Players of Gor

18 What Occurred Later in the Feasting Hall; I Leave the Feasting Hall

I reentered the hall.

The game, as I entered, moving past the simmering vat of tharlarion oil, was no more than a move from its conclusion. I made my way near the board.

"Never have I seen such play," marveled a man.

"It was not a mere slaughter," said a man, "but a profound humiliation."

"Piece by piece was stripped from Temenides," said a man. "HE now has only his Home Stone, isolated in a gauntlet of enemies."

I looked down at the board. The player need not have done that. Doubtless at a hundred points he could have brought the game to its conclusion, but he had preferred to dally with his opponent, divesting him of material, herding him like a nose-ringed tarsk helplessly about the board.

"Build up the fire beneath the oil," said Belnar.

"Yes, Ubar," said a man.

Temenides was white-faced, sitting before the board.

"Capture of Home Stone," announced the player.

"An excellent game," said Belnar.

"Thank you, Ubar," said Scormus of Ar. He rose to his feet.

Temenides did not move. He continued to sit before the board. He seemed transfixed with horror.

I had known, or at least suspected, the identity of the player, incidentally, even from Port Kar, when I had first seen him. His limp was distinctive, as well as his demeanor and manner of speech. I had seen him, too, at close hand, long ago, in the hall of Cernus of Ar. His touchiness on the matters of Scormus of Ar and Centius of Cos, and the great match of 10,125 C.A., had also been revealing. Took of course, his play had been brilliant. Too, how many poor players would have had in their possession a Champion's Cup, and that of Ar, that cup which the brigands had found when they had raided the camp of Boots Tarsk-Bit, that which had so fascinated them and which the player had been so anxious to conceal? Yet he had not sold it nor had he cast it from him. Under his dark robes and grim hood, it seemed, in his heart, he had remained always, and as I had suspected, Scormus, of Ar, and a loyal citizen of that municipality.

"Free the slave," said Belnar. "She belongs to Scormus of Ar. He has well earned her."

"Yes," said a man. "Yes," said another.

The fellow who had stood near to Bina during the match, he who would have cut her throat if she had erred in her behavior, speaking before the conclusion of the game, now cut her wrists free of the thongs. She threw herself to her belly before Scormus of Ar, weeping with joy, covering his feet with kisses. "I am yours!" she cried. "I am yours!"

"That is known to me," said Scormus of Ar.

"I love you!" she wept.

"That, too, is known to me," said Scormus.

She scrambled to her knees, clutching him about the legs, looking up at him, weeping. "You paid a golden tarn disk for me," she said. "I am not worth so much!"

"I will let you know in the morning," said Scormus.

"Take Temenides into custody," said Belnar. "Strip him. Bind him. Put ropes on his neck."

Men seized the moaning Temenides and tore away his robes and tied his hands behind his back. Then heavy ropes, suitable for confining him in the vat of oil, were put on his neck. He looked wildly about himself in terror. "Ubar!" he wept.

"I have had the oil heated," said Belnar. "Doubtless it is now, or soon will be boiling. In this fashion the end will come swiftly. We have not forgotten, in the hospitality of Brundisium, that Temenides is our guest."

"Ubar!" wept Temenides.

"Ubar," said Scormus.

"Yes, Player?" said Belnar. Obviously the player had earned this respect. There are few on Gor who do not stand in awe of the skills of high players.

"As I recall," said Scormus of Ar, "the life of Temenides, my worthy opponent, whom perhaps I treated a bit harshly, being carried somewhat away in the heat of the moment, is forfeit not to you, but to me."

"So it is," said Belnar. "Forgive me, Player. I was thoughtless. I shall have the temperature of the oil reduced, that it may then again be built slowly to boiling. Thus the gradually increasing intensity of your opponent's torments, and their prolonged nature, will be all the more amusing."

"That will not be necessary," said Scormus.

"Player?" asked Belnar.

