Authors: John; Norman
“I do not know this Cosian,” said Seremides. “Nor do I understand him. It seems he has me confused with another. That is neither here nor there. But, if he will not fight, if he is so craven and cowardly, so much a frightened urt, so enamored of his worthless existence, so unwilling to risk it in fair, open combat, that is his choice. Certainly I cannot, in cold blood, slay an unarmed man. Doubtless he understands that, and thus tries to purchase his worthless life, counting on my honor. Such a killing, however in order, he doubtless realizes would not be permitted by my honor, an honor which I hold sacred, and have never betrayed. Too, it would be embarrassing for me to allow the blood of such a piteously craven urt to stain, however briefly, an honorable blade, that of Rutilius of Ar.”
Some of the men about smote their left shoulders, in approval.
“Yes, yes,” said others.
“Do not go on deck after dark,” said a fellow to me.
“But,” said Seremides, “if he is to crawl amongst us, as the slithering ost, unnoticed but deadly, tiny and poisonous, must he not in some way purchase his passage?”
“Yes,” said more than one man.
“That was my intention,” said Lord Nishida.
“I have no money,” I said.
“One purchases one’s passage with steel,” said Seremides. “I earned my berth by slaying six men.”
“True,” said a fellow, “six.”
“Passage is dear on this vessel,” said a fellow, “not free.”
“The Cosian has proved he is afraid to fight,” said another.
“At the ringing of steel, the laughter of blades, he would hide,” said another.
“Over the rail with him,” said another.
“Berths are limited, Cosian,” said Seremides. “They are to be earned, and in such a way that the best occupy them. Let the slow and clumsy perish, let the swift and skillful live. Let the weak die, let the strong survive. It is the way of nature, that of the tarn, of the sleen and larl. If one is added, let one be subtracted.”
I shrugged. “Give me a blade,” I said.
“Excellent,” said Lord Nishida. “It is as I and Tarl Cabot, tarnsman, intended.”
I had thought the tarnsman bore me no ill will. Now I was to be matched, to the death.
A blade was brought, nicely balanced. It was a not unfamiliar sensation, having such an instrument of war again in my grasp. Surely I preferred it to the oar. I touched the blade to my sleeve, and saw the threads part. I looked about. One or two men looked uneasy. One stepped back. I smiled. I was now, again, a man among men.
The tarnsman smiled.
“Bring the thief and wretch, Philoctetes, from his cell,” said Lord Nishida. “He has fed enough.”
The cloaks of some of the men moved in the wind. The yards above, carrying their large square sails, creaked, turning, as the sails took the rising wind, moving from a gray north.
In a few moments the prisoner was on deck, and given a weapon, rather as mine. We stood a few feet from one another. He was in a ragged blue tunic. He stood unsteadily.
“My dear Callias,” said Lord Nishida, “you behold before you a trustless rogue, Philoctetes, a miscreant and felon, a liar, a cheater at stones, one who robs men at night, who steals food, obtaining extra rations for himself, a villain who would cut a throat for a copper tarsk.”
“I trust that he is skilled,” I said.
“Enough,” said Lord Nishida. “He may not have the skills of one who stood first spear, but we deem his skills adequate for our purposes, that of adjudicating a war right to a berth. I advise you not to take him casually. A lucky stroke might fetch him freedom.”
I moved the blade about.
It had been long since I had held such a weapon.
Lord Nishida, the tarnsman, and others, moved back, further enlarging the space at our disposal. The boards of the deck were white, and closely fitted, stone cleaned.
Philoctetes seemed unsteady.
“Has he been fed,” I asked.
“Yes,” said Lord Nishida.
I faced Philoctetes. “Are you ready?” I asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“You wear the blue of Cos,” I said.
“It is my right,” he said.
“You are Cosian?” I said.
He shrugged.
“My Home Stone,” I said, “is that of Jad.”
He regarded me. “That, too,” he said, “is mine.”
“You must,” said Lord Nishida, addressing me, “be prepared to forswear your Home Stone.”
“One of us is to die?” I asked.
“Yes,” said Lord Nishida.
“Have you forsworn the Home Stone?” I asked Philoctetes.
“No,” he said.
“Then,” said I, “stand at my back and we will die together.”
“You are serious?” he asked.
“Yes,” I said, turning my back to him, facing those about, my sword ready. I saw several of the men about look at one another, and then draw their weapons.
“You are Callias?” asked Philoctetes.
“Yes,” I said, puzzled. I could not see him behind me. I did not sense him at my back.
It occurred to me, suddenly, that the back of my neck was open to his blade.
“Hail, Callias!” I heard, from Philoctetes. “Hail, Callias!” cried men about, and the swords which had been drawn were lifted, in salute. I spun about and saw that Philoctetes did not now seem as he had before. He stood straight, and powerful, solid on his feet. He had wiped something from his face, a pale salve or such, and it seemed ruddier now. The blade he had returned to a fellow behind him. “Hail Cos,” he said, and we embraced.
“Excellent,” said Lord Nishida. “It came about as I had expected.”
“I could not kill one whose Home Stone I shared,” I said.
“We thought not,” said Lord Nishida.
“I did not forswear my Home Stone,” I said.
“From yesterday,” said Lord Nishida, “we did not think you would, but we did not know.”
“Philoctetes played his role well,” observed Tarl Cabot.
“What if I had forsworn my Home Stone?” I asked.
“That would have been a great disappointment,” said Lord Nishida. “Our journey is long and dangerous, and we will have need of men who will not forswear their Home Stones.”
“What if I had fought?” I asked.
“You would not have fought,” said Lord Nishida, touching the unusual, curved hilt of one of the swords in his sash, “for I would have cut off your head, before the blades could touch.”
