Warriors of gor gorean s.., p.56
Warriors of Gor (Gorean Saga), page 56
Then these dark thoughts burst to the side, like an awakened, startled bird, for I realized, shaken and astonished, suddenly, that much more was going on at the far edge of the camp than could be attributed to the small diversion I had planned. Several tents were afire. There was much shouting and clashing of weapons. There was a blasting of battle horns and the thunder of drums. A frantic tabuk bounded past me, come somehow from amongst the tents. Then a rush of forest urts scrambled past. Something, obviously, had been moving through the forest toward the edge of the camp, frightening animals. I backed away from the close edge of the camp into the darkness. I hoped that my fellows were safe, that they had not been overrun, that they had managed to reach the prearranged rendezvous point, at a nearby bridge, which we called the bridge of Clearchus, at which I had hoped to join them, with a freed, grateful Talena at my side. Far off I heard the roar of a larl. A moment later, I stopped, abruptly, perfectly still, and I felt my left leg brushed by the coat of a running sleen. Even in the slim light of the white moon there was no mistaking the swift, low, serpentine gait of the animal. Seek the stealth of your burrow, friend, I thought, the night is loud and unpleasant.
I would circle about and attempt to reach what we called the bridge of Clearchus. That was, at least, the name carved into the railing. One does not know if the carving had any significance beyond, perhaps, the vanity of a particular fellow, or if it designated the fellow who was responsible for the bridge, keeping it in repair, and so on. I favored the vanity hypothesis as most of the small bridges we encountered on the forest road to Samnium bore no nomenclature. It was important to us, of course, that we be able to identify a particular meeting point, even in the dark. As this bridge had already identified itself, so to speak, we needed not mark it further, which change might be noted by a perceptive stranger. This bridge had the additional advantage of its proximity to the camp of Decius Albus.
As I made my way through the darkness, I considered with whom I might share the forest. Certainly there was Decius Albus and his men, and, I hoped, my fellows. Too, somewhere, would be lovely, meretricious, scornful Talena, whom I had hoped to save, she who had betrayed her word and set guards on me. Too, there was clearly a force in the forest which was capable of assaulting the camp of Decius Albus. I did not think that there was any local force capable of doing that. Thus, I suspected that I shared the forest with yet another individual who might have business with Decius Albus. Thus, I suspected that I shared the forest with an old acquaintance, with a vengeful Marlenus of Ar, doubtless backed by picked swordsmen of Ar.
Chapter Eighty-Two
I ran my fingers over the railing of the short bridge.
I heard the tiny sounds of water flowing under the wood.
I then spoke softly to the darkness. “With what do the laws of Cos march?” I asked.
“As ever,” came from the darkness, “with the spears of Cos.”
This was a variation on a maxim familiar in the more western latitudes of the Vosk Basin. We had chosen it because it suggested an affinity with Cos, the eventual shelter of which was doubtless of great interest to the camp of Decius Albus.
“Captain,” said Thurnock, his voice soft from amongst the trees.
In a moment I was again amongst my fellows.
“Where is Talena?” asked Thurnock. “I expected her to be with you, beaten and stripped, as the worthless slave she is.”
“I trusted her,” I said. “I was betrayed.”
“Of course,” said Thurnock. “My captain is a fool.”
“Less so now,” I said, “than before.”
“We began our diversion,” said Thurnock. “But we had scarcely shouted and cast a torch amongst the tents, when many men were swarming about us, intent on bringing swords and fire to the encampment of Decius Albus. It was dark. They may have thought us part of their own group. The work of the diversion more than done, we withdrew to the bridge, hoping we would hear from you.”
“Tell me of the assailants,” I said.
“We detected no special uniform or livery,” said Clitus.
“But,” said Seremides, “their accents were those of Ar.”
“How many do you estimate?” I said.
“Perhaps five hundred,” said Aetius.
“Too few to invest the camp,” I said, “but more than enough to deal with the men of Decius Albus.” Certainly I had encountered no encircling soldiers when I had left the camp. “Was Marlenus of Ar with the assailants?” I asked.
“We do not know,” said Clitus.
“If the assailants were of Ar, as seems likely,” said Aetius, “I think he must have been. I do not think he would have left so delicious a task as dealing with Decius Albus to another.”
“You detected no uniforms, or such?” I asked.
“No,” said Seremides.
“Did you sense standards, or did you hear wars cries of Ar?” I asked.
“No,” said Seremides.
“Marlenus is wise,” I said. “He would not risk his expedition being construed in such a way as to constitute a provocation, an incident, a raid, an invasion, of sorts. His forces might even be thought to be that of a free company.”
“By now,” said Thurnock, “the men of Decius Albus will have been put to rout.”
“One can see the flames of the burning camp through the trees,” said Aetius.
“Smell the smoke,” said Clitus.
I glanced to the side. Iris, in her brief tunic, was gagged, and bound, her back to a small tree, her hands fastened behind her, about the trunk. She would have been left behind when the men had set out on their diversion. She was not to interfere with the work of men, either inadvertently or deliberately, no more than a penned tarsk or a tethered kaiila. She squirmed a little, pathetically, but we paid her no attention. She was a female, and a slave.
