John Norman - Rouge of Gor

"They would not exchange so valuable a man for this worthless fellow, a dock worker," said Kliomenes. "Wait for Policrates," said the man. "Let him make decision on this matter."

"In the absence of Policrates," said Kliomenes.

"I am first in the holding." "I do not contest that," said the man, stepping back angrily. Kliomenes again look at me. "Thus," said he, "if you are truly he who poses as the courier of the Voskjard, you, too, must be not unskilled with the sword." "Forgive me, Captain," I begged. "Put a sword in his hand," said Kliomenes.

The fellow near me, who had brought me to the room, withdrew his blade from its sheath. He held it to me, hilt first. "No," I said, "no!" "Take it," said Kliomenes, evenly.

I took the blade by the hilt, in one chained wrist. I took care to hold it improperly. I held it as thought it might have been a hammer, and too close to its guard, which would of cours, in actual swordplay, impari its mobility considerable.

Two of three of the men laughed. Kliomenes then rested back in his curule chain. He had been watching closely. He was a vain and arrogant man, but he was no fool. He had not won his way to the lieutenancy of Policrates by being stuipd.

"Can you not kill me as I am, inmy chains?" I asked. "Must you mock me?" Take him outside," said Kliomenes, rising and sstretching. "Please Captain, one favor," I begged, "One favor." "What?" asked Kliomenes, puzzled. "Do not let those of the windlass room know what was done to me," I begged.

"Bring them, in their chains, outside," said Kliomenes, to my guard, "that they may observe what is done to this fellow. "No, Captain, please!" I begged.But already two men were pulling me by the arms from the room.

I blinked against the light of the sun. I felt the chains on my wrists and ankles being removed. Armed men surrounded me. In one hand I still clutched, with apparently ineptness, and as though in fear, the sword which I had been commanedd to take from the pirate.

I looked about. I stood on a board walk, some twenty feet wide, which boarders the lakelike courtyard of the holding. We were within its high, formidable walls. Wharfed within the courtyard wereonly some five vessels, and smaller boats. To my right was a large door of dark iron leading into the recesses of the holding. Across the courtyard, some hundred yards or so of deep water, I could see the walkway at the foot of the outer wall and the stairs leading to the parapets. Too, I could see the great sea gates.

"You will soon see whta your braggadocio will gain you," said my guard whose sword I clutched.There was laughter about us.

I then heard the sounds of chains, moving in a slow cadence. My fellowes, now in close chains and ankle coffle, from the room of the windlass, were being brought out to observe what was to be done to me.

I put my head down as though shamed to be exposed as a liar before them. This way too, my smile that they were no longer in the room of the windlass and were heavily chained, could be concealed. It would be several Ehn, surely, before they could be returned to the room of the windlass and manage to raise the sea gate.

"Back away, Give us room," said Kliomenes, approaching. I shuddered and stepped back. He handed his sword to a fellow and pulled his tunic down to the waist. he then took his sword back, and with a slash or two in the fiar, tried its balance. I saw that his blade would move with great swiftness. i was also reassured that mine could move even more swiftly.

"Clear more space," said Kliomenes.

The men moved back around us clearing a broad circle. Tow of the men with Kliomenes, I noticed, had their own blades drawn. If perchance, he found himself in difficulties, I did not doubt but what they would soon interpose themselves on his behald. It would do me no good, of course, even if I could manage itto wound or slay Kliomenes within the confines of the present situation. My objective was not to deal with him, so to speak, but to extricate myself from the holding. My only chance in this rapid, dark matter, as I saw it, was to enlist his vanity and hopefully a recklessness attendant upon it, in my own cause.

"Are you ready, my stalwart simpleton, my handsome brraggart, to now make good your showy boasts?" inquired Kliomenes.

I looked to the fellows from the windlass. They stood there, locked in their chains, grim and sullen. A miserable looking crew I thought. Their despondency pleased me. In spite of my vainglorious carrying-on in the room of the windlass, which doubtless they must have found tiresome, it did not seem, even so, that they were looking forward eagerly to seeing me butchered before their very eyes. This pleased me. It also encouraged me to believe that they would find it difficult to make their way rapidly back to the room of the windlass. Hurried, they might even be expected to fall or to become entangled in their chains. Such things can happen.

The blade suddenly darted to ward me.I stumbled backward, off balance."Lucky parry," said one of the priates."There is no Callimachus to rescue you now, Dolt," said Kliomenes, measuring me, the point of his blade moving subtly a yard from the chest.Then again the blade struck, swift as an ost, toward me."The dock worker is fortunate," said one of the pirates.

But then I was afraid, for I realized that Kliomenes had intended that time to truly strike me. He had now backed away and was regarding me warily. One such parry might be fortunate, but that two such parries should follow one another, apparently so clumsy, and yet, both similarly effective, would surely appear to defy the probabilities involved in such matters.

"He is skilled," said Kliomenes. "He is clumsy!" laughed one of the men. There was more laughter. "Are you afraid, Kliomenes?" asked another.

Kliomenes glances to the two men nearest him, those with their swords drawn. At a word from him, of course, bothwould rush upon me and then perhaps others.I dropped my sword.Kliomenes tensed, but did not rush forward. "You could have killed him then," said a man.

I clumsily, picked up the sword, breathing heavily. I looked at Kliomenes as though frightened.

Kliomenes was regardin me, undecided. He knew that I could have retrieved the sword before he could have reached.

He did not know, however, for certain that I also knew that. "Have mercy, Captain," I said to him. "He is afraid," said one of the pirates.

I then realized that I must play a most dangerous game. It was not the others I must convince of my ineptitude with the blade, but Kliomenes himself. The others did not matter.

"Forgive me, Captain," I begged. I then knelt and put the sword on the walkway before me. Then I slid it, hilt first toward him.There were snorts of scorn from the pirates about. "Please, Captain," I begged, "let me be returned to the windlass."

Kliomenes smiled. "Coward," said more than one of the pirates to me. I knelt at the mercy of Kliomenes, defenseless. He could then have rushed upon me and slaughtered me like a tethered verr. "Please, Captain," I seemed to beg, "let me be returned to the windlass."Kliomenes looked about himself and smiled. Then he kicked the blade back to me. "Take up your sword," he said.

I reached for the blade and as I did so, he rushed upon me, and I met the blade, striking downwards, with a flash of steel and a shower of sparks. He was off balance and I reared upward, close to him, within his guard, seizing him and half turning him in the crook of my right arm, the blade in that hand. "Back away!" I cried to the pressing others. Kliomenes cried out with misery. My left hand was not in his hair, pulling his head back and the blade of my sword lay across his throat.

"Back away!" whispered Kliomenes, tensely, held. I turned, holding him, seeing that the others kept their distance. "Do not come closer," I warned the pirates, "or his throat is cut."