Step by step I climbed the black avenue, wondering if the truce would be respected.
24
154
If Dorna the Proud had ruled upon that rampart rather than Thorn, a Captain, and a member of my own caste, I was certain that a bolt from some crossbow would have pierced my body without warning.
24
155
When at last I stood unslain on the black cobblestones at the foot of the double rampart I knew that though Dorna the Proud might rule in Tharna, though it might be she who sat upon the golden throne of the city, that it was the word of a warrior that ruled on those ramparts above me.
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156
"tal, Warrior," said Thorn, removing his helmet.
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157
"tal, Warrior," I said.
24
158
Thorn's eyes were clearer now than I remembered them, and the large body which had been tending to corpulence had, in the stress of the fighting, hardened into muscular vigor.
24
159
The purplish patches that marked his yellowish face seemed less pronounced now than before.
Step by step I climbed the black avenue, wondering if the truce would be respected.
If Dorna the Proud had ruled upon that rampart rather than Thorn, a Captain, and a member of my own caste, I was certain that a bolt from some crossbow would have pierced my body without warning.
When at last I stood unslain on the black cobblestones at the foot of the double rampart I knew that though Dorna the Proud might rule in Tharna, though it might be she who sat upon the golden throne of the city, that it was the word of a warrior that ruled on those ramparts above me.
"tal, Warrior," said Thorn, removing his helmet.
"tal, Warrior," I said.
Thorn's eyes were clearer now than I remembered them, and the large body which had been tending to corpulence had, in the stress of the fighting, hardened into muscular vigor.
The purplish patches that marked his yellowish face seemed less pronounced now than before.
- (Outlaw of Gor, Chapter )