The landing was crowded with women and children. Some, too, already, had made their way out to the piers.
"Hail, Commander!" then cried the fellows there, spying Aemilianus. "Why do they call you Captain?" asked Aemilianus.
"He commanded on the wall!" cried a man. I remember him from the wall. He had been there.
"It was you who held the wall so long?" asked Aemilianus.
"I and a couple of hundred of your stout fellows, like these," I said, indicating the elated young men at my side.
"There are Cosians on the interior walls, overlooking the landing," said a man. I looked up. I saw them. Some had their helmets off, cooling their heads in the breeze, more to be felt at that height.
"They can fire into the crowd," said a man.
"But they have not done so," said another.
"They are waiting for the camp commander," said another.
"I will not go to Cos, naked in a cage," said Aemilianus to one of his men, one of the two who had stayed with him. "At the end, then, you know what to do." "As you will, Commander," he said, his voice thick with emotion.
"How many are here?" I asked one of the fellows about. The landing was packed with women and children. More were out on the piers.
"Who knows?" he asked. "I think there must be two to three thousand women and children, and perhaps some four to five hundred men. I do not know."
"Of all the people of Ar's Station?" I asked.
"Some fled months ago," he said, "some even when it was learned the Cosians had landed at Brundisium, others when it was rumored they were marching on Ar's Station. Many escaped before the investment lines were closed. Some bought their way out, which you could do, in the early days, before the Cosian casualties were high."
"Still, I said, "there must have been thousands in the city when the investment lines were closed."
"There were," he said, bitterly.
"And this is all that is left?" I asked.
"There were desertions," he said.
"Still," I said.
"Many perished of hunger or disease," he said. "Doubtless, too, many perished in the fires."
I regarded him.
"Many could not reach the citadel," he said. "Many streets were cut off, even districts."
"I understand," I said.
"Why did the relief of Ar not come?" he asked.
"I do not know," I told him, though I thought I knew.
"It is said the Cosians did much butchery in the city."
"Perhaps," I granted him.
"Beneath the walls of the citadel," he said, "they paraded loot carts, and lines of our women, stripped, and trussed as slaves."
I nodded. I had not been able to see this from the cell, of course, but I did not doubt but what it was true. It was a touch not untypically Gorean.
"Doubtless even now hundreds of them are packed behind the bar of cage wagons, being taken to Brundisium, there to be shaved, and then shackled on the tiered shelves of slave ships, to be embarked for Cos and Tyros."
"Perhaps," I said. In actuality, of course, I surmised that many would be distributed to continental markets, if only to take a quicker profit on them and avoid deflating the market on the islands. I did not doubt, however, that many of the most beautiful would indeed find their way to Cos and Tyros, if only as examples of prize loot. Such, too, might well grace the triumphs of the victors. Beautiful, naked women look well being marched in golden chains before the war beasts of masters. Doubtless many would march before Lurius of Jad, Ubar of Cos, in some grand triumph, though in the fighting he would not have stirred from his palace in Telnus.
"Still," he said, "there are many here."
"Yes," I said, looking about, at the crowded landing, and the piers out toward the river. "There are."
"It will be a terrible slaughter," he said.
Aemilianus was sitting on the landing near me. A man supported him, holding him about the shoulders.
I looked up at the interior wall.
"Commander," I said to him, "many of your people are within missile range from the wall."
Indeed, it would be hard to fire into the crowd without scoring a hit.
"I am tired," he said.
"Many are afraid to go to the piers," said a man. "They are afraid of the Cosian ships, that the walls of rafts will be opened, that they will attack. They fear to leave the landing, the shelter of the wall of the citadel."
"What shelter?" I asked, angrily.
"Many others," said a fellow, "fear to tread the walkway."
"There are sharks about," said one man.
"See the fins in the water," said another. "There, there are two!" "Blood has carried down to the delta," said another bitterly. "River sharks have come from as far west as Turmus. The bodies of delta sharks, leaving the salt water of the delta, bloated, litter the shores between the delta and Ven."
"There is even a greater reason to avoid the walkway," said another man, bitterly.
"What is that?" I asked.
He did not explain himself.
Suddenly Aemilianus looked at me. "What did you say?" he asked.
I crouched down beside him.
"Move your people out to the piers," I said. "The walkway can be destroyed behind them. Then the Cosians can approach only by water."
"There is no food there," said a man.
"There is none here either," I said.
"It makes no difference," said Aemilianus, wearily.
"It is the militarily appropriate action," I said.
"It is hard to see," he said, suddenly.
"Make a litter," I said. "Carry the commander to the piers."
"I have a net," said a fellow.
Two spears were thrust through the net, about two feet apart, and Aemilianus was placed on it.
He opened his eyes.
"There are Cosians on the wall!" he said.
"They have been there," I said.
"Why have the people not been withdrawn to the piers?" he asked.
"The orders have not been issued," I said.
"Where is Marcus Tulvinius?" he asked.
"Here," said an officer.
"Withdraw to the piers," he said.
"It cannot be done," he said.
Aemilianus struggled to focus his eyes on him.
"The walkway has been interdicted," he said. "The people on the piers made it there earlier, before the Cosians came to the inner wall. You can see the bodies of some of those who tried it later. Make a move toward it, and it will covered by a hundred crossbows." "It seems," said Aemilianus, "that we may choose to die here, or there."
"I would choose to make matters less convenient for Cosians," I said. Aemilianus smiled.
"The situation is hopeless," said the officer. "I shall treat for terms." "With Cosians?" smiled Aemilianus.
"Look!" cried a fellow. "On the wall!"
We now saw a tall figure there, behind the ramparts, one whose helmet was surmounted by a crest of sleen hair. There were standards held behind him. "It is the camp commander!" cried a fellow.
"Commander?" asked the officer.
"Do as you will," said Aemilianus, wearily.
The officer turned about and, drawing from beneath his cloak a white sheet, which he had apparently concealed there, lifted it, and approached the base of the wall.
This action seemed to be greeted with derision from the Cosians. One could see no reaction from the fellow with the helmet, with its crest of sleen hair. "Aemilianus asks terms!" called the officer, up to the wall.