She smiled at me.

"That," she said, "is what one would do who is of Port Kar."

"Be silent!" I said.

"Very well," said she, "my Ubar."

I turned again to the woman, and the child. "When we have gone," I said, "free your people. Tell Ho-hak that I have taken some of his women. It is little enough for what was done to me."

"A Ubar," pointed out Telima, "need give no accounting, no explanation." I seized her by the arms, lifting her up and holding her before me. She did not seem frightened.

"This time," she asked, "will you perhaps throw me up the stairs?"

"The mouth of rence girls," commented Clitus, "are said to be as large as the delta itself."

"It is true," said Telima.

I lowered her to her knees again.

I turned to the woman and the child. "I am also going to free the slaves at the benches," I said.

"Such slaves are dangerous men," said the woman, looking at them with fear. "All men are dangerous," I said.

I took the key to the shackles of the barge slaves. I tossed it to one of the men. "When we have left, and not before," I told him, "free yourself, and your fellows, on all the barges."

Numbly he held the key, not believing that it was in his hand, staring down at it. "Yes," he said.

The slaves, as one man, stared at me.

"The Rencers," I said, "will doubtless help you live in the marsh, should you wish it. If not, they will guide you to freedom, away from Port Kar." None of the slaves spoke.

I turned to leave.

"My Ubar," I heard.

I turned to look at Telima.

"Am I your slave?" she asked.

"I told you on the island," I said, "that you are not."

"Why then will you not unbind me?" she asked.

Angrily I went to her and slipped the Gorean blade between her throat and the halter, cutting it, freeing her from its tether. I then slashed away the fiber that had confined her wrists and ankles. She stood up in the brief rence tunic, and stretched.

She maddened me in the doing of it.

Then she yawned and shook her head, and rubbed her wrists.

"I am not a man," she said, "but I expect that a man would find Midice a not unpleasing wench."

Midice, bound, leading the coffle, lifted her head.

"But," said Telima, "is not Telima much better than Midice?"

Midice, to my surprise, shook with anger and, bound, tethered, turned to face Telima. I gathered that she had regarded herself as the beauty of the rence islands.

"I was first prow," said Midice to Telima.

"Had I been taken," said Telima, "doubtless I would have been first prow." "No!" shouted Midice.

"But I did not permit myself to be netted like a little fool," said Telima. Midice was speachless with fury.

"When I found you," I reminded Telima, "you were lying on your stomach, bound hand and foot."

Midice threw back her head and laughed.

"Nonetheless," said Telima, "I am surely, in all respects, superior to Midice." Midice lifted her bound wrists to Telima. "Look!" she cried. "It is Midice whom he had made his slave! Not you! That shows you who is most beautiful!" Telima looked at Midice in irritation.

"You are too fat," I said to Telima.

Midice laughed.

"When I was your Mistress," she reminded me, "you did not find me too fat." "I do now," I said.

"I learned long ago," said Telima, loftily, "never to believe anything a man says."

Telima was now walking about the three girls. "Yes," she was saying, "not a bad catch." She stopped in front of Midice, who led the coffle. Midice stood very straight, disdainfully, under her inspection. The Telima, to Midice's horror, felt her arm, and slapped her side and leg. "This one is a little skinny," said Telima.

"Master!" cried Midice, to me.

"Open your mouth, Slave," ordered Telima.

In tears, Midice did so, and Telima examined her, casually, turning her head this way and that.

"Master!" protested Midice, to me.

"A slave," I informed her, "will take whatever abuse a free person chooses to inflict upon them."

Telima stepped back, regarding Midice.

"Yes, Midice," she said, "all things considered, I think you will make an excellent slave."

Midice wept, pulling at the binding fiber on her wrists.

"Let us be off," I said.

I turned to go. Already, Thurnock and Clitus, in loading the raft, had placed on it my helmet, and shield, and the great bow, with its arrows.

"Wait," said Telima.

To my amazement she slipped out of her rence cloth tunic and took a place behind the third girl in the coffle, the shorter rence girl, Ula.

She shook her hair back over her shoulders.

"I am fourth girl," she said.

"No," I said, "you are not."

She looked at me with irritation. "You are going to Port Kar, are you not?" she asked.

"Yes, ' I said.

"That is interesting," she said, "I, too, am going to Port Kar."

"No, you are not," I said.

"Add me to the coffle," she said, "I am fourth girl."

"No," I said, "you are not."

Again she regarded me with irritation. "Very well," she said. And then, angrily, loftily, she walked to the deck before me and then, movment by movement, to my fury, knelt before me, back on her heels, head down, arms extended, wrists crossed, as though for binding.

"You are a fool!" I told her.

She lifted her head, and smiled. "You may simply leave me here if you wish," she said.

"It is not in the codes," I said.

"I thought," said she, "you no longer kept the codes."

"Perhaps I should slay you!" I hissed.

"One of Port Kar might do such." she said.

"Or," I said, "take you and show you well the meaning of a collar!" "Yes," she smiled, "or that."

"I do not want you!" I said.

"Then slay me," she said.

I seized her by the arms, lifting her up. "I should take you, ' I said, " and break your spirit!"

"Yes," she said, "I expect you could do that, if you wished."

I threw her down, away from me.

She looked up at me, angrily, tears in her eyes. "I am fourth girl," she hissed. "Go to the coffle," said I, "Slave."

"Yes," said she, "-Master."

She stood there proudly, straightly, behind the short rence girl, Ula, and, wrists bound, and tethered by the neck, was added to the salve coffle, as fourth girl.

I looked upon my former Mistress, nude, bound in my coffle.

I found myself not displeased to own her. There were sweet vengeances which were mine to exact, and hers to pay. I had not asked for her as slave. But she had, for some unaccountable reason, submitted herself. All my former hatreds of her began to rear within me, the wrongs which she had done me, and the degradation and humiliation to which she had submitted me. I would see that she abided well by her decison of submission. I was angry only that I myself had not stripped her and beaten her, and made her a miserable slave as soon as we had come to the barges.

She did seem particularly disturbed at the plight in which she found herself. "Why do you not leave her here?" demanded Midice.

"Be silent, Slave," said Telima, to her.

"You, too, are a Slave!" cried Midice. Then, Midice looked at me. She drew a deep breath, there were tears in her eyes. "Leave her here," she begged. "I–I will serve you better."

Thurnock gave a great laugh. The large, blond girl, Thura, gray-eyed, and the shorter rence girl, Ula, gasped.

"We shall see," remarked Telima.

"What do you want her for?" asked Midice, of me.

"You are stupid, aren't you?" asked Telima, of the girl.

Midice cried out with rage. "I," she cried, "-I will serve him better!" Telima shrugged. "We shall see," she said.

"We will need one," said Clitus, "to cook, and clean, and run errands." Telima cast him a dark look.

"Yes," I said, "that is true."

"Telima," said Telima, "is not a serving slave."