I did not want to be touched by the animals. I feared them terribly. One must have been fifteen feet in length, and the other close to twenty. I could not have begun to put my arms about one. The leg just above the paw in the larger animal must have been some six inches in thickness. They were leashed, the leashes going to rings on huge leather collars, four to five inches in width, an inch or two in thickness. I dreaded even that they might rub against me, those huge bodies, with their glossy, oily fur. It was easy to see how men might not be able to control such beasts. Their tongues lolled out now. They seemed passive enough, at the moment. Their breathing was heavy, a sort of panting, as they padded along with us, but it was regular, and showed no signs of particular excitement. Perhaps they were merely being exercised. Their heads, broad at the back, tended to taper toward the snout, rather like those of vipers. The length of their body, too, with its six legs, tended to suggest a furred serpent, or reptile. Such things are mammalian or mammalian like, however, in the sense of giving live birth and suckling the young.

Two of the black-tunicked men clung to each leash. Again the black tunicked men did not wish pit guards present. Once again they had been dismissed. Even with two men on a leash I did not think they would be able to hold the animals if they should be determined to go their own way. But, to be sure, these were hunting sleen, and not intended to hunt on the leash, but rather only when unleashed.

I cried out a little as one of the beasts brushed past me. I had felt its ribs, like iron bands beneath the smooth, rippling muscles, sheathed in the oily pelt. Even in that brief, smooth touch I had sensed a considerable force, like a wave in the sea. But such beasts are not only powerful. They are extremely agile as well, and can easily top a thirty-foot wall. Over a short distance they can outrun fleet game. Their front claws used in burrowing, can tear through heavy doors. Sometimes it takes ten spears to kill one.

"We will loose them here," said the leader of the strangers.

We stopped. We were at the intersection of several passages, at a point we had reached last night, and a point we were sure the prisoner had occupied at least once, for it was here that the extinguished lamps had ended. The beasts looked about, puzzled. This was surely not their pen.

In our group were the leader of the strangers, his lieutenant, Gito, his seven men, the pit master, the officer of Treve, and ten slaves, in two groups of five each. The members of each group were tied together by the neck, presumably not merely to control us, as a coffle chain might, but to keep us together. making our disposition as a shield, or wall, more effective. The two groups might precede the men, forming a double wall in the passage, or, if the men wished, one group might precede and the other follow, in this fashion providing protection for both the front and rear. I was in the second group as I had been seventh in the slave line, my position there determined by my height. Both groups, however, at this point,were muchly together. As before, we were unclothed. Our hands, too, as before, were tied behind our backs.

"Bring the sack forward," said the leader of the strangers. This was done.

This was the sack which contained the blanket which had been taken from the prisoner's cell yesterday morning. It was sealed, and the seal, with its dangling string, had not been broken.

"Loose the sleen," said the leader of the strangers.

The heavy collars were removed from the throats of the two sleen. There is a difference in custom here with various sorts of sleen, which might be remarked. War sleen, watch sleen, fighting sleen, and such, when freed, would normally retain the collars, which are often plated and spiked, for the protection of the throat. With hunting sleen, onthe other hand, the collars are usually removed.

There are two views on this matter. One view is that the collar might jeopardize the hunt, for example, that it might be caught in a branch, or be somehow utilized to restrain the animal before it has located its quarry. The other is that the removal of the collar returns the beast to its state of natural savagery, that it removes from it any inhibitions which might have resulted from its familiarity with human beings. Certainly it is difficult to recollar a hunting sleen until it has made its kill, until it has been pacified, sated with the predesignated blood and meat. The two views, of course, are not mutually exclusive.

When the collars were removed the behavior of the two animals was significantly altered. They seemed to become a great deal more restless. Usually, of course, such things hunt in the open.

One urinated in the passageway. Its urine has an unusually strong odor. In the wild, urine and feces are used to mark territories.

