Six of Them

The channel ahead is narrow. On one side is a whirlpool that will take the ship and everyone on it. On the other is a cliff, and in the cliff is a cave, and in the cave is something with six heads that reaches down as ships pass.

He has been told the arithmetic in advance and he believes it. Steer wide and everyone drowns. Hug the cliff and he loses six men, and only six, and the ship goes through.

So the course is decided. What is not decided is whether the crew are told.

If he tells them, men will leave the oars to look up, or freeze, or crowd to the far rail — and a ship that slows in that channel is a ship that loses more than six. If he says nothing, they row hard and straight, and six of them will be lifted off the deck without ever knowing there was a choice made about them.

They are watching him put on his armor and waiting to be told what for.