Raiders of Gor by John Norman

held the
    tiller beam.
    The helmsman stood at the tiller, not moving. He had removed his helmet in the
    noon heat of the delta. Insects, undistracted, hovered about his head, moving in
    his hair.
    The oar-master, crying out, leaped up the stairs to the tiller deck, and angrily
    seized the helmsman bu the shoulders, shaking him, then saw his eyes.
    He released the man, who fell from the tiller.
    The oar-master cried out in fear, summoning warriors who gathered on the tiller
    deck.
    The arrow from the great yellow bow, that of supple Ka-la-na, had passed through
    the head of the man, losing itself a hundred yards distant, dropping unseen into
    the marsh.
    I do not think the men of Port Kar, at this time, realized the nature of the
    weapon that had slain their helmsman.
    The knew only that he had been alive, and then dead, and that his head now bore
    two unaccountable wounds, deep, opposed, centerless circles, each mounted at the
    scarlet apex of a stained triangle.
    Uncertain, fearing, they looked about.
    The marsh was quiet, They heard only, from somewhere, far off, the piping cry of
    a marsh gant.
     
    Silently, swiftly, with the stamina and skill of the rence girl, Telima,
    unerringly taking advantage of every break in the marsh growth, never making a
    false thrust or motion, brought our small craft soon into the vicinity of the
    heavy, slowed barges, hampered not only by their weight but by the natural
    impediments of the marsh. I marveled at her, as she moved the craft, keeping us
    constantly moving, yet concealed behind high thickets of rush and sedge. At
    times we were but yards from the barges. I could hear the creak of the oars in
    the thole ports, hear the calling of the oar-master, the conversation of
    warriors at their leisure, the moans of bound slaves, soon silenced with the
    lash and blows.
    Telima poled us skillfuly about a large, floating tangle of marsh vine, it
    shifting with the movements of the marsh water.
    We passed the fifth barge, and the fourth and third. I heard the shouts being
    passed from barge to barge, the confusion.
    Soon, shielded by rushes and sedge, we had the first of the narrow, high-prowed
    barges abeam. This was their flagship. The warriors in the craft, climbing on
    the rowing benches, were crowed amidships and aft, even on the tiller deck,
    looking back at the barge line behind them, trying to make out the shouting, the
    confusion. Some of the slaves, chained at their benches, were trying to stand
    and see what might be the matter. On the small foredeck of the barge, beneath
    the high, curved prow, stood the officer and Henrak, both looking aft. The
    officer, angrily, was shouting the length of the barge to its oar-master, who
    now stood on the tiller deck, looking back toward the other barges, his hands on
    the sternrail. On the high, curved prow, to which was bound, naked, the lithe,
    darkhaired girl, there stood a lookout, he, too, looking backward, shielding his
    eyes. Below the prow, in the marsh water, the slaves in the punt stopped cutting
    at the sedge and marsh vine that blocked their way.
    I stood in the small craft, shielded by rushes and sedge. My feet were spread;
    my heels were aligned with the target; my head was sharply turned to my left; I
    drew the sheaf arrow to its pile, until the three half-feathers of the Vosk gull
    lay at my jawbone; I took breath and then held it, sighting over the pile; there
    must be no movement; then I released the string.
    The shaft, at the distance, passed completely through his body, flashing beyond
    him and vanishing among the rushes and sedges in the distance.
    The man himself did not cry out but the girl, bound near him, screamed.
    There was a splash in the water.
    The slaves standing in the punt, the two with their poles, the other two with
    their glaves, cried out in fear. I heard a thrashing in the water on the other
    side of the barge, the hoarse grunting of a suddenly emerged marsh tharlarion.
    The man had not cried out. Doubtless he