Vagabonds of Gor

5 The Ul

"I would speak with your officer," I said to the soldier.

"I have again conveyed your request to him," said the fellow. "Now be silent."

I lay back in the ropes, on the sand.

I gritted my teeth against the insects crawling on my body. I turned, 1 shifted my position. I could not much use my hands to protect myself. 1 wanted to cry out in misery. 1 wondered if such torment could drive a man insane. I was silent. I lay then again on my back, looking up. I could see stars, two of the three moons. I heard a fellow a few feet away cry out in pain, and slap at his body. There were many men about. The delta is treacherous, and difficult to navigate. Its channels change almost overnight. There is often very little visibility in it, for more than a few feet ahead, for the rence. Its sluggish, muddy waters vary from channels deep enough to float a round ship, to washes of a few inches deep. Its average depth, at this time of year, after the spring thaws upriver, is three to five feet. There are many sand bars in it. On one such bar I and some fifty or sixty men now camped. Their small craft were drawn up about the bar. In the first night, ten nights ago, several of these had been lost. The number and configuration of the sand bars, in virtue of the currents, is subject to frequent rearrangements, their materials being often swept away and redistributed. After that first night, the small craft had been tied together, some of the ropes fastened ashore, to stakes. My bound ankles were fastened by a short rope to one of these stakes, my neck, by a rope, to another.

"Fellow," I called.

The soldier looked over at me.

"Am I the only prisoner in the delta?" I asked.

"I do not know," he said.

Marcus and I had been kept separate even from the time of our capture. I had, however, known his location at least, until we had arrived, after several days, in the temporary camp of Ar, then west of Holmesk. We were then put apart, I caged, and he taken somewhere else. I assumed he had been taken to see Saphronicus, or at least conducted into the presence of appropriate officers, this in accord with the expressed intentions of our captor, the leader of the patrol encountered near Teslit.

"I was brought to the camp of Ar," I said, "with my fellow, a lad from Ar's Station."

"Your officer?" he asked.

"My fellow," I said.

"Spies, both of you," said he, grimly.

"What became of him?" I asked.

"What do you suppose became of him?" he asked.

"I do not know," I said.

"He was a spy," said the fellow.

"Do you know what became of him?" I asked.

"I suppose he was castrated, tortured and impaled," said the fellow.

"He was of Ar's Station," I said, "colony to Ar, and of ancient and honorable family."

"Of high family?" he asked.

"Of the Marcelliani," I said.

"Perhaps, then," said he, "he was merely scourged and beheaded."

"Is that known to you?" I asked.

"No," he said.

"You do not know where he is, then," I said.

"No," he said.

"I have been brought to the delta," I said. "Why?"

"That you may see the unavailingness of your lies," he said, "that you may see us close with the sleen of Cos, that you may see the slaughter of your friends, your paymasters, that you may see wreaked upon them the vengeance of the state of Ar! Glory to Ar!"

"Glory to Ar," repeated a nearby fellow. The low, spreading, sloping mound of sand, that bar in the delta, was crowded.

"How many Cosians have you taken?" I asked.

"We will soon close with them," he said, angrily. "Yes," said another fellow, listening.

"Tomorrow, maybe tomorrow," said another.

"Yes, maybe tomorrow!" said the fellow near me.

"Sleep now," said one of the fellows in the vicinity. The men were then silent.

I lay there for a time, looking up at the sky. I once saw, outlined against one of the moons, membranous, clawed wings outspread, the soaring shape of the giant, predatory ul, the dreaded winged tharlarion of the delta. It is, normally, the only creature that dares to outline itself against the sky in the area. I tried not to feel the tiny feet on my body. Toward morning, somehow, I fell asleep.