by John Norman
I cried out, helplessly.
Suddenly I screamed with fear as something, long-snouted, with rows of tiny teeth, closed upon my leg. I began to scream with misery trying to hold the mast. It did not tear at, or wrench, my leg. I could not see what it was, but could sense its weight. My hand slipped on the mast. It was drawing me downward, away from the mast. The snout slipped higher on my leg. I struck down at it with my fist. I struck something hard, something heavy and alive. I saw a round eye, lidded and lensed. I screamed wildly. My fingers slipped on the mast. I struck down, striking again and again at the thing. Then, I screaming, crying out with misery, it drew me from the mast and, turning about, twisting under the water, dove downward. I scratched and tore at it, but could not free myself. The cold water swirled about me. I could no longer tell where the surface of the water was. I could not breathe. My blows became weak. Then it seemed, outward from me, in the distance there was a shifting, dull, flickering light. It was the surface. I reached toward it, bent backward. I swallowed water. Something, too, was in the water, moving downward from the surface. Things began to go black. Weakly I tried to push away the jaws that held me, long and narrow, with many fine teeth. I could feel the teeth with my fingers. I could not breathe. I could not fight. There was nothing to breathe. The surface receded. Dimly I was aware of movement near me in the water, something other than the beast that held me. I thrust out my hand, touching nothing. I closed my eyes. I decided that I would breathe. Surely there would be something to breathe. Then the beast, suddenly, startling me, twisted, and swam a tight, angry circle, its long tail thrashing, and then the water seemed suddenly different, somehow more viscous and greasy. The beast thrashed angrily. I felt its grip on my leg loosen. Then, suddenly, it shook spasmodically. I was buffeted away from it. I saw it turn slowly in the dark water, above me, rolling. A tiny fish bit at my leg. Others, darting, pursued the irrationally moving titan that had held me. I felt myself seized by the arm, and pulled toward the light, remote in the cold water. I saw the beast which had gripped me now below me. Swiftly I was drawn toward the surface. Unable to see, my eyes filled with salt water, my head broke the surface and I coughed and gasped. An arm, strong, supported me. I shuddered and lost consciousness.
I think that I was unconscious no more than a few seconds. I awakened being drawn onto a large, jagged, splintered square of wreckage, heavy beamed, like a raft.
I lay on my stomach on the wreckage. Then I lifted myself to my elbows, and threw up into the water, twice. Then again I collapsed.
A few feet from the raft, rolling lifeless in the water, was a grotesque marine saurian, fishlike but reptilian, more than twenty feet in length.
I saw the fins of sharks near it, and saw their snouts pressing it, and then beginning to tear at it.
I was conscious of the feet of a man near me. He stood. There was still fog on Thassa.
He took me by the arms and, turning me roughly, threw me on my back, on the heavy beams of that gigantic, raftlike structure, before him. I wore a bit of wet, yellow rep-cloth; it was thin; it clung about me, revealing me as though I were naked. I lifted one knee; I lay on my back, helpless, at his feet. I opened my eyes.
"Master!" I cried. I struggled to my knees before him, my heart flooded with elation. "I love you!" I cried. I put my head to his feet, covering them with kisses and tears. I shook with emotion. "Master! Master!" I wept. "I love you! I love you!"
He pulled me to my feet. "She-sleen," he said, quietly, and with menace.
He released me. I shrank back from him. "Master?" I said. Then, suddenly, I was terrified. "Oh, no, Master!" I said. "I love you."
He looked to the sharks which moved about the body of the inert, buoyant saurian. Others, too, smaller, restless, white-finned, moved about the raft.
"No, Master," I cried, "I love you! I love you, Master!"
He strode toward me and seized me by the back of my neck and an ankle. He lifted me high over his head.
"No, Master!" I wept.
He strode to the side of the raft.
I could do nothing. He could throw me to the sharks in an instant.
"No," he said, angrily. "This is too easy for a warrior's vengeance." He threw me to his feet on the boards.
He looked about. There was a ring on the wreckage, where it sloped higher out of the water. He dragged me to this ring and tore open my rep-cloth tunic. He knelt across my body and, with strips from the rep-cloth, tied my hands over my head and fastened them to the ring. I lay on my back before him, my head higher than my feet, my body at an angle of some five or ten degrees. With his foot he kicked aside the rep-cloth which he had torn open. In his belt there was a bloodied knife, that with which he had slain the marine saurian.
He drew forth the knife and looked at me.
"I love you, Master," I whispered.
"I shall cut you to bits," he said, "and throw you, little by little, to the sharks."
He could do with me what he chose. I was his.
He drew back the knife, the blade in his hand, behind his head. I closed my eyes.
It struck in the wood, sinking four inches deep, beside me. I opened my eyes. I shuddered.
He was looking down at me. "I have you now," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said.
