Vagabonds of Gor (68 page)

"In the past few weeks," said Claudius, "the rencers have been combing the marshes for survivors."

"Go on," said Plenius.

"They have been hunting us, like animals," he said, bitterly.

"That they may slay you?" asked Plenius.

"If it pleases them," he said, "but, too, as it might please them, they trap us, surprise us, surround us, catch us, take us, almost with impunity, to strip us and chain us, and sell us as slaves to Cosians."

"That then," said Plenius, "was the nature of your dealings with rencers?" He would surely have noticed that their weapons were gone. On the other hand, they were clothed.

"We were exhausted in the rence, lost, starving," said Claudius. "I do not think we could have survived a direct attack. They must have been following us, watching us. We did not even know they were there. We thought we were alone, with the tharlarion, and our misery. Then one night, on the sand, we awakened, knives at our throats. In a few Ehn we were naked, manacled, hand and foot, chained by the neck in a coffle. Our uniforms were not destroyed. They were not cut from us. Rather we were forced to remove them before our chaining. The Cosians, it seems, wanted some uniforms, doubtless for purposes of subterfuge or infiltration. Too, the women of the rencers like the bright cloth, and we were told, too, that some of them were to be cut into slave strips, or fashioned into ta-teeras, slave rags, for slave girls, such being, in their opinion, a fit disposition for such material."

One of our fellows made an angry noise. To be sure, I had fashioned Ina's slave strips from such material, and he did not seem to object to them on her. Indeed, I am sure he regarded her as quite fetching in them. Surely he had kept his eye on her often enough in them, she working about the camp.

"We were then marched north, under whips, as though we might have been mere females, and taken to a holding area. There we were added to chains of more than two hundred and fifty poor fellows, taken in the marshes, their plight the same as ours."

"What of the one you call a Cosian?" I asked.

"He, though they found him bound in our camp, suffered a similar fate," said Claudius. "Our captors did not much discriminate amongst us. Too, they may have taken him, at first, as one of our own, though under detention. His accent, for example, did not suggest that of Cos."

"But you are here now," said Plenius.

"I cannot explain it," said Claudius.

"What happened?" asked Plenius.

"A few days ago," said Claudius, puzzled, "all of us in the holding area were released. Our uniforms, but not our weapons, were returned to us. For the first time our captors then took seriously that the Cosian with us was a Cosian. At our request, they found for him a uniform of Cos, probably one which they had been given as a diplomatic gift, or one of several for use in approaching Cosian patrols. He objected, but we insisted that he wear it. Surely we would not permit him a uniform of glorious Ar. We would remove it from him as soon as it would prove feasible. The rencers, noting our hostility to the Cosian, and accepting the possibility that he might actually be Cosian, permitted him to leave the holding area before us, presumably so he would have time to reach the Cosian lines before we could apprehend him. A few of us, who had had him in our keeping earlier, then determined, of course, to follow and recapture him. We have been pursuing him southeast for days, and only this morning caught sight of him. I think we would have taken him, too, had it not been for your intervention."

"He is not a Cosian," I said. Claudius shrugged.

"Do you know why you were released?" I asked.

"No," he said.

"Do you know anything about it?" I asked.

"Only," said he, "that it was by the orders of a fellow named Tamrun."

Plenius and I exchanged pleased glances, as did the others of our fellows.

"Is this significant?" asked Claudius.

"I think so," I said. "We may explain our speculations to you later. But now, I think, the fellows of Ar in the delta, if there are any left, are safe from rencers, or, at least, in no more danger than they would be ordinarily, for example, if they were so rash as to pass warning signals, and such."

"But not safe from Cosians," said Plenius.

"Certainly not," I said.

"Nor from those who take fee from Cos," said a fellow.

"True," I said.

"Look," said a man. He pointed back. There, several yards away, looking toward us, was a fellow in a Cosian uniform. He had undoubtedly soon discovered that the pursuit of which he had been the object had been discontinued. He had then, rather than continue his flight, paused to reconnoiter. He must have been puzzled, indeed, by our little grouping.

I waved to him. "Ho, Marcus," I called. "Come, join us!"

"Any who would attempt to harm him, or offer him violence," said Plenius, "will be cut to pieces."

The newcomers looked at one another.

"Is that understood?" asked Plenius.

"Yes," said Claudius.

Slowly, haggard, stumbling, Marcus approached us. "Tarl," he said, "is it you?"

"Yes," I said. "And you were running very poorly. We are going to have to give you some rest, and some food. Then we have work to do."

"Work?" he asked.

"Yes," I said. "We must prepare to leave the delta."

