Guardsman of Gor (16 page)

"It is
Spined Tharlarion!" I
heard cry. We must now be in the vicinity of Victoria.
Spined Tharlarion, I
knew, was the personal ship of Ragnar Voskjard. He had come from the west on the river to rendezvous with his fleet and the ships of Policrates. The rendezvous was supposedly to have taken place, we had learned from Callisthenes, at the holding of Policrates. Scout ships, however, had been left at the channel's mouth, that he might now, rather, be directed to Victoria.

"You are Policrates?" I heard call.

"I am," answered Policrates.

"He is," called another voice, from my right. "He is Policrates." That was the voice of Reginald, who was known to them both. I remembered it from earlier, from outside the sea gate, at the holding.

"Where are my ships?" demanded the first voice, from my left. The voice was furious. Only recently, I gathered, surely only with a few Ahn, had the Voskjard become apprised of the fate of so many of his ships. The wings of the Voskjard had been cruelly clipped. Of his original three fleets, number-

ing in the neighborhood of some one hundred and fifty or sixty ships, he must now retain less than twenty. It would take time to rebuild such power on the river.

"Ask the Vosk, and your captains, the sorry lot of them," responded Policrates.

"Do you test me, Captain?" inquired the voice from my left.

"Be tested or not, as it pleases you," said Policrates.

"How is it that they were not supported?" demanded the voice from my left.

"I did my part," said Policrates. "I defended the eastern river, upholding my portion of our bargain."

"Not one ship of yours shows a scratchl" cried the voice from my left.

"Men knew war against me would be fruitless," said Policrates. "My presence alone guaranteed the security of your flank."

`In your holding were my men ambushedl" called the voice from the left.

"I was not there," said Policrates. "Guile was employed. My men were tricked."

"Your men are fools!" cried the voice.

"So, too, then are yours, who entered the holding like verr trotting into a pen," said Policrates.

"How is it that the signs and countersigns came to be known?" demanded the voice from my left.

"I do not know," called Reginald. "It could not be from me that they were obtained. The Tamira went down. It went down at the chain. I was fortunate to have escaped with my life."

"Two who were involved in this miserable business," said Policrates, "surmount now, as stripped and helpless prisoners, the shearing blades of my vessel."

"Good," said the voice from my left. "I shall see that they are rewarded well for their pains, lengthily and at my leisure." The voice now sounded mollified. I felt the eyes of men upon me.

"They are my prisoners," said Policrates. "They are mine to do with as I please."

"As you wish," said the voice to my left. I saw that Policrates wanted Callimachus and myself for himself. We were precious to him. He would not see fit to surrender us to an

other. I did not care to consider what projected vengeance he might care to impose upon us.

"Convey now to me the flags of command," called the voice to my left.

"I am first upon the river," said Policrates.

"I am Ragnar Voskjard!" called the voice to my left.

"And I am Policrates," said Policrates.

"I am first!" said Ragnar Voskjard.

"You retain, at most, no more than twenty ships," said Policrates. "I command forty."

"There is our agreementl" cried Ragnar Voskjard. "The pledge of the topaz!"

"I have revised the provisions of that agreement, my dear Captain," said Policrates.

"By what right?" asked Ragnar Voskjard.

"By the right of forty ships," said Policrates.

"I shall withdraw to my holding," said Ragnar Voskjard.

"Do so, should it please you," said Policrates.

"I did not come east upon the river to return with empty coffers," said Ragnar Voskjard.

"There is more than enough for all of us in Victoria," said Policrates.

"I shall join you," said Ragnar Voskjard.

"I am first upon the river," said Policrates. "Should you care to contest that, we shall do so, ship to ship."

"I do not care to contest it," said Ragnar Voskjard, bitterly.

"The" am first upon the river," said Policrates.

"Yes," said Ragnar Voskjard, bitterly, "you are first upon the river."

XV

VICTORIA

"It is quiet," said Kliomenes.

He stood upon a wharf in Victoria, to the left of the blade upon which I was bound. Mooring ropes were still being made fast.

"It is as I had anticipated," said Policrates, beside him. Pirates, disembarking from the flagship, filed past them. I heard jokes about the women of Victoria, and how they would please the pirates this night.

"Not even the alarm bar rings," said Reginald, who had been the captain of the Tamira.

Other ships, too, were nosing into the .numerous wharves lining the water front of Victoria, and were being tied to mooring posts, and to one another.

