The boy's fists were clenched on the parapet.
Then the three men, with some others, fled into my holding.
On the wall Thumock waved his great bow over his head.
'Captain!' he cried.
Clitus, too, raised his hand.
I, too, lifted my hand, acknowledging their salute. And I lifted my hand, too, to Ho-Hak, the rencer. I saw how his men used their bows. I had little doubt that having been taught the might of the great bow in the marshes, when I had freed them from the slavers in the barges, they had traded for the weapons and now had made them their own, and proudly, as much as the peasants. I did not think the rencers would any longer be at the mercy of the men of Port Kar. Now, with weapons and courage, perhaps for the first time, they were truly free men, for they could now defend their freedoms, and those who cannot do this are not truly free; at best they are fortunate.
'Look!' cried Samos.
From the height of the keep, we could see over my holding, even to the canal and sea gate beyond the lake- like courtyard.
Men were fleeing from my holding but, even more important, approaching down the canal, oars flashing, mast down, came a tarn ship, and then another. 'It is the Vennal' I cried. 'And the Tela!'
Standing at the prow of the Venna, shield on his arm, helmeted, spear in hand, was Tab.
He must have brought the Venna and the Tela into the wind, cutt g away even the storm sails, and risked the destruction of the two ships in the high sea, not to be driven from Port Kar, and then, when the storm had lulled, they had put about and raced for the harbor. The rest of the fleet was still doubtless a hundred or more pasangs to the south.
'A seaman truly worthy of Port Kar,' said Samos.
'Do you love the city so?' I asked.
Samos smiled. 'It is the place of my Home Stone,' he said.
I grinned.
We saw the two ships, the Venna and her sister ship, the Tela, knife into the courtyard and swing about, their bowmen firing on the men running on the Promenade and trying to escape about the edges of the courtyard.
We saw men throwing down their weapons and kneeling. They would be roped together as slaves.
I seized Telima in my arms. She was laughing and crying.
I then seized one of the ropes attached to a grappling iron wedged in one of the crenels and began to descend the outer side of the keep wall. Fish and Samos were not far behind me.
With other ropes the men behind would lower the girls, and then follow themselves.
At the foot of the keep we met Thurnock, Clitus and Ho-Hak.
We embraced.
'You have learned the lesson of the great bow well,' I said to Ho-Hak. 'You well taught it to us, Warrior,' said Ho-Hak.
Thurnock and Clitus, with Thura and Ufa, had gone for aid to the rencers, traditionally enemies of those of Port Kar. And the rencers, to my astonishment, had come to risk their lives for me.
I decided I did indeed know little of men.
'Thank you,' said I to Ho-Hak.
'it is nothing,' said he, 'Warrior.'
It is such nothings, I thought, that are our manhood and our meaning. 'Three are cornered within,' said a seaman.
Samos and I, and Fish, and Thurnock, Clitus and Ho Hak, and others, went within the holding.
In the great hall, surrounded by crossbowmen, stood three men, at bay. Lysias, Claudius and Henrak.
'Greetings, Tab,' said I, saluting him as I entered the room.
'Greetings, Captain,' said he.
By now the three girls, Telima, Vina and Luma, had been lowered from the height of the keep, and were close behind us.
Lysias, seeing me, flung himself at me. I met his attack The exchange was sharp. Then he fell at my feet, his helmet rolling to the side, blood on the sleen-hair crest, that marking it as that of a captain.
'I am rich,' said Claudius. 'I can pay for my freedom.'
'The Council of Captains of Port Kar,' said Samos, 'has business with you.' 'My business is first,' said a voice.
We turned to see the slave boy, Fish, his sward in hand.
'You!' cried Claudius. 'You!'
Samos looked at the boy, curiously. Then he turned to Claudius. 'You seem disturbed,' said be, 'at the sight of a mere slave boy.'
I recalled that there was a price on the head of the young Ubar, Henrius Sevarius.
