by John Norman
I snapped shut the glass of the builders and, by means of a slender rope ladder fastened at the masthead and anchored to a cleat near the mast well below, took my way down to the deck.
"Thurnock," I said, "let the flags of division and acquistion be raised." "Yes, Captain," said he.
There was a cheer from the men on the deck of the Dorna.
I anticipated, and received, little resistance from the round ships. There were various reasons for this. They had been herded together and could not maneuver. They were slower than the ram-ships and, under any conditions, little match for them. And their rowing slaves, by this time, were fully aware that the fleet encircling them was that of Bosk, from the marshes.
Vessel by vessel my men boarded the round ships, commonly meeting no resistance. The free crews of these ships, of course, were hopelessly outnumbered by my men. The round ship, although she often carries over one hundred, and sometimes over two hundred, chained slaves in her rowing hold, seldom, unless she intends to enter battled, carries a free crew of more than twenty to twenty-five men. Moreover, these twenty to twenty-five are often largely simply sailors and their officers, and not fighting men. The Dorna, by contrast, carried a free crew of two hundred and fifteen men, most of whom were well trained with weapons. In an Ahn I stepped across the plank thrown from the rail of the Dorna to that of the flagship of the treasure fleet. The ship itself, by my men, had already been subdued.
I was met by a tall bearded figure in a purple cloak. "I am Rencius Ho-Bar," said he, "of Telnus, Admiral of the Treasure Fleet of Cos and Tyros." "Put him in chains," I told my men.
He looked at me in fury.
I turned to Clitus, who had been on the ship before me. "Do you have the master cargo list?" I asked.
He presented a folio-sized book, bound with golden cord and sealed with wax, bearing the impress of the Ubar of Tyros, Chenbar.
The admiral, to one side, was being fitted with wrist and ankle irons, joined by a length of chain.
I broke the golden cord and the seal and opened the master cargo lists. They were most excellent.
From time to time, I scanned the lists, there was a cheer from one round ship or another as her slaves were freed. The free crewmen, of course, were places in chains, men and officers alike. The distincition of man and officer does not exist on the benches of a galley.
"Admiral!" said the admiral of the treasure fleet to me.
I glanced to the gold-bordered, purple flag, the admiral's flag, flying from the halyard strung between the forward starboard mooring cleat and the height of the stem castle. "Strike that flag," I said, "and put there the flag of Bosk, from the marshes."
"Yes, Captain," said Thurnock.
"Admiral!" protested the admiral of the treasure fleet to me.
"Take him away," I told my men.
He was dragged from my presence.
I snapped shut the book. "If these figured are correct," I said to Clitus, "as doubtless they are, we and the Captains of Port Kar are today the master of much treasure."
He laughed. "Surely enough," said he, "to make us all among the richest of men!" "More wisely spent," said I, "these goods would go to increase the arsenal fleet of Port Kar."
"But surely," said he, "the arsenal does not require so much?"
I laughed. "The arsenal share," said I, "is eighteen shares of thirty." Eighteen of the ships in my fleet had been arsenal vessels.
I had, by agreement with the council, reserved to myself twelve shares of thirty divisions, as well as all slaves taken.
"Captain," said a voice.
"Yes," I said.
A seaman had approached me.
"The Lady Vivina," said he, "asks to be presented to you."
"Very well," said I. "Tell her that her request to present herself to me has been granted."
"Yes, Captain," said he.
I reopened the book of cargo lists.
When I lifted my head again I discovered that the Lady Vivina was, and had been, standing before me.
Seeing me, she started.
I smiled.
Her hand was before her veil. Her eyes were wide. She wore swirling, dazzling robes of concealment, of purple and gold cloths, brocades and silks. The veil itself was purple, and trimmed with gold.
Then she caught herself and presented herself before me, as a high-born lady. "I am Vivina," said she, "of the city of Kasra of Tyros."
I nodded my head. "Call me Bosk," I said. "I am a captain of Port Kar." Behind the girl, in robes almost as rich as hers, were two other high-born maidens.
