'Wait,' Publius Maximus said, but the bronzeskin chief ignored him and walked off. Publius Maximus, Arslan, Melisende and Yolande, together with Hannei and Mirella, congregated in a hut made available to them by Makoma, where they were given food, and drink, and were promised an account of how Marcellus had left Warikeewa camp to go in search of Keewa, now safely returned, and Kotsoteka, also now back in the camp, and with even later news of Marcellus. Later that day, at a council of the elders, it was decided that because Marcellus, Miki and Radulf were still missing, a party of warriors should be sent to Ancyros to search for them, such party to include Publius Maximus and Arslan, and Kotsoteka. Keewa himself decided to remain in Warikeewa camp because of the activities of Gurtz, and because it was never certain whether or not Vitellius would come back into Pekeesh and try to take the bronzeskins by surprise. A strong defence was necessary against such an enemy.

Further into the day, Keewa came to the long hut with Publius Maximus, where Talbrik and Saria were chained to the wall.

'The girl should be released, Keewa,' Publius Maximus said. 'She is no threat to you. Marcellus would be very angry if he knew she was being thus treated.'

'I have given orders for her to be released,' Keewa said.

'When?'

'Soon.'

'Why not now? Why not immediately?'

'I have to satisfy myself that she is not golden-hair returned from the grave to exact vengeance on us,' Keewa said.

'Does she look like a ghost?'

'No, she does not look like a ghost.'

'Surely you do not believe she could be golden-hair?'

'I do not know what to believe. Angry Wolf believed he had defeated and killed Vitellius in the sacred grove. Now we are told that Vitellius still lives. Angry Wolf believed that a raven-haired girl was this girl. I do not know what to believe.'

'You were deceived into believing that golden-hair represented a threat to the Warikeewa, Keewa. You were deceived into believing that Vitellius was dead. He was not dead. He was not even in the sacred grove. We now know that he had a twin brother whom he sacrificed to Marcellus' sword in the sacred grove. I can prove it. His daughter, Hannei, is one of my girls. She knows that her father was one of two, just as golden-hair was one of two girls, one now dead, the other here, before you. Her name is Saria. Marcellus travelled halfway around Heraklion in search of her.'         

'And in so doing was deceived into believing that she had condemned him to death, betrayed him,' Keewa muttered.

'He now knows that he was deceived. He wishes to make amends with her.'

'I cannot help but think that she will be safer thus chained to the wall. There is unrest in the camp. Many young men wish to execute her as we executed the other.'

Publius Maximus shook his head.

'That would be an extraordinarily bad thing to do, Keewa. I doubt Marcellus would ever forgive you for such a deed.'

'I am sure you are right, fat man. I am simply pointing out that whilst she is confined in the long hut thusly, no harm can befall her. She is perfectly safe here, she will be fed, and watered, and allowed to exercise, until Angry Wolf returns to Warikeewa camp.'

'So, when you said that you had given orders for her to be released, you were, in fact, not telling the truth.'

'I was not, in fact, telling the truth.'

Publius Maximus shook his head sadly and walked off, disappointed that the chief would not heed his good advice, although at the back of his mind there was always the feeling that perhaps he was right, that it was as well not to risk exposing Saria to further danger by releasing her into a community where superstition still ruled the hearts and minds of the young braves, and where she would probably not last more than a day before someone took it into his head to kill her, believing he was putting an end to any further danger from the golden-haired twins.

He went in search of the others, and found them still in the hut, huddled around the fire, saying little.

'They would not release her?' Arslan asked.

'They would not release her,' Publius Maximus said, explaining the reasoning behind the decision.

'We have to do something.'

'Tomorrow we go in search of Marcellus.'

'Leaving our womenfolk here, at the mercy of these savages.....'

Publius Maximus held up his hand.

'Be careful what you say, Arslan. They are no more savage than you or I. Their customs and ways are different, but they have written histories of their peoples, which I believe is more than can be said of your own people, and they are civilised and intelligent. I have spent much time among the Warikeewa. They are honest, proud, determined. They are not savages.'

'Can we not take the girls with us?'

'We do not know where we are going. They would be safer here.....'

'I will not stay here!' Melisende said angrily.

'Melisende,' Publius Maximus said quietly, 'I recognise the fact that you are a free woman, but nevertheless.....'

'You will not make me stay! I will make my own way. I will leave this place and go in search of Marcellus. If you do not take me with you, you will have me to worry about also, for you will never know where I am!'

Publius Maximus and Arslan exchanged helpless glances and continued their conversation, aware that whatever they planned, they would have also to include her. There was no problem with leaving the other girls in Warikeewa camp, there was always plenty to be done, and they would be well looked after.

