor.
戴佛斯瞧不清前方的战斗，但能听见作战的声音。两艘战舰相撞，发出撕裂的巨响，他辨不出是哪两条船。顷刻之后，又一声巨大的碰撞回荡在水面，接着是第三声。在船木分解的刺耳尖啸中，他听见怒火号船头投石机深沉的咚——咚声。海鹿号将一艘乔佛里的船迎面劈成两半，狗鼻号却开始起火燃烧，亚莉珊女王号被丝绸夫人号和夫人之耻号夹在中间，动弹不得，她的船员正与登舰的敌人做殊死搏斗。
Davos never saw the battle joined, but he heard it; a great rending crash as two galleys came together. He could not say which two. Another impact echoed over the water an instant later, and then a third. Beneath the screech of splintering wood, he heard the deep thrum-thump of the Fury’s fore catapult. Stag of the Sea split one of Joffrey’s galleys clean in two, but Dog’s Nose was afire and Queen Alysanne was locked between Lady of Silk and Lady’s Shame, her crew fighting the boarders rail-to-rail.
正前方，敌方君临号穿过信仰号和王权号之间的缝隙，猛扑而来。信仰号右舷的桨手在撞击之前及时收起船桨，但王权号左舷的桨却如火柴棍般被掠过的君临号全数撞断。“放箭，”戴佛斯命令，他的十字弓兵立刻掀起一阵致命的箭雨。他看见君临号的船长倒下，一时却想不起对方的名字。
Directly ahead, Davos saw the enemy’s Kingslander drive between Faithful and Sceptre. The former slid her starboard oars out of the way before impact, but Sceptre’s portside oars snapped like so much kindling as Kingslander raked along her side. “Loose,” Davos commanded, and his bowmen sent a withering rain of shafts across the water. He saw Kingslander’s captain fall, and tried to recall the man’s name.
岸上，巨型投石机的手臂一只、两只、三只，纷纷抬起。数以百计的石头爬上黄色的天空，每块都大如人头。它们坠落下来，或溅起巨大浪花，或击穿橡木甲板，把人活生生打成碎骨、肉泥和肝浆。第一战列的船已全部加入战团。爪钩穿梭，铁撞锤砸过木壳，士兵群聚登船。在流动的浓烟之中，只见箭矢遮天蔽日。人们纷纷死去……所幸到目前为止，他的部下尚无阵亡。
Ashore, the arms of the great trebuchets rose one, two, three, and a hundred stones climbed high into the yellow sky. Each one was as large as a man’s head; when they fell they sent up great gouts of water, smashed through oak planking, and turned living men into bone and pulp and gristle. All across the river the first line was engaged. Grappling hooks were flung out, iron rams crashed through wooden hulls, boarders swarmed, flights of arrows whispered through each other in the drifting smoke, and men died … but so far, none of his.
黑贝丝号逆流而上，桨官鼓声雷动，好似她正饥渴地寻找撞锤的第一个牺牲品。亚莉珊女王号已被两艘兰尼斯特战舰捕获，三船由爪钩和绳索连成一体。
Black Betha swept upriver, the sound of her oarmaster’s drum thundering in her captain’s head as he looked for a likely victim for her ram. The beleaguered Queen Alysanne was trapped between two Lannister warships, the three made fast by hooks and lines.
“撞角速度！”戴佛斯高呼。
“Ramming speed!” Davos shouted.
鼓点模糊，成了一片绵长、狂热、无休无止的锤打，黑贝丝起飞了，船首劈开水花，飞沫犹如乳奶。阿拉德发现了同样的机会，他的玛瑞亚夫人号与黑贝丝号并驾齐驱。此刻，第一战列已经散开，各自为战。三艘纠结的战舰就在前方，缠绕着缓缓旋转，甲板上血肉模糊，人们用斧剑互相挥砍。再转过去一点，戴佛斯·席渥斯向战士祷告，让她再转过去一点，把侧舷暴露出来。
The drumbeats blurred into a long fevered hammering, and Black Betha flew, the water turning white as milk as it parted for her prow. Allard had seen the same chance; Lady Marya ran beside them. The first line had been transformed into a confusion of separate struggles. The three tangled ships loomed ahead, turning, their decks a red chaos as men hacked at each other with sword and axe. A little more, Davos Seaworth beseeched the Warrior, bring her around a little more, show me her broadside.
