Tal, Goreans,

Greetings, visitors,

Welcome once again to the Booknotes column, in which we plunge for the last time into the waters of "Raiders of Gor", Volume Six of the Chronicles of Counter-Earth. We left Bosk the pirate - Tarl Cabot that was - enjoying a mighty triumph in Port Kar, and without even a slave at hand to murmur "Remember, thou art but a man" into his ear - although there was indeed a slave murmuring into his ear, namely Telima, formerly his cruel mistress during his brief period of self-submitted slavery in the marshes, and since then the least of his possessions. They were last seen melting into each other's arms and confessing their mutual adoration, which circumstance was brought about by the infidelity of his preferred Midice. Let us therefore rejoin them with all the decorum that our station requires of us...

Chapter Sixteen - What Occurred One Night in Port Kar

Telima and Bosk enjoy a few hours of joyous intimacy and some baring of souls, including Bosk's telling denial of his former self. Telima had observed that he was moved when the blind Singer sang of the hero Tarl of Bristol (Tarl's nom-de-guerre at the siege of Ar, way back in Book One), and she remembers having heard songs of this man before; but Bosk cynically (and perhaps with a good deal of regret) states that: "All men are corruptible. There are no heroes, no Tarls of Bristol"; from which trenchant observation we can conclude that he still has some unresolved issues from events alluded to above.

Before he expands on this philosophy, their peace is interrupted by a greatly alarmed Thurnock, Bosk's peasant sidekick, who has just received the news that the island Ubarates of Cos and Tyros, no doubt affronted by the capture of their treasure fleet in last month's episode, are on their way to raze Port Kar. One option open to Bosk and the men of Port Kar is simply to grab what portable valuables they have, allow their city to be destroyed, and settle in some new place after the heat dies down - a possibility brooded upon by Bosk many chapters ago, when he was reflecting that Port Kar could never be truly destroyed - but he is not willing to embark on this course of action. Perhaps divining this, his men have not fled, and even Tab, who stole Midice's affections away from him, has been assiduously attending to his duty. A few words exchanged between them show us that Bosk is perfectly willing to let bygones be bygones so far as Midice is concerned.

For now, though, his men have not thought beyond flight and re-establishing themselves somewhere with Bosk as Ubar; they have no loyalty to Port Kar herself, for alone among Gorean cities she has no Home Stone. Now the importance of this cultural artefact has been emphasised repeatedly ever since Tarl Cabot first set foot on Gor - it was more or less the first matter of substance that his father mentioned to him - and, in a few economical sentences, he brings his gang of cut-throats and pirates around to the idea that Port Kar might indeed have a Home Stone. So he sends out, unusually, a male slave, the boy Fish, to find a stone; he cuts the initials of Port Kar on the stone and holds it up for inspection, and the men respond as men might, on another world at another time, to the raising of Old Glory in the ruins of the Twin Towers, or to the nailing of the White Ensign to the Jervis Bay's mast.

Thus heartened, Bosk's crewmen prepare themselves to fight the immense armada that is scant hours away; and the news of the Home Stone spreads like wildfire throughout Port Kar, and wherever men ask Bosk if the news is true, he replies with the stirring words: "If you will have it true, it will be true". The Council of Captains is harder to persuade; but when they see it, and hear the cheering of the crowds, they also realize the truth; and even hard-bitten Samos seems moved, and agrees with Bosk's opinion that Port Kar always did have a Home Stone, but that men did not know it until now.

Chapter Seventeen - How Bosk Conducted the Affairs of Port Kar Upon Thassa

There is the small matter of four thousand-odd warships heading their way to take into consideration, but the men of Port Kar hastily prepare for battle, although outnumbered by a good three to two and with the bulk of their ships being only cargo vessels. A drop in the ocean, but a welcome one, are the ships provided by two of the former five Ubars of Port Kar, Chung and Nigel, who, reduced in status to Captain, choose this moment to hold to their new station with good grace and an admirable loyalty to their fellow citizens.

