by John Norman
"Do you know Grunt, the trader?" I asked the fellow.
"Yes," said he.
"Is he in the vicinity?" I asked.
"I do not know," said the man.
I had sought this fellow in the various inns and taverns of Kailiauk. I couldfind no one who seemed to know of his whereabouts. Indeed, I had begun todespair of finding him.
This morning, at the Five Horns stables, in Kailiauk, I had bought two kaiila.
Bridles, a saddle, various sorts of gear, supplies, and trading goods, too, Ihad purchased in the town, at the store of Publius Crassus, of the Merchants,who is also Kailiauk's Administrator. Too I had purchased a short bow, modeledon the sort used by the savages, fit for clearing the saddle, and a quiver oftwenty sheaf arrows.
In my opinion one of the mistakes of the white cavalries of the perimeter areaswas their reliance on the crossbow, which is primarily an infantry weapon. Itdoes, of course, have various advantages. It has considerable striking power, itmay be kept ready to fire almost indefinitely, and, for most men, it is easierto fire with accuracy from the saddle than the straight bow. It will also, atshort ranges, penetrate most of the hide shields used by the red savages.
Its major disadvantage is its slowness in rate of fire. The cavalry crossbowdoes have an iron stirrup in which the rider, without dismounting, may inserthis foot, thus gaining the leverage necessary for drawing the cable back withboth hands. If the rider is right handed he usually inserts his right foot inthe stirrup and leans to the right in drawing the cable; this procedure isreversed, of course, usually, if the rider is left handed. While this procedurepermits the rider to reload without dismounting and tends to improve, at somecost to striking power, the bow's rate of fire, it still provides, in myopinion, no adequate compensation for the loss of rapidity of fire. I think itnot unlikely that the red savage could discharge three to five shafts in thetime a single quarrel could be set in the clumsier weapon. In my opinion, if thecrossbow, of the lighter, more quickly loading type, had proved to be a superiormissile weapon in the typical combats practiced in the Barrens the red savageswould have had recourse either to it, or to something analogous to it. But theyhave not.
I opted, accordingly, taking them for my authorities in the matter, for a weaponsimilar in design to theirs, one which had, apparently, proven its usefulness inthe abrupt, sudden and fierce engagements characteristic of war on the vastgrasslands of the Barrens. Unable to find Grunt, I feared I must enter theBarrens alone. Already, early this morning, the Lady Mira of Venna, and Alfredof Port Olni, with their mercenaries, had left Kailiauk.
The fellow leaning on the rail turned to look at me. "Why do you wish to findGrunt?" he asked.
"I wish to enter the Barrens," I said.
"It is madness to do so," said he.
I shrugged.
"It is unfortunate you did not come to Kailiauk a month ago," he said.
"Why is that?" I asked.
"Settlers, armed, with two hundred wagons, crossed the Ihanke," he said. "Men,women, children. There must have been seven or eight hundred of them. You couldhave accompanied them. There is perhaps safety in such numbers."
"Perhaps," I said. Such a. party, however, I knew must travel slowly. Also, itwould be impossible to conceal its trails and movements.
"You are a big fellow," he said, "and seem quick, and strong. Why did you notsign articles with the troops who left this morning?"
I did not respond to him.
"It was the largest mercenary band ever to leave Kailiauk," he said. "You shouldhave gone with them."
"Perhaps," I said.
"I'm chained! I'm chained!" wept one of the girls in the pit below. She knelt,nude, in the mud. With her small hands, her tiny wrists in their close-fittingmanacles, she seized the chain attached to the collar on her neck. She jerked ittwice against the back of her neck. It cut at the back of her neck. "I'mchained," she wept, disbelievingly. "Where am I? What has become of me? Whereare my clothes? Who are these men? How is it that they dare to look at me? Inwhat place do I find myself?"
"They cannot even speak Gorean," said the man beside me.
"Barbarians," I said.
