by John Norman
"Too high for her," I said.
I knew she had been purchased from an outlaw, from Arn. Outlaws seldom command, from professional slavers, the prices which others might. The house, if one may so speak of the compound at Lydius, had probably not paid more than two tarsks for her.
"I will give you four tarsks," I said.
"In Ar," said the man, "she would go for ten gold pieces."
"We are not in Ar," I pointed out.
"I hate you!" screamed Sheera. "I hate you! I hate you!"
"Her breasts," I said, "are a bit small, and her ankles and wrists are too thick."
"She is a beauty," said the man.
We examined her, carefully. She turned her head to one side.
"She is a raw girl," I said, "not broken to a collar, untrained."
"We must dip oars soon," Rim said.
"That is true," I agreed. I did not wish to miss the crest of the tide.
Rim and I made as though to turn away.
"Wait, Masters," said the man. "She is a beauty!"
We turned again, and, for some time, looked closely upon the proud Sheera.
"Three pieces of gold," I said, "and five tarsks."
"She is yours," said the man.
He, with a key at his belt, unsnapped her bracelets and turned her about, rudely, and pushed her belly against the bar. "Put your hands behind your back, and cross your wrists," he said to the girl, not pleasantly. Sullenly, she did so. Rim, with his belt, then lashed her hands behind her back.
I paid the man his three gold pieces and his five tarsks. He was not too pleased. He waved his hand at the girls sitting against the board fence. "We need cage space," he said, angrily. "Take her."
Rim seized her by the arm, and pushed her ahead of us, stumbling, out of the compound.
When we reached the Tesephone, less than a hundred yards from the slave market, the tide was at a knife's edge of its crest.
On the deck Sheera stood, her feet widely apart, to face me.
I had no time for her. I must attend to the ship. "Take her below," I said, "and chain her in the first hold."
Rim pulled her rudely below.
Thurnock brought to me the wine and oil, and the salt. I stood at the rail. My men stood.
In a moment, Rim was again on deck, and he, too, stood watching.
To one side, two girls, Cara and Tina stood, both in their brief woolen slave garments, Tina's hands at her belly, where they were still confined by the slave strap and bracelets.
"Ta-Sardar-Gor. Ta-Thassa," said I, in Gorean. "To the Priest-Kings of Gor, and to the Sea."
Then, slowly, I poured the wine, and the oil into the sea, and the salt.
"Cast off!" cried Thurnock. Men on the dock threw off the lines which had been looped on the mooring cleats. Two men at the bow thrust against the wharf with their poles.
The wharf, as though it, and not we, were moving, dropped back from us.
"Out oars!" called Thurnock. "Ready oars!"
Seamen began to pull on the yard ropes to raise the yard.
The helmsman leaned on the great helm.
I saw Cara and Tina watching. The docks were filled with men. Several had paused in their work, to watch the Tesephone moving away from the wharf.
"Port oars! Stroke!" called Thurnock.
The bow of the Tesephone swung upriver. The carved, painted wooden eyes on the tarn head turned toward Laura.
Men were aloft on the long, sloping yard. Then the sail fell, snapping and tugging, and took its shape, billowing before the gentle wind from Thassa.
"Full oars!" called Thurnock. "Quarter beat. Stroke!"
The Tesephone began to move upriver.
I saw Cara and Tina standing by the rail. Cara was lifting her hand, and waving toward Lydius. Some men on the dock, small now, too, lifted their hands.
Tina could not lift her hands to bid her city farewell, for her wrists were locked in slave bracelets, fastened at her belly, strung through the ring of a slave strap.
I stepped behind her and unbuckled the slave strap.
She looked up at me.
"Bid your city farewell," I told her, "if you wish."
She turned away from me and toward Lydius. Piteously she lifted her two hands, still braceleted, in salute to Lydius.
When she had done so, I again, from behind, pulled her hands to her belly, and buckled the slave strap behind her back. She fell to her knees on the deck, head down, hair falling forward, revealing the collar at her neck, and wept.
