"I suspect," he said, "that you were heading toward Ar."
"I have business in Ar," I said.
"Do you know the delta of the Vosk?" he asked.
"I once traversed it," I said.
"Tell me about it," he said.
"It is treacherous, and trackless," I said. "It covers thousands of square pasangs. It is infested with insects, snakes and tharlarion. Marsh sharks even swim among its reeds. In it there is little solid ground. Its waters are usually shallow, seldom rising above the chest of a tall man. The footing is unreliable. There is much quicksand. It protects Port Kar from the east. Few but rencers can find their way about in it. Too, for most practical purposes, they keep it closed to traffic and trade."
"That, too is my impression." He said.
"Why do you ask?" I asked.
"Do you understand much of military matters?" he asked.
"A little," I said.
"Do you know who I am?" he asked.
"I think so," I said.
"Do you know why I have brought you here?" he asked.
"No," I said.
"Why do you think Torcadino has been taken?" he asked.
"To stall the invasion," I said. "To give Ar time to arm. It is a powerful and decisive stroke. Torcadino is Cos's major depot for supplies and siege equipment. You have now seized these things. They are now yours. You may remain indefinitely in Torcadino with these vast quantities of supplies. Too, though you will be doubtless invested. Cos now lacks the equipment to dislodge you. Similarly, because of their new shortage of supplies, they will have to withdraw many of their troops from this area. Presumably they will also have to be divided, marched into diverse areas to facilitate the acquisition of new supplies. You have thus scattered and disrupted your enemy. Too, I suspect your ejection of the civilian population from Torcadino is not merely political, to appear to show concern, generosity, and mercy, not merely expedient, to remove them from the city, thus conserving supplies and removing possible Cosian sympathizer from behind your back, but to increase the intensity of Cos's supply problems."
"Very good," he said.
"Cos will not dare let these refugees starve," I said, "as they are citizens if a city which had declared for them, which had gone over to them. If they did not care for them, this would be a dark lesson, and one favoring Ar, to every wavering or uncommitted village, town and city within a dozen horizons." "Quite," he agreed.
"What was done with the garrison of Torcadino?" I asked.
"Most were surprised in their beds," he said. "Their weapons were seized. Resistance was useless. We then expelled them, disarmed, from the city." "So that they, too, like the civilians, would aggravate the problems of Cos." "Yes," he said.
"Did you march them beneath a yoke?" I asked. This is usually formed of three spears, two upright and the third bound horizontally across the first two. The prisoners are then usually marched in a long line, two abreast, between the uprights. They cannot pass under the horizontal spear, a weapon of their enemy, without lowering their heads and bending their backs. Some warriors choose to die rather than do this. A similar yoke is sometimes used for the captive women of a city, but it is set much lower, usually such that they must pass under it on their belly. After all, they are not men; they are women. Too, it is usually formed not of spears but of brooms, brought from the conquering city, and the horizontal bar is hung with dangling slave beads. In this, although the original meanings are perhaps lost in antiquity, most commentators see symbolized the servility and sensuousness which, as they are to be slaves, is henceforth, upon pain of death to be required of them. It is an impressive sight to see the women of a captive city, single file, stripped and on their bellies, in a long line winding through the streets and across the piazza, moving between soldiers with whips, crawling toward the yoke. As they crawl beneath it, the slave beads touch their back. On the other side of the yoke, while they are still on their bellies, they generally feel a collar locked on their neck. It is one of many, and it, like the others, has been attached in its turn, and at its interval, to a long chain. They are now in coffle. They will probably not be removed from this coffle until, in one way or another, they have been sold. "No," said the fellow with me.
I nodded.
"They are good fellows," he said. "Too, perhaps one day some of them will bear arms in my company."
"I understand," I said.
He turned about and looked through the window. We could see the walls of Torcadino from the window and one of the aqueducts. He then turned about and faced me, again. "You did not try to kill me," he commented.
"Another test?" I asked.
"Yes," he said.
"I thought so," I said. "Else you would not have been likely to turn your back on an unknown stranger."
"True," he smiled.
"I considered it," I said.
"It would have been difficult to cross the table," he said. "Too, it would be difficult, in the time I gave you, to pick up the knife, or sword, without rustling papers."
"Also you were anticipating the possibility of an attack," I said. "It is difficult to move surreptitiously on a person under such circumstances. Also the female here, at the side of the desk, would presumably have moved, or gasped or cried out."
"Would you have cried out, Lady Cara?" he asked.
"Yes!" she said.
"In spite of all I have done to you?" he asked.
"Because of what you have done to me!" she wept. "I would die for you!" "Why?" he asked.
"A slave girl owes all to her master, her passion, her being, her life, everything. It is yours, my Master!"
"Belly," said he to her, and she lay then on her belly, beside the desk, in her chains.
"But I did not think you would attack me," he said to me. "You are too rational, I think. Too, you would have, at least now, no adequate motivation for such an attack. Also, you suspect, or are not sure, but what we may share certain common objectives."
"There are other reasons, too," I said. "For one, even if I succeeded in such an attack, I would not be likely to escape from the Semnium alive."
"The window is a possibility," he said.
"Yes," I said.
"But you had not examined it for ledges, and such," he said.
"No," I said.
"There is no extended ledge," he said.
I nodded.
"You said there were "reasons, " he said.
"Another would be," I said, "my respect for you, as a commander, as a soldier." "In many men," he said, "emotion functions to the detriment of policy. Perhaps it is so with you."
"Perhaps, sometimes," I said.
"I shall remember that about you, he said. "I may be able to use it sometime." "Your entrance through the aqueducts, and using both, rather than one, as an insurance attack, was brilliant," I said.