Renegades of Gor (5 page)

strings, and, with the point of the knife, opened it. There were several coins

within it. I could see in light of the small lamp he carried. (pg.32)”Times are

not as hard as you thought,” I said. “How much would you like?”

“A tarsk bit is quite sufficient,” he said.

“You have it,” I said.

“Yes, Sir,” he said. “Thank you, Sir.” He put the tarsk bit from his hand into

his purse, as I held it, and then took the purse gingerly from me, and, sensing

he was permitted, dropped it, on its strings, so that again it hung from his

belt, on his left. If one is right-handed, one normally lifts the purse with the

left hand and reaches into it with the right. The weight of the purse, on its

drawstrings, closed it.

“It is a violent night out,” I said.

“It is, Sir,” said he. “What have you heard from the north?”

“I have come from the south,” I said.

“Few go north now,” he said.

“Most here, I gather,” I said, “are from the north.”

“Yes,” said he, “and we are crowded beyond belief.”

“With folks from Ar’s Station?” I asked.

“Not many now,” he said. “Some managed to flee.”

“Most are trapped in the city?” I said.

“Apparently,” he said.

“What is your latest intelligence?” I asked.

“Little that is new,” he said.

“And what is old?” I asked.

“From whence have you come?” he asked.

“From the south,” I said. That I had come from Ar herself was no business to

this fellow.

“Only what I hear,” he said, “—that the Cosians have invested Ar’s Station, on

three sides by land, and have closed the harbor, that with a wall of chained

rafts.”

“Have the walls been breached?” I asked.

“Several times,” said he, “but each time the defenders have managed to hold the

breach, and repair the wall.”

I nodded. Some terribly bitter fighting takes place at such times. So, too, it

can, in the streets themselves. “Cosians, as far as you know,” I said, “hold no

part of the city itself.”

“Not as far as I know,” he said.

“What are the numbers involved, and your speculations as to the outcome?”

(pg.33)”It is you who wear the scarlet,” he said. “I am only a poor porter.”

“Surely you have heard things,” I said. I sheathed my knife. I sensed it might

be making the fellow nervous.

“I have heard there are thousands of Cosians, their auxiliaries, and their

mercenaries, at Ar’s Station,” he said. “Of that is true, they must outnumber

the regulars in Ar’s Station by as many as ten to one.”

“Equipment, supplies?” I asked.

“They brought with them the devices for siege work from Brundisium,” he said. “I

suppose that, too, must be the source of their supplies.”

That seemed to me to make sense. If it were true, however, why had Ar’s tarnsmen

not attempted to interdict these supply routes? If they had, I had heard nothing

of it.

“The fighting at Ar’s Station, by report, has been lengthy and fierce,” said the

man. “Her walls are defended by common citizens as well as soldiers. The

Cosians, I think, did not expect such resistance.

I supposed not.

“You are of the red caste,” said the fellow. “Why is Cos interested in Ar’s

Station?”

“I am not fully sure,” I said, “but there could be various reasons, and some of

them would seem obvious. As you know much of the friction between Cos and Ar has

to do with their economic competitions in the Vosk Basin. Taking Ar’s Station

would, in a stroke, diminish the major citadel of Ar’s Salerian Confederation

and the Vosk League.

To be sure, in virtue of their mutual distrust of Cos and the Salerian

Confederation normally maintained close relations, and the Vosk League, a

confederation of towns along the Vosk, originally formed, like the Salerian

Confederation on the Olni, to control river piracy, was, at least in theory,

independent of both Ar and Cos. I say, ‘in theory’ because one of the charter

cities in the Vosk League is Port Cos, which, although it is a sovereign polis,

was originally founded by, and settled by, Cosians. If Ar were out of the way in

the area of the Vosk, of course, I did not doubt but what friction would develop

quickly enough between Cos and the Salerian Confederation, and perhaps between

Cos and the Vosk League, (pg.34) and for much the same reasons as formerly

between Cos and Ar.

Some well-known towns in the Vosk League are Victoria, Tafa and Fina. The

farthest west town in the league is Turmus, at the delta. The farthest east is

White Water. Some of the towns of the league are actually east of Ar’s Station,

such as Forest Port, Iskander, Tancred’s Landing, and, of course, White Water.

Ar’s Station, although it was apparently active in the altercations with pirates

on the Vosk, never joined the league. This is probably because of the influence

of Ar herself, which might regard her extensive territorial claims in the area

as being implicitly undermined or compromised by membership in any such

alliance.

The headquarters of the Vosk League is located in the city of Victoria. I

suppose there are special historical reasons for this, for Victoria is not

centrally located on the river, say, between the delta to the west and the entry

of the Olni into the Vosk on the east, which point, incidentally, is controlled

by the city of Lara, a member of the Salerian’s Confederation. Victoria lies

rather toward the west, in the reaches traditionally more subject to Cosian

influence. Geographical position, accordingly, at least with respect to

approximating the midpoint between the delta and the Olni, was apparently not

the paramount consideration in locating the headquarters of the Vosk League. Had

it been one might have expected to find its headquarters in, say, Jasmine or

Siba, towns much more centrally located.

“I have heard,” said the man, “a large relieving force bound for Ar’s Station

departed from Ar weeks ago.”

“I heard that, too,” I said. I knew that it was true. I also knew that Ar,

inexplicably, to my mind, had literally invested the bulk of its land power in

that very expedition, and had done so with the main forces of Cos not in the

north but in the vicinity of Torcadino. This seemed to me a military mistake of

almost unbelievable dimension. I had been in Torcadino several weeks ago,

indeed, at the very moment when the city, housing Cosian siege engines and

supplies, serving as a depot and staging area for the eastward advance of Cos,

had, in a daring stratagem, been seized by Dietrich of Tarnburg with no more

than a few thousand mercenaries. These had entered the city through aquaducts,

literally over (pg.35) the heads of unsuspecting Cosian armies camped about the

city. This act had stalled the invasion. I expected Dietrich to be able to hold

Torcadino through the winter, but little longer. I had borne letters from

Dietrich to Ar germane to these matters.