"Surely they should come forth, with gifts, and their daughters garlanded, with songs of welcome, to pacify us," said Callisthenes.

"Soon their daughters would wear only their garlands and our chains," said Kliomenes.

Reginald laughed.

"They fear even to do that," said Policrates.

I struggled on the blade. Then I felt blood at
my
back. Then I felt the point of a sword in my side.

"Do not struggle," said Policrates. My fists were clenched. The ropes were hot and tight on my wrists and ankles. I could feel sweat under the coarse fibers, and the rope burns where I had sought to free myself. I could see the blue sky, and the white clouds. Overhead a Vosk gull was soaring in the wind. I winced, feeling the blade enter a bit more deeply into my side. It was Gorean steel. It does not require great pressure to thrust it through a man's body. I then lay back on the blade quietly, bound. "That is better," said Policrates. I felt the point of the blade withdrawn from my side. I heard it enter a
sheath.

"Unfortunately we did not meet resistance," said Policrates. "Had we done so it might have been pleasant to observe you on the shearing blade. Tonight, in chains, perhaps we will permit you to serve wine to our newly collared slave girls, the women of Victoria. Tomorrow, as a participant in our naval exercises, in our projected maneuvers, designed to celebrate our victory, perhaps we shall permit you to return to your post upon the shearing blade." I shuddered. "That should be interesting," said Policrates. I then heard him turn away from me, and with him, too, the others. He, and some of the others, I gathered, then strode down the wharf, away from the ship. Some others, at least, however, remained momentarily behind.

"It is quiet," said Kliomenes, uneasily.

"I had hoped there would be resistance," said Callisthenes.

"There has never been resistance in Victoria," said Kliomenes.

"Nor is there now," said Callisthenes. "The people cower in their houses."

"But never has it been this quiet," said Kliomenes.

"And never before," said Callisthenes, "have the cowards of Victoria had this much reason to be so fearful. Policrates is not pleased with them. When the town is suitably sacked, emptied of anything of interest, he will have it burned to the ground."

"It will be a valuable lesson to all the towns on the river," said Kliomenes.

"Yes," said Callisthenes.

"Let us join Policrates," said Kliomenes.

"Precede me," said Callisthenes.

I then heard them, and the rest, leave the side of the moored vessel, moving down the wharf toward the concourse. I sensed, then, that I was alone. In fury, in rage, unobserved, I tore at the ropes. Tears of frustration were in my eyes. Blood ran at my back. I was able to move some inches down the blade, but could not free myself. Again and again, wincing, I tried to pull free. I could not have struggled in this fashion when under the observation of my captors, of course. I hoped I might be able to loosen the ropes. They were thick, and coarse: They were not binding fiber, designed for the perfect holding of prisoners and slaves, nor chains. Too, they had not been knotted by trained warriors or guardsmen. Too, I was strong. Too, the metal back of the blade, though not sharp, was narrow, and rectangular. I had not been bound to a large, rounded metal ring. I was sure that, given time, I could free myself. Then, angry, miserable, I again hung helplessly on the blade, scarcely moved some inches upon it. I could not free myself. It was hopeless. I was covered with sweat. I had lost blood from the blade at my back. I feared I might bleed to death.

I sobbed in frustration, bound upon the great, curved blade. I had underestimated the skills of my captors. Though the ropes were thick and coarse, they were tight, and wellknotted. The pirates had not intended me to escape. Thus, they had tied me well. Such men, I realized, angrily, were experienced in the tying of men, as well as women. Yet they were neither warriors nor guardsmen; they had not used binding fiber; and I was strong. Again I struggled and then, again, ceased struggling, sick, gasping and held.

I had in my struggles, moved my body down some inches on the blade. By lifting my head I could see ahead, painfully, to the concourse. There the pirates, at the edge of the concourse, some hundred yards from the office of the wharf master, set back on the concourse, had gathered, preparatory to their attack on the town. I could see the broad, lateral width of the concourse behind them. It was empty. The docks seemed deserted. Victoria, I then suspected, had been abandoned, left to the wrath of the vengeful reavers of the river.

XVI

THE LONGBOAT

"Have you a taste, Lads," called Policrates, "for precious wines and delicate viands?"

"That we have, Captain," called a man.

"Have you a taste for well-tooled leather and fine cloths?"

"Yes, Captain!" called men.

"Have you a taste for more gold and silver, and jewels, than you know what to do with?" called Policrates.

"Yes, Captain!" called dozens of men.

