'I am not your friend,' I said.
'Help me,' he said. 'Please!'
'You are not an honorable man,' I said. 'Please!' he cried.
His eyes were wild. His hand was out, piteously, helplessly, to me.
I turned about and left the side of the pool of sand.
'Sleen! Sleen!' I heard him weep, after me.
I strode angrily back to the raft. Seeing my face, and the ferocity of my stride, Ina, on her knees by the raft, swiftly put her head down to the sand. She trembled. I seized her by the upper arms and flung her on her back in the sand and discharged lightning into her softness. Then she lay shattered, gasping, in the sand. She looked up at me, wildly. I seized up the pole from the raft in fury and strode back to the pool of sand. Then, angrily, I extended it toward the soldier of Ar, Plenius, who had been my keeper. The sand was then about his mouth. His hands reached piteously toward the pole. He could not reach it. Then he managed to grasp it with one hand, then two. Then I drew him, filthy, covered with sand and water, from the pool, to the dry land. He was trembling there.
I drew my sword. I expected him to attack me.
He drew his, but, on his knees, plunged it into the sand, before me. He did the same with his dagger.
'I am your prisoner,' he said, weakly.
'No,' 1 said, 'you are a free man.'
'You,' he said, 'a Cosian spy, would grant me my life, and freedom?'
'You are not a female,' I said. On Gor it is not believed, or pretended to be believed, that the two sexes are the same. Accordingly they are treated differently.
'I have behaved dishonorably toward you,' he said, 'in the matter of the key on the island, when you had fittingly won it.
'Yes,' I said.
'I am shamed,' he said. I was silent.
'If you wish,' he said, 'I shall plunge my dagger into my own breast.'
'No,' I said. 'Begone!'
He reached to take his sword.
I stood almost over him. I was ready to cut his head from his body.
'Have you saved my life only to take it from me now?' he asked.
'If you would do war with me,' said I, 'stand, sword in hand.'
He sheathed his blade. 'You have saved my life,' he said. 'I have no wish, no matter what you may be, to now do war with you.'
I stepped back, lest he lunge at me with the dagger. But he sheathed it, as well. With difficulty, he stood up. I saw then that not only was he harrowed from the sand, but that he was weak, and ill, probably from weeks of terror and hunger.
'How have you managed to live in the delta?' he asked.
'It is not difficult,' I said. He looked at me, startled.
'Hundreds manage,' I said. 'Consider the rencers.'
'Have you seen such about?' he asked.
'Not recently,' I said.
'There are no paths here, no trails,' he said.
'None,' said I, 'which appear on your maps.'
'It is a labyrinth,' he said, wearily.
'There are the sun and stars, the winds, the flow of the current,' I said.
'We are hunted by rencers,' he said.
'Be too dangerous to hunt,' I advised him.
'We starve,' he said.
'Then you know not where to look for food,' I said.
'There are the sharks, the tharlarion,' he said.
'Such are sources of nourishment,' I said.
'We are civilized men,' he said. 'We cannot survive in the delta. We are doomed here.'
'Your greatest danger would be in trying to leave the delta,' I said.
'The delta,' he said, 'has vanquished mighty Ar.'
'The delta, like any woman,' I said, 'is conquerable. It is only that you did not know how to get her helplessly into your bonds. Had you been properly informed and prepared you could have conquered her, and then, like any other woman, have had her fittingly at your feet as a slave.'
'There was treachery,' he said.
'Of course,' I said.
'I give you thanks,' said he, 'for my life, for my freedom.'
'I take it you are not alone,' 1 said.
'A handful survive,' he said. 'But we perish.'
'What of Labienus?' I asked.
'He survives, in his way,' he said.
' 'In his way'?' I asked.
He shrugged.
'You had best leave,' I said. 'It shall be as though we had not met.'
'I never thought to owe my life, or freedom, to a spy from Cos,' he said.
'I am not a Cosian spy,' I said. He looked at me, startled.
'No,' I said. 'My mistake, it seems, was to have attempted to have been of service to Ar.'
He looked at me, puzzled.
'I did not know, at the time I sought to assist the young officer, Marcus, of Ar's Station, in work for Ar, that Ar repaid her friends with ropes and the blows of whips.'
'You are not of Cos, or a spy for her?' he asked.
'No,' I said. 'Such were false charges, arranged by those who were truly in the fee of Cos.'
'Saphronicus?' be said.
'Yes,' I said.
'His treachery is now well understood,' he said.
'Better had it been as well understood earlier,' I said. 'But perhaps only we here in the delta truly understand what was done to us here.'
'Perhaps,' I said.
'Outside,' said he, bitterly, 'Saphronicus may be thought to be a hero.'
'I would not doubt it,' I said.
'And I know another traitor,' he said.
'Who?' I asked.
'That slut, the haughty Lady Ina,' he said.
'Perhaps,' I said.
'No,' said he. 'She was of the staff of Saphronicus, and surely privy to his treason.'
'True,' I said.
'I should like to have my hands on her,' he said.
'The pole with which I rescued you,' I said, 'was from her barge. If you look carefully, you can see the remains of some of the gilding.'
'The barge was taken then,' he said.
'Yes,' I said, 'it was apparently taken by rencers, and burned. I found this pole in the marsh. You can see on it the marks of fire. Too, I came on some of the other wreckage later in the marsh.'
'And what of the Lady Ina?'
'She was apparently captured by rencers.'
'They will finish her off,' he said.
'Perhaps they would make her a slave,' I said.
'No,' he said. 'She is not woman enough to begin to understand what it would be to be a slave, let alone to
