She put her head, too, to the sand, and spoke, rapidly, trembling, the words
tumbling forth. “The entire camp was taken,” she said. “All with ease, were
locked in slave chains, both men and women. The wall about the camp was thrown
down, the camp destroyed.”
“Enough,” I said. I did not command the fourth girl to speak as yet. I wished to
think. Much now seemed more clear to me, things that the girls had not spoken.
It was not difficult to imagine that it was not simply to capture Bosk of Port
Kar, or to do injury to those of Port Kar, that the Rhoda of Tyros had come to
Lydius, and upriver to Laura. She was a medium-class galley. She had a keel
length of about one hundred and ten feet Gorean, and a beam of about twelve foot
Gorean. She would carry some ninety oarsmen. These would be free men, for the
Rhoda was a ram-ship, a war ship. Her crew, not counting officers, beyond
oarsmen, would be some ten men. She was single masted, as are most Gorean war
galleys. How many men she would be carrying below decks, concealed, I had no
idea. I would speculate, however, judging the business on which I conjectured
the Rhoda had come north, that she would have carried more than a hundred below
decks, doubtless all skilled warriors.
There was bigger game in the forests.
Tyros and Ar, of long standing, are enemies.
Marlenus, I feared, for once in his life, had miscalculated.
I turned to the fourth girl. She was a black-haired, light-skinned beauty.
“Head to the sand,” I told her.
She put her head down. Her shoulders shook.
“You will answer my questions,” I told her, “promptly and exactly.”
“Yes, Master,” she whispered.
“How many men do those of Tyros have?” I asked.
She trembled. Her knees moved in the sand. “I do not know exactly,” she wept.
“Two hundred?” I conjectured.
“Yes,” she said, “at least two hundred.”
“The ship, the Tesephone, which was here,” I said, “was it taken, by a prize
crew, downriver?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Of how many men?” I asked.
“Fifty, I think,” she said.
The Tesephone had forty oars. That would have manned each oar. They had men to
spare.
“What happened,” I asked, “to my men, and slaves?”
“The men,” she said, “ with the exception of one, whose head wore the swath of
panther girls, were chained in the hold of the Tesephone. The women, the four
slaves, and he who wore the swath of panther girls, were taken, with the
majority of the men of Tyros, into the forest.”
“What was the destination of the Tesephone?” I asked.
“Please do not make me speak!” she cried.
I began to unfasten the tether that bound her with the other girls.
“Please!” she wept.
I tool her naked in my arms, unbound, and began to carry her into the river.
“No!” she wept. “I will speak! I will speak!”
I held her, standing behind her, by the arms. We stood in the river. The water
was at my hips, and higher on her.
I saw a fin turn in the water and move towards us. The river shark, commonly,
does not like to come into water this shallow, but it had been feeding, and it
was aroused. It began to circle us. I kept the girl between us.
The girl screamed.
“What is the destination of the Tesephone?” I asked.
The circles were becoming smaller.
“Laura!” she screamed. “Laura!”
“And whither then? ”I asked.
The shark moved toward the girl, smoothly, flowing, liquid in its flawless
menace. But its tail did not snap for the swift strike. It was belly down,
dorsal fin upright. It thrust its snout against the girl’s thigh, and she
screamed, and it turned away.
“It will join the Rhoda at Laura!” she screamed.
The shark moved in again, similarly, and bumped against her leg, and turned
away.
The shark thrust twice against us again, once with its snout, another time with
its tail and back.
“The next time, I expect,” I said, “It will make its strike.”
“Your ship and the Rhoda will go to Lydius and thence north to an exchange
pint!” she cried, “have mercy on a slave!” she shrieked.
I saw the shark turn again, this time from some fifteen yards away. I saw it
roll onto its back, its dorsal fin down.
“For what purpose do they proceed to the exchange point?” I asked.
“For slaves!” she cried.
“What slaves!” I cried, hold her by the arms. “Speak swiftly! It makes its
strike!”
“Marlenus of Ar, and his retinue!” she cried.
I threw the girl behind me, and, with the heel of my sandal, as the shark thrust
towards us, with great force, stopped it.
It turned thrashing about in fury.
I took the girl by the hair and, holding her bent over, as one holds a female
slave by the hair, waded up the beach.
Her entire body was trembling. She was shuddering, and moaning.
I threw her to the sand with the other girls, and again fastened her, with them,
in throat coffle.
“Stand,” I told them. “Stand straight, heads high. Place your wrists behind your
back.”
I then picked up the slave silk they had worn and, under the throat tether of
each, thrust the silk. Then, with the binding fiber I had earlier removed, I
fastened their wrists behind their backs.
