He himself, personally, disarmed, would not be likely to leap upon my sword.
'Be silent,' said Plenius. 'Cosians may be about.'
Claudius looked at Plenius, puzzled.
'Tarl of Port Kar,' said Plenius, 'is a friend to Ar.'
'Well,' I said, 'at least to you, if not to Ar.'
'If you try to harm, him,' said Plenius, 'we will cut you to pieces.'
This consideration, I noted, dampened the ardor of the newcomers.
'And the other fellow, too,' said Plenius, 'is undoubtedly a friend to Ar.'
'At least,' I said, 'he would doubtless be well disposed toward you, personally.' I frankly doubted that there would be many folks from Ar's Station who would retain much affection for, or allegiance to, Ar, given Ar's abandonment of Ar's Station to the Cosian force in the north. If there were any, however, I did not doubt but what among them might be counted the young fellow who had just rushed past.
'Where is he?' asked one of our fellows.
'At the rate he was going,' I said, 'I doubt that he is far.'
'Are you hungry?' Plenius asked the newcomers.
'Yes,' said more than one. I found this easy to believe. It seemed to be confirmed by certain rumblings which came now and then to my ears.
'What do you have to eat?' asked Claudius.
'Do not ask,' said Plenius.
'Why was the fellow you were after in a uniform of Cos?' I asked.
I myself, when a captive of the men of Ar, and thought to be in the fee of Cos, had not been granted such an indulgence.
'It was given to him by rencers,' said Claudius, 'who took our word that he was Cosian, even though he himself denied it.'
'You have had dealings with rencers?' inquired Plenius.
The newcomers looked at one another.
'Speak,' said Plenius.
'We were with the 11th,' said Claudius, 'which, with its associated columns, was defeated several weeks ago, attempting to exit from the delta. Many were slain, many were captured. Many, including ourselves, fled back into the marshes. It is hard to know what became of most of these. I suppose many perished in the marshes, some to the arrows of rencers, some to beasts, some to the sand, and such. I do not know. Doubtless some escaped.'
'But you have had dealings with rencers?' pressed Plenius.
'In the past few weeks,' said Claudius, 'the rencers have been combing the marshes for survivors.'
'Go on,' said Plenius.
'They have been hunting us, like animals,' he said, bitterly.
'That they may slay you?' asked Plenius.
'If it pleases them,' he said, 'but, too, as it might please them, they trap us, surprise us, surround us, catch us, take us, almost with impunity, to strip us and chain us, and sell us as slaves to Cosians.'
'That then,' said Plenius, 'was the nature of your dealings with rencers?' He would surely have noticed that their weapons were gone. On the other hand, they were clothed.
'We were exhausted in the rence, lost, starving,' said Claudius. 'I do not think we could have survived a direct attack. They must have been following us, watching us. We did not even know they were there. We thought we were alone, with the tharlarion, and our misery. Then one night, on the sand, we awakened, knives at our throats. In a few Ehn we were naked, manacled, hand and foot, chained by the neck in a coffle. Our uniforms were not destroyed. They were not cut from us. Rather we were forced to remove them before our chaining. The Cosians, it seems, wanted some uniforms, doubtless for purposes of subterfuge or infiltration. Too, the women of the rencers like the bright cloth, and we were told, too, that some of them were to be cut into slave strips, or fashioned into ta-teeras, slave rags, for slave girls, such being, in their opinion, a fit disposition for such material.'
One of our fellows made an angry noise. To be sure, I had fashioned Ina's slave strips from such material, and he did not seem to object to them on her. Indeed, I am sure he regarded her as quite fetching in them. Surely he had kept his eye on her often enough in them, she working about the camp.
'We were then marched north, under whips, as though we might have been mere females, and taken to a holding area. There we were added to chains of more than two hundred and fifty poor fellows, taken in the marshes, their plight the same as ours.'
'What of the one you call a Cosian?' I asked.
'He, though they found him bound in our camp, suffered a similar fate,' said Claudius. 'Our captors did not much discriminate amongst us. Too, they may have taken him, at first, as one of our own, though under detention. His accent, for example, did not suggest that of Cos.'
'But you are here now,' said Plenius.
'I cannot explain it,' said Claudius.
'What happened?' asked Plenius.
'A few days ago,' said Claudius, puzzled, 'all of us in the holding area were released. Our uniforms, but not our weapons, were returned to us. For the first time our captors then took seriously that the Cosian with us was a Cosian. At our request, they found for him a uniform of Cos, probably one which they had been given as a diplomatic gift, or one of several for use in approaching Cosian patrols. He objected, but we insisted that he wear it. Surely we would not permit him a uniform of glorious Ar. We would remove it from him as soon as it would prove feasible. The rencers, noting our hostility to the Cosian, and accepting the possibility that he might actually be Cosian, permitted him to leave the holding area before us, presumably so he would have time to reach the Cosian lines before we could apprehend him. A few of us, who had had him in our keeping earlier, then determined, of course, to follow and recapture him. We have been pursuing him southeast for days, and only this morning caught sight of him. I think we would have taken him, too, had it not been for your intervention.'
'He is not a Cosian,' I said. Claudius shrugged.
'Do you know why you were released?' I asked.
'No,' he said.
'Do you know anything about it?' I asked.
'Only,' said he, 'that it was by the orders of a fellow named Tamrun.'
Plenius and I exchanged pleased glances, as did the others of our fellows.
'Is this significant?' asked Claudius.
'I think so,' I said. 'We may explain our speculations to you later. But now, I think, the fellows of Ar in the delta, if there are any left, are safe from rencers, or, at least, in no more danger than they would be ordinarily, for example, if they were so rash as to pass warning signals, and such.'
'But not safe from Cosians,' said Plenius.
'Certainly not,' I said.
'Nor from those who take fee from Cos,' said a fellow.
'True,' I said.
'Look,' said a man. He pointed back. There, several yards away, looking toward us, was a fellow in a Cosian uniform. He had undoubtedly soon discovered that the pursuit of which he had been the object had been discontinued. He had then, rather than continue his flight, paused to reconnoiter. He must have been puzzled, indeed, by our little grouping.
I waved to him. 'Ho, Marcus,' I called. 'Come, join us!'
'Any who would attempt to harm him, or offer him violence,' said Plenius, 'will be cut to pieces.'
The newcomers looked at one another.
'Is that understood?' asked Plenius.
'Yes,' said Claudius.
Slowly, haggard, stumbling, Marcus approached us. 'Tarl,' he said, 'is it you?'
'Yes,' I said. 'And you were running very poorly. We are going to have to give you some rest, and some food. Then we have work to do.'