"Yes," he said. The girl had spoken in English. This had confirmed my surmise asto their origin. I had come to Seibar's market out of curiosity. I had heard hewas the major dealer in Kailiauk for barbarian slaves. I did not know, but Isuspected that he himself was not in league with Kurii, but merely purchasedwholesale lots of such girls from one or more of their agents. Such girls, Igathered, from my conversations with the teamster with whom I had ridden to FortHaskins, were sold at various points along the perimeter. I had, earlier in theafternoon, on one of my purchased kaiila, scouted the terrain north and south ofKailiauk. In my ride I had come to one place, sheltered among small hills, inwhich I had found scorched grass and several, rounded six-inch-deep impressionsin the earth. It had been there, I speculated, that one of the steel ships ofthe Kurii had landed. Also there were wagon tracks leading away from the area,toward Kailiauk. I was less fortunate, at various small camps and outlyingfarms, in obtaining information as to the possible whereabouts of a white tradernamed Grunt. I did not approach the Ihanke, nor did I wish to do so, ifpossible, until I knew exactly what I was doing. I did not know, for example,even if it were guarded or not.
"Even if such girls understood Gorean," said the fellow next to me, amused,"they could probably not even understand what was required of them. Theyprobably do not even know the hundred kisses."
"They could be taught," I said.
"That is so," he laughed.
"Stand aside, Gentlemen, if you would," said a voice near us, that of a slaver'sman.
We stepped back and he, from a basket, hurled an assortment of scraps, such ascrusts of bread and rinds of fruit, into the muddy pit. It was the refuse, thegarbage, I gathered, from a meal of the slaver's men.
In the pit the girls regarded the refuse with horror. Then I saw the small,chained hand of one reach forth toward a piece of roll. She picked it up andthrust it in her mouth. Another girl then reached to a bit of fruit. Anotherthen snatched at a gravy-sopped wedge of yellow Sa-Tarna bread. Then, in aninstant, in their chains, they scrambled in the mud after the garbage, twistingand shrieking, caught and restricted in their chains, scratching, and rollingand fighting, for the least of the tidbits cast to them by a free man.
"They are slaves," said the man near me, as we returned to the railing.
"Yes," I said. Too, I saw that their education had begun.
"There is better stock inside, I hear," said the man, "hidden away until thetime of the sale, some even in the barbarian garments in which they werecaptured."
"That is interesting," I said.
"But they, too," said the man, "will learn to take food on their belly."
"Of course," I said. Then I turned away from the railing. I was angry that I hadnot been able to locate Grunt, the trader. In the morning, with or without him,I would enter the Barrens.
7 Ginger
"Barbarians! Barbarians for sale!" called the fellow, standing on the circularwooden platform, outside the opened gate of the large, palisaded enclosure.
From within I saw a nude woman, her hands tied behind her back, being draggedforth, each arm in the charge of a slaver's man.
"Barbarians for sale!" call the fellow on the platform. He was a gross,corpulent fellow, and wore a long, opened, soiled shirt of blue-and-yellow silk.
His leather trousers were fastened with a wide, triply buckled belt. To thisbelt was fastened a substantial, beaded sheath, apparently containing a stout,triangular-bladed dagger. He wore, too, kaiila boots, with belled, silver heelpoints, kaiila goads. In his hand there was a long, supple kaiila quirt of blackleather, about a yard in length. His hair was bound back with strands oftwisted, blue-and-yellow cloth. His caste, even in the town of Kailiauk, wasthat of the slavers.
The woman, her hands tied behind her, each arm in the rude grasp of the slaver'sman, was thrust to the height of the
platform, beside the corpulent fellow.
"In addition to our stock of fine merchandise," called the corpulent fellow, "wehave just received a new lot of barbarians!"
These would be the same girls of whom I had seen several this afternoon, in theslave pits within the compound. I had come again, in the evening, after supper,to the compound of Ram Seibar. I thought I might look in on some of the sales.
Afterwards I might go to a tavern, to have a cup of paga and see if I could renta girl to take to my room for the night, to return her in the morning.
"They have not yet been picked over," said the man. "This little plum, juicywith pleasures for a master," he said, indicating the girl on the platform withhim, with a gesture of his kaiila quirt, "is one of the sorriest of the lot."
