Vagabonds of Gor

6 Forward

One of the men behind me, with the paddle, cursed. Our knees were in water.

The bow of the rence craft, still dry, nosed through reeds. Other craft, too, were about.

"Surely we must be upon the sleen of Cos by now!" wept a man.

"Hold!" called a voice, ahead.

A gant suddenly fluttered out of the reeds, darting up, then again down, away.

"There is a body here, in the water," said a fellow ahead, to the left, on a narrow raft.

"A Cosian?" asked a man, in a rence craft nearby.

"No," said the man.

We approached. The officer's boat, too, the fishing craft, propelled by poles, approached, he and others, as well.

In the marsh water, half submerged, its face down, floated a body.

"It is one of our fellows," said a man.

"Cosians did this," exclaimed a man.

"It is unlikely," I said.

"Who then?" asked a fellow.

"Consider the wounds," I said. There were three of them, in the back.

"He was struck three times," said a fellow.

"No, once," I said.

"There are three wounds," said the man.

"Consider them," I said, "the rectlinear alignment, their spacing.

"A trident," said a man.

"Yes," I said. "The three-pronged fish spear."

"That is not a weapon," said a man.

"It may be used as such, obviously," I said.

"And in the arena, it is," said a fellow. He referred to one of the armaments well known in the arena, that of the "fisherman," he who fights with net and trident. There are a number of such armaments, usually bearing traces of their origin.

"Surely here, in the delta, there are no arena fighters," said a man.

The body was pulled up, onto the raft.

"But it is by means of such weapons," I said, "that fishermen often fight. Indeed, it is from that practice, improved and refined, and made more deadly, that arena fighters have taken their example."

"Rencers?" asked the officer, of me.

"Undoubtedly," I said. Rencers live in the delta. They inhabit rence islands, huge floating rafts of woven rence. As the rence rots at the bottom, it is replaced, more rence being added to the surface. The sand bars, as I have suggested, are unsuitable for permanent locations. And, indeed, the rence islands, inhabited by the rencers, as they float, are movable. An entire village thus, on its island, may be shifted at will. Needless to say, this mobility can be very useful to the rencers, enabling them, for example, to seek new fishing grounds and harvest fresh stands of rence, their major trading commodity, used for various purposes, such as the manufacture of cloth and paper. It is also useful, of course, in withdrawing from occasional concentrations of tharlarion and avoiding undesired human contacts. The location of such villages is usually secret. Trade contacts are made by the rencers themselves, at their election, at established points. Such villages, given their nature, may even be difficult to detect from the air.

"Do you think there are any about?" asked the officer.

"I do not know," I said. "There might be. There might not be."

"They could be anywhere in the rence," said a fellow, uneasily.

"True," I said. To be sure, I doubted that there were any in the vicinity. Troops of Ar, in their numerous craft, some men even wading, were all about.

"Why would they have struck this fellow?" asked a man. "Who knows?" I asked. Actually I had a very good idea what might have been the case.

"Consign the body to the delta," said the-officer. The body was rolled from the raft, into the water. "Forward," said the officer.