"In a sense I am a bred slave," she said, "for I am a woman."

"The spear is ready," said a man.

"Let her chains be removed," said Aemilianus, "and her hands tied behind her. Use a belly thong."

With the belly thong, presumably her hands would be tied closely, tightly, at the small of her back. This is an excellent, general tie. It is seldom, however, if ever, used in impalements. Apparently Aemilianus had call for the tie, in this context, as an act of mercy. He did not want her to be able to get her fingers on the spear which, in their futility and helplessness, might delay, or deepen or prolong the agony of impalement.

"May I speak?" I inquired.

One fellow, with a thong, and the key to the Lady Claudia's locks had already stepped forward. When I spoke, he halted, and stepped back. I assumed he would remove the Lady Claudia's wrist rings first, then affix the belly thong on her, fastening her hands behind her back, tightly, and then, and then only, remove the ankle rings and the collar, the remainder of the sirik. Such, at any rate, would have been a common Gorean manner of proceeding.

"Of course," said Aemilianus.

"In the cell, yesterday morning," I said, it seemed a long time ago now, "I gathered that my fate was not to be inextricably linked to that of Lady Claudia, that you had perhaps not convinced yourself, and quite properly, of my guilt in the matter of espionage."

"true," said Aemilianus. "I was not sure of you, what you were, or why you did what you did. There are still many things I do not understand, for example, about the military actions, and inactions, of the past months."

"Much would become clear," I said, "if you were willing to entertain the possibility of treason in Ar, treason in high places, treason of profound character and enormous scope."

"Only days ago," said Aemilianus, "that would have seemed unthinkable." "But it is not so unthinkable now?" I asked.

"No," said Aemilianus. "Clearly Ar's Station was abandoned, and presumably therewith the Vosk, and its basin, surrendered to Cos."

"My general sympathies," said Calliodorus, "as will be understood, are with Cos in these matters. Certainly I have no love for Ar. But if Cos thinks to hold sway upon the river I think, then, she has not reckoned with Port Cos, nor with the river towns themselves. We on the river will welcome neither the septered emissaries of Lurius of Jad nor Marlenus of Ar. Too, in the Vosk League, to which Port Cos is party, we have the nucleus of a vehicle for our alliance, a vehicle for common action if not common governance."

"Ar looks not with favor upon the Vosk League," said Aemilianus. "She sees in it the possibility of another Salerian Confederation."

"She did not admit Ar's Station to join the league," said Calliodorus. "It was thought by many in Ar, seemingly Marlenus among them," said Aemilianus, "that entry into the League would appear to accept the principle that Ar was but one power among others on the river, and not the sole mistress of the waterway, as she would be. Cos may have acted more judiciously in the matter, thinking that Port Cos might dominate the league, and that she, in turn, might exercise her own control over it, and that she, in turn, might exercise her own control over it, through the might of Port Cos."

"If such were her intent, and I do not doubt it," said Calliodorus, "she misjudged the interests, the pride and temper of Port Cos. Though we have close ties, historical, cultural and political, with Cos, we are, unlike Ar's Station, a sovereign polity in our own right. We are in all ways institutionally and legally autonomous."

"Yes?" said Aemilianus, returning his attention to me.

"It had not pleased me," I said, "that this woman," and here I indicated the Lady Claudia by placing my foot against her, and thrusting her forward, so that she fell to all fours in he chains on the deck, "was to be impaled." "It was the justice of Ar's Station," said Aemilianus.

"look upon her," I said. "Does not impalement in this case seem a waste of slut?"

Lady Claudia, a free woman, gasped, so spoken of. Yes, too, she shuddered with pleasure in her chains, realizing that she had been found worthy by a man to have so familiar, vulgar, and exciting an expression, and doubtlessly appropriately, applied to her.

"The question," said Aemilianus, "is not so much the suitability of the female for "helpless-slut' status as one of justice."

"I determined then in the cell," I said, "to take action, not merely, of course, for her sake, but for mine as well, as I could not know for certain what you would eventually decide in my case, nor could I count on being released from a burning citadel by Cosians. After all, they might not take more interest in their enemies' criminals, and such, than in their enemies themselves. Also, Lady Claudia was to be well fed that morning, and so this put sustenance in my way, of which I took advantage. Indeed, I perhaps ate better than any in Ar's Station that morning.

"Your action on behalf of Lady Claudia," he said, "was very nearly successful. Had it not been for the timely arrival of our friend Calliodorus, and certain mysterious others, she might now be in the chains of Cosians rather than in those of Ar's Station. But, as it turned out, Calliodorus, and others, did arrive, and she did not escape. We are prepared to overlook your attempt to abet her escape, serious though this is, in view of your action on the wall, and elsewhere."

"My position on the matter, however," I said, "has not changed." Lady Claudia rose to her knees, and turned, to face me, wildly. The former Lady Publia, the nameless, chained slave lying on her belly, on the deck, turned her head to look at me. Aemilianus' s slave, Shirley, too, regarded me, her eyes wide, frightened. Men stepped back a little, uneasily. More than one loosened the blade in his sheath.

"Do you approve of treason?" asked Aemilianus.

"Not generally," I said.

"Perhaps you approve of it, however," he asked, "in this specific case, in the case of the Lady Claudia?"

"Not at all," I said.

"Surely a polity, even if it be one of pirates, if it is to survive, if it is to protect itself, must establish some forms of justice and law within its own precincts?"

"One would suppose so," I said.

"Even if it is of the rack and spear." "I would suppose so," I said.

"By what title then would you presume to interfere, by that of the sword?" "Please, noble sir," wept the Lady Claudia. "Risk nothing for me, a traitress! You have too much imperiled yourself already on my behalf, so unworthy an object!"

"Were you given permission to speak?" I asked her.

She was silent, startled. She was, after all, a free woman.

"I have no intention of imperiling myself on your behalf," I informed her. She did not speak, confused.

"She looks well in slave chains, does she not?" I asked Aemilianus. "Yes," he said. She was a dream in such chains, and their meaning. It lacked only that she should wear them truly, as a slave."

"The men of Ar's Station," I said, "I would suppose, have no particular interest, personally, in impaling this female."

Several of the men laughed.

"On the high spear of public, legal impalement, of course," I added. There was more laughter.

The Lady Claudia shuddered, understanding what it might be to be at the mercy of men.

I turned to Aemilianus. "What do those of Ar's Station value most highly," I asked, "their justicea€”or their honor?"

Several of the men cried out, angrily. Lest some not understand their fury, let it be said, simply, that they were Goreans. Several hands grasped the hilts of swords.

"Their honor," said Aemilianus, quietly.

"I am not of Ar's Station," I said, "and I have little love for her. Indeed, I do not see why I should, as I was not well treated within her walls. But yet I have served her, and perhaps well. Is that not so?"