Norman, John - Gor 19 - Kajira of Gor.txt

Norman, John - Gor 19 - Kajira of Gor.txt Page 23

by Kajira of Gor [lit]

  I thus, then, decided that my femininity, and thereby my womanhood, must be

  denied and fought. I could no longer be so simple as to pretend to myself that

  my womanhood was best served by its own frustration, suppression and denial. I

  was no longer victimized by that propagandistic stupidity.

  The danger, I now understood clearly, was womanhood itself.

  Openly, honestly, must it be repudiated and denied. That was what was most to be

  feared, that was the great danger to women, their own womanhood, that which was

  what they were, in their deepest heart and belly. I was afraid to look deeply

  into myself. I was afraid of what I might find there.

  “I am a free woman,” I said. “I am free! I am freel”

  “Of course* you are,” he said.

  “I am now going to put on my slippers,” I said.

  “Have you received permission to do so?” he asked.

  I looked at him, frightened.

  “You may do so,” be said.

  I slipped into the slippers. I then felt more secure. There is something about

  being barefoot before a man who is shod that tends to make a woman feel more

  like a slave before him. ‘niesc sorts of feelings are intensified, of course, if

  the woman is naked, or partially clothed, as I was, according to his dictates,

  before him. Slaves, of course, are often commanded to nudity before their master

  and their clothing, any, is always subject to his approval.

  In the slippers, interestingly, I felt again the Tatrix of Corcyrus.

  “Are there spies in the city?” I asked.

  “Doubtless Argentum has spies in the city,” he said.

  “Our spies,” I said. “Ones who spy on our own people.”

  “Of course,” he said. “That is a realistic precaution in any city.

  “And to whom do these spies report?” I asked.

  “To the proper authorities,” he said.

  “I am not aware of receiving the reports of these spies,” I said.

  “You are still being trained in the governance of Corcyrus,” he said.

  “How goes the war?” I asked.

  “As I reported earlier,” he said, “well.”

  “The enemy,” I said, suddenly,, almost faltering, “is within twenty pasangs of

  Corcyrus.”

  “That information is, I believe,” he said, “approximately correct.”

  ‘that is too closel” I said.

  “Such matters need -not concern the Tatrix,,” he said. “They need concern,

  rather, our generals.”

  “That is too closel” I said.

  “We shall soon cut their supply lines,” be said. “Do not fear, Lady Sheila. Our

  forces will be victorious.”

  “Ar is in the warl” I said.

  “That is true,” he said. “But momentarily we are expecting reinforcements from

  Cos.”’

  “I am afraid, Ligurious,” I said.

  “There is nothing to fear,” he said. “The city is secure. The palace is

  impregnable.”

  “I do not want the war,” I said. “I want the fighting stopped. I am afraid. I

  want a trucel”

  “Such matters,” he said, “need not concern you. Leave them to others.”

  “Surely the enemy will consider a trucel” I said.

  Ligurious looked at me and, suddenly, laughed. His laughter unsettled me. I felt

  that perhaps I had said something inutterably naive or stupid.

  “That is out of the question?” I asked.

  “Yes,” said Ligurious. Was the enemy so bitter, so determined? What bad driven

  them to these passions of war?

  What was it that they desired in Corcyrus?

  “Sue for peacel” I said.

  “Everything is planned for,” said Ligurious. “We have anticipated all

  contingencies.”

  “I want us to sue for peace,” I said.

  “That decision is not yours,” said Ligurious.

  “Am I not the Tatrix of Corcyrus?” I demanded.

  “Of course,” smiled Ligurious.

  “Do I not rule in Corcyrus?” I asked.

  “Of course,” said Ligurious.

  “I rule in Corcyrus,” I said.

  “Yes,” said Ligurious.

  “And who rules me?” I asked.

  “I do,” said Ligurious.

  I shuddered.

  “Did Lady Sheila enjoy her spiced vulo this evening?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I whispered.

  He then left.

  I went to the barred window, looking out. I was confined to my quarters. Out

  there, somewhere, in the darkness, beyond the walls, was the enemy.

  Apparently they were such that they would not even consider a truce.

  I wondered what it was that they wanted, so keenly, so determinedly, in

  Corcyrus.

  I was frightened. Perhaps the troops of Cos would come to our rescue. I was

  pleased that I was safe in the palace.

  12 I Sit Upon the Throne; I Wait in the Hall

  Dress her in her most regal robes,” commanded Ligurious.

  “Yes, Master,” said Susan, fumbling with the garments.

  I stood before the mirror in my quarters. I watched the glorious robes of state

  being placed about my shoulders.

  Earlier I had stood frightene.d behind the door, now kept locked, my ear to the

  wood.

  “They are within the city!” I had heard cry.

  “Impossiblel” had cried a guard.

