It was late afternoon when they reached the bottom of the mountain, picking up the clearly marked trail into Pekeesh. Talbrik wondered briefly about the need for some kind of permanent guard at the border, which he supposed must lay approximately where Gurtz had set up his camp, such guard having the ability to prevent further atrocities such as had been described to him by Jacleen. Leading her by the hand, he kept away from the path proper, aware that from their distinct vantage point away up int he mountains, Gurtz's men would have little difficultty in spotting the fugitive girl and her captor. For the best part of an hour they made good, steady progress away fromthe mountain. Talbrik had been staring all the time during their descent at the wondrous sight that unfolded before them.

Pekeesh, the largest province on Heraklion, stretched from a few hundred miles above the equator to the northern permafrost territory, and from the western coast, which it shared at some point fairly far north with Barbessel, almost to the eastern coast, where was situated its border with Ancyros, a mountain range even greater and more difficult to climb than the one they had just traversed. For as far as the eye could see, the landscape was unbroken plains, green and pleasant, a few rolling hills, here and there a river, a lake, an escarpment. Talbrik, whose knowledge of the lands and provinces of Heraklion was limited to what he had been shown by Lienne on his first day in Hethoum, whistled his appreciation of this magnificent panorama. But on reaching the bottom and finding the trail which entered the plains, any thought of further sightseeing was swiftly forgotten and overtaken by the need for cover, and stealth.

Jacleen stayed a few feet ahead of him, her demeanour indicating quite plainly that she was accompanying him reluctantly, and under duress. Several times he needed to warn her to keep well away from the path, and he began to form the impression that she was actually trying to attract attention to herself in the hope that Gurtz and his men would come after them and rescue her. In this forlorn hope she was to be bitterly disappointed, for Gurtz had no idea that she had left the camp, and in any case his mind was quite made up that he would concentrate his ext effort on Barbessel, having but recently returned from a raid into Pekeesh.

As the sun sank lower, and the bright, low, evening star appeared above the eastern horizon, clearly yellow and clearly quite distant, though none on Heraklion had any inkling as to just how distant, Talbrik, tired of stumbling through muddy ditches, clambered up onto the path, satisfied that any danger of them being followed must by now have surely passed. He beckoned to Jacleen to join him on the path.

'It is pointless thinking that you may have been missed and we followe,' he told her. 'They will be bedding down for the night now, any hope of rescue is totally unfounded. The fact that you were allowed to come and go as you pleased indicats to me that to Gurtz you are quite worthless. There is little doubt that he will continue with his plan to raid the crops in Barbessel tomorrow. Come up here where I may keep an eye on you.'

Scowling angrily, she ran lithely up the slope and caught his hand, stumbling against him as she reached the path. Briefly their lips brushed against each other's, then she hurriedly disengaged her hand and walked off into the gathering sunset.

'Why did you bring me with you, away from my companions?' she demanded, throwing the question over her shoulder.

'I believe you may be of some service to me in my quest to discover the whereabouts of Marcellus of Barbessel,' he replied. 'You know the terrain, and you know the peoples.'

'I may lead you into a trap.'

'It would not be the first time.'

'Was that how you came by the scar?'

His hand instantly went to his cheek. Over the days it had healed well, though he knew it to appear still angry, dark and sore to touch.

'Why should you wish to know such a thing?'

'It is a fresh scar. It is something you have acquired only recently, during the past few days.'

'Maybe.'

'It becomes you.'

'If you say so.'

'It troubles you?'            

'It does not trouble me. Keep walking.'

'I am tired, Talbrik. Can we not stop for the night?'

'Here, in the open?'

'Somewhere. I am so tired. I am so tired. I cannot walk much further.'

'The remedy to that lies in your hands, Jacleen. You know the terrain. You know where we may find some kind of shelter.'

'A mile or so ahead this trail divides. One path leads to a Hunyapa camp. We will almost certainly not be welcome there. There is no love lost between the Hunyapa and Barbessel.'

'You come originally from Barbessel, then?'

