by John Norman
Mirus then, in fury, held the blade with one hand. If he raised it, even a little, Borko growled, watching him.
"Free the other girls, Master," said Tupita. "Then let us away, before the beasts return!"
Mirus regarded her in rage.
"At one time you used to muchly pleasure yourself with me," said Tupita. "Am I not still of interest to you? Have I become so unattractive? Have you forgotten? Is it so long ago?"
Mirus made a noise, almost like an animal.
"See Tela there," she said. "She was an overseer's girl. See Mina, and Cara! Both are beautiful! You can put sword claim on us all!"
Mirus, in fury, lashed back with his hand, striking Tupita from him. She fell back, her mouth bloody, by the post to my right, that supporting the rail on that side.
He wavered. Fresh blood shone then at the side of his head. He staggered.
"Look!" cried Tupita, pointing across the meadow.
Mirus sank to one knee. He was weak from the loss of blood. It seemed he could scarcely hold his sword.
We looked where Tupita had pointed. Another figure was treading the meadow now, toward us. I could not mistake him, though he now seemed much different from when I had remembered him.
"It is Hendow!" cried Tupita.
"Yes!" I said.
But it was not the Hendow I remembered from Brundisium. It had the same stature, and shoulders, and mighty arms, but it was now a bronzed, leaner Hendow, one even more terrible and fierce than I had known, one who held now in his hand a bloodied sword.
"Mirus!" he cried. "Old friend! What are you doing here!"
"Hendow!" said Mirus, tears in his eyes. "Beloved friend!"
"You are hurt," said Hendow.
"You are welcome here," said Mirus, weakly.
"Forgive me, old friend, for thrusting you aside in Brundisium," said Hendow. "I was a fool."
"How did you find us here?" asked Mirus.
"I was following Borko," said Hendow. "Then I heard a scream." That would have been Tela's scream. Others, too, of course, might have heard that scream.
"Masters, let us away!" said Tupita.
"Your sword is bloody," observed Mirus.
"I met one who disputed my passage," said Hendow.
"Let us away, please, Masters!" said Tupita.
"Kneel," said Hendow to her, with terrible, savage authority.
Immediately Tupita knelt, and was silent.
Hendow came toward me, and crouched down before me. "Good Borko," he said. "Good Borko!" The sleen pushed his snout against him, and licked his bared arm. Hendow touched me on the side of the head, with extreme gentleness. "Are you all right?" he asked.
"Yes, Master," I said.
"They have you well secured," he smiled.
"As befits a slave, Master," I said.
"There are others about," said Mirus. "There were six men here, and three strange beasts, not sleen."
"Somewhere," said Tupita, "there is a slave wagon. Another three men are said to be there."
"I saw no slave wagon," said Hendow.
"You finished a man?" said Mirus.
"It would seem so," said Hendow. "His head is gone."
"Then there are still five about, at least," said Mirus, "and the beasts, they are most dangerous."
"There are said to be three at a slave wagon, Master," said Tupita.
"That would be at least eight then," he said, "and the beasts."
"Can you fight?" asked Hendow. "It would be like old times, before the tavern."
"I can be of no help to you," said Mirus. "It is hard to see. I am weak. I think I have lost much blood. I can hardly hold my sword. I fight to retain consciousness."
"I have no intention of leaving you here to die," said Hendow. "Better that we would perish together."
"No," said Mirus. "Better that only one die."
"I will not leave you," said Hendow.
"Do but one thing for me, before your departure," said Mirus.
"I am not leaving you," said Hendow.
"Put the fangs of Borko to that slave," said Mirus, indicating me, "or, if you wish, slay her for me, with your sword."
"Beloved Mirus!" said Hendow.
"She betrayed me to the chains of Ionicus!" said Mirus.
"False! False!" cried Hendow in fury.
"It is true," said Mirus. "I swear it by our love."
"Is this true?" asked Hendow of me, incredulously.
"Yes, Master," I wept.
"She was a lure girl!" cried Tupita. "Must we not obey, as we are slaves!"
"It seems," said Hendow, "that there is one here whose neck might well be consigned to the sword."
"Yes," said Mirus.
"Have you the strength to strike?" asked Hendow.
"I think so," said Mirus.