In the long hut, Talbrik and Saria settled down for a long night. They had been brought food and fruit juices, and although their hands were free, their ankles were secured by chains and bracelets to the wall. Now they were left to their own devices. There was no escape. The Warikeewa were excellent craftsmen and the chains and bracelets were tailor-made and fastened so that they could not free themselves.

'So you are the companion of Marcellus of Barbessel, the man I am going to kill?'

'I was.'

'And still would be?'

'I need to find him, yes.'

'For what purpose?'

'To set the record straight. In Eskishehir, which you have probably never heard of, for it is on the northern border of the western continent, Marcellus was deceived into believing that I had been elevated to the status of kjalia, and condemned him to death. It was not me, but he swore to find me and kill me if he ever survived. I need to find him and tell him that I would never have done such a thing.'

'Why bother?'

'What?'

'Why not just live your own life? I presume you are now a free woman, and no longer a slave, if you were elevated even for a brief time to kjalia status.'

'You do not understand.'

'Tell me. I am interested. I will try to understand, if you tell me. After all, there is little else for us to do.'

She gazed at him in the soft light of the twin moons as they appeared over the hills in the distance.

'I was abducted in the first place, by him,' she began. 'I and several others, including my sister. We were taken to Sharmak.....'

'Not so fast,' he told her. 'Taken from where?'

'From Prakussara. It is the holy city ofAncyros, where they worship Khamen, the moon God. I was one of the holy virgins of Prakussara.....'

'You and your sister.'

'Yes, that is right.'

'Marcellus came to Prakussara and abducted many of you, including you and your sister?'

'I said.'

'Your sister's name was?'

'Lucinda. She is now dead.'

'I am sorry. I met your father.'

'Genneis?'

'Yes. It was he who commissioned me to kill Marcellus. He assisted me to escape from Ancyros when the militia there were after me. I did not fancy having my balls cut off!'

'He set you to find and kill Marcellus? You are really an assassin?'

'I fulfil some of the criteria for being an assassin, yes.'

'You are not really an assassin, are you?'

'No, but what of it? I can play the part well enough. I have killed several people, and I only left Ancyros a few days ago.'

'It is not sufficient simply to be able to say that you have killed several people. Marcellus has killed thousands of people, yet he is not an assassin. He is a warrior.'

'What do you know of assassins?'

'I was one of the holy virgins of Prakussara. Among our duties was the training of assassins. Only very few young men are spared, as you probably know. Those that survive, and that would be in the region of maybe one or at most two a year, are trained to be assassins by the virgins and the eunuchs. You were never thus trained.'

'What training is there for being an assassin? You are told to kill someone, you find them, you kill them. That is all there is to it.'

'No, that is not it at all. It is a state of mind. Assassins are trained in mind. They are trained to empty their minds of everything except the task in hand. You have been diverted many times since you left Ancyros, and every time it has got you into trouble.'

'You could train me to be an assassin? Properly?'

'Of course!'

His eyes gleamed in the darkness.

'That is worth remembering. Now continue with your story.'

'I am tired. I wish to sleep,' she said, but he could see that she was not at all tired.

'Please?' he said.

'An assassin would not plead.'

'I have no choice. I cannot force you to.....'

'There are other ways, besides using force.'

'Mind work?'

She nodded.

'Teach me. But tell me your story first.'

'You think I would teach you to be an assassin, only to have you kill Marcellus?'

'Tell me about Marcellus. Maybe by the time you have finished relating your story you h#will have reached the conclusion that he is not worth finding or saving after all.'

'We arrived in Sharmak and were immediately captured and taken to the palace of the kjal, Augustus. Later I was sold out of the palace and met up again with Marcellus in the desert at Horta. We were separated during a sandstorm and I was rescued and taken north, to Eskishehir. Marcellus came looking for me, and the last I saw of him was when he was being condemned to death by someone he believed to be me. I did not even believe that he could ever have survived.'

'And now you wish to find him again?'                            

'I felt responsible for the situation in which he found himself.'

'Tell me, are you a slave?'

Saria lowered her eyes.

'I was a holy virgin. When I was abducted, it was to be sold into slavery. For a time I was slave to Yolande, one of the girls who is now the slave of Publius Maximus, or at least, she is presently in his charge. For a time after that I was the slave of Marcellus. After that I was taken to Eskishehir, where they made me pretend to be the kjalia. I do not now know my legal status. I believe there is a mark, on my thigh, which denotes that I am, or once was, a slave.'

'You say that Marcellus kidnapped you from the holy city ofPrakussara with the express intention of selling you into slavery?'

'Yes.'

'You do not find that a strange thing for a respected warrior of Barbessel to be doing?'

'He was young, and working on a commission for the Lady Claudia, who is now the slave girl, Yolande.'

'But he took you away from Prakussara, along with your sister Lucinda, who is now dead, intending to sell you into slavery?'

'Yes.'

'And you bear him no grudge for this?'

