by John Norman
I felt my hand clench on the hilt of my sword.
"Stay your hand, Warrior," said Thorn. He turned to the girl. "To whom do you belong?" he asked.
"I belong to Thorn, Captain of Tharna," she said.
I replaced the sword in my sheath, shattered, helpless. I could kill Thorn and his warrior perhaps, free her. But what then? Free her to the beasts of Gor, to another slaver? She would never accept my protection, and by her own actions she preferred Thorn and slavery to a favor from the man called Tarl of Ko-ro-ba.
I looked at her. "Are you of Ko-ro-ba?" I asked.
She stiffened, and looked at me with hatred. "I was," she said.
"I am sorry," I said.
She looked at me, tears of hatred burning in her eyes.
"Why have you dared to survive your city?" she asked.
"To avenge it," I replied.
She looked into my eyes for a long time. And then, as Thorn and the warrior picked up the litter with their wounded companion and began to depart, she said to me, "Good-bye, Tarl of Ko-ro-ba."
"I wish you well, Vera of the Towers of the Morning," I said.
She turned quickly, following her master, and I remained standing alone in the field.
8
The City of Tharna
The streets of Tharna were crowded, yet strangely silent. The gate had been open and though I had been carefully scrutinized by its guards, tall spearmen in blue helmets, no one had objected to my entry. It must be as I had heard, that the streets of Tharna were open to all men who came in peace, whatever their city.
Curiously, I examined the crowds, all seemingly bent on their business, yet strangely tight lipped, subdued, much different from the normal, bustling throngs of a Gorean city. Most of the male citizens wore gray tunics, perhaps indicative of their superiority to pleasure, their determination to be serious and responsible, to be worthy scions of that industrious and sober city.
On the whole they seemed to me a pale and depressed lot, but I was confident they could accomplish what they set their minds to, that they might succeed in tasks which the average Gorean male, with his impatience and lightness of heart, would simply abandon as distasteful or not worth the effort, for the average Gorean male, it must be admitted, tends to regard the joys of life somewhat more highly than its duties.
On the shoulders of their gray tunics only a small band of color indicated caste. Normally the caste colors of Gor would be in abundant evidence, enlivening the streets and bridges of the city, a glorious spectacle in Gor's bright, clear air.
I wondered if men in this city were not proud of their castes, as were, on the whole, other Goreans, even those of the so-called lower castes. Even men of a caste as low as that of the Tarn-Keepers were intolerably proud of their calling, for who else could raise and train those monstrous birds of prey? I supposed Zosk the Woodsman was proud in the knowledge that he with his great broad-headed ax could fell a tree in one blow, and that perhaps not even a Ubar could do as much. Even the Caste of Peasants regarded itself as the "Ox on which the Home Stone Rests" and could seldom be encouraged to leave their narrow strips of land, which they and their fathers before them had owned and made fruitful.
I missed in the crowd the presence of slave girls, common in other cities, usually lovely girls clad only in the brief, diagonally striped slave livery of Gor, a sleeveless, briefly skirted garment terminating some inches above the knee, a garment that contrasts violently with the heavy, cumbersome Robes of Concealment worn by free women. Indeed, it was known that some free women actually envied their lightly clad sisters in bondage, free, though wearing a collar, to come and go much as they pleased, to feel the wind on the high bridges, the arms of a master who celebrated their beauty and claimed them as his own. I remembered that in Tharna, ruled by its Tatrix, there would be few, if any, female slaves. Whether or not there were male slaves I could not well judge, for the collars would have been hidden by the gray robes. There is no distinctive garment for a male slave on Gor, since, as it is said, it is not well for them to discover how numerous they are.
The purpose, incidentally, of the brief garment of the female slave is not simply to mark out the girl in bondage but, in exposing her charms, to make her, rather than her free sister, the favored object of raids on the part of roving tarnsmen. Whereas there is status in the capture of a free woman, there is less risk in the capture of a slave; the pursuit is never pressed as determinedly in their cases, and one does not have to imperil one's life for a girl who might, once the Robes of Concealment have been cast off, turn out to have the face of an urt and the temper of a sleen.
