by John Norman
It interested me that none of the twenty-four girls had been abandoned. But I was not surprised. The female slave, celebrated on Gor for her beauty, her skills and her delights is prize booty. Female slaves are almost never abandoned by Gorean men. He does not care to release such a prize. He keeps it.
Mira went to the coffle of slave beauties and, about in its center, before Verna, seized the throat leather and pulled the girls in a "V" toward the shore. "Come, Slaves!" she ordered.
I gathered that Mira still stood high among the girls of Hura, that her part, or her knowing part, in the drugging of the large number of panther girls in the former camp was not understood.
I recalled that she had submitted herself to me as a slave girl. I saw her dragging the girls down the beach toward the water. I smiled. She belonged to me. Doubtless she hoped to escape. She would not.
"To the water," ordered Sarus.
Marlenus straightened and, proudly, naked, a chain on his neck, his wrists manacled behind him, took his way down the beach toward the water. The other twenty men, Rim behind him, and then Arn, and then men of Marlenus, chained, followed him.
They no longer wore the chain which had been on their left ankle. It had been removed, that they might move more rapidly through the forest, eluding those who pursued the men of Tyros and the girls of Hura.
Further, that they might be more easily managed, and individuals removed from the chain, and perhaps abandoned, they were now fastened in lock chains. If necessary, all might have been, in a moment, abandoned, secured perhaps about trees or rocks, save Marlenus, their chief prize, the central object of their endeavors, their expedition of abduction. Sarus was wise in the ways of slave control. No longer could I count on the slaves constituting for my enemy an impediment to his motions or strategies.
In the last two days, following the night of the drugging of many of Hura's girls, I had not struck further at the men of Tyros with the swift arrows of the great bow.
I had not done so, and had deliberately not done so.
I wished them, once again, to grow confident.
They had not known the numbers or nature of the enemy that pursued them.
Perhaps the enemy had been a group of slavers. There was reason for them to be of this opinion. None of the arrows had felled a woman. Only men. And women, one by one, or in groups of twos and threes, had disappeared, quite possibly to find their fair limbs in the sudden, inflexible clasp of slave steel. The pattern of strikes had not been unlike that which might have distinguished the predations of slavers.
They probably believed their unseen antagonists to be slavers.
Mira, of course, knew better, but she could not speak without revealing her knowing role in the drugging of Hura's women.
Her mouth was sealed. She wished to live.
Even Mira, by my intent, did not know the number of their stalkers.
Doubtless she believed I worked with a band, perhaps a large one, of panther girls.
I watched my enemies from the thicket.
There were no signs of sails on the breadth of gleaming Thassa. The great circle of the horizon was empty. There were swift, white clouds in the sky. I heard the cry of sea birds, broad-winged gulls and the small, stick-legged tibits, pecking in the sand for tiny mollusks. There was a salt smell in the air, swift and bright in the wind. Thassa was beautiful.
Sarus and his men, pressed by my relentless pursuit, had moved much more swiftly to the sea than doubtless he had intended. I counted, accordingly, on his being early for his rendezvous with the Rhoda and Tesephone.
Doubtless Sarus and his men, not attacked since the night of the girls' druggings, were convinced that the "slavers" who had harried them at last were satisfied. Surely they had left behind, scattered, sprawled in helpless stupor, enough beauty to satisfy the Harl rings of almost any slaver's chain. What would it matter to Sarus that more than eighty of his fair allies might even now, in chains, in a slaver's camp, be screaming to the iron's kiss. He, with his men, and Marlenus of Ar, had escaped. Indeed, doubtless even Hura was not dissatisfied with the bargain. What did she care if most, or all, of her girls fell slave, as long as it was not she who found the bracelets locked on her wrists, as long as it was not she who must now live cowering as a collared girl subject to a man's pleasure, to his touch, and to the steel of his chains and the leather of his whip.
Sarus and Hura had come safely to the sea.
And if the "slavers" who had pursued them wished more plunder, they had left them seventy-five strong male slaves, helpless for their harvesting to their own chains.
Surely that would be enough to satisfy any slaver.
Sarus had reasoned well.
Only I was not a slaver.
I looked down to the beach.
My enemies, and their prisoners, stood at the water's edge.
Sarus and Hura had come safely to the sea.
I smiled.
Marlenus in his chains, with Rim and Arn, and the others, stood ankle deep in the water. They were looking out to sea. I saw the fists of the great Ubar clench in his manacles. He stood before the glaring, sunlit waters. He stood facing in the direction in which would lie Tyros. Again those massive fists clenched.
Under the orders of Mira, the twenty-four slave girls in their coffle knelt on the sand, near the water's edge, in the position of pleasure slaves.
They, too, in their bonds, faced toward Tyros.
The men in the tunics of Tyros threw their yellow caps into the air and cheered, and splashed water on one another, laughing. The forest was behind them. They had come safely to the sea. In the darkness of the forest, I smiled.
* * * *
During the afternoon I observed the slave girls, tied in pairs, by the neck, each pair under the guard of a man of Tyros and a panther girl, gathering driftwood and, from the forest's edge, broken branches.
