Players of Gor (57 page)

AT that moment a soldier hurriedly, distraught, entered the room. "There has been an escape from the prison!" he cried. "Gatch has been slain. The cells have been emptied. Prisoners have poured into the streets."

This, I had hoped, would provide an emergency of such gravity that Belnar might be moved to see to the safekeeping of significant valuables.

"Martial law exists," said Belnar. "Summon all guardsmen. Secure the palace!"

If the escape of the prisoners did not seem sufficient for that purpose the sudden knowledge that I was still free in the palace, and mysteriously so, should prove more than adequate to accomplish that end. I trusted that Boots had set up the mirrors outside the hall in the location we had agreed upon. To be sure, if he had not done so, it did not seem likely, all things considered, that he would ever have to fear being reprimanded on the point.

"Ubar!" cried the Lady Yanina.

"Seize her!" cried Belnar to the soldiers near the Lady Yanina. "Take her to the oil! Boil her alive!"

"No, Master!" she cried, terrified.

There was a sudden, shocked silence in the hall. The Lady Yanina, from the depths of her, in her terror, had cried out the word "Master". She shuddered, and shrank back. The word "Master" in her terror, had come from the depths of her. All had heard it.

"In her heart she is a slave," said a man.

"She is a slave," agreed another.

"No, no," whimpered the Lady Yanina, lamely.

"Put her in the oil for having denied her slaver," said a man.

"No, please," said the Lady Yanina.

"No," said another. "Let it rather be manifested upon her."

"Please, no, no," said the Lady Yanina.

"The oil is too good for her," said Belnar. "Take her below. Put her in a collar. Brand her!"

"No, No, Ubar, please!" cried the Lady Yanina.

"Ubar?" asked Belnar.

"Master! Master!" cried the Lady Yanina.

"Take her below!" screamed Belnar.

A soldier lifted the shuddering Lady Yanina lightly and threw her over his shoulder, her head to the rear. She was to be taken

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below, there to be enslaved. After that Belnar, at his leisure, in his mercy, could always decide what might further be done with her.

"Ho, greetings!" I called.

"What?" cried men.

I had now slipped toward the back of the room, near the great vat of scalding, bubbling oil. I had my hands on one of the long poles, wherewith the giant vat, on its lifting rings, had been brought into the hall.

"It is he!" cried a fellow. "It is he, Bosk of Port Kar!"

"Seize him!" cried Belnar.

"Beware!" cried a man. "Look out!" cried others. Slave girls screamed and fled back.

"No!" cried men.

With the pole, using it as a lever, thrusting it beneath the vat and its large, raised fuel plate, I tipped, and then turned, the bat and plate. A sudden vast hissing flow of boiling oil spread eagerly, deeply, outward, away from the tilted rim. Men leaped to the tables. I heard men scream in pain. The vat was now overturned. I kicked a flaming brand toward the oil, spread now and slick, hot, about the floor. Instantly, as men and slaves screamed and fled, a frightening torrent of sheetlike flames, like narrow, roaring, successive walls of fire, leapt upward and outward, surging, racing away from me, seeming for a moment to engulf the room. I struck a guard away from me with the pole. I saw a man screaming, trying to put out flames at the foot of his robe. Others were fleeing back about the walls. I struck another guard, sweeping the pole at him. He staggered back against the wall. The temperature of the room had dramatically increased. It was difficult to breathe from the fumes. I saw Belnar through the flames and smoke. Men were choking. slaves pressed back against the walls. Weapons were drawn. "Have at you!" cried a fellow, boldly racing towards me through the flames and smoke. He too the pole unpleasantly his stomach. I looked about. In a moment the flames would subside to the point where they might be waded through, becoming little more than more than flickering puddles.

"Seize him!" cried Belnar, coughing, the sleeve of his robe up about his nose and mouth. I flung the pole into a pair of aggressive guests, knocking them back. I must now take my leave. I resisted an impulse to wave cheerily to the crowd. Such gestures have their value, but too many fellows have been pierced by crossbow bolts while doing so. I hastened from the hall.

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"Save your Ubar!" I called to two confused, startled guards outside, still loyally at their posts, sweeping my arm toward the hall. They could not resist this plea and vanished within, into the smoke and tumult. I swung shut the door after them and tied shut the handles with the silken belt of my robes. Almost instantly the door was being forced from the other side, and I saw a sword flash through the crack, hacking at the silk. The corridor was long and seemingly empty, on both sides of the door, save for such things as closed doors, presumably locked, slave rings, niches here and there, vases, and decorative plantings. In a moment the crowd, soldiers in advance, would come plunging through the door.

I looked wildly up and down the corridor. It stretched far in either direction. I could see no one. At its turnings I supposed there might be guards.

The door to the great hall burst open, its sides flung back, cracking into the walls. I heard shouting, the grunting of men, the rushing of feet. Then there was suddenly silence.

"Where is he?" asked a man, startled.

"He must be here," said someone.

"The hall is empty," said another.

"It cannot be," said a man. "He was only Ihn before us."

"He is gone," said another.

"The corridor doors," cried Belnar. "He has slipped through one of them! Hurry! Find him!"

I heard men running down the corridor, in both directions. One passed within a few feet of me. The reports were soon being passed back. "The doors are locked!" I heard. "They are locked!" Then from the other direction I heard, "They are locked! None are forced!"

"Perhaps he had a key," said someone.

"He would not have had time to use it," said a fellow, fearfully.

"The keys to these doors are kept in the quarters of the captain of the guards," said another fellow, hesitantly.

