"What?" asked Flaminius, aghast.
The caped figure removed his helmet.
"Publius Andronicus!" I cried.
"The Imperious General," said Publius Andronicus, "is one of my best roles."
"You can act!" I cried.
"Of course," he said, "did not Boots Tarsk-Bit tell you that?"
"Yes," I admitted.
"To be sure," said Andronicus, "I choose my roles with care."
I seized Flaminius by the neck and pushed him back against a wall.
"Oh, no, my dear," said Andronicus, seizing the bolting Yanina by an arm and returning her to her knees, trembling, on the floor, "you are not going anywhere, at least not yet."
"Bring Petrucchio in," I said. "We must see to him."
"Alas," cried Petrucchio, "I die!"
"Nonsense," I said. "It is only a scratch."
"Let a great pyre be built of hundreds of logs," cried Petrucchio.
"You are not entitled to such a funeral," said Chino. "You are only a player."
"You will be lucky if people remember to throw you in a garbage dump," said Lecchio.
"I tell you it is only a scratch," I said.
"Oh?" asked Petrucchio.
"Yes," I said, replacing the bandages. "It would scarcely discomfort a neurotic urt."
"Was my sword recovered?" asked Petrucchio.
"Yes," said Chino. "We picked it up."
"There were hundreds of them," Petrucchio assured me. "I fought like a larl. On it, at one time, I spitted eleven men!"
"That is a large number," I admitted.
"The story of how Petrucchio held the bridge will be long remembered," said Petrucchio.
"I am sure it will," I said.
"And of how he fell at last, bloodied beneath the blades of frenzied, hostile brigades!"
"Yes," I said.
Petrucchio suddenly slumped in my arms.
"He is dead!" cried Chino.
"Petrucchio," I said.
"Yes?" he said, opening his eyes.
"Don't do that," I said.
"Did I play it well?" Petrucchio asked Andronicus, his mentor in such matters.
"Splendidly, old friend," said Andronicus.
"It was nice of you to come looking for me," said Petrucchio.
"It was nothing," Andronicus assured him.
"Not that I needed help," said Petrucchio.
"Of course not," said Andronicus.
"If the sheaf of notes on acting hints, those on the detailed deportment of the head and hands, prepared by you by Publius Andronicus, had not somewhat turned the blade of Flaminius, it might have been a different matter," I told Petrucchio.
"Perhaps," he admitted, generously. "I had thought that perhaps such theory might one day prove its value."
"Petrucchio," said Andronicus, warningly.
"You must get him out of here," I told Andronicus. "I think you can mange it in your guise as a visiting general."
"I fear it will be more difficult for you to leave the city," said Andronicus. "IT seems every guardsman in Brundisium is on the lookout for you. Some who can recognize you, slaves, courtiers, and such, will be, I suspect, at every gate."
"I will leave the city as originally planned," I said. "It seems the only practical way."
"Do you still have the device I gave you?" asked Lecchio.
"Yes," I said.
"And where it no longer suffices," he said, "you must make do otherwise."
"I know," I said.
"Remember not to look down at your feet," he said, "for you will not be able to react that quickly, but to look ahead of you, where you are going."
"Yes," I said.
"You must think, too, with your feet and body, with its slightest sensations."
"I remember your training," I said.
"So do I," he said. "Thus I urge you to be careful."
"Of course," I said.
"Do you have the other material, as well?" he asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Perhaps we should be on our way," said Andronicus, "before those of Brundisium begin to gather their wits about themselves."
"Take these papers," I said to Andronicus. "They are important. Give them to Scormus. He will know what to do with them. He has other papers, too, that are pertinent to these matters."
"Where will we meet you?" asked Andronicus.
"At the prearranged place," I said, "if all goes well."
"I wish you well," said Andronicus.
"I wish you well, too, all of you," I said.
In a moment, then, Andronicus had again placed his help over his features. He did so majestically. He straightened his body, regally. He was again a general.
"Come, men," said he, "and bring the prisoner, he who is wanted din Ar."
He was quite impressive.
"Not bad, eh?" asked Andronicus.
"No," I said.
"Do not forget my sword," said Petrucchio.
"We will pick it up on the way out," Lecchio assured him.
"Come, men!" said Andronicus, again the general. He then exited, somewhat grandly, followed by Chino and Lecchio, supporting Petrucchio between them.
"I did not know Petrucchio was wanted in Ar," Lecchio was saying, in character.
"Be quiet!" Chino was cautioning him, grunting, and not altogether amused.
I watched them, to make certain they did not get into any trouble, as least as far as I could follow them, visually. Then I took my way back through the apartments to where we had secured the prisoners. We had tied them, stripped, standing, their back to the bars, their arms lifted and spread, wrists tied back to the bars, ankles, too, to the barred gate, then again dropped, which had originally prevented me from immediately following Belnar. We had used it because it resembled a slaver's grid, to which slaves may be bound at a master's pleasure in an almost infinite variety of attitudes and positions, ranging from quite standard to exquisitely exotic. We had lowered the gate this time from the outside, from the apartment side, by means of a cord which we attached to the drop lever and then passed through the bars. IN this fashion, it could be dropped form the front, rather than the rear. We had then only to fasten our prisoners, in whatever manner we chose, to it.
"Do not kill me!" cried Flaminius, twisting in the cords, seeing me approaching through the apartments, the steel of my sword bared. "Please, no, Master!" cried Yanina, pulling helplessly at the restraints that held her back against the bars. "Please have mercy on a slave! Please do not kill me!" They had both hoped, doubtless, desperately, that we had all taken our leave. But I had come back.
I put the point of the sword to the throat of Flaminius. He began to sweat. "Don't kill me," he whispered. Then I lowered the sword. "No," he said, "please, no."
I then resheathed the blade. I then freed Yanina from the bars and threw her to the tiles before Flaminius, there having her. "Oh, oh," she wept.
I thrust her form me. She lay near me, shuddering, trying to comprehend what had been done to her. Being had as a collared slave is quite different, in all its modalities, and however it id done, to having polite love made to one as a respected free woman. I lay propped on my elbow. I regarded Flaminius. "Your slave is not much good," I said.
"Forgive me, Master," whispered the girl. "I was terrified."
"Terror, mixing in with the other feelings of a female, can be a powerful stimulant to passion," I said.
"yes, Master," she whispered.
"Surely many girls have known terror at the very thought of not being fully pleasing to a master."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Doubtless men will be coming soon," I said to Flaminius, "to look for you. Thus I should quickly have done with your and be on my way."
"There is no hurry," cried Flaminius. "It may not even be known we are here. Men may not come for Ahn!"
"Oh?" I asked.
"She can do better!" said Flaminius, hastily.