amazement, the signals stopped; there was a pause; then there came a strange sound, which could have been uttered by no human throat, but articulate, repeated again and again.
I put the cone down. The sound continued.
Ho-Tu, his hook knife in his hand, entered the room. 'Cernus?' he asked.
I pointed to the rags and the part of a body that was thrown into a corner of the room, mixed with litter and bones.
'What more could you have done?' I asked.
Ho-Tu looked at me.
'Sura,' I said, 'told me to tell you that she loved you.'
Ho-Tu nodded. There were tears in his eyes. 'I am happy,' he said. Then he turned and left the room.
I saw on the part of the body lying among the bones the chain and medallion of Cernus, now stained with blood, the tarn, gold, slave chains in its talons.
I pulled it through the body and threw it onto the horizontal panel, next to the flashing cone, to the other cone that kept repeating its request.
I looked about. Throughout the room there was the heavy animal odor. I saw the webbing on which the thing had apparently slept, judged its strength, noted its width. I saw the small boxes which had been brought from the black ships. I saw cases of metallic disks, perhaps mnemonic disks or record disks. Priest-Kings could make use, I supposed, of the contents of this room. I expected they could learn much.
I went to the horizontal panel and picked up the cone through which the voice was being transmitted; I noted a switch in the cone and pushed it; immediately the voice stopped.
I spoke into the cone. I spoke in Gorean. I did not know to whom I spoke. I was certain that my transmission, like others, would be taped or recorded in some fashion. It would, now, or later, be understood.
'Cernus is dead,' I said. 'The beast is gone. There will be no answer.'
I clicked the switch again. This time it was silent.
I turned and left the room, barring it on the outside, that others might not enter it.
In passing again through the hall of Cernus I encountered Flaminius. 'Ho-Tu,' he said.
I followed him to the chamber of Sura.
There Ho-Tu, with his hook knife, had cut his own throat, falling across the body of Sura. I saw that he had first removed from her throat the collar of Cernus.
Flaminius seemed shaken. He looked to me, and I to him.
Flaminius looked down.
'You must live,' I said to him.
'No,' he said.
'You have work to do,' I told him. 'There is a new Ubar in Ar. You must return to your work, your research.'
'Life is little,' he said.
'What is death?' I asked him.
He looked at me. 'It is nothing,' he said.
'If death is nothing,' I said, 'then the little that life is must be much indeed.'
He looked away. 'You are a Warrior,' he said. 'You have your wars, your battles.'
'So, too, do you,' said I, 'Flaminius.'
Our eyes met.
'Dar-kosis,' I said, 'is not yet dead.'
He looked away.
'You must return to your work,' I said. 'Men need you.'
He laughed bitterly.
'The little that men have,' I said, 'is worth your love.'
'Who am I to care for others?' he asked.
'You are Flaminius,' I told him, 'he who long ago loved men and chose to wear the green robes of the Caste of Physicians.'
'Long ago,' he said, looking down, 'I knew Flaminius.'
'I,' I said, 'know him now.'
He looked into my eyes. There were tears in his eyes, and in mine.
'I loved Sura,' said Flaminius.
'So, too, did Ho-Tu,' I said. 'And so, too, in my way, did I.'
'I will not die,' said Flaminius. 'I will work.'
I returned to my own chambers in the House of Cernus. Outside I could hear the song of Ar's glory. I washed away from my forehead the mark of the black dagger.
24 — THE COURT OF THE UBAR
In the central cylinder of Ar, that in which the Ubar has his palace and holds his court, in a room assigned to me, I drew upon my body the tunic of a Warrior.
It was fresh and clean, bright scarlet, pressed with hot, round irons warmed over fires. I buckled about my waist the belt and scabbard. They were of new leather, black and shining, with embossings of brass. But it was my old sword, the fine, familiar steel, remembered even from the siege of Ar, many years before, that I dropped into the scabbard. Sitting on the edge of the stone couch I bent down to tie my sandals. Hup was sitting cross-legged on a chest across the room, his chin in his hands. There was much sun in the room.
'I am the agent of Priest-Kings in Ar,' said Hup. 'From the beginning I have followed your movements in the city.'
'You are also of the party of Marlenus,' I said.
'He is my Ubar,' said Hup. 'I have been honored to participate in his return to power.'
'I wonder if the Priest-Kings are much pleased by that turn of events?'
'They are realists,' said Hup.
'With Marlenus on the throne,' I said, 'Ar will be dangerous.'
Hup smiled. 'Ar is always dangerous.' He scratched one ear. 'Better Marlenus than Cernus, surely,' said he.
'True,' I laughed.
'It has taken years for Marlenus to return,' said Hup. 'Many things were essential. In the time of Kazrak there was little that could be done. Kazrak, though uninspiring as a Ubar, and worse, not of Ar, was nonetheless an estimable ruler, an honest man, an intelligent, brave man, who sought the good of the city.'
'And Marlenus?' I asked.
'With all his faults,' said Hup, 'he is Ar itself.'
I thought of the magnificent Marlenus, swift, brilliant, decisive, stubborn, vain, proud, a master swordsman, a tarnsman, a leader like a larl among men, always to those of Ar the Ubar of Ubars. I knew that men would, and had, deserted the Home Stone of their own city to follow him into disgrace and exile, preferring outlawry and the mountains to the securities of citizenship and their city, asking only that they be permitted to ride beside him, to lift their swords in his name. Marlenus was like a god and a beast among men, inspiring the most fanatic loyalties, the most intense of enmities. There are few men such that other men would fight for the right to die for them, but Marlenus, arrogant soldier, laughing Warrior, was such a man. Marlenus, I knew, could never be second in a city. He had now returned to Ar.
'With the departure of Kazrak and the appointment of Minus Tentius Hinrabius as Administrator of the City,' Hup continued, 'the return of Marlenus became practical.' He rubbed his nose and looked at me. The left eye was the larger one, and green. The right eye was normal, save that it, unlike its fellow, was blue. 'By this time we already had a network of agents in the city, both free and slave. Some of these you perhaps know.'
'The slave Phais,' I said, 'and the girls of the Street of Pots, were of your party.'
'Yes,' said Hup, 'and most useful. Slave girls, as is not the case with free women, may go almost anywhere in the city, gathering information, carrying messages. Few suspect that a collared wench may be on important business. Even if apprehended they seldom suffer more than a lashing while serving the pleasure of those who have apprehended them. Phais once so suffered at the hands of Vancius, of the guards of Cernus. I think that Marlenus will give him to her.'
'Poor Vancius,' I said.
'Doubtless the girls of the Street of Pots will be given some male slaves,' said Hup.
I did not envy them.
'Our most important single source of information,' said Hup, 'was the girls of the baths, particularly the Capacian. There is little in Ar that is not known in the baths. These girls were invaluable, both in the acquisition of information and in the arrangement of contacts. It was through the girls of the baths that the plans for the uprising were transmitted to those who would follow Marlenus.'
'Was a girl named Nela,' I asked, 'of the Pool of Blue Flowers, among the agents of Marlenus?'
'She was chief among them,' said Hup.
'I am pleased,' I said.
'She, with the others of the baths, who worked for Marlenus have already been freed,' said Hup.
'Good,' I said. 'I am much pleased.' I looked at him. 'But what of those girls who did not work for Marlenus?' I asked.
Hup looked puzzled. 'They still wear their chain collars,' said Hup, 'and serve in the baths as slave girls.'
'In the guise of Murmillius,' I said, 'Marlenus of Ar, as things went from bad to worse in the city, in the midst of corruption and crime, gathered about himself a following.'
