by John Norman
"You look like a tasty pudding," he said to the Lady Gina. She looked up at him, from the straw.
"Are you branded yet, Female?" he asked her.
Her hand went inadvertently to her left thigh. "No," she said, "no."
"Is she any good?" he asked me.
"Yes," I said, "she is pretty good. And there is no telling how good she will be when she is properly enslaved and finds herself in the possession of the right master."
"Of course," he said. He again looked down at her. There was a startled, soft light in the eyes of the Lady Gina as she looked up at the fellow. Suddenly, to me, she seemed very soft, and very vulnerable, in the straw. It was as though a transformation, somehow, had come over her.
"She is beautiful," he said.
"Yes," I said, for, somehow, suddenly, perhaps with the sudden understanding and acceptance of her nature and condition, it had become true.
She gasped, and looked up at him, spoken of as beautiful. She trembled.
He then kicked her, and she cried out with pain. "Split your legs, Vondan slut," he said.
The Lady Gina wasted no time in complying.
"Lie there now before me, thusly," said he, "in the straw."
He let her remain in that position, looking up at him. How far she was now from her whip and keys, her authority, from the House of Andronicus.
"Are you going to be had, Lady of Vonda?" he inquired.
"I do not know, Master," she said.
"What do you think?" he asked.
"It will be as Master wishes," she said.
"Beg," said he, "to be had."
"I so beg," she said.
"I am a man of Ar," said he, "Glorious Ar. Say 'I am a woman of Vonda and I beg to be had by a man of Ar.'"
"It is so said," she said.
"Say," said he, "'The women of Vonda are no more than sluts and slaves to the men of Ar.'"
"It is so said," she said.
"And that you are a woman of Vonda."
"And I am a woman of Vonda," she said.
"You may now beg," he said.
"Did I not beg, Master?"
"Again, slut," said he, "and well understand the words."
"Yes, Master."
"I shall enjoy hearing the words on the lips of a Vondan slut."
"Yes, Master."
"Speak," he snapped.
"I beg!" she said.
"For what?"
"—to be had," she said, "—to be had!"
"And how?" he inquired.
"As a prisoner," she said.
"'As a meaningless slave,'" he corrected her.
"As a meaningless slave!" she said.
"And by whom?" he asked.
"By a man of Glorious Ar!"
"'Though as a slut and meaningless slave I acknowledge myself utterly unworthy of such an honor,'" he said.
"Though as a slut and meaningless slave I acknowledge myself utterly unworthy of such an honor," she said.
He then lowered himself to her side.
"Yes, Master!" she cried out. "Yes, Master!"
I watched for a moment, as she writhed in his arms. "You will look well on the block," he told her.
"Yes, Master," she whispered.
"Perhaps I will buy you," he said.
"Yes, Master," she whispered. "Yes, Master!"
I left the two together, and began to thread my way through the tables, between the soldiers and merchants, and others, and the stripped, shackled women of Vonda, serving as waitresses, toward the opening in the food tent. "Our forces have already moved north," one man was saying. "The troops from Lara will not be here for two days," said another. "By that time they will find here only the ashes of Vonda," laughed another. As I accidentally brushed against a woman of Vonda she trembled, and put down her head, and knelt swiftly. I continued past her. "It is dangerous for merchant caravans," a man was saying. "Many have been attacked," said another. "It is rumored the river pirates are the worst," said another. "They grow bold with the withdrawal of troops from Lara. They have struck even into Lara herself, then withdrawing to their galleys." "Perhaps this will cause the troops of Lara to return," said another, "to protect their own holdings." "No," said another, "they are committed." "They are to be sold in the river markets," said someone, as I went past. I did not understand the meaning of his remark. It did not, I gathered, pertain to the women of Vonda. It would be difficult to get them to the river markets, which lay beyond Lara, down the Vosk, and higher prices, presumably, could be obtained for them in the markets of the south. Most of them, I assumed, women of the enemy, would be sold from the slave blocks of Ar herself.
