-
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
I took another step toward her.
Telima, dignity to the winds, turned and fled down the passageway, but, before
she had managed to make ten yards, she had been stung twice, and roundly, by
the flat of my blade.
She drew herself up in her full, angry dignity.
fled stumbling down the passageway.
Twenty yards beyond, running, she stopped, and turned to look upon me.
I took another step toward her and, wildly, she wheeled and, barefoot, The
dignity of the proud Telima, I gathered, could not endure another such blow.
I laughed.
One must know how to treat women, said the boy, Fish, gravely.
Yes, I said, gravely.
One must teach them who is master, said the boy.
Quite, I agreed.
The men about us laughed and, as comrades in arms, we made our way through the
passageway, and then the kit- chens, and the hads to the keep.
The next afternoon Samos and I stood together behind the parapet of the keep.
Over our heads, high, between beams, was strung tam wire. Heavy wooden
mantelets, mounted on posts, were nearby, under which we might protect
ourselves from crossbow fire from tarnsmen. My large yellow bow of Ka-
a-na, tipped with bosk hom and strung with hemp, whipped with silk, was at
hand, It had helped to keep besiegers at their distance. There were few arrows
left.
Our men were below. We were weary. We had caught what steep we could.
Now, only Samos and I stood watch.
Before my return to the holding, Samos, with his men and mine, had withstood
eleven assaults on the keep, both by tamsmen and besieging infantry.
Since I had returned yesterday evening, we had withstood another four. we now
had left only thirty-five men, eighteen who had accompanied Samos to my
Page 166
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
holding, and seventeen of my own.
Why have you come to defend my keep, and my holding? I asked
Samos.
Do you not know? he asked.
No, I said.
It does not matter, he said, now.
Had it not been for you and your men, I said, my holding would long ago
have fallen.
Samos shrugged.
We looked out over the parapet. The keep is near the delta wall of the
holding. We could, from the ramparts, look out over the marsh, stretching far
beyond, that vast beautiful delta of the great Vosk, through which I had come,
so long ago.
Our men, exhausted, lay below, within the keep. The Ehn of sleep they could
obtain were precious to them They, like Samos and myself, were almost overcome
with weariness. The waiting, and then the fighting, and the waiting again, had
been so long, so long.
Also below were four girls, Vina and Telima, and Lums, the chief accountant of
my house, who had not iled, and the dancer, Sandra, who had been afraid to
leave the holding. Most others, whether men or women, slave or free, had fled.
Even Thumock and Thura, and Clitus and Ula, whom I had expected to stay, had
fled. I did not reproach them, even in my heart. They were wise. It was
madness to stay behind. In the end, I told myself, it was I, and not they, who
was truly the fool. And yet I would not have chosen, at this time, to be any
place other than where I stood, on height of my keep, in the holding I
had made mine own in Port Kar.
And so Samos, and I, kept watch.
I looked at him. I did not understand the slaver. Why had he come to defend my
holding? Was he so irrational so mad, so contemptuous Of the value of his
life?
He did not belong here.
This holding was mine, minel
You are weary, said Samos. Go below. I will watch. I nodded. There was no
longer any point, nor time, to distrust Samos. His sword had been much stained
in my behalf. I-Es own life, like mine, had stood stake on the parapet of my
keep. If he served the Ubars, or Claudius, regent of Henrius Sevarius, or the
Ubarates of Cos and Tyros, or the Others, or Priest-Kings, or himself, I no
longer cared. I no longer cared about anything. I had wme back. I was very
tired.
I descended through the trap and climbed down the ladder to the first level
beneath the keep's roof. There was food and water there, enough for another
week of fight- ing. But I did not think we would need that much. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
- doc.pisz.pl
- pdf.pisz.pl
- matkadziecka.xlx.pl