"Temenides," said Scormus to Temenides, "your life, which was forfeit to me, I return to you, and gladly. Once more it is yours. Take it, and those soldiers with you, mysteriously here from Cos, and depart this night from Brundisium's walls."

"Caste brother!" cried Temenides, gratefully. Some of the men with him then freed him and put his robes about him. He hurried with them from the hall. Belnar looked after them. He spoke words to a menial. The man, too, then left the hall.

"Scormus of Ar is generous," said Belnar.

Scormus inclined his head, briefly. Though Belnar smiled, I do not think he was much pleased with the evening's outcome. He once more looked towards the great exit from the hall, through which, moments before, hurrying, Temenides and some soldiers from Cos had vanished. Clearly Belnar, the ubar of Brundisium, had expected Temenides to best the player, taken then to be a mere low player, a troupe's player, and this had not turned out as he had anticipated. HE was not too pleased with Temenides, I was certain, and, for some reason, he also seemed to find himself uncomfortable, at least at this time, with the presence of Scormus of Ar in his palace. Belnar turned graciously to Scormus. "Player," said he, "honor us by sitting the table of Brundisium's Ubar."

"I thank you, Ubar, but, with your permission, if you see fit graciously to grant it, I would prefer to return to my quarters." He looked down at Bina, at his feet. "There, with chains and a whip, I would like to continue the education of a slave."

"Master," whispered Bina, licking softly at his ankle.

"Of course," said Belnar.

"Ubar, too," said Boots Tarsk-Bit, "we have traveled far to entertain you, and we are now weary. Please permit us also, myself, my fellows, and our girls, our troupe, to withdraw. We have enjoyed performing for you."

"For a sack of gold, I should think so," said Belnar. There was laughter from the courtiers and guests about. Belnar smiled, pleased at this response to his jest. "You may withdraw," he said.

"Thank you, Ubar," said Boots, bowing low. He then, following Scormus and Bina, followed by his troupe, and the troupe's girls, left the hall. They would not be going to their quarters, of course. They, with their documents of departure, earlier prepared, seen to routinely, and unsuspectingly, by the Lady Yanina, upon the request of Boots Tarsk-Bit, who had a knack for such details, would flee the city. I slipped back among the other guests in the hall. I did not think it would be too long before the alarms were sounded.

"Come now, my guests," called Belnar, cheerily, "return to your places. The best of the evening's entertainment is yet to come!" There was then a returning to places among the banquettes. Naked slaves again scurried about, hurrying in their perfume and steel collars, bringing wine, delicacies and assorted exquisite viands, zealous to please masters.

"Where is the Lady Yanina?" inquired Belnar of Flaminius, irritatedly.

"I know not, Ubar," admitted Flaminius.

"She is late, quite late," said Belnar.

"Yes, Ubar," said Flaminius.

"She should have been her by now," said Belnar. "She should have been here long ago."

"Yes, Ubar," granted Flaminius.

"I know you have an eye for her beauty," said Belnar to Flaminius. "I trust you have not had her taken to a villa outside the walls, where she awaits you now in chains and a collar?"

"No, Ubar," said Flaminius.

"She might be quite attractive in such," said Belnar.

"Yes, Ubar," said Flaminius.

"You have not had her enslaved on the evening of her triumph, have you?"

"No, Ubar!" said Flaminius.

"I am joking," said Belnar.

"Yes, Ubar," said Flaminius, uneasily, wiping his brow.

"Citizens of Brundisium, and guests," called Belnar, rising to his feet, "I would have preferred for the Lady Yanina, that distinguished citizens of Brundisium, know to you all, that true servant of our palace and state, that lovely courtier, my trusted agent, my beautiful operative, to conduct the next portion of the evening's entertainment, for the triumph implicit in this moment is in a special sense hers. Yet, alas, she is detained! Unfortunately, as the evening now arrives at its climax, we must proceed without her."

There were some cries of disappointment, of protest.

"Shall we wait longer?" asked Belnar.

"No," called several men. "Proceed," called others.

"Let the trunk be brought forth, and placed upon the platform." said Belnar.