"See that a key check is conducted, immediately," said Belnar. "We shall see what key is missing. He will then have fled through that door."

"We were out of the hall in an instant," said a man, uneasily.

"I do not think he could have had time to reach one of those doors," said a fellow.

"Surely," said another, uneasily, he who had spoken fearfully earlier, "if he had been able to reach one of the doors, he would not have had the time to pause and let himself in."

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"The door could have been open, left open," said another fellow. "It would only be necessary that he had managed to have a key earlier."

"It could then have been locked from the inside," said a fellow.

"That is it," said another.

"I do not think he would have had time to reach one of the doors," said a fellow, one who had spoken earlier.

"What are you suggesting?" asked another, impatiently.

"I do not know," said the fellow, uneasily.

"Fools!" cried Belnar. "Take reports from the guards at the ends of the corridor. They probably have him in custody already!"

I heard running footsteps, fading down the corridor in both directions.

"Here comes the officer of the guard," said a man. "Borto is with him."

"Ubar!" I heard.

"What keys are missing, from this corridor, quick!" said Belnar.

"None, Ubar!" said the man. "No keys are missing, not from anywhere!"

This announcement was greeted with silence.

"Ubar," called a man. "We have the report from the west guards. No one has left the corridor in the vicinity of their post."

"Very well," said Belnar. "The matter is done. He will now be in the custody of the east guards."

"The eastern post," said a man. "We were just behind him. How could he have reached it so quickly?"

"There is no other explanation," said Belnar. "He is there."

"Here comes Elron," said a fellow. "He will have the report from the east guards."

"He is in their custody," said Belnar.

"Ubar," said a voice.

"Speak," said Belnar. "Was the fellow taken easily, or with difficulty?"

"Ubar?" asked the man.

"You come from the east guards, do you not?" demanded Belnar.

"Yes, Ubar!" said the man.

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"Render to us then the report of the east guards, man!" said Belnar. "They have taken him, have they not?"

"They have not seen him," Ubar," said the man.

"What!" cried Belnar.

"He did not pass their post," said the man.

"Impossible!" said Belnar.

"It is true, Ubar," said the man.

"He must have passed them," said a man.

"No," said the man.

"He must have," insisted the man.

"That is highly unlikely," said the man. "The corridor is narrow. There are five guards there."

"He would not have had time to reach that area anyway," said another man. "We were almost upon him."

There was then another silence.

"He must be here, somewhere," said a fellow.

"He is not in the corridor," said a man. "We have examined it. You can see that it is empty."

"Where can he be?" asked a man.

"Where is he?" asked another fellow.

"I do not like it," said a man.

"He is gone," said a man. "He is just gone."

"He has disappeared," whispered a man.

"Ubar," said a voice, the voice of Flaminius. "The alarm bars still sound. I submit that attention be given to more serious matters than the apprehension of an elusive brigand."

"I want him found!" screamed Belnar.

"He was wearing robes of white and gold, merchants' robes," said a man to another.

"They were sewn with silver," said another man.

"They were of a Turian cut," said another.

"Ubar," said Flaminius.

"Search the palace!" screamed Belnar. "Find him!"

"Yes, Ubar!" cried men, running from the place.

"Ubar," protested Flaminius.

"Contact the appropriate officers, civic and military!" screamed Belnar. "Issue orders! Are you a fool? Have them see to the safety of the streets, the security of the gates, the search for escaped prisoners!"

"Surely you will take command personally," said Flaminius.

"I have other matters to attend to," said Belnar.

"I will take command then, with your permission," said Flaminius. "Have no fear. I will restore order shortly."

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"You will do precisely what I have commanded," said Belnar, "and only that."

"Ubar?" asked Flaminius.

"You will organize matters expeditiously," snarled Belnar. "You will then surrender the supervision of these operations to the city captain. You will then join with men in the search for this Bosk of Port Kar. I want everyone who can recognize him, who knows him, guardsman or not, male or female, free or slave, involved in the search!"

"Is he so important, Ubar?" asked Flaminius. "Ubar?" he called. But I gathered that Belnar had strode from the place already, followed by others.

In a moment, too, Flaminius, his voice fading down the hall, calling to subordinates, had hurried away.

"Where could Bosk of Port Kar have gone?" asked a man.

"I do not like it, at all," said another.

"He is just gone," said another.

"Disappeared," whispered another, frightened. I could have reached out and touched him. To be sure, it would have given him quite a start.

"Let us to our quarters," said one of the fellows.

"Are you not going to join the search?" asked another.

"There are many others who may do that," said the man.

"You are right," said another. They then left.

The illusion, of course, must be carefully constructed. The mirrors must be most judiciously placed. The principle involved is that certain surfaces are reflected in such a way that the observer is led to misinterpret his visual data; for example, he is led to take a reflected surface, a mirrored surface, in a given location, for an actual or real surface in a different location; he normally does not expect mirrors, and does not think in terms of them; and even if he does expect mirrors and understands, in general, the principles involved, he will still "see," so to speak, or seem to see, precisely what the illusionist desires. In this fashion, such illusions can be delights not only to uninformed observers but even to more critical, more informed observers, even, it seems, if carried off with showmanship and flair, to fellow illusionists. To be sure, and I had counted on this, no one was even suspecting such a trick in the hall at Brundisium. If they had been, it could have been found out very quickly by a close, detailed examination of surfaces. But by the time it might occur to someone, recollecting my connections with the troupe of Boots Tarsk-Bit, that a trick of so devious a nature might be