In the intrigues of the time, and to divert suspicion, Gnieus Lelius, high

councilor, and first minister of Ar, he who was acting as regent in the absence

of Marlenus, Ubar of the city, had even had me brought to the Central Cylinder

under guard, as though I might have been arrested, and was to be examined on

some charge. There, personally and at length, I had spoken to him. I had urged

him to march to Torcadino and confront the main body of Cosian forces. But the

troops of Ar had not been recalled, nor diverted to Torcadino. They had

continued to march northward, as though the major danger lay at Ar’s Station.

This, in effect, seemed to negate the bold stroke of Dietrich, to slow the

Cosian advance, and give Ar time to organize, to arm and march. Ar had not moved

against the Cosians at Torcadino. She had marched north, presumably to relieve

Ar’s Station. Gnieus Lelius had listened to me thoughtfully and patiently. But

he would, it seemed, trust to the judgment of his officers.

I had then been kept in Ar for weeks, a guest in the Central Cylinder, waiting

and waiting. Then at last I had been given a sealed letter for the commander of

Ar’s Station, whose name was Aemilianus. That was all. That very night, on

tarnback, I had streaked northward from Ar. I had sold the tarn only two days

ago, to proceed on foot. The skies had seemed heavily patrolled. I had little

doubt they would become more so as I proceeded farther northward. It seemed to

me that my chances of successfully delivering the message to Aemilianus,

whatever might be its contents, might be improved if it were borne not by

tarnsman but by one afoot, one who might, say, among mercenaries, or civilians,

mix inconspicuously. This speculation was further encouraged by the fact that

Ar’s station would surely have its tarn wire strung and the skies about it, as

nearly as I had determined, were currently controlled by Cos.

(pg.36) “But,” said the man, “such a force has not passed this point.”

“I do not know its location,” I said. I had stayed at certain inns in the south,

past which it had taken its march, taking five days to pass given points. Then,

moving northward, I had stayed at inns, also on, or near, the Vitkel Aria

somewhere north of Venna.

“It cannot have just disappeared,” he said.

“It is a mystery to us,” I said, “but doubtless to those with access to the

proper intelligence network, its movements and position are well known.” I had

encountered refugees from Ar’s Station and its environs even south of Venna.

Some told me they had seen the army pass. Some had even told me that men and

women they knew had followed the army northward, as though confident of its

victory and returning to their homes. What puzzled me most was that the Viktel

Aria was the most direct route, for hundreds of pasangs, to Ar’s Station.

Indeed, Ar’s Station, in effect, secured the northern terminus of the Viktel

Aria, or Vosk Road, at the Vosk.

The Viktel Aria was a military toad, one laid out by military engineers as a

military route. It sped almost directly from Ar to the Vosk. It made few

concessions to towns or communities. Its primary purpose was to provide a

reliable, nearly indestructable surface for the rapid movement of armed men.

this being the case, however, why had the army of Ar not kept to it, on its

presumed journey to raise the siege of Ar’s Station? The most likely hypothesis

seemed to me to be that it was making its way not to Ar’s Station but to

Brundisium, where, months ago, the Cosians had landed. This suggested that

either Ar’s Station was to be sacrificed in these harsh games, or that it was

the thinking of Ar’s commanders that a move to Brundisium would lift the siege

of Ar’s Station, the Cosians there perhaps then being withdrawn to protect

Brundisium. Such a move, of course, might isolate the Cosian main forces, both

depriving them from their fellows at Ar’s Station. I did not doubt,

incidentally, that the military might which Ar now had in the north, if it were

what it was said to be, would be sufficient to take Brundisium. The (pg.37)

objections to this strategy, of course, were obvious. Ar’s bastion on the Vosk,

Ar’s Station, was being treated as expendable, which it was not, if Ar wished to

maintain its power in the Vosk Basin. Even if Brundisium should fall, this would

not be likely to keep open her lines of communication and supply. Similarly, Ar,

lacking a sizable navy, had no way to follow up the capture of Brundisium,

either by interdicting the coast or attempting an invasion of Cos.

The major objection, of course, was that this move exposed Ar herself to the

main force of Cosians, which was in the vicinity of Torcadino. It was almost as

though the officers of Ar were content to exchange Ar for a port, and one which,

strictly, was not even a Cosian port. If this were the case, however, that Ar

was advancing on Brundisium, I had, interestingly enough, heard nothing of it.

By now, in the normal course of events, given Ar’s start, and the typical

marches of armies, she would have had time to reach not only Ar’s Station but

even Brundisium, much farther away.

I did not know where the main force of Ar was. In this sense I was confronted

with a mystery, at least as far as my own limited information went. Perhaps, for

some reason, the forces of Ar were intending to relieve Ar’s Station from the

west, thus interposing themselves between the siege forces of Cos and their

likely routes of escape, either substantially west by southwest to Brundisium or

more to the southwest, toward Torcadino. If this were the case, however, it

seemed that we should, by nor, have heard something to this effect. Indeed, if

this were true, it seems that Ar, by now, should have appeared on the western

flank of the Cosians.

“I fear for Ar’s Station,” said the porter.

“How is that?” I asked.

“I do not think she can long hold out,” he said. “The attackers are numerous.

The defenders are thinned. The walls are weakened. New breaches are made daily.

In places they are being mined. Fires have occurred in the city, from saboteurs,

from fire javelins, from flame baskets catapulted over the walls. There is

starvation in the city. If the forces of Ar do not soon raise the siege, I think