Some men, from a room to one side, carried out the large trunk which had once reposed in the storage wagon of Boots Tarsk-Bit. In that wagon Boots kept many things, such as souvenirs, costumes, and props. In it he also kept much of the paraphernalia associated with his illusion and magic. IT seemed like an ordinary trunk and, indeed, if desired, could serve as one. It was, of course, the trunk in which I had been placed earlier, that in which I had been transported to Brundisium, that from which I was to be produced, that from which I was to be presented, a completely helpless, chained prisoner, by the Lady Yanina to her ubar, Belnar of Brundisium.

"In this trunk, sacked and shackled, at our mercy, lies an enemy of Brundisium, an arrogant fellow who dared to displease our throne, a captain and slaver of Port Kar, one of whom you hay have heard, the supposedly mighty, and redoubtable Bosk of Port Kar!" called out Belnar.

At this point there were applause and shouts of encouragement.

"Taken by the Lady Yanina!" cried out Belnar.

Here there was laughter, and more applause.

"After, it might be mentioned," added Belnar, "he managed somehow to escape from others." At this point Belnar cast a good-humored glance at Flaminius. Flaminius smiled wryly, accommodatingly. There was laughter. His right fist clenched. To be sure, this was to be an evening of triumph for the Lady Yanina. Her conquest this night was not to be merely over me, a fellow named Bosk, merely a fellow from another city, but more importantly, I gathered, over Flaminius, her rival, as well. I recalled her words to me earlier, in the camp of Boots Tarsk-Bit. "Because of you," she had said, "my fortunes will be made in Brundisium. Because of you I will climb there to hitherto undreamed of heights." I still could not understand my importance to those in Brundisium.

"I am pleased with the Lady Yanina," called Belnar to the crowd.

There was applause.

"It is my intention to reward her richly," said Belnar. "She will know my generosity. She will be rewarded in gold, in power, in privilege and position!"

"Belnar the Generous!" called out courtiers. "Belnar the Great!" cried others. Belnar lowered his head modestly, waving his hand in a half-hearted plea for order. Much applause, too, greeted his assertions. Many of those present stood, applauding and calling out their congratulatory remarks. Courtiers, I gathered, might be quick to commend generosity on the part of their superiors. Flaminius, I noted, did not join in this acclaim. As generous as Belnar might be with those who served him well, I did not doubt but what he might be correspondingly merciless with those who did not succeed in pleasing him.

"I wish only," said Belnar, "that the Lady Yanina was here, that she might be present on this night of her triumph."

There were again sympathetic noises from the crowd. Most of those present, however, I think, were probably just as well pleased that the Lady Yanina was not in evidence. She was, after all, in a sense, one courtier among the others, and thus, in a sense, was doubtless in rivalry with many of them, not just Flaminius. It is one thing to praise the generosity of a ubar and quite another to be genuinely enthusiastic over the exaltation and promotion of a possible competitor. Too, Belnar was obviously enjoying himself. Had the Lady Yanina been at his table, he would have had to share this moment of triumph, the absence of which eventuality, despite his apparent desires and protestations, it might be suspected he did not regret.

"Let the trunk be opened!" called out Belnar. "Let Bosk of Port Kar, helpless and a fool, taken by the Lady Yanina, be displayed for our amusement!"

Two soldiers went to the trunk. Its key hung on the outside of it. One of them thrust the key into the first lock. "Hurry, Lads!" called Belnar. Then the key went into the second lock. In a moment the heavy lid was freed and lifted. Men stood up, to see better. Within the trunk there was a sack. It was a large sack. It was of stout, heavy leather. Something was in it. It was tied shut at the top. "Make haste, Lads!" called Belnar. "We're waiting!" The soldiers lifted the sack. It now stood upright within the trunk. Something was within the sack. There was no doubt about that. But it did not seem large enough to be a man, let alone one such as Bosk of Port Kar. It was much too small, much too slight. Too, the captive's body, even concealed within the confines of the sack, did not suggest the form of the male. There was clearly the hint of delicious curves. The soldiers looked at one another. Men exchanged glances. The hall was silent.