'I do.'

'The other trail. Where does that lead?'

'To Warikeewa camp.'

'Would that be a better bet?'

He heard her sharp, shrill laugh of derision.

'Warikeewa camp would be a most unwise choice.'

'Why should that be?'

'Warikeewa camp is where Marcellus spent the best part of a year befriending the bronzeskins, the bronzeskins. They would kill you the instant you set foot in their camp.'

'Why?'

'You are sworn to kill Marcellus! Even now you are forcing me to lead you to Ancyros, to where he will be.'

'They will not know that. I will tell them I am friend to Marcellus.'

'They will know that you are lying, Talbrik.'

'How could they know?'

'They are bronzeskins. You cannot deceive a bronzeskin.'

'Nonsense.'

'You think so?'

'I think that you are making this up, Jacleen. I think that we will take the trail to Warikeewa camp.'

'You are a bigger fool than I gave you credit for!'

'You do not believe that I can fool the bronzeskins into thinking that I am looking for Marcellus because I am his friend?'

'I know you cannot. They will know you are lying the minute you open your mouth!'

He knew from her tone that she was telling the truth. He caught up with her easily, for she was indeed becoming tired, and took hold of her arm.

'What alternatives are there?'

'We must find somewhere to rest for the night.'

'You have somewhere in mind?'

'I am looking,' she said grudgingly.

'Somewhere we can light a fire, maybe, and cook some food.'

'What food? We have no food.'

'I will catch something.'

'In the dark?'

'An ulver, maybe, or a silth.'

'A silth!' she snorted derisively. 'You know nothing of silthen, then!'

'I know they exist,' he said naively. She laughed in his face.

'You had better catch something, big man. I am starving!'

But Talbrik had had enough of her arguing and sneering at him. He slapped her hard across the face and watched with a measure of satisfaction as she sank to the ground, whimpering.

'You need a lesson in manners,' he told her sternly, thinking of how Avelline had behaved towards him. 'Over there. There are rocks and trees. We will camp there. You will build the fire and I will catch something for us to eat. Go!'

Reluctantly, and holding her hand to her smarting face, she did as he bade her, though he could see that she was not used to being ordered around thus. Shaking his head, and wishing that he had left her behind at the mountain pass, instead of forcing her at knifepoint to enter Pekeesh with him, he went off into the night to catch some small animal they could skin and cook for their evening meal. Guided back to her by the light of the fire she had made, he skinned and gutted the ulver he had caught easily and expertly and they cooked it on a spit. As he tore apart the joints of meat, he wondered why Jacleen did not do the same, then realised with a foolish grin to himself that she was nothing more than a slave, and slaves do not eat until the master indicates that they may do so.

'You may now eat,' he told her. Eyeing him with suspicion, for he had barely started his own meal, she reached for a piece of the carcass and, still watching him in case this was some kind of perverse trick,some nightmare into which she had been unwittingly caught up with a madman, tore at the flesh with her strong, white teeth. But all he did was to watch her intently, his mind concentrated on the possibility that she might try to escape, or worse, try to kill him while he slept. With this in mind he decided to tie her hands and feet and having done that, he secured the end of the rope to his own ankle. That way, if she should attempt to make good her escape during the night, she would first have to wake him. Satisfied with his security measures, he settled down beneath the stars andclosed his eyes. It was not long before they were opened again.

'Talbrik!' she hissed.

'What is it?'

'I am cold!'

'What of it?'

'Are you cold?'

'No.'

'I am cold.'

'So you said.'

'May I lie next to you? You will keep me warm. It is going to be a long night.'

Talbrik considered briefly.

'Very well.'

She positioned herself next to him on the ground, and laid her head against his arm. The thrill of her bare flesh against his was electrifying, but he did not want her, and he was sure that she did not want him, that she was genuinely cold. He lifted his arm so that she could lay her head against his chest, and closed his eyes again. Then he reached for his knife and removed it from its sheath, positioning it at arm's length so that she could not reach it, and if she made any attempt to do so, would again have to wake him. But still she would not let him sleep.