战士定然听见了他的祷告。黑贝丝号和玛瑞亚夫人号几乎同时扎进夫人之耻号体内，把她从头到尾撞个稀烂，力道之猛，连隔着三条船的丝绸夫人号上的人也被抛入海中。相撞的刹那，戴佛斯的牙齿猛地闭合，差点咬断舌头。他吐出一口鲜血。下次记得闭紧嘴巴，你这蠢货。在海上讨了四十年生活，这还是他头一遭主动撞击别人的船。回头一看，船上的弓箭手正自由射击。
The Warrior must have been listening. Black Betha and Lady Marya slammed into the side of Lady’s Shame within an instant of each other, ramming her fore and aft with such force that men were thrown off the deck of Lady of Silk three boats away. Davos almost bit his tongue off when his teeth jarred together. He spat out blood. Next time close your mouth, you fool. Forty years at sea, and yet this was the first time he’d rammed another ship. His archers were loosing arrows at will.
“后退，”他命令。黑贝丝号倒划船桨，河水迅猛灌进刚才砸出的大洞，夫人之耻号就这样在她面前支离破碎，成群的人落入河中。活人挣扎求生，死人寂默浮沉，而穿重板甲或锁子甲的人不论死活立刻沉入河底，不再动弹。即将淹死的人们的苦苦哀号，一直萦绕在他耳际。
“Back water,” he commanded. When Black Betha reversed her oars, the river rushed into the splintered hole she left, and Lady’s Shame fell to pieces before his eyes, spilling dozens of men into the river. Some of the living swam; some of the dead floated; the ones in heavy mail and plate sank to the bottom, the quick and the dead alike. The pleas of drowning men echoed in his ears.
一抹绿光闪过眼帘，飞向前面，落到左舷方向。刹时，一窝翡翠毒蛇咝咝叫着在亚莉珊女王号的船尾升起，翻腾，燃烧。恐怖的哭喊从前方传来：“野火！”
A flash of green caught his eye, ahead and off to port, and a nest of writhing emerald serpents rose burning and hissing from the stern of Queen Alysanne. An instant later Davos heard the dread cry of “Wildfire!”
他脸色大变。燃烧的沥青是一回事，野火的威胁则大不相同。这种邪恶的物质，几乎无法扑灭。哪怕只有一点火星，用斗篷闷，斗篷反而着火；用手掌拍，手掌反而燃烧。“尿在野火上，你那玩意儿就得烤焦，”这是老海员们的名言之一。伊姆瑞爵士已警告过他们可能会碰上这种炼金术士的邪恶物质。所幸世上活着的火术士寥寥无几，这种物质很快便会耗尽，伊姆瑞爵士向人们保证。
He grimaced. Burning pitch was one thing, wildfire quite another. Evil stuff, and well-nigh unquenchable. Smother it under a cloak and the cloak took fire; slap at a fleck of it with your palm and your hand was aflame. “Piss on wildfire and your cock burns off,” old seamen liked to say. Still, Ser Imry had warned them to expect a taste of the alchemists’ vile substance. Fortunately, there were few true pyromancers left. They will soon run out, Ser Imry had assured them.
戴佛斯下达新指令：战舰掉头，一舷桨手往前划而另一舷往后划。玛瑞亚夫人号也在撤离，没有沾上火苗。烈火以他难以想象的速度吞噬了亚莉珊女王号，随即蔓延到她的捕获者。绿火缠身的人跳进水中，发出非人的惨嚎。君临城上，喷火弩射出死亡，烂泥门内，庞然的投石机掷下巨石。一颗公牛大小的岩石坠落在黑贝丝号和海灵号之间，激得双船摇晃不止，甲板上的人浑身皆湿。另一颗小不了多少的石头直接命中傲笑者号。这条瓦列利安家的战舰像一块从高塔上抛下的孩童玩具般爆炸分裂，溅起的碎片有手臂那么长。
Davos reeled off commands; one bank of oars pushed off while the other backed water, and the galley came about. Lady Marya had won clear too, and a good thing; the fire was spreading over Queen Alysanne and her foes faster than he would have believed possible. Men wreathed in green flame leapt into the water, shrieking like nothing human. On the walls of King’s Landing, spitfires were belching death, and the great trebuchets behind the Mud Gate were throwing boulders. One the size of an ox crashed down between Black Betha and Wraith, rocking both ships and soaking every man on deck. Another, not much smaller, found Bold Laughter. The Velaryon galley exploded like a child’s toy dropped from a tower, spraying splinters as long as a man’s arm.