"Open the sack," said Belnar.

Swiftly one of the soldiers tore away the knotting at the opening of the sack. This was not the same sack in which I had originally been placed, of course, but another, left in the trunk, which had been hidden beneath the first. The first sack had had a cunning opening concealed beneath a double seam, an opening through which a performer might exit or enter, as he pleased. The second sack, on the other hand, was a common slave sack, of a sort commonly used on Gor for the transport, security and punishment of slaves. It was stout enough to hold a strong male. The tenant's occupancy in such a device, incidentally, as the tenant, bound and gagged, soon comes to realize, is going to be determined not by his own efforts, but rather, purely, by the convenience, and pleasure, of others.

"Hurry!" cried Belnar.

The soldiers tore open the sack and pulled it down from the head and shoulders of its occupant. The occupant was hooded. "It is a female," said a man. The sack was then thrust down about her hips. She was naked. she threw her head back in the hood. Her hands jerked wildly at the slave bracelets that confined her wrists behind her back. She did not wear the heavy trick manacles, seemingly suitable for men, in which I had been placed earlier in Boots's camp. I had shed them moments after being placed in the first sack. Rather she wore ordinary slave bracelets, which would serve their purpose well, that of confining females. They were, however, I though, rather attractive. I had picked them out before leaving Boots's camp. She also wore, though they could not now be seen, as she stood in the trunk, a set of linked ankle rings. These, too, were not portions of Boots's props but practical custodial hardware, rings of a sort common on Gor for the chaining of women, generally slaves.

"Who has put a slave in this trunk?" cried Belnar, in fury. "What joke is this!"

"Where is Bosk of Port Kar?" asked a man.

"Unhood the slave!" cried Belnar.

"I see no brand on her," called one of the soldiers to Belnar. He had just thrust the sack down from her hips, and turned her roughly from side to side, examining her thighs for brands.

"Unhood her!" screamed Belnar.

The sack was now down about her knees. She was held upright by one of the soldiers. The other fumbled with the straps to her hood, loosening the buckles under her chin.

"Hurry!" screamed Belnar.

The trunk on the stage was the same one in which I had been placed originally in Boots's camp. However, I had made certain adjustments in it. The back and bottom, either of which may open from the inside or outside, depending on whether a wall panel or a floor trap is to utilized in the escape, I had closed with bolts. In this fashion the trunk becomes, for most practical purposes, a normal trunk. This is useful not only when it serves normal purposes of storage and transport, but also, of course, when it is submitted for the inspection of members of an audience. After the inspection it is easy enough, in seeming to do other things, to fix the bolts as one wishes. The bolts, of course, are on the outside of the trunk, so that they may be released by the outside performer. A consequence of this is that the inside performer, if his external confederate should neglect to free the bolts, would find himself kept in the trunk. Naturally, for my purposes, I had neglected exactly this detail. The result, accordingly, was that the trunk's occupant, even had it not been for her other bonds and the sack, would have been confined within it as perfectly as though she might have been a stripped kajira in a slave box.

"Hurry!" screamed Belnar. "Hurry!"

The hood, unbuckled, was thrust up over her head. Her eyes were wild. Her face was red, and broken out. She flung back her head, freeing the damp wet hair about her face.

"Lady Yanina!" cried many voices.

She could not speak. She whimpered. The packing was still well fixed in her mouth. The gag scarf was still tight.

