by John Norman
He drew back the sword a little. "I have watched you," said he. "I have been patient. But you have not led me to the topaz. You must understand I cannot wait indefinitely. There are those to whom I must answer."
"I am sensitive to such matters," I said.
"Where is the topaz?" he said, angrily.
"If I give it to you," I said, "of what value, then, would be my life to you?"
"None," he said.
"Under such circumstances," I said, "I think you can easily understand that I might not be eager to surrender it to you."
"I, myself," he said, menacingly, "if I do not deliver the topaz, may be slain."
"Your identity is known, of course, to Ragnar Voskjard," I said.
"Of course," he said.
"Your situation is not an enviable one either," I admitted.
"In such a situation," he pointed out, "I have little to lose by slaying you."
"That point has not eluded me," I admitted.
"But there is a simple solution to our mutual difficulty," he said, "one which is in our common interest."
"That you will spare me, if I give you the topaz," I said.
"Of course," said he.
"But what guarantee have I," I asked, "that you will abide by the terms of such a bargain?"
"I give you my word," said he, "in it pledging my honor."
"With all due respect," I said, "pirates, and those in league with them, are not noted for their honor."
"Do you have a choice?" he asked. The sword drew back.
"I will show you where I put the topaz," I said.
"Rise slowly," he said. "And walk slowly. Do not pick up your sword."
I got to my feet, not hurrying, leaving the sword, with the belt and scabbard, on the boards. I began to walk, slowly, among the materials on the wharves. He was behind me, sword drawn. If I were to turn on him I was sure he could cut me down before I could get my hands on him. Similarly, before I could dodge or run, it seemed to me not unlikely that he could strike at the back of my neck.
"Slowly," he said. "Slowly."
"Very well," I said.
"It is here," I said, "that I put the topaz." It was true that I had put it there. I had also, of course, removed it later from that place when I had carried it to the holding of Policrates. Carefully, I removed one of the heavy granite blocks of stone, building stone, rectangular, some six inches by six inches, by eighteen inches, from the tiered pile of stones. It was building stone brought in by a quarry galley several weeks ago. The intended purchaser had defaulted on his contract and the stone was to be stored over the winter, beside the quarry warehouse, until the following spring, when it was to be auctioned. In the spring prices tend to be highest on such materials. In virtue of the temporary commercial inertness of the stone, and its weight and cheapness, it had seemed to me to provide an ideal hiding place for the topaz. Also it lay no more than four hundred yards from the hiring yard on the wharves, to which I often went in seeking work.
"None would expect that the topaz would be hidden in such a place," I speculated.
"Do you have it yet?" asked the fellow behind me, masked, with the sword. He was a tall, spare man. Originally I had taken him to be Miles of Vonda.
I realized I had little time. Carefully I moved another stone. Then I took another stone in my hands, seeming to struggle with it.
"I am to be spared, if I give you the topaz," I reminded him.
"Yes, yes," he said.
"It is here," I said.
He struck down with the sword and I, turning, thrust up the block of granite to block the blow. Sparks showered off the stone, and particles of rock. I kicked him back from the stone, which I still held in my hands. He staggered back. I waited until he was upright, in the moment he had caught his balance. Then, underhanded, with two hands, I slung the block of granite at him. It caught him in the left shoulder. He gasped, and spun about, turned by the stone. I lunged toward him, but, he turning swiftly, stopped. The thrust of the sword was short by a foot. I stepped back a foot. He did not advance. He breathed heavily. His left arm and hand hung beside him. I suspected that his left shoulder and side must be ringing with numbness.
"It was not there after all," I said. "It seems I was mistaken."
Gasping, he staggered toward me, and I turned and, swiftly, fled from the place, making my way swiftly back to the piled lumber. It was there that I, in a moment, bending down, seized up the sword which I had left there. I turned, then, to see him, painfully, following. When he saw that I now held my blade ready, he stopped. That action convinced me that whoever he was, he was not of Victoria. In Victoria it was thought I did not know the blade. Thus, had he been of Victoria I think that he, even in pain, might have advanced. As it was, not knowing my capacity with the sword, I not being known to him, and knowing himself better than I how his injury might have impeded his swordplay, he hesitated. I saw he did not know what to do.