This, in my opinion, was not true. I thought she would have ranked rather highamong the girls. To be sure, the most luscious merchandise, presumably to besold rather late in the evening, had probably not even been put in the pits.
"Display her, Lads," said the fellow. The two slaver's men thrust the womanforward, toward the crowd, and bent her backwards. She whimpered.
"And this is one of the worst of the lot," said the fellow. The two slaver's menturned the woman first to one side, and then to the other. "Meat so fresh thatit has not yet even been marked!" said the fellow. "That is enough, Lads," hesaid. They then turned the woman about and dragged her down the steps and backinto the compound. "If you would see more," said the man to those of us gatheredabout, about the outdoor platform, "you must come within. Within you may buyher, and others like her, from the side blocks. Too, even more lusciousmerchandise you may seek from the central block in open bidding!" I wondered ifthe woman knew that she was, in all likelihood, to be soon branded. In mostGorean cities it is illegal to offer an unbranded woman in a public sale. Thisis presumably in deference to the delicacy and sensibilities of free women. Thebrand draws a cataclysmic gulf between the Gorean free woman, secure in herarrogance, beauty and caste rights, and the stripped, nameless, rightlessslaves, suitably vended as the mere lovely beasts they are in the flesh marketsof this primitive, gorgeous world. Unbranded women, of course, may be soldprivately, for example, as fresh captures to slavers, or, say to men who havespeculated that they might find them of interest.
"Barbarians! Barbarians for sale!" now continued to call the fellow on thewooden platform outside the gate to the compound of Ram Seibar. "In addition toour usual stock of fine merchandise, we have just received a new lot ofbarbarians. They have not yet been picked over. They will be put up for salewithin the Ahn. Step within, Noble Gentlemen, and examine our offerings.
Patronize the house of Ram Seibar! Free drinks! No purchase necessary!"
I felt a small tug at my sleeve, and then felt my arm delicately held. I felt asoft cheek pressed against my arm. "Master," whispered a voice. I looked down,and the girl, with loose, auburn hair, looked up. She smiled. "Accompany me toRandolph's tavern," she said. "I will give you much pleasure." About her throat,narrow, sturdy and closely fitting, was a steel collar. I stepped back, that Imight see her better. She wore a short, fringed, beaded shirtdress. This camehigh on her thighs. It was split to her waist, well revealing the sweetness andloveliness of her breasts. It was belted upon her with a doubly looped, tightlyknotted rawhide string. Such a string is more than sufficient, in its length,and in its strength and toughness, to tie a woman in a number of ways. She wasbarefoot. About her left ankle there was, about two inches high, a beaded cuff,or anklet. Her garb was doubtless intended to suggest the distinctive,humiliating and scandalously brief garment in which red savages are sometimespleased to place their white slaves. One difference, however, must surely benoted. The red savages do not use steel collars. They usually use high, beadedcollars, tied together in the front by a rawhide string. Subtle differences inthe styles of collars, and in the knots with which they are fastened on thegirls' necks, differentiate the tribes. Within a given tribe the beading, in itsarrangements and colors, identifies the particular master. This is a common way,incidentally, for warriors to identify various articles, which they own.
"It is my hope that Master will find Ginger pleasing," she said.
"Ginger?" I asked.
"Master?" she asked.
"Are you a barbarian?" I asked.
"Once, Master," she whispered. "But I have been trained. I am no longer astranger to my collar."
"Watch out!" cried a man.
"Oh!" cried the girl. I seized her and pulled her from the place where shestood. Two kaiila thundered past.
"Make way!" we heard. "Make way!" There was then the thudding of the clawed padsof kaiila, several of them, almost upon us. "Ho! Ho!" called their drovers,riding behind them, swirling their coiled rawhide ropes in the air. I and theothers backed against the wall of the compound of Ram Seibar. The kaiila,perhaps a hundred and fifty of them, thundered past. I did not think such beastsshould be run through the streets, but it sometimes pleases their drovers to doso. It had happened more than once since I had been in Kailiauk. The kaiila werepresumably from the northern ranches and would be sold in Kailiauk, and in thetowns to the south.