"You would prefer, surely, to do this deed yourself," said Hendow.
"Yes," said Mirus, rising unsteadily to his feet. He gripped the sword again with two hands. I did not know if he could stand for more than another moment.
"Very well," said Hendow. "Strike Tupita."
"Tupita?" asked Mirus.
Tupita shrank back, small, where she was kneeling in the grass.
"Yes," said Hendow. "I caught a thief, to whose lair I was led by Borko. He spoke quickly, after only his legs were broken. Tupita stole Doreen, duping her into leaving the house, she thinking she was still first girl, and intended to sell her, using her price to secure tarn passage from Brundisium in the guise of a free woman. She is, thus, a runaway slave. Moreover, I now put sword claim upon them both. Dispute it with me, if you will. I further learned from the thief they were both sold in Samnium. I spared his life, as he was cooperative. He is now doubtless, with his fellows, stealing other women. It was in Samnium I again picked up the trail. Borko and I have followed it for weeks. We lost it many times, but, each time, managed to find it again. Most recently we found it on the Viktel Aria, south of Venna. Thus, you see, had it not been for Tupita, for her running away, for her betrayal of a sister in bondage, for her willingness to assume the guise of a free woman, in itself a great crime, this slave would not have been in Argentum, to lure you. If one is covered with guilt here, surely it is Tupita. Accordingly, I now give you my permission to strike her."
"No!" cried Mirus.
"Perhaps both should have their necks to the sword," said Hendow.
"No!" cried Mirus. He put himself between Hendow and Tupita. "Run!" he said to Tupita. "Run!"
"Remain on your knees, slave," said Hendow, in a terrible voice. "Before you could run two steps I would put Borko on you."
Tupita remained where she was.
"Why did you flee Hendow?" cried Mirus to Tupita.
"You were no longer there!" she wept. "You had been sent away. You were gone! I was consumed by hatred for Doreen, because of whom Hendow dismissed you. I decided to sell her, and show you all, escaping from Brundisium."
"But you did not escape, did you?" asked Hendow.
"No, Master!" she wept.
"You are now obviously a slave, collared, half naked, kneeling in the grass, fearing for your life!"
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Even had you made your way from Brundisium, where would you have gone?" he asked. "In what city or village would you expect your antecedents not to be inquired into? Where would you get your collar off? Would you still not wear a brand?"
She sobbed.
"Is there escape for such as you?" he asked.
"No, Master," she wept. "There is no escape for such as I."
"Why would you have done such a thing?" asked Mirus, not taking his eyes off Hendow. I did not think Mirus could long remain on his feet.
"Do you not understand?" she wept. "I did it because of you!"
"Absurd," said Mirus.
"I did not want to be without you," she wept.
"Little fool," he said.
"Too, I was jealous of Doreen. I thought you cared for her!"
"Certainly I found of he
r of interest," said Mirus, "as I have many slaves, but she, though perhaps more beautiful than most, was never more to me, really, and I know that now, and have for a long time, than another wench whom I might, from time to time, for an Ahn or so, to the tune of my whip, if I pleased, put to my pleasure in an alcove."
"Oh, Master!" she breathed.
"But what are such things to you?" he asked.
"Do you not understand, Master?" she sobbed. "Though you scarcely know I exist, though you may despise or hate me, though you might scorn me or laugh at me, I am your love slave!"
He seemed startled.
"Yes," she cried. "I am your love slave! I have known this from the first time you put me to your feet! If you weighted and wrapped me with a thousand chains and a thousand locks they could not hold me more helplessly than the love I bear you! Alas, I have confessed! Kill me now, if you will!" She put down her head, sobbing.
"If you will not put her to the sword," said Hendow, "it seems, then, I must do so."
"No!" cried Mirus.
"Do you think, in your condition, you can adequately defend her?" asked Hendow.
"I will defend her to the death!" cried Mirus.
"Do you think she is a free woman?" asked Hendow. "She is only a slave."
"She is worth more to me than ten thousand free women!" cried Mirus.
"A slave slut?" asked Hendow, scornfully. "A woman who may be purchased from a slave block?"
"Yes!" cried Mirus.
"Stand aside," said Hendow.