"Stroke!" called Thurnock, in his rhythm. "Stroke!"
I strode to the stern castle and, with a Builder's Glass, looked back toward Lydius. I noted, to my interest, the large, yellow medium galley from Tyros, too, was casting off. I thought little of this at the time.
6
I Hold Converse with Panther Girls and am Entertained by Sheera
On the evening of the second day out of Lydius I took a tiny lamp and went to the first hold, where many supplies are kept.
I lifted the lamp.
Sheera knelt there. She did not sit cross-legged. She knelt as a Gorean woman.
A heavy chain, about a yard long, padlocked about her throat, dangled to a ring, where it was secured with a second padlock.
With her hands she covered herself, as best she could.
"Do not cover yourself," I said. She was captive.
She lowered her hands.
I saw that there was a pan of water within her reach and, on the planking of the hold deck, some pieces of bread and a vegetable.
She looked at me.
I did not speak further to her but turned and, bent over under the low ceiling, left her, taking with me the tiny lamp.
She did not speak.
On the next morning I had her branded in the hold.
The Tesephone continued to move slowly upriver, between the banks of the Laurius, the fields to the south, the forests to the north.
I removed the slave strap and bracelets from Tina. She stretched and ran like an exultant little animal on the deck. Cara laughed at her.
She ran to the rail and looked over the side. Following in the wake of the Tesephone, to pick up litter or garbage thrown overboard, were two long-bodied river sharks, their bodies sinuous in the half-clear water, about a foot below the surface.
Tina turned about and looked at me, agony on her face.
Then she lifted her eyes to the forests beyond. We heard, as is not uncommon, the screams of forest panthers within the darkness of the trees.
I went to stand beside her.
"Your best gamble," I informed her, "would be to flee to the south, but there there is little cover."
"In your slave tunic, with your brand and collar," I said, "how long do you think it would be before you were picked up?"
She put her head down.
"It is not pleasant, I suspect," I said, "to belong to peasants."
She looked at me with horror, and then again turned to the forests on the north.
"If you fell to panther girls," I asked, "what do you surmise would be your fate?"
Inadvertently her hand touched the brand beneath her white woolen slave tunic. Then, standing beside me at the rail, looking toward the forest, she put both her hands on her collar. She tried to pull it from her neck.
She knew as well as I the contempt in which panther girls held female slaves.
She, Tina, was well marked.
She was well marked as what she was, a female slave.
"If they did not use you as their slave themselves," I said, "you would be soon sold."
Tina, the slave, wept. I turned and left her.
Cara, in her own collar, went to comfort her.
That night I went again to the hold, to once again look upon Sheera.
She had now been branded.
I lifted the lamp, to better regard her.
The brand was an excellent one.
She knelt, chained to the ring. She did not attempt to cover herself.
"Why did you buy me?" she asked.
I put down the lamp on the planking, to one side. The shadows were long and flickering on the boards, those of the watering pan, the bits of food, part of a loaf of bread, those of Sheera and myself.
"Why did you buy me?"
"Come to my arms," I said.
"No!" she said. "No!"
"Come to my arms," I said.
She lifted her arms to me.
The next night, I again looked upon Sheera. Without speaking, she opened her arms, and sought me, pressing her body, kneeling, to mine, her lips to mine.
The following night, the night before we would make landfall in Laura, when I had finished with her, she lay on her belly on the planks, her head in her hands, lifted, on her elbows. Her hair was forward. She was breathing deeply. Even in the flickering light I could see the beautiful mottlings on her body, on the sides of her breasts and body, red and white, still rich and subtle in her hot, blood-charged skin. The chain dangled to the floor, where it lay, half coiled, near the ring. The fruit of her body hung free, and lovely. The nipples were still arch.
She turned her head toward me, and looked at me, through her hair, with glazed eyes.
She put her head down.