As I went through the opening of the tent I was jostled by a large man. He wore a mask. "Watch where you are going!" he said, angrily. I stepped back, but did not respond to him. I was angry. It had been he, it seemed to me, who had struck against me. Suddenly, for a moment, he stopped and looked at me, closely. It seemed as though he might have thought he knew me. Too, it seemed to me that I might, in spite of the mask, somehow have found him familiar. Then, saying nothing more, he brushed past me and entered the tent. He was alone. I could not place him. Then I left the food tent and went to the tarn cots. I hoped to be able to arrange for transportation to the vicinity of Lara. I retained five silver tarsks. This is a considerable sum. I felt reasonably certain I could find some tarnsman, perhaps from a neutral city, who might, by a suitably circuitous route, get me into the neighborhood of Lara.
Some tarns had apparently recently arrived from the west. Some of them had apparently been carrying refugees. I saw some wounded men. Here and there small groups of men huddled about, dismally. I saw no women in these groups, even slaves. Some of them wore the white and gold of merchants. Some of them wore masks. They crouched about fires.
"Who are these people?" I asked one of the fellows near the cots.
"Mostly merchants," said he. "These are the victims of the predations of river pirates in Lara."
"Some wear masks," I said.
"Yet most are known to us," said the man. "Even masked. There, not masked, is Splenius, and Zarto. You know Zarto, the iron merchant?"
"No," I said.
"He lost his wagons of ingots," said the man. "Beside him, masked, is Horemius. Eight stone of perfumes were taken from him. There, farther to the left, in the brown mask, is Zadron, the dealer in silver. He lost almost everything. In the red mask is Publius, also of the silver merchants. He retains only the belt of silver on his shoulder."
"I see no women with them, no slaves," I said.
"They were embattled," said the man. "For their lives they bartered their goods and slaves."
"These were all from Lara or her vicinity?" I asked.
"Yes," said he. "They had not realized that the troops of Lara would be moving east, or that the brigands and pirates would move so boldly."
"Are these all of them?" I asked, apprehensively.
"No," said the fellow. "Some of them have gone to the food tent."
"Was one called Oneander, a salt and leather merchant, among them?" I asked.
"Yes," said the fellow.
4
The City of Lara;
I Renew an Acquaintance
The girl stirred uneasily. Her legs were drawn up. She wore the Ta-Teera, the slave rag, and a collar. She lay in the corner of the main room of the inn. She lay on a slave mat. I had put her there.
I sat, cross-legged, behind one of the low tables in the room. I chewed on a crust of bread. The inn, now, was deserted. It had been evacuated early this morning.
"That is ten copper tarsks," had said the man last night, placing before me a bowl of sul porridge. I had not argued. I had paid him.
"You cannot put me out!" a free woman had been crying to the proprietor of the inn, at his counter to the side.
"You did not pay me for your last night's lodging," he told her. "Pay me now for that, and for tonight, or you may not remain within the inn."
"A silver tarsk for a night's lodg
ing!" she cried. "That is unheard of. It is outrageous. You have no right to charge such prices!"
Others, too, about the counter, uttered such cries. The inn was that of Strobius, in Lara, at the confluence of the Olni and Vosk. It was crowded with refugees from Vonda. Many hundreds had fled from Vonda, and most had taken the river southward, paying highly for their fares on the varieties of river craft, barges, skiffs, river galleys, and even coracles, which had brought them to Lara.
"Those are my prices," said Strobius.
"Sleen!" cried more than one man.
"Whatever the traffic will bear," had grinned a fellow near me at my table.
"I am a free woman of Vonda!" the woman at the counter was crying.
I lifted the sul porridge to my lips. The mask I wore, like those of some others in the room, covered only the upper portions of my face.