The head of the larger animal moved from side to side. The smaller animal began to make tiny, excited, anticipatory noises. I had heard such noises before meathad been thrown to them. Saliva fell from the jaws of the larger animal. It moved between the men to put its head against the thigh of the pit master. It was only he, one supposes, of those in the corridor, it recognized. I began to cry.

"What is wrong with her?" asked the lieutenant.

"Nothing," said the pit master.

I could not help myself.

"She attended to the prisoner, for months," said the pit master.

"Any might weep," said the officer of Treve, "given the enormity of what you intend."

I recalled the prisoner, as he had been, before he had risen in his chains, in madness, intent upon the planting. He had been little more than a remote, inert form, as simple as rock, as distant as a far-off mountain, sitting cross-legged, chained, on the stone floor of a cell in the lower corridors. He had seldom even seemed to be aware of my presence in the cell. Now he was somewhere out there in the passages. He would not know for a time that the swift beasts pursued him, padding swiftly through the dark halls. Then I did not think he would be aware of it for long. It was not as though he might see them coming, across a plain, from hundreds of yards away. It was unlikely he could run before them, once he realized them behind him, for more than a few minutes. I shuddered, and wept Might it not have been better, I thought, if he had died in his chains yesterday morning, in the cell, by the knife? How terrible to die beneath the fangs of beasts!

"Be silent!" said the pit master.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"Break the seal, open the sack," said the leader of the strangers.

The seal was broken away by he who had been the custodian of the bag, and the bag was opened.
The leader of the strangers drew out the dark, thick blanket. He thrust it to the pit master.

"Give the command," said the leader of the strangers.

"I beg you not to do this," said the pit master.

"Give the command," said the leader of the strangers.

"I do not advise you to pursue this course of action," said the pitmaster.
"Give the command!" said the leader of the strangers.

"I will not give it," said the pit master. "It is a simple "Scent-Hunt"command."

The larger beast suddenly squealed, hearing these words. It looked eagerly about itself. Men drew back. I and others screamed, shrinking back against the wall ofthe passage. Swords were loosened in sheaths.

"You will be dealt with later," said the leader of the strangers.

"You," he said to the officer of Treve.

"I do not set sleen on free men," he said.

"Do not think your place in this city is so secure," said the leader of the strangers.
"Give me the blanket," said the leader of the strangers.

It was surrendered by the pit master.

"It is a simple "Scent-Hunt" command?"

"Yes."

"Back away, to the sides of the passage," said the leader of the strangers. "We do not know in which direction the trail will lie."

My group was thrust to one side of the passage, and the other group to the other side. We were aligned in our groups, close to the wall, side by side, facing outward. I could feel the rock behind me with my bound hands. The others, too, the lieutenant, Gito, the pit master, the officer of Treve, the black-tunicked men, drew to the side, to one sideor the other, leaving only the leader of the strangers, clutching the blanket, and the two animals in the center of the passage.

"Beware," said the pit master. "Where sleen are concerned, there is always danger."
"Do you think I do not know that the pits of Treve are renowned for there liability of their hunters?" said the leader of the strangers.
"You cannot always depend upon sleen," said the pit master.

"Hi, hi," said the leader of the strangers, slapping his thigh, calling the animals to him.
"Be careful," said his lieutenant.
"Here," said the leader of the strangers, crouching down, thrusting the blanket to the Snouts of the beasts. "Here, take scent, take scent,"

The two animals, eagerly, tails lashing, thrust their snouts into the wadded blanket. The larger animal then, as had the smaller, earlier, in its excitement, loosed its urine. This is apparently a behavior selected for in the evolution of the sleen. I do not think that it is simply a device to clear the bladder prior to strenuous activity, for example, to avoid discomfort in the chase. I think, rather, it has to do, at least in part, with the common prey of the sleen in the wild, which is usually the tabuk, a single-horned antelope like creature. A filled bladder, gored, releases wastes into the ventral cavity, with considerable danger of infection. If the bladder is cleared prior to the wound the chance of infection isconsiderably reduced. Over thousands of generations of sleen this behavior has, I suspect, been selected for, as it contributes to the survival of the animal, and its consequent capacity, obviously, thereafter, to replicate itself.

