Raiders of Gor (27 page)

dark waters with his trident.

I felt my leg then caught in the jaws of an urt, like triple bands of steel, set

with needles, and was dragged beneath the surface. I thrust my thumbs in its

ears and tore it’s head back from my leg. The mouth kept reaching for me, head

turned to the side, trying for the throat. I let it free and as it snapped at me

I knocked it jaws up and slipped behind it, my left arm locked about its broad,

furred throat. I got the knife from between my teeth and, with it, sometimes

half out of the water, sometimes beneath it, thrashing and twisting, thrust the

blade a dozen times into its hide.

“It’s dead!” cried Clitus.

I released it, kicking it back away from me.

It disappeared beneath the water, dragged under by other urts.

I felt the folded sweep of Clitus’ net behind me and I thrust back my hand, and

hooked my fingers into its mesh. Bleeding and choking, shivering with cold, I

was drawn from the water. In moments, trembling, half supported by two

men-at-arms, I was conducted back to the investing wall. There, in the heat of a

watch fire, I stripped away my clothes and took a cloak from Thurnock. Someone

gave me a swallow of paga from a leather bota.

Suddenly I laughed.

“Why do you laugh!” asked one of the men-at-arms.

“I am pleased to find myself alive,” I said.

The men laughed. Thurnock clapped me on the shoulders. “So, too, are we, my

captain,” said Thurnock.

“What of your leg?” asked one of the men-at-arms.

“It is all right,” I told him.

I took another swig of paga.

I had found that I could stand on the leg. It had been lacerated but none of the

long, rough-edged wounds was deep. I would have it soon treated by a physician

in my own holding.

“Where is our fish from the canal?” I asked.

“Follow me,” said one of the men-at-arms, grinning.

I, and the others, followed him to another of the watch fires, one some fifty

yards from the one at which I had warmed myself.

There, huddled against the inside of the investing wall, naked, wrapped in a

warrior’s cloak, near the watch fire, sat the boy. He had been ungagged, and

unbound. He looked up at us. He had blond hair, and blue eyes. He was

frightened.

“Who are you?” asked Thurnock.

The boy looked down, frightened.

“What is your name?” asked Clitus.

The boy did not respond.

“He should be beaten with a bow,” said Thurnock.

The boy looked up, proudly, angrily.

“Hah!” said Thurnock.

The boy regarded me. “Are these men yours?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“Bosk,” I told him.

“Of the Council of Captains?” he asked.

“Yes,” I answered.

I thought I saw fear for a moment flicker in his blue eyes.

“Who are you?” I asked.

He looked down. “Only a slave,” he said.

“Show me your hands,” I said.

Reluctantly he did so. They were smooth.

“Is he branded?” I asked one of the men-at-arms who had been with the boy.

“No,” said the man-at-arms.

“What is your name?” I asked.

He looked down again.

“Since we bought you from the canal,” I said, “we will call you Fish.” And I

added, “And since you are a slave, you will be marked and collared, and taken to

my holding.”

He looked at me angrily.

I gestured for one of the men-at-arms to take him up and carry him away, which

he did.

I then dismissed the men who stood near me, except Thurnock and Clitus.

That boy, I thought, may well prove useful to me If he fell into the hands of

the council he would doubtless be tortured and impaled, or, perhaps, condemned

to a seat on the rowing benches of the arsenal round ships. In my holding, his

identity could be kept secret. In time, I might find a use for him. There was

surely little to be gained in turning him over to the council.

“Who is he?” asked Thurnock, looking after the boy, wrapped in the warrior’s

cloak, who was being carried away into the darkness.

“He is, of course,” said I, “Henrius Sevarius.”

13
   
How Bosk Came to be Pirate

“Paint my ships green,” I had said.

It was now within the Fifth Passage Hand, some four months after the

unsuccessful coup of Henrius Sevarius in the city of Port Kar.

By this time, the Fifth Passage Hand, the flag of Bosk, pirate, had come to be

much feared on Thassa.

How this came about I shal now relate.

