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Battled preparations were underway on my ships. Seventeen soon began to move
around the fleet, or come about, to face the approaching twelve vessels. Men
sat ready at the oars of the Dorna, should I come aboard her.
Others, with axes, stood ready to chop away the lines that now bound the Dorna
to the flagship.
They are striking their masts! came the cry from the lookout.
In a quarter Ahn my vessels were aligned for battle. The enemy fleet, the
twelve ships, was now, by estimate from the lookout, with his glass, some four
pasangs distant.
If they came within two pasangs, I would board the Dorna.
I had the admiral freed of his leg irons and he and I, from the stem castle of
his own ship, regarded the approaching ships.
Do you wager, I asked him, that they come within two pasangs?
They will fight! he said.
The Lady Vivina, prepared for the prow, stood nearby, a sailor s hand on her
arm, she, too, watching the approaching ships.
Then the admiral cried out with rage and the Lady Vivina, her hand at her
breasts, eyes horrified, cried out, No, No!
The twelve ships had put about, taking their course now for Cos.
Take the admiral away, I said to Turnock.
The admiral was dragged away.
I looked on the Lady Vivina. Our eyes met. Put her at the prow, I said.
15 How Bosk Returned in Triumph to Port Kar
The return to Port Kar was triumphal indeed.
I wore the purple of a fleet admiral, with a golden cap with tassel, and gold
trim on the sleeves and borders of my robes, with cloak to match.
I wore at my side a jeweled sword, no longer the sword I had worn for the long
years when I had served Priest-Kings. That sword, shortly after coming to Port
Kar, I had put aside, and purchased others. I did not feel, somehow, that
I should carry that old sword any longer. It stood for too many things, and
its steel was deep with too many memories. It spoke to me of an old life, that
of a fool, which I, now grown wise, had put from me. Besides, more
importantly, it was insufficiently grand, with its plain pommel and unfigured
blade, for one of my position, one of the most significant me in one of Gor s
greatest prots. I
was
Bosk, a simple, but shrewd man, who had come from the marshes to startle Port
Kar and dazzle and shake the cities of Gor with my cunning and my blade, and
now my power and wealth.
My ten search vessels had managed to bring in five of the seven missing round
ships, four of which had been, foolishly, striking out directly for
Telnus in
Cos. The world, I thought, is filled with fools. There are the fools, and
there are the wise, and I could now surely, perhaps for the first time, count
myself securely among the latter.
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I stood at the prow of the long, purple ship, which had been the flagship of
the treasure fleet. The rooftops and the windows of the buildings were crowded
with cheering throngs, and I lifted my arm to them and accepted their acclaim.
The ships, in a splendid, long line, filing behind me, the Dorna first, then
the tarn ships, then the round ships, under oars, move slowly through the
city, following the triumphal circuit of the great canal, passing even before
the chamber of the Council of Captains.
Flowers had been scattered in the canal, and others were thrown on our ships
as we passed.
The cheers and cries were deafening.
I had decreed that from my shares of the treasure, each worker in the arsenal
would receive one gold piece, and each citizen of the city of a silver tarsk.
I lifted my hand to the crowd, smiling and waving.
Near me, chief among my prizes, exposed to the crowds, their hootings and
jeerings, bound on the prow, ankles and wrists, neck and belly, like a common
slave girl, was the Lady Vivina, who was to have been the Ubara of
Cos.
Few men, thought I, have enjoyed such a triumph as thish.
And, petty though it might seem, I was eager to present myself before
Midice, my favored slave, with my new robes and treasures. I could now give
her garments and jewels that would be the envy of Ubaras. I could well imagine
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