"Scent! Hunt!" said the leader of the strangers. "Scent! Hunt!"

The blanket was literally torn from the grasp of the leader of the strangers, who then stood up, watching the sleen. They began to scratch at it, and seized parts of it in their jaws, ripping it. At one point it fluttered, shaken, in the passage, like a flag.

"Scent! Hunt! Scent! Hunt!" urged the leader of the strangers.

The two beasts looked up from the blanket, it torn in shreds beneath their paws.

"They are beauties," said the leader of the strangers, "beauties."
"It is done," said the officer of Treve angrily. "They have taken the scent."
"Watch them!" said a man.

I had never seen sleen hunt in a situation such as this. I had seen them, in a little demonstration which had been staged for my benefit, one I was never likely to forget, seek out and rip apart particular pieces of meat, pieces of meat which had been given particular names.The smaller of the two sleen was one which had been imprinted with my own scent and name. I knew a given command could set it upon me. Both of these sleen had also been imprinted, I knew, with the scent, and some name, or signal, associated with the peasant, and could be set upon him. On the other hand, the pit master had not volunteered the appropriate signals to the leader of the strangers. This was not surprising, of course, given the pit master's obvious reservations concerning the intentions of the black-tunicked men. One does not need such signals, of course, when one has at one's disposal an article of such utility as the quarry's robes, or tunic, or blanket.

"Scent! Hunt!" said the leader of the strangers.
"I do not understand," said a man.
"Surely they have the scent now," said another.
The sleen had not left the area. The larger one snarled, menacingly.
"Scent! Hunt!" cried the leader of the strangers.

The larger sleen turned in a circle, as though confused. Then it ran down the corridor for a few yards.

"It is hunting!" cried a man.
But then the animal stopped, and turned about.
"It is coming back," said a man.

The large sleen thrust past the leader of the strangers and ran a few paces down the corridor behind us. In this it was accompanied by the smaller animal. Then they turned about, together, and returned. They went again to the shreds of the blanket. Then they lifted their snouts into the air, and then they put them to the floor of the corridor.

"What is wrong with them?" asked the lieutenant.
"They seem confused," said the pit master.
"They are stupid animals," said a man.
"Scent! Hunt!" said the leader of the strangers.

The two sleen now turned about, then they crouched down, their bellies no more than an
inch or so from the floor. I heard a very low growl from one of them. Their tails moved back and forth. I saw their ears lie back, against their heads.

"What is wrong with them?" said another.

The eyes of the first sleen, the larger, the more aggressive, fixed on the leader of the strangers. He stepped back. The larger sleen snarled. There was no mistaking the menace in that sound. I could now detect a rumble in the throat of the smaller animal. It, too, seemed to regard the leader of the strangers.

"Something is wrong," said a man.

The leader of the strangers took another step back and drew his blade. He held the hilt with two hands. Then the larger sleen, scarcely lifting its belly from the floor, crawled quickly forward a foot or two, snarling, and stopped. His companion, to his right, did the same. I knew little or nothing of sleen, but the intent, the agitation, the excitement of the animals, was evident. Again the two sleen, first the larger, then the smaller, approached, and stopped.

"Draw," said the leader of the strangers.

But before blades could leave their sheaths the first animal scrambled forward, snarling, charging, its hind feet scratching and slipping, spattering urine back, just for an instant, on the floor of the passage. The second animal was at its shoulder, scarcely afang's breadth behind. The leader of the strangers struck wildly down at the first animal, slashing its jaw and the side of its face, turned to orient its jaws to its prey, cutting into it, with his blade, and the force of its charge struck him back and the beast, shoulders hunched, was on him, heon his back, screaming, the other beast now, too, at his body, seizing it in itsjaws, tearing it toward itself in its frenzy. The lieutenant and some five of the black-tunicked men,shouting, kicking, crying out with horror, crowded about the intent animals, cutting down at them with blades, trying to stab into those active, twisting bodies. The larger beast lifted its head from the leader of the strangers, its jaws flooded with blood, part of the body in its grip, it bleeding itself from thestroke of the leader's blade. The smaller animal continued to feed,being struck with stroke after stroke.

