was a touch not untypically Gorean.
'Doubtless even now hundreds of them are packed behind the bar of cage wagons, being taken to Brundisium, there to be shaved, and then shackled on the tiered shelves of slave ships, to be embarked for Cos and Tyros.'
'Perhaps,' I said. In actuality, of course, I surmised that many would be distributed to continental markets, if only to take a quicker profit on them and avoid deflating the market on the islands. I did not doubt, however, that many of the most beautiful would indeed find their way to Cos and Tyros, if only as examples of prize loot. Such, too, might well grace the triumphs of the victors. Beautiful, naked women look well being marched in golden chains before the war beasts of masters. Doubtless many would march before Lurius of Jad, Ubar of Cos, in some grand triumph, though in the fighting he would not have stirred from his palace in Telnus.
'Still,' he said, 'there are many here.'
'Yes,' I said, looking about, at the crowded landing, and the piers out toward the river. 'There are.'
'It will be a terrible slaughter,' he said.
Aemilianus was sitting on the landing near me. A man supported him, holding him about the shoulders.
I looked up at the interior wall.
'Commander,' I said to him, 'many of your people are within missile range from the wall.'
Indeed, it would be hard to fire into the crowd without scoring a hit.
'I am tired,' he said.
'Many are afraid to go to the piers,' said a man. 'They are afraid of the Cosian ships, that the walls of rafts will be opened, that they will attack. They fear to leave the landing, the shelter of the wall of the citadel.'
'What shelter?' I asked, angrily.
'Many others,' said a fellow, 'fear to tread the walkway.'
'There are sharks about,' said one man.
'See the fins in the water,' said another. 'There, there are two!' 'Blood has carried down to the delta,' said another bitterly. 'River sharks have come from as far west as Turmus. The bodies of delta sharks, leaving the salt water of the delta, bloated, litter the shores between the delta and Ven.'
'There is even a greater reason to avoid the walkway,' said another man, bitterly.
'What is that?' I asked.
He did not explain himself.
Suddenly Aemilianus looked at me. 'What did you say?' he asked.
I crouched down beside him.
'Move your people out to the piers,' I said. 'The walkway can be destroyed behind them. Then the Cosians can approach only by water.'
'There is no food there,' said a man.
'There is none here either,' I said.
'It makes no difference,' said Aemilianus, wearily.
'It is the militarily appropriate action,' I said.
'It is hard to see,' he said, suddenly.
'Make a litter,' I said. 'Carry the commander to the piers.'
'I have a net,' said a fellow.
Two spears were thrust through the net, about two feet apart, and Aemilianus was placed on it.
He opened his eyes.
'There are Cosians on the wall!' he said.
'They have been there,' I said.
'Why have the people not been withdrawn to the piers?' he asked.
'The orders have not been issued,' I said.
'Where is Marcus Tulvinius?' he asked.
'Here,' said an officer.
'Withdraw to the piers,' he said.
'It cannot be done,' he said.
Aemilianus struggled to focus his eyes on him.
'The walkway has been interdicted,' he said. 'The people on the piers made it there earlier, before the Cosians came to the inner wall. You can see the bodies of some of those who tried it later. Make a move toward it, and it will covered by a hundred crossbows.' 'It seems,' said Aemilianus, 'that we may choose to die here, or there.'
'I would choose to make matters less convenient for Cosians,' I said. Aemilianus smiled.
'The situation is hopeless,' said the officer. 'I shall treat for terms.' 'With Cosians?' smiled Aemilianus.
'Look!' cried a fellow. 'On the wall!'
We now saw a tall figure there, behind the ramparts, one whose helmet was surmounted by a crest of sleen hair. There were standards held behind him. 'It is the camp commander!' cried a fellow.
'Commander?' asked the officer.
'Do as you will,' said Aemilianus, wearily.
The officer turned about and, drawing from beneath his cloak a white sheet, which he had apparently concealed there, lifted it, and approached the base of the wall.
This action seemed to be greeted with derision from the Cosians. One could see no reaction from the fellow with the helmet, with its crest of sleen hair. 'Aemilianus asks terms!' called the officer, up to the wall.
I saw the fists of Aemilianus, in the improvised litter, clench.
There was laughter from the wall.
'Let your women strip themselves stark naked,' called a fellow down from the wall, 'and present themselves one by one at the gate for our appraisal.' 'Perhaps some will be found pleasing,' said another fellow.
'The throats of the others will be cut!' laughed another from the height of the wall.
The tall figure on the height of the wall, the standards behind him, betrayed no emotion. He surveyed the scene below him. smoke was rising from somewhere in the citadel.
'Aemilianus himself agrees to surrender his person into your hands!' called the officer.
Aemilianus lay back on the litter, on the stone of the landing, his eyes closed. 'Terms!' called the officer. 'We ask terms!' The figure on the height of the wall lifted his hand, a small gesture. 'No!' cried the officer below.
He stepped back, the hand which held the white sheet lowered. 'No!' he cried. At the gesture of the commander on the wall two of the fellows flanking him, crossbowmen, had set quarrels into their bows.
'No!' cried the officer below, backing away.
I saw the two quarrels leave the bows like metal birds. The snap of the cable and its vibration carried even to the landing.
'Shield wall!' I cried. 'All with shields here! Form the wall!' Men with shields hurried to where I stood, lifting the shields, overlapping them.
I forced my way among them, sometimes literally thrusting shields into position. Quarrels struck about me. I saw in one wild instant the officer who had addressed the wall now facing us, he having turned about. He had a look of dismay, of disbelief, on his face. Then he fell, the two quarrels in his chest. 'Back!' I cried to the screaming women and children, 'Get as close to the wall as you can! Back! Back!'
But many fled toward us.
I saw a fellow tumble from the wall, a quarrel in his chest, though it was not finned. It had apparently been only a sharpened rod. I saw the young fellow who had had the this penning the people below between the water and the wall, holding them there, like verr for the slaughter.
I crouched down behind the shield wall. 'Take the commander, shielded,' I said, 'to the piers.'
'I will remain here,' said Aemilianus. 'You will command,' I said, 'from interior lines.'
'I will stay here!' he said.
I gestured to the bearers of his litter, who lifted it, the two fellows with the spears thrust through the net, Aemilianus stretched his hand toward me, and I clasped it. The bearers, then, crouching down, behind four fellows holding shields between them and the wall, hurried toward the walkway.
The women and children closest to the wall were in little immediate danger from quarrels. It was hard to strike them with quarrels from the height of the wall. I looked wildly to the height of the wall. The commander was