Some four months ago I, in my swiftest ram-ship, accompanied by my two other

ram-ships, and escorted, as well, by five ram-ships of the arsenal, heavy class,

had come ot the vast, wall-encircled harbors of Telnus, which is the capitol

city of the Ubarate of Cos. There are four major cities on Cos, of which Telnus

is the largest. The others are Selnar, Temos and Jad.

I took a longboat ashore, and sent the boat back to my galley.

I would go before the thrones of the Ubars of Cos and Tyros alone.

This was my wish, and part of my plan.

I recalled standing before the thrones, in the towering throne room of Cos.

I put to them, the Ubars of Cos and Tyros, as well as I could, the proposals of

the Council of Captains of Port Kar, that there would be concord, and doubtless

an opening of commerce, between the two Ubarates and the maligned city in the

Vosk’s delta, my own Port Kar.

As I spoke, the Ubar of Cos, Lurius of Jad, and the Ubar of Tyros, Chenbar of

Kasra, the Sea Sleen, who was visiting Lurius on matters of state, sat

unspeaking upon their thrones. They asked no questions. They merely regarded me.

Kasra is the capitol of Tyros; its only other major city is Tentium.

To one side, in a silken veil, richly robed and jeweled, sat Vivina, the ward of

Chenbar. It was not a coincidence that she was now in Cos. She had been brought

to Cos that Lurius might look upon her and, should he find her pleasing, be

proclaimed as his future companion of state. It was her body taht would serve to

link the two island Ubarates. Her veil was diaphanous, and I could see that she

was very beautiful, though she was also very young. Ubar of Cos, who, like a

great bag of meat, slouched swollen between the arms of his throne. Such, I

thought to myself, are the affairs of state. Chenbar of Kasra, Ubar of Tyros, on

the other hand, was a lean, large-eyed man, with nervous hands. I had little

doubt that he would be highly intelligent, and skilled with weapons. Tyros, I

told myself, has an efficient, and dangerous Ubar.

Lurius and Chenbar listened most patiently to my discourse.

When I had finished, Chenbar, with a look to Lurius, rose to his feet and said,

“Seize his ships.”

“I think you will find,” I said, “that my ships have already withdrawn from the

harbor of Telnus.”

Corpulent Lurius sprang to his feet, paunch swinging. He shook his fist at me.

“Tharlarion!” he cried. “Tharlarion of Port Kar!”

“I gather,” I said, smiling, “that our terms of peace are rejected.”

Lurius sputtered.

“Your surmise is correct,” said Chenbar, who had now sat again upon his throne.

“I shall then take my leave,” I said.

“I think not,” smiled Chenbar.

“Put him in chains!” screamed Lurius.

I regarded them. “I claim,” I said, “the immunity of the herald.”

“It is denied!” screamed Lurius, his wide, bloated face scarlet with rage.

I extended my wrists, to the sides, and felt manacles, with leashes, snapped on

them.

“You have been offered peace,” I told them.

“And we have refused it!” screamed Lurius.

I heard the laughter of the girl, Vivina, who seemed amused. Several of the

others in the court laughed as well.

Lurius settled himself, breathing heavily, again in his throne.

“Put him in a market chain,” said Lurius, “and sell him at the slaves’ wharf.”

The girl laughed.

“When,” snarled Lurius, “you find yourself chained in the rowing hold of a round

ship, you may, my fine captain of Port Kar, bethink yourself less brave and

clever than now you do.”

“We shall see,” said I, “Ubar.”

I felt a movement on the chains, and turned to leave the presence of the two

Ubars.

“Wait,” I heard. It was Chenbar, who had spoken.

I turned again to face the Ubars.

The hall was high about my head. Broad tiles lay beneath my feet.

“May I present,” asked Chenbar, indicating the veiled, robed girl sitting to one

side, “the Lady Vivina?”

“I do not wish to be presented to a tarks of Port Kar.” hissed the girl.

“Let us not forget our manners, my dear,” smiled Chenbar.

She rose to her feet, and, small gloved hand in the hand of Chenbar, descended

the steps of the dais on which sat the thrones of Lurius and Chenbar, and stood

before me.

“May I present, Captain,” said Chenbar, “the Lady Vivina?”

She dropped her head, and then lifted it.

“I am honored,” I said.

“Tharlarion,” she said.