“What of Talena?” I asked.
“Who knows, who cares?” said Thurnock.
“What of Decius Albus?” said Clitus.
“I do not think he could be taken alive,” I said. “More likely he will have thrown himself on his own sword, or ordered a subordinate to dispatch him.”
“You underestimate him,” said Aetius. “If only a handful of men escape the onslaught of the assailants, Decius Albus will be amongst them.”
“And, if possible,” said Seremides, “he will have Talena with him. She is his hope of security and bounty, of protection and wealth, in the palace of Lurius of Jad.”
“How is it,” asked Clitus, “that Marlenus of Ar, assuming he is with the assailants, discovered the camp of Decius Albus?”
“He may, as we,” said Seremides, “have conjectured that Decius Albus would seek refuge in Cos, and would thus try to make his way to the coast, and eventually to Brundisium.”
“But that covers much territory,” said Thurnock.
“It is likely,” I said, “that Marlenus has advantages we did not. He may have had the services of tarn scouts, say, four or five, who can reconnoiter hundreds of square pasangs in a day. I do not think such a small number would attract too much unwelcome attention.”
“He may,” said Xenon, “have been following the two Kurii whose tracks we noted, or the flashing silver tarn in the sky, or even us.”
I shivered. I supposed that that was possible. It might have been we who had led Marlenus to the camp of Decius Albus.
At that point there was a frantic crashing through the brush, near us.
The sky was lit in the distance with burning tents. One could smell smoke. There were no sounds of battle, no shoutings of men, no ringings of steel, no rolls of drums, no blasts of battle horns.
“Hold!” I said. “What says the yellow tabuk?”
“Do not enter the den of the black larl,” came from the brush.
“Approach,” I said.
A disheveled figure approached.
“Rope him,” I said.
A cry of dismay and alarm escaped the figure. Then his body was swathed with ropes.
“Are you of Ar?” he cried.
“No,” I said.
“You know the password!” he said.
“Of course,” I said.
“Do you not know me?” he cried.
“It is dark,” I said.
“I am Tramio, of the men of Decius Albus, pretended Merchant of Ti,” he said.
“One so high in the favor of Decius Albus must know much,” I said.
“The camp is overrun,” said Tramio. “You are fortunate to have escaped. Blood flows. Men scatter. Each hopes to save himself. Release me! We must flee.”
At that moment, from somewhere to the east, say, two or three hundred yards away, there was the roar of a larl, quite possibly the same animal I had heard earlier, when several animals, driven from the woods, were fleeing through the camp of Decius Albus. The beast, I supposed, understandably, I granted it, was not happy with the disquiet of a forest, much of which he might well regard as his own domain. Whereas larls, panthers, and sleen can be quite dangerous, they seldom attack humans. Exceptions most often occur when they are startled, are unusually hungry, feel they are confronted and challenged, or sense an objectionable territorial intrusion.
“Its lair is nearby,” said Thurnock. “I discovered it earlier. The tracks and odor are unmistakable.”
“Release me!” said Tramio.
“The proximity of the beast must be familiar to the camp,” I said. “It doubtless suggested the password.”
“We must flee,” said Tramio. “The woods will be searched.”
“Not until daylight,” I said. “Your enemy is not stupid.”
“Time is short,” said Tramio.
“Yours may be even shorter,” I said.
“I do not understand,” said Tramio.
“Were Decius Albus and the female prisoner taken?” I asked.
“I do not think so,” said Tramio.
“If they cleared the camp,” I said, “where would they go, what would they do?”
“I do not know,” he said.
We heard again the roar of the disturbed larl. This time the sound was unmistakably closer.
Inadvertently we shuddered.
“Plans are always made for such contingencies,” I said. “Surely one such as you, high in the favor of Decius Albus, would have some cognizance of such things.”
“I know nothing,” said Tramio.
“Very well,” I said. “Take him to the lair of the larl, bind his feet together, and throw him within.”
“No!” he cried.
“And ungag and free the slave,” I said. “Thus, she will have an opportunity to try to save herself if the larl objects to our presence. It would be unfortunate if so comely a property perished like a tethered verr.”
Tramio, crying out, was dragged through the brush by Thurnock and Clitus, the rest of us following. In the dim light of the slim white moon, we soon arrived at a large, vine-beset, descending, cavelike opening in the side of a nearby hillock. There Tramio’s ankles were bound together and he was rolled to the opening, and then downward through it.
“I wish you well,” I called to him.
About the same time, we heard another roar in the darkness. Its source could be no more than some fifty paces away.
“Do not leave me!” screamed Tramio. “I will speak! I will speak!”
“Extricate him,” I said.
“That will not be easy,” said Thurnock. “The lair is dark and deep, inside, he may have rolled down an incline.”
“I will speak!” screamed Tramio.
“Try,” I said.