Perhaps I was most startled on the silent streets of Tharna by the free women. They walked in this city unattended, with an imperious step, the men of Tharna moving to let them pass—in such a way that they never touched. Each of these women wore resplendent Robes of Concealment, rich in color and workmanship, standing out among the drab garments of the men, but instead of the veil common with such robes the features of each were hidden behind a mask of silver. The masks were of identical design, each formed in the semblance of a beautiful, but cold face. Some of these masks had turned to gaze upon me as I passed, my scarlet warrior's tunic having caught their eye. It made me uneasy to be the object of their gaze, to be confronted by those passionless, glittering silver masks.
Wandering in the city, I found myself in Tharna's marketplace. Though it was apparently a market day, judging from the numerous stalls of vegetables, the racks of meat under awnings, the tubs of salted fish, the cloths and trinkets spread out on carpets before the seated, cross-legged merchants, there was none of the noisy clamor that customarily attends the Gorean market. I missed the shrill, interminable calls of the vendors, each different; the good-natured banter of friends in the marketplace exchanging gossip and dinner invitations; the shouts of burly porters threading their way through the tumult; the cries of children escaped from their tutors and playing tag among the stalls; the laughter of veiled girls teasing and being teased by young men, girls purportedly on errands for their families, yet somehow finding the time to taunt the young swains of the city, if only by a flash of their dark eyes and a perhaps too casual adjustment of their veil.
Though on Gor the free maiden is by custom expected to see her future companion only after her parents have selected him, it is common knowledge that he is often a youth she has met in the marketplace. He who speaks for her hand, especially if she is of low caste, is seldom unknown to her, although the parents and the young people as well solemnly act as though this were the case. The same maiden whom her father must harshly order into the presence of her suitor, the same shy girl who, her parents approvingly note, finds herself delicately unable to raise her eyes in his presence, is probably the same girl who slapped him with a fish yesterday and hurled such a stream of invective at him that his ears still smart, and all because he had accidentally happened to be looking in her direction when an unpredictable wind had, in spite of her best efforts, temporarily disarranged the folds of her veil.
But this market was not like other markets I had known on Gor. This was simply a drab place in which to buy food and exchange goods. Even the bargaining that went on, for there are no fixed prices in a Gorean market, seemed dreary, grim, lacking the zest and rivalry of other markets I had seen, the glorious expletives and superlative insults traded between buyer and seller with such incomparable style and gusto. Indeed, upon occasion, in other markets, a buyer who had succeeded in winning the haggling would bestow five times as many coins on the seller as he had agreed to pay, humiliating him with a smug, "Because I wish to pay you what it is worth." Then, if the seller is sufficiently outraged, he might give back the buyer the coins, including most of those he had agreed to pay, saying, with mock contrition, "I do not wish to cheat you." Then another round of insults occurs, and, eventually, both parties satisfied, some compromise having been reached, the transaction is concluded. Buyer and seller part, each convinced that he has had by far the best of the bargain.
In this market, on the other hand, a steward would simply approach a vendor and point to some article, and hold up a certain number of fingers. The vendor would then hold up a higher number, sometimes bending his fingers at the knuckle to indicate a fraction of the value unit, which would be, presumably, the copper tarn disk. The steward might then improve his offer, or prepare to depart. The vendor would then either let him go or lower his price, by expressionlessly lifting fewer fingers than before. When either party called off the bargaining, his fists were closed. If a sale had been made, the steward would take a number of pierced coins, threaded on a string hung about his left shoulder, hand them to the vendor, pick up his article and depart. When words were exchanged, they were whispered and curt.
As I left the marketplace, I noted two men, furtive, round-shouldered in their nondescript gray robes, who followed me. Their faces were concealed in the folds of their garments, which had been drawn over their heads in the manner of a hood. Spies, I thought. It was an intelligent precaution for Tharna to take, to keep an eye on the stranger, lest her hospitality be abused. I made no effort to elude their surveillance, for that might perhaps have been interpreted as a breach of etiquette on my part, perhaps even a confession of villainous intent. Besides, as they did not know that I knew they followed me, this gave me a certain advantage in the matter. It was possible, of course, that they were merely curious. After all, how many scarlet-clad warriors appeared from day to day in the drab streets of Tharna?