"I gather," she said, "I am your prisoner."
I said nothing.
"You will, of course," said she, "be severely punished for what you have done." I smiled.
"As you know," she said, "I am pledged to be the Free Companion of Lurius, Ubar of Cos. Accordingly, my ransom will be high."
I indicated the two girls behind Vivina. "How many of these are there?" I asked Clitus.
"Forty," he said.
"They did not appear," I said to him, "on the master cargo lists."
Clitus ginned.
The girls looked at one another uneasily.
"My maidens," said Vivina, "will also be ransomed, though their ransoms will be less than mine."
I regarded her.
"What makes you so certain," I asked, "that you will be held for ransom?" She looked at me, stunned.
"Remove you veil," I told her.
"Never!" she cried. "Never!"
"Very well," said I. I returned my attention to the master cargo lists. "What is to be done with us?" she asked.
I turned to Clitus. "The Lady Vivina," I said to him, "will of course grace the prow of this ship, the flagship of the treasure fleet."
"No!" she screamed.
"Yes, Captain," said Clitus.
Already two men held her arms.
"Take then those that were with her," I said, "and distribute them to the extent of their number among our other ships, the twent most beautiful to our twenty tarn ships now with the fleet, and the most beautiful of the twenty to the prow of the Dorna, and the other twenty set at the prows of twenty of our prizes. "Yes, Captain," said Clitus.
Men laid hands on the two girls behind the Lady Vivina, and they cried out with fear.
I again turned my attention to the master cargo lists.
"Captain!" said the Lady Vivina.
"Yes," I said, lifting my head and looking at her.
"I–I," she said, "will remove my veil."
"That will not be necessary," I said.
I handed Clitus the book of cargo lists and strode to the girl, jerking out the pins that held her veil, face stripping her.
"Beast!" she cried.
I gestured that the seamen should remove the veils from the two girls who stood behind her.
They wept.
They were beauties, all.
I looked down into the face of the Lady Vivina, who was beautiful.
"Put her at the prow," I said to Clitus.
I turned away, taking the book of master cargo lists from Clitus, and again giving them my attention. The other two girls were taken from my presence. The Lady Vivina, to one side, was readied for the prow.
Within the Ahn we were ready to sail for Port Kar. I had the admiral of the treasure fleet, Rencius Ho-Bah of Telnus, in his chains, brought before me. "I am returning one round ship to Cos," I said. "You withe certain of the seamen captured, will sit chained at her benches. Beyond this, I will give you, from among our prisoners, ten free men, six seamen, two helmsmen, an oar-master and a keleustes. The treasure from the ship, of course, will be placed aboard other ships, taken to Port Kar as prizes. On the other had, your ship will be adquately provisioned and I do not doubt you will make port in Telnus within five days"
"You are generous," said the Admiral, dismally.
"I expect," I said, "when you return to Telnus, should you decide to do so, that you will make a reasonably full and accurate accoun
d of what had occured here recently."
"Doubtless," smiled the Admiral, "I shall receive requests to that effect." "In order that your information my be as accurate as possible, at least to this point, I inform you that seven of your treasure ships have, at least until now, eluded me. I expect to pick up some of them, however. And, of tarn ships, I have one captured, your flagship, and from the reports of my captains, some eighteen or twenty have been seriously damaged or sunk. That would leave you with some ten, or perhaps twelve, ships yet abroad on Thassa."
At that point, from the foremast of a nearby round ship, where I had placed a lookout, came the cry, "Twelve sail! Twelve said abeam!"
"Ah," said I, "twelve ships, it seems."
"They will fight!" cried the admiral. "You have not yet won!"
"Doubtless they will strike their masts," I said, "but I do not think they will fight."
He looked at me, his fists clenched in his irons.