'Tell me why you are after this Marcellus,' she urged him.

'Go to sleep. We have a long journey ahead of us in the morning.'

'It is not quite dark, Talbrik. If we sleep now we will be awake in the early hours of the morning, before it is properly light. I hate that! Talk to me.'

'Go to sleep!' he snarled.

'No, I want to talk.'

He sat up abruptly, reaching for his knife.

'If you do not hold your peace and leave me to sleep in peace myself, I will see to it that you never sleep again,' he warned her.

'You will not kill me,' she said with confidence. 'You need me to show you the way to Ancyros.'

'I will find it easily enough without you. I do not need you.'

'Then let me return to my people,' she said. Her logic was inescapable, but he was reluctant to let her go, even though he was quietly confident that he would be able to make his way unaided to the mountains of Ancyros.

'No, I cannot do that,' he said, even though he could think of no reason why he should keep her with him, except that maybe in the days to come she may be useful as a hostage, for bargaining purposes.

'Why not? You do not want me, you do not need me. I do not know why you brought me with you in the first place!'

'You are trying my patience,' he said, brandishing the knife.

'Very well!' she said, defiantly. 'If you do not need me, and you are not prepared to let me go, kill me and have done with it. Then I will not trouble you any further!'

He looked deep into her eyes, and his own travelled from them to her throat and to the rough cotton tunic that barely concealed her breasts, and continued on down to her nicely narrowed waist. Her legs, stretched out next to his, were exquisite, her buttocks firm and well-rounded. She was lusciously beautiful. She raised one hand to move her luxuriant hair away from her face where the breeze had blown it, but he caught her wrist and jerked it down.

'Leave it,' he said quietly.

'What?'

'I would remind you that for the time being you are mine to do with as I please. Do not move your hand again.'

'My hair was blowing into my mouth.....'

'Do not move it again,' he said, more quietly still, and she realised for the first time that the man she was with was as dangerous as any man she would ever hope to meet on Heraklion. She held her breath and said nothing.

'You are making me your slave?' she said eventually, when she was sure he was once more calm.

'I do not need to do that. You have always been a slave. It is in your demeanour. Anyone looking at you would know instantly that you are a slave.'

She laughed, realising that that was in itself a dangerous thing to do, for she was now certain that the man she was tied to was some kind of psychotic madman. Nevertheless, she laughed.

'If I am, then it is because I was made a slave by men,' she said.

'There is always a choice.'

'For women? No, there is never a choice. If a man decides that a woman must be a slave, there is never a choice.'

'There is always at least one alternative,' Talbrik said, but he would not meet her eyes.

'I prefer to live,' Jacleen said. 'Being a slave is not that bad. You get fed, and looked after.....'

Talbrik was reminded of Avelline's last words to him, about how he might be instrumental in changing the world of Heraklion so that women fared generally better, and the thought of her brought fresh tears to his eyes which he swiftly suppressed so that the girl beside him would not see his open emotions. 

'Looked after?

'There are worse ways to earn a living.'

'I doubt that.'

'Tell me why you seek Marcellus of Barbessel, why you have to kill him.'

'I choose not to discuss it with you.'

'Why?'

'It is not your concern.'

She raised herself onto one elbow and gazed up at him. He found himself strangely attracted to her, but this only served to make him more angry,and he pushed her away and closed his eyes, pretending sleep.

'If I knew your reasons for wanting him dead, I would help you willingly to find him.'

Talbrik sighed and sat up again, aware that there seemed to be no way short of hitting her to shut her up.

'Very well. I will tell you. I met a man in Ancyros whose daughters were kidnapped from the holy city of Prakussara by Marcellus of Barbessel. You know about the holy city?'

'Everyone knows about the holy city.'

'He charged me with bringing Marcellus to account for his crime. I am an assassin.'

'Why do I get the feeling that you are not really what you say you are?'

He fingered the dagger necklet around his throat. She laughed and shook her head.