I climbed one of the towers of Tharna, wanting to look out upon the city. I emerged on the highest bridge I could find. It was railed, as most Gorean bridges, high or low, are not. Slowly I let my eye wander the city, surely in its people and their customs one of the most unusual on Gor.
Tharna, though a city of cylinders, did not seem to my eye as beautiful as many other cities I had seen. This was perhaps because the cylinders were, on the whole, less lofty than those of other cities, and much broader, giving an impression of a set of squat, accumulated disks, so different from the lofty forests of sky-challenging towers and battlements distinguishing most Gorean cities. Moreover, in contrast to most cities, the cylinders of Tharna seemed excessively solemn, as if overcome by their own weight. They were scarcely distinguishable from one another, an aggregate of grays and browns, so different from the thousand gay colors that gleamed in most cities, where each cylinder in towering splendor lodged its claim to be the bravest and most beautiful of all.
Even the horizontal plains about Tharna, marked by their occasional outcroppings of weathered boulders, seemed to be gray, rather cold and gloomy, perhaps sad. Tharna was not a city to lift the heart of a man. Yet I knew that this city was, from my point of view, one of the most enlightened and civilized on Gor. In spite of this conviction, incomprehensibly, I found myself depressed by Tharna, and wondered if it, in its way, were not somehow, subtly, more barbaric, more harsh, less human than its ruder, less noble, more beautiful sisters. I determined that I should try to secure a tarn and proceed as quickly as possible to the Sardar Mountains, to keep my appointment with the Priest-Kings.
"Stranger," said a voice.
I turned.
One of the two nondescript men who had been following me had approached. His face was concealed in the folds of his robe. With one hand he held the folds together, lest the wind should lift the cloth and reveal his face, and with the other hand, he clutched the rail on the bridge, as if uncomfortable, uneasy at the height.
A slight rain had begun to fall.
"Tal," I said to the man, lifting my arm in the common Gorean greeting.
"Tal," he responded, not taking his arm from the rail.
He approached me, more closely than I liked. "You are a stranger in this city," he said.
"Yes," I said.
"Who are you, Stranger?"
"I am a man of no city," I said, "whose name is Tarl." I wanted no more of the havoc I had wreaked earlier by the mere mention of the name of Ko-ro-ba.
"What is your business in Tharna?" he asked.
"I should like to obtain a tarn," I said, "for a journey I have in mind." I had answered him rather directly. I assumed him to be a spy, charged with learning my reasons for visiting Tharna. I scorned to conceal this reason, though the object of my journey I reserved to myself. That I was determined to reach the Sardar Mountains he need not know. That I had business with the Priest-Kings was not his concern.
"A tarn is expensive," he said.
"I know," I said.
"Have you money?" he asked.
"No," I said.
"How then," he asked, "do you propose to obtain your tarn?"
"I am not an outlaw," I said, "though I wear no insignia on my tunic, or shield."
"Of course not," he said quickly. "There is no place in Tharna for an outlaw. We are a hard-working and honest folk."
I could see that he did not believe me, and somehow I did not believe him either. For no good reason I began to dislike him. With both hands I reached to his hood and jerked it from his face. He snatched at the cloth and replaced it quickly. I had caught a brief glimpse of a sallow face, with skin like a dried lemon and pale blue eyes. His comrade, who had been furtively peering about, started forward and then stopped. The sallow-faced man, clutching the folds of the hood about his face, twisted his head to the left and the right to see if anyone might be near, if anyone might have observed.
"I like to see to whom I speak," I said.
"Of course," said the man ingratiatingly, a bit unsteadily, drawing the hood even more closely about his features.
"I want to obtain a tarn," I said. "Can you help me?" If he could not, I had decided to terminate the interview.
"Yes," said the man.
I was interested.
