"But," said Marlenus, frowning, "if the siege is lifted, the Initiates will be left in power."
"And Marlenus will not resume the throne of Ar," I said "But the city will be safe." I looked at Marlenus, testing the man. "What is it, Ubar, that you hold dearest your city or your title? Do you seek the welfare of Ar or your private glory?"
Marlenus leaped to his feet, hurling the yellow robes of the Afflicted from him, drawing his blade from its sheath with a metallic flash. "A Ubar," he cried, "answers such a question only with his sword! My weapon, too, had flashed from its sheath almost simultaneously. We faced each other for a long, terrible moment; then Marlenus threw back his head and laughed his great lion laugh, slamming his sword back into its sheath. "Your plan is a good one," he said "My men and I will enter the city tonight."
"And I shall go with you," I said.
"No," said Marlenus. "The men of Ar need no help from a warrior of Ko-ro-ba."
"Perhaps," suggested Mintar, "the young tarnsman might attend to the matter of Talena, daughter of Marlenus."
"Where is she?" I demanded.
"We are not certain," said Mintar. "But it is presumed that she is kept in the tents of Pa-Kur."
For the first time Kazrak spoke. "On the day that Ar falls, she will wed Pa-Kur and rule beside him. He hopes this will encourage the survivors of Ar to accept him as their rightful Ubar. He will proclaim himself their liberator, their deliverer from the despotism of the Initiates, the restorer of the old order, the glory of the empire."
Mintar was idly arranging the pieces on the game board, first in one pattern and then in another. "In large matters, as the pieces are now set," he said, "the girl is unimportant, but only the Priest-Kings can foresee all possible variations. It might be well to remove the girl from the board." So saying, he picked a piece, the Ubar's Consort, or Ubara, from the board and dropped it into the game box.
Marlenus stared down at the board, his fists clenched "Yes," he said, "she must be removed from the board, but not simply for reasons of strategy. She has dishonored. me." He scowled at me. "She has been alone with a warrior — she has submitted herself — she has even pledged to sit at the side of an assassin."
"She has not dishonored you," I said.
"She submitted herself," said Marlenus.
"Only to save her life," I said.
"And rumor has it," said Mintar, not looking up from the board, "that she pledged herself to Pa-Kur only that some tarnsman she loved might be given a small chance of life.»
"She would have brought a bride price of a thousand tarns," said Marlenus bitterly, "and now she is of less value than a trained slave girl."
"She is your daughter," I said, my temper rising.
"If she were here now," said Marlenus, "I would strangle her."
"And I would kill you," I said.
"Well, then," said Marlenus, smiling, "perhaps I would only beat her and throw her naked to my tarnsmen."
"And I would kill you," I repeated.
"Indeed," said Marlenus, looking at me narrowly, "one of us would slay the other."
"Have you no love for her?" I asked.
Marlenus seemed momentarily puzzled. "I am a Ubar," he said. He drew the robes of the Afflicted once more around his gigantic frame and picked up a gnarled staff he carried. He dropped the hood of the yellow robe about his face, ready to go, then turned to me once more. With the staff he poked me good-naturedly in the chest. "May the Priest-Kings favor you," he said, and, inside the folds of the hood, I knew he was chuckling.
Marlenus left the tent, seemingly one of the Afflicted, a bent wreck of humanity pathetically scratching at the earth in front of him with the staff.
Mintar looked up, and he, too, seemed pleased. "You are the only man who has ever escaped the tarn death," he said, something of wonder in his voice. "Perhaps it is true, as they say, that you are that warrior brought every thousand years to Gor — brought by the Priest-Kings to change a world."
"How did you know I would come to the camp?" I asked.
"Because of the girl," said Mintar. "And it was logical, was it not, to expect you to enlist the aid of your Kazrak, your sword brother?"
"Yes," I said.
Mintar reached into the pouch at his waist and drew forth a golden tarn disk, of double weight. He threw it to Kazrak.
Kazrak caught it.
"I understand you are leaving my service," said Mintar.
"I must," said Kazrak.
"Of course," said Mintar.
"Where are the tents of Pa-Kur?" I asked.
"On the highest ground in camp," said Mintar, "near the second ditch.and across from the great gate of Ar. You will see the black banner of the Caste of Assassins."
"Thank you," I said. "Though you are of the Merchant Caste, you are a brave man."
"A merchant may be as brave as a warrior, young Tarnsman," smiled Mintar. Then he seemed somewhat embarrassed. "Let us look at it this way. Suppose Marlenus regains Ar — will Mintar not receive the monopolies he wishes?"
"Yes," I said, "but Pa-Kur will guarantee those monopolies as freely as Marlenus."
"Even more freely," corrected Mintar, turning his attention again to the board, "but, you see, Pa-Kur does not play the game."
Chapter 16
The Girl in the Cage
KAZRAK AND I RETURNED To his tent, and until the early morning we discussed the possibilities of rescuing Talena. We turned over a number of plans, none of which seemed likely to succeed. It would presumably be suicidal to make any direct attempt to cut through to her, and yet, if this was the last resort, I knew I would make the attempt. In the meantime, until the city fell or Pa-Kur altered his plans, she would presumably be safe. It seemed unlikely that Pa-Kur would be so politically naive as to use the girl before she had publicly accepted him as her Free Companion, according to the rites of Ar. Treated as a pleasure slave, she would have negligible political value. On the other hand, the thought of her in the tents of Pa-Kur enraged me, and I knew I would be unable to restrain myself indefinitely. For the time being, however, Kazrak's counsels of patience won me over, convincing me that any precipitous action would be almost surely doomed to failure.
Accordingly, for the next few days, I remained with Kazrak and bided my time. I dyed my hair black and acquired the helmet and gear of an Assassin. Across the left temple of the black helmet I fixed the golden slash of the messenger. In this disguise I freely wandered about the camp, observing the siege operations, the appointment of the compounds, the marshaling of troops. Occasionally I would climb halfway up one of the siege towers under construction and observe the city of Ar and the skirmishes that took place between it and the first ditch.
Periodically the shrill notes of alarm bugles would pierce the air, as forces from Ar emerged to do battle on the plains before the city. When this occurred, inevitably the spearmen and lancers of Pa-Kur, following the lead of siege slaves through the maze of stakes and traps, would engage the men from Ar. Sometimes the forces of Pa-Kur drove the warriors of Ar back to the very walls of the city, forcing them through the gates. Sometimes the forces of Ar would drive the men of Pa-Kur back against the defensive stakes, and once they drove them to take refuge across the now constructed siege bridges spanning the great ditch.
Still, there was little doubt that Pa-Kur's men had the best of things. The human resources on which Pa-Kur could draw seemed inexhaustible, and, as important, he had at his command a considerable force of tharlarion cavalry, an arm almost lacking to the men of Ar.
In these battles the skies would be filled with taresmen, from Ar and from the camp, firing into the massed. warriors below, engaging one another in savage duels hundreds of feet in the air. But gradually the tarnsmen of Ar were diminished, overwhelmed by the superior forces which Pa-Kur could, with ruthless liberality, throw against them. On the ninth day of the siege the sky belonged to Pa-Kur, and the forces of Ar no longer emerged from the great gate. All hope of lifting the siege by battle was gone. The men of Ar remained within their walls, under their tarn wire, waiting for the attacks. to come, while the Initiates of the city sacrificed to the Priest-Kings.