gracing a conqueror's triumph. Seremides, too, and Myron, as well, I though, had played their parts well.
As I pondered these things some workmen came forth to dismantle the platform. It had served its purpose. Too, at this time the great bars in the Central Cylinder ceased their ringing. We could still hear the ringing of other bars elsewhere in the city, farther away. Too, far off now, like the sounds of Thassa breaking on a distant shore, we could hear the crowds.
I again considered the platform. On it Talena, of Ar, had stood barefoot. I trusted that she had not injured her feet.
Phoebe now knelt beside Marcus, her head down.
'It is strange,' I said to Marcus. 'The war betwixt Cos and Ar has ended.'
'Yes,' he said.
'It is done,' I said. 'It is over.'
'With victory for Cos,' said Marcus.
'Complete victory,' I said.
Marcus looked down at Phoebe. 'You have won,' he said.
'Not I,' she said.
'Cos has won,' he said.
'Cos,' she said. 'Not I.'
'You are Cosian,' he said.
'No longer,' she said. 'I am a slave.'
'But doubtless you rejoice in her victory,' he said.
'Perhaps Master rejoices,' she said, 'that Ar, who refused to succor Ar's Station, the city of the slave's master, had now fallen?'
Marcus looked down upon her.
'Am I to be now slain?' she asked, trembling.
'No,' he said.
She looked up at him.
'You are only a slave,' he said.
Swiftly, weeping, she put down her head to his feet. She laughed and cried, and kissed his feet. Then she looked up at him, through her tears. 'But am I no longer to be your little «Cosian»? she asked, laughing.
'You will always be my little Cosian,' he said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'Spread your knees, Cosian,' he said.
'Yes, Master!' she laughed.
'More widely!' said he.
'Yes, Master!' she said.
'Slave,' said he.
'Your slave, my Master!' she said.
I heard the sound of hammers as the workmen struck boards from the platform. 'We should seek lodging,' said Marcus.
'Yes,' I said.
Phoebe rose to her feet beside her master, clinging to him, pressing herself to him, soft, her head down. He nestled her in his arms. How must she was his! 'Tomorrow,' said Marcus. 'I would conjecture that Myron will have a triumph.'
'More likely the Ubar of Cos, by proxy,' I said.
'Doubtless its jubilation and pomp will dwarf the celebrations of this morning.'
'Ar will do her best, I am sure, to officially welcome, and express her gratitude to, her liberator, the great Lurius of Jad,' I said.
'Represented by his captain, and cousin, Myron, polemarkos of Temos,' he said. This was Myron's exact title, incidentally. Temos is one of the major cities on the island of Cos. The crowd, of course, or many in it, regarded him simply as the polemarkos, or, say, understandably enough, and, I suppose, correctly enough, as the polemarkos of Cos.
'Of course,' I said.
'Seremides will doubtless participate in the triumph,' he said.
'He should,' I said. 'It is his, as well. He has doubtless worked hard and long to realize such a day.'
'And Talena,' he said.
'Yes,' I said.
'You sound bitter,' he said.
'Perhaps,' I said.
'Myron did not accept the sword of Seremides,' he said.
'That is understandable,' I said.
'I suppose so,' he said.
'Certainly,' I said.
The acceptance of the sword would have constituted a public token of the surrender of Ar's forces, foot and cavalry, both tarn and tharlarion. That Myron had refused to accept it publicly on the platform was fully in keeping with the pretense of liberation.
'It is my speculation,' I said, 'that the sword was surrendered yesterday, in the tent of Myron, or, more likely, before his troops, outside the city, and then, later, privately returned.'
'Yes!' said Marcus. 'I wager you are right!'
'The troops of the polemarkos would expect such a thing,' I said.
'Of course,' he said.
'So, too, would Lurius of Jad,' I said.
'Yes,' he said.
'In any event,' I said, 'with or without such tokens, the surrender of Ar is complete. It has been clearly and indisputable effected. Resistance to Cos has been ordered to cease. The forces of Ar, such as remain of them, have laid down their arms. They will presumably be soon reduced in numbers, perhaps to handfuls of guardsmen subject to Cosian officers, if not completely disbanded and scattered. Weapons will presumable, in time, be outlawed in the city. Her gates have been burned. I would expect, eventually, that her walls, stone by stone, will be taken down. She will then be utterly vulnerable, dependent completely on the mercies of Cos or her puppets.'
'It will be the end of a civilization,' said Marcus.
'A civilization of sorts will remain,' I said, 'and arts of a sort, a literature of a sort, and such things.'
'Perhaps Gor will be the better for it,' said Marcus, bitterly.
I was silent.
'How will the men retain their manhood?' he asked.
'Perhaps they will manage,' I said. I had great respect for the men of Ar. 'And what will become of the women?' he asked.
'I do not know,' I said. 'If the men do not retain their manhood, it will be difficult, or impossible, for the women, at least those who are in relationships to such men, to be women.'
'Yes,' he said.
'Cos,' I said, 'is master on Gor.' I recalled that Dietrich of Tarnburg had feared such an eventuality, the coming of sovereignty of a major power. Such might mean the end of the free companies.
'Only in a sense,' said Marcus.
I regarded him.
'In many cities and lands, indeed, in most parts of the world,' he said, 'things will be surely much as they were before.'
I considered such things as the difficulties of communication, the difficulties of maintaining supply lines, the lengths of marches, the paucity of roads, the isolation of cities, the diversities of cultures and such.
'I think you are right,' I said.
It would be merely that Cos would now be the dominant force on the continent. Also, geopolitically, it did not
