"Look!" said a man, pointing upward. "Tarnsmen!"

"They are clad in blue," cried a man.

"Cosian tarnsmen over the city!" cried another.

"The tarn wire will protect us!" said another.

"Where are our lads?" asked a man.

"They cannot be everywhere," said another, angrily.

Yet the appearance of Cosian tarnsmen over Ar indicated to me that Cos must now control the skies, as she had in the north.

"The tarn wire will protect us," repeated the fellow.

"Wire can be cut," said a man.

"No one must be permitted to again revile the Home Stone of Ar's Station!" said Marcus.

"Come away from here," I said. I pulled him from the knot of men, to the side. I looked back to the enclosure within which was the Home Stone of Ar's Station, it resting on the plank, supported by the two terra-cotta vats. There were at least ten guards in the vicinity, as well as perhaps fifty to a hundred men. "I do not think you are likely, at this time," I said, "to seize the Home Stone by force. Even if you could cut your way to it, you would not be likely to get more than a few feet with it, before you were brought down, by spear or quarrel, if not by blade."

"I can die in the attempt of its rescue," he said, grimly.

"Yes, I suppose you could," I said, "and probably without much difficulty, but if your intent is its rescue, and not your death in its attempted rescue, this is not the time to strike."

"You have many of the virtues of the warrior," I said, "but there is yet one you must learn-patience."

"It is not your Home Stone," he said.

"And that," I said, "is perhaps why it is easier for me to consider these matters with more objectivity than you."

"The Stone may be moved, or hidden," he said.

"That is a possibility," I said.

"We must strike now," he said.

"We must wait," I said.

"I do not want to wait," he said.

"I have an idea," I said. This had occurred to me as I had considered the Stone, its placement, the arrangement of guardsmen and such.

"What is your idea?" he asked.

"You would not approve of it," I said, "as it involves something other than a bloody frontal assault."

"What is it?" he asked.

"It is really only a possibility," I said. "I shall discuss it with you later." I then turned back toward Wagon Street, and Marcus, reluctantly, joined me. "Our permits to be within the city expire at sundown," he said. "And the camp outside is largely struck. Indeed, there may well be scouts and skirmishers of Cos under the walls tonight. The gates will be closed, we will be outside. We may not even be able to regain entrance to the city."

"It is my intention," I said, "to remain within the city, putting my sword at its service."

"You owe Ar nothing," he said.

"True," I said.

"She is doomed," he said.

"Perhaps," I said.

"Why would you wish to remain here then?" he asked.

"I have a reason," I said.

"Shall we discuss it," he asked, "its rationality, and such, with objectivity."

"Certainly not," I said.

"I thought not," he said.

We clasped hands, and then continued on our way, to fetch Phoebe.

5 Outside the Gate

"And so, tonight," said Marcus, huddling beside me, in a blanket, Phoebe covered in another, completely, so that she could not see, beside him, in the darkness and cold outside the sun gate, with perhaps two or three hundred others, "I thought you were to be warm and snug in Ar."

"There were no recruiting tables," I admitted.

"The services of your sword were not accepted," he said.

"No," I said.

"Interesting, he said.

"They did ask for my permit and told me I should be out of the city by sundown."

"Cos may be hiring," said a fellow.

"They did not need any more," said another.

I supposed that was true.

"It is strange," said Marcus. "I would have thought they might even free and arm male slaves."

I shrugged.

"But then," he said, "I suppose there are not too many male slaves in the city who might serve in that capacity."

"Perhaps not," I said. It was not like the city contained large numbers of dangerous, powerful, virile male slaves, such as might be found on the galleys, in the quarries, on the great farms, and so on. Such, in numbers, would be dangerous in the city. Most male slaves in the city were pampered silk slaves, owned by Gorean women who had not yet learned their sex. Such slaves, when captured, if not slain in disgust by the victors, were usually herded together like slave girls, and chained for disposition in markets catering to their form of merchandise, markets patronized largely by free women. To be sure, there were virile male slaves in Ar. For example, many of the fellows who attended to the great refuse vats usually kept at the foot of the stairs in insulae were male slaves. Usually they worked under the direct or indirect supervision of free men. occasionally they would be treated to a dram of paga or thrown a kettle girl for the evening.

"I would have thought," said Marcus, "that Ar might have rejoiced these days to obtain even the services of a lad with a beanshooter."

"Apparently not," I said.

"You understand what this means?" asked Marcus.

"Yes," I said. "I think I understand what it means."

"Do you think they will open the gate in the morning?" asked a man.

"Yes," said another.

"How far is Cos?" Marcus asked a fellow stirring around in his blankets. "Two days," said the fellow.

"Ar will be defended to the death," said a man.

"Perhaps," said another.

"You are not sure of it?" asked the first.

"No," said the second.

"Have you heard the latest news?" asked a fellow.

"What?" inquired another.

"It was suddenly in Ar," said the fellow. "I heard it just before I was expelled from the city, the gate then closed."

"What?" asked a man.

"Talena, the daughter of Marlenus, has offered to sacrifice herself for the safety of the city."

"I do not understand," said a fellow.

"Tell me of this!" I said.

"Talena has agreed to deliver herself naked, and in the chains of a slave, to the Cosians, if they will but spare Ar!"

"She must never be permitted to do so!" cried a man.

"No!" said another.

"Noble woman!" cried a man.

"Noble Talena!" cried another.

"It is absurd," said another fellow. "She is not the daughter of Marlenus. She was disowned by him."

"And thus," I said, "her offer is of no more import than would be the similar offer of any other free woman of Ar."

"Treason!" said a fellow.

"It is said," said a fellow," that she has been a slave."

"I have heard that," said a man.

"Marlenus did disown her," said a man.

"She does not even have her original name restored," said a man, "but the merely same name, permitted her, after she was freed."

"Long was she sequestered in the Central Cylinder," said another.

"As is Claudia Tentia Hinrabia, of the Hinrabians," said a man. "Remember her?"

"Yes," said a fellow. Claudia Tentia Hinrabie had been the daughter of a former Ubar of Ar, Minus Tentius Hinrabius. When Marlenus had regained the throne he had freed her from a bondage to which Cernus, his foe, who had replaced Minus Tentius Hinrabius on the throne, had seen that she was reduced. I recalled her. She had been a slender, dark-haired beauty, with high cheekbones. She still lived, as I understood it, in the Central Cylinder.

"I, too, have heard it said," I said, "that Talena was once a slave, and I have heard it said, as well, that even now she wears on her thigh the mark of Treve, a souvenir of her former bondage to a tarnsman of that city."

"She is the daughter of Marlenus," said a man, sullenly.

"She should be Ubara," said another.