"Ungag the slut!" cried Belnar. Lady Yanina put back her head while one of the soldiers fought with the scarf knots. ON her body there were stripes, ten of them. I had decided earlier, in the camp of Boots Tarsk-Bit, that she would be whipped. I had not found her entirely pleasing. After I had left the trunk, which I had done late after being brought into the palace, this ruse having accomplished my entry into these precincts. I had donned the uniform seemingly of an officer of Brundisium. This had been fashioned from costumes n Boots's stores. I had then, late at night, carrying suitable articles in a folded slave sack, located the quarters of the Lady Yanina in the palace. Her door was pounded on. What could it be? There was some message, it seemed, come from Belnar, for her ears alone, something having to do with some emergency, something perhaps requiring immediate consultation, perhaps even a conference of the high council. She hastened to the door to open it, clad only in a light gown. I entered, stripped her and put her at my mercy. IN a few moments I was then again making my way through the halls of the palace, dragging a slave sack by its cords behind me. I took her afar below, to the pens beneath the palace. There I put the stripes upon her. Her cries, muffled by the damp, thick walls, as she twisted at the ring, carried in no clear fashion to the guards. They assumed only that another wench was being disciplined, not an unusual occurrence in such a place. I then conducted her, gagged and hooded, leashed and braceleted, back to the main levels of the palace. In s short while then I had returned to the room off the great hall where the trunk had been left. There I put the ankle rings on her, put her in the slave sack, tied it shut and placed it the trunk, through the rear panel. I then secured the bolts, locking the trunk. Its ostensible locks, with the key hanging in the front of the trunk, had not been disturbed. Things looked the same as they had. To be sure, the trunk now had a new occupant, and one that was now truly its prisoner. I had then, using my assumed identity as an officer, located the room of a fellow from Turia. He also opened the door to me. He was then kind enough to loan me his credentials, by means of which I had obtained entrance this evening to the banquet. He would doubtless be found in the morning by some startled cleaning slave.

"Ubar!" cried the Lady Yanina, the scarf torn away, the heavy, wet packing of the gag pulled with a finger from her mouth.

"Who did this to you?" cried Belnar.

"Bosk of Port Kar!" she cried, pulling helplessly at the bracelets that confined her.

"Where is he!" cried Belnar.

"I do not know!" she cried.

"Fool! Fool!" cried Belnar, in rage.

"He must still be within the palace!" cried Flaminius, leaping to his feet. There was consternation in the hall.

"Go to the quarters of the players!" said Belnar. "Arrest them. They must be involved in this!"

"They did not go toward their quarters," called out a man, near the door.

"They will be fleeing the city!" said a man.

"Stop them!" cried Belnar.

"Wait!" cried a man. "I hear alarm bars."

He was right. Faintly now, but clearly, now that there was a brief silence in the hall, one could hear the ringing of alarm bars.

"What is wrong?" said Belnar. "What is going on?"

AT that moment a soldier hurriedly, distraught, entered the room. "There has been an escape from the prison!" he cried. "Gatch has been slain. The cells have been emptied. Prisoners have poured into the streets."

This, I had hoped, would provide an emergency of such gravity that Belnar might be moved to see to the safekeeping of significant valuables.

"Martial law exists," said Belnar. "Summon all guardsmen. Secure the palace!"

If the escape of the prisoners did not seem sufficient for that purpose the sudden knowledge that I was still free in the palace, and mysteriously so, should prove more than adequate to accomplish that end. I trusted that Boots had set up the mirrors outside the hall in the location we had agreed upon. To be sure, if he had not done so, it did not seem likely, all things considered, that he would ever have to fear being reprimanded on the point.

"Ubar!" cried the Lady Yanina.

"Seize her!" cried Belnar to the soldiers near the Lady Yanina. "Take her to the oil! Boil her alive!"

"No, Master!" she cried, terrified.

There was a sudden, shocked silence in the hall. The Lady Yanina, from the depths of her, in her terror, had cried out the word «Master». She shuddered, and shrank back. The word «Master» in her terror, had come from the depths of her. All had heard it.

"In her heart she is a slave," said a man.

"She is a slave," agreed another.

"No, no," whimpered the Lady Yanina, lamely.

"Put her in the oil for having denied her slaver," said a man.

"No, please," said the Lady Yanina.

"No," said another. "Let it rather be manifested upon her."

"Please, no, no," said the Lady Yanina.

