I met them, moving swiftly, constantl shifting my position, drawing them after me, then pressing one or another of them back. I kept, as well as I could, near the girls, that the backs of the men would be, in turn, kept toward the entryway.
I could see, as they did not, a shadow moving — swiftly behind them, it, too, rapidly shifting its position, moving about amidst the frantic shadows of men, torches and confusions, but always staying in the background, like an absence of substance but one which carried a blade of steel. Then the shadow had donned a helmet, and it was almost indistinguishable from the others. Those who fell before that shadow did so unnoticed, and without great cries, for the blade had crossed their throats as unexpectedly as a whisper in the darkness. I myself dropped nine warriors.
Then we heard more shouting, and saw more torches.
Now the room was high with light and even the beams of the hall stood forth, heavy in their ceiling.
Now, discovered, Fish fought by my side, that we might, together, protect one another.
'Now, Slave,' said I to Fish, 'you should have stayed with the fleet.' 'Be silent,' said he, adding, 'a€”Master.'
I laughed.
I saw the boy, with a lightning thrust, Hash four inches steel through a body, returning to the on-guard position before the man realized he had been struck. In fighting as we were, one did not use a deep thrust, that the blade might be more swiftly freed.
'You have learned your lessons well,' said I, 'Slave.'
'Thank you, Master,' said he.
He dropped another man.
I dropped two others, to my right.
I heard more men coming down the passageway.
Then, from one side, the door to the kitchens, a number of other men came forth, carrying torches and steel.
We are lost, I thought. Lost.
To my fury I saw that these men were led by Samos of Port Kar.
'So,' I cried, 'as I thought, you are in league with the enemies of Port Kar!' But to my astonishment he engaged and dropped one of our attackers. I saw that some of the men with him were my own, who had been left behind in the holding, to guard it. Others I did not know.
'Withdraw!' cried Lysias, wildly in the fighting.
His men backed away, fighting, and we, and those others who had come to help us, pressed them back even as they retreated through the great door to the high- roofed hall.
At the entryway we stopped and threw shut the doors, dropping the beams into place.
Samos and I, together, dropped the last beam into the heavy iron brackets. He was sweating and the sleeve of his tunic was torn. There was a splash of blood across his face, staining the left side of his face, his short, white, cropped hair and the golden ring in his ear.
'The fleet?' he asked.
'Victory is ours,' I told him.
'Good,' he said. He sheathed his sword. 'We are defending the keep near the delta wall,' he said. 'Follow me.'
Near the bound girls he stopped.
'So here you are,' said Samos. He turned to face me. 'They snuck away to find you.'
'They were successful,' I said.
I slashed the binding fiber which, tying their wrists together, had passed through the slave ring, fastening them to it. They struggled to their feet. Their wrists, though no longer tethered to the slave ring, were still fastened behind their backs. They were still gagged. Vina ran to Fish, tears in her eyes, and thrust her head against his left shoulder. He took her in his arms. Telima approached me timidly, head down, and then, looking up, smiling with her eyes, put her head against my right shoulder. I held her to me.
'So,' Fish was saying to Vina, 'you snuck away from the keep.'
She looked at him, startled.
He took her by the shoulders, turned her about and started her stumbling down the kitchen passageway. Then, with a swift motion, he leaped behind her and, with the flat of his blade, dealt her a sharp, stinging blow. She sped down the passageway.
'You, too,' I said to Telima, 'apparently left the keep unbidden.'
She backed warily away from me.
'Have you something to say to me, Rence Girl?' I asked.
'Umm-ummph,' protested Telima, shaking her head. I took a step toward her. She shook her head. She had a don't-you-dare-you- beast-you look in her eyes. I took another step toward her.
Telima, dignity to the winds, turned and fled down the passageway, but, before she had managed to make ten yards, she had been stung twice, and roundly, by the flat of my blade.
Twenty yards beyond, running, she stopped, and turned to look upon me. She drew herself up in her full, angry dignity.
I took another step toward her and, wildly, she wheeled and, barefoot, fled stumbling down the passageway.
The dignity of the proud Telima, I gathered, could not endure another such blow. I laughed.
