'Why?' I asked.
'I am a courier,' she said. 'I must deliver that to Flaminius!'
'I gather that that will be difficult for you to do,' I said, 'chained as you are.'
'Please,' she said. 'Do not even think of taking that! Leave it! I beg you!'
'It must be very important,' I said.
'No,' she said, quickly, moving in the chains, drawing back, 'No. No.'
'Then its loss will be negligible,' I said.
'The materials will be meaningless to you!' she cried. 'They will mean nothing to you!'
'Where are they from?' I asked.
'From Brundisium,' she said.
'Who are they from?' I asked.
'From Belnar, my Ubar,' she said. I assumed that was a lie. Presumably there was no Belnar who was a Ubar in Brundisium. Still, I did recall that she had referred to a «Belnar» at yesterdays rendezvous with Flaminius.
'And you were to deliver them to Flaminius?' I asked.
'Yes,' she said. 'Yes!'
'And what is he supposed to do with them?' I asked.
'He is to deliver them to the appropriate parties in Ar,' she said.
'In Ar?' I asked.
'Yes,' she said.
That surprised me. I wondered if she knew the true destination of the materials. I assumed they must actually be transmissions to the Sardar. Presumably it was merely her intention to mislead me.
'they are state papers,' she said. 'They must now fall into the wrong hands!' I assumed they were not state papers, of course. On the other hand, I was prepared to believe that they had their origin in Brundisium, and that there was some fellow named Belnar associated with them. He would be, I supposed, an agent of Priest-Kings. I was curious. I considered waiting for Flaminius and his men. Yet I had no special wish to kill them and particularly if they were agents of Priest-Kings. I had already killed one fellow who, I took it, was an agent of Priest-Kings, the fellow, Babinius, in Port Kar. I had once served Priest-Kings. I did not wish now, whatever might be their current attitudes toward me, to make a practice of dropping their agents. To be sure, I did not know for certain that this Belnar, and Flaminius, the Lady Yanina, and those associated with them were agents of Kurii.
'Do you serve Priest-Kings?' I asked the Lady Yanina.
'I do not understand,' she said.
'Do you serve Beasts?' I asked.
'I do not understand,' she said.
'Whom do you serve?' I asked.
'Belnar,' she said, 'my ubar, Ubar of Brundisium.'
'Why should this Belnar, whom I do not know, supposedly the Ubar of Brundisium, a city with which I have never had dealings, find me of such interest? Why should he send a killer against me, or desire my apprehension?'
'I do not know,' she said.
I smiled.
'I do not!' she said.
It could be, of course, that she, for all her beauty, was only a lowly counter in an intricate, complex game beyond her understanding. She might not even know, ultimately, whether she served Priest-Kings, or Kurii. That was an interesting thought.
'I am going now,' I said.
'Don't go!' she cried.
'On the other hand, I recommend that you remain where you are, waiting for Flaminius.'
She shook the chains, in helpless frustration.
'He will be along shortly,' I assured her.
'Leave the packet!' she begged.
'Do you beg it, naked, on your knees, chained, as might a slave?' I asked.
'Yes!' she cried. 'I beg it on my knees, naked, in chains, as might a slave!'
'Interesting,' I said.
'Leave it,' she begged.
'No,' I said.
She looked a me, aghast.
'But you did beg prettily,' I said, 'and had the matter been otherwise, for example, had you been begging to serve my pleasure, I would truly have been tempted to give you a more favorable response.'
'I am a free woman,' she said. 'How can you, a free man, deny me anything I want?'
'Easily,' I said.
She looked at me, angrily.
'Many free women believe they can have anything they want, merely by asking for it, or demanding it,' I said, 'but now you see that that is not true, at least not in a world where there are true men.'
She shook the chains in frustration. 'You make me as helpless and dependent on you as a slave!' she cried.
'Yes,' I said.
'Wait!' she said.
'Yes,' I said, turning.
'What will they do with me?' she asked.
'I do not know,' I said.
'Belnar will not be pleased,' she said. 'In Brundisium we do not look lightly on failure. AT the least I shall be considerably reduced in rank. I will be denied the use of footwear. My pretty clothes will be taken away. I will be permitted only plain robes, and shortened so that my calves may be seen by men. I may even be forced to go publicly face-stripped. I may even be expelled from the palace. It could even mean the collar for me!'
I wondered if she were truly of the household of the palace. If so, perhaps this Belnar might be a resident of the palace. Perhaps he was an official or minister of some sort in the government of Brundisium. It did not seem to me likely that he would be the Ubar of Brundisium. So important a personage as a Ubar would not be likely to have much of an interest in a captain of Port Kar. On the other hand, I supposed it was possible. He might, I supposed, be both a Ubar and an agent of Priest-Kings, or of Kurii. If he were indeed so prominent then it seemed to me more likely that he might serve Kurii than Priest-Kings. The Priest-Kings, at least on the whole, it seemed to me, seldom picked prominent, conspicuous personages for their agents. Samos had been in their service before he had become the first captain in the Council of Captains in Port Kar. Perhaps then Flaminius and the Lady Yanina, and those associated with them, did serve Kurii.
'I see then,' I said, 'that you will have much to think about while awaiting the arrival of Flaminius.'
'Flaminius!' she laughed bitterly. 'Dear Flaminius! He will shed few tears, I assure you, over my plight!'
'That would be my impression,' I said.
'He will find my downfall amusing, relishing it,' she said.
'Perhaps if your punishment is enslavement,' I said, 'you might aspire to be one of his girls.'
'Perhaps,' she said, bitterly.
'He seems the sort of man who would know how to make a woman crawl beneath his whip,' I said.
'That, too, is my understanding,' she said. 'Wait! Wait!'
But I had then withdrawn from the inn of Ragnar. Then I was making my way back to her camp.
6 I Renew an Acquaintance; I Am Considering Venturing to Brundisium
'Disgusting! Disgusting!' cried the free woman, one veiled and wearing the robes of the scribes, standing in
