"You are unarmed," I said. "Flee. Do not die here, in this empty place, in this moonlight, on this foreign sand. Who will know, or care?"
"It does not matter," it said.
"Flee," I said. "There is no one here to recognize your glory."
"You are mistaken," it said.
"Who is here, then?" I asked.
"I am here," it said.
"Approach warily, men," said a man, one on the tiers, descending with others.
"I never thought to perish, back to back, with one such as you," I said.
"I was cast out of my own country, a steel country, faraway," it said, "as a weakling."
"I find that hard to believe," I said.
"Nonetheless, it is true," it said. "Many of my compeers, many of whom are honestly little better than barbarians, found it difficult to appreciate my taste for the niceties of life, for the tiny refinements that can so redeem the drabness of existence."
"Such as cooking your meat?" I asked.
"Precisely," it said. "Accordingly I was put into exile, cast weaponless, not even with combs and brushes, without even adornments, upon this world. How could I be expected to groom myself? How could I be expected to keep up my appearance?"
"I do not know," I admitted.
"It was dreadful," it said.
"I suppose so," I said.
"Surely one can be both brave and a gentleman," it said.
"I suppose so," I said. I thought of many of the Goreans I knew, with their chains and whips, and their naked, collared slaves, kneeling apprehensively before them. Those fellows, I thought, would probably not count as gentlemen. ON the other hand, I knew Goreans, too, who would surely count as gentlemen and their slaves were treated in much the same way, if not more so. Their gentlemanliness tended to be manifested in the exquisite and exacting refinements expected of their females, for example, in costume, appearance, behavior, deportment and service, not in any weakness exhibited towards them. Indeed, many Gorean slave girls fear terribly that they might be purchased by a «gentleman». Such can be very difficult to please.
"Do you think I am a weakling?" it asked.
"No," I said.
"Good," it said.
"Indeed," I said. "I would deem it an honor to die in your company."
"I hope you will not be offended," it said, "but I would not deem it an honor to die in yours."
"What?" I asked.
"To some extent your presence here diminishes the splendor of the occasion," it said. "Too, you are not of the people. You are a human being."
"I was born that way," I said.
"Do not misunderstand me," it said. "Similarly, do not be offended. I am not blaming you. I know it is nothing you can help."
"But still-" I said.
"precisely," it said.
"You are unduly fastidious," I said.
"Do not be angry," it said. "Also, I am sorry. It is just that there are standards."
"I see," I said.
"Besides," it said, "being fastidious is a necessary condition for being a gentleman."
"What do you suggest?" I asked. "Should I walk over there, perhaps to some inconspicuous corner, and there engage in desperate swordplay, in order not to obviously share the field with you?"
"That will not be necessary," it said.
"I thought you might like me," I said.
"I do," it said. "Surely you have noted that you have not been eaten."
"That is true," I granted him, noting it. I had not really thought of that before.
The fellows who had been descending the tiers were now on the sand, ringing us.
"Be ready, men," said an officer. "Level your spears. Take them within the points."
"Just behind the ubar's box," said the creature to me, "there is a partly opened trap. I emerged through it with dinner. It is apparently a private passage to the ubar's box, through which he could arrive here without passing through crowds. Once closed it is difficult to detect."
"What are you telling me?" I asked.
"I doubt that I could easily pass myself off as a human," it said, "even if I could accept the indignity of the pretense. You, on the other hand, an actual human being, would presumably have little difficulty in doing so. Similarly, if I am not mistaken, you are wearing a uniform of Brundisium."
"I cannot reach it," I said.
"In a moment," it said, "there is going to be a great deal of confusion.
"Come with me," I said.
"I dreamed for years on the cliffs of such a moment," it said. "I shall not forfeit it now, nor, I assure you, shall I share it."
"Look," said one of the men. "Is that not the fellow in the hall, Bosk of Port Kar, he who disappeared so mysteriously?"
"You are correct," I told him.
"Watch him! Watch him carefully!" said a man.
"He cannot just vanish here," said another.
"Sleen are variously trained," said the beast to me. "These in the pit respond to verbal signals, regardless of their source. They were of little use to me when I was chained at the stake, as they were set upon me, as upon a target. ON the other hand, I am not now in the position of the target, or prey, but in that of the trainer."
"Such signals are secret," I said. "They are carefully guarded. You could not know them. How could you know them?"
"I heard them whispered to the sleen," it said. "Just because you cannot hear such sounds at such distances, does not mean that the sleen cannot, or that I cannot."
Once again the hair lifted on the back of my neck.
"Be ready," it said.
"Now," said the officer. The men began to move forward, slowly, step by step.
The beast beside me then, almost inaudibly, but intensely, uttered an approximation of human vocables.
The sleen, startling me, suddenly spun about, the five of them, six-legged, agile, sinuous, and muscular, some nine or ten feet in length, and crowded about our legs, hissing, snarling, looking upwards.
"By the Priest-Kings!" cried a man, in horror.
Suddenly, at the utterance of a hissed syllable, coupled with a fierce, directed gesture from the beast, a movement almost like throwing g weapon violently underhanded, one of the animals, fangs bared, lunged fiercely toward the men. In an instant it was under, and among, the spears, tearing and slashing. There were wild screams and a sudden breaking of ranks. The men had not expected this charge, and were not ready for it. Even if they had been regrouped and set, the distance was so short and the attack of the beast so precipitous and swift that there had been no time to align their weapons n a practical, properly angled, defensive perimeter. The beast, accordingly, had simply darted into what, from its point of view, was an obvious opening. Another sleen then, another living weapon, with another fierce syllable and gesture, was launched by the beast. Then another, and another, to scattering men, to wildly striking weapons, and then the last!
"Behind the ubar's box!" said the beast to me.
I regarded it, reluctant to leave it.
"Go," it said. "They will learn that even a gentleman knows how to fight.
"Are there many like you in your country?" I asked.
"Countries," it said.
"Countries," I said.
"Some," it said.
"I see," I said.
"Go," it said.
"What is your name?" I asked.
It made a noise. "That is my name," it said.
"I cannot pronounce it," I said.