Tal, Goreans,

Greetings, visitors,

Welcome once again to the Booknotes column. Bosk, the hero formerly known as Tarl Cabot, has decided to adopt a policy of never troubling trouble till trouble troubles him, but trouble was troubling to do so at the end of last month's instalment. For half a year all has been comparatively well with his world, ever since one random deed of senseless kindness led him to save a poor slave girl from a meaningless death and another such random deed (permitting her would-be slayer to see the Sea before he died) left him owner of several well-found ships and commander of their crews. This hasn't entirely compensated him for his feelings of worthlessness resulting from surrendering his honour as the price of escaping from being fed to the swamp tharlarion of the Vosk delta, but it has left him comfortably off and finding a new niche in society. However, the trouble I mentioned above broke out when a meeting of the Council of Captains was interrupted by a fire alarm, and it is now time to go and see what is going on.

Chapter Eleven - The Crest of Sleen Hair

Pandemonium promptly breaks out. Bosk's suspicions are aroused by the odd behaviour of one Lysias (whom he has recognised as the commander of the ill-fated slaving expedition so ruthlessly butchered by Bosk a couple of instalments ago) and he hears the sounds of fighting. Lysias is in no mood to fight, but it quickly transpires that the Council members who have gone to see about the fire have been ambushed. Bosk promptly takes a hand and his timely intervention prevents wholesale murder being done.

It soon becomes plain that there is a conspiracy afoot, as the ships of Cos and Tyros have fled the harbour before the fire broke out, and one of the five Ubars of Port Kar has suffered no harm while the other four have been badly discommoded, with serious arson done in their domains. The fortunate Ubar is Henrius Sevarius, who is a boy Ubar with a regent ruling in his name. Port Kar herself seems to have suffered little - that is, the common areas of the arsenal are little damaged. But Bosk intervenes further to act against what seems to be an attempted coup, arranging to reconvene the Council of Captains. In effect, he organises a counter-coup of his own, reasoning that the four Ubars (Sullius Maximus, Eteocles, Nigel and Chung) who have suffered loss will now have no more clout than other captains, and might as well be treated as such, while the fifth Ubar cannot impose his will against the united Council. This, he tells himself, will best enable him to mind his own affairs as he wishes without interference.

In the main Port Kar seems to agree with Bosk's views, rallying behind the Council. But interrogation of prisoners doesn't provide the conclusive information that Bosk would have liked; he is convinced Cos and Tyros are behind the whole undertaking, but lacks proof.

Into the grim setting of the very torture-chamber where Bosk has been hoping to find out some answers comes Samos the Slaver, who once engineered the release of Elizabeth Cardwell and a couple of other slaves and was represented to Tarl Cabot (as he then was) as an agent of Priest-Kings. It was Tarl's purpose in coming to Port Kar to answer a summons from Samos; but Bosk is now convinced that a man as obviously cruel and savage as Samos could not have been any such agent, and that he doubtless serves the Others, the mysterious enemies of the Priest-Kings. Bosk asks Samos if he earlier sent him a message asking to speak to him, but Samos denies it.

When the Council resumes its deliberations, Lysias, as the representative of Ubar Henrius Sevarius, makes a bluff attempt to offer amnesty and establish Henrius as the sole ruling Ubar, but the Council rejects this. Samos then leads the Council in a rejection of the overlordship of the other four weakened Ubars, who promptly quit the Council chamber, and a long parliamentary session ensues.

Samos, who is the senior captain in the council, expresses a belief that Cos and Tyros are somehow bound up in this affair; but he also proposes an offer of peace to them. Bosk speaks up in support of this, reasoning that if a genuine peace offer were to be made and accepted, a large increase in maritime trade must result and everyone's profits would benefit. But in the ensuing debate, there is an undercurrent of subtle manouevring between Bosk and Samos, as though each is suspicious of the other; and the end result of it is that Bosk volunteers for the hazardous mission of carrying the peace offer, though he is already making plans to lessen the risk.

Chapter Twelve - I Fish in the Canal

A couple of days later, Bosk arrives opportunely on the scene and rescues a young man who has been thrown in a sack to the canal urts by Lysias and Henrak (remember him? He was the rencer who betrayed the other rencers to Lysias's ill-fated expedition). The boy claims to be a slave, but his smooth, un-work-hardened hands and unbranded flesh suggest that this claim is mendacious. Bosk names him Fish and has him collared, but he is well aware that this is the boy Ubar, Henrius Sevarius.

Chapter Thirteen - How Bosk Came To Be Pirate

Norman irritatingly begins the next chapter four months in the future, but immediately backtracks. Bosk tells how he carried his peace embassy to Lurius of Jad, Ubar of Cos, and Chenbar of Kasra, Ubar of Tyros, and not only had his offer refused but was summarily enslaved. But being forcibly enchained and told he is a slave is very different to begging for such a fate of his own accord, and he seems not to find this change in his condition especially galling. Indeed, he taunts his captors and the virgin bride-to-be of Lurius, Lady Vivina, quite jovially. In equally jovial mood, Chenbar reveals (as is no surprise really) that Henrius Sevarius has been only a figurehead, and his power is actually wielded by one Claudius. They have a messenger besides, and it is no further surprise to learn that this is the egregious Lysias.