"The oil is too good for her," said Belnar. "Take her below. Put her in a collar. Brand her!"

"No, No, Ubar, please!" cried the Lady Yanina.

"Ubar?" asked Belnar.

"Master! Master!" cried the Lady Yanina.

"Take her below!" screamed Belnar.

A soldier lifted the shuddering Lady Yanina lightly and threw her over his shoulder, her head to the rear. She was to be taken below, there to be enslaved. After that Belnar, at his leisure, in his mercy, could always decide what might further be done with her.

"Ho, greetings!" I called.

"What?" cried men.

I had now slipped toward the back of the room, near the great vat of scalding, bubbling oil. I had my hands on one of the long poles, wherewith the giant vat, on its lifting rings, had been brought into the hall.

"It is he!" cried a fellow. "It is he, Bosk of Port Kar!"

"Seize him!" cried Belnar.

"Beware!" cried a man. "Look out!" cried others. Slave girls screamed and fled back.

"No!" cried men.

With the pole, using it as a lever, thrusting it beneath the vat and its large, raised fuel plate, I tipped, and then turned, the bat and plate. A sudden vast hissing flow of boiling oil spread eagerly, deeply, outward, away from the tilted rim. Men leaped to the tables. I heard men scream in pain. The vat was now overturned. I kicked a flaming brand toward the oil, spread now and slick, hot, about the floor. Instantly, as men and slaves screamed and fled, a frightening torrent of sheetlike flames, like narrow, roaring, successive walls of fire, leapt upward and outward, surging, racing away from me, seeming for a moment to engulf the room. I struck a guard away from me with the pole. I saw a man screaming, trying to put out flames at the foot of his robe. Others were fleeing back about the walls. I struck another guard, sweeping the pole at him. He staggered back against the wall. The temperature of the room had dramatically increased. It was difficult to breathe from the fumes. I saw Belnar through the flames and smoke. Men were choking. slaves pressed back against the walls. Weapons were drawn. "Have at you!" cried a fellow, boldly racing towards me through the flames and smoke. He too the pole unpleasantly his stomach. I looked about. In a moment the flames would subside to the point where they might be waded through, becoming little more than more than flickering puddles.

"Seize him!" cried Belnar, coughing, the sleeve of his robe up about his nose and mouth. I flung the pole into a pair of aggressive guests, knocking them back. I must now take my leave. I resisted an impulse to wave cheerily to the crowd. Such gestures have their value, but too many fellows have been pierced by crossbow bolts while doing so. I hastened from the hall.

"Save your Ubar!" I called to two confused, startled guards outside, still loyally at their posts, sweeping my arm toward the hall. They could not resist this plea and vanished within, into the smoke and tumult. I swung shut the door after them and tied shut the handles with the silken belt of my robes. Almost instantly the door was being forced from the other side, and I saw a sword flash through the crack, hacking at the silk. The corridor was long and seemingly empty, on both sides of the door, save for such things as closed doors, presumably locked, slave rings, niches here and there, vases, and decorative plantings. In a moment the crowd, soldiers in advance, would come plunging through the door.

I looked wildly up and down the corridor. It stretched far in either direction. I could see no one. At its turnings I supposed there might be guards.

The door to the great hall burst open, its sides flung back, cracking into the walls. I heard shouting, the grunting of men, the rushing of feet. Then there was suddenly silence.

"Where is he?" asked a man, startled.

"He must be here," said someone.

"The hall is empty," said another.

"It cannot be," said a man. "He was only Ihn before us."

"He is gone," said another.

"The corridor doors," cried Belnar. "He has slipped through one of them! Hurry! Find him!"

I heard men running down the corridor, in both directions. One passed within a few feet of me. The reports were soon being passed back. "The doors are locked!" I heard. "They are locked!" Then from the other direction I heard, "They are locked! None are forced!"

"Perhaps he had a key," said someone.

"He would not have had time to use it," said a fellow, fearfully.

"The keys to these doors are kept in the quarters of the captain of the guards," said another fellow, hesitantly.