Neither animal, in its excitement, seemed to be aware of,or even to feel, the attack of the other men. Again and again the blades cut and stabbed at them. One man cried out in pain, wounded, by the thrust of another. Then, suddenly, the larger animal, snarling, turning about with blurring speed, caught another man in its jaws, shaking him. A blade then found its heart, and in its death throes, not releasing ts new prey, it rolled and shook, and half of it fell free to the side. The smaller animal continued to feed until its vertebrae, at the base of the skull, had been severed.

When it became clear that the animals were dead the men stopped hacking and thrusting at their bodies. Then they drew back, almost as though in shock, their reddened blades lowered. They were breathing heavily, with their exertion. Blood was about, and the parts of two men. I drew back even more, trying not to let it, in its flow, touch me. I understood for the first time now, clearly, that there was a certain pitch in this part of the passage. This could be determined from the path taken by the blood. Some of it now, trickling, running here and there, was better than twenty yards down the passage. One could see the reflection of the lamps in it. I did not look at the pieces of the leader of the strangers, or of his fellow, caught by the larger beast. The two sleen were masses of blood and hacked fur. Two paws,even, had been cut away, one supposed after the animals had died, the hacking, frenziedly, irrationally, prolonged. The lieutenant looked at the pit master.

"Sleen are unpredictable," he said. "They are erratic beasts." The lieutenant did not lower his gaze.
"We must sometime find our way out of this place," said one of the black-tunicked men.
"The pit guard will be reporting in soon," said another.
The lieutenant then wiped his blade on the coat of the nearest sleen, and sheathed it.
"Where is Gito?" asked a man.
"He fled," said another. He pointed down the passage. There were no bloody footprints, so his
flight had preceded the flood of blood in the corridor.

My neck hurt. When the sleen had attacked there had been amongst usterror and confusion. Some of us had tried to flee to the left, others to the right, whichever was closer to us. As a result we had been tangled, hurt, wrenched, confused, held in place. And the squealing and hissing, the snarling, the crying out, the cutting with the blades, hadbeen so close to us that wemight, had we not been bound, have reached out and touched the men, almost the bleeding, twisting bodies of the sleen.

We had screamed, and begged to be freed, but none had attended tous, of course. More important business was at hand and we were onlymeaningless slaves. We were now again against the wall, put there by the men, backed against it, side by side, hands bound behind us, the cord on our neck holding us together, frightened.

"Be silent," said the pit master.

We tried to obey. I bit my lower lip, attempting to control its movement. My shoulders shook. The side of my neck hurt, where the cord had burned it. The floor was sticky with blood. Two of the black-tunicked men had not joined in the attack on the sleen. They had, in those sudden, unexpected, precipitate, grisly moments, stood back, perhaps fearing to act, perhaps unable to do so. The lieutenant slowly turned to regard them.

"There is no blood on your blades," he said. The men stepped back alittle, looking at one another.
"Surrender your blades," said the lieutenant. The men looked at oneanother, uneasily. "I am now in command," said the lieutenant.
"I suggest," said the officer of Treve, "that you need every man you have."
The two blades were surrendered to the lieutenant.

The lieutenant gestured to the two men who had surrendered their weapons.
"Hold them," said the lieutenant.

The two men were seized, each by two of their fellows.

"I do not advise this course of action," said the officer of Treve.

"There will be blood on your blades," said the lieutenant.

"No!" cried one of the two held men, struggling.

"Let us redeem ourselves!" cried the other.

"You would then be left with only four men," said the officer of Treve.

