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tarnsmen at her disposal. But even those, it seemed, were not patrolling the line of march.
    "Why are there no guards with the supply train?" I asked.
    "Surely that is unusual."
    "I do not know," he said. "I have wondered about it. Perhaps it is not thought that they are necessary."
    "Have there been no attacks?" I asked. Surely it seemed that Ar might be expected to apply her tarnsmen to the effort to disrupt the enemy's lines of supply and communication. Perhaps her tarnsmen had not been able to reach the wagons. If command in Ar had been in the hands of Marlenus, her Ubar, I had little doubt that Ar would have acted by now. Marlenus, however, as the report went, was not in Ar. He was supposedly on an expedition into the Voltai, conducting a punitive expedition against raiders of Treve. Why he had not been recalled, if it were possible, I did not understand.
    "What would you do if tarnsmen of Ar arrived?" I asked.
    "That is not my job," he said. "That is the job of soldiers. I am paid to drive. That is what I do."
    "What of the other drivers?" I asked.
    "They would do the same, I would suppose," he said. "We are wagoners, not soldiers."
    "The entire train then," I said, "or at least these wagons, is open to attack. Yet Ar has not attacked. That is interesting."
    "Perhaps," he said.
    "Why not?" I asked.
    He shrugged. "I do not know. Perhaps they can't get here."
    "Even with small strike forces, disguised as peasants?"
    (pg. 39) "Perhaps not," he said. "I do not know."
    It was now growing dark along the road. Here and there, back from the road, on one side or the other, there were small camps of free women. In some of them there were tiny fires lit. Some small shelters had been pitched, too, in some of these camps, little more than tarpaulins or blankets stretched over sticks. Sometimes some of the women about these tiny fires stood up and watched us, as we rolled past. I recalled the free woman I had met last night in her hut. She had not come down to the wagons as far as I knew. We had left her before she had awakened. I had left some more food with her, and had tied a golden tarn disk of Port Kar, from my wallet, in the corner of the child's blanket. With that she might buy much. Too, with it, or its residue, she might be able to make her way to a distant village, far from the trekking of armies, where she could use it as a bride price, using it, in effect, to purchase herself a companion, a good fellow who could care for herself and her child. Peasants, unlike women of the cities, tend to be very practical about such matters. She had shown me hospitality.
    "We will be coming to the camp soon," said the driver.
    I heard Feiqa suddenly gasp in horror, shrinking back. Beside the road, on the right, a human figure, head and legs dangling downward, on each side, was fixed on an impaling stake. The stake was some ten feet in height, and some four inches in diameter. It had been wedged between rocks and braced with stones. Its point was roughly sharpened, probably with an adz. This point had been entered in the victim's back and thrust through with great force. It emerged from the belly, and protruded some two feet above the body.
    "Perhaps that is a spy," I said.
    "More likely it is a straggler or a deserter," said the driver.
    "Perhaps," I said. This was the first sign I had had today, that there were truly soldiers ahead of us on the road.
    A girl looked up from the small fire in one of the roadside camps, and then, suddenly, rose to her feet and, in the shadows, darted out to the road. "Sir," she called. "Sir!" The driver did not stop the wagon. She began to run beside (pg. 40) the wagon. "Sir!" she called. "Please! I am hungry!" Her face was lifted up to us. "Please, Sir!" she begged. "Look upon me! I am fair!" She hurried along beside us. "See!" she wept. She tore down her robes to her hips. "My breasts are well formed!" she said. "My belly is wet and hot! I will serve you even as a slave. I will do whatever you want. I do