在漫天的黑烟和绿火中，戴佛斯瞥见一群小船顺流而下：其中有渡船、划艇、驳轮、木筏、小帆船和船身腐烂得几乎无法漂浮的货船，混乱不堪。真是绝望的挣扎，凭这一堆浮木怎可扭转战局？只能挡道罢了。显而易见，敌军战线已无法重整。左翼，史蒂芬公爵号，珍娜号和侠剑号突破了防守，冲向上游。右翼还在酣战，然而，我军中央部分却在投石机的巨石袭击下土崩瓦解，有的船调头朝下游避去，有的船靠向左边，大家都在匆忙闪避无情的石雨。怒火号调转方向，企图用船尾投石机还击，不料射程不够，投出的沥青桶只砸在城墙上。王权号失去泰半船桨，信仰号被敌舰撞穿，开始下沉。他率领黑贝丝穿出两船之间，擦过瑟曦太后装饰华丽的镀金游艇——如今艇上满载士兵而非糖果蜜饯。这记碰撞将十几个敌人掀进河中，他们试图游泳，却成了黑贝丝号上弓箭手们的活靶子。
Through black smoke and swirling green fire, Davos glimpsed a swarm of small boats bearing downriver: a confusion of ferries and wherries, barges, skiffs, rowboats, and hulks that looked too rotten to float. It stank of desperation; such driftwood could not turn the tide of a fight, only get in the way. The lines of battle were hopelessly ensnarled, he saw. Off to port, Lord Steffon, Ragged Jenna, and Swift Sword had broken through and were sweeping upriver. The starboard wing was heavily engaged, however, and the center had shattered under the stones of those trebuchets, some captains turning downstream, others veering to port, anything to escape that crushing rain. Fury had swung her aft catapult to fire back at the city, but she lacked the range; the barrels of pitch were shattering under the walls. Sceptre had lost most of her oars, and Faithful had been rammed and was starting to list. He took Black Betha between them, and struck a glancing blow at Queen Cersei’s ornate carved-and-gilded pleasure barge, laden with soldiers instead of sweetmeats now. The collision spilled a dozen of them into the river, where Betha’s archers picked them off as they tried to stay afloat.
马索斯高声叫喊，警告左舷方向出现的危机：一艘兰尼斯特战舰正挺着撞锤，直扑而来。“右满舵！”戴佛斯大喝。他的部下用桨叶推开游艇，其他人则拼命划水调头，让船首对准那不顾一切冲来的白鹿号。一时之间，他恐惧不已，生怕动作太慢，只剩被撞沉一途，幸而潮流及时帮助了黑贝丝号，当碰撞最终发生时，只是相互擦击，两船壳摩擦刮割，桨叶齐断。一块参差不齐的木板从头顶飞过，锋利如矛，戴佛斯不由得缩了一下。“登船！”他叫道。爪钩抛出。他抽出长剑，带头翻过栏杆。
Matthos’s shout alerted him to the danger from port; one of the Lannister galleys was coming about to ram. “Hard to starboard,” Davos shouted. His men used their oars to push free of the barge, while others turned the galley so her prow faced the onrushing White Hart. For a moment he feared he’d been too slow, that he was about to be sunk, but the current helped swing Black Betha, and when the impact came it was only a glancing blow, the two hulls scraping against each other, both ships snapping oars. A jagged piece of wood flew past his head, sharp as any spear. Davos flinched. “Board her!” he shouted. Grappling lines were flung. He drew his sword and led them over the rail himself.
