"Look!" said a man, pointing upward. "Tarnsmen!"
"They are clad in blue," cried a man.
"Cosian tarnsmen over the city!" cried another.
"The tarn wire will protect us!" said another.
"Where are our lads?" asked a man.
"They cannot be everywhere," said another, angrily.
Yet the appearance of Cosian tarnsmen over Ar indicated to me that Cos must now control the skies, as she had in the north.
"The tarn wire will protect us," repeated the fellow.
"Wire can be cut," said a man.
"No one must be permitted to again revile the Home Stone of Ar's Station!" said Marcus.
"Come away from here," I said. I pulled him from the knot of men, to the side.
I looked back to the enclosure within which was the Home Stone of Ar's Station, it resting on the plank, supported by the two terra-cotta vats. There were at least ten guards in the vicinity, as well as perhaps fifty to a hundred men.
"I do not think you are likely, at this time," I said, "to seize the Home Stone by force. Even if you could cut your way to it, you would not be likely to get more than a few feet with it, before you were brought down, by spear or quarrel, if not by blade."
"I can die in the attempt of its rescue," he said, grimly.
"Yes, I suppose you could," I said, "and probably without much difficulty, but if your intent is its rescue, and not your death in its attempted rescue, this is not the time to strike."
He looked at me, angrily.
"You have many of the virtues of the warrior," I said, "but there is yet one you must learn—patience."
"It is not your Home Stone," he said.
"And that," I said, "is perhaps why it is easier for me to consider these matters with more objectivity than you."
"The Stone may be moved, or hidden," he said.
"That is a possibility," I said.
"We must strike now," he said.
"We must wait," I said.
"I do not want to wait," he said.
"I have an idea," I said. This had occurred to me as I had considered the Stone, its placement, the arrangement of guards and such.
"What is your idea?" he asked.
"You would not approve of it," I said, "as it involves something other than a bloody frontal assault."
"What is it?" he asked.
"It is really only a possibility," I said. "I shall discuss it with you later."
I then turned back toward Wagon Street, and Marcus, reluctantly, joined me.
"Our permits to be within the city expire at sundown," he said. "And the camp outside is largely struck. Indeed, there may well be scouts and skirmishers of Cos under the walls tonight. The gates will be closed, we will be outside. We may not even be able to regain entrance to the city."
"It is my intention," I said, "to remain within the city, putting my sword at its service."
"You owe Ar nothing," he said.
"True," I said.
"She is doomed," he said.
"Perhaps," I said.
"Why would you wish to remain here then?" he asked.
"I have a reason," I said.
"Shall we discuss it," he asked, "its rationality, and such, with objectivity?"
"Certainly not," I said.
"I thought not," he said.
We clasped hands, and then continued on our way, to fetch Phoebe.
5
Outside the Gate
"And so, tonight," said Marcus, huddling beside me, in a blanket, Phoebe covered in another, completely, so that she could not see, beside him, in the darkness and cold outside the sun gate, with perhaps two or three hundred others, "I thought you were to be warm and snug in Ar."
"There were no recruiting tables," I admitted.
"The services of your sword were not accepted," he said.
"No," I said.
"Interesting," he said.
"They did ask for my permit and told me I should be out of the city by sundown."
"Cos may be hiring," said a fellow.
"They do not need any more," said another.
I supposed that was true.
"It is strange," said Marcus. "I would have thought they might even free and arm male slaves."
I shrugged.
"But then," he said, "I suppose there are not too many male slaves in the city who might serve in that capacity."
"Perhaps not," I said. It was not like the city contained large numbers of dangerous, powerful, virile male slaves, such as might be found on the galleys, in the quarries, on the great farms, and so on. Such, in numbers, would be dangerous in the city. Most male slaves in the city were pampered silk slaves, owned by Gorean women who had not yet learned their sex. Such slaves, when captured, if not slain in disgust by the victors, were usually herded together like slave girls, and chained for disposition in markets catering to their form of merchandise, markets patronized largely by free women. To be sure, there were virile male slaves in Ar. For example, many of the fellows who attended to the great refuse vats usually kept at the foot of the stairs in insulae were male slaves. Usually they worked under the direct or indirect supervision of free men. Occasionally they would be treated to a dram of paga or thrown a kettle girl for the evening.