The Tesephone, most of my men aboard, chained in her hold, was to make
rendezvous with the Rhoda at Laura. The two ships would then proceed to Lydius,
and thence to an exchange point on the shore of Thassa, north of Lydius. The
bulk of the attackers had proceeded through the forest, to surprise the camp of
Marlenus. They had taken with them Rim and the four girls. They had doubtless
taken Rim, knowing him from Laura as an officer of mine. My men would not have
revealed to them who else might be officer. Thurnock, as a common seaman, was
doubtless chained in the hold of the Tesephone. That might be desirable. My men
there were thus provided with an officer. It is a reasonably common practice to
separate officers and men, in order that prisoners have less unity and direction
than might otherwise be the case. Rim had been taken northward because he was an
officer. The girls had been taken northward because they were lovely. The trip
to the exchange point through the forests would be long. Rim, Grenna, Sheera,
Tina and Cara were thus with the attacking force. The others, including
Thurnock, had been incarcerated in the hold of the Tesephone
I stood on the beach, and looked at the ruins of my camp. I saw the long mark in
the sand, where the keel of the Tesephone had been dragged down to the water.
I, Bosk of Port Kar, was not pleased.
There were some fifty men of Tyros, as a prize crew, with the Tesephone. The
crew of the Rhoda herself, though I expected not all of her oars would now be
manned, would have been somewhere in the neighbor hood of a hundred. The slave
girl whom I had questioned on these matters had conjectured that the attacking
force had numbered in the neighborhood of two hundred men. I suspected tha
t some
one hundred and fifty, or more, men were now moving towards the camp if
Marlenus. They had left eleven men behind at my camp, to pick up any of my men
who, unknowingly, might return to the camp. They had not expected any, really,
apparently, for their security had been poor. It had cost them. These eleven men
I did not leave behind me. It is a Tuchuk custom, not to leave an enemy behind
one.
I regarded the slave girls, standing in the sand, in coffle, their wrists behind
their backs, bound. They stood very still. They stood very straight. Their heads
were very high. I had commanded them to stand so.
I regarded the silks, thrust through the tethers on their necks.
I walked about them. They were beautiful.
“You were party,” I told them, “ to a plot, in which my camp fell and my men,
and certain slaves, were taken. I am not pleased. You were instrumental in the
success of the plans of my enemies. Without you, their plans could not have been
successful.”
“Have mercy on us, Master,” whispered one of the girls.
“Posture,” I snapped.
The girls stood perfectly.
“How many of you,” I asked, “are forest girls?”
“We are of the cities,” said the redhead.
I went to her and put my hand at her wrist. “The sleen,” I said, “has sharp
fangs.”
“Do not take us into the forest!’ begged one.
“You will be taken into the forest,” I told them. “If you do precisely as I say,
you may possibly survive. If you do not do precisely as I say, you will not
survive.”
“We will be obedient,” said the first girl.
I smiled. I might be able to use these slaves.
I took the second girl by the hair. “When did the men of Tyros leave for the
camp of Marlenus?” I asked.
“Yesterday morning,” she said.
I thought it might be so, from the crumbling of the sand beside the keel track
of the Tesephone. I could not then, in all probability, arrive at the camp of
Marlenus in time to warn him. I had not expected to be able to do so.
Yes Marlenus kept guards posted. He was a shrewd huntsman, and a great Ubar and
warrior. Further, he had some one hundred men with him. It puzzled me, somewhat,
that the men of Tyros had dared to approach the camp, with only some one hundred
and fifty men. The men of Marlenus are, usually, exceptional in intelligence and
the use of weapons. This would be particularly so in the case of a picked
retinues. The warriors of Ar were among the best on Gor. The warriors and
huntsmen of Marlenus retinue, picked men, each of them, would doubtless
constitute an incredibly dangerous set of foes.
I wondered if Marlenus required warning, even had I the chance to deliver it.
Even granting the men f Tyros the element of surprise and a superiority in
number of some fifty or sixty men, their enterprise was not without considerable
hazard.
They risked much. They risked much, unless there was more to be considered, more
than I had understood.
There must be more.
Then I realized what more there was.
The men of Tyros had planned carefully. I admired them. Their effort would be a
concerted one. But where might they find allies in the forests?
Marlenus, it seemed, for once in his life, had miscalculated. I can take any
city, he had told me, behind whose walls I can get a tarn of gold.
I walked behind the girls, and then behind the fourth, the slender,
black-haired, light-skinned girl I had so terrified in the water. “Do not turn
around,” I told her. I slipped the sleen knife from its belt sheath. I did so in
such a manner that she should hear the sound. She began to tremble. “Do not turn
around,” I cautioned her.
“Please, Master,” she whispered.
I took her by the hair and pulled her head back, and put the steel of the knife
at her throat. She saw the blade pass over her head before her eyes. She felt
it, like a narrow, obdurate line, on her throat.