Chapter 33 - NIGHT

Marcus and I moved very slowly, our faces darkened, on our bellies, through the grass, approaching the fellow's position from opposite sides. We had, the previous night, reconnoitered this area. There were five such positions, and a hut a few hundred yards to the back, where the bounty hunters kept their grisly trophies. Two nights ago, wading, we had reconnoitered the edge of the swamp. There, in the rence, near the delta's edge, we had found two bodies, half afloat, partly rotted, partly eaten, presumably by small fish and tharlarion. The bounty hunters would apparently discard the bodies in the swamp, after they had removed the heads, these to be presented for bounty fees. One of the bodies we had found had been that of a Cosian. Bounty hunters are not always particular about the heads they collect, and their paymasters usually, of course, have no way of telling the head of a fellow of Ar from that, say, of a Cosian or rencer.

In the darkness, when one is alert, tense, and such, it is difficult not to react to even small noises.

Marcus would now be in position, I assumed. Certainly, now, I was. I was no more than a yard from the fellow. I could see the outline of his head against the darkness.

I then heard the tiny noise made by Marcus, almost inaudible, a tiny clicking noise, not unlike one of the phonetic tongue clicks used in some of languages spoken east of Schendi, in the interior. Instantly the fellow responded to this tiny sound, turning toward its source. I then approached him from the other side and cut his throat.

Marcus joined me in the fellow's position, dug in the grass.

"That should be the last one," I said, "except for the fellow, or fellows, in the hut."

"Here," said Marcus, bitterly, lifting up an object, "is his sack."

"I have an idea," I said.

Chapter 34 - THE HUT

I did not take care to conceal my approach to the hut. I approached it boldly. Marcus was a few feet behind me. We were both in garments removed from bounty hunters. They would need them no longer. The cloak of one, hooded, was about me. Over my shoulder was a sack.

I pushed open the door of the hut.

Only one fellow was within, and he was crouching near a small fire, in a hearth, at one end of the hut, tending a pot of stew, away from the door. The smell of this simple concoction was almost intoxicating to me. It had been a long time since I had had any cooked food, not since the gants on the abandoned slave barge, weeks ago, with Ina. I did not think he would mind if I "shared his kettle," as some of the Goreans say. When I entered he did not even turn about.

"What luck?" he asked.

I threw the sack I carried down beside him, by the hearth.

"It is heavy," he said, excitedly. "How many?" He turned about. I stood near him, the hood about my face, concealing my features. I held up my hand.

"Five!" said he. "Excellent! A good night's work!"

I myself thought so.

He eagerly opened the sack. "These had best be all fellows of Ar," said he. "Anesidemus is becoming suspicious."

He emptied the sack out, on the stones, beside the hearth. I do not think he heard my sword leave its sheath.

He held up one of the heads by the hair. "Barsis!" he said. Aghast he regarded the other heads which, too, he doubtless recognized. Then he turned toward me, and then he was dead.

"Enter," said I to Marcus.

My young friend entered the hut.

"We have here another body for the marsh," I said. "These fellows, as nearly as I can tell, are not even mercenaries, but brigands of some sort."

"Apparently they were successful in their work," said Marcus, glancing to one side.

"We shall discard all such things in the marsh," I said. "If Cosians should happen by, they will find nothing here to suggest that fate which we have seen fit to impose upon these fellows. Not expecting discipline or reliability of such hunts-men, they will presumably assume these fellows have gone elsewhere, either to hunt or, more likely, to turn in their trophies for pay."

"Why would more than one, or, say, two, have to do that?" asked Marcus.

"If they were fellows of honor," I said, "one, or two, to carry the trophies, would suffice."

"I see," said Marcus. "All would wish to be present at the accounting."

"I would think so," I said.

"A way has now been cleared out of the delta," said Marcus.

"A narrow path," I said, "for at least a few Ahn."

"It should be enough," said Marcus.

"There will still be much danger," I said.

"I will help you with these things," he said.

"No," I said. "Fetch the others."

"There is little time to waste," he said.

"Precisely," I said.

Chapter 35 - FAREWELLS

"And what will you do?" I asked Labienus, in the hut of the brigands, near the delta's edge.

We and the others had finished the brigand's repast, not that there was that much, for so many. Yet we had fed. I had even given Ina some.

"I must make my report to Saphronicus, in Holmesk," said Labienus.

"Of course," I said. I regretted deeply the loss of his mind.

"Plenius and Titus," said Labienus, "will attempt to see me to the lines of Ar."

"I see," I said.

Most of those with us had already, after feeding, scattered. We had attempted to teach the new fellows, those who had been pursuing Marcus, both by instruction and example, such things as the concealment of camps and survival in an enemy area. Many of them had elected to leave the delta with one or more of our fellows. In this way I think they increased their chances of survival, particularly if going either east or south. To be sure, the larger the group the greater the danger of its being detected.

"You insist upon carrying your uniform with you?" I asked Labienus. If he were stopped, of course, and it were found in his pack it might be regarded as equivalent to a death sentence.