“Welcome,” said Tarl Cabot, “to the ship’s company.”
I looked about, but Seremides had left the deck.
I heard the snapping of canvas overhead.
The men about had sheathed their weapons, and were going their ways when, turning about, a cry of wonder escaped them. I looked forward, to the stem castle, to discern the reason for their awe. There, on the stem castle, behind its aft rail, a small figure, bent and twisted, stood, in cloak and mariner’s cap, looking to windward, to the north.
“Tersites!” cried men.
“He is dead!” exclaimed others.
“We witnessed his burning,” said another.
“I was at the pyre,” said another.
“I have heard of him,” I said. This was true. Legends of the mad, half-blind shipwright, Tersites, I did not doubt, had reached even the farther islands. Until now I did not realize he was a real person. From the outcry I gathered that many had not realized he was aboard.
“I saw him burned,” whispered a man.
“No,” said Tarl Cabot.
“You knew he was alive?” said Lord Nishida.
“I examined bones, found amongst the ashes of the pyre,” said Tarl Cabot. “They were the bones of a tarsk.”
“It was better,” said Lord Nishida, “that he be thought dead, that such a word be carried south, that the apprehension of enemies be assuaged, that none might seek his secrets, that his plans would be thought lost forever, that no ship such as this could be built, or, if built, duplicated.”
“Yet,” said Cabot, “we were attacked, at the mouth of the Alexandra.”
“The concealment of the northern forests proved insufficient,” said Lord Nishida.
“Surely you will explain to me one day the nature of our enterprise,” said Tarl Cabot.
“It has to do with Priest-Kings and Others,” said Lord Nishida. “It is, I take it, a wager of sorts.”
“And what hangs upon the outcome of this wager?” asked Tarl Cabot.
“I think,” said Lord Nishida, “the fate of two worlds.”
“Callias,” said Philoctetes, “a storm is near. Come below. Leave the taking in of sail, the governance of the ship, to mariners.”
“It is too late in the season to be abroad on Thassa,” I said.
“I agree,” said Philoctetes.
“I trust that oil was poured into the sea, and wine, and salt,” I said.
“No,” said Philoctetes. “They were not. Come below. A storm is upon us.”
I fetched my cloak, and accompanied Philoctetes below.
Chapter Six
The Farther Islands Fall Astern
“There,” said Tarl Cabot, “do you see them, the three of them, the farther islands, Chios, Daphna, Thera?”
They were dim, in the distance, in the snow, but one could make them out. I had never been this far west of Cos and Tyros, but the merchantry of the major island Ubarates, including Cos, of course, traded here, and rogue ships, from Port Kar and Brundisium, did as well. Indeed, the major reason for the western patrols, as that of the
Metioche
, was to police these routes, limiting them to licensed traffic.
It was the second week past the eighth passage hand.
“Yes,” I said. “I see them.”
In an Ahn, they would be astern.
At Cabot’s thigh knelt a slave, well-bundled.
She did not seem agitated. Did she not understand we would soon be west of the farther islands?
When she had heeled her master to the rail, where he had joined me, I had examined her, as men will a slave, insofar as was possible, given her furs. She had lowered her eyes, that they not meet without permission those of a free man. Then she had knelt. I supposed she would be excellent, stripped to her neck-encirclement. Certainly her features were exquisite, and the furs, as they were cunningly wrapped and fastened, the clever she-sleen, suggested, as much as concealed, the delights at the disposal of her master. Slaves often garb and present themselves in such a way that others may envy their master for their possession.
She was quite lovely. I thought she would bring good coin off the block.
She did not meet my eyes. She was, after all, her master’s property, not mine. Even the casual glance of a slave might enflame a fellow. A slave who is careless with her glances, her smiles, might be beaten.
If I owned Alcinoë, and she smiled at another fellow, I thought I would give her a good switching.
It would teach her a lesson.
It would do her good.
I regarded Tarl Cabot’s slave.
I was pleased.
She had about her the look of a woman who is well owned, well mastered.
Commonly a slave rejoices that she is owned. It reassures her and fulfills her. She has come to understand that her sex is rightfully the property of men, and that, in her collar, the tensions and wars are over. She kneels in her place, where she wishes to be, at her master’s feet.
One is familiar with the haughtiness, the arrogance, the pride, of the typical free woman, defended by guardsmen, ringed by the walls of her city, well-veiled, well-robed, secure in her status, unassailable in station, ensconced in society’s regard, but there is another pride, too, little spoken of, which is, perhaps surprisingly, that of the slave. Even when she kneels before the free woman, in her mockery of a garment, fastened in a collar, her lovely hair in the dirt before the free woman’s slippers, she knows herself special, and prized, in a way the free woman is not. She realizes that she, amongst many women, is the one who has been found “slave desirable,” the one whom men will put in a collar, the one who will wear a collar. She revels in the fact that she has been found worthy of being owned. She is proud to be owned. This is a mark of quality, a badge of excellence. She is a prize amongst women, so desirable that men will be satisfied with nothing less than owning her. She is that desirable. She knows that she is the most coveted, the most lusted-for, the most delectable, exciting, and sought of women, the female slave. How could she not feel superior, in her sex, as a female, to the free woman in her vain, shallow trappings of dignity and station? Many have been free women, and they know the grief, the sorrow, the frustration, the misery, and loneliness, so often concealed within those cumbersome, ornate robes. The free woman often hates the slave; the slave, often, feels not only fear of, but also pity for, the free woman. So one might then contrast two prides, that of the scornful free woman, richly robed, elevated in society, switch in hand, and that of the timid, frightened creature, perhaps in a rag, a collared animal, who kneels before her. The free woman has pride in her status, the slave in her sex, in her holistic fulfilled womanhood.