  “How was it done?” inquired another, insistently, bewilderedly.

  “It seems a Sa-Tarna wagon was fleeing before the approaching enemy, seeking to

  reach the city before being overtaken,” said a man.

  “There was time, happily, it seemed, though the matter would be close, for the

  wagon to win its race, and sorely, as you know, did we need the grain. Ile gate

  was opened to admit the wagon. Surely there would then be time, and time enough,

  given the distances involved, to close the gate. One wagon seemed to be drawn by

  two strings of male slaves, twenty in each string, as is common. These men,

  however, were not slaves. The wagon within the portal, they threw off their

  harnesses and from beneath the grain drew forth swords. They prevented the

  closing of the gate. In moments the vanguard of the enemy had arrived.” see

  I had hurried then to the barred window. I could smoke rising from the city.

  Shortly thereafter Ligurious and Susan had arrived at my quarters.

  Ligurious wore soldierly garb, but of a sort with which I was not familiar. I

  did not know the insignia, the markings.

  “Put her in the veil of state,” said Ligurious. Susan brought forth a long,

  lovely veil, intricately embroidered. She adjusted my robes about me,

  concealing, in the fashion of the robes of concealment, now not thrown back, but

  drawn up, my hair and much of my head. She then pinned the veil in place. It was

  very beautiful. It was opaque.

  Little could now be seen of me but my eyes and a bit of the bridge of my nose. I

  had not even known such a veil existed. Hitherto I had general
ly worn veils only

  when intending to travel incognito in the city, and I had never worn them on

  official occasions of state.

  Come along,” said Ligurious. He took my arm and, half dragging me, conducted me

  from my quarters.

  In moments we were hurrying through the halls. Falling in behind Ligurious were

  some five or six men, not my guards, who were dressed much as he was.

  The halls seemed, for the most part, oddly deserted. Occasionally a man ran

  past. At one point, crouching down, then kneeling, as wt passed, by hangings at

  the side of the corridor, was a slave girl. She was terrified. She wore some

  twists of silk about her. She wore a collar of a sort, rather high and ornate,

  which is often jeweled. No jewels, however, caught the light as we passed. They

  had been, I gathered, pried from their settings.

  Susan was not with us. I did not know where she was. Apparently she had been

  left behind.

  I was thrust into an anteroom, one off the great hall. In this room there were

  some four or five men and a woman. The woman wore a robe, hooding her, and was

  turned away from me. She -was about my height Interestingly she was barefoot and

  the robe she wore came only a bit below the -x. I thought she had nice calves

  and ankles. Mine, I thought, might be better, A man, dressed rather in the

  fashion of Ligurious and the others, was lifting a sheet about her. She clutched

  this sheet about her, drawing it even about her head, and holding it together,

  before her face, effectively veiling herself with it. She turned to face me.

  Then she turned away. Her eye color, I noted, was not dissimilar to mine.

  Ligurious turned me, so that I faced the door to the great hall, where, on the

  lofty dais, reposed the throne of Corcyrus.

  “Is all ready?” asked Ligurious.

  “Yes,” responded a man.

  “The tarns?” asked Ligurious.

  “Yes,” said the man. “Everything is ready.”

  I turned. I saw that the sheet, now, had been drawn completely over the woman,

  as though thrown over her. As it hung about her, its bern fell midway between

  her ankles and knees. I was startled. It was almost as though, under the sheet,

  she might be naked. I gasped. Something was being fastened about her throat,

  over the sheet, under her chin. It was round. There was a long strap connected

  with it. It was a slave collar and leashl

  Ligurious took me by the arm and turned me about, again, facing me toward the

  door to the great ball.

  I did not know who the woman was, but I suspected that she might be she with

  whom Ligurious had confessed himself to be so smitten, she to whom I apparently

  bore some resemblance. It seemed odd to me, almost incomprehensible, that

  Ligurious, a man such as he, who must have had some fifty women at his feet,

  women such as Susan, women kneeling in terror and awe about him, for he was

  their total master, should be so much like a callow youth, should -be so weak,

  with this woman. Did he not know, I asked myself, scornfully, that she, too,

  ultimately, was only a woman, that she, too, ultimately, needed only the whip

  and a master?

  I was then conducted into the great hall by Ligurious. It was empty. The two

  great entrance doors, at the far end, were locked from the inside, with the

  great beams in their brackets. It took ten guardsmen to move those beams. I

  could not begin to budge them.

  “Is there any sign of the men of Cos?” I heard a man ask behind us, from the

  anteroom.

  “They are not locals,” said another man. “They will not meet Ar on the land.”

  “Do the people resist the enemy?” I heard another man ask.

  “No,” said another man. “They abet them.”

  I ascended the steps of the dais, conducted by Ligurious.

  At his indication I took my place on the throne.

