in which a fellow, victorious in his purview, learns only later, and to his dismay, that his side is in retreat, that the battle, as a whole, was lost. Still, I did not doubt but what the losses were considerable. The entire right flank might have to be reorganized.
'We will counterattack,' said the officer.
'Your foe will not be there,' I said.
'This is a tragic day for Ar,' said a fellow.
More soldiers were wading, some staggering, toward us, these come from the right.
'The first engagement to Cos,' said a fellow bitterly.
'Who would have thought this could happen?' said a man.
'Vengeance upon the Cosian sleen!' cried a man.
'The missiles used against you were not quarrels, not bolts,' I said.
'No,' said a fellow, 'arrows.'
'Arrows,' said I, 'sped from the peasant bow.' In the last few years, the use of the peasant bow, beginning in the vicinity of the tidal marshes, had spread rapidly eastward throughout the delta. The materials for the weapon and its missiles, not native to the delta, are acquired largely through trade. Long ago the rencers had learned its power. They had never forgotten it. By means of it they had become formidable foes. The combination of the delta, with its natural defenses, and the peasant bow, made the rencers all but invulnerable.
The officer looked at me.
'You are not dealing with Cosians,' I said. 'You are dealing with rencers.'
'People of scaling knives, of throwing sticks, and fish spears!' laughed a fellow.
'And of the peasant bow,' I said.
'Surely you jest?' said the officer.
'Did you hear, before the attack,' I asked, 'the cries of marsh gants?'
'Yes,' said one of the fellows in the water.
'It is by means of such cries that rencers communicate during the day,' I said. 'At night they use the cries of Vosk gulls.'
'We will counterattack,' said the officer.
'You will not find them,' I said.
'We will send out scouts,' he said.
'They would not return,' I said. To be sure, it was possible to scout rencers, but normally this could be done only by individuals wise to the ways of the delta, in most cases other rencers. The forces of Ar in the delta, if I were not mistaken, would not have experienced scouts with them. Even so small a thing as this constituted yet another indication of the precipitateness of Ar, her unreadiness to enter the delta.
'We must not allow them to press their advantage,' said the officer.
Men were still streaming in from the right.
'They will not press their advantage-as yet,' I said.
' 'As yet'?' he asked.
'It is a different form of warfare,' I said.
'It is not warfare,' said a man. 'It is brigandage, it is ambush and banditry!'
'I would not pursue them,' I said. 'They will melt away before you, perhaps to close on your flanks.'
'What is your recommendation?' he asked.
'I would set up defense perimeters,' I said.
'Labienus is in command,' said a fellow, angrily. 'Labienus' was the name of the officer.
'Do not listen to him,' said another. 'Surely he is in sympathy with them.'
'He may be one of them!' said another.
'He is an enemy!' said another.
'Kill him!' said another.
'You anticipate another attack?' asked the officer.
'Perimeters against infiltration,' I said. 'Preferably with open expanses of delta. Beware of straws, or rence, which seem to move in the water.'
'You do not anticipate another attack?' asked the officer.
'The element of surprise gone,' I said, 'I would not anticipate another attack, not now, at least, not of a nature similar to that which has apparently just occurred.'
You speak of simple rencers as though they were trained warriors, of ruses, of strategems and tactics which might be the mark of a Maximus Hegesius Quintilius, of a Dietrich of Tarnburg.'
'Or of a Ho-Hak, or a Tamrun, of the Rence,' I said.
'I have not heard of such fellows,' said a man.
'And many in the rence,' I said, 'may never have heard of a Marlenus of Ar.'
There were angry cries from the men about.
'You are now, unbidden, in their country,' I said.
'Rencers!' scoffed a man.
'Wielders of the great bow, the peasant bow,' I reminded him.
'Rabble!' said a man.
'Apparently your right flank did not find them such,' I said.
'Set up defense perimeters,' said the officer.
Subalterns, angrily, signaled to their men.
'With such perimeters set,' I said, 'I think the rencers will keep their distance-until dark.'
'They will never dare to attack Ar again,' said a fellow.
'It is shameful to be bested by rencers,' said a man.
'They may have been Cosians,' said a fellow.
'Or under Cosian command,' said another.
'I do not think so,' I said, 'though I would suppose the Cosians have many friends, and many contacts, in the delta. They have, for years, cultivated those in the delta. I would not doubt but what agents, in the guise of traders, and such, have well prepared the rencers for your visit. You may well imagine what they may have been told.'
Men looked at one another.
'I think there is little doubt that those of Cos are more politically astute than those of Ar,' I said. An excellent example of this was Cos' backing of Port Cos' entry into the Vosk League, presumably hoping thereby to influence or control the league through the policies of her sovereign colony, while Ar refused this same opportunity to Ar's Station, thereby more than ever isolating Ar's Station on the river. 'Cos comes to the delta with smiles and sweets, as an ally and friend. Ar comes as an uninvited trespasser, as though she would be an invading conqueror.'
'The rencers have attacked us,' said a man. 'They must be punished!'
'It is you who are being punished,' I said.
' 'We'?' said the fellow.
'Yes,' I said. 'Did you not, only yesterday, destroy a rence village?'
There was silence.
'Was that not the 'great victory'?' I asked.
'How could rencers retaliate so quickly?' asked the officer. 'The reports suggest there were hundreds of them.'
'There may have been hundreds,' I said. 'I suspect they have been gathered for days.'
'Surely they know we only seek to close with those of Cos, with their force in the north,' said a fellow.
'I think they would find that very hard to believe,' I said.
'Why?' asked a man. I looked at the officer.
'No,' said the officer, angrily. 'That is impossible.'
'We have no quarrel with rencers,' said a man. 'We do now,' said another, bitterly. 'Why did they not show themselves?' asked a man. 'We did not even see them,' said a man.
'Perhaps they struck and fled, like the brigands they are,' said a man.
'Perhaps,' said another fellow.
'No,' I said. 'They are still in the vicinity, somewhere.'