"Have pity on her!" said Mirus. He could barely hold the sword. I feared he might collapse at any moment.
"Show mercy, Master!" I begged Hendow.
"You are losing blood, old friend," said Hendow. "I do not think you will long be able to stand. Perhaps then, while you have the strength, you will wish to attack."
"By the love you bear me," said Mirus, weakly, "do not kill her."
"You would kill this slave, would you not?" inquired Hendow.
"Yes," said Mirus.
"But you do not wish Tupita to die?" he asked.
"No," said Mirus.
"Perhaps then," said Hendow, smiling, "we might negotiate."
Mirus looked at him, unsteadily, wildly.
"It is too late!" wept Tupita. "Look!"
We looked up, to see, encircling us now, some yards away, men. There were five of them. With them, too, were the beasts.
Borko growled, menacingly.
"There is a sleen," said the bearded man, he who was the leader of the men who had come to pick us up. "It is unfortunate we do not have spears with us."
The small fellow, he who had been dealing with the leader, hung back. His two cohorts were somewhat in advance of him. Both were rough, grim-looking men, armed with blades. I thought them, though, perhaps less to be feared than the leader and the man with him. He had left, I recalled, with two. Two of the beasts came forward. They snarled, as Borko snarled. I realized, suddenly, they did not fear even a thing as terrible as a sleen. Armed only with their own teeth and jaws they regarded themselves as superior to it.
"What are those things?" asked Hendow.
"Where is Licinius?" asked the bearded man.
"They are certainly big fellows," said Hendow. "I, too, would not mind having a spear."
"Your sword is bloody," said the bearded man.
"Perhaps then I met Licinius," said Hendow.
"You should have fled," said Mirus.
"No," said Hendow.
"Beware of him," said the bearded man. "I think he may be skilled."
"Come closer," said Hendow. "Examine the blood on the blade. Perhaps you will recognize it."
Borko crouched low, his front shoulders a bit higher than his head. He growled.
"I free you, Borko, old friend," said Hendow. "Go. Return to the wild. Go. You are free!"
But the beast remained where it was, beside its master.
"As you will," said Hendow. "The choice is yours, my friend."
"We are lost," said Mirus. "I cannot help you."
"Stand near to me, behind me," said Hendow.
But Mirus sank to one knee, where he was. I did not understand how it was that he could remain even so. He must have been a man of incredible strength.
"You are surely ugly fellows," said Hendow to the two beasts. They were coming forward very warily. "Ho, lads," called Hendow. "Do not send your pet urts before you. Come forth boldly yourselves. Show that you are men!"
"Do not respond to his taunts!" said the bearded man. "The blood of Licinius warns you to caution!"
"Clever lads!" laughed Hendow.
"Watch out for the sleen!" called the small fellow to the beasts. "They are dangerous!"
The lips of one of the beasts, it very near now, only some fifteen feet away, drew back, about its fangs. It seemed an expression, oddly enough, of amusement. Then I recollected these things were rational.
"Run, Master!" I said. "Flee!"
But Hendow did not move. His whole body seemed as alert, as alive, as ready and as vital as that of Borko. He would not, of course, leave Mirus. Too, of course, he could not outrun the beasts. I had seen them move. I sobbed.
"Beware the beasts, Master," I said. "They are rational. They can think. They can speak!"
"So," said Hendow, "you still have a lying tongue in that pretty little head of yours. Perhaps you remember the last time you lied to me?"
I moaned. I had been whipped. Then I must perforce kiss the whip. Then I had been put to my knees, my head down, my hands clasped behind the back of my neck, and, in that common slave position, raped. "I am not lying, Master," I said.
"You there, you big ugly brute," called Hendow to the leader of the beasts, which stood back a bit. "She is lying, isn't she?"
Its lips drew back. "Of course," it said.
"I thought so," said Hendow.
I felt confused, and frightened, but, too, elated, for I thought I understood then, by his response to the beast, that he had believed me, even when I had made what must have seemed so strange a claim. But then, in a moment, I realized that their capacity at least to understand human speech had surely been suggested by the small fellow's admonition, and by the one beast's response. I realized then that Hendow had used me, in his way, to distract the beasts, and to play with them. He had used me, a slave girl, in his strategy. How superior he was to me! How right it was that I should in the order of nature be only the slave of such a man!