"Thurnock," said I, "signal seventeen of my twenty ships to present themselves to our apparoaching friends. Let two remain on the far side of the treasure fleet. The Dorna, for the time will remain here. The seventeen ships are not to enter battle unless accompained by the Dorna, and under no conditions, if battle ensues, are any of my ships to move more than four pasangs from the fleet." "Yes, Captain," roared Thurock, turning and crossing on the plank to the deck of the Dorna, then taking his way to the shielded flag racks at the foot of her stem castle.
Soon the flags were whipping from the halyards.
Battled preparations were underway on my ships. Seventeen soon began to move around the fleet, or come about, to face the approaching twelve vessels. Men sat ready at the oars of the Dorna, should I come aboard her. Others, with axes, stood ready to chop away the lines that now bound the Dorna to the flagship. "They are striking their masts!" came the cry from the lookout.
In a quarter Ahn my vessels were aligned for battle. The enemy fleet, the twelve ships, was now, by estimate from the lookout, with his glass, some four pasangs distant.
If they came within two pasangs, I would board the Dorna.
I had the admiral freed of his leg irons and he and I, from the stem castle of his own ship, regarded the approaching ships.
"Do you wager," I asked him, "that they come within two pasangs?"
"They will fight!" he said.
The Lady Vivina, prepared for the prow, stood nearby, a sailor's hand on her arm, she, too, watching the approaching ships.
Then the admiral cried out with rage and the Lady Vivina, her hand at her breasts, eyes horrified, cried out, "No, No!"
The twelve ships had put about, taking their course now for Cos.
"Take the admiral away," I said to Turnock.
The admiral was dragged away.
I looked on the Lady Vivina. Our eyes met. "Put her at the prow," I said.
15 How Bosk Returned in Triumph to Port Kar
The return to Port Kar was triumphal indeed.
I wore the purple of a fleet admiral, with a golden cap with tassel, and gold trim on the sleeves and borders of my robes, with cloak to match.
I wore at my side a jeweled sword, no longer the sword I had worn for the long years when I had served Priest-Kings. That sword, shortly after coming to Port Kar, I had put aside, and purchased others. I did not feel, somehow, that I should carry that old sword any longer. It stood for too many things, and its steel was deep with too many memories. It spoke to me of an old life, that of a fool, which I, now grown wise, had put from me. Besides, more importantly, it was insufficiently grand, with its plain pommel and unfigured blade, for one of my position, one of the most significant me in one of Gor's greatest prots. I was Bosk, a simple, but shrewd man, who had come from the marshes to startle Port Kar and dazzle and shake the cities of Gor with my cunning and my blade, and now my power and wealth.
My ten search vessels had managed to bring in five of the seven missing round ships, four of which had been, foolishly, striking out directly for Telnus in Cos. The world, I thought, is filled with fools. There are the fools, and there are the wise, and I could now surely, perhaps for the first time, count myself securely among the latter.
I stood at the prow of the long, purple ship, which had been the flagship of the treasure fleet. The rooftops and the windows of the buildings were crowded with cheering throngs, and I lifted my arm to them and accepted their acclaim. The ships, in a splendid, long line, filing behind me, the Dorna first, then the tarn ships, then the round ships, under oars, move slowly through the city, following the triumphal circuit of the great canal, passing even before the chamber of the Council of Captains.
Flowers had been scattered in the canal, and others were thrown on our ships as we passed.
The cheers and cries were deafening.
I had decreed that from my shares of the treasure, each worker in the arsenal would receive one gold piece, and each citizen of the city of a silver tarsk. I lifted my hand to the crowd, smiling and waving.
Near me, chief among my prizes, exposed to the crowds, their hootings and jeerings, bound on the prow, ankles and wrists, neck and belly, like a common slave girl, was the Lady Vivina, who was to have been the Ubara of Cos. Few men, thought I, have enjoyed such a triumph as thish.
And, petty though it might seem, I was eager to present myself before Midice, my favored slave, with my new robes and treasures. I could now give her garments and jewels that would be the envy of Ubaras. I could well imagine the wonder in her eyes as she understood the greatness of her master, her joy, the eagerness with which she would now serve me.