They placed this wood at a point on the beach some twenty yards above the line of high tide, forming with it a great beacon.
Lit, this beacon would constitute the prearranged signal to the ships.
I noted that Cara and Tina were tied together, forming one pair of slave girls. Sheera and Grenna, both former panther girls, formed another pair. Two men of Tyros watched that pair. Sheera was obviously regarded as a troublemaker. Two men also guarded the pair that contained Verna. I saw that her slave bells had been removed. I was pleased with the way the pairs were determined. It accorded with my plans.
Meanwhile, in good order, with confidence, several men of Tyros entered the forest and cut large numbers of stout saplings. I did not interfere with them. These cuttings they sharpened at both ends. One end they forced into the ground high on the beach, among the stones. The other end stood exposed as a defensive point. In this fashion, sapling by sapling, a rude semicircular palisade, of some one hundred feet in length, swiftly took form. It shielded them from the forest. Across the open side, wood was gathered for animal fires, facing the beach. This shelter would protect them from arrows, should they come, from the forest, and, by means of the fires, should discourage the too-close approach of either panthers or sleen, which animals, in any case, seldom leave the forest, seldom prowl on the beach. It was growing dark. It was doubtless for that reason that the palisade was not closed.
Leading from the open side of the palisade to the great beacon was a column of pairs of fires.
By means of these, protected by their flames, in case animals should approach too closely, the great beacon could be fed.
I could not well fire into the palisade without approaching near the water, without leaving the shelter of the forest. Moreover, I was not interested in doing so.
"Light the beacon!" called Sarus. There was a great cheer as, in the falling darkness, the torch thrust down into the oil-soaked wood.
I was not much observed, standing in the background, wearing the yellow of Tyros.
In a moment, like a wind-torn explosion, flame leaped in a breadth of a dozen feet on the still shores, o
n that lonely beach, of Thassa. The men of Tyros were hundreds of pasangs from civilization, but the flames of that blaze brought pleasure to them. It was their beacon to the Rhoda and Tesephone. The men of Tyros began to sing, standing near it. In the back of the semicircular stockade, miserable, chained, lay Marlenus and Rim and Arn, and the other male slaves. They lay on their stomachs. The manacles on the wrists of slaves, thus, may be easily checked by a guard, with a torch, as he makes his rounds. Further, their heads faced toward the wall of the stockade. The less that a slave can know or see the more easily controlled he is. Lastly, for the night, their ankles were crossed and lashed together with binding fiber. They were quite helpless. Similar precautions were taken with the female slaves. Each now, it being night, was tightly gagged. Further, they were alternated, the ankles of one being crossed and bound, and fastened to the throat of the next. This makes it impossible for the girls to rise to their feet. Their wrists, of course, were still secured, with Gorean perfection, behind their backs. I would have no allies within the stockade.
Marlenus and the other male slaves lay closest to the back wall of the stockade. Then, on the other side of them, closer to the sea, lay the gagged, helplessly thonged slave girls; then came the blankets and supplies of Hura's twenty-one women; then came the equipment of the fifty-five men of Tyros, almost at the margin of the animal fires.
Again and again the men of Tyros and their fair allies, the women of Hura, cheered.
I slipped back, unnoticed, into the darkness. I must make rendezvous with the Rhoda and Tesephone before Sarus.
I would need, however, help for my plan to succeed. I would see that I had such help.
Now I must be patient. And I would, for some Ahn, sleep.
* * * *
I awakened after some two or three Ahn, judging by the flight of the moons.
I washed with a bit of water from a stream, ate some tabuk strips from my wallet, and went again to the edge of the forest. The tunic of Tyros, in a tight roll, was tied across my back. I wore green, now black in the darkness, and moved with stealth, as a warrior moves who hunts men, mixing with the shadows, one darkness among others, a movement and a silence.
To my satisfaction I saw that the great beacon was burning low. It would need replenishment.
It was not long that I waited in the shadows before I heard, from within the stockade, commands and the piteous remonstrances of pleading slave girls. I then heard, again and again, the fierce, snapping crack of the slave lash. It fell again and again on the vulnerable, secured bodies of girls in bondage. Its searing cruelty would teach them, and swiftly, that no choice was theirs but immediate, complete and abject obedience. I heard no screaming. A girl cannot scream under the lash. She can scarcely breathe. She can scarcely whisper, hoarsely, piteously, begging for mercy. In Port Kar I had seen the fingernails of girls torn to the quick as they scratched at stones against which they were tied. If she is bound against a wall her entire body may be injured, cut, scoured, cruelly abraded, as she tries to escape the whip. For this reason a girl to be whipped is often suspended from a ring or a pole.
In a few minutes as I had expected, I saw some pairs of slave girls, three pairs, each pair tied together by the neck, brutally driven, stumbling, crying out, from the palisade. A man of Tyros, with a whip, followed each pair.
