by John Norman
"He is dead," said a man.
The body hung limp, save for tremors, contractions, the wild stare in the eyes.
"He is not dead!" cried another fellow.
"Kill him!" begged another.
"I cannot reach him!" cried a fellow with a sword, standing unsteadily, almost falling, in one of the light rence craft.
"No, he is dead," said another. The man was dead.
The creature then submerged, and turning, struck against one of the barges, lifting it up a yard, from the water, then was under it, the barge sliding off its back, half turned, and was moving away, under water, through the reeds.
A fellow cried out near me. The narrow snout of a fishlike tharlarion thrust up from the water, inches away. Another fellow pushed at it with his paddle. It disappeared under the bound rence.
"Unbind me!" I begged. I was utterly helpless.
"Be silent, spy!" snarled a man.
My knees were wet, from water come up between the bound, shaped bundles of tubular rence.
"Reform!" called an officer, a few yards away. "Reform! Forward!" He was in the bow of a small fishing craft. Men moved it with poles.
"Turn back!" I called to him. "Can you not understand what has been done to you?"
He paid me no attention.
"Forward!" he cried. "Pursue the sleen of Cos! They shall not escape!"
"Help!" we heard, from our left. One of the scows was settling in the water, foundering.
"Break the wood!" cried a fellow. "Form a raft!" Men were in the water, some swimming, Some wading, chest deep.
"Take us aboard!" called men.
Some were assisted to other craft, some of these now dangerously low in the water.
"Forward!" called the officer. "Hurry! They cannot be far ahead now."
"The reeds are broken in two places," said a man.
"We shall divide our forces," said the officer. Another contingent of men was behind us. He could hear their shouts, now.
I squirmed in my bonds.
Saphronicus and Seremides had now had their revenge, I thought. Once, long ago, they had been lieutenants of Cernus of Ar, my enemy, whose machinations, and political and economic manipulations, had been successful in bringing down Minus Tentius Hinrabius from the throne of Ar. Later Cernus himself, though only of the Merchants, ascended the throne. He was later deposed by the popular Marlenus of Ar who, having returned to the city, was backed by the populace. Cernus had been killed by a kur, a beast not native to Gor. Saphronicus and Seremides, as traitors, had been put in chains and sold to the galleys whence, I gathered, they had been rescued by some who perhaps might find use for men such as they. Saphronicus had been the former captain of the Taurentians, the palace guard in Ar. Seremides had been leader of the forces of Ar. I had heard, of course, that a man named Seremides was now high general in Ar, but I had not supposed that this might be the Seremides of the time of Cernus. On Gor, as elsewhere, there are many common names. Many are named "Tarl," for example, particularly in Torvaldsland, and, generally, in the northern latitudes of Gor. The Seremides of the time of Cernus had even been by birth of Tyros. It seemed incredible, then, that such a fellow could have risen again in the services of Ar, except in the absence of Marlenus, and abetted by conspirators. That this was indeed the same Seremides had been made clear to me, however, by an amused Saphronicus himself, in a midnight interview in his tent. I had been knelt naked and bound before him. This also explained, of course, the matter of the betraying message which I had unwittingly carried at great risk to Ar's Station on behalf of Gnieus Lelius, regent in An, that message which had identified me as a Cosian spy. I had not seen Saphronicus in Ar, of course. I did not know if Gnieus Lelius was involved in the treason now rampant in Ar or not. I did know, from deciphered documents seized in Brundisium, the name of at least one of the traitors. It was a female. Her name was Talena, and she had once been, until disowned, the daughter of Marlenus of Ar. Her fortunes, I gathered, were now on the rise in Ar. She had been restored to citizenship and some spoke of her, though in hushed voices, as a possible Ubara.
"Are you going to kill me now?" I had asked Saphronicus.
"No," he had laughed. "I am going to send you to the delta."
5 The Ul
"I would speak with your officer," I said to the soldier.