白鹿号的船员迎上船舷与他们对峙，但黑贝丝号的步兵如一阵钢铁洪流扫荡过去。戴佛斯穿过混战的人群，寻找敌舰船长，此人却在他靠近之前丧命。他站在船长的尸体旁，突然被人从后用战斧偷袭，幸好头盔挡下这一击，脑袋只是嗡嗡作响，并未碎裂。他昏头转向，下意识地着地翻滚。偷袭者喊叫着发起冲锋。戴佛斯双手握剑往上，抢先刺入来人腹中。
The crew of the White Hart met them at the rail, but Black Betha’s men-at-arms swept over them in a screaming steel tide. Davos fought through the press, looking for the other captain, but the man was dead before he reached him. As he stood over the body, someone caught him from behind with an axe, but his helm turned the blow, and his skull was left ringing when it might have been split. Dazed, it was all he could do to roll. His attacker charged screaming. Davos grasped his sword in both hands and drove it up point first into the man’s belly.
手下一名船员扶他起立，“船长阁下，白鹿号已被我方夺取。”确实如此，戴佛斯抬眼四望。大多数敌人不是已死，便是奄奄一息，还有一些人投降。他摘下头盔，擦擦脸上的血迹，调头返回自己的船，一路小心翼翼，人们流出的内脏肚肠使甲板黏滑无比。马索斯伸手扶他翻过栏杆。
One of his crewmen pulled him back to his feet. “Captain ser, the Hart is ours.” It was true, Davos saw. Most of the enemy were dead, dying, or yielded. He took off his helm, wiped blood from his face, and made his way back to his own ship, trodding carefully on boards slimy with men’s guts. Matthos lent him a hand to help him back over the rail.
接下来短短时间，黑贝丝号和白鹿号倒成了暴风雨中心的平静风眼。亚莉珊女王号和丝绸夫人号仍捆在一起，如一团绿色的地狱火，拖带夫人之耻号的残骸，飘向下游。一艘密尔战舰不幸撞上了她们，顷刻间也着了火。猫号正靠在迅速下沉的勇敢号边拯救人员。龙祸号的船长操纵坐船于两个码头间的缝隙处强行登陆，龙骨被撕得粉碎，船员和弓箭手、步兵一起蜂拥上岸，加入攻城队伍。红鸦号也被撞穿，正在缓缓倾斜。海鹿号同时与火势和敌兵搏斗，但她把烈焰红心旗插上了身边乔佛里的忠臣号。怒火号神气的船首被巨石打得不见踪影，正与神恩号接舷对战。他看见瓦列利安大人的潮头岛之荣光号撞开两艘兰尼斯特的快船，掀翻一艘，正向另一艘发射火箭。南岸，骑士们正领着战马陆续登上货船，许多小型战舰载满步兵，已开始渡河。她们格外谨慎地在半沉的船只和漂浮的野火之间挑选路径。史坦尼斯国王的全部舰队已驶入了河流，只有萨拉多·桑恩的里斯船还在湾内。很快我军将掌控整条黑水河。伊姆瑞爵士终于得到渴望的胜利，戴佛斯想，史坦尼斯终于能让军队跨过天堑，然而诸神在上，代价实在是……
For those few instants, Black Betha and White Hart were the calm eye in the midst of the storm. Queen Alysanne and Lady of Silk, still locked together, were a ranging green inferno, drifting downriver and dragging pieces of Lady’s Shame. One of the Myrish galleys had slammed into them and was now afire as well. Cat was taking on men from the fast-sinking Courageous. The captain of Dragonsbane had driven her between two quays, ripping out her bottom; her crew poured ashore with the archers and men-at-arms to join the assault on the walls. Red Raven, rammed, was slowly listing. Stag of the Sea was fighting fires and boarders both, but the fiery heart had been raised over Joffrey’s Loyal Man. Fury, her proud bow smashed in by a boulder, was engaged with Godsgrace. He saw Lord Velaryon’s Pride of Driftmark crash between two Lannister river runners, overturning one and lighting the other up with fire arrows. On the south bank, knights were leading their mounts aboard the cogs, and some of the smaller galleys were already making their way across, laden with men-at-arms. They had to thread cautiously between sinking ships and patches of drifting wildfire. The whole of King Stannis’s fleet was in the river now, save for Salladhor Saan’s Lyseni. Soon enough they would control the Blackwater. Ser Imry will have his victory, Davos thought, and Stannis will bring his host across, but gods be good, the cost of this …
“船长阁下！”马索斯碰碰他肩膀。
“Captain ser!” Matthos touched his shoulder.
