Plunder of Gor

by Norman, John;

  “Do not dare speak to me so!” cried Lyris.

  “Surely you know the fate of many Kur females, females of the party of Lord Agamemnon, following the victory of the usurper, Lord Arcesilaus?”

  “What has that to do with me?” she said.

  “They will remain as they are,” said Surtak.

  “I do not understand,” she said.

  “We can learn something from humans,” said Surtak.

  “Beware,” said Lyris, “I might be displeased.”

  “You beware,” said Surtak, “lest I find you displeasing.”

  “Sleen!” she said. “Stop! Stop! What are you doing?”

  “You will not need these things any longer,” he said.

  “No, stop!” she cried.

  “You see, my dear Kurik,” said Lord Grendel, “she does look better without her harnessing.”

  “If you say so,” said Kurik.

  Deprived of her harnessing, I supposed Lyris must seem reduced, vulnerable, exposed, naked, in a sense, though, from my point of view, of course, she seemed little different from before. A female Kur without harnessing is without status. Other female Kurii look down upon her. Male Kurii, on the other hand, may then look upon her differently, and with a new, and aggressive, interest.

  Surtak then seized Lyris, and threw her to his feet, and then held out his hand, or paw, to Drusus Andronicus, who removed an opened, metal object from the large sack at his left hip.

  “No!” cried Lyris, struggling, her hands, or paws, trying to tear the encircling metal collar from about her neck.

  “It is on you,” said Surtak. “Remain at my feet, where you belong.”

  “Please, no!” she said.

  “You have rejected and scorned me for the last time,” said Surtak. “Now you will have to hope to please me.”

  “Release me!” she cried. “You would have paid ten tarns of gold, of double weight, to free me!”

  “I would have paid that much, and more,” he said, “to have you where you are now, in my collar.”

  “Take this hideous thing off my neck!” she cried.

  “It is actually quite attractive on you,” he said. “It enhances your loveliness. It makes you a thousand times more beautiful.”

  “Return my harnessing!” she cried.

  “Kur slaves are not permitted harnessing,” he said.

  “‘Slaves’!” she cried.

  “Free males are to be addressed as ‘Master’,” he said, “and free females as ‘Mistress’.”

  “Free me!” she cried.

  “As our human friends have it,” he said, “only a fool frees a slave girl.”

  “Let me go!” she cried.

  “Do not become tiresome,” he said.

  “Free me! Free me!” she cried.

  “Beware,” he said, “lest you be found displeasing.”

  “Let me go!” she cried.

  “Have you requested permission to speak?” he asked.

  “I am not a slave!” she cried. “Take this thing off my neck! Return my harnessing!”

  Angrily Surtak jerked Lyris to her feet and, holding her, forced her, struggling, to the side of the bridge.

  Then she was very still, not daring to move, held at the edge.

  Paula screamed, “No!”

  “Be silent,” said Drusus Andronicus, sharply, and, seizing Paula by the hair, thrust her to his feet.

  I closed my eyes.

  It made me ill, to even think of looking over the edge, to the street far below.

  Lyris was uttering terrified, rushing, howling, piteous sounds in Kur. The transmissions from Surtak’s translator were jumbled, and crowded together, almost like static, as the machine tried to isolate and sort out Kur, and produce comprehensible Gorean. Even so, there was little similarity between the placid output of the translator, however hesitant and disjointed, and the marked agitation and terror registered in the original Kur.

  “Mercy, have mercy!” cried Lyris. “I beg mercy! Mercy! I beg mercy! Please, Master! I beg mercy, Master! Master!”

  Surtak then drew Lyris back from the edge, and she collapsed to the floor of the bridge, shuddering.

  “Your name,” he said, “is ‘Lyris’.”

  “Yes, Master,” she said.

  “What is your name?” he asked.

  “‘Lyris’, Master,” she said.

  Surtak then turned to Lord Grendel. “Now each of us has his worthless she.” He said.

  “I wish you well,” said Lord Grendel.

  “I wish you well,” said Surtak, and turned about, and took his leave.