"Treacherous sleen!" he said.
"It was not I who struck down at you," I pointed out.
"Sleen!" he said.
"Ho, there!" I cried out, loudly. "Ho, there! What are you doing here? Who are you! Get away from there! We do not permit pilfering on these wharves!"
The man trembled with rage. He advanced a step.
"Begone, Thief!" I cried. "Begone!"
"Be silent, you fool!" said the man.
"Thief! Thief!" I cried. "You may not steal here, Fellow! This is Victoria, you know!"
"What is going on there?" called a voice, from along the wharves, behind me.
"A thief!" I cried. "Assistance! Assistance!"
Glancing back I saw a lantern approaching. Two men were there, advancing with slaves.
"Sleen!" said the fellow with the mask, and then he turned and made his way rapidly away.
"Is that you, Jason?" asked one of the men.
"Yes," I said, sheathing my sword.
"What is it?" asked the other man.
"Some fellow prowling about the docks," I said, "doubtless not up to much good."
"He seems to be gone now," said the first man.
"Yes," I said. "Before he was over by the quarry warehouse. He was busying himself about the granite there, that of the defaulted shipment."
"There is nothing of value there," said the second man.
"That is true," I said.
28
Two Captains Come to the Tavern of Tasdron;
We Prevent Bloodshed
"It is the second Ahn," said Callimachus. "Surely they are not coming."
Peggy knelt with her head to the feet of Tasdron, her master. The heavy chain, with the girl bell and coin box, was still locked on her neck.
I pulled her head up by the hair. I lifted up the chain and Tasdron put his collar again on her neck.
"Did you do as Jason told you?" asked Tasdron.
"Yes, Master," she said, her neck now again locked in Tasdron's collar.
I thrust the key to the chain in the chain lock and opened it, pulling away the apparatus of the Coin Girl from her neck.
"I sought out Aemilianus, Captain of the Guardsmen of Ar's Station," she said. "I put myself naked before him, kneeling, and humbly began to lick and kiss about his feet."
"Yes," said Tasdron.
"I then, in seeming to try to please him, whispered to him of the topaz, and that I had been sent to his feet by those who knew its whereabouts. If he wished information as to its location he was to come to the tavern this night at the twentieth Ahn."
"You yourself," said Tasdron, "did not return until the first Ahn."
"I did not even find Aemilianus," she said, "until near the twentieth Ahn."
"Why?" asked Tasdron, not pleasantly.
"I was detained by men," she said. "I was naked. I wore the bell and coin box."
I moved the coin box, on the chain, which I held. There were now several coins in it. When she had been sent from the tavern it had been empty.
"Aemilianus himself used me," she
said. "He tied my hands tightly behind my back and took me to his private compartments. There he subjected me to—to slave rape."
"Appropriate," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
She was, after all, a slave, and an extremely attractive one.
"Did he pay his coin?" asked Tasdron.
"Yes, Master," she said, reddening.
"Did you please your customers?" asked Tasdron.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Did you yield to them," asked Tasdron, "to Aemilianus, and the others?"
"Please do not make me speak, Master," she begged. She was in the presence of Callimachus, whom she loved.
"Speak, Slave," snapped Tasdron.
"Yes, Master," she whispered, head down, "I yielded to them."
"And well?" he asked.
"Yes, Master," she said. "But I could not help myself, Master," she wept. "I am a slave girl. I am only a slave girl!" She seemed to speak to Tasdron, but I knew well for whom her words were intended.
"I do not understand," said Tasdron. "You are under an obligation to yield, and to yield perfectly, fully and totally. You are a slave."
"Even were I not under such an obligation," she whispered, "my Master, I still could not have helped myself. I would still have had to yield to them fully and totally, perfectly."