是剑鱼号。她的两行桨叶起起落落，但风帆始终没降下来。燃烧的沥青点燃索具，火势逐渐蔓延，爬过绳子，登上帆布，长成一个黄焰大瘤。她那笨重的撞锤，形塑成船名所指的鱼类的模样，歪歪斜斜地栽向前方水面。剑鱼号正前方，一艘小船缓缓飘来，在河中缓缓打转，形成一个诱人的目标。这是一艘兰尼斯特的废船，吃水很低，黏稠的绿血从舷板间的隙缝渗漏而出。
It was Swordfish, her two banks of oars lifting and falling. She had never brought down her sails, and some burning pitch had caught in her rigging. The flames spread as Davos watched, creeping out over ropes and sails until she trailed a head of yellow flame. Her ungainly iron ram, fashioned after the likeness of the fish from which she took her name, parted the surface of the river before her. Directly ahead, drifting toward her and swinging around to present a tempting plump target, was one of the Lannister hulks, floating low in the water. Slow green blood was leaking out between her boards.
见此光景，戴佛斯·席渥斯的心脏停止了跳动。
When he saw that, Davos Seaworth’s heart stopped beating.
“不，”他大喊，“不，不不不不不不不——！”但在一片吼叫和撕杀声中，除了马索斯，没人听见他的话。至少剑鱼号的船长肯定没听见，他兴奋不已，手中笨拙的剑终于找到了合适目标。顷刻间，剑鱼号提升至战斗速度。戴佛斯抬起残废的手掌紧紧握住装指骨的皮袋。
“No,” he said. “No, NOOOOOO!” Above the roar and crash of battle, no one heard him but Matthos. Certainly the captain of the Swordfish did not, intent as he was on finally spearing something with his ungainly fat sword. The Swordfish went to battle speed. Davos lifted his maimed hand to clutch at the leather pouch that held his fingerbones.
碰撞、撕裂、分解，剑鱼号把腐朽的废船撞成纷飞的碎片。她像一颗熟透的水果般爆裂开来，虽然没有一种水果能发出木头分裂的尖啸。伴随漫天的果肉，绿色的汁液从一千个罐子中流溢而出，好似垂死野兽的肚肠，闪耀绿芒，光彩夺目，在河面上散开……
With a grinding, splintering, tearing crash, Swordfish split the rotted hulk asunder. She burst like an overripe fruit, but no fruit had ever screamed that shattering wooden scream. From inside her Davos saw green gushing from a thousand broken jars, poison from the entrails of a dying beast, glistening, shining, spreading across the surface of the river …
“后退，”他咆哮，“快离开。赶快离开她，后退，后退！”绳索砍开，戴佛斯感觉到甲板移动，黑贝丝快速脱离白鹿号，木桨重新入水。
“Back water,” he roared. “Away. Get us off her, back water, back water!” The grappling lines were cut, and Davos felt the deck move under his feet as Black Betha pushed free of White Hart. Her oars slid down into the water.
接着，只听一声急促而尖利的低吠，好似什么人凑在耳边喘气。半晌之后，成了怒嚎。脚下的甲板消失不见，黑水扑击脸庞，灌进鼻子和嘴巴。他呛水，淹溺，不知身在何方。在无边的惊恐中，戴佛斯盲目挣扎，直到终于浮出水面。他吐出积水，深吸口气，抓住最近的木板，紧抱不放。
Then he heard a short sharp woof, as if someone had blown in his ear. Half a heartbeat later came the roar. The deck vanished beneath him, and black water smashed him across the face, filling his nose and mouth. He was choking, drowning. Unsure which way was up, Davos wrestled the river in blind panic until suddenly he broke the surface. He spat out water, sucked in air, grabbed hold of the nearest chunk of debris, and held on.
