In Cabot's translator there was an indecipherable, unintelligible, staticlike sound. It was responding to an inarticulate rumble of sorrow and misery, scarcely audible, from Lord Grendel.
Then he was again, or seemed again, himself.
"Dear Grendel,” said Cabot, concerned.
"It is nothing,” said Lord Grendel.
"It is clear,” said Statius. “You must sacrifice the Lady Bina. Our very cause depends upon it."
"I cannot,” said Lord Grendel.
"Our cause is then lost,” said Statius. “Our defeats, our deaths, our struggles, our hopes, our deprivations and hardships, will be for nothing."
"We will wait,” said Lord Grendel.
"Kurii are not patient,” said Statius.
"And Agamemnon is Kur,” said Lord Grendel.
"I do not understand,” said Statius.
"That is my hope for victory,” said Lord Grendel.
"There is some movement below, in the fields,” said Cabot, “between the habitats and our lines."
"The enemy is moving?” asked Statius, eagerly.
"No,” said Lord Grendel. “It is a herd of cattle humans, only a herd of cattle humans, foraging."
"Nothing then of interest,” said Statius.
"No,” said Lord Grendel.
At this point, from the rear, there was a scream.
"The Lady Bina!” cried Grendel, turning about, and hurrying to the rear. He was followed by Cabot, his human ally, and Statius.
There was another scream.
Moments later Lord Grendel pressed through a circle of Kurii and humans, and discovered the Lady Bina on her back. Her ankle shackles had been removed. They lay in the dust to one side. She was struggling in the grip of a killer human, one of their allies, who bent over her. With a hand on each ankle he had spread her legs widely. She squirmed, futilely, and screamed again.
None in the crowd about her seemed disposed to interfere.
One great paw of Lord Grendel closed on the back of the neck of the killer human and tore him from the Lady Bina, and then his fangs went to his throat.
"No, no!” cried Cabot.
Lord Grendel threw the killer human from him, he rolling yards away in the dust.
He then scrambled to his feet, and withdrew.
But Cabot discerned that he had first cast a look at Flavion, who stood in the vicinity.
Grendel cast a wild, belligerent look about him.
"Kneel, head up, near the stake,” said Cabot to the Lady Bina, and she, wild-eyed, shuddering, hastened to comply.
"What is wrong?” inquired Flavion.
"Shackle her,” said Lord Grendel.
One of the Kurii reapplied the close-fitting restraints, joined by their short linkage, with two clicks, to the slender ankles of the Lady Bina.
"Who removed her shackles?” asked Lord Grendel.
"The human,” said Flavion calmly, “but I authorized it, thinking it would be appropriate, and that you would approve, as she is a free woman. Otherwise it would have been simple enough to kneel her, turn her about, and put her head to the dirt."
"She is not a slave!” cried Lord Grendel.
"Certainly not,” said Flavion. “That is why I authorized the removal of her shackles."
"How dared you permit this!” said Lord Grendel.
"Do you disapprove?” asked Flavion, innocently.
Lord Grendel roared with fury.
"You grow bold, dear Flavion,” said Statius.
"It was not my intention to displease anyone,” said Flavion. “I regret only, Lord Grendel, that you were disturbed, when graver matters, matters of command, concerned you. I should have had her gagged."
"But then,” said Cabot, “we could not have heard her scream."
Lord Grendel motioned that Cabot should be silent.
"Surely,” said Flavion, “a prisoner, and certainly an arrant traitress, should do something to earn her keep, should provide some service in exchange for her food. Certainly we should strive to find some use in the camp to which she might be put."
There was a murmur of assent to this from the Kurii about, and from the humans, as well, which response Cabot could well understand.
"Surely you have no personal interest or concern in this female,” said Flavion.
"Who was the human?” asked Lord Grendel.
"Cestiphon,” said Flavion. “But do not blame him. Blame me, if you wish."
"No!” cried several about.
"Too,” said Flavion. “Is it not well past the time the traitress was judged, found guilty, and put to an appropriate death?"
Kurii present murmured assent.
Lord Grendel did not respond.
"But that may wait until tomorrow, after our secret march, our assault on the palace, and the glory of our inevitable victory,” said Flavion.
"We are not marching tonight,” said Lord Grendel.
"I have scouted the terrain,” said Flavion. “Many know this. Many are eager to march. This is a brief moment of advantage, which may never occur again. It is in our power to win the war this very night."
"We do not march tonight,” said Lord Grendel.
"But why, Lord?” asked Flavion. “What could possibly be the reason?"
Lord Grendel did not respond, but appeared stricken.
"If I may answer that,” said Cabot, “it is because the omens are inauspicious."
"What omens?” said Flavion.
"I feared it,” said Cabot, “when I first heard the screams of the Lady Bina, and grew more fearful when she screamed thrice, for that is the number of screams. I only hoped then that a fellow would not be involved whose name consisted of three syllables, as well, and my heart sank, when I learned her accoster was named Cestiphon. For the omens are unfavorable when a free woman screams thrice and he who accosts her has a name with three syllables, such as Antiphon, or Leander, or, say, Cestiphon. No action of import is to be undertaken on such a day."
"That is absurd,” said Flavion.
"I do not doubt it,” said Cabot, “and I myself take little stock in omens. I merely call attention to the omen, for I should feel remiss did I not do so."
"I myself,” said Lord Grendel, “am similarly dubious of such portents, but one hesitates to risk a great enterprise when the signs are against it."
"Clearly, surely,” said Statius, “the signs are against marching tonight."
Several of the Kurii exchanged uneasy glances, and the humans, too, looked to one another, apprehensively.
"Return to your duties,” said Lord Grendel to the Kurii and humans about. The group disbanded.
Lord Grendel, Statius, and Cabot then regarded the Lady Bina.
"You do not have to kneel back on your heels,” said Cabot to the Lady Bina. “You may kneel up."
She did so.
"She is beautiful, is she not?” asked Lord Grendel.
"Yes,” said Cabot. “Quite beautiful."
Cabot would have preferred for her to remain kneeling back on her heels, for that was more like a slave. But she was, after all, a free woman. If she were a slave, the proper modalities of kneeling before free persons would be taught to her. For example, such things are taught in the pens.
"For a human,” said Statius, for he perhaps had his mind on his own female.
"You must not think too badly of Cestiphon, and other male humans,” said Cabot, “for such a female is like delicious food to a starving man. Though she is a free woman, yet, secured as she is, clothed as she is, she has something of the allure, the inadvertent seductiveness, the sensuous vulnerability, the helplessness, of a Gorean female slave, or kajira."
"Interesting,” said Statius.
"She should be collared,” said Cabot.
"She is a free woman,” said Lord Grendel.
"That can be easily changed,” said Cabot.
Lord Grendel and Statius then returned to a place of vantage, forward.
"May I speak?” whispered the Lady Bina.