"Of course," said Tasdron. "You are a slave girl."
"Yes, Master," she whispered. "I am a slave girl."
Then, head down, she trembled, and wept. How shamed she was that her slavery had been so clarified and manifested before Callimachus. I glanced to Callimachus. He did not seem concerned with the girl. What to him were the helpless confessions of a lovely, meaningless slave?
"Aemilianus is not here," I said.
"When he unbound me and sent me from his compartments," she said, "ordering me to return to my master, he did nothing but dismiss me. I do not know if he will come or not."
"At least Aemilianus knows how to handle a woman," said Tasdron.
"Yes, Master," said the girl.
I put the chain, with the girl bell and coin box, on the low table. There was a sound of bells, and Tasdron had again locked slave bells on Peggy's left ankle. He picked up the tiny bit of slave silk which we had, earlier, ordered her to remove, before disguising her as a Coin Girl and sending her into the streets to fetch Aemilianus to our meeting. He tossed her the bit of silk. "You may put on the silk," he said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
It amused me to see how gratefully she slipped the brief bit of scandalous, diaphanous yellow silk about her body, how pleased she was to do so, though it was naught but a laughable mockery of a garment, one fit obviously only for a female slave. Some free women think they would rather go naked than wear such a garment, but then they have not yet been made slaves. If they were slaves then they, too, I believe, would find it very precious.
"Bring us food and drink," said Tasdron to Peggy.
"Yes, Master," she said, and swiftly, with a rustle of bells, left the room.
"Where is Glyco?" asked Tasdron. "He had only to fetch Callisthenes, whom he knows. There should be no difficulty in that. They should have been here more than an Ahn ago."
"I do not know," I said.
"Perhaps they have met with foul play," said Tasdron.
"I do not know," I said.
"Spies are everywhere," said Tasdron, miserably. "Perhaps our projects have already been uncovered."
"The tavern has not yet been burned," I pointed out.
"Oh, excellent," said Tasdron, irritatedly.
I smiled.
"You understand the dangers implicit in these endeavors, do you not?" inquired Tasdron.
"I think so," I said.
"There is someone now at the door, in the back," said Callimachus.
Tasdron hurried through the rear door of the room, and down the corridor, to the alley door. He slid back a narrow panel, and then shut the panel, and opened the door. Two figures were admitted, and the door was closed and locked behind them. I recognized the figure of Glyco, portly and short-legged, breathing heavily, wrapped in a long brown cloak, which concealed the white and gold of the merchants, in advance. The second man, tall and rangy, was he who had interrogated me in the headquarters of the men of Port Cos a few days earlier, when, on the asseverations of Miss Henderson, I had been taken into custody. I had been released after the testimonies afforded by Tasdron, who had made it clear to him that I, well known in Victoria, and having arrived from the east on the river, could not be the courier of Ragnar Voskjard. He had also taken Miss Henderson into custody, as I recalled. He had turned her over to me, bound, when I had been released. I had not, however, slain her nor sold her into slavery. I had returned her to my house, unpunished and in honor. She was, after all, a woman of Earth. Later, of course, she had been captured by Kliomenes, the lieutenant to Policrates, the pirate, and taken to the stronghold of Policrates. There, in full Gorean legality, she had been again enslaved, as, months before, she had been in the House of Andronicus, in Vonda, when first she had been brought to Gor as a helpless Earth girl, to be branded and collared, and sold to Gorean brutes for their pleasure. Indeed, in my visit to the stronghold of Policrates, she had served me, and well, as a slave, though not knowing it was I whom she served. It was in that visit that I had learned that the little Earth beauty belonged in a collar.
The tall man, behind Glyco, entered the room. He wore a brown cloak over his uniform. In his left hand, held against his body, there was a helmet, crested with sleen hair.
I now knew him to be Callisthenes.
His left shoulder was hunched. His right hand, strong, long-fingered, wide, seemed fit for the hilt of the Gorean blade.
