least the tolerance of the Sardar itself. I shuddered. It would not bode well for humans, I thought, if some form of liaison, or arrangement, were entered into between Priest-Kings and Kurii.
'Have you heard aught from the Sardar?' I asked.
Samos looked up from the board.
Outside I could hear the sounds of yet another troupe traversing the canal, with its raucous cries, its drums and trumpets. There had been several such troupes, theatrical troupes, carnival troupes, this evening. It was now only two days to carnival, to the Twelfth Passage Hand.
'Late in Se'Var,' said Samos, 'a Torvaldsland voyageur, Yngvar, the Far-Traveled, bought paga in the Four Chains.'
I nodded. I knew the Four Chains. It was owned by Procopius Minor. It was near Pier Sixteen. Procopius Minor is not to be confused with Procopius Major, who is an important merchant in Port Kar, one with interests not only in taverns but in paper, hardware, wool and salt. I had never heard of Yngvar, the Far-Traveled, until recently. I did not know him. The time of which Samos spoke was about two months ago.
'In his drinking, this Yngvar told many stories. One frightens and puzzles me. Some fifty pasangs northeast of Scagnar he claims that he and his crew saw something turning and spinning in the sky, like webbed glass, the light spilling and refracting through it. They then saw a silverish disklike object near it. These two objects, both, seemed to descend, as though to the sea itself. Then a little later, the silverish object departed. Curious, frightened, they rowed to the place where the objects had seemed to descend. There was not even a skerry there. They were about to turn about when one of the men saw something. There, not more than twenty yards from the ship, half submerged, was a large, winged creature. They had never seen anything like this before. It was dead. They poked it with spears. Then, after a time, it slipped beneath the water and disappeared.'
'I have heard the story,' I said. To be sure, I had heard it only a few days ago. It, like other stories, seemed to circulate through the taverns. Yngvar, with some fellow Torvaldslanders, had signed articles and taken ship northward shortly thereafter. Neither Samos nor myself had been able to question them.
'The dating of this occurrence seems unclear,' I said.
'It was apparently not recent,' said Samos.
Presumably this had happened after the time I had gone to Torvaldsland, or, I suppose, I would have heard of it while there. Interesting stories move swiftly through the halls, conveyed by merchants and singers. Too, such a story would be widely told, on supposes, at a Thing-Fair. I went to Torvaldsland in the Rune-Year 1,006. Years, in the chronology of Torvaldsland, are counted from the time of Thor's gift of the stream of Torvald to Torvald, the legendary founder and hero of the northern fatherlands. the calendars are kept by Rune-Priests. That would have been 10,122 C.A., or Year 3 of the Sovereignty of the Council of Captains in Port Kar. I suspected, though I did not know, that the events recounted by Yngvar had occurred from four to five years ago.
'It was probably a few years ago,' said Samos.
'Probably,' I granted him.
'The ship was probably a ship of Priest-Kings,' said Samos.
'I would suppose so,' I said. It did not seem likely that a Kur ship would move openly in Gorean air space.
'it is an interesting story,' said Samos.
'Yes,' I said.
'Perhaps it has some significance,' said Samos.
'Perhaps,' I said.
I recalled, long ago, in the Nest, when I had seen the dying Mother. 'I see him, I see him,' she had said, 'and his wings are like showers of gold.' She had then lain quietly on the stone. 'The Mother is dead,' had said Misk. Her last memory, interestingly, it seemed, had been of her Nuptial Flight. There was now, doubtless, a new Mother in the Nest. Yngvar and his fellows, unwittingly, I was confident, had witnessed the inauguration of a new dynasty among Priest-Kings.
'Have you heard anything from the Sardar?' I asked, again.
Samos looked down at the board. I did not press him. His reticence to respond directly puzzled me. If he had heard something, of course, it was perhaps none of my business. I had no intention of prying into his affairs, or those of Priest-Kings. Also, of course, perhaps he had heard nothing.
'You are not playing your usual game,' I told him.
'I am sorry,' he said.
A new girl, Susan, was now dancing. She who had been the Lady Rowena of Lydius was o her belly on a table, clutching its sides, her teeth gritted. Tula was being handed from man to man. Some of the other girls, too, were now being used by masters. And others were licking and kissing at them, and whispering in their ears, begging for attention.
We played another pair of moves.
'What is bothering you?' I asked Samos.
'Nothing,' he said.
'Is there much news?' I asked.
'Tarnsmen from Treve had raided the outskirts of Ar,' said Samos.
'They grow bold,' I said.
Cos and Ar are still at odds,' he said.
'Of course,' I said.
'The building of ships in Tyros continues,' he said.
'Chenbar has a long memory,' I said. Much of the naval power of Tyros had been destroyed in the battle of the 25th of Se'Kara. This had taken place in Year One of the Sovereignty of the Council of Captains, in 10,12 °C.A.
'On Cos, as our spies have it,' said Samos, 'there is much training of men, and a recruitment of mercenaries.'
'We could strike at the shipyards of Tyros,' I said, 'ten ramships, a thousand men, a picked force.'
'The yards are well fortified,' he said.
'Do you think Cos and Tyros will move?' I asked.
'yes,' he said.
'When?' I asked.
'I do not know,' he said.
'It is interesting,' I said. 'I cannot see Port Kar as a great threat to them. The power of Ar in the Vosk Basin would seem a much greater threat to their influence, and their sphere of trade.'
'One would think so,' said Samos.
'Matters are complicated there now, of course,' I said, 'by the formation of the Vosk League.'
'That is true,' said Samos.
'What is the nature of the training being given the men on Cos?' I asked.
'Infantry training,' he said.
'That is interesting,' I said. it did not seem likely to me that infantry, at least in its normal deployments and tactics, would be successful in an assault on Port Kar. This had primarily to do with her situation, in the northwestern portion of the estuary of the Vosk, the waters of the Tamber Guld and Thassa before her, the vast, trackless marshes of the Vosk's delta behind her.
'Can it be,' I asked, 'that Cos is planning to challenge Ar on the land?'
'That would be madness,' said Samos.
I nodded. Ar is the major land force in known Gor. The Cosian infantry, meeting her on land in open battle, in force, would be crushed.
'It seems clear then,' said Samos, 'that they are planning on using the infantry against Port Kar.'
I nodded. Cos would never challenge Ar on the land. That was unthinkable.
'That is what is bothering you?' I asked.
'What?' he asked.
'The possibility that Cos and Tyros may move against Port Kar,' I said.
'No,' he said.
'What is bothering you?' I asked.
