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.
8 The Pursuit has Continued
'I would speak with your officer,' I said to the fellow, he tethering my ankles to a stake.
'I have spoken to him,' said he. 'Such permission has not been granted.'
I was then thrust back to the sand. Another fellow then put the rope on my neck, that I might be again affixed, bound, between two stakes.
'You know something of the delta, do you not?' asked the fellow who had tethered my ankles, standing near me, looking down at me.
'Something of it,' I said. I had once come to Port Kar through the delta.
'Where are we?' he asked.
'Only a rencer would know, if he,' I said.
'We are well within the delta,' he said.
'Yes,' I said, 'two or three hundred pasangs.' 'Further,' said he.
'Perhaps,' I said. That could be true.
'Where are your fellows, the Cosian sleen!' he suddenly cried.
I was silent.
'Do not expect to be fed,' he snarled.
'There is little enough to feed anyone,' said a fellow, wearily, nearby.
The delta, of course, is teeming with wildlife. To be sure, the men of Ar, in their numbers, in their haste, with the relentlessness of their pursuit, only lately slowed, had not been in a position to take advantage of it. Too, the disturbance of their passage, given the noise, the splashing and such, had doubtless driven much of the normal game, particularly birds and fish, from the area.
'He is to be kept alive,' said one of the men.
'Very well,' said the first fellow. 'I am sure we can find him something to eat, something delicious, something fit for a spy.' He looked down at me, in hate. He fingered the hilt of the dagger at his belt. 'But not tonight,' he said.
He turned away from me.
'How could we not have yet closed with the sleen of Cos?' asked a fellow.'
'In the delta, one could hide a dozen armies,' said another. 'Surely we would see some signs of them,' said another fellow.
'Yes,' said another. 'How is it that we have seen no signs of them?'
'We have seen signs of them,' growled another.
'Yes,' said another.
I doubted that this was true.
9 The Barge
'Move ahead,' said the fellow in the bow of the small rence craft.
I struggled forward, pressing against the water, up to my chest, stumbling, pushing through rence, the rope on my neck going back to the small craft. My hands were now manacled behind me. For the purpose of comfort, I much preferred this to rope. That thoughtfulness had not been, of course, the motivation of my captors. Rather they wished, now that my hands were not in view, to be assured as to my continued helplessness. Perhaps rope might be worked free, or slipped, somehow, unseen, beneath the surface. The metal, on the other hand, would hold me well. I did not object. I, too, were our positions reversed, would presumably have taken similar precautions. I did not know who held the key.
My head went briefly under the water, and then, coughing, I struggled again to the surface. There are many such irregularities in the bottom. Rence cut at my face. I spit water.
'Move! Pull!' I heard behind me.
I turned my head to the side, that the rope would draw against the side of my neck. I struggled to tow the small craft. It was hard to paddle now, being heavy, the rence soaked with water. I had been put before it, the rope on my neck, this morning, wading, that it need not bear my weight. In this fashion it might last another day or two.
'Hurry, pull, lazy sleen!' I heard. The bow of the craft came beside my shoulder, the rope dropping back in the water. The fellow there thrust out, striking me in the back with the paddle. I stumbled. I regained my balance. I then struggled ahead again, through the rence.
I nearly cried out. Something under the water, moving, had touched my leg.
Nearby was a barge, one of the larger craft in our makeshift flotilla, carrying perhaps fifty men. It was poled by ten men to a side, working in shifts. Some other fellows, with their helmets, cast water out of it. Other men clung to its stern.
I could not see far from the water, but there were men and small boats, rafts and such, all about.
I was not the only fellow in the water. There were many there. Most of these fellows were in long lines. In this fashion, the first fellow can mark out footing for those who follow and each man can keep his eye on the fellow before him. Too, a small craft would normally bring up the rear of such lines.
A rence craft floundered near us, settling in the water.
'Pull, sleen,' ordered the man behind me.
Again I struggled to move the small craft forward.
'Had I a whip,' he cried, 'you would move faster!'
'Leech!' I said. 'Leech!' I could feel it on my back. It was large. It may have been what had touched me in the water. I could not reach it with my chained hands.
'Help!' I heard. 'Help!'
I turned about and saw a fellow several yards back, to one side, his eyes wild with horror, lift his hands. 'I cannot move!' he cried. 'I sink!' He had sought a shallower course. There are many such, here and there. The water there had come only to his knees. But as I watched he had sunk to his waist.
'Quicksand!' said another fellow.
A spear was extended to the first fellow and he seized it, eagerly, desperately, the water now about his neck, and was drawn free.