"You fellows are some sort of urts, are you not?" asked Hendow.
The leader of the beasts rose up to his full height. The fur seemed to leap up about its head and shoulders, crackling. Its eyes blazed. Tela screamed. Its ears, oddly, then, lay back, flattened against the sides of its head. So, too, were Borko's. This, I supposed, was a readiness response, making them less vulnerable, less likely to be torn or bitten.
"I have never seen urts so large!" called Hendow.
"We are of the People!" said the leader of the beasts.
"Amazing," said Hendow to the small fellow, whom, he took it, rightly, was in association with the beasts. "How do you make them talk?"
"Do not let him anger you!" called the small fellow to the beasts. "Can you not see? He is tricking you!"
But I think they were not prepared to listen to him. Their attention was on Hendow. I moaned, bound at the rail, helpless. I moved my wrists. How helplessly they were held in place, so perfectly behind me, by the binding fiber! I could not begin to free myself!
"It is a marvelous trick," called Hendow to the small fellow. "Do it again! Make them seem to speak!"
The leader of the beasts, then, in fury, and in some inhuman, snarling, barbarous, fierce tongue, something like the roar of a lion, the hiss of a sleen, the snarl of a panther, yet clearly, frighteningly, an articulated stream of sound, some form of modulated utterance, communicated with its fellows. He then pointed to Hendow. In these moments, of course, the sleen was forgotten. It, however, had never taken its eyes off the nearest
of the beasts. The first beast charged at Hendow but never reached him. Borko sprang for its throat, seized it in his jaws, and clung to that great body, his back four legs tearing and ripping at its belly. The other beast leaped to the aid of its fellow, but Hendow struck it on the back of its neck with his sword. It did not penetrate. It was stopped by the thick vertebrae, but blood drenched its back. It spun about to seize Hendow, but he thrust at it with his sword. The blade entered its body by six inches, but the beast stood there, then, slowed, stopped, regarding him. It did not fall. Hendow stepped back. I think only then did he fully comprehend the nature of the beasts, their power, strength, their energy, how difficult it might be to kill or disable such a thing. The two fellows of the small man rushed forward. Hendow stepped back to meet their charge. Mirus tried to rise, but could not. I felt Tupita's hands at my bonds. She was trying to untie them. The beast Hendow had struck returned to the fray with Borko. The leader of the beasts crouched near them, on all fours, circling them, wild-eyed, waiting its chance. Borko and the two beasts rolled in the grass, snarling, turning and rolling, tearing, biting in a savage blur. It was hard even to tell them apart, or where one might be, so swiftly did their positions change. "Sword! Sword!" said the leader of the beasts, near the fighting animals, beckoning to the bearded man, pointing to the fighting beasts. He himself perhaps knew the danger of entering such a violent, unpredictable tangle of teeth and claws. With a sword one might perhaps strike from the outside. The fellow who had been with the bearded man, at the instigation of his commander, hurried to the fighting animals, to try and strike the sleen. To be sure, there is not inconsiderable danger even there. Suppose the sleen, struck, suddenly turns on you. Tupita freed my neck from the railing. Hendow felled one of the cohorts of the small fellow. Then he turned to engage the bearded fellow who, after urging his man to the fray of beasts, not caring to join it himself, had come cautiously forward. He preferred, it seemed, a human antagonist. But he had, too, as I realized in a moment, a plan. The other cohort of the small fellow, frightened, backed away. The bearded fellow defended himself desperately. He, too, was very skilled. He was protecting himself. It is difficult to strike a man, I gather, who is primarily concerned to defend himself. "Fight!" cried Hendow to him. "Strike the other fellow!" called the bearded man to the cohort of the small fellow. "Kill him!" Mirus could not defend himself. Tupita screamed in misery, leaving off in her labor to free me. The cohort of the small fellow raised his blade and rushed on Mirus. Hendow turned to defend Mirus, and did so, stopping the assailant, spitting him on his blade, but, in doing this, of course, as the bearded man had doubtless hoped, he had opened his own guard. I screamed, and saw Hendow stiffen, thrust through by the bearded man's weapon. The bearded fellow then drew it back. "He is finished," he said. Hendow sank to his knees, beside Mirus, then went to all fours. The