I was well satisfied.
How simple it is, I thought, to become a true man, powerful and predatory, self-regarding, and self-seeking. It requires only to put apart from oneself the hesitations and trammels which the weak and the fools would impose upon themselves, making themselves and their fortunes their prisoners. In coming to Port Kar I had, for the first time, become free.
I lifted my hand to the corwds. Flowers fell about me. I looked at the girl bound on the prow, my prize. I accepted the acclaim of the wild thongs. I was Bosk, who could do as he pleased, who could take what he wanted. I laughed.
Had there ever been triumph such as this is Port Kar?
I brought with me fifty-eight ships: the flagship of the treasure fleet, Vivina bound at its prow, the Dorna, the other twenty-nine ships which had composed my original fleet, and, as prizes, laden with wealth which might have been the ransom of cities, a full twenty-seven of the thirty round ships of the fabulous treasure fleet of Cos and Tyros. And bound at the prow of the first forty ships, following the flagship, beginning with the Dorna, and then the tarn ships and the first ten and largets of the captured round ships, was a high-born beauty, once intended to be the maiden of Cos's Ubara, now, like herseld, destined only for the brand and collar of a slave girl.
I raised my hand to the cheering crowds.
"This is Port Kar," I told Vivina.
She said nothing.
The wild crowds screamed and shouted, and threw flowers, and the flagship, oars dipping in stately fashion, took her regal path, ram's crest dividing flowers in the water, between the buildings lining the great canal.
I stood among the falling flowers, my hand lifted to the crowds.
"Should I put you in a public paga tavern," I said, "doubtless hundreds of these would crowd its doors, that they might be served by one once destined to be a Ubara in Cos."
"Slay me," she said.
I waved to the crowds.
"My maidens?" she asked.
"Slaves," I said.
"Myself?" she asked.
"Slave," said I.
She closed her eyes.
In the five days it had taken to reach Port Kar from the scene of the engagement with the treasure fleet, due to the slowness of the round ships, I had not kept Vivina, and her maidens, of course, at the prows of the ships. I had only placed them there in victory, and now again, for the entry of Port Kar.
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sp; I recalled, late the first night, under ship's torches, I had had Vivina brought down from the prow and brought before me.
I received her in the admiral's cabin, which was, of course, on the treasure fleet's flagship.
"If I remember correctly," I had said, behind the admiral's table, busied with papers, "in the hall of the Ubar of Cos you told me that you did not frequent the rowing holds of round ships."
She looked at me. There had been laughter from my men present. High-born ladies commonly sail in cabins, located in the stern castles of either ram-ships or round ships. She had had, of course, a luxurious cabin in the flagship of the treasure fleet, this very ship.
"I asked you, as I recall," I had reminded her, "if you had ever been in the hold of a round ship?"
She said nothing.
"You responded that you had not, as I recall," I had said, "and then, I mentioned that perhapss someday you would have the opportunity."
"No," she said, "please no!"
I had then turned to some of my men. "Take this lady, " said I to them, "in a long boat to the largest of the round ships, one rowed by captured officers of the treasure fleet, and chain her there, with other treasures, in the rowing hold."
"Please," she begged. "Please!"
"I trust you will find the accommodations satisfactory," I said.
She drew herself up to her full height. "I am sure I shall," said she. "You may conduct the Lady Vivina to her quarters," I told the seaman responsible for her.
"Come along, Girl," said he to her.
Like a Ubara she turned and followed him.
But before she had left my cabin, she turned again at the door. "Only slave girls, I understand," said she, "are kept chained below decks in round ships." "Yes," I said.
Angrily she turned, and left, following the seaman.
Now, in my triumphal entry and course through Port Kar, I looked again upon her. I saw that she had again opened her eyes.
On the prow, she passed slowly beneath the men, and the women and children, on the rooftops, many of whom called out to her, hooting and jeering her. I took two talenders which had fallen on my shoulder and fastened them in the ropes at her neck.