"I would have thought," said Marcus, "that Ar might have rejoiced these days to obtain even the services of a lad with a sharp stick."
"Apparently not," I said.
"You understand what this means?" asked Marcus.
"Yes," I said. "I think I understand what it means."
"Do you think they will open the gate in the morning?" asked a man.
"Yes," said another.
"How far is Cos?" Marcus asked a fellow stirring around in his blankets.
"Two days," said the fellow.
"They may be closer," said a man.
"Ar will be defended to the death," said a man.
"Perhaps," said another.
"You are not sure of it?" asked the first.
"No," said the second.
"Have you heard the latest news?" asked a fellow.
"What?" inquired another.
"It was suddenly in Ar," said the fellow. "I heard it just before I was expelled from the city, the gate then closed."
"What?" asked a man.
"Talena, the daughter of Marlenus, has offered to sacrifice herself for the safety of the city."
"I do not understand," said a fellow.
"Tell me of this!" I said.
"Talena has agreed to deliver herself naked, and in the chains of a slave, to the Cosians, if they will but spare Ar!"
"She must never be permitted to do so!" cried a man.
"No!" said another.
"Noble woman!" cried a man.
"Noble Talena!" cried another.
"It is absurd," said another fellow. "She is not the daughter of Marlenus. She was disowned by him."
"And thus," I said, "her offer is of no more import than would be the similar offer of any other free woman of Ar."
"Treason!" said a fellow.
"It is said," said a fellow, "that she has been a slave."
"I have heard that," said a man.
"Marlenus did disown her," said a man.
"She does not even have her original name restored," said a man, "but the merely same name, permitted her, after she was freed."
"Long was she sequestered in the Central Cylinder," said another.
"As is Claudia Tentia Hinrabia, of the Hinrabians," said a man. "Remember her?"
"Yes," said a fellow. Claudia Tentia Hinrabia had been the daughter of a former Administrator of Ar, Minus Tentius Hinrabius. When Marlenus had regained the throne he had freed her from a bondage to which Cernus, his foe, who had replaced Minus Tentius Hinrabius on the throne, had seen that she was reduced. I recalled her. She had been a slender, dark-haired beauty, with high cheekbones. She still lived, as I understood it, in the Central Cylinder, a surmise which, it seemed, given one of the fellow’s rem
arks, was now additionally confirmed.
"I, too, have heard it said," I said, "that Talena was once a slave, and I have heard it said, as well, that even now she wears on her thigh the mark of Treve, a souvenir of her former bondage to a tarnsman of that city."
"She is the daughter of Marlenus," said a man, sullenly.
"She should be Ubara," said another.
"Her offer to deliver herself to the Cosians, that the city may be spared," said a fellow, "is preposterous. When they take the city they can have her, and any other number of free women. The whole thing is absurd."
"But incredibly noble!" said a fellow.
"Yes," said another.
"It is an act worthy of one who should be Ubara," said a man.
I considered these matters, rather interested in them. In making an offer of this sort, of course, Talena was implicitly claiming for herself the status of being a Ubar's daughter, else the offer would have been, as one of the fellows had suggested, absurd. This was, in its way, presenting a title to the throne. It was not as though she were merely one, say, of a thousand free women who were making the same offer.
"Is she asking, say," I asked, "a thousand other free women to join her in this proposal?"
"No," said the fellow.
The extremely interesting thing to my mind would be the Cosian response to this offer. I had little doubt, personally, from what I had learned of the intrigues in Ar that this offer had some role to play in the complicated political games afoot in that metropolis.
At this point a fellow hurried among us. He had come from the darkness, away from the gate. "Cosians!" he said. Men cried out. Some slaves amongst us screamed. Some men ran to the wall. Some went to pound and cry at the gate.
"Where?" I asked, standing, my sword drawn. Marcus thrust Phoebe's head farther down, she covered totally by the blanket. He was then beside me, his weapon, too, unsheathed. These were two of the few weapons in the group. These fellows, I realized, could be pinned against the wall and gate, and slaughtered. I made as though to kick the tiny fire out. "No," said the man. "No!"
"Scatter in the darkness!" I said.
"No," he said.
"They will be on us with blades in an instant!" said a man.
