"John Norman - Gor 06 - Raiders of Gor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman John)

merchants, on narrow marsh craft rowed by slaves, enter some pasangs into the
delta to negotiate the transactions, usually from the western edge, that
bordering the Tamber Gulf. Rence paper is, incidentally, not the only type of
writing material used on Gor. A milled linen paper is much used, large
quantities
of which are produced in Ar, and vellum and parchment, prepared in many
cities,
are also popular.
I now noted another bit of white re-cloth tied on the rence stem, larger
than the first. I assumed it was another trail mark. I continued on. The calls
of
marsh gants, a kind of piping whistle, seemed more frequent now, and
somewhat closer. I looked behind me, and to the sides. Yet, not surprisingly,
because of the rence, the rushes and sedge, I could not see the birds.
I had been in the delta now for some sixteen days, drifting and paddling
toward the Thassa. I again tasted the water, and the salt of it was even
stronger
than it had been. And the great, vast clean smell of Thassa was clear.
I rejoiced, moving ahead. There was not much water left in the gourd
now, and it was the last of several I had brought with me. The dried bosk meat
in the tin, and the bread with it, yellow Sa-Tarna bread, now stale, was
almost
gone.
Then I stopped short, for tied to a rence plant before me now was a sheaf
of red cloth.
I then knew that the two pieces of cloth I had encountered earlier had not
been simple trail marks but boundary signs, warnings. I had come into an area
of the delta wehre I was not welcome, into a territory that must be claimed by
some small community, doubless of rence growers.
The rence growers, in spite of the value of their product, and the value of
the articles taken in exchange for it, and teh protection of the marshes, and
the
rence and fish which give them ample substenance, do not have an easy life.
Not
only must they fear the march sharks and the carnivorous eels which frequent
the lower delta, not to mention the various species of aggressive water
tharlarion
and the winged, monstrous, hissing, predatory UI, but they must fear, perhaps
most of all, men, and of these, most of all, the men of Port Kar.
As I have mentioned, Port Kar claims the suzerainty of the delta.
Accordingly, frequently, bands of armed men, maintaining allegiance to on or
the
other of the warring, rival Ubars of Port Kar, enter the delta to , as they
say,
collect tazes. The tributes exacted, when the small communities can be found,
are customarily harsh, often whatever of value can be found; typically what is
demanded is great stocks of rence paper for trade, sons for oarsmen in cargo
galleys, daughters for Pleasure Slaves in the taverns of the city.
I looked on the red cloth tied to the rence plant. The cloth was the color
of blood; I was in little doubt as to its meaning. I was not to proceed