"Have you a taste for luscious slaves, to train with whips to your pleasure?" demanded Policrates.

"Yes, yes, Captain!" called hundreds of men. I heard weapons unsheathed and clashed. "Yes, Captain! Yes, Captain!" shouted hundreds of men.

"Then, Lads," cried Policrates, "take Victoria! She is yours!"

Then, at that very instant from atop the frame building housing the office of the wharf master the alarm bar began to ring. I saw a single man on the roof, striking it with a great hammer. It rang again, and again. The pirates turned, startled, puzzled, to regard the source of the sound. Almost at that very moment, from the seemingly deserted buildings of Victoria, running and screaming, charging, brandishing an

incredible assortment of chains, tools and weapons, there issued hundreds of the outraged citizens of Victoria. Archers sprang into view on the rooftops. Showers of arrows sped like dark, linear had over the heads of the charging citizens, striking into the startled, suddenly reeling, disordered crowds of pirates at the foot of the concourse. But a moment later the charging citizens, like thundering, horned kailiauk, like uncontrolled, maddened, stampeding bosk, pikes and spears leveled, chains flailing, swords flashing, boat hooks, and axes and shovels upraised, struck the dumbfounded, disarrayed throngs of astonished buccaneers.

A cheer rose spontaneously from my throat.

"Fight!" I heard Policrates scream. "Fight!"

I saw a pirate being strangled with a chain. I saw a flailing chain, doubled, tear a pirate's head half from his body. Shovels slashed down at pirates. Pikes stabbed and cut. Spears thrust. I saw a pirate fall over the body of another pirate, who had been struck with an arrow. An outraged citizen thrust down, driving the vertically mounted point of a boat hook into the fellow's face. An instant later he had caught another pirate by the neck, with the horizontally mounted hook on the staff and pulled him backward. Another citizen thrust his sword into the fellow's belly. The archers had now left the rooftops to hurry to the melee, that they might, at point-blank range, pick targets. I saw some five pirates thrust back off the edge of the concourse into the water. An ax split the side of the hamlet open of another pirate. Still more citizens were running forth, from buildings, from further down the wharves, with spears and swords.

"On!" I cried. "On for Victoria!"

"Fight! Stand! Fight!" screamed Policrates.

I saw a dozen pirates break and run for their ships.

I struggled on the blade. In a frenzy I tried to free myself. But I could not do so. I was helpless. I had been tied by Gorean men.

A man ran past me, hurrying to the ship.

"Stand, fightl" I heard Policrates screaming. I saw him strike a pirate in the back of the neck with his sword, cutting his head half from his body, who had turned to run. "Stand, fight!" he screamed.

A dozen more pirates, here and there, in their ragged lines, turned about and broke for their ships. Then a dozen morel

"Withdraw!" shouted Policrates. "Back to the ships!"

"Back to the ships!" called Ragnar Voskjard.

"Back to the ships!" called Kliomenes.

"Back to the ships!" called Callisthenes.

Men were now hurrying past me. Some were bloody, and wounded. Swords slashed down at the mooring ropes. I felt the flagship of Policrates shift in the water. Men were fighting on the wharf now. Men behind me, I heard clamber aboard. I did not know whether or not they could board a crew. Policrates himself ran past me, and Kliomenes, and Callisthenes. I heard them leaping to the bulwarks of the ship and clambering aboard. "Poles!" shouted Policrates. "Oars outboard!" I could see the pirate ship to my left, across the wharf, moored on the opposite side, its mooring ropes cut, backing away from the wharf. Then the ship on which I was bound, poles thrusting against the wharf, slid to my right and backward. A pirate running for the ship missed the bow rail and fell into the water. He began to thrash and scream in the water, attacked by eels. I looked down, into the water. Below me the water was swarming with eels. The blood from my back, I realized, running down the blade and dripping into the water, had attracted them.

The wharves, now, were crowded with men. Pirates fell into the water. Others, in the rearward ranks, who could turn, did so, and fled toward the ships. Some ran past me and apparently leaped to oars, trying to hold them and use them to clamber aboard. I heard a man scream, struck, behind me. "Do not encumber the oars!" cried Policrates. I heard a body slide into the water behind me. An outjutting oar struck against the wharf. I heard another body strike the water. Then the ship was out from the wharf. I saw pirates throwing down their weapons, and kneeling on the wharf. There was cheering from the men of Victoria.

"Well done, Ladsl" I called. "Well done!"