"I have again conveyed your request to him," said the fellow. "Now be silent."
I lay back in the ropes, on the sand.
I gritted my teeth against the insects crawling on my body. I turned, 1 shifted my position. I could not much use my hands to protect myself. 1 wanted to cry out in misery. 1 wondered if such torment could drive a man insane. I was silent. I lay then again on my back, looking up. I could see stars, two of the three moons. I heard a fellow a few feet away cry out in pain, and slap at his body. There were many men about. The delta is treacherous, and difficult to navigate. Its channels change almost overnight. There is often very little visibility in it, for more than a few feet ahead, for the rence. Its sluggish, muddy waters vary from channels deep enough to float a round ship, to washes of a few inches deep. Its average depth, at this time of year, after the spring thaws upriver, is three to five feet. There are many sand bars in it. On one such bar I and some fifty or sixty men now camped. Their small craft were drawn up about the bar. In the first night, ten nights ago, several of these had been lost. The number and configuration of the sand bars, in virtue of the currents, is subject to frequent rearrangements, their materials being often swept away and redistributed. After that first night, the small craft had been tied together, some of the ropes fastened ashore, to stakes. My bound ankles were fastened by a short rope to one of these stakes, my neck, by a rope, to another.
"Fellow," I called.
The soldier looked over at me.
"Am I the only prisoner in the delta?" I asked.
"I do not know," he said.
Marcus and I had been kept separate even from the time of our capture. I had, however, known his location at least, until we had arrived, after several days, in the temporary camp of Ar, then west of Holmesk. We were then put apart, I caged, and he taken somewhere else. I assumed he had been taken to see Saphronicus, or at least conducted into the presence of appropriate officers, this in accord with the expressed intentions of our captor, the leader of the patrol encountered near Teslit.
"I was brought to the camp of Ar," I said, "with my fellow, a lad from Ar's Station."
"Your officer?" he asked.
"My fellow," I said.
"Spies, both of you," said he, grimly.
"What became of him?" I asked.
"What do you suppose became of him?" he asked.
"I do not know," I said.
"He was a spy," said the fellow.
"Do you know what became of him?" I asked.
"I suppose he was castrated, tortured and impaled," said the fellow.
"He was of Ar's Station," I said, "colony to Ar, and of ancient and honorable family."
"Of high family?" he asked.
"Of the Marcelliani," I said.
"Perhaps, then," said he, "he was merely scourged and beheaded."
"Is that known to you?" I asked.
"No," he said.
"You do not know where he is, then," I said.
"No," he said.
"I have been brought to the delta," I said. "Why?"
"That you may see the unavailingness of your lies," he said, "that you may see us close with the sleen of Cos, that you may see the slaughter of your friends, your paymasters, that you may see wreaked upon them the vengeance of the state of Ar! Glory to Ar!"
"Glory to Ar," repeated a nearby fellow. The low, spreading, sloping mound of sand, that bar in the delta, was crowded.
"How many Cosians have you taken?" I asked.
"We will soon close with them," he said, angrily. "Yes," said another fellow, listening.
"Tomorrow, maybe tomorrow," said another.
"Yes, maybe tomorrow!" said t
he fellow near me.
"Sleep now," said one of the fellows in the vicinity. The men were then silent.
I lay there for a time, looking up at the sky. I once saw, outlined against one of the moons, membranous, clawed wings outspread, the soaring shape of the giant, predatory ul, the dreaded winged tharlarion of the delta. It is, normally, the only creature that dares to outline itself against the sky in the area. I tried not to feel the tiny feet on my body. Toward morning, somehow, I fell asleep.
6 Forward
One of the men behind me, with the paddle, cursed. Our knees were in water.
The bow of the rence craft, still dry, nosed through reeds. Other craft, too, were about.
"Surely we must be upon the sleen of Cos by now!" wept a man.
"Hold!" called a voice, ahead.
A gant suddenly fluttered out of the reeds, darting up, then again down, away.
