ours, when we first met him and his hunters, and, second, when he had visited us after his hunt, the night the tharlarion had been driven away. The one difference in this deck of cards from the deck which I had earlier seen in the keeping of Desmond of Harfax was the attractive speckling on the edges of the deck, a sort of design with which I was familiar from the house of chance. Goreans tend to be fond of beauty and color, in garments, architecture, paving stones, utensils, tableware, and such. Often even the cords and straps, the binding fiber, and such, and sometimes even the chains with which slaves are bound, are colorful.
I closed the wrapper.
“You had best deliver it,” I said.
“Perhaps you would like to do so,” she said.
“Are you prepared to disobey a master?” I asked.
“No!” she said.
“Have you ever disobeyed a master?” I asked.
“Once,” she said, “in the training house. I never dared to do so again.”
“You have never disobeyed Master Kleomenes?” I said.
“I do not want to disobey him,” she said.
“What would happen if you did?” I asked.
“He is not man of Earth,” she said. “I am a slave. He is a Gorean master.”
“You would be punished?” I said.
“Of course,” she said. “If it were not the case, how could I yield to him with the trembling helplessness of the eager slave?”
“You had best deliver the package,” I said.
She sped from the slave quarters. It pleased me to see the proud Nora, whom I remembered from Earth, running as a slave.
She was well submitted, I gathered, to Master Kleomenes. I was sure he well knew what to do with a woman.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“I have explained to you my understanding of things,” said Desmond of Harfax.
There were eleven men in the room, and four slaves, the three who had been in the party of the Lady Bina, Jane, Eve, and myself, who had either prepared or copied the kaissa sheets, and Mina, formerly the Lady Persinna of Ar, who had been purchased by Trachinos. Amongst those in the room were Astrinax, Lykos, Trachinos, and Akesinos.
“Astrinax!” I had said, seeing him in the room.
I had inquired after the Lady Bina.
“She is essentially a prisoner,” said Astrinax. “For some reason they are holding her.”
“Is the throne of a Ubara still in her thoughts?” I asked.
“If so,” he said, “she no longer expects it from Kurii. Her rations have been reduced, and she is no longer treated with the respect with which she was originally received.”
“She has been repudiated by Grendel,” I said, “whose true feelings have now been revealed. She served his purpose as a pretext for hesitation in allying himself with Kurii, to win himself a more estimable offer of wealth and power. That received, she is no longer of use to him.”
“I fear she will be killed,” said Astrinax.
“No,” I said. “She is beautiful. She would bring a high price on a block. Let her be collared.”
“You do not understand, dear Allison,” he said. “That is because you are a barbarian. She is not an animal, such as you, which might be roped and claimed as such, bought and sold as such. She is a free woman. Thus, she is far more likely to be slain.”
“Might not Grendel speak for her,” I asked, “that she might be simply marked and collared?”
“She is of no concern to him,” said Astrinax.
“How treacherous and hateful he is,” I said.
“How is he different from any other of these beasts?” he asked.
“How, Desmond of Harfax,” inquired Kleomenes, “have you arrived at your understanding of things?”
“I prefer, at present,” said Desmond, “to keep my source confidential.”
“How can you expect us to believe you?” asked Kleomenes.
“I give you my word,” said Desmond.
“The word of many in this Cave,” said Kleomenes, “is worthless.”
“Obviously,” said Desmond, “I am willing to risk much. Even summoning you to this secret meeting is fraught with danger.”
“You have placed us all in jeopardy,” said Kleomenes.
“Yet you have come,” said Desmond. “And no one has left. To have come shows that you have suspected what might be afoot, that you have remained shows you suspect what I say is true.”
“There may be spies amongst us,” said a man.
“If so,” said Desmond, “they are fools, for they would be involved in the common peril.”
I noted that one or two of the fellows in the room held what appeared to be a deck of cards.
“If what you say is true,” said Kleomenes, “what can we do?”
“Pausanias, with his drivers, and wagons, has already left,” said Desmond. “That means, I believe, that things have begun. I do not expect them to return in the spring. I think they will scatter and initiate the intrigues I spoke of in a hundred cities.”
“Then it is too late,” said a fellow.
“No,” said Desmond, “for a hundred cities might be warned.”
“I see,” said Kleomenes.
“It is too fanciful,” said a man.
“We would not be believed,” said another.
“We must try,” said Desmond of Harfax.
“The snows will soon commence,” said a man.
“The passes will be closed,” said another.
“It will be safest to pretend we suspect nothing of this,” said a man, “and wait until spring.”
“That would give the conspiracy a start of months,” said Desmond.
“I am not eager to be hunted down by Kurii,” said another, “now, later, in the cold, in the snow, in the thaws of spring, in the heat of summer, anytime.”
“The beasts have use for us, for a time,” said another. “Is it not better to live for a time, than not to live, at all?”
“The beasts are formidable,” said Desmond, “but, within the laws of Priest-Kings, they are not invincible. The spear and sword, the bolt and arrow, speak to them as well as to us.”
“The hunted larl, the hunted sleen,” said a man, “often becomes the hunter.”
“Who would pursue the Voltai tarsk into a thicket, the wild bosk into the high grass?” said a fellow.
“Good, good!” said Desmond.
“How are we to proceed?” asked a fellow.
“We must enlist who we can amongst the humans,” said Desmond. “Gather supplies, secretly, and flee.”
“Soon,” said a fellow, “-the winter, the snows.”
“Yes,” said Desmond.
“But Kurii, the Cave, will remain,” said a fellow.
“Would it not remain a center for subversion and intrigue?” asked another.
“Quite possibly,” said Desmond. “But before we leave we might be able to inflict a crushing blow, one of great strategic importance, on the hopes of Gorean Kurii, on the very conspiracy itself.”
“Speak,” said a fellow.
