We had encountered no one in the passageways, or the rooms into which we had come, making our way to.the great hall.
We heard a muffled noise, coming from a comer of the almost darkened hall. There, kneeling on the tiles, back to back, their wrists bound behind their backs to a slave ring, were two girls. We saw their eyes, wild, over their gags. They shook their heads.
They wore the miserable garments of kitchen slaves.
They were the girl Vina, and Telima.
Fish would have rushed forward, but my hand restrained him.
Not speaking, I motioned that he should take his place at the side of the entryway to the great hall, where he might not be seen.
I strode irritably to the two girls. I did not release them. They had permitted themselves to be taken, to be used as bait. Vina was very young, but Telirna should have known better, and yet she, too, the proud Telima, knelt helplessly at the ring, her wrists bound behind her back, securely and expertly gagged, a young and beautiful woman, yet fastened as helplessly to a slave ring as a young girl.
I gave her head a shake. "Stupid wench," I said.
She was trying to tell me that there were men about, to attack me.
"The mouths of rence girls," I said, "are said to be as large as the delta itself."
She could make only tiny, protesting, futile noises.
I examined the gag. Heavy leather strips were bound tightly across her mouth, doubtless holding a heavy packing within, probably rep-cloth. Such a gag would not be pleasant to wear. It had been well done.
"At last," I commented, "someone has discovered a way to keep rence girls quiet."
There were tears in Telima's eyes. She squirmed in futility,'in fear, in fury. I patted her on the head condescendingly.
She looked at me in rage and exasperation.
I turned away from the girls, but stood before them.
I spoke loudly. "Now," I said, "let us release these, wenches."
In that instant I heard, from down the passageway, a sharp whistle, and the sound of running feet, those of several men. I saw torches being carried. "At him!" cried Lysias, helmeted, the helmet bearing the crest of steen hair, marking it as that of a captain. Lysias himself, however, did not engage me. Several men rushed forward, some of them with torches.
Perhaps forty men rushed into the room.
I met them, moving swiftly, constantl shifting my position, drawing them after me, then pressing one or another of them back. I kept, as well as I could, near the girls, that the backs of the men would be, in turn, kept toward the entryway.
I could see, as they did not, a shadow moving — swiftly behind them, it, too, rapidly shifting its position, moving about amidst the frantic shadows of men, torches and confusions, but always staying in the background, like an absence of substance but one which carried a blade of steel. Then the shadow had donned a helmet, and it was almost indistinguishable from the others. Those who fell before that shadow did so unnoticed, and without great cries, for the blade had crossed their throats as unexpectedly as a whisper in the darkness. I myself dropped nine warriors.
Then we heard more shouting, and saw more torches.
Now the room was high with light and even the beams of the hall stood forth, heavy in their ceiling.
Now, discovered, Fish fought by my side, that we might, together, protect one another.
"Now, Slave," said I to Fish, "you should have stayed with the fleet." "Be silent," said he, adding, "a€”Master."
I laughed.
I saw the boy, with a lightning thrust, Hash four inches steel through a body, returning to the on-guard position before the man realized he had been struck. In fighting as we were, one did not use a deep thrust, that the blade might be more swiftly freed.
"You have learned your lessons well," said I, "Slave."
"Thank you, Master," said he.
He dropped another man.
I dropped two others, to my right.
I heard more men coming down the passageway.
Then, from one side, the door to the kitchens, a number of other men came forth, carrying torches and steel.
We are lost, I thought. Lost.
To my fury I saw that these men were led by Samos of Port Kar.
"So," I cried, "as I thought, you are in league with the enemies of Port Kar!" But to my astonishment he engaged and dropped one of our attackers. I saw that some of the men with him were my own, who had been left behind in the holding, to guard it. Others I did not know.
"Withdraw!" cried Lysias, wildly in the fighting.
His men backed away, fighting, and we, and those others who had come to help us, pressed them back even as they retreated through the great door to the high-roofed hall.
At the entryway we stopped and threw shut the doors, dropping the beams into place.
Samos and I, together, dropped the last beam into the heavy iron brackets. He was sweating and the sleeve of his tunic was torn. There was a splash of blood across his face, staining the left side of his face, his short, white, cropped hair and the golden ring in his ear.
"The fleet?" he asked.
"Victory is ours," I told him.
"Good," he said. He sheathed his sword. "We are defending the keep near the delta wall," he said. "Follow me."
Near the bound girls he stopped.
"So here you are," said Samos. He turned to face me. "They snuck away to find you."
"They were successful," I said.
I slashed the binding fiber which, tying their wrists together, had passed through the slave ring, fastening them to it. They struggled to their feet. Their wrists, though no longer tethered to the slave ring, were still fastened behind their backs. They were still gagged. Vina ran to Fish, tears in her eyes, and thrust her head against his left shoulder. He took her in his arms. Telima approached me timidly, head down, and then, looking up, smiling with her eyes, put her head against my right shoulder. I held her to me.
"So," Fish was saying to Vina, "you snuck away from the keep."
She looked at him, startled.
He took her by the shoulders, turned her about and started her stumbling down the kitchen passageway. Then, with a swift motion, he leaped behind her and, with the flat of his blade, dealt her a sharp, stinging blow. She sped down the passageway.
"You, too," I said to Telima, "apparently left the keep unbidden."
She backed warily away from me.
"Have you something to say to me, Rence Girl?" I asked.
"Umm-ummph," protested Telima, shaking her head. I took a step toward her. She shook her head. She had a don't-you-dare-you- beast-you look in her eyes. I took another step toward her.
Telima, dignity to the winds, turned and fled down the passageway, but, before she had managed to make ten yards, she had been stung twice, and roundly, by the flat of my blade.
Twenty yards beyond, running, she stopped, and turned to look upon me. She drew herself up in her full, angry dignity.
I took another step toward her and, wildly, she wheeled and, barefoot, fled stumbling down the passageway.
The dignity of the proud Telima, I gathered, could not endure another such blow. I laughed.
"One must know how to treat women," said the boy, Fish, gravely.
"Yes," I said, gravely.
"One must teach them who is master," said the boy.
"Quite," I agreed.
The men about us laughed and, as comrades in arms, we made our way through the passageway, and then the kit- chens, and the hads to the keep.
The next afternoon Samos and I stood together behind the parapet of the keep. Over our heads, high, between beams, was strung tam wire. Heavy wooden mantelets, mounted on posts, were nearby, under which we might protect ourselves from crossbow fire from tarnsmen.
My large yellow bow of Ka-a-na, tipped with bosk hom and strung with hemp, whipped with silk, was at hand, It had helped to keep besiegers at their distance. There were few arrows left.