"There is a body here, in the water," said a fellow ahead, to the left, on a narrow raft.
"A Cosian?" asked a man, in a rence craft nearby.
"No," said the man.
We approached. The officer's boat, too, the fishing craft, propelled by poles, approached, he and others, as well.
In the marsh water, half submerged, its face down, floated a body.
"It is one of our fellows," said a man.
"Cosians did this," exclaimed a man.
"It is unlikely," I said.
"Who then?" asked a fellow.
"Consider the wounds," I said. There were three of them, in the back.
"He was struck three times," said a fellow.
"No, once," I said.
"There are three wounds," said the man.
"Consider them," I said, "the rectlinear alignment, their spacing.
"A trident," said a man.
"Yes," I said. "The three-pronged fish spear."
"That is not a weapon," said a man.
"It may be used as such, obviously," I said.
"And in the arena, it is," said a fellow. He referred to one of the armaments well known in the arena, that of the "fisherman," he who fights with net and trident. There are a number of such armaments, usually bearing traces of their origin.
"Surely here, in the delta, there are no arena fighters," said a man.
The body was pulled up, onto the raft.
"But it is by means of such weapons," I said, "that fishermen often fight. Indeed, it is from that practice, improved and refined, and made more deadly, that arena fighters have taken their example."
"Rencers?" asked the officer, of me.
"Undoubtedly," I said. Rencers live in the delta. They inhabit rence islands, huge floating rafts of woven rence. As the rence rots at the bottom, it is replaced, more rence being added to the surface. The sand bars, as I have suggested, are unsuitable for permanent locations. And, indeed, the rence islands, inhabited by the rencers, as they float, are movable. An entire village thus, on its island, may be shifted at will. Needless to say, this mobility can be very useful to the rencers, enabling them, for example, to seek new fishing grounds and harvest fresh stands of rence, their major trading commodity, used for various purposes, such as the manufacture of cloth and paper. It is also useful, of course, in withdrawing from occasional concentrations of tharlarion and avoiding undesired human contacts. The location of such villages is usually secret. Trade contacts are made by the rencers themselves, at their election, at established points. Such villages, given their nature, may even be difficult to detect from the air.
"Do you think there are any about?" asked the officer.
"I do not know," I said. "There might be. There might not be."
"They could be anywhere in the rence," said a fellow, uneasily.
"True," I said. To be sure, I doubted that there were any in the vicinity. Troops of Ar, in their numerous craft, some men even wading, were all about.
"Why would they have struck this fellow?" asked a man. "Who knows?" I asked. Actually I had a very good idea what might have been the case.
"Consign the body to the delta," said the-officer. The body was rolled from the raft, into the water. "Forward," said the officer.
7 Glory to Ar
"There!" cried a fellow. "The rence is broken there!"
There was a cheer from the several craft about us. This cheer was echoed, from flotilla to flotilla, of the small craft behind us, as well as to the sides.
"They cannot be far ahead now!" cried a man.
Eagerly the men of Ar then pressed through the break in the rence.
Those behind, in their numbers, for pasangs back, may have thought the enemy himself had been sighted.
By late afternoon, however, nothing more had been seen.
"I am hungry," said a man.
The fin of a marsh shark cut the water nearby. Men thrust it away with the butts of their spears.
A wading fellow discarded his shield. He could perhaps no longer bear its weight. He held to his spear, his eyes closed, using it like a pole, to keep his balance in the soft bottom.
"Are such sharks dangerous?" asked a fellow.
"Yes," I said. The common Gorean shark is nine-gilled. There are many varieties of such shark, some of which, like the marsh shark and the sharks of the Vosk and Laurius, are adapted to fresh water. In the recent conflicts at Ar's Station, blood had carried for hundreds of pasangs downriver, even to the gulf. This had lured many open-water sharks into the delta and eastward. Hundreds of these had perished. Their bodies could still be found along the shores of the Vosk.