Bosk has had his share of the say in preparing tactics for the coming battle, and he seems to be as natural a master of fleet tactics as he has proven of ship-handling and, of course, every weapon that anyone has ever troubled to teach him. It is still hard to see, though, how the enormous odds facing them can be overcome; but he has done his best, both with direct methods and with tricky, psychological warfare, and it remains only to find out how well his plans will serve. He is still musing on whether, after all, the men whose lives his insistence on fighting for Port Kar will cost would not have been better off simply fleeing with life and some wealth intact, when the first reports from the battle begin to reach him.

Bosk's tactics prove fruitful, but there is still scope for plenty to go wrong, and still time for doubt and misgivings, as happens when the former Ubars Chung and Nigel come late to the battle; but it is quickly apparent that their lateness has nothing to do with perfidy, and everything to do with clever seamanship, and they are soon pulling their combined weight to much effect. Finally, Bosk casts his last die. In a brilliant piece of innovation, he introduces carrier warfare to Gor, bringing tarns miles out to sea by ship before loosing them over water; and, of course, being himself a tarnsman with few peers and fewer masters, Bosk saddles up and takes wing first to prove that a tarn can be managed over Thassa, if it can only be brought there (tarns will not fly out to sea from land). He is, of course, successful, and off he wings, accompanied by a small but elite force of mercenary tarnsmen.

His aim is twofold: firstly to conduct airstrikes against the invading fleet, using fire as a weapon in accordance with Napoleon's dictum that the moral is to the physical as three is to one. The tarnsmen are not numerous enough to sink many ships this way, but they are an effective terror weapon. Secondly, he obeys another important dictum, that if you can deal with the leader, you have dealt with his men. He singles out and attacks the ship of Chenbar of Tyros and defeats him in single combat, carrying him away in chains, and makes good his escape with his prisoner.

Chapter Eighteen - How Bosk Returned To His House

The capture of Chenbar and the other setbacks dealt to the invaders cause them to turn and flee, leaving all concerned to survive the ensuing foul weather as best they can. Noting the date, the twenty-fifth of Se'Kara, Gor's September (in terms of seasons, whether or not the two calendars are synchronised), Bosk is moved to reflect upon his Shakespeare. Perhaps he views himself as Henry the Fifth; it is by no means unreasonable to view this battle as Port Kar's Agincourt; and he reflects that, though those that died this day cannot sing, they would have had they lived, and so it is meet for those who had survived to sing in their stead "and for ourselves as well, and could there not be, in some way that was hard to understand, but good, truth in songs?"

There is, unfortunately, work yet to do in Port Kar, since two of the former Ubars who have ostensibly been part of the Council have chosen this time not to aid it, and the remaining Ubar, or rather the regent Claudius ruling in the name of Henrius Sevarius, has had the siege formerly laid on him opportunely lifted. Bosk prepares to deal with this; and the slave Fish, well known to be the real Henrius Sevarius but not openly acknowledged as such, insists on being allowed to win his spurs. Unfortunately, Bosk can count on no other help at the moment. The storm-tossed fleet is many hours out of Port Kar, and the mercenary tarnsmen are not mad enough to dare whatever unknown but surely adverse odds they are bound to confront.

Mere odds, of course, don't much worry Bosk, and he even has help in the shape of young Fish, who has learned his hard-earned lessons in arms very well indeed, and it is not long before this dynamic duo are setting upon the vile Lysias and his aides, whom they outnumber two to forty-odd. Brilliantly though they perform, Bosk and Fish are just as grateful for the timely arrival of Samos, who helps them rout Lysias's troops. This, however, is only the beginning of their troubles.

