'Yes, Captain,' said he, lifting his bow in salute.
I issued orders, with the injunction that he should, when they were delivered, return to the upper battlements.
He hastened down the stairs to the right.
I then returned my attention to the slave. I unknotted the thong by means of which her small, fair ankles had been so securely bound, the one to the other. I looped the thong in and about the ropes at her back. At that moment the other young fellow, who had seemed so mature, who was serving as my messenger to the eastern walkway, gasping, ascended to the upper battlements.
'We are giving way!' he said.
I had been waiting for him.
He, too, seemed startled to see the slave. 'It is not Lady Claudia,' I said. 'It is only a nameless slave.'
'They are calling up from below,' he said, paying the female no more attention. 'The gate is being sundered!'
I issued him orders, orders parallel to those I had given the other young fellow, with the injunction that he, too, after their delivery, return to the upper battlements.
I then went to the wall and looked out, once more, on the vast panoply before me, across the burned, leveled ground, at the engines, the troops, the hulks and shells of buildings in the distance. In the eastern part of the city there was still smoke. There had been fires in the city for days. I could even see the outside wall, far off. It seemed a long time ago, now, that it had been breached. I then, slowly, drew down the flag of Ar's Station from the citadel. That would not be done by Cosians. I did not raise another cloth in its place. 'We have withdrawn to just west of the west gate stairs,' said the young fellow, reporting from the western walkway.
'Take the slave,' I said, 'and put her on the central walkway, behind the upper battlements. You will find slave rings there, in the wall. Fasten her to one, kneeling, by her leash.' Such things are common conveniences in Gorean cities, in public places, and such. Even when the slave it seldom attached to one, she sees them, and this has its psychological effect with her. She knows that they are for the tethering of such as she. Here, within the citadel, of course, such rings, though usually called slave rings, could serve a large variety of purposes. They are not merely for girls chained there on furs in the moonlight, for the use of strollers, off-duty guards and such. They may be used, for example, for such purposes as anchoring war engines, to keep them, in their reaction, from backing off the walkway, restraining guard sleen, and securing prisoners. 'The return to your fellows, and watch for my signal. It will be delivered from the central walkway, behind the upper battlements.'
'Yes, Captain,' he said. 'On your knees, woman,' he said.
The slave struggled to her knees.:On your feet, woman,' he said.
She who had once been Lady Publia rose unsteadily to her feet. It was hard for her to stand. She had not stood for some times, and her ankles, for some time, had been closely bound.
The young fellow, seeing her difficulty, took her leash close to the collar, that he might, if necessary, steady her, and keep her from falling. He then drew her along quickly, she stumbling, after him. he was in age no more than a lad and she was a mature, fully grown, beautiful woman but in accord with nature's decisions, given the differential parameters involved, those of his size and strength, contrasting so markedly with hers of slightness, delicacy, softness, and beauty, he handled her with ease.
I watched then descending the steps to the central walkway. She half fell once, losing her footing, striking against the right side of the stone stairwell, but he kept her upright, his hand then literally about her thick leather collar, and then, in a moment, now again on a short leash, I saw her drawn about the corner, toward the line of rings below and in back of the upper battlements.
I turned about and the other young fellow, he who was my messenger to the eastern walkway, climbed to the upper battlements from the eastern stairwell. 'The flag!' he cried.
I handed it to him.
'Keep it,' I said. 'One day it may fly again.'
There were tears in his eyes.
'Return now to your fellows,' I said, 'and watch for my signal. It will be given from behind the upper battlements.'
He hurried away.
I looked to the western walkway and saw the other young fellow with the fellows there. He was behind their lines, facing the central walkway. His presence there informed me that the slave, her upper body so wound about with ropes as to almost conceal her beauty, would be at a slave ring, behind and below the upper battlements, kneeling there, hooded and gagged, fastened to it by her leash. I looked to the eastern walkway. I saw the other young fellow there now, clutching the flag in his arms. He, too, was looking back, toward the central walkway.
It was important to me to coordinate the withdrawal of both wings, to keep balance in the positions, to prevent flanking movements. Too, I thought I might buy some time for them by seeming to offer the Cosians an enviable prize, the capture of the wall commander. I thought this might be of particular interest to them, given the losses they had suffered this afternoon.
From below, in front of the wall, I could hear the buckling and tearing of plate on the gate, the pounding of the ram, the groaning and cracking of wood. I then descended to the central walkway. There were bodies there, as elsewhere about the walkway, those of Cosians, those of defenders. A Cosian, wounded, seeing me, tried to struggle to this feet. He was a mass of blood. It was dried in his beard. His helmet was gone. He could hardly lift his black.
'How are things in Cos?' I asked him.
'Well,' he said.
'Put down your blade,' I suggested.
He thought for a moment and then shrugged. He could scarcely hold it.
I then kicked it away from him.
'It seems the day is yours,' I said.
'That it is,' he whispered.
'Rest,' I said to him.
He slumped back against the rear of the upper battlements, not far from one of the rings there.
I could hear the ringing of swords, the clash of metal on shields, from both the right and left.
I then went to the slave, kneeling on the walkway, facing the stone backing of the upper battlements, tethered there. Her head was actually turned sharply to the left she was fastened so closely to the ring by the leash. I saw that the young fellow, though he might be young, had an instinctive sense for the handling and owning of women.
I took the thong which had originally bound her ankles, which I had earlier removed from them on the upper battlements, and looped it and about the ropes on her back, and put it beside me on the stone. I then, holding her wrists, and by means of them, moving them back and forth, as she whimpered, and drawing them more closely together, slowly worked her arms more behind her under the ropes. I then, when I could, crossed her wrists and tied them with the thong, her arms still under the ropes. I then loosened one end of the long rope bound about her body and tied it to the ring. I then loosened the other end, too, and tucked it loosely in among the lower coils, near the waist. She whimpered piteously, questioningly. I then freed her leash from the ring, where her neck was held so closely to it. I then drew here to her feet and, turning her a few times, unwrapping some of the rope, stood her near the edge of the walkway. She stood unsteadily.
'If I were you, I would not wander about just now,' I said. 'Do you understand?' She whimpered once. 'Stay,' I told her, making certain of her compliance, giving her a command common to slaves. This informs them they are to remain where they are until moved, or given permission to move. She whimpered once, once again. She did not know it but she stood but a foot from the drop to the courtyard. To be sure, now, with the interior debris below, the drop there was only about forty feet, but then there was another distance, longer, given the angle, down to the courtyard, down the hill.
I then turned to the left and right, and made certain that I had the eye of my messengers, the young men on the left and right. I then lifted and lowered my sword. Immediately following this signal the defenders on both the left and right began an orderly withdrawal, rear lines first, front lines backing, fighting, down the stairways closest to them, the two gate stairways, one to the west of the gate, the other to the east of the gate. The stairways, of
