[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Thiefs
Scar, which they wear as a caste mark, a tiny, three-pronged brand burned into
the face in back of and below the eye, over the right cheekbone.
One might think that Port Kar, divided as she is, a city in which are raised
the thrones of anarchy, would fall easy prey to either the imperialisms or the
calculated retaliations of the other cities, but it is not true. When
threatened from the outside the men of Port Kar have, desperately and with the
viciousness
of cornered urts, well defended themselves. Further, of course, it is next to
impossible to bring large bodies of armed men through the delta of the Vosk,
or, under the conditions of the marsh, to supply them or maintain them in a
protracted siege.
The delta itself is Port Kar s strongest wall.
The nearest solid land, other than occasional bars in the marshes, to Port
Kar lies to her north, some one hundred passangs distant. This area, I
supposed, might theoretically be used as a staging area, for the storing of
supplies and the embarkation of an attacking force on barges, but the military
prospects of such a venture were decidedly not promising. It lay hundreds of
pasangs from the nearest Gorean city other, of course, than Port Kar. It was
open territory. It was subject to attack by forces beached to the west from
the tarn fleets of Port
Page 59
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Kar, through the marsh itself by the barges of Port Kar, or from the east or
north, depending on hte marches following the disembarkation of Port Kar
forces.
Further, it was open to attach from the air by means of the cavalries of
merceneary tarnsmen of Port Kar, of which she has several. I knew one of these
mercenary captains, Ha-Kee, murderer, once of Ar, whom I had met in Turia, in
the house of Saphrar, a merchant. Ha-Keel alone commanded a thousand men,
tarnsmen all. And even if an attacking force could be brought into the marsh,
it was not clear that it would, days later, make its way to the walls of Port
Kar. It might be destroyed in the marshes. And if it should come to the walls,
there was little likelihood of its being effective. The supply lines of such a
force, given the barges of Port Kar and her tarn cavalries, might be easily
cut.
I took another drink of paga.
The men who had come to the tavern were roistering but order, to some extent,
had been restored. Two of the ship s lanterns had been broken. There was
glass, and spilled paga about, and two broken tables. But teh musicians were
again playing and again, in the square of sand, the girl performed, through
not now the Whip Dance. Nude slave girls, wrists chained, hurried about. The
Proprietor, sweating, aproned, was tipping yet another great bottle of paga in
its sling, filling cups, that they might be borne to the drinkers. There was
an occasional scream from the alcoves, bringing laughter from the tables. I
heard the flash of a whip somewhere, and the cries of a girl.
I wondered if, now that the canals were barred, slaves escaped from Port
Kar.
The nearest solid land was about one hundred pasangs to the north, but it was
open land, and, there, on the edges of the delta, there were log outposts of
Port Kar, where slave hunters and trained sleen, together, patrolled the
marshes
edges.
The vicious, siz-legged sleen, large-eyed, sinuous, mammalian but resermbling
a furred, serpentine lizard, was a reliable, indefatigable hunter.
He could follow a scent days old with ease, and then, perhaps hundreds of
pasangs, and days, later, be unleashed for the sport of the hunters, to tear
his victim to pieces.
I expected there was not likely to be escape for slaves to the north.
That left the delta, with its interminable marshes, and the thirst, and the
tharlarion.
Hunting sleen are trained to scent out and destroy escaped slaves.
Their senses are unusually keen.
Tuchuks, in the sounth, as I recalled, had also used sleen to hunt slaves,
and, of course, to protect their herds.
I was becoming drunk, my thoughts less connected.
The sea, I thought, the sea.
Could not Port Kar be attacked from the sea? [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]