Hunters of Gor

by John Norman

  I cried out with anguish.

  I knew I could not long resist them.

  Verna lifted her head. She laughed. "You are going to be raped," she said.

  I fought the thongs, but, by their bodies, was thrust back. I felt Mira's teeth in my shoulder.

  Suddenly I saw a movement in the darkness, behind the girls. One of the girls suddenly screamed, and was pulled from me, her arms pinned behind her back by a man's hands.

  The girls suddenly looked about themselves, startled. They were seized from behind by the strong hands of men. They screamed.

  I saw Verna's arms, too, pinned behind her. I recognized the man, in hunter's cap, who held her.

  "Greetings," said Marlenus of Ar.

  10

  Marlenus Will Hold Discourse with Me

  The girls' hands were tied behind their backs.

  Marlenus handed Verna to one of his men.

  He bent down, and with a sleen knife, slashed the binding fiber that fastened me between the stakes.

  "Marlenus! Marlenus!" cried a voice.

  A girl struggled forward, her hands tied behind her back. One of Marlenus' men held her by the arm.

  "It is Mira," she said. "It is Mira!"

  Marlenus looked up. "Release her," he said to one of his men.

  The man did so. The girl found her skins, and drew them on, tying them over her left shoulder.

  "Traitress!" cried Verna, held by the man to whom Marlenus had handed her. "Traitress!"

  Mira went to stand before Verna. She spit in Verna's face. "Slave," she said.

  Verna struggled, but she was held, helplessly.

  "I can take any city," said Marlenus, "behind whose walls I can get a tarn of gold."

  I sat up, rubbing my wrists and ankles. "My thanks," said I, "Marlenus of Ar."

  "I will be second to Hura," said Mira to Verna, "when her band arrives to command this portion of the forests."

  Verna said nothing.

  Marlenus rose to his feet and I, unsteadily, did so, too.

  Marlenus unclasped his own hunting cloak, and hurled it to me.

  "My thanks," said I, "Ubar." I fastened it about me, as a tunic.

  Marlenus, as always, was victorious. He was truly the Ubar of Ubars.

  Marlenus looked at Verna. "Tie that woman," he said, "between the stakes."

  Swiftly Verna was thrown to her back between the stakes. Four men, swiftly, tied her wrists and ankles, widely apart, to the stakes. She lay bound where I had lain bound. She lay bound as I had lain bound.

  Marlenus stood over her. He looked down upon her. "You have caused me much inconvenience, Outlaw," he said.

  The girls of Verna, with the exception of Mira, their hands tied behind their backs, were now, by a long strip of binding fiber, being fastened together by the ankle.

  "But though you are an outlaw," said Marlenus, looking down upon Verna, "you are also a woman."

  She looked up at him.

  "It is for that reason," said Marlenus, "that I do not have you now hung upon a tree."

  She regarded him, motionless. Her eyes met his.

  "Rejoice that you are a woman," said Marlenus. "It is only your sex that has saved you."

  She turned her head to one side. She pulled at the binding fiber, but she was helpless.

  "Yes," said Marlenus, looking down upon her, "it is only your sex that has saved you."

  She looked up at him. In the eyes of the proud Verna, to my amazement, I thought I saw tears.

  "Yes," said Marlenus, "it is to your sex that you owe your life."

  She turned her head swiftly away. She had been spared because she was a female. She had been spared only because she was a female.

  "I have information," I said, "that, soon, there are more panther girls entering this portion of the forest. It might be well to withdraw before their arrival."

  Marlenus laughed. "They are the girls of Hura," he said. "They are in my hire."

  Verna cried out with rage.

  He looked down at Verna. "I thought they might prove useful in hunting for this one," he said. He indicated Verna with his foot.

  "But this one," said Marlenus, reaching out and shaking Mira's head with his large hand, "was the most useful of all." He laughed. "With my gold, Hura has increased her band to many girls. It will be the strongest band in the forest. And, with my gold, I have purchased our Mira the lieutenancy in that band."

  "And other gold for Mira, too," she said.

  "Yes," said Marlenus. From his belt he took a heavy pouch.

  He handed it to Mira.

  "My thanks, Ubar," said Mira.