I knelt behind her, and above her, on one knee, and, with a snap, fastened the slave collar on her throat.
She did not protest. She knew that she had yielded to me, as a slave girl to her master.
I took her by the shoulders, and turned her on her back. Her entire belly and breasts, like much of the rest of her body, was rich with the beautiful mottlings. I touched the nipples. How beautiful they were, large, delicate, sensitive now, almost painfully swollen with blood. I kissed them. She reached for me again, lifting her head, the chain at her neck, lips parted.
When I again noted the lamp, it had burned low.
I rose to my knees, and looked down upon her. I saw my collar locked at her throat.
"Greetings, Slave," I said.
She looked up at me.
"Tomorrow," I said, "we make landfall in Laura. I will then release you from the hold."
I bent to her throat, where there was still fastened the golden chains and claws that she had worn when she had met us, long ago, at the exchange point, which she had worn when she had been purchased, which she had worn in the hold. I removed the chains and claws. She did not protest. Then I bent to her left ankle and removed the anklet of threaded shells. She did not protest. She was no longer a panther girl.
"When I release you tomorrow from the hold," I asked, "what garment shall I bring you?"
She turned her head to one side. "The garment of a female slave," she said.
Rim and I, and Thurnock, moored at Laura, in the stern castle, studied a rough map of the territory north and east of that rustic town.
On the map, as nearly as we could, we traced, with various straight lines, what we would take to be the path to Verna's camp and dancing circle.
"Somewhere in here, I said, pointing with a stylus, "they must lie."
"Why not follow the tree blazings, and such?" asked Thurnock.
"If the girls Tana and Ela knew so well the route to the camp and circle," said Rim, "others, too, must know it."
"Further," I said, "it is my understanding that Verna expects Marlenus of Ar to pursue her. It is, doubtless, important to her that he do so, to accord with her plans, those plans by means of which she hopes to take vengeance upon him for her former capture and humiliation." I looked at Thurnock. "It is quite possible," I said, "that she would even permit such information to fall into his hands."
"That she might know his approach route, and perhaps ambush him," said Rim, running his tongue over his lips.
"Yes," I said.
"We would not care," said Rim, "to fall into her trap."
"But Marlenus," said Thurnock, "he is a great Ubar. Surely he will be wary."
"Marlenus," I said, "is a great Ubar, but he is not always wise."
"Marlenus," said Rim, "doubtless believes himself to be the hunter. He expects panther girls to flee from him and his men. He expects difficulty only in managing their capture."
"The tabuk he expects to net," I said, "are not unlikely panthers, she-panthers, following him, intent upon their own hunt."
"Aiii," said Thurnock.
"Yes," I said.
"On the other hand," said Rim, "Verna does not know of us. We have with us the element of surprise."
"I do wish," I said, "to approach the camp from some direction other than the blazed trail. On the other hand, I am not interested in storming it with slave nets."
"Do you expect to deal with panther girls?" he asked, smiling.
I put down the stylus on the map. "I am a merchant," I said.
"How shall we proceed?" asked Thurnock.
"We shall make a base camp, in accord with our putative interest in obtaining the skins of sleen," I said. "Then, selected men will enter the forest, but as though they did not know the location of Verna's camp and dancing circle. We must then make contact with some members of her band. Either they will contact us, or we them."
"It is not uncommon for panther girls to first make contact," said Rim, smiling, "with a hunting arrow in the back."
"We shall release, suitably braceleted, a slave girl, to make contact with them."
"They will hunt her, and capture her," said Rim, grinning.
"Of course," I said.
"Then the girl," said Rim, "will give them our message, that we would negotiate for female slaves they may have in their camp."
"What girl, braceleted, could live in the forests?" asked Thurnock.
"No girl, braceleted," I said, "can live long in the forests. That will be an incentive to the girl we release to see that she swiftly falls to Verna's band."
"Yes," said Rim, "and if she fails to find Verna's band, she, braceleted, will be forced to return to us."
