"Guards!" cried Samos. "Guards!" Burning oil was adhering to the rained wall toour right. I saw the eyes of the two creatures glinting like fiery copperplates. Sardak reached down and seized up the huge spear, which Kog had earlierplaced to the side. "Beware, Samos!" I cried.

Guards, with crossbows, rushed into the room, behind us. With a cry of rageSardak hurled the great spear. It missed Samos and shattered half through thewall some forty feet behind us. Kog hurled the shield towards us and, like agreat, shallow, concave bowl, it skimmed through the air, between us, and brokeboards loose near the roof behind us. "Fire," cried Samos to his men. "Fire!"

With the titanic beating of wings the two tarns, the creatures mounted on them,took flight from the ruins of the tarn cot. I staggered back in the wind fromthe wings. I half shut my eyes against the dust and debris, which struck,against my face. The flames from the burning oil on the wall to my right leapedalmost horizontally backwards, torn and lashed by the wind. Then they burnedagain, as they had a moment before. I saw the creatures mounted on the tarns,silhouetted against one of Gor's three moons, fleeing over the marshes. "Theyhave escaped," said Samos.

"Yes," I said. They had restrained themselves as long as they had been able to.

What a titanic effort of will must have been necessary for them, creatures soferocious and savage, to have control themselves as long as they had. They haddone particularly well considering the numerous provocations to which,deliberately, I had subjected them to test the depth of their commitment totheir mission and the depth of their need of human help.

"Look at this," said one of Samos' men, working loose the great spear from thewall.

"And this," said another, lifting up the huge shield.

Samos' men examined the spear and shield.

"Forget what you have seen here this night," said Samos.

"What were they?" asked one of Samos' men, standing beside me.

"We call them Kurii, Beasts," I said.

"It was a trick," said Samos, "to lure you into the Barrens, where they mighthave slain you with impunity."

Samos and I rode inside the squarish, covered barge in which we had earlier cometo the tam complex in the marshes. It was now shortly after dawn. We were makingour way through the canals of Port Kar. Here and there, on the walks at theedges of the canal, men were moving about. Most were loading or readying smallboats, or folding nets. I saw, through the small, slatted window near me, aslave girl drawing water from the canal, with a rope and bucket.

"Surely so elaborate a hoax would not have been necessary if our destruction hadbeen their only end in view," I said.

"Perhaps," said Samos.

"They might have attacked us almost immediately in the tarn complex, andpresumably have made good their escape," I said.

"True," said Samos. It was unlikely that we could have adequately defendedourselves against a sudden onslaught of such foes at that short a distance.

I saw a man outside on the walk, a few yards away, mending a net. Ovoid, paintedfloats lay beside him. On my knees, rolled, was the hide, which had beendisplayed to us by Kog and Sardak in the tarn complex. We had retrieved it fromthe burning complex. Too, at our feet, dented, but still operational, as we haddetermined, was the boxlike translator. We had left the burning complex behindus in the marshes, its smoke ascending in the gray light of the morning. Thehuge shield and spear we had discarded in the marshes. The less evidence of suchthings about the better, we speculated, for men.

"Do you think you should have gone with them?" asked Samos.

"No," I said.

"It could, of course," said Samos, "have been a portion of their plan that ifZarendargar had been successfully destroyed, they might then turn on you."

"Yes," I said, "or I on them."

"That possibility would not be unlikely to occur to such creatures," said Samos.

"No," I said.

"You do not feel you should have gone with them," said Samos.

"No," I said.

"What do you think they will do now?" asked Samos.

"They will go to the Barrens," I said.

"They will hunt Zarendargar," said Samos.

"Of course," I said.

"Do you think they will attempt to enlist the aid of men?" asked Samos.

"Doubtless," I said.

"It is easy for me to understand why they came first to us," said Samos.

"Of course," I said. "Our aid might prove invaluable. Too, they would expect usto be as eager, as zealous, as they, to bring about the destruction ofZarendargar. The venture, presumably, would be one which would be in our commoninterest, one in which we could find a mutual profit."

"It would also be easier for them, to approach us than many men," said Samos,"for, from our wars, such as they, and their nature and intelligence, are notunknown to us."

"That is true," I said.

"They will have difficulty recruiting efficient aid," said Samos, "for few whitemen are allowed to tread the Barrens, and those who are permitted to, encroachupon their fringes are normally permitted to do so only for purposes of trade."

"I think it is fair to assume," I said, "that they do not have an agent in theBarrens. If they had had such an agent then it is unlikely they would haveapproached us in the first place. Similarly the Barrens would seem to be anunlikely, desolate and profitless place in which to have placed an agent."

"They must obtain new recruits," said Samos.

"That seems likely," I said.

"We have their translator," said Samos.

"That is unimportant," I said. "Doubtless they have another among their stores."

"What of the red savages themselves?" asked Samos.

"Few red savages live outside of the Barrens," I said, "and those who do wouldpresumably be as unfamiliar with them as would be anyone else in theircircumstances."

"What of the red savages of the Barrens?" asked Samos.

"Such would have to be approached at their own risk," I said. "From the hide wesaw that the mounted hunters were apparently preparing to charge Zarendargarwhen they were interrupted by the man's attack."

"But the translator," said Samos.

"A bewildering complexity of tribal languages is spoken in the Barrens," Isaid," most of them unintelligible to native speakers of the others. I find ithard to believe that their translators would be prepared to deal with any one ofthose languages, let along several of them."

"Zarendargar is then perhaps safe," said Samos.

"Not at all," I said. "Kurii are tenacious. With or without human aid we may besure that they will not rest until they have found their quarry."

"Zarendargar, then, is doomed," said Samos.

"Perhaps," I said.

I glanced again outside the barge, through the now-opened slats of the smallwindow.

On a gently inclined slope of cement leading down to the canal, the waterlapping at her knees, there knelt a slave girl doing laundry. She wore her steelcollar. Her tunic came high on her thighs. It is thought desirable for a femaleslave to work long hours at menial tasks. I smiled to myself. It is pleasant toown a woman, absolutely, in the Gorean fashion.

"It is your belief, then," said Samos, "that the skin is genuine."

"Yes," I said, "and from what I know of the red savages, I would conjecture thatthis skin is from the very beast whose image is portrayed upon it."

"Ai," said Samos. "Perhaps!"

"I think it is more than likely," I said.

"I pity Zarendargar," said Samos.

"He would not appreciate the sentiment," I said.

I moved on the low wooden bench, one of several aligned perpendicularly to theinterior port wall of the enclosed barge. There was a similar set of benchesaligned identically against the starboard wall.