"Are there any other survivors?" I asked.
"I do not know," he said.
"There are others," I said, looking over the road.
"Yes," he said.
Free women had come to the road. They were now poking through the wreckage and ashes, moving bodies about, hunting for loot, or food. I did not think there would be much left for them.
The smell of smoke hung heavy in the still air.
"When did this happen?" I asked.
"An Ahn, perhaps two Ahn ago," he said. "I do not know."
He sat wearily beside the road, his head in his hands.
"It was more likely two Ahn," I said. "Their work here has been finished." "There are only the women now," he said, bitterly.
"Yes," I said. "Now there are only the women."
I looked about myself. Had the terrain been properly scouted, had the wagons been properly guarded, this thing presumably could not have happened, or, surely, not in as devastating a fashion as this.
"Ar has struck," said Hurtha, grimly.
"I do not think this is the work of the troops of Ar," I said.
"But who else?" he asked.
"I do not know," I said.
"But what troops?" he asked.
"This does not look to me like the work of regular troops," I said. "Consider the wagons, the bodies."
The wagons had not merely been burned, that their cargoes might be destroyed, but, clearly, had been ransacked. Wrappings, sackings and broken vessels lay strewn about. Several bodies, it seemed, had been hastily examined. Some had been stripped of articles of clothing. I had found none with their wallets intact. In some cases digits had been cut away, presumably to free rings.
"Mercenaries," said Hurtha.
"It would seem so," I said. It is difficult to control such men. Most commanders, in certain situations, will give them their head. Indeed, in certain circumstances the attempt to impose discipline upon them can be extremely dangerous. It is something like informing the hunting sleen, eager, hot from the chase, his jaws red with blood, that he should now relinquish his kill. It must be understood, of course, that the average mercenary looks upon loot as his perquisite. He regards it, so to speak, as a part of his pay. Indeed, the promise of loot is almost always one of the recruiter's major inducements. "Cosian mercenaries?" asked Hurtha.
"Who knows?" I said. It did not seem to me impossible that some of the mercenary troops with the Cosian army might have doubled back to strike at one of their own supply columns. Surely the paucity of protection provided for such columns would not have escaped their notice.
I looked at the women, poking about amidst the wreckage. It had not taken them long to arrive. I could see some others, too, coming just now, from between the hills. Perhaps they had camps nearby. The wagons were in a long line, about a pasang long, Some, too, were off the road. Some were overturned. Most showed signs of fire. There were few tharlarion in evidence. Harnesses had been cut and they, it seems, had either been driven away or had wandered off. In one place there was a dead tharlarion, and the women, some crouching on it, were cutting it into pieces with knives, putting pieces of meat into their mouths, and hiding other pieces in their dresses.
"Jards," said Hurtha, in disgust.
I shrugged. These women were of the peasants. They were not given to the niceties of civilized women. Too, they were doubtless starving.
"Jards" said Hurtha.
"Even the jard desires to live," I said.
"It is not unknown that such women come to the fields," he said, "and even when not hungry."
"That is true," I said. Perhaps all women belonged in collars.
"We could probably follow the raiders," he said.
"Probably," I said. The trail was doubtless still fresh enough to permit this. One man, who knows what he is doing, can be extremely difficult to follow. It is extremely difficult, on the other hand, for a large group of men to cover their traces.
"Shall we do so?" asked Hurtha.
"Do you really wish to catch up with them?" I asked.
"I suppose not," he said.
"It is not our business," I said. "It is the business of those of Cos." Hurtha nodded.
"Perhaps you should signal Mincon," I said.
Hurtha walked back to the top of the small rise in the road. From there he could look back to where we had left the wagon. I saw him standing there, on the crest. He lifted his ax and beckoned that the others might now join us.
"Are you all right?" I asked the fellow by the side of the road.
"Yes," he said.
"Are you not hurt?" I asked. "I hid," he said. "I think no one saw me. I am sick. That is all. I am all right."
"We have a wagon," I told him. "You are welcome to ride with us to the next camp."
"Thank you," he said.
"You do not know who did this?" I asked.
"No," he said.