"See that a key check is conducted, immediately," said Belnar. "We shall see what key is missing. He will then have fled through that door."

"We were out of the hall in an instant," said a man, uneasily.

"I do not think he could have had time to reach one of those doors," said a fellow.

"Surely," said another, uneasily, he who had spoken fearfully earlier, "if he had been able to reach one of the doors, he would not have had the time to pause and let himself in."

"The door could have been open, left open," said another fellow. "It would only be necessary that he had managed to have a key earlier."

"It could then have been locked from the inside," said a fellow.

"That is it," said another.

"I do not think he would have had time to reach one of the doors," said a fellow, one who had spoken earlier.

"What are you suggesting?" asked another, impatiently.

"I do not know," said the fellow, uneasily.

"Fools!" cried Belnar. "Take reports from the guards at the ends of the corridor. They probably have him in custody already!"

I heard running footsteps, fading down the corridor in both directions.

"Here comes the officer of the guard," said a man. "Borto is with him."

"Ubar!" I heard.

"What keys are missing, from this corridor, quick!" said Belnar.

"None, Ubar!" said the man. "No keys are missing, not from anywhere!"

This announcement was greeted with silence.

"Ubar," called a man. "We have the report from the west guards. No one has left the corridor in the vicinity of their post."

"Very well," said Belnar. "The matter is done. He will now be in the custody of the east guards."

"The eastern post," said a man. "We were just behind him. How could he have reached it so quickly?"

"There is no other explanation," said Belnar. "He is there."

"Here comes Elron," said a fellow. "He will have the report from the east guards."

"He is in their custody," said Belnar.

"Ubar," said a voice.

"Speak," said Belnar. "Was the fellow taken easily, or with difficulty?"

"Ubar?" asked the man.

"You come from the east guards, do you not?" demanded Belnar.

"Yes, Ubar!" said the man.

"Render to us then the report of the east guards, man!" said Belnar. "They have taken him, have they not?"

"They have not seen him," Ubar," said the man.

"What!" cried Belnar.

"He did not pass their post," said the man.

"Impossible!" said Belnar.

"It is true, Ubar," said the man.

"He must have passed them," said a man.

"No," said the man.

"He must have," insisted the man.

"That is highly unlikely," said the man. "The corridor is narrow. There are five guards there."

"He would not have had time to reach that area anyway," said another man. "We were almost upon him."

There was then another silence.

"He must be here, somewhere," said a fellow.

"He is not in the corridor," said a man. "We have examined it. You can see that it is empty."

"Where can he be?" asked a man.

"Where is he?" asked another fellow.

"I do not like it," said a man.

"He is gone," said a man. "He is just gone."

"He has disappeared," whispered a man.

"Ubar," said a voice, the voice of Flaminius. "The alarm bars still sound. I submit that attention be given to more serious matters than the apprehension of an elusive brigand."

"I want him found!" screamed Belnar.

"He was wearing robes of white and gold, merchants' robes," said a man to another.

"They were sewn with silver," said another man.

"They were of a Turian cut," said another.

"Ubar," said Flaminius.

"Search the palace!" screamed Belnar. "Find him!"

"Yes, Ubar!" cried men, running from the place.

"Ubar," protested Flaminius.

"Contact the appropriate officers, civic and military!" screamed Belnar. "Issue orders! Are you a fool? Have them see to the safety of the streets, the security of the gates, the search for escaped prisoners!"

"Surely you will take command personally," said Flaminius.

"I have other matters to attend to," said Belnar.

"I will take command then, with your permission," said Flaminius. "Have no fear. I will restore order shortly."

"You will do precisely what I have commanded," said Belnar, "and only that."

"Ubar?" asked Flaminius.

"You will organize matters expeditiously," snarled Belnar. "You will then surrender the supervision of these operations to the city captain. You will then join with men in the search for this Bosk of Port Kar. I want everyone who can recognize him, who knows him, guardsman or not, male or female, free or slave, involved in the search!"