And he stood there, though branded, though collared, though in the miserable garment of a slave, as a young Ubar. He was no longer a boy. He had loved, and he had fought. He was a man.
Claudius, with a cry of rage, the cloak of white, spotted fur of sea sleen swirling behind him, leaped at the boy, sword high, raining blows upon him. The boy smartly parried them, not striking his own blows.
'Yes,' said the boy, 'I am not an unskilled swordsman. Now let us fight.' Claudius threw aside his swirling cloak and, warily, approached the boy. Claudius was an excellent swordsman, but, in moments, the boy, Fish, had stepped away from him, and wiped his blade on the flung-aside cloak. Claudius stood unsteadily in the center of the great hall, and then, he fell forward, sprawling on the tiles.
'Remarkable,' said Samos. 'Claudius is dead. And slain only by a slave.' The boy, Fish, smiled.
'This one,' said Ho-Hak, indicating Henrak, 'is a rencer, and he is mine.' Henrak regarded him, white-faced.
Ho-Hak regarded him. 'Eechius was killed at the rence island,' he said to Henrak. 'Eechius was my son.'
'Do not hurt me!' cried Henrak.
He turned to run, but there was no place to run.
Ho-Hak, solemn and large, removed his weapons, drop- ping them to the floor. About his neck there was still the heavy iron collar he had worn as a galley slave, with its links of heavy, dangling chain. His large ears laid themselves flat against his head.
'He has a knife!' cried Luma.
Ho-Hak, carefully, approached Henrak, who held a knife poised.
When Henrak struck, Ho-Hak caught his wrist. Slowly Ho-Hak's great hand, strengthened from years at the oar, closed on Henrak's wrist, and the knife, as the men sweated and strained, dropped clattering to the floor.
Then Ho-Hak picked up Henrak and, slowly, holding him over his head, carried him screan-ting and struggling from the room.
We went outside, and saw Ho-Hak slowly climb the long, narrow stairs beside the delta wall, until he stood behind the parapet, at its height. Then we saw him, out- lined against the sky, climb to the parapet itself, hold Henrak over his head for a long moment and then fling him screaming from the wall out into the marsh beyond.
At the foot of the delta wall there would be tharlarion.
It was now late at night.
We had supped and drank, on provisions brought from the Venna and the Tela. We were served by Telima and Vina, who wore the garments still of Kettle Slaves. The young man, Fish, sat with us, and was served. Serving us as well, though uncollared, were Midice, and Thura and Ula. When we had been served the girls sat with us, and we ate together.
Midice did not meet my eyes. She was very beautiful. She went and knelt near Tab.
'I never thought,' Tab was saying, 'that I would find a free woman of interest.' He had one arm about Midice.
'On a peasant holding,' said Thurnock, defensively, as though he must justify having freed Thura, 'one can get much more work from a free woman!' He pounded the table. Thura wore talenders in her hair.
'For my part,' said Clitus, chewing, 'I am only a poor fisherman, and could scarce afford the costs of a slave.'
Ula laughed and thrust her head against his shoulder, holding his arm. 'Well,' said Samos, chewing on a vulo wing, 'I am glad there are still some women slave in Port Kar.'
Telima and Vina, in their collars, looked down, smiling.
'Where is the slave Sandra?' I asked Thurnock.
'We found her hiding in your treasure room in the keep,' said Thurnock. 'That seems appropriate,' said Telima, acidly.
'Let us not be unpleasant,' I cautioned her.
'So what did you do?' I asked.
'We bolted the door from the outside,' said Tburnock. 'She screamed and pounded but is well contained within.'
'Good,' I said.
I would let her remain there for two days without food and water, in among the gold and the jewels.
'When you release her,' said Telima, 'why don't you sell her?'
Telima was Gorean.
'Would you like me to sell her?' I asked.
'Yes,' said Telima.
'Why?' I asked.
'Beast,' smiled Telima.
'In my arms,' I said, 'I have found her a true slave.'