I saw the head of Mincon's tharlarion come over the rise, moving about, on its long neck, scanning the road, and then, in a moment, the wagon. I advanced to meet it.
Boabissia sat white-faced on the wagon box. I recalled that she was not Alar by blood. Her makeshift gag still hung about her neck. "It is not necessary to look," I told her.
"What went on here?" asked Mincon. "Those of Ar?"
"We do not know," said Hurtha.
Feiqa looked sick. Even Tula, of the peasants, was pale.
"Slaves," I said, "lie on your bellies in the wagon." This would bring their heads below the sides of the wagon.
Boabissia looked at me.
"There is nothing we can do," I said.
She nodded.
"Are you all right?" I asked.
"If we had left this morning, with the others," she whispered, "we would have been here."
"Yes, I said. "But we might have survived. Doubtless some have survived. There are usually survivors. Even now word has probably been brought to the contingents ahead on the road."
"We would have been here," she said.
"That is true," I said.
I then went to the fellow whom we had found by the road and helped him to his feet.
"I would like for this fellow to sit on the wagon box, Boabissia," I said. "Please sit in the back."
Boabissia, saying nothing, crawled into the back of the wagon. She sat with her back against one side of the wagon bed. She said nothing. I helped the fellow up to the wagon box. He was unsteady. I think he was in shock. I put a blanket about him.
"Shall we go?" asked Mincon.
"Yes," I said.
We then began to thread our way among the burned wagons. Free women, now and then, as we passed, stopped to look up, and watch us. Twice Mincon, in rage, cracked his whip at them, and they fled back. But in a moment, as I ascertained, looking back, they had returned to their labors.
9 Torcodino
"Riders," said Mincon.
Hurtha and I, on foot beside the wagon, could not yet see them.
"It will be more Cosian cavalry," said Hurtha.
I thought this was probably true. Raiders would not be likely to move so openly. Nonetheless, I loosened the blade in my sheath. Too, several contingents of cavalry had swept by us earlier in the evening.
Boabissia, now again on the wagon box, beside Mincon, looked down at Hurtha, frightened. He did not notice this, however. He was looking ahead, gripping his ax.
"Get under the blanket," I said to Feiqa and Tula.
The wagons in our line slowed, and then stopped. A guard, nearby, on his tharlarion, stood in the stirrups.
"Who are they?" I asked Mincon.
"Cosian cavalry, I think," he said.
We heard trumpet calls ahead of us. These calls, like passwords, are frequently changed.
"Yes," said Mincon. "It seems they have the signs."
We were now two days past the scene of the massacre. Last night we had drawn into our assigned wagon space in a fortified camp. It was the first in this march the Cosians had prepared, as far as I knew. Such camps, of course, are common with Gorean armed forces, set at march intervals. They are usually constructed rather along the following lines. A surrounding ditch, or perimeter ditch, is dug about the campsite. The earth from this ditch is piled behind the ditch, thus forming, with the ditch, a primitive wall. Sometimes, materials permitting, a palisade is erected at the height of this wall. More commonly, in temporary camps, it may be surmounted with brush or archer's hurdles. The tents of commanders are usually placed on high ground near the center of the camp. This facilitates observation, defense and communication. I stood on the wheel of the wagon, my left foot on one of the spokes. "Yes," I said. "I think so." Hurtha was close to the side of the wagon. In a moment he would go behind it, or press himself against its side. I could now see the approaching riders. Too, once could no hear clearly the drumming of the approaching beasts. The force approaching us, it seemed, wore the blue of Cos on their lances. In a moment they would be sweeping past us, divided by the wagons like a stream in flight. I looked back into the wagon. Feiqa and Tula were on the floor of the wagon bed, their soft bodies on coarse sacking, which would leave its temporary print in their flesh, affording them some protection from the harsh planks of the wagon bed. They lay between sacks of grain, not moving, scarcely daring to breathe. They had drawn the dark blanked drawn over them. It would not do, I did not think, to display such goods to strong men. The female slave, sometimes considered nothing, supposedly, is yet in actuality valued commonly more highly than even gold, which, in its turn, is often valued for its capacity to buy such women, to bring them into your chains.