"Hurry, Brinlar!" she said. "Hurry! Pick up the things!"

"Yes, Mistress," I said.

"Until tomorrow!" she said. "Until tomorrow!"

"Yes, Mistress," I said, "until tomorrow."

I pounded on the door of the old inn of Ragnar, now closed, on the old west road. It lies in the midst of certain other buildings, mostly now, too, closed and dark. I heard a movement behind one of the boarded-up windows. It was a bit past the seventeenth Ahn. The door opened a crack.

"It is Brinlar," said a voice, that of one of the men of the Lady Yanina. "I did not think you would return," he said to me.

"He is a fool," said another of her men, from just within.

"He fears the sleen," said another.

"Let him in! Let him in!" said the voice of the Lady Yanina.

I was admitted into the dark vestibule of the inn, and the door was closed behind me.

"Were you successful?" asked the Lady Yanina, anxiously.

"Yes," I said.

"Marvelous!" she whispered.

"He is intrigued," I said. "He is eager to meet you. He is particularly impressed that you are so attracted to him that you, though a free woman, will serve him in the modalities of the slave."

"Superb!" she said. "The gullible fool!"

"He will be here at the eighteenth Ahn," I said.

"Marvelous, Brinlar," she said. "Marvelous! It is all going perfectly!" AS my eyes became accustomed to the darkness, I could see that her five men were here. I had thought they would be. I knew they were not at the camp. I had stopped at the camp on the way back from the fair. I had wished to pick up some things. The "work chain," heavily chained, secured between two trees, had not been guarded. They were unimportant to her now, I supposed. She wanted all of her men here. I could see, too, that she wore some form of belted robe. She was not veiled. "What are you carrying?" she asked.

"Some wine, and things," I said. "I took the liberty of stopping by the camp on the way back from the fair. I thought perhaps you might care for some refreshments. The wait until the nineteenth Ahn, and the arrival of your colleague, Master Flaminius, might be long. You might be hungry."

"You are a dream, Brinlar," said the Lady Yanina. "You are a treasure!"

"May I make a suggestion, Mistress?" I inquired.

"Of course," she said.

"I would, if I were you, light a small lamp or two, illuminating the main hall and perhaps the selected alcove. This should suggest an atmosphere of delicate openness to Bosk of Port Kar, encouraging him to believe that he is eagerly awaited. The darkness of a seemingly deserted inn might appear ominous, perhaps suggesting a trap."

"Light two lamps," said the Lady Yanina to one of her men, "one in the main hall and one in the first alcove."

He set about to accomplish her bidding.

"You are very clever, Brinlar," she said.

"I would further suggest," I said, "that you leave the door to the inn ajar, but that you make no particular effort to conceal your men."

She looked at me, puzzled.

"I have informed Bosk," I said, "that you might have men in attendance. After all, a free woman cannot very well be expected to traverse the old west road unattended. She might fall to a slaver's noose and his iron. The men, however, while not attempting to hide themselves, are expected to remain unobtrusive. Thus the door is to be left tactfully ajar. In this fashion we will not have to devise hiding places for them, nor risk the loss of time, and perhaps the noise, perhaps alerting Bosk of Port Kar, of their emergence from concealment."

"Oh, splendid, Brinlar," she said. "Splendid!"

The man was now completing the lighting of the second lamp. In a moment he had emerged from the alcove.

"I would now encourage my men to sit about the table, there," I said, indicating on e of the large rough-hewn tables, with benches, in the main hall. "I would further encourage them," I said, "to sit there as naturally as possible, perhaps even partaking of the refreshments which I have brought."

"Do it," she said.

"Good," said one of the men, taking the sack from me which I had stocked at the camp.

"Does Lady Yanina care to partake?" asked one of the men.

"Not now, not now," she said.

The men sat about the table, reaching into the sack, pulling out the flagon of wine, the goblets, the viands. One of them kicked aside some chains under the table, lying in the vicinity of a stout ring in the floor. The men of Torvaldsland sometimes chain naked bond-maids in such a place.

"I think there is at least one thing more," I said.

"What is that?" she asked.

"May I inspect Lady Yanina?" I asked.

"Inspect me?" she asked.

"Yes," I said. "Bosk is not a fool. He may be dismayed, or become suspicious, if he detects even the least inaccuracy or imperfection in your disguise."

"Turn away," she said to her men.

They did so.

"Look," she said to me, opening her robe. her body, now clad in slave silk, was incredibly lovely. She would doubtless, as I had earlier thought, bring a high price in a slave market.

"It is as I feared," I said.

"What is wrong?" she asked.

"You have a lining beneath the silk," I said.

"Of course!" she said.

"Remove it," I said.

"Brinlar!" she protested.

"Do you think a master would be likely to permit such a thing to a slave?" I asked.

"But I am not a slave," she said. "I am a free woman!"

"But supposedly you are brining bosk here, to serve him as a slave," I said.

She looked at me.

"Do you think he would not note so glaring a discrepancy in your costume?" I asked.

"Look away," she said.

I saw the wine slosh from the flagon I had brought into the goblets of the men.

"You may now look again," she said.

"Ah!" I said.

"I am more naked than naked," she said.

"Mistress is quite beautiful," I said. There was no doubt about that slave market price.

"It must be somewhere near the eighteenth Ahn," I said. "I think it is time for Mistress to go to the alcove." I turned her about and conducted her to the alcove. "Lie down there," I said, pointing to the furs. She did so. She looked well at my feet.

"Doubtless Mistress has arranged a signal wit her men," I said.

"It is quite simple," she said. "I shall merely cry out. They will then rush forward and seize Bosk of Port Kar. In moments, then, he will be stripped and in chains, my helpless prisoner."

"I see," I said.

"Do you think he will come?" she asked.

"Be assured of it." I said. "He will be here."

"But perhaps he will be suspicious," she said.

"Have no fear," I said. "He trusts me. He trusts me like I trust myself."

"What are you doing?" she asked, trying to draw back. I had taken her left ankle in my left hand. It was helpless in my grip.

"Completing your disguise," I said. I took the ankle ring, heavier than was necessary for a female, from the side of the alcove, on its chain, and, with my right hand, clasped it, locking it, about her left ankle.

She jerked at it. "I am chained!" she said.

"Yes," I said.

"Where is the key?" she asked.

"Just outside, on its hook," I said. I had made this determination earlier in the day, in scouting the inn, before she and her men had arrived.

"Can I reach it from where I am?" she asked.

"In no way," I said.

She looked at me, frightened.

"Do not be afraid," I said. "Your men are just outside."

"Yes," she said. "Yes." she examined the ring and the chain, her hands on the chain, frightened, fascinated. She looked up at me. "I'm chained," she said, "truly chained."

"Your men are just outside," I reminded her.