"His standard, it is true," I said, "is that of the Silver Tarn." "He is a mercenary," said Aemilianus, bitterly.
"He now holds Torcadino," I said, "to halt the advance of Cos to the south." "I do not believe that," said Aemilianus.
I then realized the degree of isolation of those in Ar's Station. Aemilianus was ignorant of something so basic as the action of Dietrich at Torcadino.
"Surely there is something so that effect in the letter, or letters, from Gnieus Lelius, which I have delivered."
"You, too, are a mercenary," he said, bitterly.
"I have served for fee," I said.
"Anyone's gold can purchase your steel," he said.
"Perhaps not anyone's," I said. Some mercenaries chose their causes with care. "Do you know the contents of the diplomatic pouch, for indeed, it seems to be such."
"No," I said. "As you must have seen, its seal was unbroken."
"Perhaps you were apprised of its contents before it was sealed?"
"No," I said. "I took it from a courier for Artemidorus at the Crooked Tarn, an inn, south on the Vosk Road. I told your men this."
"Do you expect me to believe that?" he asked.
"Where else would I have obtained it?" I asked.
"Perhaps from the hands of Artemidorus himself," said Aemilianus.
"I do not understand," I said.
"I am prepared to believe that you might well not have known its contents," he said.
"Why?" I asked, puzzled. "If you did know its contents," said Aemilianus, "I do not think you would have dared to bring it here."
"What are its contents?" I asked, not much pleased at hearing this. "Its contents are not even in cipher," said Aemilianus. "Does it not seem unusual to you that Artemidorus, a tarnsman, an astute commander, should transmit military documents in so careless and open a fashion?"
"Perhaps he is overconfident or arrogant," I said. "I do not know." "Does it not seem strange to you?" asked Aemilianus.
"Yes," I said, "it does."
"I think," said Aemilianus, "this was intended to come into my hands." "I doubt that," I said. "What does it say?"
"It is an intelligence report," he said. "It gives the numbers, and positions, of the forces of Ar."
"May I inquire where they are?" I asked. I had pondered this many times. "I will tell you where they really are," said Aemilianus. "They are moving by forced marches to our relief."
"By what route?" I asked, puzzled.
"North on the Vitkel Aria," he said.
"No," I said. "I came by the Vitkel Aria. They are not there. No one has seen them for hundreds of pasangs from here."
Aemilianus smiled.
"May I ask where the report claims them to be?"
"The report claims they are in winter quarters at Holmesk, one hundred pasangs south of the Vosk."
"In winter quarters," I asked. "While Cos is at Torcadion, and Ar's Station under siege?"
"Y9u see the absurdity of the report," said Aemilianus.
"Yes," I said, awed.
"Had you known the contents of the report perhaps you would have declined to carry it," he smiled.
I almost rose in the chains, but I was pushed down, back onto my knees. "I submit, Captain," I said, urgently, "that incredible though it seems that the report may be accurate." The situation had suddenly begun to assume an alarming shape in my mind. I was confident, as Aemilianus was not, that the report was authentic, even if, in some respects, it might not be reliable. Aemilianus laughed, and, so, too, did several of the men about.
"Where are the relief forces of Ar?" I asked. "Where?"
Aemilianus looked at me, angrily.
"Even though you are isolated her, and invested," I said, "surely you must understand that the siege of Ar's Station can be no secret. You must realize that a relief force would have been dispatched, that it should have arrived by now. If you are so sanguine about your prospects, I suspect that your men, those out on the walls, are not. I have been among them. They are hungry. They are gaunt and drawn. They are not buoyed by optimism. I suspect that they, even if you do not, realize that any relieving force should have been here by now, and long ago!"
I heard a sword, half drawn, behind me. Then it was returned, angrily, to its sheath.
"The report is inaccurate," said Aemilianus. "It is not even intelligently conceived. It gives such numbers for Ar's troops at Holmesk as would mean that the main might of Ar is in the north, which is unthinkable. Such forces would not be needed to raise the siege. Ar, too, in such a case, would be in effect undefended, her territories, if not herself, at the mercies of Salarians, Travians, Tharnans, even men of small cities like Tarnburg and Hockberg. "There could be treachery," I said.
There was an angry murmur from those behind me.
"You have been abandoned," I said.
"Let me cut his throat," said a man behind me.
"All that stands between Ar and Cos," I said, "is the presence of Dietrich of Torcadino, where he has seized Cosian supplies and engines."
"He could not take Torcadino," said Aemilianus. "He has too few men." "It was done by stealth, through the aquaducts," I said.
"He would have too few to hold it," said Aemilianus.
"The Cosian siege train was captured within Torcadin," I said. "The city itself, as last I heard, though invested, has not been attacked. Indeed, the Cosian main forces, which I assure you are not inferior in numbers to those of Ar, are probably now in winter quarters, perhaps a tenth of them in the vicinity of Torcadino. The situation of Cos was clear. She could not proceed without the siege train and it would take some months to replace it."
"And what do you suppose will eventuate? asked Aemilianus.
"I do not know," I said. "Once Cos has engines again she might attack Torcadino, if only to punish Dietrich. If I were Myron, Polemarkos of Temos, he in command of the Cosian forces on the continent, I would myself turn toward Ar, wasting no time at Torcadino, a subsidiary objective. Dietrich would then escape, but he would not have the forces necessary to do more than harry the Cosian advance to Ar, and, once those forces are out of Torcadino, they might well be hunted down and dealt with, with only a fraction of the might of Cos."
"Why would Dietrich of Tarnburg risk this perilous intervention?" asked Aemilianus.
"There are valuables, women, and such, in Torcadino," I said.
"And such may be found in a hundred towns and cities," said Aemilianus. "He has no love for either Ar or Cos," I said. "He prefers the victory of neither. Any such victory, with its achieved hegemony, might end, and would surely threaten, the existence of the free companies. Too, many fear in it the destruction of social openness, of pluralism and freedom, as it now exists on Gor."
"And do you share such sentiments?" asked Aemilianus.
"I would not look forward eagerly to a world dominated by either a Marlenus of Ar or a Lurius of Jad."
"Such would bring peace," said Aemilianus.
"The peace of chains," I said.
"Is not peace more important than anything else?" he asked.
"No," I said.
"I find it hard to believe that your own interests in these matters is so abstract and elevated."
I did not respond to him. He need not know the secret motivations, which I could confide to few, underlying my original journey to Ar, that journey in which I had been detained at Torcadino. He need not know, for example, the contents of the secret papers which I had obtained at Brundisium last Se'Kara, papers which I had swiftly burned. In those papers had been clear the treason of one who currently stood high in Ar.
"I shall now explain to you the situation as it actually exists," said Aemilianus. "The main Cosian forces are here, at Ar's Station. She lacks the troops to penetrate south. She wants power in the Vosk Basin, that is the best for which she can hope. Torcadino is an ally of Ar, and has never fallen. There is no southern invasion force from Cos. The story about Dietrich of Tarnburg is a fabrication. This pretended intelligence report, absurdly conceived, is intended to lead us to despair. It is a ruse to bring about the surrender of the city. Do they really think we would believe that this report just happened to fall into our grasp, at this time? Do they intend for us to take it seriously? It is not even in cipher. The implicit absurdity of this document, suggesting that Ar would stand about with almost the totality of her might while we are under attack, that we have been, in effect, abandoned, makes it clear that the relieving forces of Ar must actually be quite close, perhaps only a day or two away."