We saw a shark reach up to the landing, near the walkway, and drag a body, by the leg, back into the water.
"Go back, and tell Aemilianus that the evacuation is complete. He will know what to do.
The man beside me shuddered. It was no accident I had stopped where I had. From this point effective quarrel fire could not be directed to the piers.
"We will stay with you," said the young man with the crossbow, now beside me. His fellow, the other young fellow from the wall, the one with the shield, who had protected him in the fighting, was at his side.
"No," I said.
"Is that an order, Captain?" he asked.
"Yes," I said. "Obey it."
He and his fellows hesitated a moment, then turned, and went toward the piers. "The rest of you," I said, "withdraw now."
"You cannot hold the walkway alone," said a grizzled fellow.
"Go," I said. I would not order, nor did I think Aemilianus would either, any to stand here beside me, not given what must be done.
"You will need skilled swordsmen," said the grizzled fellow, "preferably those of the scarlet tunic."
"Go," I said.
"Four or five will do," he said.
"I have four here, including myself," said a voice behind me.
"And I am the fifth," said the grizzled fellow.
Men were hurrying back down the walkway, toward the piers.
I turned about, startled.
"It would be an honor to die in the company of Marsias," said a tall fellow. "I am not Marsias," I said to him.
"That is a relief," he said, grimly, "for I was growing confused about the matter. You see, I had thought that I was Marsias."
"I recognize you now," I said.
"That is flattering," he said.
"How is your head?" I asked.
"Considering that it was struck with a large piece of building stone with great force at close range, splendid," he said.
I looked at one of the other fellows. There were three behind him. "I see that you have managed to find a tunic," I said to one of them.
"Yes," he said, "mine was stolen, in a cell."
"That is where I found mine," I admitted.
"We were roused by a guard," said Marsias, "who was checking the walls for ruptures which might allow access to Cosians. He found an excellent example of such a breach in a certain cell, as you might perhaps remember."
"Yes," I said.
"It was our intention to come looking for you immediately, as you might well suppose," said Marsias, "to settle accounts, so to speak, but Cosians, as seems their wont these days, interfered. We had to defend that break in the wall for Ahn. When the recall was sounded, we learned, somewhat to our surprise, as you might suppose, that I was a hero on the wall, at least according to some, and later, too, at the gate. These fellows, and I, decided to look into this, and now have done so."
"You have found me now," I said.
"And will fight beside you," said Marsias.
"I am grateful," I said.
"The small boats are coming," said one of the fellows.
"The Cosians, too, have seem them," I said. There was considerable excitement on the walkway near, and at, its end, and on the landing. I could now see, again, too, the standards over the wall of the citadel. The camp commander, he in charge of the Cosian forces at Ar's Station, had resumed his coign of vantage. In the boats, approaching from the piers, the same boats which had come earlier to help evacuate the landing, there were men with torches and axes. There were some small boats, too, at the landing, some perhaps captured, others which may have been there earlier, or perhaps within the citadel walls somewhere.
"I gather, from reports of those who were on the wall," said Marsias, "that you impaled the traitress, Lady Claudia."
"Perhaps," I said.
"Or was it our pretentious, nasty little warder, Lady Publia?" he inquired. "Do not concern yourself with the matter," I advised.
"That would have been an irony," he remarked.
"Doubtless," I said.
"And a waste," he said.
"Doubtless," I said.
"Many think that both Lady Claudia and Lady Publia needed to learn their womanhood."
"Lady Claudia," I said, "had already begun to learn it."
"Like those women on the landing," said a fellow beside us.
"Yes," I said.
The Cosians there must have taken at least four hundred women on the landing. At least two hundred of these were still there. Many were pushed up against the wall, in some groups facing it, in others with their backs to it. I had little doubt that the delicious loot even now was learning masculine domination. On the landing many were kneeling, or bellying. There was much licking and kissing. More than one had been put in a display position, and forced to hold it. I saw one girl cuffed, and another, one who had perhaps been slow to obey, lashed with a strap. Swiftly then, and eagerly, did she begin to lick an kiss her captor about the feet and ankles. Some were still being tied and tagged. Others were being lined up, their hands tied behind their backs to form coffles, ropes being put on their necks. Some, among these many others, were serving even now on the landing, being put to use by impatient masters. We could see their squirming bodies, their subdued, thrashing limbs, hear their cried, cries with which they responded to, and registered and recorded, their ravishments, cries mostly, at this point, of protest and lamentation, but, too, in instances, of astonishment and wonder, and sometimes, even so soon, of sudden, frightened acquiescence, of eager acceptance, of grateful yieldings, dreams coming true in thongs.
"Yes, too," he said, "many claim, interestingly, to have seen the same female, she who was supposedly impaled, whoever she was, later on the wall's walkway, and later, too, with the women and children."
"Surely that seems unlikely," I said.
I noted one girl on the landing. From the way she held her hands behind her back I could tell that she was in thumb cuffs. These are handy devices. They are light and take up little space in a warrior's pack. I myself, thinking sometimes that thumb cuffs are perhaps a bit cruel, generally prefer, if slave bracelets are not available, a simple thong or a short length of binding fiber. A woman, of course, may be bound in a large variety of ways and with a large variety of materials. For example, one might use strips, cut and rolled, from her own clothing, particularly as one will probably be removing the garb from her anyway. If she is naked, she might even be bound with short lengths of her own hair. two or three horts of hair suffice to tie her thumbs behind her back, and another two or three will suffice to tie he two large toes together.
I might mention two possible reservations pertaining to thumb cuffs. First, many feel that they are must less secure than, say, slave bracelets, because of the diverse ratios involved, of wrist to hand, and of upper thumb to the thumb joint, at their location points. To compensate for this, of course, one can make the thumb cuffs tighter, but this produces greater discomfit in the wearer. It is harder for her to attend to her lessons, naturally, if she is in pain. I generally feel that pain, at least generally, should not be inflicted on a slave unless it is meaningful. There can, of course, be a point to generalized discomforts, even of a rather trivial nature.
For example, when a woman has been slept naked on a hardwood floor without covers, she is likely to come to a much better understanding of the value of a slave blanket. Second, if the woman is in thumb cuffs, and she becomes hysterical, it is much easier for her to hurt herself. Accordingly, just as one would not wish to secure a sleen or a kaiila in a way in which it might inadvertently hurt or injure itself, so, too, one might not wish to secure a slave in such a manner. The slave, too, is a domestic animal, and like other domestic animals, has a specific value. Accordingly, thumb cuffs, if used on a slave, in my opinion at least, should be used only under close supervision. To be sure, under such supervision, they might be helpful.