'Brave?' asked Marcus. 'Did you not observe his wringing of hands, his wailing unmaniless, his terror, his obsequiousness, not see to what extent he would go to accommodate himself to Cosian will?'
'It is true, Masters,' said the girl, 'if I may speak, as I gather I may, as you seem to insist upon treating me as a free woman. My father is a negligible coward.'
'No,' I said. 'He is a brave man.'
'I believe I know him better than you,' she said.
'Surely Marcus,' I said, 'you would not begrudge the fellow a certain dismay over the destruction of his shop and the grievous impairment of his means of livelihood.'
'His reaction was excessive,' said Marcus.
'Exaggerated, you think?'
'If you wish,' he said.
'For the benefit of whom, do you suppose?' I asked.
'I do not understand,' said Marcus.
'What would you have done?' I asked.
'I would have scorned the Cosian openly,' said Marcus, 'or set upon him, and the others, with my sword.'
'Are you a tradesman?' I asked.
'No,' said he. 'I am of the Scarlet Caste.'
'And what if you were a tradesman?'
'I?' he asked, angrily.
'Do you think that in castes other than your own there are no men?'
'I would have scorned them even if I were a confectioner,' said Marcus.
'And hurled sweets at them?'
'Be serious,' said he, irritably.
'And presumably, by now,' I said, 'You would have been beaten, or maimed or slain, and your property confiscated. At the least you would have been entered on one of the lists of suspicion, your movements subject to surveillance, your actions the objects of reports.'
'This is more of your Kaissa,' said he, distastefully.
'As a warrior,' said I, ' surely you are aware of the virtues of concealment, of subterfuge.'
'No,' said he girl. 'My father is a coward. I know him.'
'You have mistaken concern for cowardice,' I said.
'My father does not understand me,' she said.
'No fathers understand their daughters,' I said. 'They only love them.'
'You saw to what an extent he would go to accommodate himself to Cosian will,' said Marcus.
'To protect his daughter,' I said. 'Surely you, in his place, in his helplessness, lacking you sword, your skills, would have done as much, or more.'
'I do no want his protection,' said the girl. 'He keeps me from myself!'
'He see you in terms of one ideal,' I said, 'while it is actually another, one more profound, which you manifest.'
'I do not want to go back to him,' she said.
'He loves you,' I said.
'I despise him!' she said.
'It is true that sometimes strangers understand a woman better than those closest to her, and see what she is, and needs. They see her more directly, more as herself, and less through their own distorting lenses, lenses they themselves have ground, lenses which would show her not as she is but as they require her to be.'
'I hate him!' she said.
'And love him,' I said. 'You will always love him.'
'He is a coward!' she cried.
'No,' I said.
'I know him!' she said.
'You do not,' I said.
'Surely you do not claim he is a brave man?' said Marcus.
'He did not identify us,' I said.
'He did not recognize us,' said Marcus.
'But he did,' I said.
Marcus looked at me, angrily.
'Yes,' I said.
'Our features were concealed,' said Marcus.
'Do you think he would not recognize our builds,' I asked, 'our clothing, our sandals? Do you think this would be so hard to do, within moments of having seen us before?'
'If you feared this,' he asked, 'why did you reenter the shop?'
'Because of the patrol,' I said. 'I feared they might kill him, in vengeance for the carnage wrought in the shop. Too, we were in the vicinity, and it might seem unusual, surely, if we did not add our presence to the investigation. That might have attracted comment and inquiry, had it been noticed. Too, who knows, perhaps there could be more swordplay within.'
'But you did not attack the patrol,' he said.
'They were, as it turned out,' I said, 'mostly lads of Ar, and thusly it would have been not only impolitic but, in my opinion, actually objectionable to have done so. After all, we are, in our way, acting in support of Ar, the old Ar, the true Ar, and the officer, through obviously a Cosian sleen, was not a bad fellow. We cannot blame him for being angry that the carnage was wrought within his precinct, almost under his nose, and he could, at least, recognize, as her father could not, the true nature of this little slave slut before us.'
The girl put down her head.
'You think the tradesman recognized us?' asked Marcus.
'Yes,' I said.
'How do you know?' he asked.
'I saw it, in a flash, at first, in his eyes,' I said.
'But he did not betray us.'
'No,' I said.
'He might have won much favor with Cos has he done so,' said Marcus.
'Undoubtedly,' I said.
'He is a brave man,' said Marcus.
'And only a tradesman,' I reminded him.
'There are brave men in all castes,' smiled Marcus.
'Look,' I said, pointing to a wall on Lorna, near where we stood. I had not seen it before. 'The delka,' I said.
'We did not put it there,' said Marus.
'And Lorna is a muchly frequented street,' I said.
'Interesting,' he said.
'Yes,' I said.
I looked down at the kneeling, leashed girl.
'I want to be forced to fear, and serve, and yield, totally to my master,' she said.
'And undoubtedly in time it will be so,' I told her.
'I am not ready, you think?' she said.
'No,' I said.
'Perhaps in a day or two,' grumbled Marcus.
'Why will you return me to my father?' she asked.
'Because you are young,' I said.
'And?' she asked, skeptically.
'Because we owe your father something,' I said.
