Several of the men behind him laughed.
"Even now, men are repairing the various gratings which we loosened or removed for your convenience, as well as narrowing several of the conduits."
I regarded him.
"Oh, yes," he said, "this has all been well planned."
"Would it not have been simpler to slay me in the prison?" I asked.
"Simpler, yes," said Flaminius, "but far less amusing."
"I see," I said.
"The arrangements in your cell, its location, and so on, were intended to encourage you to be apprehensive, and to think about escape."
"I do not think I needed much encouragement," I said.
"Apparently not," he said. "We noticed, of course, that you did not use your bedding. That was clever of you. Without something of that sort it is harder, of course, to set sleen on your trail."
"I thought you might intend to use me in the baiting pit," I said.
"Of course," said Flaminius. "Indeed, it was intended that you should fear that. ON the other hand, it did not seem politically expedient, at least at this time, to have Bosk of Port Kar, that being a city theoretically neutral to Brundisium, publicly slaughtered in one of our baiting pits."
"I would suppose not," I admitted. Some of the men of Brundisium, several functionaries and soldiers, for example, and guards in the prison, were familiar with my identity. Under such circumstances it would surely be difficult to conceal it from a crowd attending a public spectacle.
"Accordingly, we arranged your escape," said Flaminius, "risking nothing, of course."
"Nothing?" I asked.
"Of course not," said Flaminius. "How do you think we followed you so discreetly, allowing you your lead of better than an Ahn, until, at our pleasure, we chose to close the gap and apprehend you here?"
I looked down at the urt pack in the valley below. "I was brought here, deliberately, of course," I said.
"Of course," said Flaminius. "But even if you had not chosen to follow our little friend's advice in this matter, we could have apprehended you easily anywhere in the vicinity, and then brought you here, as we wished."
"The sleen," I said.
"Certainly," he said. "Look." He signaled to one of the men standing by the fellow with the sleen. He drew forth from a sack the ragged tunic I had worn in the cell.
"Clever," I said.
Outside the entrance to the cubicle of the bathing cisterns, before being prodded within by the spears of our keepers, Nim Nim and I had been forced to strip. We had then been herded into the darkness and the door closed and locked behind us. It had all seemed very natural. I now realized that it had been part of the plan of Flaminius. After the door had been closed behind us the clothing, or at least mine, had doubtless been taken down to the sleen pens. Then it was only necessary, later, to pick up our trail outside the city, at the termination of one of the conduits, where it would empty into one of ht long, half-dry drainage ditches about a half pasang outside the walls.
"Look," grinned Flaminius, and he signaled again to the fellow who held the rags I had worn.
He held them near the sleen. Instantly, furiously, snarling, they seized the garment, tugging and tearing at it.
"Enough!" said Flaminius.
The fellow freed the garment from the sleen, shouting at them, half tearing it away from them. Even though he was their keeper and they were doubtless trained to obey him, and perhaps only him, it was not easy for him to regain the garment.
Flaminius then took the garment, and looked at me. "Behold, Bosk of Port Kar," he laughed, "naked and kneeling before us, outwitted, terrified into the desire for escape, then led to believe his escape was successful, then his hopes dashed, now realizing how he was never out of our grasp. Behold the stupid, outwitted fool!"
I was silent.
"Are you not curious as to your fate?" he asked.
"Yes," I said.
Flaminius then threw me the garment he had taken from the sleen keeper. It was in shreds, little more than dangling tatters, from the teeth of the ravaging, contesting sleen. "Put it on," he said. "No, do not rise. Draw it on as you kneel."
The men laughed at me as I knelt before them then, a few dangling tatters about my neck and body. The sleen eyed me eagerly.
"Would not the stroke of the sword be quicker?" I asked.
"Yes, but not as amusing," said Flaminius.
"Perhaps you should draw back, that you not be injured in the charge of the sleen," I suggested.
"Remain kneeling," he warned me.
"I am somewhat mystified about many things," I said. "Perhaps this is an opportune moment to request an explanation. May I inquire, accordingly, what might be your interest in me, or that of your party? Why, for example, was the fellow named Babinius sent against me in Port Kar? What was the point of that? Similarly, why should there have been an interest in Brundisium in my apprehension? Who, or what, IN Brundisium, has this interest in me, and why?"
"You would like me to respond to your questions, would you not?" he asked.
"Yes," I said.
"I do no choose to do so," he said.
I clenched my fists. Those with him laughed.
"But do not think that we are not capable of acts of incredible kindness, or that mercy is beyond our ken," he said.
"Oh?" I said.
"We are willing to permit you a choice of fates," he said. "And we are willing to give you a certain amount of time, to agonize over them."
"I do not understand," I said.
"Surely you do not think it is an accident that we used our little friend here in our plans? Surely you do not think it is a mere coincidence that you have been brought to this place?"
"I suppose not," I said. I shuddered.
Nim Nim Leaped up and down gleefully. "Nim Nim help. Nim Nim good urt!" he squealed.
"Go, little urt," said Flaminius, kindly. "Run to your people."
"Nim Nim smart!" it cried. "Nim Nim trick pretty Bosk!"
"Hurry home, little urt," said Flaminius, kindly.
Nim Nim looked up at me with his ovoid eyes, set in that small, elongated face. "Worse than pit," he said to me, "worse, far worse. Nim Nim help. Nim Nim trick pretty Bosk. Too bad, pretty Bosk!"
"Hurry, hurry," urged Flaminius.
Nim Nim scampered down the grassy slope toward the huge urt pack in the distance. Flaminius laughed. So, too, did some of the others. The laughter was not pleasant.
"You will now turn about, slowly, on your knees," said Flaminius to me. "You will then rise slowly and slowly descend the hill. You will go tot he edge of the urt pack. We will remain, for a time, here on the hill. You will be under our observation at all times. If you should attempt to run or move to one side, as though thinking of skirting the pack, we will immediately release the sleen. You must, then, if you wish, enter the urt pack. If you do not wish to do this we will, after a time, release the sleen, and they will set upon you wherever they find you. Is this all clear?"
"Yes," I said.
"I wonder what you will choose," said Flaminius.
"I bet he will enter the pack," said one of the men.
"I wager he will wait for the sleen," said another.
"Do not permit us to sway your decision," said Flaminius, "but it has been our usual experience in similar situations, that the individual involved waits until the sleen are almost upon him and then, seemingly almost uncontrollably, runs into the pack.
To be sure, it would probably have been better for him if he had waited for the sleen."
"Sleen are quicker," said one of the men.
"Few have the courage, however, to wait for them," said another.
"What will you do, Bosk of Port Kar?" asked Flaminius.
"I do not know," I said.
"An excellent answer," said Flaminius. "Many men think they know what they will do, but when the moment comes it seems it does not always turn out as they expected. Sometimes he who thinks he is brave learns he is a coward, and sometimes, too, I suppose, he who thought himself a coward learns that he is brave."