"Let us in!" cried a fellow, upward to the wall, where there were guards.
"They are scouts, skirmishers?" asked Marcus.
"I think so," said the man.
"Surely they will attack," said a man.
"Perhaps we can be defended from the walls," said a man.
I did not think that quarrel fire from the walls would be much to our advantage. We would be as likely to be hit, I supposed, as Cosians. Too, it was very dark. Few archers will waste quarrels in such light.
"I think we are in no danger, at least now," said the man.
"Why do you say that?" I asked.
"Look," he said. He held his hand near the fire and opened it.
"A silver tarsk!" said a man.
"It was given to me by a Cosian, in the shadows," said the man, wonderingly.
"I do not understand," said a man.
"He pressed it into my hand," said the man, "when I thought to be spitted on his blade."
"What did he say?" asked a man.
"That Cos was our friend," said the man.
"How many were there?" I asked.
"Only a few, I think," said the man.
"Scouts, or skirmishers," I said to Marcus.
"It would seem so," he said.
"What shall we do now?" asked a man.
"We will wait here," said a man, "until the gate opens."
"It is only an Ahn until dawn," said a man.
I looked out into the darkness. Out there, somewhere, were Cosians. I then looked at the fellow who had recently joined us. He was sitting by the tiny fire now, trembling. He was perhaps cold. His fist was clenched. In it, I gathered, was a silver tarsk.
"I do not think Ar will choose to defend itself," I said.
"I do not think so either," said Marcus, softly.
"Doubtless that is why there were no recruiting tables," I said.
"Undoubtedly," he said.
6
The Public Boards
Marcus and I turned to the street for a moment, to watch a company of guardsmen, at quick march, hasten by, their bootlike sandals, coming high on the calf, resounding on the stones.
"Ar will defend herself to the death," said a man.
"Yes," said another.
I looked after the retreating guardsmen. I doubted if there were more than fifteen hundred such in the city.
"There is no danger," said a man.
"No," said another.
"The tarn wire will protect us," said a man.
"Our gates are impregnable," said another. "Our walls cannot be breached."
"No," said another.
How little these fellows knew of the ways of war, I thought.
"Here it is," said Marcus, calling back to me, "on the public boards." The public boards are posting areas, found at many points in Ar, usually in markets and squares. These boards, however, were along the Avenue of the Central Cylinder, and were state boards, on which official communiqués, news releases, announcements and such, could be posted. Some boards are maintained by private persons, who sell space on them for advertising, notifications, and personal messages. To be sure, many folks, presumably poorer folks, or at least folks less ready to part with a tarsk bit, simply inscribe their messages, in effect as graffiti, on pillars, walls of buildings, and such. Too, posters, and such, usually hand-inked, are common in public places, usually put up by the owners or managers of palestrae, or gymnasiums, public baths, taverns, race courses, theaters, and such. Sales of tharlarion and slaves, too, are commonly thusly advertised. Heralds and criers, too, and carriers of signs, are not unknown. Some proprietors rent space in their shops or places of business for small postings. So, too, similarly, some homeowners who live on busy streets charge a fee for the use of their exterior walls. There are many other forms of communication and advertising, as well, such as the parades of acrobats, jugglers, clowns, animal trainers, mimes and such, and the passage of flatbedded display wagons through the streets, on which snatches of performances, intended to whet the viewer's interests, are presented, or, say, slaves are displayed, usually decorously clad, in connection with imminent sales at various markets and barns. The viewer, or the male viewer, at any rate, understands that the decorous attire of the embonded beauties of the moving platform is not likely to be worn in the exposition cages or on the block. There is a Gorean saying that only a fool buys a woman clothed. On these platforms the women are usually chained only by an ankle, that there will be but little interference with their movements and their appeals to the crowds. On the other hand, some owners, who prefer more obvious restraints for their women, who are, after all, slaves, use flatbedded wagons with mounted slave bars of various sorts, sometimes with intricate chainings or couplings. Similarly, stout, multiply locked cage wagons may be used for a similar purpose.
"I see," I said, reading the boards.
"I have heard," said a man, near me, speaking to another, "that many other free women, like Talena herself, have offered themselves as slaves, that the city be spared."
"There is nothing to that effect here on the public boards," said the other fellow.
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