shrank back under his gaze, bound, inspected slaves.
'I would be on my way as soon as possible,' said the officer. 'I would notexpect even Dust Legs to resist this cargo.'
'Yes, Captain!' said the young man. The officer took his mount to the side andthe soldiers, too, drew their kaiila to one side or the other. The young manthen stood up, shaking the reins with one hand and cracking the whip with theother. 'Move, move, you beasts!' he cried. The tharlarion lumbered into motionand the slack was taken up in the traces, and the wagon, creaking, lurchedahead. The girls were as quiet as tiny, silken field urts in the presence offorest panthers, being conducted in their cage between the ranks of thesoldiers. In a few Ehn we were more than a pasang down the road. It was lonely,and dark. There was whimpering, and sobbing, behind us.
'The slaves are terrified,' I said.
'We shall not camp,' said the young man. 'We shall press on through the night. Ishall, stop only, from time to time, to rest the tharlarion.'
'That is wise,' I said.
'It is not like the Dust Legs,' he said.
'That, too, would be my understanding of the matter,' I said.
5 I Throw Stones on the Road to Kailiauk
I stepped aside, to the side of the road. It had rained early this morning. Theroad was still muddy. The men, some afoot, some on kaiila, with the clank ofweapons and the rattle of accouterments, filed past me. I looked into the eyesof some of them. They were mercenaries. Yet they belonged to no mercenarycompany I recognized. Doubtless they had been hired here and there.
They wore various uniforms, and parts of uniforms, and carried an assortment ofweapons. Some of them, I suspected, might even be men without a Home Stone. Theywere moving northward, as I was. They, I speculated, were bound for kailiauk. Itook it there were about a thousand of them. This was unusually large for amercenary force. It would require a considerable amount of money to hire andsustain such a force.
In the center of the road, approaching, between, and with, the lines, drawn bytwo tharlarion, was an ornately carved, two-wheeled cart. An officer, a beardedfellow with plumed cap, perhaps the captain of the mercenary company, besidethis cart. On a curule chair, fixed on the high cart, under a silken canopy,proud and graceful, bedecked with finery, garbed in the ornate Robes ofConcealment, sat a woman. Chained by the neck to the side of the cart, clad inrags, was a red youth.
'Hold!' said the woman, lifting her small, white-gloved hand as the cart drewnear to me.
'Hold!' called the officer, turning his kaiila and lifting his hand.
'Hold! Hold!' called other officers. The lines stopped. The woman lowered herhand.
She regarded me. 'Tal,' she said.
'Tal, Lady,' said I to her.
With one hand, nonchalantly, she freed her outer veil. Her features, then, wereconcealed but poorly by the second veil, little more thin a wisp of diaphanoussilk. She did this, apparently, that she might speak to me more easily. Shesmiled. I, too, smiled, but inwardly. A master might have given such a veil to aslave as a joke. She was a vain woman. She wished me to see that she wasstunningly beautiful. I saw that she might make an acceptable slave.
'I see that you carry a sword,' she said.
'Yes, Lady,' said I.
'Who are you?' she asked.
'A traveler, a swordsman,' I said.
'This is the Lady Mira, of Venna,' said the bearded officer. 'I am Alfred,captain of this company, mercenary of Port Olni.' Venna is a resort town west ofthe Voltai, north of Ar. Port Olni is located on the north bank of the OlniRiver. It is a member of the Salerian Confederation.
'Apparently you do not wish to reveal your name,' said the woman.
'The name of a lowly fellow, such as myself,' I said, 'could surely be of nointerest to so fine a lady.'
'Are you a bandit?' she asked.
'No, Lady,' said I.
'Can you use the blade hung at your hip?' she asked.
'After a fashion, Lady,' I said.
'We are hiring swords,' she, said.
'My thanks, Lady,' I said. 'I do not wish to take fee.'
'Draw your weapon,' said the officer.
I drew the blade quickly, smoothly, and stepped back. When a Gorean tells you todraw your blade, it is generally not wise to spend a great deal of timediscussing the matter. He may have something in mind.
'Attack him,' said the officer to one of the men nearby.
Our blades had not crossed twice before the point of sword was at the fellow'sthroat.
'Do not kill him,' said the officer hastily.
I resheathed my blade and the fellow white-faced, backed away.
'A silver tarsk a month,' said the officer. This was a handsome sum. I was sureit was more than most of the men about me were receiving.
'Whither are you bound, Captain,' I asked, 'and on what business!'
'We are going to Kailiauk, and are then going to enter the Barrens,' he said.
'There are tribes to be subdued.'
'I do not understand,' I said.
'Surely you have heard of the depredations which took place yesterday?' heasked.
'Your forces were surely assembled before yesterday,' I said.
He laughed. I supposed such forces might indeed enter the Barrens and wreak somehavoc, perhaps falling upon some Dust-Leg villages. Too often it seems it is thepeaceful and innocent who are slaughtered. In this a lesson may be found that itmay not be prudential to be either too peaceful or too innocent. One does notsurvive with wolves by becoming a sheep. That is only a short cut todestruction.
'There are thousands of savages in the Barrens,' I said.
'These men are professionals,' he said. 'One such mercenary is worth a thousandhalf-naked savages.'
I heard laughter about me.
'They will flee,' he said, 'at the very sound of our drums.'
I said nothing.
'Too long has the perimeter held,' he said. 'We shall advance it, to the east.
The banners of civilization are in our grasp.'
I smiled. I wondered if barbarisms were civilizations which were not one's own.
'Are you going to take a woman into the Barrens?' I asked. 'Surely you cansurmise what the red savages would do with such a woman?'
'I am perfectly safe, I assure you,' laughed the Lady Mira. I wondered what shewould feel like if she found herself naked and bound with rawhide, lying at thefeet of lustful warriors.
'The Lady Mira is of the Merchants,' said the officer. 'She has been empoweredto negotiate hide contracts with the conquered tribes.'
'Who is this?' I asked, indicating the red youth, in chained by the neck to theside of the cart.
'Urt, a Dust Leg, a slave,' said the officer. 'We purchased him in the south. Hecan speak with Dust Legs, and knows sign.'
The boy looked at me, with hatred.
'How long was he a slave?' I asked.
'Two years,' said the officer.
'From whom was he originally purchased?' I asked.