I noted that, as I would have supposed, and had been anticipating, that the girls driven forth now to gather wood for the fire were not panther girls. Panther girls knew the forests. Panther girls might escape. Six girls were driven forth, tied in three pairs. The first pair was Cara and Tina. They had been tied together earlier to hunt wood, and were isolated in the slave line between Sheera and Grenna, both panther girls. The other two pairs, whimpering, were girls from Marlenus' camp. All of these girls were terrified of the forest. None of them, presumably, could survive alone in it. It was natural that the pairs had been arranged as they had, particularly that of Cara and Tina, given their location in the coffle. I needed Tina, and I preferred to have Cara, too, though, for my plan, another girl might do as well. If Cara had not been tied with Tina I should still have done what I did. I needed the pair which contained Tina. I had suspected, as long ago as Lydius, that that fantastic little wench might prove of great utility to my enterprises. I had not, however, expected to apply her as I now intended.
The men of Tyros, following the weeping girls with their whips, did not care to enter the forest.
"Gather wood, quickly, and return!" cried the fellow guarding Cara and Tina.
"Do not drive us into the forest!" begged Cara. She knelt and put her head to his feet.
"Come with us," wept Tina. "Please, Master!" She knelt before him, holding his ankle, her lips pressed to his foot.
For answer the slave lash fell twice.
Weeping, the two girls sprang to their feet and ran to the edge of the forest and, trying not to enter into its shadows, rapidly, weeping, began to break branches and gather wood.
"Hurry! Hurry!" called their guard.
He snapped the whip.
The two girls in bondage knew well the sound of the whip. They cried out with misery.
They had already been beaten, too, in the stockade. Their delicate flesh, like that of any slave girl, was terrified of the lash. The only woman, slave or free, who does not cringe before the lash is she who has not felt it.
But, too, they feared the forest, the darkness, the animals. They were girls of civilized cities. The forest at night, with its sounds, its perils, the teeth and claws of its predators, was a nightmare of terror for them.
They carried two armloads of branches, and fell to their knees before the guard.
"Let it be enough," they wept.
They wished to return, and promptly, to the light of the animal fires.
They looked up at him, pleading.
"Gather more wood, Girls," said he to them.
"Yes, Master," they said.
"And deeper in the forest," said he.
"Please," they wept.
He lifted the whip.
"I obey," cried Cara.
"I obey!" wept Tina.
From far off, in the forest, came the snarling cry of a panther.
The girls looked at one another.
The man gestured with the whip.
They fled to the darkness of the trees and began to break and gather wood.
In a few minutes, each with an armload of sticks and branches, they emerged.
They knelt before the figure in the yellow of Tyros who stood with the whip, waiting for them, on the beach.
"Is it enough?" begged Cara, looking down.
"It is quite enough," I told them.
They looked up, startled.
"Be silent," I warned them.
"You!" breathed Cara.
"Master," whispered Tina, her eyes wide.
"Where is the guard?" asked Tina.
"He stumbled and fell," I told them. "It seems he struck his head upon a stone."
I did not expect he would awaken for several hours.
"I see," said Cara, smiling.
He had not expected danger from the seaward side of the beach. There were many large, flattish, rounded stones on the beach. He had encountered one.
"There is great danger here for you, Master," said Tina. "You had best flee."
I looked across the beach, some two hundred yards, to the palisade. I wiped sand from my right hand on the woolen tunic of Tyros.
Then I looked down at Tina.
"There are more than fifty men of Tyros here," said Tina.
"There are fifty-five, excluding Sarus of Tyros, their leader," I told her.
She looked at me.
"It was you who followed us," said Cara.
"You must flee," whispered Tina. "There is danger here for you."
"I think," said Cara, smiling, "there is danger here, too, for those of Tyros."
I looked up at the moons.
It was near the twentieth hour, the Gorean mid
night. I must hurry.
"Follow me," I told the two slaves.
They leaped to their feet and, still tied together by the neck, in their tattered woolen tunics, followed me along the beach.
Behind us we heard men calling out the name of another man, doubtless that of the guard, he struck unexpectedly by the blow of a stone. Doubtless he would conjecture that the girls had managed to sneak behind him and strike him, thus making good their escape. There would be wonderment at that, of course, for the girls had been only girls of the civilized city, thought to be terrified of the forest night.
We saw torches far behind us, the search for the guard.
I lengthened my stride. The girls, tied together, stumbling, struggled to match my pace.
The wood we left behind us on the beach. The men of Tyros might use it for their fires, and their beacon.
I did not begrudge them its use. It would do them little good.
* * * *
I looked up at the sun. It was near the tenth hour, the Gorean noon.
I snapped off a large branch, extending from a fallen tree, with the flat of my foot.
I then dragged it down to the beach and threw it on the great pile of wood which I, and Cara and Tina, had accumulated.
I had freed them of the neck tether, and they had worked tirelessly, and with ardor. They had worked as might have free persons. It had not been necessary to use the whip, stolen from the guard, on them.
Their zeal puzzled me. They were only female slaves.
"We are ready," I told them.
We surveyed the great construction of dried branches and gathered driftwood. We had done well.
We had trekked during the night and into the morning. Then we had not stopped to rest, but had begun to gather wood.
I surveyed our great accumulation of driftwood and branches. We had done well.
Being slaves they had dared not inquire of me the intention of our efforts. I was not displeased that they had not done so. I had no wish to beat them. It would have cost me time.