'Stay, Brinlar,' she said, imperiously, coldly.
'yes, Mistress,' I said. I smiled inwardly. My trick had worked. I had been reasonably confident that she would choose to exert her authority in this fashion. She was obviously in some sort of competitive relationship with the male. There was a tautness, a tension, between them. She seemed jealous of him and his power. She was very defensive about her status in his eyes. I conjectured that they were theoretically on the same level, or nearly on the same level, perhaps reporting to the same superior, or superiors, presumably Priest-Kings. If it were acceptable to discuss sensitive matters before his slaves, women like herself, but reduced to a status as negligible as that of furniture or animals, then surely it should be similarly acceptable to discuss such matters before a male, she must have reasoned, one who shared his sex, but was now to her only as total servant. Clearly, of course, she did not understand the differences between men and women. They are not the same. No more fundamental mistake can be made. Too, in making his identification, he had her face-stripped. This is not a small thing from the point of view of a Gorean woman. I saw that it was important to her to pretend to be his equal. From his point of view, of course, she was only a woman. He must have often conjectured, like any strong man, what she would have looked like at his feet, stripped and in chains. If any roughnesses remained in their relationship after that, they could always be smoothed out with the whip.
'You have brought the materials?' he asked. I was relieved. I saw that he did not choose to contest these matters with her. They were beneath his dignity. She was only a female.
'They are in my tent,' she said, airily. 'I did not bring them to this meeting, of course. I wished to make certain of the contact first.'
'Of course,' he said. I wondered what the 'materials' were. He seemed to have spoken somewhat guardedly. I assumed that was because of my presence.
'I have them ready for delivery whenever and wherever you wish,' she said.
In tidying up her tent, I had taken the opportunity to examine, in so far as I could, its contents. Certain of the trunks were kept locked. In one of those, I supposed, lay the 'materials' in question. I did not know the location of the keys to these trunks. I supposed most were locked in one of the trunks, and the key, say, to that trunk, or trunks, was carried about her person, probably concealed in her robes. I could not investigate these matters in detain at night as at night I was hooded and chained to a stake just within the entrance to her tent. In this way she kept me near her. Also, in this way, I did not have to be put with the other captives. It was feared they might harm me in their resentment or anger, given the nature and lightness of my duties.
'I think it was a mistake to have routed them through Port Kar,' he said.
This speculation had to do, I supposed, with possible recent misgivings on the part of Priest-Kings pertaining to the loyalty of Samos.
'Not at all,' she said. 'Dour Babinius held passage with me. I had to deliver him to Port Kar, that he might there, in accord with his sealed orders, conduct his affairs.'
She had told me earlier that she had had business in Port Kar. That, I supposed, had been the business. While there, of course, she had taken advantage of carnival to expeditiously accomplish her captures, among which I like a fool, must be counted.
'Do you know the nature of those orders?' he asked.
'No,' she said.
'I do,' he said.
'Oh,' she said, irritatedly. I gathered he must stand somewhat higher than she in some hierarchy of power.
'He was to have made a strike in Port Kar,' he said.
'His target?' she asked.
'An admiral,' he said, 'one called 'Bosk'.'
'I have heard of him,' she said.
'He failed,' he said.
'Oh,' she said, surprised.
'He was found in one of the purple booths, in his heart his own knife.'
'This 'Bosk' did that?' she asked.
'Presumably,' he said.
'Where is this 'Bosk' now?' she asked.
'His whereabouts are now unknown,' he said. 'It is even suspected that he has fled from Port Kar.'
'So the entire matter came to naught?' she asked, scornfully.
'Yes,' he said.
'It would have been better for Belnar to have entrusted the entire matter to me,' she said. Belnar, I supposed, might be their common superior.
'You?' he asked, skeptically.
'Yes,' she said.
'How might you have succeeded where Babinius failed?' he asked. 'With a bludgeon? With a quicker dagger?'
'With no means so crude,' she said.
'Then, how?' he asked.
'I am a woman,' she said, straightening her body, making clear the indications of considerable beauty concealed beneath her silk. 'I could present myself to him. I could allure him. I could win his interest. I could win his confidence. I could make him desperately eager for so much as a touch or kiss. Then, when, in effect, I could twine him about my tiny finger, when I could do with him as I wished, I could drug or poison him.'
I wondered what she would look like, naked and in a collar, in the shadow of a whip. When a woman is absolutely powerless it is easy to teach her her sex.
'Doubtless it is Belnar's mistake,' said the guest, dryly, 'not to entrust you with greater matters.'
'In Port Kar,' she said, 'on my own initiative, and by means of my own plan, I took fifteen men!'
'Doubtless you had some help in this,' he said.
'I command my subordinates, as you command yours,' she said, angrily.
'You are a woman,' he said.
'Serve us, Brinlar!' she said, angrily, lifting and holding her goblet, not looking at me.
'Yes, Mistress,' I said, rising and approaching with the vessel of Ka-la-na.
'Is this one of the 'men' you captured?' inquired the guest.
I poured the Ka-la-na for them.
'At least fourteen are true men,' she said, angrily. 'You may withdraw, Brinlar.'
'Yes, Mistress,' I said, and returned to where I had knelt before.
'Do you know where lies the old in of Ragnar, on the old west road?' he asked.
'Yes,' she said. 'It is now2 abandoned, is it not?'
'It is not now in use,' he said, 'though it is occasionally reopened when there is an overflow of folks from Torvaldsland, come for the fair.'
Some two years ago the merchants and builders had opened the road of Cyprianus, named for the engineer in charge of the project, which led to the fairs rather from the southwest. This had considerably reduced the traffic on the road of Clearchus, now to its north, which had approached the fairs in such a way as to favor the traffic from the northwest, with the result that several of the establishments on the road of Clearchus had been abandoned or relocated. One advantage of the more southern route is that it passes through less rough terrain, terrain which provides less cover for highwaymen. In particular, it does not pass, for several pasangs, though the woods of Clearchus.
As rumor has it, Clearchus was a famous brigand of some two centuries ago who decided to legitimize and regularize his brigandage. He proclaimed his area of operations a ubarate, proclaimed himself its ubar, and then proceeded to impose taxes and levy tolls. Interestingly enough, in time, several cities accorded this ubarate diplomatic recognition, generally in return for concessions on the taxes and tolls. Finally a large force of mercenaries, in the hire of the merchant caste, in a campaign that lasted several months, put an end to the spurious reign of Clearchus, driving him from the forest and scattering his men. It is generally conceded, however, that had Clearchus had more men he might have turned out to be the founder of a state.
It is not altogether clear what happened to Clearchus but some historians identify him with Clearchus of
