I saw some small boats, wreathed with garlands, coming out to meet the flotilla. They swarmed about. In them, men, and slave girls, clinging to the masts, kneeling in the stern sheets, waved. They would escort us into the harbor. "Gentlemen," said Aemilianus, from his curule chair, "as we are nearing Port Cos, it behooves me to speak plainly to you. Not all that I say will be welcome to your ears. Yet much of it you will have suspected.
"Speak, Commander," said a man.
I did not withdraw from the bow deck, as no one seemed to pay me much attention. Had they not wanted me there, or thought that I should not hear, surely I would have been advised of this. Too, I gathered that what was to be said, if secret now, would soon be common knowledge. Too, there were two or three fellows of Port Cos there, those who had set up the outjutting display beams, and would presumably handle the forward lines in wharfing. Too, of course, prone on the deck, in their shackles, their shackles and chain-and-leather harnesses attached to the beam chains, were the two slaves. No matters of prolonged moment would be likely to be discussed in the presence of such. Normally slave girls, with a snap of the fingers or a wave of the hand, are dismissed from an area when sensitive information is to be discussed. They then scurry away, until summoned back. Also, interestingly, they will usually take pains on their own behalf to avoid such areas. Total ignorance, they know, as they are mere slaves, is often in their best interests. If they hear too much they know that it is only too easy to dispose of them.
"What I tell you now," said Aemilianus, "is already common knowledge in Port Cos."
"But these things were brought by the dispatch boat this morning?" said a man. "Yes," said he, "and with the routines of the couriers of Port Cos, that we might learn them before we disembarked. But there is little here that I have not suspected, and that our friend, Calliodorus, recently, has not intimated to me, privately.
I recalled that Calliodorus, even on the first morning out from Ar's Station, after we had attended to the females, those who were now both slaves, and lay near us in their chains, had seemed ready, then not ready, to speak to Aemilianus of certain weighty matters, that he might have been considering conveying to him warnings, or perhaps confiding suspicions or misgivings. He had hesitated then, I suspected, because he was not yet sure of such matters, or, perhaps, because he had thought it wise to hold them in abeyance until his friend was stronger.
"Stand," said the keeper of the two slaves, one of the fellows of Port Cos, on the bow deck, to the two slaves. They stood up. He checked the chain and leather of their harnesses. He lifted their shackled wrists over their head, lifting with them part of the chair to which they were attached. Then he let them stand there, with their shackled wrists lowered, before them. He did adjust their posture, rudely, with a slap or two. Then they stood there, softly, beautifully erect, on the bow deck.
"Hail Port Cos!" cried a fellow in a small boat, off the bow to starboard. Behind him there stood a long-legged half-naked slave girl in a bit of a rag. "Hail Port Cos!" she cried, happily, waving. "Hail Port Cos!" She was rather nice. The collar looked well on her neck. I thought that she, too, might have been worthy to put at a prow. Seeing her, both Publia and Claudia stood even a little straighter, though apparently paying her no attention. One of the fellows on the bow deck waved to them. "Hail Port Cos!" he responded.
"We are coming to Port Cos," said Aemilianus. "That will seem to confirm the story circulating in Ar, which, I take it, is the official version of what occurred at Ar's Station."
"Speak, Commander," urged the young warrior, Marcus.
"It will be of interest to you to learn that Ar's Station was surrendered to Cos more than two months ago," he said, dryly, "before the relief forces could reach it. Lacking siege equipment that is why they did not proceed directly to Ar's Station but went into winter quarters."
"Ar's Station was never surrendered!" said a man.
"I do not understand," said another. "She fell but seven days ago this afternoon."
"Thousands must know the falsity of such allegations!" cried another man. "Not officially, not in Ar," said Aemilianus. "They know, on the whole, except for rumors, only what they are permitted to know. I suspect it would even be unwise o speak certain truths to Ar herself."
"I do not understand," repeated the fellow who had spoken before.
"The situation is reputed to stand thus," said Aemilianus. "Supposedly, over two months ago, I, and my high officers, and the caste officials, and councils of the city, treasonously, and without a fight, surrendered Ar's Station to a delegation of Cosians. In return for this perfidy we received much gold and were granted safe passage to Port Cos, within whose walls we are to receive domicile and security."
"Our arrival here will make it seem so!" cried a man.
"I fear so," said another.
"Would you rather return to the ashes of Ar's Station?" asked Aemilianus, bitterly.
"Surely those of Port Cos do not believe such lies!" cried a man.
"Of course not," said Aemilianus. "The truth is generally known her. It is in Ar, and the south, that it will not be known."
"Where have you learned of such matters? asked a man.
"Specifically, from the dispatches," said Aemilianus. "Cos, it seems, had many spies. Too, it seems she possesses swift, covert channels of communication. I do not doubt but what her work on the continent has been long in preparation. Naturally Cosians are in close contact with those of Port Cos, whose support to them is important on the river. I would not suppose that there is complete openness between them, but there seems to be no problem about sharing information of this sort."
"Captain Calliodorus takes these reports seriously?" asked a man.
"Yes," said Aemilianus. "Indeed, he had even anticipated, as I had, given the abandoning of Ar's Station by Ar, that matters might be construed in some such perspective."
"It seems the spies of Cos are efficient," said a fellow.
"It is said," said Aemilianus, "as Calliodorus has told me, that even a whisper in Ar is heard in Telnus by nightfall."
We were nearing the harbor.
There were clouds of small sails about us now, as many small boats had come out to meet us.
"Oh!" said Publia, as one of the fellows of Port Cos lifted her up lightly in his arms and threw her over the rail of the port side of the bow deck. There was a sound of chain, pulling against the beam ring, the links suddenly growing taut, and Publia, suspended from the beam, in her chain-and-leather harness, hung at the port side, out, about a yard from the rail, her feet now slightly below the level of the bow deck, over the water. There was a shout of pleasure from several of the small boats. Although her weight was substantially borne by the harness her small wrists were pulled high over her head, and held in place there, close to the chain, by her wrist shackles. Her ankles, too, were closely shackled. I considered her small hands. How piteous they appeared, so held in place, so helpless in their inflexible metal bonds. The steel, too, clasped her fair ankles, closely.
"There is more," said Aemilianus, bitterly. "We of Ar's Station, and those who abetted us, not surprisingly, given the falsified and distorted accounts of our actions, are held in official dishonor and contempt."