Vagabonds of Gor

7 Glory to Ar

"There!" cried a fellow. "The rence is broken there!"

There was a cheer from the several craft about us. This cheer was echoed, from flotilla to flotilla, of the small craft behind us, as well as to the sides.

"They cannot be far ahead now!" cried a man.

Eagerly the men of Ar then pressed through the break in the rence.

Those behind, in their numbers, for pasangs back, may have thought the enemy himself had been sighted.

By late afternoon, however, nothing more had been seen.

"I am hungry," said a man.

The fin of a marsh shark cut the water nearby. Men thrust it away with the butts of their spears.

A wading fellow discarded his shield. He could perhaps no longer bear its weight. He held to his spear, his eyes closed, using it like a pole, to keep his balance in the soft bottom.

"Are such sharks dangerous?" asked a fellow.

"Yes," I said. The common Gorean shark is nine-gilled. There are many varieties of such shark, some of which, like the marsh shark and the sharks of the Vosk and Laurius, are adapted to fresh water. In the recent conflicts at Ar's Station, blood had carried for hundreds of pasangs downriver, even to the gulf. This had lured many open-water sharks into the delta and eastward. Hundreds of these had perished. Their bodies could still be found along the shores of the Vosk.

I saw a fellow bend down from one of the small craft and lift water to his mouth, and drink. This, like the fin of the marsh shark, earlier, told me we were still far from the gulf. It was perhaps as much as four or five hundred pasangs away. I wondered if these men of Ar knew how fortunate they were. At this point in the delta, east of the tidal marshes, the water was still drinkable.

"Al!" cried the fellow behind me, with the paddle. More water swirled up through the rence of our small craft. The water was now over our calves. I did not think the small craft would last another day. Normally a rence craft will last weeks, even months. Ours had begun to deteriorate in days. I did not think this was inexplicable. About us, too, many men were already wading, some clinging to the sides of rafts and small boats.

"Glory to Ar!" cried a fellow.

"Glory to Ar!" called others.