  “The doors of the anteroom will be locked behind us,” said Ligurious. “You will

  not be able to open them.”

  “what is going on?” I asked.

  “You will soon serve your purpose,” said Ligurious.

  “What purpose?” I said.

  “That purpose which we feared might one day have to be served, that purpose, or

  major purpose, why you were brought to Gor.”

  “I do not understand,” I said. I did recall that last night I bad been assured

  that everything bad been planned for, that all contingencies, according to

  Ligurious, bad been anticipated. JI

  I wondered if I still had a role to play in these contingencies.

  “You still need me, then?” I said. “I still figure in your plans?”

  “Of course,” be said.

  I was relieved to hear this. I was afraid as to what might prove to be my fate

  if a man such as Ligurious no longer had any particular or special use for me. I

  was pretty. I could .conjecture what fates might lie in store for me.

  “Listen,” said he. “Do you hear it?”

  “Yes,” I said. It was a dull, striking sound, coming as though from a great

  distance. It had a rhythm to it.

  “It is a ram,” said he, “doubtless slung from a cradle, drawn by ropes,

  doubtless with a will by citizens of Corcyrus.

  “It sounds far away,” I said.

  “It is at the outer gate,” he said.

  “The citizens of Corcyrus love me,” I said.

  “Do not doubt it,” be said. “I must now take my leave. I fear there is little

  time.”

  “But what of me?” I said. “I am afraid. Will you come back for me?”

  “Have no fear, Lady Sheila,” he said. “You will be come for.”

  “Soon?” I asked.

  “Yes,” he said. He then backed down the stairs. He bowed deeply.

  “Farewell, Lady Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrus,” he said.

  He then withdrew.

  I heard a splintering in the distance, and then, in a moment, a new striking,

  doubtless on the interior gate.

  I heard the closing of the anteroom door behind Ligurious, and then the dropping

  in place of beams, the sliding of bolts. It had been locked from within, from

  the other side.

  I sat on the throne, clutching its arms, alone in the great hall.

  13 The Golden Cage; Miles of Argentum Speaks With Me

  I clutched the arms of the throne in terror.

  Before this I had heard the screams of the crowd outside the doors, their

  shouting and pounding, then the striking of a heavy beam against the door.

  Men and women, many in rags, brandishing knives and implements, mixed with

  soldiers, poured into the great ball. The doors were open, and one bung awry on

  its hinges. The mob, with the soldiers, swirling about the heavy beam, now

  dropped, which had been used to breach the doors, flooded toward the dais. At

  the foot of the dais, shaking fists, shouting angrily, some restrained by

  soldiers, the crowd stopped.

  “Cut her to piecesl” I heard. “Tear her to piecesl”

  “She is ‘Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrust” cried men in the crowd. “It is Sheila,
r />   Tatrix of Corcyrusl” “It is shel” “It is Sheilal” “It is Sheila, the Tatrix of

  Corcyrusl”

  I moaned. I was terrified that they should know that.

  Miles of Argentum sheathed his sword. He handed his helmet to one of the men

  with him.

  He approached the throne.

  “Please, don’t,” I said.

  Then he jerked away the veil of state from my features. I, though a free woman,

  had been face-stripped before free men. My face was as bare to them as though I

  might be a slave. Face-stripping a free woman, against her will, can be a

  serious crime on Gor. On the other hand, Corcyrus had now fallen. Her women,

  thusly, now at the feet of her conquerors, would be little better than slaves.

  Any fate could now be inflicted on them that the conquerors might wish,

  including making them actual slaves. The hand of Miles of Argentum then brushed

  back my robes, that my whole head and features, to the throat, might be revealed

  to the crowd.

  “This is the way in which I am more accustomed to seeing you,” he said.

  “Greetings, Lady Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrus.”

  if

  “I am Tiffany Collins,” I said, weakly. “I am from Earth.”

  “Your features,” said Miles of Argenturn, “are surely well known to hundreds, if

  not thousands.”

  “Cut her to piecesl” cried men in the crowd. “Tear her to piecesl” cried women

  in the crowd.

  “I am from Earthl” I cried. “I am Tiffany Collinsl”

  “Bring forth the palace slave called Susan,” said Miles of Argentum.

  Susan, from somewhere in the back, was thrust forward. I gasped.

  She was absolutely naked, save that she still wore the collar of Ligurious. Her

  hands were bound behind her back.

  In her nose there was a small, circular, wire apparatus which P;j had apparently

  been held open, thrust through her septum, and then permitted to spring shut.

  Attached to this apparatus, tied through it, dangling, was a looped thong, about

  two feet in length. It was clearly a device by means of which a slave, or

  perhaps any female, might be led.

  “You are Susan, are you not,” inquired Miles of Argentum, “who was as personal

  serving slave to Sheila, the Tatrix of Corcyrus?”

 

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