it will be, for it is you who wear the collar. He is the master. You are the slave.'
'Yes, Master,' she sobbed.
'But do not fear,' I said. 'I am certain, sooner or later, you will come into the possession of one who will not only accept your slavery, in its beauty, in its tenderness and needfulness, in its honesty and truth, but will celebrate it and relish it, and for whom you will be a treasure, an incredible and marvelous treasure, to be sure, one to be kept under the closest of disciplines.'
'Yes, Master,' she said, smiling through her tears.
'Rise up now, slave girl,' I said, 'and hurry to your master!'
'Yes, Master!' she said.
Clutching her tunic about her as best she could, she then rose up and hurried from the place of the public boards.
'I think she will make an excellent slave,' said a man.
'Yes,' said another.
I myself, too, thought that that was true. It is a beautiful moment when a woman come to learn, and love, what she is, when she comes to understand herself, and has the courage to accept this understanding, when in joy the ice breaks in the rivers, when the glaciers melt, the spring comes, when she loves and kneels. 'It is a good thing you did here,' said a man.
'For the girl?' I asked.
'She is only a slave,' he said. 'I mean for the men here.'
'Oh,' I said.
'You had an opportunity here to strike a blow for Cos, to humiliate the men of Ar, to further reduce and degrade them, to force them to submit even to the insolence and arrogance of slaves, to further subdue and crush them, to remind them of their sorry lot, their political and military weakness, of the loss of their goods, their city and pride, to injure them, to strike yet another blow at their staggering manhood, yet you did not do so. Rather you encouraged it, you permitted it to grow, if only a little. Word of this will be in all the taverns by nightfall!'
'Cos will not be pleased,' warned a man.
'It is dangerous in these times to remind men of their past glories.'
'What if we should be tempted to reclaim them?' asked another.
'Surely you understand how dangerous is the thing you do?' said another. 'How is it that you are in the fee of Cos?' asked another, indicating the armbands of Marcus and myself.
'Men may be in the fee of Cos,' I said.
'True,' said a fellow.
'Surely you are of Ar,' said a man.
'No,' I said. 'I am of Port Kar.'
'It is a lair of pirates,' said a fellow, 'a den of cutthroats.'
'There is now a Home Stone in Port Kar,' I said.
'That is more than there is in Ar,' said a man.
'If you are of Port Kar,' said a man, 'I say 'Glory to Port Kar!»
'Glory to Port Kar!' whispered another.
'Your fellow is surely of Ar,' said another.
'No, his fellow is not,' said Marcus, angrily. 'I am of Ar's Station! Glory to Ar's Station!'
'The city of traitors?' asked a man.
Marcus' hand flew to the hilt of his sword, but I placed my hand quickly over his.
'Ar's Station is no city of traitors!' said he. 'Rather by those of Ar she was betrayed!'
'Enough of this,' I said.
'If you are of Ar's Station,' said the fellow who had spoken before, 'I say, 'Glory, too, to Ar's Station!»
Marcus relaxed. I removed my hand from his.
'Glory to Port Kar, and Ar's Station!' said a man.
'Yes!' said another.
'Glory, too, to Ar,' I said.
'Yes!' whispered men, looking about themselves. 'Glory to Ar!'
I heard the ripping down of a sheet from the public boards and saw a young fellow casting it aside. Then, with a knife, he scratched a delka, deeply, into the wood. He turned to face us and brandished the knife. 'Glory to Ar!' he cried.
'Gently, lad,' I said.
Who knew who might hear?
Spies could be anywhere.
'I would cry out!' he said.
'The knife is no less a knife,' I said, 'because it makes no sound.'
'Glory to Ar!' grumbled the lad, and sheathed the knife, and stalked away. We regarded the delka.
'Glory to Ar!' whispered men. 'Glory to Ar!'
I was pleased to see that not all the youth of Ar were in the keeping of Cos, that in the hearts of some at least there yet burned the fire called patriotism. Too, I recalled some would take the oath of citizenship only facing their Home Stone, now in far-off Cos. Others, in the streets and alleys, I speculated, could teach their elders courage.
'You spoke,' I said to a man, 'of a veteran who was to have been taken in for questioning, who drew forth a concealed weapon, who slew two Cosians, and disappeared.'
'Yes,' said a man.
'Know you his name?' I asked.
'Plenius,' said a man.
I found that of interest, as I had known a Plenius in the delta. To be sure, there are many fellows with that name.
I looked again to the defiant delka cut into the boards.
'I do not think I would care to be found in the presence of this delka,' I said, 'so prominent on the public boards, so freshly cut.'
'True,' said more than one man.
The crowd dissipated.
Marcus regarded the delka.
'I fear reprisals,' he said.
'Not yet,' I said. 'That is contrary to the fundamentals policy of the government. The whole pretense here is that Cos is a friend and ally, that she and Ar, in spite of the earlier errors of Ar's ways, so generously forgiven now, are as sisters. This posture is incompatible with reprisals. It is one thing to tax, expropriate and confiscate in the name of various rights and moral principles, all interestingly tending to the best interests of particular parties, and quite another to enact serious reprisals against a supposedly allied cititzenry.'
'But sooner or later, surely, as you put it, Cos must unsheath her claws.'
'I fear so,' I said. 'But by that time hopefully you will be free of the city with the Home Stone of Ar's Station.'
'And when will you begin to work on this portion of your plan?' he asked. 'We have already been doing so,' I said.
'Ho!' I cried out, hailing a squad of Cosian regulars. 'Here! Here!'
They hurried across the avenue to the boards.
'Behold!' I said.
'Another cursed delka!' snapped the officer.
'And on the boards,' I said.
'Have you been here long?' he asked.
'No,' I said.
'Did you see who did this?' he asked.
'No,' I said.
'The cowards are fled,' he said, looking about.