  I saw Paula at the feet of Drusus Andronicus. She thrust her cheek to his thigh, and held his leg.

  How right she was there, at his feet!

  How fulfilled she was to be a well-mastered slave!

  How profound were her slave needs!

  And on Gor, freed of the walls and fences, of the hobbles and lacerating wires, the closures and stern barriers, the prescriptions and prohibitions, the confinements and cruelties, of my former world, I, too, now liberated, now enslaved, had found the self I had been denied on Earth, a self I had been ordered not to recognize. If one hungers, why should one not eat; if one thirsts, why should one not drink; if one has slave needs, why should one not satisfy them, at the feet of a master?

  Drusus Andronicus gently pushed Paula from him, and turned to follow Surtak. She, still kneeling, lifted her head and looked at me, and before I, frightened, and distraught, could look away, I saw her smile. She seemed clearly happy to see me, however briefly. I had read the light of affection in her eyes. She had now leaped up, to hurry behind Drusus Andronicus.

  I sobbed with joy.

  As I had anticipated, Drusus Andronicus had not informed her of my contemptible indiscretion, my petty attempt to interest and ensnare him. Why should he have informed her? My master had been wrong. Paula knew nothing of what I had done. She would never learn. Things would be as before, save that I now cared for her a thousand times more than in the past. I had not lost my friend. I had found her. She would never learn what I had done. My heart flooded with relief, with gladness, with my love for her.

  I saw Lyris, trembling, following Surtak, Master Drusus, and Paula.

  “Phyllis,” said Kurik, “prepare to heel.”

  “Yes, Master,” I said, and hurried to kneel near him, at his side.

  Eve was nearby, crouched down, weeping. I did not know why Lord Grendel had spoken to her so cruelly, so abusively. Surely she needed no additions to her other miseries and pains. To see herself, to think of herself, put a whip to her heart. Did she not suffer enough, being herself?

  “Do not cry, Eve,” I whispered to her.

  But my words, if heard, were not heeded.

  Lord Grendel was looking after the retreating party. At his feet, looped, seemingly discarded, was the chaining, the manacles, shackles, collar, and such, that had restrained Lyris.

  “They will have their weapons in a moment,” said Kurik.

  “No matter,” said Lord Grendel. “Surtak has honor, and now he has Lyris, as well, and as he has always wanted her.”

  “Would he have cast her from the bridge?” asked Kurik.

  “Surely,” said Lord Grendel. “He is Kur.”

  “May I speak, Master?” I asked Kurik.

  “Yes,” he said, looking after the withdrawing party.

  “Phyllis displeased Master,” I said.

  “Yes,” he said, “and your back, belly, and legs should remind you of that.”

  “They do,” I said.

  “Good,” he said.

  “Does Master care for Phyllis?” I asked.

  “Not particularly,” he said.

  “Would you,” I asked, “in such a situation, as that between
Master Surtak and Lyris, have cast me from the bridge?”

  “No,” he said.

  “Then perhaps Master cares for Phyllis, a little,” I said.

  “Of what use is a crushed, lifeless slave?” he asked. “I would not cast you from the bridge. I would sell you, for a handful of tarsk-bits, or whatever you are worth.” He then spoke to Lord Grendel. “They have their weapons by now,” he said. “And continue on their way.”

  “Of course,” said Lord Grendel.

  “Then we are safe,” said Kurik.

  “I do not think so,” said Lord Grendel. His head was back, and his nostrils were wide.

  “What do you smell?” asked Kurik.

  “Kurii,” said Lord Grendel.

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  “What do you smell?” had asked Kurik.

  “Kurii,” had said Lord Grendel.

  “Let us hasten to our weapons,” said Kurik.

  “It is no use,” said Lord Grendel. “They will have been upon them shortly after we abandoned them.”

  “We are betrayed,” said Kurik, bitterly.

  “Not really,” said Lord Grendel. “The rendezvous was fairly met, and the exchange conducted as agreed.”

  “So this exhibits the honor of Surtak,” said Kurik.

