polar night over the desolate horizon.
'What was it?' asked Arlene.
'It was that which you had served,' I told her.
'No, no!' she said.
'Surely it is a sign that we should turn back,' said Poalu.
'No,' said Imnak.
'Do you not think it is a sign?' she asked.
'I think it is a sign,' he said.
'Then we must turn back!' she said.
'No,' said Imnak.
'Is it not a sign that we must turn back?' she asked.
'I do not think so,' he said.
'Then what is its meaning?' asked Poalu.
'Its meaning, I think,' said Imnak, 'is that it is too late to turn back.'
'I think you are right, Imnak,' I said.
I looked up at the sky. It was too late, indeed, to turn back. I smiled to myself. I had come, after long trekking, to the country of Zarendargar, to the brink of the camp of my enemy, to the brink of the camp of Half- Ear.
'I think, Imnak,' I said, 'that I am close to finding him whom I have sought.'
'Perhaps, already, he has found you,' said Imnak.
'Perhaps,' I said. 'It is hard to know.'
'Let us flee, Master,' wept Arlene.
'I am of the Warriors,' I told her.
'But such things,' she said, 'control even the forces of nature.'
'Perhaps so, perhaps not,' I said. 'I do not know,'
'Flee!' she said.
'I am of the Warriors,' I said.
'But you may die,' she said.
'That is acknowledged in the codes,' I said.
'What are the codes?' she asked.
'They are nothing, and everything,' I said. 'They are a bit of noise, and the steel of the heart. They are meaningless, and all significant. They are the difference. Without the codes men would be Kurii.'
'Kurii?' she asked.
'Beasts, such as ice beasts, and worse,' I said. 'Beasts such as the face you saw in the sky.'
'You need not keep the codes,' she said.
'I once betrayed my codes,' I said. 'It is not my intention to do so again.' I looked at her. 'One does not know, truly, what it is to stand, until one has fallen. Once one has fallen, then one knows, you see, what it is to stand.'
'None would know if you betrayed the codes,' she said.
'I would know,' I said, 'and I am of the Warriors.'
'What is it to be a warrior?' she asked.
'It is to keep the codes,' I said. 'You may think that to be a warrior is to be large, or strong, and to be skilled with weapons, to have a blade at your hip, to know the grasp of the spear, to wear the scarlet, to know the fitting of the iron helm upon one's countenance, but these things are not truly needful; they are not, truly, what makes one man a warrior and another not. Many men are strong, and large, and skilled with weapons. Any man might, if he dared, don the scarlet and gird himself with weapons. Any man might place upon his brow the helm of iron. But it is not the scarlet, not the steel, not the helm of iron which makes the warrior.'
She looked up at me.
'It is the codes,' I said.
'Abandon your codes,' she said.
'One does not speak to a slave of the codes,' I said.
'Abandon them,' she said.
'Kneel, Slave Girl,' I said.
She looked at me, frightened, and swiftly knelt in the snow, in the moonlight, before me. She looked up at me. 'Forgive me, Master,' she said. 'Please do not kill me!' She put her head to my feet, holding my booted ankles. 'Please do not kill me,' she said. 'Forgive me! Let me placate you! Let me placate you!'
'Crawl to the shelter,' I told her. She did so, head down, trembling, a terrified slave, one who had displeased her master.
I looked after her.
'Please do not kill her,' begged Audrey, kneeling before me.
Imnak struck her to her side in the snow. 'He will do what he pleases with her,' he said.
'Yes, Master,' said Audrey, his lovely, white-skiuned slave beast.
Audrey entered the hut after Arlene. Then Poalu, followed by Imnak, entered the hut.
I looked once more at the sky, at the long, shifting lights, and then went into the hut.
Inside, Arlene had already removed her furs and knelt obediently, her head down, near where I would sleep.
'A girl begs to please her master,' she said.
'Very well,' I said.
Soon my wrath towards her had dissipated. I simply could not sustain it. What a sweet and clever slave she was. Even had it been my intention to punish her, which it had not been, I think she might well have won her freedom from punishment by the diligent and incredible merits of her helpless slave service. A beautiful slave girl, of course, has no official or legal power. Yet it would be naive to underestimate the weight and influence of her beauty, her vulnerability and service. Her display and submission behaviors, and performances, surely influence to a considerable extent the treatment she is likely to receive at the hands of a master. The sexual placation of the dominant male by the submitting female is universal among primates. It is, thus, presumably genetically determined, or a function of genetic determinations, In the end, of course, the slave girl is ultimately without power. It is the master, in the end, who will decide what is to be done with her.
Later Arlene lay in my arms. 'Did I please you, Master?' she asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'A girl is pleased,' she said.
Near us we heard Poalu moaning. Then I heard Imnak leaving her side.
'Where are you going?' I asked.
'There may be danger about,' said Imnak. 'I think maybe we should have a guard.'
'That is a good idea,' I said.
'I will take the first watch,' said Imnak. I heard him nuzzle Poalu, and heard her tiny cries, and then he had soon drawn on his furs and went outside the shelter.
Poalu was soon asleep, and so, too, was Arlene.
I heard Audrey whimper from the side of the hut, 'No one has touched me,' she said.
'Go to sleep,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said. I heard her sob, unheld, unravished.
I was weary. I was pleased that Imnak had elected to take the first watch. I would sleep well, fearing nothing.
28
I Must Conserve My Strength