bearded man kicked away his weapon. Hendow, of course, had realized that in defending Mirus he would have exposed himself to the blow of the antagonist on his left. But he had not hesitated. Tupita had fled from behind the railing, where she had been attempting to free me and ran to cover the body of Mirus with her own. The bearded man, however, was not interested in Mirus. Perhaps, even, he thought him already dead. His sword, still clutched in his hand, was down. He wiped it on his leg. He then went to where the animals were, but not too closely. There, too, but not too near them either, was the small fellow. The other man, too, who was the last of those who had come forward with the leader to acquire slaves earlier, now stood back. He was white-faced. He held his arm. It was lacerated. His sword was bloodied. I did not even know if he had managed to strike the sleen. I had been concerned with Hendow and Mirus. One of the beasts in the tangle, oddly, seemed inert, trapped, dragged about. Its head was loose on its shoulders, almost like a toy on a string. Then the bulk of the beast, freed, fell to the side, lifeless in the grass. It had been the first of the beasts to approach Borko and Hendow, the one which had seemed amused upon hearing the warning of the small fellow. It had learned, however, and its fellows, as well, now, I think, the dangerousness of the sleen. The second beast grappled with Borko, thrusting his head up and back. Such beasts had not only the teeth and claws of predators, but prehensile appendages of a sort not unlike those selected for in arboreal or climbing forms of life. Both it and Borko were covered with blood. I thought it might want to break Borko's neck, but then I realized it was only trying to expose the throat. Meanwhile Borko's hind legs, the four of them, were tearing at its abdomen. The beast bit at Borko's throat but there it encountered the heavy, spiked collar. The spikes cut through the sides of its face and tongue. Blood gushed from its mouth. It howled in rage. In this moment the leader of the beasts, which at times had been sitting back, almost catlike, observing, and at other times had been crouching, and moving about the fighting animals, waiting to strike, seeing its opportunity, leapt to the fray, seizing Borko's collar from the back, but, I think to its astonishment, it might as well have tried to grasp an exploding bomb, for the sleen spun about, twisting in the collar, biting and tearing. The leader of the beasts, astonished, fell back. He put his paw to his breast and wiped blood from his fur. He looked at it, disbelievingly. It was his own blood. Borko tried to leap at him but one of his hind legs was caught in gut. The other beast screamed in pain. It seized Borko then by the hind leg, dragging him back, back from attacking his leader. The leader crouched growling on the grass, warning Borko away. But he did not seem eager to again enter the range of the sleen's jaws. "Kill it!" screamed the small fellow to the engaged beast. "Kill it!" he screamed to the bearded man, and to the other fellow, with the torn arm. "Use your sword!" said the bearded man to his cohort. "Use yours," said the fellow, bitterly. Tupita wept over Mirus, who had fallen, who was unconscious. With her hands and hair she tried to stanch the flow of his blood. Hendow, on all fours, lifted his head. The grass was drenched with blood at his side. His sword was gone. The engaged beast, now that it was behind Borko, holding him, began to inch up his body, clinging to the fur with its claws and teeth. Borko's attention was still focused on the leader of the beasts, who, warily, bleeding, was beyond his reach. Hendow groped for the knife at his belt. I saw the huge, balled fist of the engaged beast lift and then come down like a hammer on the back of Borko, again and again. I think such a blow might have shattered railings. It then loosened the collar from behind, and cast it aside, and lifting the sleen into the air, bit through the back of its neck, then dropped it to its feet. The leader of the beasts leaped in its place, up and down, howling, lifting and raising its arms. The victorious beast, itself a mass of blood and wounds, stood over Borko. It then, curiously, observed its abdomen. With one paw it thrust back into its belly the exposed gut. Hendow staggered to his feet, his knife raised. The victorious beast turned to look at us. Its lips drew back, over the fangs. Then Hendow drove his knife into its breast, to the hilt. The bearded man rushed forward and struck Hendow from behind, twice. Then Hendow fell to the grass, dead. The beast, too, a moment later, fell dead. The men were white-faced, and trembling. Even the leader of the beasts, I think, was shaken.
