'Few go north now,' he said.
'Most here, I gather,' I said, 'are from the north.'
'Yes,' said he, 'and we are crowded beyond belief.'
'With folks from Ar's Station?' I asked.
'Not many now,' he said. 'Some managed to flee.'
'Most are trapped in the city?' I said.
'Apparently,' he said.
'What is your latest intelligence?' I asked.
'Little that is new,' he said.
'And what is old?' I asked.
'From whence have you come?' he asked.
'From the south,' I said. That I had come from Ar herself was no business to this fellow.
'Only what I hear,' he said, 'a€”that the Cosians have invested Ar's Station, on three sides by land, and have closed the harbor, that with a wall of chained rafts.'
'Have the walls been breached?' I asked.
'Several times,' said he, 'but each time the defenders have managed to hold the breach, and repair the wall.'
I nodded. Some terribly bitter fighting takes place at such times. So, too, it can, in the streets themselves. 'Cosians, as far as you know,' I said, 'hold no part of the city itself.'
'Not as far as I know,' he said.
'What are the numbers involved, and your speculations as to the outcome?' 'It is you who wear the scarlet,' he said. 'I am only a poor porter.' 'Surely you have heard things,' I said. I sheathed my knife. I sensed it might be making the fellow nervous.
'I have heard there are thousands of Cosians, their auxiliaries, and their mercenaries, at Ar's Station,' he said. 'Of that is true, they must outnumber the regulars in Ar's Station by as many as ten to one.'
'Equipment, supplies?' I asked.
'They brought with them the devices for siege work from Brundisium,' he said. 'I suppose that, too, must be the source of their supplies.'
That seemed to me to make sense. If it were true, however, why had Ar's tarnsmen not attempted to interdict these supply routes? If they had, I had heard nothing of it.
'The fighting at Ar's Station, by report, has been lengthy and fierce,' said the man. 'Her walls are defended by common citizens as well as soldiers. The Cosians, I think, did not expect such resistance.
I supposed not.
'You are of the red caste,' said the fellow. 'Why is Cos interested in Ar's Station?'
'I am not fully sure,' I said, 'but there could be various reasons, and some of them would seem obvious. As you know much of the friction between Cos and Ar has to do with their economic competitions in the Vosk Basin. Taking Ar's Station would, in a stroke, diminish the major citadel of Ar's Salerian Confederation and the Vosk League.
To be sure, in virtue of their mutual distrust of Cos and the Salerian Confederation normally maintained close relations, and the Vosk League, a confederation of towns along the Vosk, originally formed, like the Salerian Confederation on the Olni, to control river piracy, was, at least in theory, independent of both Ar and Cos. I say, 'in theory' because one of the charter cities in the Vosk League is Port Cos, which, although it is a sovereign polis, was originally founded by, and settled by, Cosians. If Ar were out of the way in the area of the Vosk, of course, I did not doubt but what friction would develop quickly enough between Cos and the Salerian Confederation, and perhaps between Cos and the Vosk League, and for much the same reasons as formerly between Cos and Ar.
Some well-known towns in the Vosk League are Victoria, Tafa and Fina. The farthest west town in the league is Turmus, at the delta. The farthest east is White Water. Some of the towns of the league are actually east of Ar's Station, such as Forest Port, Iskander, Tancred's Landing, and, of course, White Water. Ar's Station, although it was apparently active in the altercations with pirates on the Vosk, never joined the league. This is probably because of the influence of Ar herself, which might regard her extensive territorial claims in the area as being implicitly undermined or compromised by membership in any such alliance.
The headquarters of the Vosk League is located in the city of Victoria. I suppose there are special historical reasons for this, for Victoria is not centrally located on the river, say, between the delta to the west and the entry of the Olni into the Vosk on the east, which point, incidentally, is controlled by the city of Lara, a member of the Salerian's Confederation. Victoria lies rather toward the west, in the reaches traditionally more subject to Cosian influence. Geographical position, accordingly, at least with respect to approximating the midpoint between the delta and the Olni, was apparently not the paramount consideration in locating the headquarters of the Vosk League. Had it been one might have expected to find its headquarters in, say, Jasmine or Siba, towns much more centrally located.
'I have heard,' said the man, 'a large relieving force bound for Ar's Station departed from Ar weeks ago.'
'I heard that, too,' I said. I knew that it was true. I also knew that Ar, inexplicably, to my mind, had literally invested the bulk of its land power in that very expedition, and had done so with the main forces of Cos not in the north but in the vicinity of Torcadino. This seemed to me a military mistake of almost unbelievable dimension. I had been in Torcadino several weeks ago, indeed, at the very moment when the city, housing Cosian siege engines and supplies, serving as a depot and staging area for the eastward advance of Cos, had, in a daring stratagem, been seized by Dietrich of Tarnburg with no more than a few thousand mercenaries. These had entered the city through aquaducts, literally over the heads of unsuspecting Cosian armies camped about the city. This act had stalled the invasion. I expected Dietrich to be able to hold Torcadino through the winter, but little longer. I had borne letters from Dietrich to Ar germane to these matters.
In the intrigues of the time, and to divert suspicion, Gnieus Lelius, high councilor, and first minister of Ar, he who was acting as regent in the absence of Marlenus, Ubar of the city, had even had me brought to the Central Cylinder under guard, as though I might have been arrested, and was to be examined on some charge. There, personally and at length, I had spoken to him. I had urged him to march to Torcadino and confront the main body of Cosian forces. But the troops of Ar had not been recalled, nor diverted to Torcadino. They had continued to march northward, as though the major danger lay at Ar's Station. This, in effect, seemed to negate the bold stroke of Dietrich, to slow the Cosian advance, and give Ar time to organize, to arm and march. Ar had not moved against the Cosians at Torcadino. She had marched north, presumably to relieve Ar's Station. Gnieus Lelius had listened to me thoughtfully and patiently. But he would, it seemed, trust to the judgment of his officers.
I had then been kept in Ar for weeks, a guest in the Central Cylinder, waiting and waiting. Then at last I had been given a sealed letter for the commander of Ar's Station, whose name was Aemilianus. That was all. That very night, on tarnback, I had streaked northward from Ar. I had sold the tarn only two days ago, to proceed on foot. The skies had seemed heavily patrolled. I had little doubt they would become more so as I proceeded farther northward. It seemed to me that my chances of successfully delivering the message to Aemilianus, whatever might be its contents, might be improved if it were borne not by tarnsman but by one afoot, one who might, say, among mercenaries, or civilians, mix inconspicuously. This speculation was further encouraged by the fact that Ar's station would surely have its tarn wire strung and the skies about it, as nearly as I had determined, were currently controlled by Cos. 'But,' said the man, 'such a force has not passed this point.' 'I do not know its location,' I said. I had stayed at certain inns in the south, past which it had taken its march, taking five days to pass given points. Then, moving northward, I had stayed at inns, also on, or near, the Vitkel Aria somewhere north of Venna.
'It cannot have just disappeared,' he said.
'It is a mystery to us,' I said, 'but doubtless to those with access to the proper intelligence network, its movements and position are well known.' I had encountered refugees from Ar's Station and its environs even south of Venna. Some told me they had seen the army pass. Some had even told me that men and women they knew had followed the army northward, as though confident of its victory and returning to their homes. What puzzled me most was that the Viktel Aria was the most direct route, for hundreds of pasangs, to Ar's Station. Indeed, Ar's Station, in effect, secured the northern terminus of the Viktel Aria, or Vosk Road, at the Vosk.
The Viktel Aria was a military toad, one laid out by military engineers as a military route. It sped almost