The lieutenant's eyes were cold. The blade was leveled for its thrust. I closed my eyes that I might not see the blade, his own, pass between the ribs of the first ofthe two held men. Then the lieutenant said,

"Release them."

Their fellows stepped away from them. I expected the two men to turn about then, and run.
But they did not. Rather they stood where they were. I then gathered something of the discipline of the blackcaste. The blade was motionless steadied on the left forearm of the lieutenant, leveled with the first man's heart.

"Masters!" we heard "Masters!"

It was Gito's voice. He was running toward us, coming from down the corridor. He was distraught. gasping. He ran through the blood, spattering it about."He is ahead!" he cried. "I saw him! He is ahead!"
"In this passage?" asked a man.

"Yes, yes!" cried Gito, pointing backward.

"Why did he not kill you?" asked a man.

"He is my friend," said Gito. "He is ahead! Hurry! You can kill him!"

The lieutenant did not lower his poised blade. He had not even looked back at Gito.

"Where does this passage lead?" asked the lieutenant.

"To the urt pool," said the pit master, reluctantly.

"And there is an interposed gate?"

"Yes," said the pit master.

"Then we have him!" cried a man.

The lieutenant did not take his eyes from the fellow before him. The fellow, he at whose heart the steel was poised, trembled, but hedid not break and run.

"If you would take him, I suggest dispatch," said the officer of Treve.

The lieutenant then turned to one side and thrust the blade deeply into the body of one of the dead sleen, that closest to him, the larger of the two animals. He then returned the blade to the black-tunicked man. The lieutenant then took the other man's blade, which he had held in his left hand, and did with it the same, returning it also to its owner.

"Your blades are bloodied," said the lieutenant.
"Hurry! Hurry!" urged Gito.
Again the lieutenant regarded the pit master.
"Sleen are erratic beasts," said the pit master.
"Form the sluts in front," said the lieutenant. "Set your bows."

We were thrust a little down the passageway, the first group, that "cord" of five in front, the second group, the second "cord" of five, in which I was one, behind, and in the interstices of the first group. In a moment the bows were set, six of them.

"May I have the first shot?" inquired one of the black-tunicked men.
"Granted," said the lieutenant.
"When the command 'Down!' is heard," said a man to us, "you will fling yourselves to your belly instantly. When the command 'Up!' is heard, you will stand, instantly, arranging yourselves as you are now."
"Yes, Master," we said.

There is a common command, familiar to all female slaves, "Belly," which brings us instantly to our bellies before he who commands us. This particular command expression, however, was not used in this context. I speculate that this was because the context of the two commands, and certainly their connotations, was so different. It is one thing, for example, to aesthetically and beautifully signify submission by bellying, perhaps on the furs at the foot of the couch, we being permitted upon them, and quite another to fling oneself down so that quarrels may be suddenly fired from behind one. Too, normally in a "belly command" one orients oneself toward he who commands, not away from him.
Gito hung back.
The lieutenant took him by the scruff of the neck and threw him some feet down the passageway, before us.

"Proceed," he said.

Gito hurried a few feet down the passageway. The blood was now viscous in places, half dried. In some places, where he had stepped, it was pulled up, likesyrup, clinging to his sandals, exposing the floor of the passageway. Gito turned about, and looked back. He went a few feet further down the passageway. He turned back, again.

"This way," he said. Then he said, "Let me behind the wall!"
"You are in no danger," said the lieutenant. "You are his friend." Gito moaned, and, looking over his shoulder frequently, reassuring himself of our continued presence, made his way down the passageway, staying close to the wall.

"We will pin him against the gate," said the man who had requested the first opportunity for fire.
Suddenly, from down the passageway, we saw, blazing in the reflected light of a lamp, two eyes.
"Sleen!" cried a man, alarmed.
We screamed, and tried to draw back, but were held in place.
"No," said the pit master. "It is an urt."

