Renegades of Gor (48 page)

the cell. One could not see it under the hood, but I had made it slave short.

It seemed to me then that most of the women who wished, or dared, to attempt the

walkway had done so. It was will for the men were being beaten back, almost to

the beginning of the walkway. I saw the snout of more than one shark rising from

the water. Cosians pressed about. More swarmed through the gate to the landing.

More descended on the ropes. I issued orders, dispatching the fellows nearest me

to convey them to their respective destinations. The two lines which had to some

extent protected the women and children now withdrew to protect the flanks of

the center. Then I, standing at the walkway, man by man, as was opportune, sent

fellows back along the walkway, retreating to the piers. These mostly backed

along, protecting their retreat with their shields, making their way in a file

between the fellows still in position on the walkway, on each side of it, those

I had placed there to afford protection to the women and children. The lines

thinned to the sides of me, and before me, and the Cosians pressed in, yet more

closely.

I held my ground, as men of Ar’s Station, one by one, backed past me, onto the

walkway. I had been behind the fighting, directing it. Now I was but a line or

two from the front ranks. There were screams from near the wall. Some of the

Cosians, many just coming forth from the citadel, not yet entered into the

fighting, indeed, not being readily able to reach it, for their fellows, had

turned aside to attend to the females there. “They are taking the women!” cried

on the fellows, a few ranks in the Cosian press. He, and some others, then back,

turned back. There was a momentary hesitation in the Cosian advance. I took

advantage of this to pull in the flanks and send them back over the walkway, and

then drew the fellows before me closer, freeing some, the lines then being

shortened, to follow their fellows back. I myself withdrew some ten feet or so.

There were more screams of women from the wall, women being seized to be made

slaves. Again the Cosians hesitated. “The women are being taken behind you,” I

cried to the Cosians, “taken by those who have not even nicked their steel!”

“Forward!” cried a Cosian officer. “Forward!”

(pg. 320) “You are losing slaves!” I cried to the Cosians.

“There are more slaves before you lads, on the piers!” cried the officer.

“See them strip themselves, eager to be made your slaves!” I cried.

Some of the Cosians in the rearward ranks turned about. I ordered more of my men

back. We did not press them.

“They are pretty!” I cried, “begging for their nose rings!”

To be sure, many of the women had torn away their clothing, and were now

kneeling on the landing, by the wall, some with their hands clasped, others with

them piteously extended, in various attitudes or petition and supplication.

Among them strode men, some with bloodied swords. I saw small wrists being tied

together and ropes being put on lovely necks. Those who were slaves were picked

first, as most desirable, surely at least at the moment, before the disciplining

and training of the others.

I saw one free woman backed against the wall, a sword at her belly. Then she

pulled her robes away from her shoulders and breasts, and then, a moment later,

at an impatient movement of the sword, which made her wince, thrust them down

over her hips, and let them slip to her knees. Then she straightened up. The

sword was then again at her belly, only now it was bared to the sharpened steel.

She turned her head to the side, in misery, in terror, being assessed. Then, at

a movement of the blade, and ordered, doubtless, she looked at the fellow. It

seemed then she was suddenly startled. Then she began to tremble. I had little

doubt she had seen in him her master. It is an interesting moment for a woman,

the first time she finds herself looking as a slave into the eyes of her master.

She quickly knelt, as though fearful of displeasing him. I saw her turned about,

rudely and thrust up, closely, against the wall. Her hands were bound behind

her. She was leashed. I saw more than one female slave, kneeling before a

Cosian, her hands fastened behind her, put her head far back, to facilitate the

insertion of the nose ring. I saw a free woman, similarly kneeling, similarly

bound, watch this in terror, and then, quickly and exactly, imitate the action

of the slaves.

Some of the women, in one fashion or another, were being marked, or tagged.

Sometimes this was being done with a (pg.321) circular or oblong pin, rather

like the temporary nose ring, put through the lobe of the left ear, from which a

disk or tag dangled. Sometimes the disk or tag was affixed similarly but by

means of a simple wire passed through the ear lobe, closed and twisted shut.

Women so marked, of course, could later have their ears pierced. Some fellows

fastened tags, or other devices, to the nose rings themselves, or to the looped

cord dangling from the nose ring. With others, the cord itself is color coded.

Some women were marked by as little as a tag on a thong, fastened about their

neck, wrist or ankle. Others had their body itself written upon, as with a

grease pencil. The marking is usually on the upper portion of the left breast.

Slavers, too, commonly mark women in this fashion, for temporary purposes, for

example, with lot numbers for sales, and such. Permanent markings are usually

done with hot irons.

“You are losing slaves!” I called out, again, to the Cosians.

“The distribution will be made later!” cried the officer to his men.

“To whom will they be distributed?” I asked. “To you fellows sweating in the

front ranks, or to suppliers, officers, and agents? Who says there will be any

distribution to you fellows, at all? If there is, will you get your pick? Will

the best women be distributed? What of hundreds of wenches already on their way

to Brundisium, and Cos and Tyros? Have they been distributed? Did you get your

hands on them? I think you will have to bid on the leftovers in camp auctions!

Is not that the way it has been done before? You are fighting for Cos now, not

in a free company, whose captain will look out for you, who will see what

beauties figure in your pay!”

“He says true,” growled a fellow, drawing back.

“Forward!” cried the officer. “Forward!”

“Get them while you can!” I cried. “Some are still clothed, others have not yet

been seized! They cower with their sisters by the wall, half hidden, waiting for

you!”

“Do not listen to him!” called the officer.

“Some are doubtless quite attractive. They have not yet been marked or tagged!”

“Do not heed him!” said the officer.

(pg.322)

“Woe!” I said. “The fellows who have not fought are advancing on them even now!”

The Cosians wavered.

Few quarrels fell now at the entrance to the walkway, for those upon the wall

must now fear the striking of their own men.

There were more screams of women from the wall.

“Forward!” urged the officer.

Now clearly came to the walkway the moans, the weeping protests, the wailing

lamentations of beauties finding tight bonds being placed on their bodies.

“Back, back!” I said, softly, to the men about me. “Behind me! Back!”

“There are less then two hundred left there now, lads,” I called to the Cosians.

I had the men of Ar’s Station then, to my elation, on the walkway, drawing back

on either side of me. I spoke softly. Those who had much fought withdrew up the

walkway, between those who had shielded the women. These other men then, fresh,

came forward, flanking me.

I saw a brunet, out from the wall, her wrists thonged behind her, weeping

copiously, uncontrollably, as the spread prong of a nose ring was pressed

through her septum, the ring then springing back into shape. She, nose-ringed,

looked up at her captor, its cord looping up then to his hand. At the slightest

of tugs she leapt to her feet, weeping, to follow him with perfection. I saw her

being led away. Others, too, I saw being pulled to their feet, doubtless to be

taken to improvised holding areas.

“Even now they are being led away, fellows!” I said.

“Draw back,” said the officer, angrily.

He had seen the vacillation of his men, that we had gained the walkway, that

fresh troops now flanked me.

Cosians, mercenaries mostly, broke free from their rearward ranks and ran to the

wall, to claim females. So, too, the, backing away, then turning, did several in

the forward ranks. The officer rallied enough regulars about himself to assure

that we would not attempt to press forward.

“You use our own women as a diversion,” growled a fellow near me, “as though

they might be slaves!”

“Look at them,” I said.

(pg.323) “Aii!” he said.

“Draw back with me,” I said, softly, backing away. The Cosians, regulars and

mercenaries, responsive to the orders of their officer, advanced some yards onto

the walkway. They did not follow us closely, however.

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 (pg.324) 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, (pg.325) 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