within it, perhaps within its crowded quarters, from which mobs might erupt like floods, or within its sheltered patios and gardens, where high ladies might exchange gossip, sip nectars and toy with dainty repasts, served to them by male silk slaves, or among its houses and towers, or on its streets or in the great baths, that somewhere there, somewhere behind those walls, was treason. Somewhere there, within those walls, coiled in the darkness of secrecy, corruption and sedition, like serpents, I was sure, awaited their hour to strike.
'It is a fine sight,' said a fellow, climbing up through the cart gate, and standing beside me for a moment, to look down on the city.
'Yes,' I said.
He returned to his place.
From where we were, of course, we could not see dirt and crime, or poverty or hunger. We could not detect pain, misery and greed. We could not feel loneliness and woe. And yet, for all these things, which so afflict so many of its own, how impressive is the city. How precious it must be, that so many men are willing to pay its price. I wondered why this was, I a voyager and soldier, more fond of the tumultuous sea and the wind-swept field than the street and plaza. Perhaps because it is alive, like drums and trumpets. To be near it or within it, to be stirred by its life, to call its cylinders their own, is for many reward enough. The last fellow, climbing up and closing the gate behind him, took his seat.
I did not take my eyes from the city, so splendid before us. Yes, I thought, it is all there, the habitats of culture, the intricate poetries of stone, the incredible places where, their heads among clouds, common bricks have been taught to speak and sing, the meanings uttered scarcely understood by those who walk among them; yes it is all there, in them, in the cities, I thought; in them were dirt and crime, iron and silver, gold and steel; in them were perfume and silk, and whips and chains; in them were love and lust' in them were mastery and submission, the owning and the helplessly being owned' in them were intrigue and greed, nobility and honor, deceit and treachery, the exalted and the base, the strong and the weak. In such places, filthy, and crowded and frail, are found the fortresses of man. They are castles and prisons, arenas and troves, they are cities; they are the citadels of civilization.
The driver called to his tharlarion and shook the reins.
'Ahead!' he called to the beast. 'Move!'
I returned to my seat, the cart beginning to move.
'You have seen Ar before?' said a man.
'Yes,' I said.
'It is then an old thing for you,' he said.
'Yes,' I said.
'You will have to forgive me,' he said. 'But I found it quite astonishing, this first time.'
'It often affects one that way, the first time,' I said.
'I suppose so,' he said.
The cart continued to move down the incline. I noted the sound of the narrow, metal-rimmed wheels on the stones. I watched the walls of Ar grow closer.
21 Within the Walls of Ar
'Are you come from Torcadino?' asked the man.
'Yes,' I said.
'Thousands of you are in the city,' he said, 'from Torcadino and other places.' I nodded. I had never, myself, seen Ar so crowded.
'We need no more of you refugees here,' snapped a woman, a seller of suls at the Teiban Market.
'We seek lodging in the city,' I said to the man.
'Lodging is dear,' he said. 'It is difficult to know what to tell you.' He glanced at Feiqa, who put down her head. She was kneeling behind me, to my left, my pack still on her back. She had knelt when we had stopped, and begun to speak to the free person. This was appropriate, of course, for she was a slave. Her location was approximately what it had been when she had been following me, in the heeling position. 'She,' he said, 'you could sleep in the street, chaining her by the neck to a ring, perhaps putting her in an iron belt, but that sort of thing will not do for free folks.'
'No,' I said.
'You could try the southern insulae,' he said, 'such as those below the Plaza of Tarns.'
'The Anbar district?' I asked, skeptically.
'Or those of the Metellan Quarter,' he said.
'What about east of the Avenue of the Central Cylinder?' I asked.
'There is the District of Trevelyan,' he said.
'That sounds nice,' said Boabissia.
'We would hope to survive the night,' I said.
'You know the city?' he asked. 'I have been here before,' I said.
'You are two big fellows,' he said. 'I doubt that anyone would bother you.' 'If they do bother us,' said Hurtha, 'It is my hope that they are carrying coins.'
'We do not have much to steal,' I told the man.
'You have a free female there,' he said. 'Such can bring their prices in certain places.'
'I am not afraid,' said Boabissia.
'Brave and noble girl,' he said.
'I can take care of myself,' said Boabissia.
'To be sure,' he said, 'her price could be lowered for stupidity.' 'I am not stupid,' said Boabissia.
'Forgive me,' he said. 'From your remark I thought that perhaps you were.' Boabissia regarded him in fury.
The fellow regarded her. It was one of those looks which, in effect, undress a woman, exposing all her lineaments, careless of her will, to his view.
'Do not look at me in that way,' she said. 'I am free.'
He continued to consider her, perhaps now as she might look trembling, suing for his favor, in chains at his feet.
'You are not veiled,' he said.
'I am an Alar woman,' she said.
'No,' said Hurtha. 'She is not an Alar.'
'I have been with the wagons,' she said.
'That is true,' said Hurtha.
Boabissia, as I have mentioned, did not much resemble the typical Alar woman. She seemed of a much different type, that of the delicious, soft women of the cities, the sort which are generally put on slave blocks. Indeed, I suspected that her origin might be urban.
'What district do you think we might try?' I asked the fellow.
'Regardless of this free woman,' he said, 'you have something of value there,' He indicated Feiqa. She put down her head, appraised.
'What district do you think we might try?' I asked. 'I have suggested several,' he said.
'Ar is a large city,' I said.
'Are you looking for decent lodging?' he asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'Are you willing to pay a silver tarsk a night?' he asked.
'No,' I said. We could not afford that.
'Then I do not think you will find any,' he said.
'I thank you, Citizen,' I said, 'for your time.'
'Is it true,' he asked, 'that there are considerable Cosian forces in the vicinity of Torcadino?'
'Yes,' I said.
