let him, sand kicking behind him, plunge past me. He. turned quickly, startled, at the palings. He knew that I had not struck him.
'Let us take one another seriously,' I said.
'A golden tarn disk on Jason!' called Barus. 'Five to onel Five to one? Three to one? Two to one? Even odds! Even odds!'
'Taken!' said a man. 'Taken!' said another.
In that squarish, hideously scarred countenance of Krondar there was, for a moment, a sudden understanding that though he were now in the vicinity of Vonda he with whom he shared that shallow pit of sand, collared and slave, too, might be one perhaps not unworthy to be called a fighter.
'A golden tarn disk on Jason!' cried Barus. 'Even odds! Even odds!'
There were no answers from the crowd.
Again Krondar charged, as though maddened, but I had earlier seen his understanding that I might be dangerous. This time I stood to the right and, as he thrust forth his hands to seize me, I struck upward with my left fist. I then struck him crosswise with my right fist, and then similarly again with my left fist, this time to the gut. This brought his head into position for the upward stroke of my right first again. The combination was swift and delivered at close range. The crowd was screaming. I could conceive of the post in the training barn shattering. Krondar shook his head, backing away. I followed him, warily. Swiftly, with his right foot he dug into the sand to hurl its granular shower at me, but I was too quickly upon him. Such an action puts a man off balance. I struck him four times before he struck against the palings and twisted away.
'You would not try that trick, surely, in the pits of Ar,' I chided him. 'Do you think you can dare to put yourself so off balance with me? Do you think to shame me? Next time I will press my advantage with severity.'
Krondar grinned, and wiped blood from his face. He shrugged. 'You are fast,' he said.
'There are champions in Vonda!' cried a man in the tiers. 'Yes!' cried others.
'A silver tarsk on Jason!' called Barns. 'Even odds! Even odds!'
But no one responded to his proposal.
Krondar came carefully toward the center of the sand. He beckoned to me. 'Come here,' he said. 'Let us become better acquainted.'
'Do you think I fear to close with you?' I asked.
He suddenly lunged toward me and we, our hands even bound in leather, grappled. He grunted savagely trying to hurl me off balance into the palings. We stood locked together, swaying, breathing heavily, on the sand.
The slave girls screamed.
Krondar struck brutally against the palings. They shook. There was blood on them.
There was screaming and cries from the crowd. Krondar shook his head. He was still conscious.
'A silver tarsk on Jason!' cried Barns. 'Odds of two to one in favor of Jason! Four to one? Ten to one in favor of Jason!'
The bar then rang and the first fighting period was terminated.
The crowd was screaming.
I stood unsteadily in the center of the sand. It was in the fourth fighting period. Kenneth and Barus ran to me. I felt my bloody, leather-bound fists raised in victory. Gold showered into the pit. Half-naked slave girls knelt at my feet, weeping, pressing their lips to my feet and body. I saw free women in the tiers, their eyes wild, half glazed, over their veils. Men were cheering. Many were pounding their left shoulders in Gorean applause. I saw that Miles of Vonda had left. I broke loose from the crowd and lifted Krondar, bloody, to his feet. We embraced. 'You could fight in Ar,' he said. Then he was pulled from me, and hooded and shackled. Kenneth and Barus drew me from the fighting area. We forced our way through the crowd. Slave girls clung about me. Even free women reached out to touch me, my body covered with sweat and sand.
Soon, at the gate leading to the stalls used as dressing rooms, the men of the bouts interposed themselves between us and the crowd. 'Back! Back!' they cried. 'Back, you collared she-sleen!' they cried to the slave girls, drawing their whips. And the leather of their whips, to cries of dismay and pain, fell liberally on the half-stripped bodies of the imbonded beauties. Even free women among them cried out in misery, struck. Then the women, bond and free, fell back, crying and frightened, for all women, whether slave or free, understand the whip. The gate closed behind us. Barns threw a towel about my shoulders and began to dry me. Kenneth thrust me happily down the corridor and into the straw-filled stall.
'Well done, Jason!' he exclaimed. Barus reached to a peg in the stall to get my slave hood and shackles.
'I want a woman,' I gasped. I felt my hands pulled behind me. 'I want a woman,' I said. I felt the manacles, heavy and obdurate, snapped shut on my wrists. 'I want a woman,' I said.
'Would that I could throw you a wench,' said Kenneth. 'You have well earned her.'
'But the Mistress would not approve?' I asked.
'I do not think so,' said Kenneth.
'What of the `new slave,'' I smiled, 'she who was sent to me in the tunnel?'
Kenneth grinned. 'I do not think the Mistress would approve,' he said.
'I want a woman,' I said.
'I am sorry,' he said. Then the slave hood was drawn over my head and its strap looped twice about my throat and then buckled shut under my chin.
I was not then to speak. I was a slave.
Barns continued then to towel and dry my body. I heard cries from the area of the bouts, but they were not the usual cries, those of excitement or exultation which often accompany the bouts.
'What is going on?' called Kenneth.
'Men of Cos, tarnsmen, have struck at the suburbs of Ar!' cried a man.
'It will mean war!' cried another man.
'Infantrymen from Vonda and Ar have engaged north of Venna!' called another man.
'It will be war,' said Barns.
'By what right have the men of Vonda intruded so far to the south?' asked a man.
'It is done,' said another.
'The entire Salerian Confederation may become involved,' said Kenneth.
'Tyros, too,' said another man.
'It is a grim Kaissa that is being played,' said a man.
'Are the reports accurate?' asked Kenneth.
'There seems little doubt about them,' said a man.
'The first steel has been bloodied,' said Kenneth, grimly. 'It has come at last. It is war.'
'Ar and Venna are faraway,' said a man.
'That is fortunate for us,' said another.
Barus continued to dry and towel my body. In a few minutes I heard again the usual cries coming from the area of the bouts.
'Our men are finished,' said Kenneth. 'Let us get them in the wagon.'
'I will first collect our bets,' said Barus.
'Join us at the wagon,' said Kenneth.
'I will do so,' said Barns.
I felt Kenneth's hand on my arm and I felt myself being guided from the stall toward the slave wagon in which I and my fellows, other fighting slaves, were brought to the bouts.
'The fighting is faraway,' I heard a man say. 'We have nothing to fear.'
We had been some two Alin upon the road, returning to the lands of the Lady Florence of Vonda.
I do not know the identity of the fellow who hailed us. He may have been a peasant or a tharlarion rancher, or perhaps even a patrolling guardsman. 'Beware of brigands!' he cried. 'They are in the vicinity. They have already struck at the holdings of Gordon and Dorto!'
'Our thanks, Friend,' called Kenneth to him. To Barns he said, 'Keep watch. Have the keys ready.'
'I will do so,' said Barus.
I stirred uneasily in the chains.
