The owner of the rent skin was silent.
'Twenty men were with me,' said the large, bearded man. 'I along survived.'
'He is of the peasant levies!' said a fellow.
'Speak, speak!' cried men, anxiously.
'The skin is rent,' said the man. 'The wine is gone.'
'Speak!' cried others.
The fellow pulled his cloak away and put it over his arm.
'He is wounded!' said a man. The left side of the fellow's tunic was matted with blood. The cloak had clung to it a bit, when he removed it.
'Speak! cried men.
'I have won,' said the man.
'He is delirious,' said a fellow.
'No,' I said.
'I have won,' said the man, dully.
'Yes,' I said. 'You have stood upon the skin. You have won.'
'But the skin is gone, the wine is gone,' said a fellow.
'But he has won,' I said.
'What occurred in the west?' demanded a man.
'Ar has lost,' he said.
Men looked at one another, stunned.
'The banners of Cos incline toward the gates of Ar,' said the man.
'No!' cried a man.
'Ar is defenseless,' moaned a fellow.
'Let the alarm bells sound,' wept a man. 'Let her seal her gates!'
I had some concept of the forces of Cos. Too, I had some concept of the forces of Ar in the city, now mostly guardsmen. She could never withstand a concerted siege.
'I have won,' said the bearded man.
'How have you won?' asked a man, angrily.
'I have survived,' he said.
I looked at the rent skin and he reddened dust. Yes, I thought, he was the sort of man who would survive.
Men now fled away from the circle. In Ihn, it seemed, the camp was in consternation.
I stood there, for a time, holding my sandals.
Men moved past me, pulling their carts and wagons. Some had slave girls chained to them. Some of these women, in their manacles, attached to the rear of the vehicles, thrusting and pushing, helped to hurry them ahead. I heard the bellowing of tharlarion being harnessed.
'How far is Cos?' I asked the man.
'Two, three days,' he said.
I gathered this would depend on Myron's decision as to the rate and number of marches. I did not think he would press his men. He was an excellent commander and, from what I had gathered, there need be no haste in the matter. He might even rest his men for a day or two. In any event, an excellent commander, he would presumably bring them fresh to the gates of Ar.
I donned my sandals.
Many of the fires in the camp had now been extinguished. It might be difficult finding my way back to the tent.
'Are you all right?' I asked the bearded fellow.
'Yes,' he said.
I looked to the walls of Ar. Here and there, on the walls, like shadows flickering against the tarn beacons, I could see the return of tarnsmen. I looked to the west. Out there, somewhere, were the forces of Cos, their appetites whetted by victory. Within a week, surely, they would be within sight of Ar, eager for war, zestful for loot. I listened to the alarm bars in the distance, from within the city. I wondered how well, tonight, would sleep her free women. Would they squirm and toss in fear in their silken sheets? I wondered if they better understood, this night, perhaps better than other nights, their dependence on men. surely they knew in the bottoms of their lovely bellies that they, too, as much as the slaves in their kennels, were spoils. 'Pray to the Priest-Kings! 'Pray to the Priest-Kings!' wept a man.
I thrust him aside, moving through the press, the throng, the carts and wagons, the tharlarion. In a few Ehn I had come to our tent.
4 Within Ar
'Revile the Home Stone of Ar's Station while you may,' said the guard to a tradesman. 'We do not know what the future may hold.'
'No,' said the tradesman, looking about. He knew not who might be in the crowd, nor what their sympathies might be. He did not enter between the velvet ropes, forming their corridor to the roped enclosure within which rested the stone. 'I do not fear to do so, even now,' said a brawny fellow of the caste of metal workers.
'Steady,' I said to Marcus, beside me.
'Nor do I fear,' said the brawny fellow, 'the legions of Cos, nor her adherents or spies! I am of Ar!' He then strode between the ropes of the stone, which rested upon a plank, itself resting on tow huge terra-cotta vats, of the sort into which slop pots in insulae are dumped. Such vats are usually removed once or twice a week, emptied in one carnarium or another, outside the walls, rinsed out and returned to the insulae. Companies have been organized for this purpose. 'Curses upon Ar's Station,' he cried, 'city faithless and without honor, subornedally, taker of bribes, refuge of scoundrels, home of cowards, betrayer of the mother city! Down with Ar's Station. Curses upon her!' He then spat vigorously upon the stone.
'Steady,' I whispered to Marcus. 'Steady.'
The fellow then, not looking about, exited between the velvet ropes on the other side.
Only yesterday there had been lines, though smaller than when we had first come to Ar, to revile the stone. Today almost no one approached it. The enclosure was within sight of the Central Cylinder, on the Avenue of the Central Cylinder. I put my hand on Marcus' wrist, not permitting him to draw his sword.
'Remember,' I said. 'They think that Ar's Station opened her gates to Cos.'
'Cursed lie!' said he.
'Yes, indeed,' I said, rather loudly, for I saw some fellows look about at Marcus, 'it is a cursed lie for any to suggest that the men of Ar might lack courage. Surely they are among the bravest on all Gor!'
'True, true,' said more than one fellow, returning his attention to his own business.'
'Come away from her,' I said to Marcus.
Phoebe was not with us. We had stopped at one of the depots for fee carts on Wagon Street, in southeast Ar. There we had backed her into a slave locker, reached by a catwalk, on all fours, inserted the coin, a tarsk bit, turned and removed the key. It is a simple device, not unlike the slave boxes used in certain storage areas. Unlike the slave boxes, they do not require the immediate services of an attendant. The lockers open outward, as opposed to the slave boxes, which open upward. The lockers, thus, like slave cages, may be tiered. The gate of the locker, like the lid of the slave box, is perforated for the passage of air, usually, like the slave box, with a design in the form of the cursive 'Kef, the first letter of 'Kajira,' the most common Gorean expression, among several, for a female slave. The usual, and almost universal, temporary holding arrangement is a simple slave ring, mounted in the wall. These are conveniently available in most public places. The slave is usually chained to them. Marcus had decided to keep Phoebe today in a box or locker, rather than at an open ring. 'Down on all fours, crawl within, backward!' Marcus had ordered the slim beauty. She had obeyed, instantly. Gorean slave girls swiftly learn not to demur at the orders of masters. I recalled her face, looking up at Marcus. 'Let this help you to keep in mind that you are a slave,' said Marcus. 'Yes, Master,' she had said. He had then closed the door, turning