There was pounding at the inn door. Guards, sliding back a panel in the door, looked through. Then they admitted another small group of refugees. There would be no rooms for them, as there were none for many of the guests, but they, too, albeit only for a space in a corridor, would be charged a full silver tarsk for their lodging. The inn of Strobius was not thought to be a good inn, but it was a large inn, and a stout one. Too, it was one of the few inns remaining open in Lara. Many of the refugees, destitute, who had come to Lara had not been permitted to land at the quays, but had been driven further downriver. Too, here and there in the city, river pirates, with impunity, sought women and plundered.
Several of the men in the room, other than myself, wore masks. I lowered the sul porridge to the table. It was not good, but it was hot.
"I am a free woman of Vonda!" the woman at the counter was crying. "You cannot put me out!"
Oneander of Ar, the salt and leather merchant, and some others, had worn masks at the loot camp outside the city of Vonda. He had been, perhaps, well advised to do so. He had intended to trade with Lara, a member of the Salerian Confederation. This would not make him popular in Ar, or in the strongholds of Ar. Too, he had been, as I had ascertained, attacked by river pirates on the south bank of the Olni and, embattled, had bargained for his life and those of his men by delivering his goods and slaves to the assailants. It was little wonder that he had chosen to mask his features. He did not wish to encounter the wrath of those of Ar, and he wished, doubtless, to conceal his chagrin and shame over the embarrassing termination of his business venture in the north.
I had waited outside the food tent in the loot camp. The sky to the west was lit with the flames of Vonda.
"Are you Oneander of Ar?" I asked the fellow who emerged from the tent.
"No," he said.
"I think you are Oneander of Ar," I said to him.
"Do not speak so loudly," had said he, looking about, "you fool!"
I had then reached to his tunic and seized him, dragging him toward me.
"Remove your mask," I told him.
"Is there no one to protect me?" he called.
"What is going on here?" inquired a guardsman.
"I think this is Oneander of Ar," I said.
"I had heard he was in the camp," said the guardsman. "Are you he?"
"Yes," said the man, hesitantly, angrily.
"Remove the mask," I said. "Or I shall."
Angrily he drew away the mask.
"It is Oneander," said the guardsman, not pleased.
"Do not leave me here with him!" called Oneander of Ar.
But the guardsman had turned his back and left.
"Who are you?" asked Oneander of Ar, apprehensively.
"I was once a silk slave," I said. "You may recall me, from the streets of Ar, some months ago, in the neighborhood of the shop of Philebus. You set two slaves upon me."
"Do not kill me," he whispered.
"I have heard," said I, "that you were embattled near Lara, and surrendered slaves and goods."
"On the south bank of the Olni," he said, "yes, it is true."
"You did well," I said, "to save the lives of your men, and yourself."
"I have lost much," he said.
"What do you conjecture," I asked, "to be the fate of your goods and slaves?"
"They are no longer mine," he said. "They are now the property of the river pirates, theirs by the rights of sword and power."
"That is true," I said. "But what do you conjecture is to be their fate?"
"It is not likely they could be sold in Lara, or northward," he said. "Usually the river pirates sell their goods and captures somewhere along the river, in one of the numerous river towns."
"What towns?" I asked.
"There are dozens," he said. "Perhaps Ven, Port Cos, Iskander, Tafa, who knows."
"He who attacked you, the pirate chieftain," I said, "who was he."
"There are many bands of river pirates," he said.
"Who was he?" I asked.
"Kliomenes, a lieutenant to Policrates," he said.
"In what town does he sell his wares?" I asked.
"It could be any one of a dozen towns," said Oneander. "I do not know."
I seized him by the tunic, and shook him.
"I do not know!" he said. "I do not know!"
I held him.
"Please do not kill me," he whispered.
"Very well," I had said, and released him. I had then turned about and went toward the tarn cots of the loot camp, that I might arrange with some bold tarnsman to provide me with transportation, by a suitably circuitous route, to the vicinity of Lara.
The girl again stirred in the corner of the room. She rolled to her back. One knee was raised. She was luscious in the slave rag and collar. She turned her head from side to side. She made a small noise. She opened and closed one small hand. I wondered if she were aware, dimly, of the coarse fibers of the slave mat beneath her back. I did not think so, not yet.