He dropped to one knee, crouching beside me. He jerked the tag on my collar. He read it aloud, "Send me to the Lady Elicia of Ar, of Six Towers." He laughed.
"You, a lady's serving slave," he grinned.
Then he lifted my flanks from the wood, and then thrust me back, holding me to the wood. I closed my eyes, almost fainting from his touch.
He released me. He stood up, looking down at me.
"I love you, Master," I said.
He kicked me, viciously, and I cried out. "Lying slave girl!" he said.
He crouched again beside me and jerked the knife free from the wood. I felt its point at my throat.
Then he thrust the knife again into the wood, a foot from me. He looked down at me. "No," he said, "the sharks, the knife, are too good for you."
I felt his left hand at my throat. He could crush it easily.
I shuddered.
Then his hand moved from my throat to touch my right breast, musingly. "No," he said, "the sharks, the knife, are too good for you."
"Have pity on a poor slave," I begged. But I saw in his eyes that he would have no pity on me.
I felt his right hand on my body.
"I have pursued you," he said. "Those at the Chatka and Curla were kind enough to tell me that you had been shipped on the Jewel of Jad. We seized a small, oared galley. We joined with those of Port Kar. In the engagement I sought you. It was not easy. Captives were persuaded to speak. Survivors from the Jewel of Jad were picked up by the ramship, Luciana of Telnus. We sought her. We found her. But she was struck, and sinking. Her decks were awash. She was abandoned. We saw one boat fleeing from her in which was a free woman. No sign of a slave there! Others of her crew, and survivors, were in the water, making for Cosian vessels. No sign of a slave then in the water either did I detect. Our own small galley had been rammed, and was shipping water. She, too, in moments would sink. I climbed to the deck of our quarry, she whom we had sought, the Luciana of Telnus, forcing aside my alarmed men, but moments before she went under. Perhaps they had discovered the nature of the slave I sought and had left her behind, as garbage, to go down with the ship! But I wanted her! It was important for me to have her! She was worthless garbage but I wanted her alive, to get my hands on her pretty little body, to have her at my feet, to settle my score with her. Better for her for her sake to have gone down with the ship, but I would not allow that possible. That must not be! Surely the Priest-Kings would not permit that! Surely they would see to it that she was delivered rather into my hands, for my vengeance. Only in such a way could the claims of justice be satisfied! I must find the slut! By all the rights of Gor, for what she had done, she was mine! Mine! She was owed to me. But on the flooded decks, as my men ca
lled out for me to return, I, to my fury, found no sign of her, no sign of the cringing, treacherous little slave slut from the Chatka and Curla in Telnus. I must search further! I returned to my own galley. She, too, was foundering, and would soon sink. I was furious! Where was the slave? Might she be in the water? Many ships were about. Had she been picked up? That must not be! She must be here, somewhere! Surely none who knew her, and what she was, who knew her true nature, would deign to fish such garbage out of the water! Unless to deliver her, to her horror, to me for my vengeance! Our own galley was subsiding. My men, on my command, swam to a ship of Port Kar. Not I, however. I remained on our galley, its deck pitching and awash. This vantage was precarious and transient, dangerous, yes, but from it, it seemed the presence of the slut, were she about, might be the more easily discovered. I could not see her! Surely I was not to be denied her! Despite the pleas of my men from the water, begging me to join them in seeking safety, I continued to scrutinize the turbulent waters, the debris, some flaming, the pitching wreckage, port and starboard, fore and aft. Thus I continued my hunt. As the galley suddenly rolled and sank, I dove into the water. I did not rest. I continued my hunt."
He looked down upon me.
"Yes," said he, "I continued my hunt."
He looked down upon me, his capture, fastened supine, helplessly, to the ring before him.
"I yet did hunt for you."
"Your hunt has been successful, Master," I said. "You have caught me."
"Yes," he said, "the vicious, little lying slave, the little she-sleen and collared traitress, is now caught." He looked down at me. "She lies now before me, naked and bound, at my mercy."
"Yes, Master," I said.
"Slut," said he.
"Yes, Master," I said.
He turned my head from side to side. "Even your ears are pierced," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said. There were tears in my eyes.
"The vengeance of a warrior," said he, "you will learn, little slut of a slave, is not a light thing."
"I am yours, Master," I said. I looked up at him, in the fog. I felt the raftlike structure shifting beneath us. I was bound at his mercy, my bit of tunic torn aside, on a particle of wreckage on a great sea. "I am yours, Master," I whispered. "Do with me as you will."
His left hand held me. His right hand moved at my body. His teeth and lips pressed suddenly, savagely, against the side of my throat, over the collar.
"I love you, Clitus Vitellius!" I cried.
He struck me, savagely, for I, a slave, had spoken his name.
Then he continued his depredations on my body. In moments, to the sky and sea, and to his manhood, helplessly, I cried myself his.