'That does not prove anything!' she cried. 'I do not believe you are an assassin. You may have killed, and recently, but you are not the right temperament for an assassin. Too, you would hardly need me to lead you to Marcellus of Barbessel.'

'What makes you say that?' This was a new aspect attached to the caste of assassins, one that he had not heard broached before.

'Assassins know Heraklion, the entire world intimately. They know every trail, every province. They know intuitively which direction to take to find their prey, and they always travel alone.'

'I took you for a hostage. I may need to bargain. You may come in useful.'

Jacleen shook her head.

'You are not an assassin, nor ever were one. My guess is that someone has persuaded you that this is the identity to which you are most suited, and you pretend to be an assassin.'

'I warn you, you are treading dangerous territory here.....'

'Whoever you have managed to fool up to now, you do not fool me,' she continued, ignoring him. 'I know perfectly well that you are not an assassin.'

'You are right. I do not need you. I shall travel better alone,' he said, and untied the rope that secured her to him. 'I give you your freedom. You may leave whenever you wish. I do not doubt that Gurtz will take you back, and willingly.'

He turned away from her, knowing full well that she was intrigued enough by his story to want to stay with him.

'I am sorry, I will be quiet, at least until morning,' she said, kneeling behind him, at his feet. He spun round, laughing delightedly.

'Now lower your head, and you will be every inch the slave!' he cried. She pouted angrily, but did as he said.

'I am sorry if I annoyed you,' she said, her hands behind her back.

'You did annoy me. Now be silent until I tell you to talk.'

She nodded. He walked all around her, appraising her demeanour. Then, standing behind her, he pulled the tunic to her waist, leaving her mostly naked, and told her to stand.

'You are truly a slave,' he said.' Her head was lowered, and she would not meet his eyes. He saw in her a subtle change, and wondered what he had said or done to bring about such a change.

'Before you treated me shabbily, almost as though you held me in contempt,' he told her. 'But you are a slave, and when I tell you do something you will do it, without question, and because I tell you to do it. This way we will be able to rpoceed across Pekeesh without any need for punishment. Do you understand?'

'I understand.....'

She had been going to call him 'master', he sensed, but her hesitation did not annoy him. Rather it reinforced his belief that at one time in her comparatively young life she had been a slave in a big city, had seen the opportunity to escape, probably during a journey through the province, and had elected to remain with Gurtz, where she had been treated more humanely, rather than return to a life of full slavery. Talbrik was not overkeen on slavery, never having had access to slaves and consequently knowing little of how they were kept and treated. As far as he was concerned, a woman was a woman and a man was a man, and they were both entitled to respect only if they merited such respect. When a woman did not merit respect, it was not his idea of justice or civilisation to have her paraded naked and tossed form man to man as the mood took her owner. That there should be some punishment was not necessarily the right way to proceed, either, and he had been far happier in the company of Lienne and Avelline than he was now in the company of Jacleen, for the simple reason that he had never been among slaves and did not know how to deal with them properly.

'I am not your master,' he said. 'If anyone owns you, it would have to be Gurtz, I would suppose. I do not hold with the treatment of anyone, man or woman, as slave. You may replace your tunic and fasten it across your chest. You will from now on and at all times defer to my better judgement in certain matters. You will offer advice when it is requested of you and you may speak to me without requesting permission to do so. You are my prisoner rather than my slave, and as such you should obey me where it is appropriate to do so. Failure to do so will result in some sort of punishment. Do you understand?'

'Yes.'

'I am now going to sleep until morning, and I advise you to do the same, regardless of how tired you are. If you attempt to interrupt my sleep again I will leave you tied to a tree and go off in search of Marcellus on my own. Now do you understand?'

'May I ask you something, Talbrik?'

'If it is brief.'

'Why did you undress me just now?'

'I do not know. For a moment I wanted to know what it would be like to have you for a slave, that is all.'

'I see.'

'Maybe.'

