I released her throast. She touched it, frightened, looking up at me. I looked down at her. "I am not now in danger, am I?" she asked."No more than any other slave," I said.

She lay back on the cement. Her left hand touched the garbage cans to her left. "You are handsome," she said.I shrugged."You have me at your mercy," she said. "Are you going to press your advantage?" Do you beg it?" I asked."Yes, Master," she said. "You are not unattractive," I told her. Then I thrust up the brief house tunic and she put her arms around my neck, lifting her lips to mine.

I considered the belly and hips of the dancing girl as she thrust them toward me, undulatingly, as the music pounded in the tavern.

"Have you heard the news?" the man next to me was asking. "No," I said.

The girl was naked, save that she wore many strings of jewels and armlets. Too she wore bracelets and anklets of gold, which had been locked upon her and were belled. Her collar too, was of gold and belled. She was blond, and it was said she was from Earth. A single pearl, fastened in a setting like a droplet, on a tiny golden chain, was suspended at the center of her forehead.

"There has been major engagement, one long awaited," said the man next to me. "south ofVonda. More than four thousand men were involved. Fighting was fierce. The mobility of our squares was crucial in the early phases, separating to permit the entrance of charging tharlarion into our lines, then isolating the beasts."Massed men, I knew, could not stand against the charge of tharlarion, not without a defense of ditches or pointed stakes."But then," said the man, "there retreat was sounded, but the withdrawal was prearranged to creviced ground, to rock slopes and cragged, outjeutting formations.Our generals had chosen their ground well."I knew too that no fixed military formation could meet the phalanx on its own terms and survive.Different length spears are held by different ranks, the longer spears by the more rearward ranks.It charges on the run.