  “I do not see Surtak in this matter,” said Lord Grendel. “I see Lord Agamemnon.”

  “Failing to win your oath by gifts and power, or by intimidation, threats, and guile,” said Kurik, “he would respond to your resistance with steel.”

  “Do not think poorly of Lord Agamemnon,” said Grendel. “It is not his way to endure misfortune with equanimity.”

  “He would make an example, it seems,” said Kurik, “of those who would brook his will.”

  “Influence can be brought to bear in many ways,” said Lord Grendel.

  “Doubtless,” said Kurik.

  “He was the Eleventh Face of the Nameless One,” said Lord Grendel.

  “We must withdraw,” said Kurik.

  “Do not be foolish, dear friend,” said Lord Grendel. “If the way forward, toward our weapons, is blocked, the way back will be closed, as well. We are trapped on the bridge.”

  “Phyllis,” said Kurik, “stay behind me, as you can. If there are men in this, it will be no more than a change of collar for you.”

  “I do not want a change of collar!” I said.

  “Be silent,” he said. “You are a slave. You are a beast, nothing. Understand that. It will be done with you as masters please.”

  “Yes, Master,” I wept.

  “I do not think there will be men in this,” said Lord Grendel.

  “With the bow,” said Kurik, “I could charge them a high price for my life.”

  “A bridge, in a high city,” said Lord Grendel, “is not a bad place to die. One feels the wind. One sees the towers, the clouds, the sky.”

  “What of Eve?” asked Kurik.

  “Poor Eve,” said Lord Grendel.

  He then approached the beast, Eve, and gently, very tenderly, put his paw on her shoulder. “Forgive me, Beautiful Thing,” he said to her. “I spoke brutally to you, to convince Surtak that you were nothing to me, that he would not think of utilizing you in some way to influence me, as Lord Agamemnon tried to do with a free woman, she called ‘Bina’, whom I protect and care for, as one might care for, and protect, an amoral, innocent, naive, wanton child. Know, lovely creature, that you are the dearest, most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. You are a thousand times more beautiful than Lyris, the most beautiful Kur female I have ever seen. In seeing you I am reconciled to myself.”

  Eve regarded him, wide-eyed. “My eyes,” she said, “my hands, my voice.”

  “Your eyes,” he said, “are beautiful, the gray, tinged with blue, the sky awakening in the early morning. Your hands are lovely. What matters it if you have five fingers and not six? Five is natural for you, as for many fine forms of life. Cannot five fingers hold, grasp, caress, and touch as well as six? Your voice is soft, and not harsh; it can utter Kur, and make human sounds, as well. It can do both. How many humans can speak in Kur, how many Kurii in the tongues of the humans?”

  “I am a monster,” she said.

  “You have been told so,” he said, “but you are not. You are merely different, as I am different. We bring two bloods together and, in doing so, become a new blood, strong, fine, and wondrous.”

  “I am not ugly, I am not terrible?” she asked.

  “No,” he said. “You are not ugly, you are not terrible. You are beautiful, you are fine.”

  “I am afraid to see myself as I am,” she said.

  “I see you as you are,” he said, “beautiful, and fine.”

  “It cannot be,” she said.

  “It is,” he said. “The mighty tarn soars in the sky, putting clouds beneath its wings. The larl rules the mountains and forests. Do not judge the tarn by the larl, or the larl by the tarn. The tarn is not a failed larl, nor the larl a tarn gone awry. Each is different. Each is magnificent, and right. You are not life gone wrong, but life born anew.”

  Eve began to sob in his arms.

  “Grendel,” said Kurik, “I can see, behind us, approaching on the bridge, Kurii.”

  Lord Grendel rose up then to his full height, and looked back. In that moment there was something awesome, mighty, and fearfully Kurlike in his mien. “Yes,” he said, “six.”

  “The two groups will trap us between them,” said Kurik, “those by our weapons, and those approaching.”

  “Scarcely,” said Lord Grendel.

  “I do not understand,” said Kurik.