剑鱼号和废船消失不见，焦黑的残躯同他一起漂向下游，溺水的人们死死抓住散落水中的冒烟木板。河面上升起一个五十尺高的绿火恶魔，他旋转着，翩翩起舞。他有十几只手臂，每只都握着长鞭，鞭子一挥，那儿就起火燃烧。黑贝丝号烧了起来，两旁的白鹿号和忠臣号也一样。虔诚号、猫号、勇敢号、王权号、红鸦号、老妇人号、信仰号和怒火号全都烈焰冲天，连君临号和神恩号也未能幸免，恶魔不分敌我地狼吞虎咽。瓦列利安大人华丽的潮头岛之荣光号企图掉头，但恶魔懒洋洋地伸出一根绿手指，扫过她银色的船桨，把它们像蜡烛一样点燃。一时之间，她好似在用两排长长的明亮火炬击水划行，努力挣脱。
Swordfish and the hulk were gone, blackened bodies were floating downstream beside him, and choking men clinging to bits of smoking wood. Fifty feet high, a swirling demon of green flame danced upon the river. It had a dozen hands, in each a whip, and whatever they touched burst into fire. He saw Black Betha burning, and White Hart and Loyal Man to either side. Piety, Cat, Courageous, Sceptre, Red Raven, Harridan, Faithful, Fury, they had all gone up, Kingslander and Godsgrace as well, the demon was eating his own. Lord Velaryon’s shining Pride of Driftmark was trying to turn, but the demon ran a lazy green finger across her silvery oars and they flared up like so many tapers. For an instant she seemed to be stroking the river with two banks of long bright torches.
流水紧抱住他，裹挟着他，旋转漂流。他咬牙奋力游水，方才避免被一块漂过身边的野火残片触到。我儿子呢？戴佛斯想，但在这一片空前的喧嚣中，根本无法寻找。又一艘满载野火的废船在身后爆炸。整条黑水河似乎从河床开始沸腾，到处是燃烧的桅杆，燃烧的士兵，船只爆裂的碎末纷飞于空气之中。
The current had him in its teeth by then, spinning him around and around. He kicked to avoid a floating patch of wildfire. My sons, Davos thought, but there was no way to look for them amidst the roaring chaos. Another hulk heavy with wildfire went up behind him. The Blackwater itself seemed to boil in its bed, and burning spars and burning men and pieces of broken ships filled the air.
这样下去，我将被冲进海湾。但不管怎样总比待在这儿强，只要能离开，就可想办法上岸。他是个货真价实的游泳好手，何况萨拉多·桑恩的舰队就在海口，伊姆瑞爵士命令他们留在湾内担任后卫……
I’m being swept out into the bay. It wouldn’t be as bad there; he ought to be able to make shore, he was a strong swimmer. Salladhor Saan’s galleys would be out in the bay as well, Ser Imry had commanded them to stand off …
这时，激流刚好把他的身子转了个方向，似乎要他仔细瞧瞧下游等待着的残酷命运。
And then the current turned him about again, and Davos saw what awaited him downstream.
铁索。诸神救我，他们把拦江铁索升起来了。
The chain. Gods save us, they’ve raised the chain.
在河流汇入黑水湾的宽阔海口，铁链紧密地伸展，大约比水面高出两三尺。已有十几艘战舰撞上屏障，湍急的黑水正把其他船只牵引过去。几乎所有船都在燃烧，尚还完好的也无法幸免。透过铁索，戴佛斯看见萨拉多·桑恩舰队的彩绘船壳，但他知道自己永远也到不了那儿。一座由火红的钢铁、炽热的船木和旋转的绿火组成的长墙挡在他们之间。黑水河口成了地狱之门。
Where the river broadened out into Blackwater Bay, the boom stretched taut, a bare two or three feet above the water. Already a dozen galleys had crashed into it, and the current was pushing others against them. Almost all were aflame, and the rest soon would be. Davos could make out the striped hulls of Salladhor Saan’s ships beyond, but he knew he would never reach them. A wall of red-hot steel, blazing wood, and swirling green flame stretched before him. The mouth of the Blackwater Rush had turned into the mouth of hell.