23
The Raft
I lay in the arms of Clitus Vitellius, my master, under the bright stars of Gor, under the white moons and the black sky, on the rough wood, in the midst of that great, lonely sea. I heard the water lap at the wreckage on which we lay. He had freed me of the ring, that my hands, under his directives, might pleasure him.
I put my head on the leanness of his belly, and my arms about him. He held my head in his hands. He lay upon his back.
"Do not think you are my love slave," said he. "You are only a lying slave, my prisoner, a captured traitress I will have my way with."
"I know, Master," I said, pressing my lips to him. He had been very cruel to me. He had punished me much.
"If I were you," said he, "I would be terrified."
I kissed him.
"You do not seem to be terrified," he said.
"I have always feared you, Master," I said, "your temper, your strength, your will. But I love you, too."
He seized me by the arms and flung me to my back on the wood. He looked down upon me, holding me. He was very rough.
"Lying slave!" he said.
I looked up at him. "It is true," I said, "Master."
"You love any man," he said.
"I wear a collar," I said.
He laughed.
"I am a girl of Earth," I said. "I cannot help myself in the arms of a Gorean male. But it is you, Master, whom I most love, whom I truly love."
"You seek to escape punishment," he said.
"No, Master," I said. "Punish me." I felt his hands on my arms, so tight. He had terrible strength. I felt weak.
"I own you," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said.
"You will not," said he, "with your smiles and pretty noises evade my vengeance." He struck me, cruelly.
"No, Master," I said.
He stood up, angrily on the wreckage. He stepped away from me, looking out to sea. I remained as I was. Then he turned about, regarding me.
"I lie at your mercy, Master," I said. "Avenge yourself."
He drew forth the knife at his belt.
Then angrily he thrust it again in its sheath. He turned away.
I smiled, and climbed to my knees and stretched. "A girl is hungry," I said.
He remained, looking out to sea.
"It is strange," he said.
"What is strange, Master?" I asked.
"Be silent," said he to me, "Slave."
"Yes, Master," I said. He would not speak to me of his thoughts.
"Can it be, Clitus Vitellius?" he asked himself, aloud. He turned about, angrily, and looked at me.
"I betrayed you, Master," I said, "because I so much loved you. Had I not loved you so much I could not have so much hated you. I had lived for the moment when I might avenge myself upon you, and when it presented itself, I performed delicious but unspeakable treachery. When they took you away I felt anguish, and a grief I cannot describe to you. I cried out and wept with misery. I had betrayed he whom I loved. Life then to me was but stones and ashes. Better that it had been I who had been betrayed. When I learned of your escape elation and joy flooded me. It was enough to know you lived and were free."
"Traitress," said he.
"I am here," I said. "Do with me what you want." He regarded me with fury, but then he looked away again. After a time, he turned again to face me. "It is near dawn," he said. "I am weary. It is time to bind you for the night."
"Please do not bind me, Master," I said. I rose to my feet, and brushed back my hair. I smiled at him. "I promise I will not run away, Master," I said.
I stood on the shifting piece of wreckage.
"I am well aware of the penalties for a runaway slave girl," I said.
"Lie down by the ring," he said, "and be silent."
"Yes, Master," I said.
I lay down near the ring.
"On your side," he said.
I complied. He was the master. I felt my wrists taken behind my back, crossed and tied together, tightly.
I wanted so much to find some way to convince him of my love for him. I wanted him to know, truly, how I loved him. After that he could do what he wanted with me.
He took two pieces of my tunic, twisting them together. He then thrust them about the collar I wore, between the metal and my neck. He then, by means of this improvised rope, tied my collar close to the iron ring on the wreckage, no more than an inch from it. He then removed the knife from his sheath, plunged it into the wood a few feet from him, and lay down. In a moment he had turned away from me, and was asleep.
I could understand his anger with me, a warrior's fury. But his distrust hurt me most.
I could move my head but little. I was tied by my collar close to the ring. I could not free my hands. They had been tied by a warrior.
I wanted to be his love slave. Instead I was his prisoner, a girl who had betrayed him, now caught by him, a captive slave and traitress, one who now lay helpless, bound, within the full compass of the displeasure and vengeance of her betrayed master, who was a warrior of Gor.
I knew he had not yet worked his vengeance upon me. I struggled, helplessly. For the first time I became terribly afraid. It became cold upon the raft.
24
I am Chained in the Hold of a Galley
"Awaken, S
lave," said Clitus Vitellius. He kicked me. I awakened. I recalled, looking up at him, bound, I was the girl who had betrayed him. He freed my collar of the ring and took the rope of twisted cloth, from my torn tunic, which had tied me at the ring, and crossed my ankles, and bound them together. The last bit of rep-cloth tunic, which still clung about me, he tore away, and threw it into the sea. I sat up on the wreckage, naked, my hands tied behind my back, my ankles crossed and secured.