I saw a fellow bend down from one of the small craft and lift water to his mouth, and drink. This, like the fin of the marsh shark, earlier, told me we were still far from the gulf. It was perhaps as much as four or five hundred pasangs away. I wondered if these men of Ar knew how fortunate they were. At this point in the delta, east of the tidal marshes, the water was still drinkable.
"Al!" cried the fellow behind me, with the paddle. More water swirled up through the rence of our small craft. The water was now over our calves. I did not think the small craft would last another day. Normally a rence craft will last weeks, even months. Ours had begun to deteriorate in days. I did not think this was inexplicable. About us, too, many men were already wading, some clinging to the sides of rafts and small boats.
"Glory to Ar!" cried a fellow.
"Glory to Ar!" called others.
8 The Pursuit has Continued
"I would speak with your officer," I said to the fellow, he tethering my ankles to a stake.
"I have spoken to him," said he. "Such permission has not been granted."
I was then thrust back to the sand. Another fellow then put the rope on my neck, that I might be again affixed, bound, between two stakes.
"You know something of the delta, do you not?" asked the fellow who had tethered my ankles, standing near me, looking down at me.
"Something of it," I said. I had once come to Port Kar through the delta.
"Where are we?" he asked.
"Only a rencer would know, if he," I said.
"We are well within the delta," he said.
"Yes," I said, "two or three hundred pasangs." "Further," said he.
"Perhaps," I said. That could be true.
"Where are your fellows, the Cosian sleen!" he suddenly cried.
I was silent.
"Do not expect to be fed," he snarled.
"There is little enough to feed anyone," said a fellow, wearily, nearby.
The delta, of course, is teeming with wildlife. To be sure, the men of Ar, in their numbers, in their haste, with the relentlessness of their pursuit, only lately slowed, had not been in a position to take advantage of it. Too, the disturbance of their passage, given the noise, the splashing and such, had doubtless driven much of the normal game, particularly birds and fish, from the area.
"He is to be kept alive," said one of the men.
"Very well," said the first fellow. "I am sure we can find him something to eat, something delicious, so
mething fit for a spy." He looked down at me, in hate. He fingered the hilt of the dagger at his belt. "But not tonight," he said.
He turned away from me.
"How could we not have yet closed with the sleen of Cos?" asked a fellow."
"In the delta, one could hide a dozen armies," said another. "Surely we would see some signs of them," said another fellow.
"Yes," said another. "How is it that we have seen no signs of them?"
"We have seen signs of them," growled another.
"Yes," said another.
I doubted that this was true.
9 The Barge
"Move ahead," said the fellow in the bow of the small rence craft.
I struggled forward, pressing against the water, up to my chest, stumbling, pushing through rence, the rope on my neck going back to the small craft. My hands were now manacled behind me. For the purpose of comfort, I much preferred this to rope. That thoughtfulness had not been, of course, the motivation of my captors. Rather they wished, now that my hands were not in view, to be assured as to my continued helplessness. Perhaps rope might be worked free, or slipped, somehow, unseen, beneath the surface. The metal, on the other hand, would hold me well. I did not object. I, too, were our positions reversed, would presumably have taken similar precautions. I did not know who held the key.
My head went briefly under the water, and then, coughing, I struggled again to the surface. There are many such irregularities in the bottom. Rence cut at my face. I spit water.
"Move! Pull!" I heard behind me.
I turned my head to the side, that the rope would draw against the side of my neck. I struggled to tow the small craft. It was hard to paddle now, being heavy, the rence soaked with water. I had been put before it, the rope on my neck, this morning, wading, that it need not bear my weight. In this fashion it might last another day or two.
"Hurry, pull, lazy sleen!" I heard. The bow of the craft came beside my shoulder, the rope dropping back in the water. The fellow there thrust out, striking me in the back with the paddle. I stumbled. I regained my balance. I then struggled ahead again, through the rence.