"I would speak with you," I said.
"You look well, in our service, sleen," said he.
"I would speak with you, privately," I said. "It is urgent."
"Such a request is to be forwarded through channels," smiled the officer.
The fellow behind me on the raft, he acting as my keeper, laughed.
"Where is Saphronicus, leader of the forces of Ar in the north?" I challenged.
"In the rear," said the officer.
"Have you reported to him, or to any who have?" I asked. He looked at me, puzzled. "We have our standing orders," he said. "Communication is difficult in the delta."
We, as I understood it, were in the center. There were also on the left and right, the flanks.
"I submit," I said, "that Saphronicus is not in the delta!" He looked at me, angrily.
"Where is the army of Cos?" I demanded.
"Ahead," said the officer. "We are closing."
"I submit-"
"Gag him," said the officer, angrily.
The fellow behind me left the raft, swiftly, plunging into the water. In a moment I felt rags thrust in my mouth, and then tied there, the cloth binding drawn back between my teeth, deeply, then fastened tightly before the yoke, behind my neck.
The officer then turned away.
Scarcely had he done so, however, than shouts were heard from the right, in a moment we heard men crying out that a great victory had been won on the right. There were cheers about. It seemed the delta itself rang with their sound.
"There!" said the officer, turning to me, leaning on the railing of the barge. "There, you see? Victory itself, won with the steel of Ar, has gainsaid your seditious intimations!"
The men behind me cheered.
The fellows poling the barge then moved it forward.
I stood in the water, stunned. I could not believe this. I could not understand what had occurred. Could my conjectures, my suppositions, my suspicions, be so profoundly awry?
"Pull!" said my keeper. "Pull!"
One of the two poles used by the fellows on the raft dug into my back forcing me forward.
"Pull!" commanded the keeper.
I then, in consternation, put my weight against the traces and, after a moment, my feet slipping in the mud, felt the raft move forward. I had not struggled forward for more than a few feet when I realized, with a sinking feeling, what must have happened.
12 It is Thought That There are the Cries of Vosk Gulls
"There is one who would see you," said my keeper.
I looked up from the sand, where I lay, gagged, tethered between two stakes, my hands manacled behind my back.
"Clean him up," said a fellow, one I had not seen before. "Brush his hair, wash him, quickly," said another, also a fellow I had not seen before. "Make him presentable."
My ankles were freed. The rope on my neck was removed for the moment it took them to kneel me, and then it was restored, now measured to my kneeling position. Sand and mud were wiped from me. My hands remained manacled behind my back. My hair was brushed.
"Remove his gag," said one of the men. "Leave its materials on the neck-rope, where they may be easily replaced." This was done.
"Do you want a cloth for his loins?" asked my keeper.
"That will not be necessary," said the other man.
"What is going on?" I asked.
"You are to be interrogated," said one of the men.
"Is he securely manacled?" asked a voice. I was startled. So, too, might have been any who heard such, here in the delta. It was a woman's voice!
"That he is, Lady," said one of the two men.
She approached daintily, distastefully, disdainfully, across the wet sand, in her slippers. They were probably quite expensive. I think she did not want to ruin them.
She regarded me.
She was small and her figure, obscured to be sure under the heavy fabrics of the robes of concealment, surely uncomfortable, and seemingly incongruous, in the delta, seemed cuddly. She was veiled, as is common for Gorean women in the high cities, particularly those of station. In some cities the veil is prescribed by law for free women, as well as by custom and etiquette; and in most cities it is prohibited, by law, to slaves.
"Withdraw," said she to those about. "I would speak with him privately."
My keeper checked the manacles on my wrists and the length, stoutness and fastening of the neck-rope. Then he, with the others, withdrew.
She lifted the hems of her robes a tiny bit, lifting them a bit from the wet sand, holding them in one hand. She did not, I gathered, wish them soiled. She seemed haughty, displeased, disdainful, fastidious. Doubtless there were places other than the delta which she would have preferred to frequent, such as the arcades, the courts and shops of Ar. I could see the toes of her embroidered slippers.
"Do you know who I am?" she asked.
I looked beyond her, out, back past torches. Now that I was on my knees and the men were to one side, I could see the lines of the barge, purple and gilded, near the bank, that with the golden cabin, covered with golden netting.
"Do you know who I am?" she asked.
I saw that she did not raise the hems of her robes more than a hort or two, scarcely enough to lift them from the sand. The soldiers of Ar, regulars, were closely and exactly disciplined. Yet I suspected that she had enough woman's sense not to reveal her ankles among them. They were, of course, men, and Gorean men, and had been long from a woman.
"It seems you have been gagged," she said, looking at the binding, and the sodden wadding, wrapped about my neck-rope.
"Yes," I said.
"Susceptibility to the gag is a liability of prisoners," she said, "enforceable at a moment's notice, at the whim of a captor."
"Of course," I said.
"And I," she said, "have the authority. I assure you, to have it replaced on you, perfectly, immediately.
"I understand," I said.
"I am Ina, Lady of Ar," she said, "of the staff of Saphronicus, general in the north."
"I know," I said.
"I am an observer," she said, "on behalf of Talena, Lady of Ar, daughter of Marlenus."
"Once daughter of Marlenus," I said. "She was sworn from him, disinherited, disowned, fully."
"It seems you are familiar with the politics of Ar," she said.
"It seems to me unusual," I said, "that such a woman, disowned, disinherited, surely once sequestered in the central cylinder, in disgrace, should be able to post an observer in the delta."
"Her fortunes rise," she said. "I gather so," I said.
"You are Tan, of Port Kar?" she asked. "Perhaps," I said.
"You will answer my questions expeditiously!" she said. I was silent.
"Spread your knees!" she snapped. I did so.
"You are Tarl, of Port Kar," she said.
"I have been known variously," I said, "in various places."
"You are Tarl, of Port Kar!" she said, angrily. "Yes," I said. I was Tarl, of Port Kar, city of the great arsenal, city of many canals, Jewel of Gleaming Thassa.
"You are a handsome fellow, Tarl," she said.
I was silent.
"But there are many marks on your body," she chided. "From various things," I said, "from blows, from ropes, from harness, from the slash of rence, from the bites and stings of insects, from the fastening places of marsh leeches."
She shuddered.
"It is difficult to traverse the delta unscathed," I said, "particularly when one is naked, in the water, harnessed, drawing a raft."
"Such employments are suitable for a spy," she laughed.
"Doubtless," I said.
"You look well, naked, shackled, on your knees before me," she said, "spy of Cos."
"Doubtless your robes of concealment are uncomfortable in the delta, given the moisture, the heat," I said.
She looked at me, angrily.
"Doubtless you would be more comfortable, if they were removed."