Part 90 (2/2)

”And would precipitate war,” said the pit master, irritably.

”And what Kaissa would you play?” inquired the officer.

”I have a game in mind,” said the pit master.

”Neither of us may betray the honor of our post,” said the officer.

”And where is found the house of honor?”

”He is to be surrendered to them,” said the officer. ”There is no other way.”

”You understand what that means?”

”There is no other way.”

”There is a possibility.”

”None we may with honor pursue.”

”Honor has many voices, and many songs.”

”Open! Open!” we heard, from down the corridor. There was a repet.i.tion of the pounding on the bars of the gate. ”Open! Open!”

”We need time!” said the officer.

”They will not have their way this day,” said the pit master.

”And how is that?” asked the officer.

”Their papers are not in order,” said the pit master.

”I see,” said the officer.

”Open,” we heard. ”Open!”

”Coming, coming, Masters!” called the pit master.

THIRTY ONE

”We have seen a hundred prisoners!” cried the fellow in the black tunic, the leader of the strangers.

”None is he, I am sure of it, Master,” said a furtive, twisted fellow, his face a ma.s.s of jerking scar tissue.

”If I knew whom you seek, perhaps,” said the pit master.

”Gito will know him,” said the fellow in black.

”We can kill every male prisoner in the depths,” said one of the fellows in black, a lieutenant.

”You have no authorization for that,” said the pit master.

”You know whom we seek,” said the leader of the men in black tunics.

There were twentythree in their party, the leader, a lieutenant, the fellow called 'Gito', and twenty men.

Each of the twenty men carried a sword, a dagger, and a crossbow. Some had their bows set.

”If you have come to take custody of prisoner, as your orders state,”

said the pit master, ”why have you no chains with you?”

I had noted this, too. One of the men carried a leather sack. It was the only unique, or unusual, object they seemed to have with them.

”Are any of these a preferred slave?” asked the leader of the fellows in black.

The ten female slaves kept in the quarters of the pit master, I among them, had been, at the insistence of the leader of the strangers, brought along in the corridors. Our hands were bound behind our backs. We were stripped. I had not understood why we were taken along. I now began, uneasily, to suspect why.

”They are only slaves,” said the pit master.

”Cut their throats,” said the leader of the strangers.

We cried out, and shrank back, and might have run, but there was nowhere to run. Men were all about.

One fellow took me by the hair, to hold me in place.

”Hold!” said the pit master. ”Know that these women are the property of the state of Treve!

You are within the walls of Treve. You are sheltered by her Home Stone.

You cannot deal with the property of Treve with impunity.”

”You have delayed us long enough,” snarled the leader of the blacktunicked men. ”We came yesterday to the pits, and you put us off with some absurd technicality.”

”We have our regulations, Master,” said the pit master.

”That technicality was cleared this morning,” said the leader of the strangers.

The majority of the men in black tunics, incidentally, save for two who returned to the surface, to repair the fault in their papers, had remained overnight in the quarters of the pit master. It seemed that, as tenacious and terrible as sleen, they would take their repose on the very trail they followed. Too, I am sure they did not trust the pit master. The officer of Treve had left the quarters of the pit master shortly after the arrival of the strangers, putatively to ensure that new papers would be properly prepared, that there would be no further difficulty in the doc.u.ments, supposedly of transfer or extradition. The men in the black tunics who had remained overnight in the quarters of the pit master, including their leader and his lieutenant, seemed to me strange fellows. They were much unlike many, if not most, of the men of this world. They did not laugh, they did not joke, they did not tell stories. They were silent, frightening, terrible men. I do not think they had Home Stones. If they had some loyalty, and I do not doubt they did, I think it was rather to some b.l.o.o.d.y oath, or dark covenant, or even to a leader. They attended to their equipment, they sharpened their swords.

They drank only water.

They ate sparingly. The hospitality of the pit master, offering us to them, was declined. Even the women chained at the wall were not touched. We were, however, denied our blankets, and we must all be chained, even those in the kennels. One of the girls at the wall, Tissia, I do not know what she had done, was savagely kicked by one of the blacktunicked fellows.

”Temptress!” he denounced her. She wept and crawled away from him, pressing herself against the wall in her chains. I supposed we were all temptresses, all women.

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