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and tactics, would be successful in an assault on Port Kar. This had primarily to do with her situation, in the northwestern portion of the estuary of the Vosk, the waters of the Tamber Guld and Thassa before her, the vast, trackless marshes of the Vosk's delta behind her.
    "Can it be," I asked, "that Cos is planning to challenge Ar on the land?"
    "That would be madness," said Samos.
    I nodded. Ar is the major land force in known Gor. The Cosian infantry, meeting her on land in open battle, in force, would be crushed.
    "It seems clear then," said Samos, "that they are planning on using the infantry against Port Kar."
    I nodded. Cos would never challenge Ar on the land. That was unthinkable.
    "That is what is bothering you?" I asked.
    "What?" he asked.
    "The possibility that Cos and Tyros may move against Port Kar," I said.
    "No," he said.
    "What is bothering you?" I asked.
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    "Nothing," he said.
    "Are you disturbed by the proximity of the Waiting Hand?" I asked.
    This is a frightening and difficult time for many Goreans.
    "No," he said.
    "Let us stop playing and adjudicate the game as a draw," I suggested.
    "No," he said. "It is all right."
    I moved my Ubara's Builder to threaten his Ubar. This movement of the builder produced a discovered attack on his Home Stone by my Ubara's Initiate. He interposed his own Ubar's Builder, which I then took with the Initiate, a less valued piece. The Initiate's attack, of course, continued the threat on the Home Stone. he then took the Initiate with his Ubara's Builder, and I, of course, removed his Ubar from the board with my Ubara's Builder.
    Samos turned to Linda. "Dance," he said. She leaped to her feet and hurried to the center of the tiles. Susan, then, was pulled by the hair to the place of a keleustes, on who marks time, usually on a pounding block or a ship's drum, for oarsmen. In some navies, and on ships of some registry, the office of the keleustes is referred to as that of the horator. He reports directly to the oar-master. The oar-master, like the helmsman, of which two are generally on duty at any one time, most Gorean ships being double ruddered, reports to the captain.
    We watched Linda dance. It seemed she had eyes only for Samos. Her fingers played teasingly with the disrobing loop at her left shoulder.
    "Strip, slave," said Samos.
    She drew the disrobing loop. There was Gorean applause. She danced well. There was little left in her now of the Earth female. How happy and fulfilled she was on Gor. To be sure, she was only a slave.
    I returned my attention to the board, as did Samos.
    "It is capture of Home Stone in four," I said.
    He nodded. He removed his Home Stone from the board, resigning.
    He lifted his head, regarding Linda. "She is pretty," he said.
    "Yes," I said.
    "Do you trust me?" he asked.
    "Yes," I said.
    She writhed well, the Gorean slave.
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    "Why did you invite me this night to your holding?" I asked. "Surely not to play Kaissa?"
    He was now resetting the pieces. He would take Yellow this time.
    "Ubar's Spearman to Ubar Five," he said.
    This move attacks the center and opens a diagonal for the Ubara. It also makes possible a positioning move, matching him positionally in the center, stopping an advance on that file and securing the same advantages for the Ubara and Ubar's Tarnsman. This is one of the most common opening moves in kaissa.
    We played twice more that night. I won both games easily, the first with a battering ram of Spearmen and Riders of the High Tharlarion on the Ubar's side, and the second with a middle-game combination of Ubara's Scribe, Ubara and Ubar's Tarnsman. It was now late. Linda lay curled on the tiles near Samos. She was naked, save for her collar. She was beautiful and curvaceous. She was his.
    "Captain," said one of the two guardsmen standing before our table. They were the fellows in whose custody the free woman, the Lady Rowena of Lydius, had earlier been drawn to our attention The woman who had been the Lady Rowena