“A slave girl,” I said, “should be completely open to her master.”
“Yes, Master,” she whispered.
“What occurs in the forest at the camp of Marlenus?” I asked.
“Am attack!” she whispered.
“By the men of Tyros,” I said, “and who?” I pulled her hair back, exposing her
throat more. She felt the blade press.
“Panther girls!” she whispered. “More than a hundred of them! The girls of the
band of Hura!”
I had known it would be her answer.
I did not remove the knife from her throat.
“Why did you not tell me this before?” I asked.
“I was afraid!” she wept. “I was afraid! The men of Tyros might kill me! The
panther girls might kill me!”
“Whom do you fear more?” I asked, “the men of Tyros, the panther girls, or your
master?”
“I fear you more, Maser!” she whispered.
I removed the knife from her throat, and she half collapsed in the coffle.
I walked to where she could see me. “What is your name?” I asked.
“Ilene,” she said.
It was an Earth name.
“Are you from the planet Earth?” I asked her.
She looked up at me. “Yes,” she whispered. “I was taken by slavers and brought
to Gor.”
“Where was your home?” I asked.
“Denver, Colorado,” she said.
“You have told me much,” I said. “It would not be well for you to fall into the
hands of those of Tyros, or the hands of Hura’s panther girls.”
“No, Master,” she said.
“You will, accordingly, obey me promptly and perfectly in all things,” I said.
“Yes, Master,” she said.
“Yes,” said I, “you were not completely honest with me. Accordingly, you will be
punished.”
“Master?” she asked.
“You will be sold in Port Kar,” I said.
The girl groaned. The others looked fearfully at one another.
“Posture!” I snapped.
The girls again stood, backs straight, heads high. They were very beautiful. In
the eyes of Ilene, of Earth, there were tears. She knew that she would be
punished. She had not been completely open to her master. It was in Port Kar
that she would ascend the block.
I then, speaking no more with them, strode from the beach and entered the
forest.
I carried sword, sleen knife, and bow with quiver. I did not bid the wenches to
follow me.
They might remain behind, naked and bound, tethered, as prey to sleen or
panthers, did they wish. They had served my enemies. I was not much pleased with
the. Their safety, or survival, as my actions made clear, was of little concern
to me.
“Wait, Master!” I heard.
I did not stop, but continued to make my way through the forest.
I heard them behind me, weeping, piteously, attempting to keep my pace.
14 I Give Evidence of my Displeasure
It was night.
I stood on a strong branch, against the trunk of a tree, some forty feet above
the ground.
I could survey the entire clearing.
This afternoon I had come to the camp of Marlenus. Its gate had swung
in the
wind. Its pilings, forming its stockade, had been broken in various places, and
burned in others. There were sharpened logs about, fallen, some blackened by
fire. The tents had been struck, and were gone. In some places there was burned
canvas, indicating that the enemy had fired them from within. There was no sign
of the gate’s having been splintered or broken.
Bending over I found a string of cheap beads, formed from the shell of the bosk
sorp, broken. It might have been torn from the neck of a panther girl in a
struggle.
I studied the footprints, where they were clear. About some of the fires there
was the remains of a feast, and empty bottles. The bottles had been of Marlenus’
own stock, brought from Ar. I knew he did not, when outside of Ar, drink strange
wines.
Some birds flew over the ruins of the camp. Some flew down to peck at crumbs.
Marlenus for once in his life, had miscalculated.
It was not too difficult to conjecture what had happened. Marlenus was soon to
withdraw from the forest. There would have been a feast. To this feast, as
honored guests, would have been invited the panther girls of Hura’s band. The
men of Marlenus, celebrating the success of their expedition and the glory of
their Ubar, would have been, in the manner of warriors, much in their cups.
At the height of the feast some dozen or so panther girls would have overpowered
the guards at the gate, presumably drunken, and open the gate. Then, at a given
signal, the panther girls within, abetted by the men of Tyros without, would
have, with clubs and ropes, and the butts of their spears, sprung to the attack.
By treachery within and force from without the camp would have been swept.
Beyond the palisade several bodies had been dragged. Already some of them had
been mauled by sleen and other predators. I had examined the bodies. The men of
Ar had given a good account of themselves. Yes, altogether there were not more
than forty fallen, including some who had apparently been wounded, and whose
throats had been cut. Twenty-five of the fallen wore the yellow of Tyros.
The attack had apparently taken the camp by complete surprise, and had been
devastating and successful.
I had not found the body of Marlenus among the fallen. I thus conjectured that
the great Ubar, as well as some eighty-five of his men, had fallen captive.
Nine of my men had been with Marlenus. I did not find them among the dead. I
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