"Greetings, Callisthenes," said Callimachus, rising to greet him.
"Greetings, Captain," said Callisthenes. "Glyco told me that you would be in attendance."
"I am no longer a captain," said Callimachus. "It is now you who are the captain."
"There are various captains in Port Cos," grinned Callisthenes.
"How are the men?" asked Callimachus.
"They remember you, as I do," said Callisthenes, "with warmth."
The two men clasped hands. This pleased me, for I had feared there might be friction between them. It had been on the evidences supplied by Callisthenes that Callimachus had been removed from his command. Callimachus, however, bore him no ill will on this account. Callisthenes, in the circumstances, to the thinking of Callimachus, had had no choice in the matter. He had done his duty, as he should have, unpleasant and painful though it might have been for him.
"We used to drink together," said Callimachus to Tasdron.
"It was largely on the recommendation of Callimachus, after he was relieved from his command," said Callisthenes, "that I was promoted to the captaincy."
"A noble act," said Tasdron to Callimachus.
"He was the best qualified man to replace me," said Callimachus. "Otherwise, in spite of my affection for him, I would not have acted as I did."
"I have tried to live up to your trust," said Callisthenes.
"To the trust of a fallen man, a drunkard?" smiled Callimachus.
"We shall always think of you as our captain," said Callisthenes.
"You are a fine officer," said Callimachus, "and it is a splendid command."
"You taught me much," said Callisthenes, "and you trained it well."
Again the two men clasped hands, warmly.
I stood to one side, not speaking.
"Do I not know you?" asked Callisthenes, turning to me. I saw some recollection in his eyes.
"I was one of several suspects brought in for interrogation in the matter of the search for the topaz," I said.
"Yes!" said Callisthenes. "And here is Tasdron, is it not, who testified on your behalf?"
"It is," said Tasdron.
"What is your name?" asked Callisthenes.
"Jason," I reminded him.
"Yes," said Callisthene
s. "Jason, from the docks."
"Yes," I said.
"I would have been here earlier," said Glyco to Tasdron, "but I could not readily find Callisthenes."
"I was about my duties," said Callisthenes.
"Your shoulder," said Tasdron. "It seems injured."
"I fell," said Callisthenes.
"Is there anything we can do for you?" inquired Tasdron.
"It is nothing," said Callisthenes. He then looked about, from one of us to the other. "What is afoot here?" he asked Callimachus. "Is it true that you have some news of the topaz?"
"We shall explain all shortly, I trust," said Callimachus.
"What is the delay?" asked Callisthenes.
"We are waiting for one more person," said Callimachus.
"Who?" asked Callisthenes.
"One whom it is important that you meet," said Callimachus.
"Very well," said Callisthenes.
There was a tiny knock on the door leading to the central room of the tavern.
"Enter," said Tasdron.
Peggy, a tray balanced in one hand, opened the door. "Masters," she said, lowering her head.
"Serve," said Tasdron to her.
"Yes, Master," said Peggy.
"Sit," invited Tasdron, and we took places about the low table, sitting about it, cross-legged. Callisthenes put his helmet beside the table, and threw back his cloak. His tunic bore the insignia of Port Cos. Peggy knelt before the table and began to place the cups, the vessels and plates on the table. One plate was of meat, another of breads, another of sliced fruits, the fourth of nuts and cheeses. Each of us, with our fingers, would eat as we wished from the common plates. She had brought, too, paga, Cosian wine and water.
"She is a pretty slave," said Callisthenes.
We looked at her. She wore the bit of yellow silk. There were slave bells on her left ankle. The collar was lovely on her throat. Her long, blond hair was loose about her shoulders.
"She is an Earth girl," said Tasdron.
"Interesting," said Callisthenes.
Peggy set forth the food and drink deferentially, and in silence.
"We will need another cup, for our friend," said Tasdron, "and yet another, for our other guest, who has not yet arrived."
"Yes, Master," said Peggy.
"I trust," said Tasdron, looking at his slave, "that he will arrive."