She sensed that the conversation was at an end.  In the event their sleep did not last through the night. Talbrik guessed that his eyes had been closed for something like a couple of hours, long enough for the stars to emerge from the transitory darkness, little more, when they both heard a commotion and roused themselves to see a number of men approaching them along the trail, about a quarter of a mile to their north. That they were not looking for Talbrik and Jacleen was perfectly clear, for they stayed on the track, and none of them made any attempt to stray from it. Talbrik stared long and hard at them, and satisfied himself that it was not Gurtz's men, and would have turned away to resume his sleep, but a cry went up from someone in the group, a voice he thought he recognised, though eh was by no means sure.

'Wait here,' he told Jacleen, and unsheathed his knife and crawled off towards the track. By the time he would have reached it, he would have been in a position to see most of their faces, with one of the full moons filling a good quarter of the sky as it rose between distant peaks of a mountain range.

Talbrik stayed well below the surface of the track, where the ground dipped low, and there were plenty of shrubs to give him cover, and watched the approaching group, two men and a young girl who appeared to be struggling.

When they were near enough for him to see their faces, he knew that he had recognised the girl's voice. The two men had hold of her by the arms, and she, being much smaller, was being marched along at a fast and furious pace. Talbrik recognised her at once as Lienne, though he did not recognise either of the two men. He sheathed his knife and drew instead his short sword, and as they came within a few feet of him, he leapt into their path, crouching low and glaring at them.

'Release the girl,' he said quietly.

'Talbrik!' Lienne cried, and tried to rush towards him, but immediately their grip on her tightened.

'Who are you?'

'I am Talbrik, the assassin. Release the girl. I will not tell you again.'

'Why should we release her to you? We found her. We are taking her to Prakussara.'

'For what purpose?'

'She is a virgin. She will fetch good money, plenty of silver coins. You are not having her.'

'I told you I will not tell you again to release her. The second time I told you to release her was your last chance,' Talbrik said, and started to walk towards them. At last one of them released his hold on Lienne's arm, and drew his own sword, but before he could even lift it Talbrik's blade had swung through the chill night air, hacking through the tendons of his wrist. He uttered a stomach-turning scream and collapsed to the ground, clutching his injured wrist, as blood poured from the wound, staining the dark earth and grass. The second man also let go of Lienne's arm, and she darted forward to where Talbrik stood. To her surprise, he pushed her to one side and his body swayed as the second man's blade whistled past his face, then his sword came up to meet another blow and the cold night silence was shattered as the two blades met and clashed together.

'You will not have her!' the man grunted through his teeth. 'I will see you both dead before I let you have her. She is mine! I found her!'

'I do not believe I made it clear enough to you, my friend,' Talbrik said with a mighty grin, as he swung his sword in a great arc which started at his knee and would have removed the man's head had it connected, 'but the girl is not available to you.'

'You cannot take her!'

'I can, and I do.'

'What is your interest in her? She is young enough to be your daughter.....' His last words died in his throat as Talbrik's blade, which had already deflected a second blow, whipped upwards so fast, so quietly that the man was caught completely off guard, and died instantly, with the steel passing through his throat and up through his mouth and into his brain. Talbrik grimly withdrew the sword and pushed the man down the slope, wiped the blade on the wet grass and took hold of Lienne, enfolding her in his arms.

'You followed us?'

She nodded excitedly.

'I did not like it in the city. I am not a city girl. I missed you both. Where is Avelline?'

'Dead.'

'Dead?' she cried in horror.

'Dead. Killed by Marcellus of Barbessel, or at least by one of his agents.'

Her face paled, and she staggered against him, her legs fgiving way.

'No!'

'I am sorry, Lienne.' He led her away from where the two dead men lay, and back to his camp, where Jacleen was waiting for them apprehensively.

'Who is she?' the younger girl demanded.

'Jacleen.'

'You did not waste any time!' she said savagely.

'You are mistaken, Lienne. Jacleen is helping me to find Marcellus of Barbessel. She knows the route through the great plains to Ancyros, where we believe Marcellus now to be. She is not my.....'