It is now the turn of Bosk and Samos (and Fish) to endure a siege, but one that seems likely to end in Bosk's house falling by storm before very much longer, and Bosk cannot help wondering why Samos has come to side him when even Clitus and Thurnock, his two trusty henchmen, have made themselves scarce - though he hardly blames them. As they wait for the end, Bosk finally hears the whole of Telima's story from her own lips. Samos himself it was who was formerly her master, who treated her almost as a daughter and allowed her to think from a very young age that she would, at age seventeen, be formally adopted by him - only for that day to see her reduced to the most wretched of slavery. When she had been suitably brutalised, she succeeded in a most fortuitous escape and, full of hatred, found her way to the rence islands where she made her home with Ho-Hak's people.

Soon the final assault comes, and Telima delivers to Bosk the sword he used to carry when he was still Tarl Cabot, and he enjoys a sentimental moment before putting it to good use. But the numbers of the forces of the three traitor Ubars are overwhelming, and death is only minutes away. Bosk makes his last farewell to Samos, who calls him "Warrior" for no reason that Bosk understands, and they prepare for their last stand, in which the slaves Telima, Luma and Vina refuse to desert them, though the dancer Sandra is of more timid sort, and is already in hiding below, dressed in her finery and hoping that she will be spared.

Then with the obligatory cinematic timing, the cavalry trumpets blow - figuratively speaking, at any rate. An arrow storm cuts down the attackers, and Bosk suddenly realizes that the rencers have come to his aid. It was on this business that Clitus and Thurnock were bound, and the rencers, whom Ho-Hak has persuaded to adopt the great bow, peasant weapon or no, turn the tide of the battle on the instant. In the same moment the loyal lieutenant Tab manages to bring seaborne aid to Port Kar, and all that remains to be done is for a few personal scores to be settled. Lysias crosses swords with Bosk for a couple of sentences; the traitor Claudius is brought to book by Fish; and finally Ho-Hak himself exacts revenge for his murdered son Eechius by casting Henrak, the traitor of the marshes, to the tharlarion.

So we assemble for an epilogue, much as Kirk, Spock and McCoy were once wont to do, to find that most of the male leads have freed their favourite slaves (Samos being the exception, but he has had no particular romantic interest in this story), although the cowardly Sandra will be allowed to sit unfed in the treasury for a couple of days by way of a lesson, and Fish and Vina are still, at least officially, slaves. Ho-Hak lets fall a puzzling remark about Telima's golden armlet, which was to serve as identification when she fled to the marshes years ago, and then takes his leave with the rencers, and one by one the characters depart, leaving only Samos to explain one or two things to Telima and to Bosk.

It went like this: Telima was psychologically manipulated on purpose, so that Tarl Cabot would be cruelly treated when he fell into her grasp; and Ho-Hak was briefed that Tarl would be attempting to pass the marshes. All this was done (and planned years in advance) solely so that Tarl would be taught a humiliating lesson about his own humanity, so that he would be a better servant to Priest-Kings - not that the Priest-Kings, especially Tarl's friend Misk, knew about it or would have approved; in this matter Samos considers himself a better judge than any Priest-King. But Bosk cannot swallow this lesson without choking on it, not at present, and he is too full of the despicable things he has done that he can accept neither Samos's word that any man might have done the same nor Telima's loving assessment that he has neither been destroyed nor lost himself.

But Samos, seeing a long-drawn plan in ruins, or at least set back indefinitely, reacts with something of the same humility that Misk himself showed back when Tarl Cabot refused to help him (see "Priest-Kings of Gor"), and lets him be. He only hints that he hoped that Bosk would have volunteered for a mission involving the ship designed by the mad Tersites, and a voyage beyond the world's end; but since Bosk will not, and now claims to serve Priest-Kings no longer, Samos goes his way, and leaves him and Telima on the ramparts of his house, watching a chilly damp dawn over the marshes.

And of what shall become of Bosk, and whether he is truly done with the Priest-Kings for good and all, and whether he will ever recover his self-respect, we shall learn anon; but not in next month's column, for a new character becomes the narrator, a woman who is the eponymous "Captive of Gor"!

Until then, I wish you well,

Socrates