"Not to Aristimines," he said.
"I wish you well," I said.
"And I, too, wish you well," said he. He then turned and walked rapidly back toward the landing. He had not taken more than five steps before a number of Cosians, who had been waiting on the landing, hurried onto the walkway. He was for a moment like a rock in the midst of their stream, and then he turned, facing me. At the same time some small craft set out from the landing. Two of the fellows hurrying toward me were too eager, separating themselves from their fellows. One's shield, he charging, I struck obliquely to the side, and he, in the grip of his own momentum, lost the walkway. I cut at the other below the shield, above the knee, and he slipped to the boards. "Hold, fellow," called the officer, behind the men, he who had come with the gold on the walkway. "Good," he said. "Together now, gently fellows, spears down. Look for your chance. Forward, carefully. There is only one man there. Swordsmen for flanking, behind spearmen. To each side, fellows. Forward."
"Help!" cried the fellow in the water, grasping upward. He was trying to climb the piling, but slipped on it. He could not reach the surface of the remains of the walkway. The piece of broken walkway which had been to the right was now back, a few feet from the torn end of he walkway, floating in the inner harbor. "Stop!" I ordered the approaching Cosians.
They, puzzled, stopped.
The fellow whose leg I had cut was backing away, towards his fellows, limping. Blood flowed down his leg, running among, and over, the thongs of the high, bootlike sandal he wore. His retreat could be traced in the trail of blood on the walkway.
I put down my shield on he walkway, and extended my hand down to the fellow in the water. There were fewer fish about now, I was sure, but I did not think he would be likely to thrash alone for more than a moment or two. I could already see two dark shapes beneath him.
"Do not move," said the officer to his men.
The man in the water, frenzied with terror, his eyes bulging, seized my hand and I drew him to his stomach, to the walkway. He lay there on the drenched boards, trembling. I do not think I could have managed this as little as a quarter of an Ahn earlier. I think it likely he would then have been seized in the jaws of some fish or other, perhaps one of the visitors from the river, drawn by the traces of blood in the water.
I then stepped back, and faced the Cosians, some yards toward the landing. The officer lifted his sword to me, in salute. I returned this salute. The men with him smote with their steel on their shields. I acknowledged their tribute as well.
"On my own authority," called the officer, "and at my own risk, that of my life for yours, should this not be found meet by Aristimines, I again offer you the gold of Cos!"
I sheathed my sword. "I am not taking fee today," I said.
"Lower spears," said the officer to his men. "Swordsmen, flank." I turned, suddenly, then, and ran to the end of the walkway. There I leapt from the walkway out, over the water, to the piece of half-submerged wreckage, cut from the walkway. It sank down a foot or two into the water, but then rose up, again. A moment or so later a dozen or so Cosians crowded the charred end of the walkway. None of them, as I had anticipated, cared to attempt the same leap. I had had a running start. I had known where the wreckage was. I had kept it in mind. I did not think that one of them, given the crowding on the walkway, would attempt the same leap. If he did, and managed to reach the wreckage, I would be waiting there, sword drawn. My ankles were under water. The force of my leap had thrust the piece of wreckage out further, toward the piers. The men on the walkway and I regarded one another. Several lifted their weapons in salute. I lifted my hand, too, to them. It was, I suppose, one of the odd moments that sometimes occur in war, one of those moments in which the rose of gallantry suddenly emerges from the background of danger and blood. A great, long body suddenly emerged from the water and lay half on the wreckage. With my foot I thrust it back into the water. I saw some small craft from the landing approaching, with crossbowmen in them. But then, too, I saw the rowers of these small vessels, rest on their oars. About the piece of wreckage on which I stood, then, were small boats from the piers. On one of them I saw the young fellow with the crossbow. No quarrels were exchanged. I stepped from the wreckage into one of the small boats. We then put about, and I was rowed slowly toward the piers.
20 The Piers
I climbed from the small boat to one of the piers.
Men lifted their weapons, saluting me.
"Come with me," said a fellow.
I passed among wounded men. I saw there, Marsias, the grizzled fellow, the men who had originally stood with me on the walkway, and many others. I passed, too, among many women and children.
I was conducted into the presence of Aemilianus.
"You did well, to hold the walkway, you and others," said Aemilianus. He was sitting on a pier, propped up against some boxes. Those piers are the main harbor piers, between the inner harbor, that between them and the citadel landing, and the outer harbor, which leads to the river. the outer harbor, now, of course, was blocked, a few hundred yards out, with the chain of rafts and, behind them, five ships.
"These would be dead now," said he, gesturing about himself, "had you and those with you not done so."
I looked back to the walkway in the distance, across the inner harbor. "The standard of Cos now surmounts it," I said.
"You held it for the time that was needed," said Aemilianus, "the time required to seal off the piers."
It interested me that Cos would bother setting its standard there, at the end of that charred walk, jutting out toward the piers. Apparently we had made it mean something to them.
I looked back, too, to the citadel, and the city. The citadel was afire. Fires, too, still, after all these days, burned in the city.
"You are not Marsias," said a man to me. "Who are you?"
"Ar's Station is gone," I said to Aemilianus.
"No," he said. "Its Home Stone survives."
"It was taken from the city?" I asked.
"Yes," he said. "Weeks ago it was smuggled from the city, and sent south to Ar, where, if all went well, it must now be."
"So long ago," I said, "you did not expect relief from Ar?"
"I was right," he said, bitterly.
I nodded. One does not keep secret the siege of a city such as Ar's Station. It was one of the largest of the ports on the Vosk. Too, anyone can read a calendar.
"You maintained a brave front," I said.
"And what would you have done, had you been commander in Ar's Station?" I shrugged. "Much the same, I suppose," I said.
"So," said Aemilianus, "though I did continue to hope, I would not risk the Home Stone. I sent it south."
"By tarnsmen?" I asked.
"No," he said. "Cos controls the skies. I sent it south in the wagon of a tradesmen, Septimus Entrates.
"It may have escaped notice, then," I said, "among the innumerable wagons, the carts, the strings of refugees, and such, fleeing south."
"That is my hope," he said.
It seemed to me that I might, somewhere, have heard the name, Septimus Entrates. But then one hears many names, thousands of names, here and there.
"Cos," said a man, "prepares to attack."
"From both sides?" asked Aemilianus.
"It would seem so," said a fellow. "The chain of rafts has been opened in three places. The ships of Cos now enter the harbor. Too, there are other rafts from the river. rafts, and boats, too, are now coming out from the landing." "The Cosians will spend time in barrages or fire," said Aemilianus, "from the boars, from the rafts. The sky ill be dark with their metal. Use the bodies of the slain, and the wounded, as shields." He did not tell them to tear boards from the piers themselves, to construct makeshift hurdles and barricades. Perhaps that could be done later, but now this would, interestingly, have dismantled the very platform on which we stood, so crowded they were. Indeed, it would be difficult to use weapons here, even in thrusting. "When the Cosians ascend the piers themselves," continued Aemilianus, "we will meet them, with what men we still have, and make them pay for every board they cross. Carry me now to the side facing the inner harbor."