"I can help you obtain not only a tarn," said the man, "but a thousand golden tarn disks and provisions for as lengthy a journey as you might wish."
"I am not an assassin," I said.
"Ah!" said the man.
Since the siege of Ar, when Pa-Kur, Master Assassin, had violated the limits of his caste and had presumed, in contradiction to the traditions of Gor, to lead a horde upon the city, intending to make himself Ubar, the Caste of Assassins had lived as hated, hunted men, no longer esteemed mercenaries whose services were sought by cities, and, as often, by factions within cities. Now many assassins roamed Gor, fearing to wear the somber black tunic of their caste, disguised as members of other castes, not infrequently as warriors.
"I am not an assassin," I repeated.
"Of course not," said the man. "The Caste of Assassins no longer exists."
I doubted that.
"But are you not intrigued, Stranger," asked the man, his pale eyes squinting up at me through the folds of the gray robe, "by the offer of a tarn, gold and provisions?"
"What must I do to earn this?" I asked.
"You need kill no one," said the man.
"What then?" I asked.
"You are bold and strong," he said.
"What must I do?" I asked.
"You have undoubtedly had experience in affairs of this sort," suggested the man.
"What would you have me do?" I demanded.
"Carry off a woman," he said.
The light drizzle of rain, almost a gray mist matching the miserable solemnity of Tharna, had not abated, and had, by now, soaked through my garments. The wind, which I had not noticed before, now seemed cold.
"What woman?" I asked.
"Lara," said he.
"And who is Lara?" I asked.
"Tatrix of Tharna," he said.
9
The Kal-Da Shop
Standing there on the bridge, in the rain, facing the obsequious, hooded conspirator, I felt suddenly sad. Here even in the noble city of Tharna there was intrigue, political strife, ambition that would not brook confinement. I had been taken for an assassin, or an outlaw, been assessed as a likely instrument for the furtherance of the foul schemes of one of Tharna's dissatisfied factio
ns.
"I refuse," I said.
The small lemon-faced man drew back as if slapped. "I represent a personage of power in this city," he said.
"I wish no harm to Lara, Tatrix of Tharna," I told him.
"What is she to you?" asked the man.
"Nothing," I said.
"And yet you refuse?"
"Yes," I said, "I refuse."
"You are afraid," he said.
"No," I said, "I am not afraid."
"You will never get your tarn," hissed the man. He turned on his heel and still clinging to the railing on the bridge scurried to the threshold of the cylinder, his comrade before him. At the threshold he called back. "You will never leave the walls of Tharna alive," he said.
"Be it so," I said, "I will not do your bidding."
The slight, gray-robed figure, almost as insubstantial as the mist itself, appeared ready to leave, but suddenly hesitated. He appeared to waver for a moment, then he briefly conferred with his companion. They seemed to reach some agreement. Cautiously, his companion remaining behind, he edged out onto the bridge again.
"I spoke hastily," he said. "No danger will come to you in Tharna. We are a hardworking and honest folk."
"I am pleased to hear that," I said.
Then to my surprise he pressed a small, heavy leather sack of coins into my hand. He smiled up at me, a twisted grin visible through the obscuring folds of the gray robe. "Welcome to Tharna!" he said, and fled across the bridge and into the cylinder.
"Come back!" I cried, holding the bag of coins out to him. "Come back!"
But he was gone.
* * * *
At least this night, this rainy night, I would not sleep again in the fields, for, thanks to the puzzling gift of the hooded conspirator, I had the means to purchase lodging. I left the bridge, and descended through the spiral stairwell of the cylinder, soon finding myself on the streets again.
Inns, as such, are not plentiful on Gor, the hostility of cities being what it is, but usually some can be found in each city. There must, after all, be provision made for entertaining merchants, delegations from other cities, authorized visitors of one sort or another, and, to be frank, the innkeeper is not always scrupulous about the credentials of his guests, asking few questions if he receives his handful of copper tarn disks. In Tharna, however, famed for its hospitality, I was confident that inns would be common. It was surprising then that I could locate none.