A little later Thurnock and Clitus had dragged Tramio out of the lair, and I, and the others, began to shout and pound our weapons together, creating a small din in the vicinity of the lair. The larl could easily have torn his way amongst us, scattering us, bleeding and dismembered, from its path, but larls, like some other forms of life, have genetic codings in the light of which some behaviors are likely to occur and others not. For example, evolution has selected for the tendency to avoid strong and unexpected stimuli, presumably because such stimuli are likely to be associated with danger, for example, with the strike of a predator. Life-forms which did not find strong stimuli aversive presumably, statistically, were less likely to replicate their genes. Too, certain behaviors and responses seem coded. For example, to advert to experiments on my former world, a chicken raised in laboratory conditions, who has never seen a chicken hawk before, will panic and flee at the first sight of one, or something which resembles one. I am sure that our noise confused and annoyed and larl but, as I expected, and hoped, he did not charge forth and attack us. Indeed, societies have known for centuries that many animals will retreat before lines of women and children shouting and beating on pots and pans, women and children who may be herding the animals, such as the giant, tawny northern tabuk toward waiting hunters.
We withdrew, thankfully, from the vicinity of the larl’s den.
Once again there was relative silence in the forest.
To be sure, we had made a great deal of noise to discourage the approach of the larl. That was doubtless to be regretted, but I had thought it preferable to possibly being torn to pieces.
“It will soon be light,” said Thurnock, “and the assailants will be combing the forest for survivors from the camp of Decius Albus.”
“With our two wagons and a slave,” I said, “I do not think we will be mistaken for fleeing mercenaries.”
I then turned to Tramio.
“You may now speak,” I said.
“Release me, if I speak,” he said.
“Your speech will be examined and tested,” I said, “and, if it turns out to be true, you will be released. If it does not turn out to be true, we will cut your throat, instantly.”
“What if my words should prove to be mistaken?” he asked.
“Then your throat will be cut,” I said, “instantly.”
“If Decius Albus escapes those who have stormed his camp,” said Tramio, “it is almost certain he will make his way to his contrived place of refuge, that prepared in case such an emergency should arise, a protection house, a secret house, in Port of Samnium, near the docks.”
“Is it within the double walls leading from Samnium to Port of Samnium?” I asked.
“Yes,” said Tramio.
“Samnium may be closed to us,” said Thurnock. “The walls could be hard to scale.”
“What is the name of this house of refuge,” I asked.
“The House of the Sea Hith,” said Tramio.
“There are no such things,” said Aetius.
“The house is in the keeping of a man called Ruffio,” said Tramio, “who is also the agent of Decius Albus in Port of Samnium, charged with chartering ships for conveying Decius Albus and his men to Brundisium.”
“I think I know the man,” I said. “He is a tool for Lurius of Jad.”
“What allies are within the high circle of Decius Albus?” asked Seremides.
“I do not understand,” said Tramio.
“Are there beasts?” asked Seremides.
“There is a guard beast, a Kur,” said Tramio.
“It is not a guard beast,” said Seremides. “It is a colleague, and one who, in a subversive, minacious faction, may have higher standing than Decius Albus himself.”
“What of Assassins?” asked Xenon.
“There were two,” said Tramio, “but they disappeared somewhere on the march.”
“There was no sinister figure with grayish skin and eyes like glass?” I asked.
“No,” said Tramio.
“What of a tarn, large, silverish, metallic, and stately?” asked Aetius.
“There were no tarns in the camp of Decius Albus,” said Tramio.
“It is not a living tarn, no more than a catapult, or wagon,” I said, “though there is a life within it.”
“Is the refuge house easily taken?” asked Thurnock.
“No,” said Tramio. “It is less a house than a small fortress.”
“How close is it to the docks of Port of Samnium?” I asked.
“Perhaps five hundred paces,” said Tramio.
“Then it could easily be cut off from the docks,” said Thurnock.
“It would seem so,” I said. I was surprised. It seemed to me that this would be a serious flaw in the escape strategy of one as astute as Decius Albus.
“How many men escaped the camp with Decius Albus?” asked Thurnock.
“I do not even know if Decius Albus escaped,” said Tramio. “Nor would I know anything of accompanying men, perhaps ten, perhaps fifty, I do not know.”
“Samnium will be dangerous,” said Seremides. “There are sure to be men of Decius Albus there, or men in sympathy with him. Too, Ar will not be popular on the coast. The sympathies of Samnium, if any, are likely to be aligned with Tyros and Cos.”
“We could be in danger, too, from Marlenus, and his men,” said Aetius. “We could be crushed between two stones.”
“It is nearly daylight,” said Clitus. “I think it would not be well to encounter either desperate refugees from the camp of Decius Albus or merciless soldiers of Ar who are hunting them.”
“Our pose is that of harmless travelers bound for Samnium,” I said.
“Many a harmless urt has been trampled by some passing tharlarion,” said Aetius.
“We could try for Brundisium,” said Seremides. “We could turn back to Torcadino. We might try Harfax, Market of Semris, any of a thousand cities, towns, and villages, even Venna or Ar itself.”
“I favor Samnium,” I said.
“Are you still interested in the miserable slave, Talena,” asked Thurnock, “worthless collar meat, after she betrayed you in the prison tent?”
“If anything,” I said, grimly, “more so now than before.”