Tarl wends his cheery way to the rowing bench of one of Cos's ships, passing his friends Thurnock and Clitus on the way, and we are already suspecting that he has an escape planned. Sure enough, two days out of port, when the ship he is on is out of reach of any help, several warships of Port Kar begin to stalk her. The flag they carry bears a bosk's head upon a field of green and white, and this adds weight to Bosk's revelation of his identity to one of his fellow-slaves.

The ensuing sea-chase is hopeless for the ship carrying Bosk, despite the best endeavours of the oar-master, whose competence Bosk notices; and when the ship surrenders to him, he pardons the captain, who did his best, and takes the oar-slaves and the oar-master with him as volunteer recruits. The peace offer having been spurned, and offence having been offered directly to him, Bosk returns to Port Kar and outfits his ships for piracy.

Bosk is, as we know, a clever man, and he takes to piracy as though born to it. Additionally, he has inside information concerning the voyage of Lady Vivina and a large treasure fleet, which he makes plans to intercept.

Chapter Fourteen - How Bosk Conducted Business Upon Thassa

Bosk tells us a lot about the Gorean "tarn ship", modelled much on the design of the oared ram-ships of Greece and Persia. He now has quite a fleet of these, some belonging to him and some to Port Kar's arsenal. He has also done rather well in capturing cargo ships, or "round ships" as they are known, not least because he makes it policy to spare the slave crews of such and often grants them their freedom, as well as punishing their overseers if he finds they have been mistreated; for which reason enemy round ships prove quite easy to catch up with.

He sets about the treasure fleet (which is of course a strong one) with cunning and innovative tactics. The same oar-master he recruited in the last chapter is now serving him very well indeed. With his expert assistance Bosk overcomes the most formidable ship in the fleet's escort without even needing to fight it directly, and having effectively employed divide-and-conquer tactics, Bosk captures the treasure ships and the Lady Vivina, intimidates the remainder of the fleet escort, and sets off for Port Kar with his plunder.

Chapter Fifteen - How Bosk Returned in Triumph To Port Kar

This raises Bosk's stock in Port Kar very considerably. He is now ranked a Fleet Admiral, he distributes largesse to the arsenal workers and the people of the city, and his great victory is the cue for weeks on end of feasting and merrymaking. The political situation in Port Kar has stabilised, with the four Ubars resigning themselves to the rule of the Council and the fifth, or at any rate the former possession and the regent of the fifth, under permanent siege.

That fifth Ubar himself, now known only as Fish, has some backbone, and begs the boon of being taught weapons. This is unheard of for a slave, but Bosk considers his request, orders a perfunctory punishment for the slave's insolence and indifferent performance of his duties, and then grants it.

Returning to his feast, Bosk thinks well of himself, but is moved to unfamiliar emotions when a singer comes to entertain the revellers. For a start the singer reminds him of his old friend Andreas of Tor ("Outlaw of Gor"), and he then sings a song of the siege of Ar (from "Tarnsman of Gor") and the now-legendary hero Tarl of Bristol (as Tarl Cabot styled himself at that time). Bosk weeps to hear the song, lamenting his lost innocence and honour, but he does not punish the singer for so shaming him - he managed to keep his tears to himself, except that Telima noticed them - and instead rewards him with a generous share of the feast and the promise of a capful of gold.

But Bosk wants to forget about Tarl of Bristol as soon as possible, and gets on with the feasting, ordering the girl Sandra to dance for the men. His favoured slave Midice, to his annoyance, was too ill to come to the feast, and his lieutenant Tab is too busy. After Sandra has danced, he sends for Lady Vivina, makes her a kitchen slave, and gives her as a present to the boy Fish. Fish however treats her gently, pointing out that they are slaves alike, and she seems not to find her fate too horrible; and as Bosk points out, the boy Fish is a mate she may find preferable to the gross, dissolute Ubar she was promised to.

When at the height of the feast Luma, the slave he rescued from cruel Surbus, shrieks in horror, having momentarily having seen Bosk looking exactly like him, Bosk storms off in a drunken rage to his quarters, where he catches Midice and Tab in flagrante delicto. He vows they will both die for this, and to his further annoyance the two illicit lovers each try to take all the blame themselves and spare the other. Midice begs Bosk to slay her and spare Tab, in the name of love, for she does not love Bosk, good though he has been to her. Grief-stricken, Bosk bids the pair of them begone, and Telima now comes to him to comfort him. And when the storm of his rage has spent itself, he admits that he in his turn does love Telima, and she that she loves him, and we leave our emotional couple in each others' arms, consoling each other and putting an end to the state of denial that has existed between them for the better part of a year.

And there we will reconvene next time, when we take what will be our final look at Volume Six of the Chronicles of Counter-Earth, "Raiders of Gor".

I wish you well,

Socrates