"It is needless for that to be done in that fashion," said a fellow near me.
"There are shorter routes to the corrals and the wired pastures."
"Individuals are sometimes injured," said another man.
"The tavern girls live in terror of them," said another fellow.
I looked down at the girl in my arms. I saw that what he said was true. Thispleased me. It was fitting that slave girls lived in terror of free men.
"They do not come that often to Kailiauk," said a fellow, cheerfully.
"When they come," said another, "it is with a thirst for paga and the wenches ofthe taverns."
"Who can blame them?" said another.
The kaiila ranches, I supposed, were remote, desolate places. Land, which issuitable for farming, and in proximity to towns, is seldom, along the perimeter,put to the uses of grazing.
"They are generally good fellows," said another man.
"They spend their money freely," added another.
"That is a point in their favor," said another.
"A point in our favor," said another.
"Some are dangerous and cruel." said another man.
"Let us hope there will be no killings," said another.
Killings among such men, hot-tempered and aflame with paga, I supposed mightoccur not infrequently. Too often, I suspected, a suspicion of cheating atstones or disks, or a dispute over a slave, might lead to the flash of steel,the sudden movement of a knife.
"You saved me, Master," said the girl, holding to me.
"Perhaps to some extent," I said, "I have protected the investment of yourmaster." It is well to help a slave keep clearly in mind that she is only anarticle of property.
"He had me cheaply," she smiled.
"Perhaps I should not have bothered," I said.
"But I am worth more now," she said.
"Oh?" I said.
"Return with me to the tavern of Randolph," said she. "I will show you." Shethen pressed her body against me, closely and lasciviously, and helplessly, inthe manner of the female slave, that of the woman who knows herself completelysubject to the will of men. She then put her arms about my neck and, standing onher toes, lifting her lips to mine, kissed me. I then, by the arms, held herfrom me. "You kiss well, Slave," I told her, "Thank you, Master," she said.
"Is it true that you are a barbarian?" I asked.
"Yes, Master," she said. "I was sold, even, from the house of Ram Seibar."
"When?" I asked.
"Eighteen months ago," she said.
"You are now no stranger to your collar," I said. The kiss of a slave girl isunmistakable.
"No, Master," she said.
"The central street seemed busy tonight," I said. "I find it hard to believethat you have been sent forth to solicit business, the evening being such as itis, for the tavern of Randolph."
The fellow on the platform, at that time, began again to address the crowd.
"Barbarians! Barbarians for sale!" he called. "Enter now. The sales begin in afew Ehn. Buy at the house of Ram Seibar! Barbarians for sale, cheap and pretty!"
"Solicit elsewhere," I told her.
"Please, Master," she said.
"If you do not wish to use her," said a fellow standing nearby, "do you mind mytaking her?"
"Of course not," I said.
"Lead me to the tavern of Randolph," said the man to the girl.
"Master!" said the girl to me.
"Do you dawdle to obey, Slave?" inquired the man.
"No, Master," she cried, turning white, "no!"
"Precede me," he said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"As a slave girl," he said.
"Yes, Master!" she said. With a sob she began to precede him, and as a slavegirl.
"Barbarians for sale! Barbarians for sale, cheap and pretty!" called the fellowon the platform.
I then went through the gate and entered the compound of Ram Seibar.
8 Grunt
I turned my attention from the apparently lovely young woman, though she wasfully clothed, who was strung up by the wrists near the central block. Herankles had also been crossed and bound, a slaver's trick to accentuate the sweetcurvatures of her hips and legs. A thong also ran from over the bonds on herankles to an iron ring a few inches below her feet. This tends to prevent unduemovement on the rope.
A distinction must be drawn between the side blocks and the central, or main,block, in a vending area. I shall describe the situation, specifically, as itexists in the sales barn of Ram Seibar. It is not untypical of the arrangementsin many such places, particularly in outlying areas. To be sure, there is, itseems, from market to market, and from city to city, an almost infinite varietyof ways in which women may be, and are, displayed and sold. This is notsurprising since the institution of female slavery, on Gor, is both extremelysuccessful and quite ancient.