'A little,' said the fellow who was reading.
'What?' he was asked by several about.
'If Ar desires peace, and would survive, if she desires peace, and would be freed of the onerous yoke of a tyrant, let her deliver to my plenipotentiary, Myron, polemarkos of the continental forces of the Cosian ubarate, some sign of her desire for peace, some evidence of her hope for reconciliation, some token of her good will.'
'What does he want?' asked a man.
'Is Gnieus Lelius a tyrant?' asked a fellow.
'There is the matter of the ostraka,' said a man.
'And the permits!' said another.
'Tyrannical actions!' said another.
'Gnieus Lelius is a tyrant,' said another.
'Absurd,' said a fellow.
'He is soft, weak, vacillating,' said a man.
'He is not a Ubar,' said another, 'but, too, he is surely not a tyrant.'
'He is a weak fool,' said another.
'But not a tyrant,' said a man.
'No,' said another.
'There is the matter of the ostraka, the permits, the restrictions,' said another.
'That is true,' said another.
'Perhaps he is a tyrant,' said a man.
'Perhaps,' said another.
'Yes,' said another. 'He is a tyrant!'
From the public postings, I had now gathered that Gnieus Lelius was not likely to have been of the party of treachery in Ar, which I was pleased to learn. To be sure, he might have been of that party, and might have been, in the development within that party, outmaneuvered, to find himself suddenly cast in the role of the scapegoat, something to be thrown to the crowd, to satisfy it and protect others. On the other hand, from what I knew of Gnieus Lelius, whom I had met, I guessed he was an honest man. Indeed, in another time and place, it was my speculation that he might have served as an efficient, beloved administrator. I suspected that he was at worst a dupe, a trusting man, perhaps even one of considerable talent, who had found himself, through no real fault of his own, a pawn in games of state, games in which there seemed to be no rules other than survival and victory.
'Read further,' demanded a man.
'That is the message,' said the fellow who had been reading it. 'There is no more.'
'No more?' asked a man.
'Only 'I wish you well. Lurius of Jad, Ubar of Cos, ' said the fellow 'But what does Cos want?' asked a man.
'Apparently she wants some sign of our desire for peace,' said a fellow, looking up at the posting.
'Tell them to go back to Cos,' said a fellow, angrily, 'and we shall consider the matter.'
'The posting refers to some evidence of our hope for reconciliation,' said the first fellow, 'some token of our good will.'
'Give them our steel in their neck!' said a fellow.
'And with good will!' said another, a fellow of the potters.
'That is a token they will understand,' added another.
'But what do they want?' asked another.
'They may want our Talena,' said a man.
'That brave and noble woman, we will never surrender her!' said another. 'I myself would block the gate,' said a fellow, 'before I would see her leave the city at the stirrup of a Cosian envoy.'
'She has offered so to sacrifice herself,' said a man.
'It is here on the public postings,' said another, 'over here.'
'They cannot have our Talena,' said a man.
'I do not think it is Talena they want,' said a man.
'But what, then?' asked another.
'What could be a suitable token of Ar's desire for peace?' asked another. 'Who wants peace?' said a man.
'I do not understand what is going on,' said a fellow.
'Those who are high in the city,' said a fellow, 'will inquire into these matters. They are wiser than we and will do what is best.'
At this point there was much shouting in side streets, coming from the west. In moments, too, men were shouting about us.
'Cos!' they cried. 'Cos can be seen from the walls!'
I did not think, in these times, that they would let civilians ascend the walls. Otherwise I might have hastened to the ramparts. From them, I gathered, might be viewed the legions of Cos. Such armies appear first like small lines at the horizons. It is often difficult, at first, to mark out the units. Sometimes, on sunny days, there is a flashing along the horizon, from lifted standards. At night one can usually see the fires of the camps, three of four pasangs away. To be sure, what might be visible from the walls now might be only smoke from fired fields or, more likely, dust from tharlarion cavalries.
'Are the Cosians numerous?' asked a man.
'They are like the leaves of trees, like the sands of the sea,' said a man. 'Look, overhead!' cried a man.
We saw a Cosian tarnsman over the city.
'Ar is doomed,' said a man.
'We will fight to the death,' said another.
'Perhaps we can treat with the Cosians,' said another.
'Never!' said another.
'Way, make way!' we heard. Now, moving south on the Avenue of the Central Cylinder, toward the great gate of Ar, were several riders of tharlarion. 'That is the personal banner of Seremides!' said a man.
The riders were muchly cloaked. From the precision of their lines, however, and the ease and discipline of their seat on the tharlarion, I took them to be soldiers. Too, if the fellow was right, that one of the banners in the group was that of Seremides, then presumably he, or his empowered agent, was one of the riders.
'Save us, Seremides!' cried a man.
Then the riders had passed.
'Where is Gnieus Lelius, the regent?' asked a man.
'He has not been seen in public in days,' said another.
'Perhaps he has fled the city!' suggested another.
'Tonight,' said another, 'let our gates be sealed.'
'I have heard,' said a fellow, 'that Cos is our friend, and that it is Gnieus Lelius who is the enemy.'
'That is absurd,' said a man.
'Last night, Cosian scouts, outside the walls,' said a man, 'distributed silver tarsks to the homeless, assuring them of the good intentions of the maritime ubarate!'
'That is preposterous,' said a man.
'I know a fellow who received one,' said the first fellow.
'Unfortunately,' said a fellow,' I was home in bed.'
'You should have been outside the walls,' said another.
'I could use a silver tarsk,' said a man.
'Do you think that Cos is truly our friend?' asked a man.
'No,' said a fellow.
Men looked at him.
'Why do you say that?' asked a man.
'I was in the delta,' he said, and turned away.
'Ar's Station,' said a man, 'has been well treated by Cos.'