'I am his slave,' Jacleen said, lowering her head and dropping to one knee.'

'His slave?'

'He rescued me from a band of mountain brigands. I am his slave.'

Lienne rounded angrily on Talbrik.

'You did not waste any time!' she said again.

'You are mistaken, Lienne,' Talbrik said gently. 'Jacleen is not my woman. She is not my slave, either. She is my prisoner. I have no interest in her other than that she will lead me to Marcellus.'

Lienne began to calm down, but it was evident to Talbrik that she still believed he had taken a woman immediately following Avelline's death.

'You had better sleep, now. I do not see anything else for it but for you to accompany us.'

'I will be in the way,' she said bitterly.

'You would have been in the way, in that case, had you caught up with Avelline and myself,' Talbrik said with a smile. 'Avelline was my woman.'

'And this one is not?'

'I have told you.'

'I am not his woman,' Jacleen said.

Lienne glared at her, then lay down and closed her eyes. It seemed that she was exhausted, for she was asleep within a few minutes.

Talbrik made up the fire. Neither he nor Jacleen were in the mood for sleep now.

'Why did you contradict me?' he asked her.

'When?'

'You told Lienne you were my slave. I already told you that you are not my slave. Why did you do that?'

'She was clearly upset. She believed you left a dead lover and came looking for another companion. I wanted to set her mind at ease.'

'Why would you do that?'

'I do not know. It seemed right.'

'You are not my slave. I do not want a female slave.'

'Perhaps you want a male slave.....' As soon as the words were out she realised she had said the wrong thing. Homosexuality on Heraklion is an offence punishable by death. There are no mitigating circumstances. It is a crime against nature, against biology, against society, civilisation, and whatever deities were worshipped anywhere on Heraklion. No society tolerated homosexuality between either sexes. Talbrik's eyes burned fiercely, and he half stood up, his arm raised to strike her again, but he managed to control his temper this time.

'I apologise,' she said, hurriedly. 'I did not think. I do not believe for one minute.....'

'It is immaterial what you believe about me. You are doing a job. You are going to lead me to Marcellus of Barbessel, and then we will part company. I do not care what opinion you may have formed of me, or what opinion you will form of me in the days to come.'

'I am truly sorry,' she said. 'It is just that I have never encountered a man who did not want a female slave even if it was just to watch her dance for him.'

'You flatter yourself into believing that you are attractive to me,' he said. 'Do not. There was a woman, one woman, with whom I was in love. She was killed by Marcellus of Barbessel, and it is my intention to find him and kill him. There will never be another woman like Avelline.'

'I am sorry. I did not know.'

'How could you know? You did not know her, and you do not know me.'

They talked for a while longer, and she sensed that underneath he was perhaps not so hard and stony-hearted as he wanted her to believe, but eventually both drifted off into sleep, to be awakened some hours later, at first light, by Lienne, standing pver them and pointing excitedly to the west, towards the mountains they had come through.

'There are wagons coming,' she said, and sure enough, when he stood up, Talbrik could see two wagons, still a long way off, but following the trail which lay a few hundred feet away, and on which they could still see the bodies of the two men Talbrik had rescued Lienne from the previous night.

'We must pack up and be on our way,' he said, urging them to haste.

'Why can we not travel with them?' Lienne asked.

'You are too trusting,' he told her. 'There are two dead men up there on the trail.'

'They were robbers. They tried to kidnap me and you killed them. It happens every day on Heraklion.'

'Nevertheless, I do not wish to travel with anybody else. I am already lumbered with two useful females!' he snarled. 'I would remind you that I am an assassin. I ordinarily travel alone.'

'We would be safer in a group when we come to the bronzeskin camps,' Jacleen observed.

'Why?'

'We just would.'

'That is no answer.'        

'Please, Talbrik!' Lienne pleaded.

He put his hand to his sword, and sat cross-legged, in full view of the path. When the wagons passed that spot, they would not fail to see him, and the girls.