"Yes!" said Thurnock.
"But I expect," I said, "that she will have little difficulty in falling in with Verna's band."
"You have in mind a skilled girl," said Thurnock, "one experienced in the ways of the forests."
"Yes," I said.
"But," said Thurnock, troubled, "have you considered that they, the panther women of Verna's band, might keep the girl we have released?"
"I have considered that," I said.
Thurnock looked at me, puzzled.
"Suppose," said I, "that the girl released, she who is captured by Verna's band, is well known to Verna. Suppose that that girl were a rival of Verna, a personal enemy, one of long standing."
Rim laughed.
"What then," asked I, of Thurnock, "do you suppose Verna, and her band, would do with her?"
"I see," said Thurnock, grinning.
"She would be promptly returned to slavery," said Rim.
"And," said I, smiling, "we would have made contact with Verna's band, and we would get our girl back."
Thurnock grinned. "But what girl could we use?" he asked.
"Sheera," said I.
Thurnock nodded, and Rim laughed.
"I thought," said I, "that it would not be impossible that I might find use for that piece of property."
"I gather," said Rim, "that you have already found uses for that bit of property, in the hold."
"Yes," I said, "but that is unimportant." She was only a slave.
"One thing troubles me," said Rim. "Verna has taken Talena to the forests, to bait a trap for Marlenus. Why then should she sell her to you?"
"That may be a matter of timing," I said, "and of information, and prices."
"How is that?" asked Rim.
I shrugged. "Suppose Marlenus falls to Verna," I suggested. "Then she would not need the bait longer, and might, for a good price, dispose of it."
"Marlenus? Fall to Verna?" asked Thurnock.
"Panther girls are dangerous," I said. "I do not think Marlenus, who is a proud man, well understands that." I looked at Thurnock. "But
," said I, "the important thing to Verna's plan is that Marlenus believe that she holds Talena. As long as he believes that, it does not make a difference whether she does or not. So, why might she not, provided the sale is secret, sell Talena to me, regardless of the outcome of her pursuit of Marlenus?"
"Perhaps she would fear you would simply, for gold, return Talena to Marlenus," said Thurnock.
"We shall convince her," I said, "that we are of Tabor."
Tabor, though a free island, administered by the Merchants, would not be eager to affront Tyros, her powerful neighbor. For more than a century there had been bad blood between Tyros and Ar. A Merchant of Tabor, accordingly, fearing Tyros, would not be likely to return Talena to Marlenus. Such an act might mean war. It would be far more likely that the girl would be presented to Tyros, the daughter of their enemy, naked and in the chains of a slave, as a token of good will.
The bad blood between Tyros and Ar had primarily to do with Tyros' financings of Vosk pirates, to harry river shipping and the northern borders of Ar. Vosk pirates now little bothered the realm of Ar, but the memories remained. Vosk traffic, to Ar, which has no sea port, is important. It permits her much wider trade perimeters than would otherwise be possible. Something similar is true of the Cartius, far to her south. Unfortunately for Ar, or perhaps fortunately for the maritime powers of Thassa, it is almost impossible to bring a large ship or barge through the Vosk's delta to the sea. Ar remains substantially a land power, but the river traffic, on the Vosk and, to the south, on the Cartius, is important to her. Tyros' financing of Vosk pirates, over the past century, was an attempt to deprive Ar of the Vosk markets, and make those markets more dependent on overland shipments of goods, originally debarked at shore ports, brought to them by the cargo ships of Tyros, and other maritime powers.
"What if you do not convince her," asked Rim, "that you are of Tabor?"
I shrugged. "If the price is high enough," I suggested, "Verna may not much care whether we are of Tabor or not."
"What, however," asked Rim, "if she does not choose to sell?"
Rim was standing at the window of the stern castle, looking out.
"Then," I said, "we shall have no choice but to take Talena by force."
"What if there is an objection," inquired Rim, "raised on the part of Verna, and her panther girls?"