'One must know how to treat women,' said the boy, Fish, gravely.
'Yes,' I said, gravely.
'One must teach them who is master,' said the boy.
'Quite,' I agreed.
The men about us laughed and, as comrades in arms, we made our way through the passageway, and then the kit- chens, and the hads to the keep.
The next afternoon Samos and I stood together behind the parapet of the keep. Over our heads, high, between beams, was strung tam wire. Heavy wooden mantelets, mounted on posts, were nearby, under which we might protect ourselves from crossbow fire from tarnsmen.
My large yellow bow of Ka-a-na, tipped with bosk hom and strung with hemp, whipped with silk, was at hand, It had helped to keep besiegers at their distance. There were few arrows left.
Our men were below. We were weary. We had caught what steep we could. Now, only Samos and I stood watch.
Before my return to the holding, Samos, with his men and mine, had withstood eleven assaults on the keep, both by tamsmen and besieging infantry. Since I had returned yesterday evening, we had withstood another four. we now had left only thirty-five men, eighteen who had accompanied Samos to my holding, and seventeen of my own.
'Why have you come to defend my keep, and my holding?' I asked Samos. 'Do you not know?' he asked.
'No,' I said.
'It does not matter,' he said, 'now.'
'Had it not been for you and your men,' I said, 'my holding would long ago have fallen.'
Samos shrugged.
We looked out over the parapet. The keep is near the delta wall of the holding. We could, from the ramparts, look out over the marsh, stretching far beyond, that vast beautiful delta of the great Vosk, through which I had come, so long ago.
Our men, exhausted, lay below, within the keep. The Ehn of sleep they could obtain were precious to them They, like Samos and myself, were almost overcome with weariness. The waiting, and then the fighting, and the waiting again, had been so long, so long.
Also below were four girls, Vina and Telima, and Lums, the chief accountant of my house, who had not iled, and the dancer, Sandra, who had been afraid to leave the holding. Most others, whether men or women, slave or free, had fled. Even Thumock and Thura, and Clitus and Ula, whom I had expected to stay, had fled. I did not reproach them, even in my heart. They were wise. It was madness to stay behind. In the end, I told myself, it was I, and not they, who was truly the fool. And yet I would not have chosen, at this time, to be any place other than where I stood, on height of my keep, in the holding I had made mine own in Port Kar.
And so Samos, and I, kept watch.
I looked at him. I did not understand the slaver. Why had he come to defend my holding? Was he so irrational so mad, so contemptuous Of the value of his life? He did not belong here.
This holding was mine, mine!
'You are weary,' said Samos. 'Go below. I will watch.' I nodded. There was no longer any point, nor time, to distrust Samos. His sword had been much stained in my behalf. I-Es own life, like mine, had stood stake on the parapet of my keep. If he served the Ubars, or Claudius, regent of Henrius Sevarius, or the Ubarates of Cos and Tyros, or the Others, or Priest-Kings, or himself, I no longer cared. I no longer cared about anything. I had wme back. I was very tired.
I descended through the trap and climbed down the ladder to the first level beneath the keep's roof. There was food and water there, enough for another week of fight- ing. But I did not think we would need that much. Before nightfall doubtless more assaults would take place, and in the first, or the second, or in another, we would surely fall.
I looked about the room. The men were sleeping. It was and littered. They were unshaven. Several of them, men of Samos, were unknown to me, but others, mine, I had cared for. Some were even slaves, who bad fought with poles and hammers. Others were men who had been slaves, whom I had freed and trained with weapons. Others were seamen, and two others were mercenaries, who had refused to leave my service. I saw the boy Fisk sleeping, Vina in his arms. He had done well, I thought.
'Master,' I heard.
In one comer of the room I saw Sandra, the dancer. To my surprise, she had arrayed herself in pleasure silu and cosmetics. She was truly beautiful. I went to her side. She was kneeling before a bronze mirror, touching an eyebrow with a brush.
She looked up at me, frightened. 'When they come,' she asked, 'they will not kill Sandra, will they?'
'I do not think so,' I said. 'I think they will Bad her beautiful, and permit her to live.'
She shook with relief, and returned to her mirror, anxiously studying her countenance.