"I am a free woman of Vonda!" the woman at the counter had been crying out last night. "You cannot put me out!"
"You will pay or be ejected," Strobius had told her.
"You cannot put me out into the street!" she said.
I had taken another sip of the sul porridge.
The woman at the counter had been veiled, as is common with Gorean women, particularly those of high caste and of the high cities. Many Gorean women, in their haughtiness and pride, do not choose to have their features exposed to the common view. They are too fine and noble to be looked upon by the casual rabble. Similarly the robes of concealment worn by many Gorean women are doubtless dictated by similar sentiments. On the other hand veiling is a not impractical modesty in a culture in which capture, and the chain and the whip are not unknown. One justification for the veiling and for the robes of concealment, which is not regarded as inconsiderable, is that it is supposed to provide something of a protection against abduction and predation. Who would wish to risk his life, it is said, to carry off a woman who might, when roped to a tree and stripped, turn out to be as ugly as a tharlarion? Slave girls, by contrast, are almost never permitted veils. Similarly they are usually clad in such a way that their charms are manifest and obvious to even the casual onlooker. This, aside from having such utilities as reminding the girls that they are total slaves and giving pleasure to the men who look upon them, is supposed to make them, rather than free women, the desiderated objects of capture and rapine. I think there is something to this theory for, statistically, it is almost always the female slave and not her free sister who finds herself abducted and struggling in the lashings of captors or slavers. On the other hand, in spite of the theories pertaining to such matters, free women are certainly not immune to the fates of capture and enslavement. Many men, despite the theories pertaining to such matters, and accepting the risks involved, enjoy taking them. Some slavers specialize in the capture of free women. Indeed, it is thought by some, perhaps largely because of the additional risks involved, and the interest in seeing what one has caught, that there is a special spice and flavor about taking them. Similarly it is said to be ple
asant, if one has the time and patience, first to their horror and then to their joy, training them to the collar.
"You cannot put me out into the street!" had cried the free woman.
"I can," he informed her soberly.
"I am a free woman of Vonda," she said, "a member of the Confederation."
"I am an innkeeper," said he. "My politics are those of the ledger and silver."
I had sipped the sul porridge while listening to this conversation.
There are various reasons why Gorean men, upon occasion, resort to masks. Oneander had worn a mask, as had others in the loot camp, because of his fear of the anger of the men of Ar, concerning his trading venture with Lara, and, doubtless, because of his shame at his failure in that venture. Several men in the main room of the inn wore masks now presumably to conceal their identity for various reasons. Times were troubled. It might not well serve their purposes to be recognized, as perhaps men of wealth or position, now in difficult straits. Some might have been seized or held for ransom. Others, perhaps, shamed by the fall of Vonda, or the necessity for their flight from the city, did not wish to be recognized in Lara. Masks, too, are sometimes worn by men in disgrace, or who wish to travel incognito. I recalled the Lady Florence. Doubtless the young men of Vonda, and the estates about Vonda, who would attend her secret auction might wear masks. She might not know who had purchased her until she knelt his slave, before him, at the foot of his couch. I wore a mask because I had not wished to be recognized in Lara. In Lara there were many refugees from Vonda and its vicinity. Some might have watched me in the stable bouts. I did not think my tasks would be either expedited or facilitated by being recognized as a former fighting slave. Now, however, for an independent reason, I was pleased to have worn the mask. Sometimes, incidentally, free young men wear masks and capture a free woman, taking away her clothing and forcing her to perform as a slave for them. She is then commonly released. Afterwards, of course, in meeting young men she does not know for which of them, if any of them, she was forced to perform as a slave. Such a woman commonly begins to take risks inappropriate for a free woman. She is, sooner or later, caught and enslaved. She is then, as she has wished, sold, and will truly wear the collar. Perhaps one of the young men will buy her, and keep her as his own.