  "Then she betrayed to you the location of the camp and dancing circle?"

  "Yes," said Marlenus.

  "Are my men at the camp?" I asked.

  "We went first to the camp," said Marlenus. "There we freed them."

  "Good," I said.

  "But their heads had been shaved," said Marlenus.

  I shrugged.

  "Some of them appear to be outlaws," said Marlenus.

  "They are my men," I said.

  Marlenus smiled. "We freed them all," he said.

  "My thanks, Ubar," said I. "It seems I owe you much."

  "What is to be done with us?" demanded Verna.

  "Curiosity," said Marlenus, "is not becoming in a Kajira. You might be beaten for it."

  Verna gasped in fury, and was silent.

  "We owe each other much," said Marlenus, putting his hands on my shoulders.

  He had not forgotten the throne of Ar.

  "You banished me from Ar," I said. "You denied me bread, and fire and salt."

  "Yes," said Marlenus, "for long ago you had purloined the Home Stone of Ar."

  I was silent.

  "I learned from spies," said Marlenus, "that you were come to the forests." He smiled. "I hoped to see you once more, but scarcely as I found you."

  He looked at the top of my head.

  I drew away, angrily.

  Marlenus laughed. "You are not the first to fall to panther girls," he said. "Do you wish a cap?"

  "No," I said.

  "Come with my men and me to our camp, north of Laura," he said. "You are welcome there."

  "It does not count, I trust," I asked, "being your camp, as part of the realm of Ar?"

  Marlenus laughed. "No!" he said. "Ar is where the Home Stone of Ar lies!" He chuckled. "You will be a welcome guest. I promise not to torture and impale you, for breaking the banishment."

  "You are most generous," I said.

  "Do not be bitter," he smiled.

  "Very well," I said.

  I looked about. I saw Mira. She had now rearmed herself. At her belt was her sleen knife. In her hand was her light spear.

  "Mira was clever," I said. "She claimed that you had withdrawn your forces to Ar, even that you had disowned Talena. The forged document to that effect was a superb subterfuge."

  Marlenus' eyes were suddenly hard.

  "Forgive me," said I, "Ubar."

  "The document," said Marlenus, "was not forged. Talena, by the permissions of Verna, and by way of Mira, Verna's messenger, with whom I dealt, sued for her purchase, such not being the act of a free woman."

  "Then the disownment," I said, "is true?"

  "It is true, and it is valid," said Marlenus. "Now let us not speak of it. I have been much shamed. I have done what was needful, as a warrior and a father, and a Ubar."

  "But what of Talena?" I said.

  "Who," asked Marlenus, "is this person of whom you speak?"

  I was silent.

  Then Marlenus turned to Verna. "It is my understanding," he said, "that you hold a girl, once known to me, slave."

  Verna was silent.

  "It is my intention to free her," said Marlenus. "She will then be taken to Ar, and may have quarters in the palace of the Ubar."

  "You will sequester her?" I asked him.

  "She will have an adequate pension, and quarters in the palace," said Marlenus.
>
  Verna looked up. "She is near an exchange point," said Verna. "She is being held there."

  Marlenus nodded. "Very well," he said.

  Verna looked up at him. "Are you always victorious, Marlenus of Ar?" she asked.

  Marlenus turned away from her, and went to examine the line of bound girls, Verna's band. They stood, their hands bound behind their backs, fastened together by the long length of binding fiber, knotted about the left ankle of each. He examined them carefully, walking about the entire line, then girl by girl, sometimes pushing up her chin with his thumb.

  "Beauties," he said.

  The girls regarded him, frightened.

  He turned to face his men. "How many of you carry a slave collar with you?" he asked.

  There was much laughter.

  "My pretties," said Marlenus, addressing the line of secured women, "earlier I thought that you were much aroused."

  They looked at one another, apprehensively.

  "It would be cruel," said he, "to deny you your pleasures."

  They regarded him with horror.

  "Put them in the Ubar's collar," he said.

  The men rushed forward, seizing the captives. They forced them back to the grass. They fastened steel collars on their throats.

  Marlenus returned to where Verna lay bound. I could hear the girls crying out, whimpering.