"Is he so important, Ubar?" asked Flaminius. "Ubar?" he called. But I gathered that Belnar had strode from the place already, followed by others.

In a moment, too, Flaminius, his voice fading down the hall, calling to subordinates, had hurried away.

"Where could Bosk of Port Kar have gone?" asked a man.

"I do not like it, at all," said another.

"He is just gone," said another.

"Disappeared," whispered another, frightened. I could have reached out and touched him. To be sure, it would have given him quite a start.

"Let us to our quarters," said one of the fellows.

"Are you not going to join the search?" asked another.

"There are many others who may do that," said the man.

"You are right," said another. They then left.

The illusion, of course, must be carefully constructed. The mirrors must be most judiciously placed. The principle involved is that certain surfaces are reflected in such a way that the observer is led to misinterpret his visual data; for example, he is led to take a reflected surface, a mirrored surface, in a given location, for an actual or real surface in a different location; he normally does not expect mirrors, and does not think in terms of them; and even if he does expect mirrors and understands, in general, the principles involved, he will still "see," so to speak, or seem to see, precisely what the illusionist desires. In this fashion, such illusions can be delights not only to uninformed observers but even to more critical, more informed observers, even, it seems, if carried off with showmanship and flair, to fellow illusionists. To be sure, and I had counted on this, no one was even suspecting such a trick in the hall at Brundisium. If they had been, it could have been found out very quickly by a close, detailed examination of surfaces. But by the time it might occur to someone, recollecting my connections with the troupe of Boots Tarsk-Bit, that a trick of so devious a nature might be not only practical but, given the peculiar circumstances of my escape, likely, I did not expect to require the eccentric premises of my unusual hiding place.

I was, of course, behind mirrored surfaces, indeed, within an intersection of such surfaces, in one of the niches. The joining of the mirrors, facing outwards, was concealed by a narrow freestanding decorative pole, from which plantings might be hung, which pole, thanks to Boots, was now somewhat recessed in the niche. The casual observer would take the mirrored surfaces of the two opposite walls for a single, solid surface, that well behind the pole, at the back of the niche. The recessing of the pole, with the joining of the mirrors behind it, made it impossible, because of the angles involved, for an observer to see his own reflection in the mirrors unless, of course, he were to come into the niche itself.

The hallway now seemed quiet. I could hear shouting in the distance. I slipped from the bores I wore. Those in the search parties would presumably be looking for a fellow in merchants' robes, yellow and white, perhaps even of a Turian cut or fashion, and sewn with silver. Beneath the merchants' robes I wore that uniform seemingly of an officer of Brundisium. In a city the size of Brundisium, in an hour of confusion and tumult, with soldiers rushing about, coming and going with orders and reports, with agents sometimes in uniform and sometimes not, I did not expect to be easily recognized. Too, I had gathered that many of the courtiers, scions of an ilk not signally noted for its valor, those who had seen me in the hall, had perhaps managed to resist the temptation to join heartily in a search which might be not without its dangers. Better, perhaps, they might reason, to hold themselves boldly in reserve, in their own quarters, sternly readying themselves to sally forth if needed, immediately upon the behest of their ubar. In the meantime, of course, they could keep themselves abreast of the latest news. I prepared to step forth into the hall. With luck I might even be able to commandeer a few soldiers, to form my own search party. That seemed a good way to go almost anywhere. Who knew where that rascal, Bosk, of Port Kar, might be?

I poked my head warily out of my hiding place. The corridor was empty. I stepped boldly forth. I did pause long enough to move the mirrors about a bit, setting them apart from one another. In this fashion a supervisor of cleaning slaves tidying the hall, his whip on his wrist, puzzled by them, by their presence in this place, might have them removed to various individuals' quarters or have them stored somewhere. In a moment or two I was striding boldly along the hall. I could still hear the shouting in the distance. Too, from outside the palace, from the prison area, and from various parts of the city, I could hear the ringing of alarm bars.