It was crouched down, before us. It was large, but not large for those I had seen in the pits. It probably weighed no more than twenty or thirty pounds. Most species of urts are small, weighing less than a pound. Some are tinier than mice. Gito had fled back. He now hid behind us.

"What is it doing in the passage?" asked the lieutenant.
"Someone must have left the panels open," said the pit master.
"Look," said a man. "There is another behind it."
"There seems much carelessness in the management of the pits," said the
lieutenant.
"You have had us dismiss the guards," said the pit master.
"The prisoner must have opened the panels," said a man.
"But the beasts are here, beyond the gate," said a man.
"The gate, it seems, was not locked," said the pit master.
"That would seem an unfortunate oversight," said the lieutenant.
"Yes," said the pit master, "it would seem so."
"Doubtless it was lifted by the prisoner," said a man.
"Doubtless," said another.
"Will the urt charge?" asked the lieutenant.
"I do not know," said the pit master. "I would not approach it too

closely." "It is dangerous?"

Quite."

"Kill it," said the lieutenant.

"Perhaps your colleague, Gito, can turn it," suggested the pit master.

"No, no!" said Gito. But the urt did turn then, of its own accord, and scampered back down
the passageway. The other, which had been behind it, hesitated for a moment, and then

followed it.
"Advance," said the lieutenant.
I felt the butt of a crossbow prod me.
We continued down the passageway. We came, in a moment, to a turning.
"The lamps are out," said a man.
"He must be ahead," said a man.
"He must be trapped," said another.
"Take lamps from the passage," said the lieutenant.
Two of the men went back and fetched the nearest lamps.
"Will you truly walk down this passage, carrying light?" asked the officer of Treve.
"Free slaves, that they may do so," said one of the black-tunicked men.
"They are the shield," said a man.
"You," said the lieutenant to the officer of Treve, "will do so."
"I think not," he said.
"Prepare then to die," said the lieutenant, angrily.
"The pit guard will be reporting in soon," said the pit master.
"You will dismiss them, as before," said the lieutenant.
"They may be looking for us now. I doubt that they would be pleased to learn that you had slain a captain of Treve. Too, perhaps your men would like to leave the depths alive."
The black-tunicked men exchanged glances.
"You will dismiss them," said the lieutenant.
"That is difficult to do until they have reported," said the pit master.

But at that moment we heard, from down the passage, in the darkness, a hideous, but unmistakable human cry, which was followed, almost instantly, by a violent squealing of urts.

"Urts!" cried a man.
"They have him!" cried another.
"Our work is done for us!" cried another, elatedly.

The lieutenant, followed by his six men, thrust about us, and between us, pushing us to the side, lifting the rope on our necks. Gito remained behind us. The officer of Treve and the pit master followed the black-tunicked men in their rush forward.

"Hurry!" said Fina, dragging hergroup forward.

Ours, perhaps fearing to be separated in this place, we helpless, urts about, hurried behind. I could see the two lamps flickering down the passage. Also, in a moment, I could see a mound of twisting, squealing urts, clambering over and about something, biting at it. Some scampered about the edge of the group, as though seeking some avenue of approach, some entrance into that heap of squirming, frenzied animals, some ingress into that broiling tumult of glistening fur and slashing fangs, that they, too, might feast.

The peasant, I assumed, from the horrifying cry I had heard, must be beneath that terrible living hill of beasts. Behind them I could see the bars of the gate. The gate was down. The darkness of the walk ringing theurt pool was behind. I also became aware, vaguely now, of a woman's screaming. That must bethe Lady Ilene, whom I had met in the chamber of the commercial praetor, kept now, I knew, pending the arrival of her ransom, in the tiny cage suspended over the urt pool, that cage which had been for some time the residence of the Lady Constanzia, that cage which could be opened at the tug of a cord.

The lieutenant, the six men, two with lamps, stood back from the pile of frenzied urts. The fur of some of them was bloodied, they apparently having been, crowdingin and about, in the haste and excitement of the feeding, bitten by their fellows.