  "Have you no collar for me, Ubar?" asked Verna.

  "Yes," he said, "in my camp, I have a collar for you, my pretty."

  Verna looked at him in fury. He had addressed her as a woman.

  She pulled helplessly at the binding fiber.

  "I will not make the same mistakes with you this time," he said, "that I did last time."

  She looked up at him, miserable.

  "There are no traitors now among my men, no spies from Treve. Each of them is a known man, a sword companion, one of glorious Ar."

  She turned her head away.

  "Further," he said, "last time I intended to return you to Ar in honor, in a retinue, in a stout cage, fastened in the manacles of a man."

  "And now?" she asked, coldly.

  "I had forgotten," he said, "that you were only a woman."

  She stiffened.

  "You had best chain me heavily, Ubar," she warned Marlenus.

  "Slave bracelets, or a sirik, will be sufficient to hold you," said Marlenus.

  She struggled in the thongs.

  "Too," he said, "you will not need this gold." He indicated the rude ornaments which bedecked her beauty, at the throat, on her arms, and her ankle. "These things will be removed from you," he said.

  "You will permit me at least," she said, "the skins of forest panthers."

  "You will wear slave silk," he said.

  "No!" she cried. "No!" She reared up, fighting the thongs.

  "And you will be returned to Ar," said Marlenus, "not in a retinue, but on tarnback, like any other captive girl."

  She closed her eyes.

  Marlenus, patient as a hunter, waited until she again regarded him.

  "In my camp," he said, "you will wear slave rouge."

  She looked at him with horror.

  "And," said Marlenus, "I will have your ears pierced."

  She turned her head to one side, and wept.

  "You weep," said Marlenus, "like a woman."

  She cried out in agony, and turned her head to one side.

  Marlenus sat down, cross-legged, by Verna. He looked on her, intently. He studied her. He gave her great attention. She turned her head to one side, her wrists secured in many turns of binding fiber, her fists clenched. I knew that on Earth many men did not even know their wives. They did not truly look upon them. Never, truly, had they seen them. But a Gorean master will know every inch, and care for every inch, of one of his slave girls. He will know every hair, every sweet blemish of her. In a way she is nothing to him, for she is only slave. But in another way she is very important to him. She is one of his women. He will know her. He will want to know her completely, every inch of her body, every inch of her mind. Nothing less will satisfy him. She is his property. He will choose to know his property thoroughly.

  For a long time Marlenus studied the expressions on Verna's face. I had thought that her face was expressionless, but, as I, too, studied it, looking upon it with great attention and care, I saw that it was marvelous and changing and subtle. And I understood then that our simple words for emotions, such as pride, and hate, and fear, are gross and inadequate. The sharpened stone clutched in the hand of a shambling beast is a delicate instrument compared to the clumsy noises, these piteous vocabularies, with which we, unwary men, dare to speak of realities. I know of no language in which the truth may be spoken. The truth can be seen, and felt, and known, but I do not think it may be spoken. Each of us learns it, but none of us, I think, can tell another what it is.

  Marlenus looked up at me.

  He nodded with his head toward the line of girls, pressed back on the grass, steel at their throats, struggling bound in the arms of captors.

  "You may have any of them, if you wish," said Marlenus.

  "No, Ubar," I told him.

  After an Ahn Marlenus said. "We shall return to Verna's camp. We shall spend the night there. In the morning we shall return to my camp, north of Laura."

  He rose to his feet.

  "Present the slaves," said Marlenus, "to their leader."

  One by one, the girls, their wrists still bound behind their back, their left ankles still in coffle, were dragged before Verna.

  Each one, steel at her throat, her eyes glazed, hair before her face, was held before Verna.

  Some struggled. Few held up their heads.

  "Verna!" wept one. "Verna!"

  Verna did not speak to her.

  Then the girls, in coffle, were led away into the darkness, herded by the butts of spears. Some wept.

  "At your camp," Marlenus informed Verna, "we will put them in proper chains."

  Marlenus then released Verna's wrists, and her right ankle. She was still bound to a stake by the left ankle.

  "Stand," he said.

  She did so.

  "Bracelets," he said.

