Guardsman of Gor

by John Norman

  "Why did you not speak to me?" asked Callimachus.

  "The burdens of command were much upon you," I said. "Little would have been served by my burdening you with cruel and unproven conjectures."

  "You were wise," said Callimachus, sadly. "Doubtless I would not even have considered them."

  "Nor would I, doubtless, in your place," I said. "But now, incontrovertibly, the proof kneels before you."

  "What were done with the ships of Port Cos, your fleet?" asked Callimachus of Callisthenes.

  "They are safe," said he. "I withdrew them to Port Cos, on the pretext of fending a threatened attack on the town. On the ruse of undertaking a mission of reconnaissance I then joined the fleet of the Voskjard."

  "Where is the Voskjard?" asked Callimachus.

  "He is journeying east on the river, in his black ship, Spined Tharlarion, to rendezvous with Policrates here, and then to take command of their joint forces in the control of the river."

  "Captain," said an officer, coming up to report to Callimachus, "in the marshes the battle is done. Fifteen pirate ships have been destroyed. Many pirates have been killed or captured. Some twelve to fifteen ships escaped. Too, other pirates have fled into the marshes."

  "Victory is yours," I told Callimachus.

  "Had we ampler forces," said Callimachus, "our victory might have been more complete."

  "Do not rise to your feet," I said, warningly, to Callisthenes.

  He looked up, at Callimachus. He smiled. "Do not forget that we are friends, Callimachus," said he. "The affection that I bear to you remains unchanged. As children we played together in Port Cos. We have been brother officers."

  "You are crying," I said to Callimachus.

  "It is the wind," he said. Then he said to the officer nearby, indicating Callisthenes, "Put him in chains."

  We watched Callisthenes being led away, between two soldiers, the officer following.

  "Would you rather that the traitor had been the slave, Peggy?" I asked.

  "No," he said.

  I thought that an interesting response on the part of Callimachus. I had, however, little time to ponder it.

  "The fleet of Policrates!" we heard, from the height of the wall. "The fleet of Policrates is at the mouth of the channel!"

  "Bring our forces, and their prisoners, within the holding!" called Callimachus.

  "Policrates cannot retake the holding," I said. "We would hold it against ten thousand men!"

  I followed Callimachus up the stairs to the height of the wall. There was no possibility of our tricking Policrates, of course, as we had Alcibron and Reginald, and the others. Escaped pirates would only too quickly inform him of what had occurred. Too, smoke from burning ships, from the sea yard, and in the channel, climbed skyward.

  Callimachus and I, on the wall, regarded the fleet of Policrates at the mouth of the channel. He had returned from his work on the eastern river. He had returned for his rendezvous with the Voskjard.

  "We have nothing to fear from Policrates," I said.

  "You do not know Policrates," he said.

  13

  Callimachus and I are Passengers Aboard the Flagship of Policrates;

  Policrates will Venture to Victoria

  My arms were taken far behind me. The ropes on my wrists were tight.

  "Secure him well," said Policrates.

  I winced, my back arched over the port shearing blade of Policrates' flagship. Involuntarily I cried out with pain. Then the ropes were drawn even tighter. My legs were then drawn back, ropes tight on my ankles. Ropes were adjusted. Lying as I was, bound upon the blade, looking to my right, I could see the port rail of Policrates' flagship. I put my head back. I could see blue sky and clouds. I could not see ahead. On the other side of the ship, similarly secured, fastened to the starboard shearing blade, as I understood it, was Callimachus.

  The ultimatum of Policrates had been clear. Callimachus and I must be surrendered to him, Callisthenes, Reginald and Kliomenes must be freed, else Victoria would be subjected to fire and the sword. Defenseless Victoria, we had vowed, must not perish. We had, against the protestations of Miles of Vonda, whom we left in command of the fortress, surrendered ourselves.

  "Put about!" I heard Policrates call to his helmsmen. I felt my body move with the blade, as the ship came about in the channel.

  "Though you cannot see ahead, surely you can hear," said a voice at the port rail.

  I looked upward and to the right. There, at the rail, stood Policrates.

  "It is my hope," said he, "that we shall have an engagement."

  "Whither are you bound, Captain?" I asked.

  "Victoria," he said.

  Momentarily, in rage, I struggled. Then I felt blood running at the blade. In frustration, moaning, I ceased struggling.

  I heard him laugh. Then he turned away from the rail.

  In misery, in fury, I lay bound, not moving, over the blade. I felt the steel, hard and narrow, in my back. The ropes were tight. I felt the motion of the ship. I saw the blue sky and clouds. I was absolutely helpless.

  14

  Ragnar Voskjard Meets Policrates;

  Ragnar Voskjard Learns that He is not First on the River

  Bound over the great, curved shearing blade I could see little but the sky. But I heard another ship nearby.

  "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 within 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, numbering 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 scratch!" 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 ambushed!" 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 another. 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 agreement!" 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.

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

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

  15

  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 point of Policrates' 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 well-knotted. 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.

  16

  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 tha
t 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 hail 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 helmet open of another pirate. Still more citizens were running forth, from buildings, from further down the wharves, with spears and swords.