'Why should I? It is the way on Heraklion.'

'And you bear him no grudge for getting your sister killed?'

'It was not his fault.'

'Had he not kidnapped her from Prakussara, she would still live.'

'Maybe.'

Talbrik's eyes gleamed with understanding.

'You did not want to remain in Prakussara!' he said triumphantly. 'You were looking for a way to get out of the city. Along came Marcellus looking for beautiful women he could trade, and you fell into his hands. How convenient!'

'It was not altogether thus!'

'Then how was it?'

'It is true, neither Lucinda nor I wished to remain in Prakussara. We were forced into our positions as holy virgins. Neither of us wished it. Our father forced it on us.'

'Because you were both extremely beautiful?'

'I suppose so.'

'You are extremely beautiful.'

'Thank you.'

'I was not paying you a compliment. I was merely stating a fact. You say that your father forced you into this? Did he have a choice?'

'It was a matter of honour to him. He derived enormous prestige from our selection as holy virgins.'

'But you did not want to be holy virgins?'

She coloured again, and shook her head.

'So when the opportunity arose for you to be abducted, you sort of presented yourselves to Marcellus and bade him take you?'

'It was not like that! He forced his way into the temple and took the women he wanted. He did not pay any of us any attention, just took the requisite number. He was acting under instruction.'

'The Lady Claudia of Barbessel?'

'Yes. She instructed him to bring twelve of the holy virgins out of Prakussara for her. We were originally to be sold in the auction houses in Horta, but we eventually came to Sharmak, on the western continent. I have told you the rest.'

'But you were not too disappointed to be taken as slaves?'

'It was not like that.'

'You were not disappointed to be made a slave?'

'I do not know what I wanted. I came to admire him. He was tall, and strong.'

'He ill-treated you.'

'A little, perhaps.'

'He disciplined you.'

'It was necessary to keep order amongst us females.'

'You capitulated too easily.'

'I do not know what you mean.'

'You were too ready to be a slave.'

'There were no other choices. We did not speak to each other in Prakussara, saying 'when the opportunity presents itself, we would be better off being slaves.' We did not tell each other that one day someone would force their way into the holy city for the purpose of abducting some of the girls, and that they would be taken away to become slaves and prostitutes, and that would be a far better way of life for both of us. It was not planned.'

'But when it happened, you did nothing to fight against it.'

'There were two of them. They were immensely strong, and they kept us in order.'

'They whipped you and ill-treated you.'

'I have told you what they did. One of them remained in the woods outside Sharmak. He lives there yet, I believe. Marcellus came to thepalace ofAugustus and pleaded to be allowed to have me. I went with him in the palace of the emperor. It was wonderful. He made me realise what it is to be a woman. When we were separated, I was desolate. I wept, knowing that there could never be anybody else like him for me. When he found me again at the edge of the desert north of Horta, I could not believe my good fortune. We were forced to enter the desert or return to Sharmak and be killed. We were separated in the desert, and again I wept. I thought I would never see him again. When I did, it was too late. They had poisoned his mind against me, and he believed I no longer cared for him. I was his slave!'

Fighting back the tears, she turned her head away from his, but he persisted with his questioning.

'And you have come searching for him, across the permafrost, with a banu for company? What is a banu?'

'They are the black hairy men from Eskishehir. Banu-tan is a renegade. He does not wish to return to Eskishehir.'

'I thought I heard you say he had gone back there?'

'That is correct. He does not wish to go back but feels that he must,' she said hastily, but his eyes narrowed with suspicion and she knew that he was aware that she was perhaps lying.

'You intended following Marcellus, wherever he went?'

'Yes, and as soon as they release me I will continue to search for him.'

'How do you know he will still want you?' 

'That does not matter. I need to tell him to his face that I did not betray him.'

'Suppose he has found someone he prefers to you?'

'I would not care.'          

'I do not believe you.'

'Believe what you like.'

'I repeat my earlier question. Are you a slave?'

'I do not know.'

'Has any man freed you from your slavery to Marcellus?'

'I do not remember. I am content to remain slave.'

'I do not understand you. You are saying that when you find this Marcellus, you will prostrate yourself before him and would even go back to being his slave if he wanted you to?'

'Of course.'       

'Do you love him?'

She flushed prettily and shook her head so that her glorious hair covered her face.

'I choose not to answer the question.'

'I think I will keep you with me when we leave Warikeewa camp,' Talbrik said, grinning. 'You may come in useful when it comes to bargaining with Marcellus.'

'I would not allow you to score off him by using me. There is nothing you can do to me that I would not endure for his sake!'

'This Marcellus must be really special to you. He abducts you from Prakussara, where your future was secure, and special. He abandons you to a slave market in Sharmak, and when he does meet up with you again, he is careless enough to lose you in the desert. He has treated you abominably, Saria. Why do you set such store by him?'