  She looked at him, with hatred.

  "Must a command be repeated?" he asked.

  She put her head in the air and placed her hands behind her back.

  Marlenus locked bracelets on her. They were slave bracelets.

  "Have you no heavier chains?" she asked.

  "Free yourself," said Marlenus.

  The girl struggled, helplessly. In the end she was, of course, as perfectly secured as before.

  "They are slave bracelets," said Marlenus. "They are quite adequate to hold a woman."

  She looked at him with hatred.

  "And you, my pretty," said Marlenus, "are a woman."

  Verna shook with fury, and turned her head away.

  Marlenus then took a length of binding fiber, of some eight feet in length, and knotted one end of it about Verna's throat. The other end he looped twice about his belt.

  He then bent down and, with his sleen knife, slashed the binding fiber that still fastened her left ankle to the stake.

  Verna was now free of the stakes. She had exchanged the bondage of the stakes for that of bracelets and leash.

  She looked at him. She stood before him, her wrists fastened behind her back, her neck in his tether.

  "Are you always victorious, Marlenus of Ar?" she asked.

  "Lead us, little tabuk," said Marlenus, "to your stall."

  She turned about, in fury, her head in the air, and led us through the darkness toward her camp.

  "We have much to talk about," Marlenus was telling me. "It has been long since we have seen one another."

  11

  Marlenus Holds a Flaminium

  In the camp of Marlenus, some pasangs north of Laura, I supped with the great Ubar.

  His hunting tent, hung on its eight great poles, was open at the sides. From where we sat, cross-legge
d, across from one another, before the low table, I could see the tent ropes stretched taut to stakes in the ground, the drainage ditch cut around the base of the tent, the wall of saplings, sharpened, which surrounded the camp. I could see, too, Marlenus' men, at their fires and shelters. Here and there were piled boxes, and rolls of canvas, and, too, at places, were poles and frames on which skins were stretched, trophies of his luck in the sport. He had, too, taken two sleen alive, and four panthers, and these were in stout cages of wood, lashed together with leather.

  "Wine," said Marlenus.

  He was served by the beautiful slave girl.

  "Would you care for a game?" asked Marlenus, indicating a board and pieces which stood to one side. The pieces, tall, weighted, stood ready on their first squares.

  "No," I said to him. I was not in a mood for the game.

  I had played Marlenus before. His attack was fierce, devastating, sometimes reckless. I myself am an aggressive player, but against Marlenus it seemed always necessary to defend. Against him one played defensively, conservatively, positionally, waiting, waiting for the tiny misjudgment, the small error or mistake. But it was seldom made.

  Marlenus was a superb player.

  He had not been able to handle me as well as he liked on the board. This had whetted his appetite to crush me. He had not been able to do so. In the past year, in Port Kar, I had grown muchly fond of the game. I had tried to play frequently with players of strength superior to my own. I found myself often, eventually, capable of beating them. Then I would seek others, stronger still. I had studied, too, the games of masters, in particular those of the young, handsome, lame, fiery Scormus of Ar, and of the much older, almost legendary master of Cos, gentle, white-haired Centius, he of the famed Centian opening. Scormus was fierce, arrogant and brilliant. The medallion and throne of Centius was now, by many, said to be his. But there were those who did not agree. The hand of Centius now sometimes shook, and it seemed his eyes did not see the board as once they did. But there were few men on Gor who did not fear as the hand of Centius thrust forth his Ubar's Tarnsman to Physician Seven. It was said that Scormus of Ar and Centius of Cos would sometime meet at the great fair of En'Kara, in the shadow of the Sardar. Never as yet had the two sat across from one another. Cos, like Tyros, is a traditional enemy of Ar. It was said that some coming En'Kara Scormus and Centius must meet. All Gor awaited this meeting. Already weights of gold had been wagered on its outcome. Players, incidentally, are free to travel where they wish on the surface of Gor, no matter what might be their city. By custom, they, like musicians, are held free of the threat of enslavement. Like musicians, and like singers, there are few courts at which they are not welcome. That he had once played a man such as Scormus of Ar or Centius of Cos is the sort of thing that a Gorean grandfather will boast of to his grandchildren.