"Pull them off," said the lieutenant, to one of the men who had not attacked the sleen.

The woman was screaming, from within, over the urt pool. The man put aside his bow and reached into the pile of animals, seizing one after another and throwing it to the side. I thought this took great courage. To be sure the animals seemed on the whole hardly aware of him. Some did twist about to tear at him, as might have fighting dogs. As soon as he would fling one to the side it would turn about and try to thrust its snout back into the pack. The two men with the lamps lifted them higher.
The smell of blood was strong in the passageway. The passageway, too, was loud with the squealing of the beasts. From within, over the urt pool, we could stillhear the screaming of the woman.

"It is a dead urt!" said a man, suddenly.
"We heard a cry," said another. "It was human."

The fellow who had been pulling the urts aside now stood back. His hands and forearms were covered with blood, but much of it, I am sure, was from the fur and jaws of the urts. He had been bitten at least twice. His left sleeve was in shreds. The urts now dragged the body ofthe dead urt, now half eaten, its bones about, to the wall, where they continued their feeding.

"He must have been attacked on the other side of the gate," said a man.

One of the black-tunicked fellows went to the bars of the gate, peering through, into the darkness.

"Bring a lamp," he said.
"How did the urt die?" asked a man.

Urts seldom attack their own kind unless their fellow behaves in an erratic fashion, as it might if injured or ill.

"What difference does it make?" asked a man.
"What do you see?" asked the lieutenant of the fellow by the bars.

He now seemed to be gripping them with great tightness. Indeed, he seemed to have pulled himself closely to them, even pressing himself against them. Too, oddly, he seemed taller now, as though he might havestood on his toes.

"What do you see?" asked the lieutenant, again.
"There is a quarrel in the urt!" said a man, suddenly, the beasts, in their feeding, moving about.
"Extinguish the lamps!" cried the lieutenant.

I heard the heavy, vibratory snap of the cable, but did not see the quarrel.~ have been fired from only a foot or so behind the bars of the gate. I did see the lamp move strangely in the hand of the fellow who held it, he who had been summoned to the bars. The other lamp, in the hand of the other fellow, had been dashed from his hand by the lieutenant.

"Fire through the gate!" cried the lieutenant, wildly.

I heard three bows fire, one after the other. Then I heard a fourth. Urts still squealed and stirred to the side.

"Draw back, reload!" said the lieutenant.

Men thrust past us. Indeed, we fell, or my "cord" did. I was bruised by a weapon as someone went past us.

"Get the slaves across the passage," said the lieutenant. "Block it!"

The girl next to me cried out with pain. I think she had been grasped by the hair and pulled to her feet, Certainly the cord on my neck, rasping, jerked upward. I cried out in misery. I crouched. The cord was still taut. Then it grew fiercely insistent. The side of my neck burned. I must rise. I was subject to the cord. I must be compliant. I scrambled to my feet, in misery, in the crowded darkness, obedient to the imperative of my constraint. The rest of the "cord" rose, too. I then heard another girl cry out with pain, perhaps Fina, kicked,and then that "cord," too, to the side of us, to our right, was on its feet. We were frightened. We gasped for breath.

I think they feared that the gate might be lifted in the darkness. That their foe, blade in hand, in the darkness, might come through, either to do them greater injury or slip past them. But I was sure the gate had remained down, Had it risen, I was sure I could have heard it, in its tracks. Too, the urts were quieter now. We could, however, still hear them feeding.

"An interesting stratagem," said the officer of Treve, in the darkness.

"Excellent Kaissa," said the pit master.

It was only later that I understood their probable meanings. I was, at the time, confused, sick, afraid, almost unable to stand, waiting there in the darkness, with the others, not knowing if something, an urt, or the prisoner, armed, intent, might suddenly be upon us, perhaps slashing to one side or the other, in some eagerness to get at the men. But he did not come through the gate in the darkness.

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