“You will answer my questions,” I told her, “promptly and exactly.” “Yes, Master,” she whispered.
“How many men do those of Tyros have?” I asked.
She trembled. Her knees moved in the sand. “I do not know exactly,” she wept. “Two hundred?” I conjectured.
“Yes,” she said, “at least two hundred.”
“The ship, the Tesephone, which was here,” I said, “was it taken, by a prize crew, downriver?” “Yes,” she said.
“Of how many men?” I asked.
“Fifty, I think,” she said.
The Tesephone had forty oars. That would have manned each oar. They had men to spare.
“What happened,” I asked, “to my men, and slaves?”
“The men,” she said, “ with the exception of one, whose head wore the swath of panther girls, were chained in the hold of the Tesephone. The women, the four slaves, and he who wore the swath of panther girls, were taken, with the majority of the men of Tyros, into the forest.” “What was the destination of the Tesephone?” I asked.
“Please do not make me speak!” she cried.
I began to unfasten the tether that bound her with the other girls. “Please!” she wept.
I tool her naked in my arms, unbound, and began to carry her into the river. “No!” she wept. “I will speak! I will speak!” I held her, standing behind her, by the arms. We stood in the river. The water was at my hips, and higher on her.
I saw a fin turn in the water and move towards us. The river shark, commonly, does not like to come into water this shallow, but it had been feeding, and it was aroused. It began to circle us. I kept the girl between us.
The girl screamed.
“What is the destination of the Tesephone?” I asked.
The circles were becoming smaller.
“Laura!” she screamed. “Laura!”
“And whither then? ”I asked.
The shark moved toward the girl, smoothly, flowing, liquid in its flawless menace. But its tail did not snap for the swift strike. It was belly down, dorsal fin upright. It thrust its snout against the girl’s thigh, and she screamed, and it turned away.
“It will join the Rhoda at Laura!” she screamed.
The shark moved in again, similarly, and bumped against her leg, and turned away.
The shark thrust twice against us again, once with its snout, another time with its tail and back.
“The next time, I expect,” I said, “It will make its strike.”
“Your ship and the Rhoda will go to Lydius and thence north to an exchange pint!” she cried, “have mercy on a slave!” she shrieked.
I saw the shark turn again, this time from some fifteen yards away. I saw it roll onto its back, its dorsal fin down.
“For what purpose do they proceed to the exchange point?” I asked.
“For slaves!” she cried.
“What slaves!” I cried, hold her by the arms. “Speak swiftly! It makes its strike!” “Marlenus of Ar, and his retinue!” she cried.
I threw the girl behind me, and, with the heel of my sandal, as the shark thrust towards us, with great force, stopped it.
It turned thrashing about in fury.
I took the girl by the hair and, holding her bent over, as one holds a female slave by the hair, waded up the beach.
Her entire body was trembling. She was shuddering, and moaning.
I threw her to the sand with the other girls, and again fastened her, with them, in throat coffle.
“Stand,” I told them. “Stand straight, heads high. Place your wrists behind your back.” I then picked up the slave silk they had worn and, under the throat tether of each, thrust the silk. Then, with the binding fiber I had earlier removed, I fastened their wrists behind their backs.
The Tesephone, most of my men aboard, chained in her hold, was to make rendezvous with the Rhoda at Laura. The two ships would then proceed to Lydius, and thence to an exchange point on the shore of Thassa, north of Lydius. The bulk of the attackers had proceeded through the forest, to surprise the camp of Marlenus. They had taken with them Rim and the four girls. They had doubtless taken Rim, knowing him from Laura as an officer of mine. My men would not have revealed to them who else might be officer. Thurnock, as a common seaman, was doubtless chained in the hold of the Tesephone. That might be desirable. My men there were thus provided with an officer. It is a reasonably common practice to separate officers and men, in order that prisoners have less unity and direction than might otherwise be the case. Rim had been taken northward because he was an officer. The girls had been taken northward because they were lovely. The trip to the exchange point through the forests would be long. Rim, Grenna, Sheera, Tina and Cara were thus with the attacking force. The others, including Thurnock, had been incarcerated in the hold of the Tesephone I stood on the beach, and looked at the ruins of my camp. I saw the long mark in the sand, where the keel of the Tesephone had been dragged down to the water. I, Bosk of Port Kar, was not pleased.
There were some fifty men of Tyros, as a prize crew, with the Tesephone. The crew of the Rhoda herself, though I expected not all of her oars would now be manned, would have been somewhere in the neighbor hood of a hundred. The slave girl whom I had questioned on these matters had conjectured that the attacking force had numbered in the neighborhood of two hundred men. I suspected that some one hundred and fifty, or more, men were now moving towards the camp if Marlenus. They had left eleven men behind at my camp, to pick up any of my men who, unknowingly, might return to the camp. They had not expected any, really, apparently, for their security had been poor. It had cost them. These eleven men I did not leave behind me. It is a Tuchuk custom, not to leave an enemy behind one.
I regarded the slave girls, standing in the sand, in coffle, their wrists behind their backs, bound. They stood very still. They stood very straight. Their heads were very high. I had commanded them to stand so.
I regarded the silks, thrust through the tethers on their necks.
I walked about them. They were beautiful.
“You were party,” I told them, “ to a plot, in which my camp fell and my men, and certain slaves, were taken. I am not pleased. You were instrumental in the success of the plans of my enemies. Without you, their plans could not have been successful.” “Have mercy on us, Master,” whispered one of the girls.
“Posture,” I snapped.
The girls stood perfectly.
“How many of you,” I asked, “are forest girls?”
“We are of the cities,” said the redhead.
I went to her and put my hand at her wrist. “The sleen,” I said, “has sharp fangs.” “Do not take us into the forest!’ begged one.
“You will be taken into the forest,” I told them. “If you do precisely as I say, you may possibly survive. If you do not do precisely as I say, you will not survive.” “We will be obedient,” said the first girl.
I smiled. I might be able to use these slaves.
I took the second girl by the hair. “When did the men of Tyros leave for the camp of Marlenus?” I asked.
“Yesterday morning,” she said.
I thought it might be so, from the crumbling of the sand beside the keel track of the Tesephone. I could not then, in all probability, arrive at the camp of Marlenus in time to warn him. I had not expected to be able to do so. Yes Marlenus kept guards posted. He was a shrewd huntsman, and a great Ubar and warrior. Further, he had some one hundred men with him. It puzzled me, somewhat, that the men of Tyros had dared to approach the camp, with only some one hundred and fifty men. The men of Marlenus are, usually, exceptional in intelligence and the use of weapons. This would be particularly so in the case of a picked retinues. The warriors of Ar were among the best on Gor. The warriors and huntsmen of Marlenus retinue, picked men, each of them, would doubtless constitute an incredibly dangerous set of foes.
I wondered if Marlenus required warning, even had I the chance to deliver it. Even granting the men f Tyros the element of surprise and a superiority in number of some fifty or sixty men, their enterprise was not without considerable hazard.