  “Do not fear, little Phyllis,” said Lord Grendel, looking down, towering over me. “If your collar is changed, it will be because your master decides to rid himself of you, to give you away or sell you, as is his right.”

  I did not respond, but feared some disorder, occasioned by the hopelessness of our situation, had unsettled the mind of Lord Grendel. It was true, of course, that my master could do with me as he pleased. He was master. I was slave. On this world I was what I should be, and should have been, as well, on my former world, had it been naturally and rightfully ordered, property.

  “We are lost,” said Kurik.

  “Not at all,” said Lord Grendel.

  “I do not understand,” said Kurik.

  “You see the Kurii behind us,” said Lord Grendel. “It will take them some time to reach this point.”

  “Doubtless,” said Kurik, looking back.

  “You know, I assume,” said Lord Grendel, “that Kurii possess impressive weaponry.”

  “Of course,” said Kurik.

  “Gases, explosive substances, rays, and such.”

  “I suppose so,” said Kurik. “I know little of it.”

  “One such weapon,” said Lord Grendel, “could, in a matter of two or three Ihn, turn this bridge, and the cylinders it connects, into plunging, falling, air-scalding molten metal and stone.”

  “I know little of such things,” said Kurik.

  “But such things, surely, for the most part,” said Lord Grendel, “are on the steel worlds, or carried in the ships of the steel worlds.”

  “The Kurii behind us grow nearer,” said Kurik.

  “Did you know,” asked Lord Grendel, “that such devices still figure in wars amongst the steel worlds?”

  “No,” said my master, looking back. “I did not know that wars might exist amongst the steel worlds.”

  “Old habits,” said Lord Grendel, “are hard to break. I think sometimes the only thing that maintains the peace, such as it is, amongst the steel worlds, is the hope to obtain Gor.”

  I had come to gather that the Kurii, those whose orbiting domiciles, far off, were concealed in the River of Stones, whatever that might be, coveted Gor.


  “And what stands between the Kurii and Gor?” inquired Lord Grendel.

  “The Priest-Kings,” said Kurik.

  “And that is why,” said Lord Grendel, “we are going to live.”

  “I do not understand,” said Kurik. He then looked back, again, uneasily. “Those approaching, I conjecture,” he said, “are some one hundred paces distant.”

  “Few Kurii, on Gor,” said Lord Grendel, “will risk the bearing of a forbidden weapon. The laws of the Priest-Kings are strict. Their enforcement is merciless. Doubtless their surveillance, limited as to resources and interest, is incomplete and sporadic, but it exists. There have been several well-documented instances of the Flame Death. No, Kurii on Gor are very much aware, even more so than humans I suspect, of the Weapon and Technology Laws of the Priest-Kings and the hazards of contravening them. Many humans do not believe in the existence of Priest-Kings, supposing them to be no more than an invention of Initiates, to deprive the simple and trusting of their coins, but no Kur doubts their existence. Their evidence is irrefutable, destroyed fleets and devastated landing forces.”

  “Those behind,” said Kurik, grimly, “are within fifty paces and approach in confident leisure.”

  “Surely, dear Kurik,” said Lord Grendel, “you have been following what I have been saying.”

  “I could not avoid it,” said Kurik.

  “The purport,” said Lord Grendel, “is that the armament of our friends, those before us, and those behind us, is unlikely to be in violation of the laws of the Priest-Kings. It is almost certain to fall within the perimeters of permissible weaponry, knives, swords, pikes, spears, staffs, axes, and such, and most likely axes, for Kurii, like the men of Torvaldsland, are fond of the ax.”

  “As are you,” said Kurik, continuing to look back.

  Lord Grendel had left his ax behind when he had advanced to meet Surtak’s party, to effect the exchange. Kurik, too, had left his weapons behind.

  “In twenty paces,” said Kurik, “those behind will have reached this point.”

  “And they will find it empty,” said Lord Grendel.

  “How so?” asked Kurik.

  I dared not look over the edge.

  “We will first engage those before us,” said Lord Grendel, “for it is there our weapons lie.”