'He is a warrior. I love him,' she replied simply.

'That much I can understand, though I still do not understand how you can love someone who has treated you as a slave.'

'You do not understand slavery.'

'I do not believe in slavery. I believe that all men and women should be equally free, and that the only situation in which a man or a woman serves another man or a woman should be one in which there is mutual agreement and the payment of some kind for the services rendered.'

'You are mad! All of the great households, in every city on Heraklion is run with slaves!'

'The fact that it happens does not make it right.'

'What is wrong with slavery? It is a privilege to serve.....'               

I cannot believe that you would willingly trade your current freedom, or at least the apparent freedom you enjoyed before our capture by the Warikeewa bronzeskins for a life of slavery with this ignorant brute!'

'I do not wish to discuss the matter further,' she said, and no matter what he said, she did not answer. After a while, he remained silent. During the course of the night they were brought further supplies of food and drink, but still no conversation passed between them. At last Publius Maximus, who had been debating the problem of keeping Saria chained for most of the time since their arrival at the camp, came to the long hut.

'Talbrik, we have reached a decision regarding you,' Publius Maximus said.

Talbrik laughed.

'I am to be 'executed', no doubt?'

'No, not that at all. We have discussed the matter of Marcellus between ourselves, and it has been decided that we need to find him. No-one knows where he is. Kotsoteka, the chief's nephew, returned from Ancyros a few days ago with news that Marcellus, together with Miki, daughter to the chief, and a Hortaian, Radulf, were last seen on the easternmost shores of Ancyros, where they were under threat of death.'

'What is this to me?' Talbrik demanded.

'You are a citizen of Ancyros. You will lead the party that has been put together to find and rescue Marcellus. You know the streets and the alleys of the city. You know the buildings, and the gathering places. If he is in the city, you will know where he is to be found.'

Again Talbrik laughed.

'You are asking me to take you into Ancyros?'

'Yes.'

'You are mad! I will not do it.'

'You do not have much of a choice, my friend.'

'I am not your friend, and I have a choice. I choose not to do it. Whatever the alternative is, I will not do it.'

'The choice is to lead us safely into Ancyros, and to help us to find Marcellus, or to die.'

Talbrik gazed into the general's eyes. His own showed no emotions whatever.

'Then I choose to die,' he said simply.

'When you learn what is to be the manner of your death, I believe you may change your mind.'

'I will not change my mind.'

'We will talk about this again tomorrow.' Publius Maximus turned on his heels and walked towards the doorway.

'Wait,' Talbrik called.

'What is it?'

'What about the girl?'

'Saria? What about her?'

'Are you not going to release her?'

'She is not a prisoner.'

'Then release her.'

'What is your interest in her?' Publius Maximus demanded, his eyes narrowing.

'I have no interest in her. If she was once the property of Marcellus of Barbessel, then she should not be chained here, with me. She should at least be put with the other slave girls. Why is she being kept here, like a prisoner?'

'That is none of your business.'

Publius Maximus left the long hut abruptly, leaving Talbrik to ponder the question of why Saria was chained next to him. He turned to her.

'Why are you chained?' he asked.

She shook her head.

'I do not know.'

'Have you done something wrong?'

'I do not know.'

'Did they not tell you why they were chaining you to the wall?'

'No.'

'Are the other girls chained thus? The girls the fat man keeps to amuse himself with?'

'Since I am not with them, I find that question impossible to answer.'

'Is it the fashion to chain slaves to the wall?'

'Occasionally.'

'And you have no idea why you are chained thus?'

Saria frowned.

'I told you, I do not know. I am going to try to sleep. Do not disturb me again.'

'Do not forget you are addressing a free man,' a voice hissed. Both their heads shot round, but they could see no-one.

'Who is there?' Talbrik demanded.

'Who is it?' Saria whispered.

'I can see no-one.'

Suddenly, Saria felt a hand clamped a cross her mouth and a keen blade was pressed against her throat.

'I would remind you that you are still a slave,' a voice said.

'Who are you?' Talbrik demanded.

'One who would see Marcellus of Barbessel dead and Vitellius victorious throughout Heraklion,' the voice said. The man was still in shadow and Talbrik could make out nothing of his features. He suspected that it might be an bronzeskin.

'What do you intend doing with her?'

'Exactly the same as I intend doing with you,' the man said. He pressed the blade harder against Saria's throat for a brief second, then slid the knife down to pick the lock on her anklets. In a moment she was free and the bronzeskin, for that was what he was, bent to free Talbrik.

'Who are you?' Talbrik asked again.

'Best that you do not know my name just yet.'

'Where are you taking us?'

'I am not taking you anywhere. You are taking me.'

'I do not understand.'

'Come. It is quite dark. We can slip through the gates without being seen. They will all be reminiscing about Angry Wolf.'