The girl turned and was escorted, again by Chenbar, her gloved hand in his, to

her seat on the dais.

When she had regained her seat, I said, “You extraordinary beauty, High Lady,

which, forgive me, you veil but scarcely conceals, is indeed worthy of a Ubar of

Cos--”

Lurius grinned. The girl herself permitted herself the smallest of smiles.

“Or,” I added, “a collar in Port Kar.”

Lurius sprang to his feet, his fists clenched. The girl, eyes flashing, scarlet

beneath the white silken veil, too sprang to her feet. She pointed her finger at

me. “Slay him!” she cried.

I heard two swords leave their sheaths behind me.

But Chenbar laughed. He motioned the men behind me to resheath their weapons.

Lurius, furious, returned to his throne. The girl, enraged, took again her seat

on the dais.

“Doubtless, stripped,” I said, “you would be even more beautiful.”

“Slay him!” she hissed.

“No,” said Chenbar, smiling.

“I meant only,” I said, “that your beauty reminded me of that of a girls,

serving slaves, nude and double chained in the paga taverns of Port Kar. Many of

them are very beautiful.”

“Slay him! Slay him!” she begged.

“No, no,” smiled Chenbar.

“Do not speak of me as though I were a slave girl,” said the girl.

“Are you not?” I asked.

“The impudence!” she screamed.

I nodded my head toward Lurius, swollen in the chair of the Ubar of Cos.

“I own women,” I said, “who are more free than you.”

“Tharlarion!” she cried. “I will be Ubara!”

“I wish you happiness, High Lady,” I said, dropping my head.

She could not speak, so furious was she.

“Here,” I said, “you will be Ubara. In my house you would be Kettle Slave.”

“Slay him!” she screamed.

“Be silent,” said Chenbar.

The girl was silent.

“The Lady Vivina, as you doubtless know, is promised to Lurius, Ubar of Cos,:

said Chenbar.

“I did not know,” I said, “that the promise had be given.”

“Yes,” said Chenbar, “this morning I gave my word.”

Lurius grinned.

The girl looked at me with fury.

There was some polite striking of the left shoulder with the right hand in the

room, which is a common Gorean applause, though not of the warriors, who clash

weapons.

Chenbar smiled and lifted his hand, silencing the applause.

“This companionship,” said Chenbar, “will link our two Ubarates. Following the

ceremony of the companionship there will be a conjoining of our fleets, that we

may soon thereafter pay Port Kar a visit of state.”

“I see,” I said.

“Even now our fleets are being outfitted,” said Chenbar.

“When will the gathering take place?” I asked.

“In the neighborhood of the sixth passage hand,” he said.

“You are free with your information,” I said.

“Well,” said Chenbar, “we are all friends here.”

“Or slaves,” said the girl, looking pointedly at me.

“Or slaves,” I said, looking at her very directly.

Her eyes flashed over her veil.

“You have had dealings,” I asked, “with the Ubar Henrius Sevarius in Port Kar?”

Chenbar smiled. “We have dealt with his regent, Claudius,” said Chenbar.

“What of Henrius Sevarius himself?” I asked

“He is only a boy,” said Chenbar.

“But what of him?” I asked.

“He is a boy,” said Chenbar. “He has no power.”

“Whom do his men follow?” I asked.

“Claudius,” said Chenbar.

“I see,” I said.

“Mark well the name of Claudius, Captain,” said Chenbar, “for he is to become

Ubar of Port Kar.”

“As the agent of Cos and Tyros,” I said.

“Assuredly,” laughed Chenbar.

“As you may not know,” I said, “Claudius and the various forces of Henrius

Sevarius are scarcely in command of Port Kar.”

“Our information is better than you seem to understand,” smiled Chenbar. “Be

assured,” said he, “that we will free Claudius from his current predicaments.”

“You seem,” I said, “to be well aware of what transpires in Port Kar.”

“Yes,,” said Chenbar. “Perhaps you would care to meet our principal courier, he

who will, in time, lead our fleets to the harbor of Port Kar?”

“Yes,” I said, “I would.”

A man stepped from among a group of robed dignitaries, standing to one side of

the Ubars’ thrones. He had previously been standing in the shadows.