by John Norman
The door there seemed ajar.
I thrust it open with the barrel of the dart-firing weapon.
I recalled the chamber well.
I slipped inside, furtively, but then lowered the weapon.
"Greetings, Tarl Cabot," came from the translator.
On the furred dais, as before, I saw Zarendargar. There was a small device near him.
The great shape, stiffly, uncurled, and sat there, watching me.
"Forgive me, my friend," it said. "I have lost a great deal of blood."
"Let us dress your wounds," I said.
"Have some paga," it said. It indicated the bottles and glasses to one side.
I went to the shelves and, looping the dart-firing weapon over my shoulder, by its stock strap, poured two glasses of paga. I gave one of the glasses to Zarendargar, who accepted it, and retained the other. I went to sit, cross-legged, before the dais, but Zarendargar indicated that I should share the dais with him. I sat near him, cross-legged, as a Warrior sits.
"You are my prisoner," I said to him.
"I think not," he said. He indicated, holding it, the small metallic device which had lain beside him on the dais. It nestled now within his left, tentacled paw.
"I see," I said. The hair rose on the back of my neck.
"Let us drink to your victory," he said. He lifted his glass. "A victory to men and Priest-Kings."
"You are generous," I said.
"But a victory is not a war," he said.
"True," I said.
We touched glasses, in the manner of men, and drank.
He put aside his glass. He lifted the metallic object.
I tensed.
"I can move this switch," he said, "before you can fire."
"That is clear to me," I said. "You are bleeding," I said. The dais on which I sat was stiff with dried blood. And it was clear that so small an effort as rising to meet me, and touching his glass to mine, had opened one of the vicious wounds on his great body.
He lifted the metallic object.
"It is this which you sought," he said.
"Of course," I said. It was that object which lay beyond the reach of men, and where it could not be scanned by the monitoring system.
"Did you know it would be here?" he asked.
"I understood that it would be here only later," I said.
"You will not take me alive," it said.
"Surrender," I said. "It is no dishonor to surrender. You have fought well, but lost."
"I am Half-Ear, of the Kurii," it said.
It fondled the metal device, looking at me.
"Is there so much of value here," I asked, "that you would be willing to destroy it?"
"The supplies here, and the disposition maps, the schedules and codes, will not fall into the hands of Priest-Kings," it said. It looked at me. "There are two switches on this mechanism," it said. It lifted the mechanism.
There were indeed two switches on the mechanism.
"When I depress either switch," it said, not taking its eyes from me, "a twofold, irreversible sequence is initiated. First, a signal is transmitted from the complex to the steel worlds. This signal, which can also be received by the probe ships and the fleet, will inform them of the destruction of the complex, the loss of these munitions and supplies."
"The second portion of the sequence, simultaneously initiated, triggers the destruction of the complex," I said.
"Of course," he said.
His finger rested over the switch.
"There are several humans left in the complex," I said.
"No Kurii save myself," he said.
"True," I said. "But there are humans here."
"Free," he asked.
"Some are free," I said.
He shrugged. The great furry shoulders then hunched in pain.
I could smell blood.
"Some of the humans here," I said, "prisoners, were among your cohorts."
"My men?" it asked.
"They fought bravely," I said.
The beast seemed lost in thought. "They are in my command," he said. "Though they are human, yet they were in my command."
He depressed the second of the two switches.
I tensed, but the room, the complex, did not erupt beneath me.
"You are a good officer," I said.
"The second switch was depressed," he said. "The signal to the worlds, the ships, the fleet, is transmitted. Secondly the destruct sequence is now initiated."
"But it is a second destruct sequence," I said.
"Yes," said Half-Ear, "that which allows for the evacuation of the complex."
"How much time is there?" I asked.
"Three Kur Ahn," he said. "The device is set on Kur chronometry, synchronized to the rotation of the original world."
"The same chronometry which is used in the complex?" I asked.
"Of course," he said.
'That is a little more than five Gorean Ahn," I said.
'Two Ehn more," he said.
I nodded. The Kur day was divided into twelve hours, the Gorean day into twenty. The periods of rotation of the original Kur world and of Gor were quite similar. That was one reason the Kurii were interested in Gor. They wished a world which would be congenial to their physiological rhythms, developed in harmony with given environmental periodicities of darkness and light.
"But I would advise you to be better than a Kur Ahn afoot away before the time of destruction," he said.
"I shall act quickly," I said. "You must accompany us to safety."
The great Kur lay back on the dais, his eyes closed.
"Come with us," I said.
"No," it said. I could see the blood emerging from the large body of the animal.
"We can transport you," I said.
"I will kill any who approach me," it said.
"As you will," I said.
"I am Zarendargar, Half-Ear, of the Kurii," it said. "Though I am in disgrace, though I have failed, I am yet Zarendargar, Half-Ear, of the Kurii."
"I will leave you alone now," I said.
"I am grateful," it said. "You seem to know our ways well."
"They are not dissimilar to the ways of the warrior," I said.
I poured him a glass of paga, and left it near him on the dais.
I then turned away and went to the portal of the chamber. He wished to be left alone, to bleed in the darkness, that no one might see or know his suffering. The Kurii are proud beasts.
I turned at the portal. "I wish you well, Commander," I said.
No response came from the translator. I left.
36
To the Victors Belong the Spoils;
I Lift a Glass of Paga
Orders were swiftly given.
In two Ahn we were ready to withdraw from the complex. Sleds were readied; prisoners, men of the complex, now in furs, some forty of them, were tied, their hands behind them, their necks linked by a long rope of rawhide, placing them in coffle. There was no fight left in them; they knew that on the ice, away from the technology of the complex, they could survive only if the red hunters chose to let them do so. Some would be sold to traders in the spring; others might be kept in the camps, to serve the red hunters; they, male slave beasts, would be stronger than female slave beasts. Perhaps eventually a hunter would take a trading trip south and take them with him, bound, to dispose of them in, say, Lydius, with his furs and other trade goods.
I regarded fifteen women who had been in the complex, women being trained as Kur agents for work in their cause. All were kneeling naked; most already had bondage strings on their necks; those that did not the hunters could sort out or do contest for.
"Put them in the sacks," I said.
Each was thrust in a deep furred sack, which was then placed within another heavy fur sack, larger than the first. There was an opening in the sacks only for the head, which was then rimmed with a hood, so that only the face was exposed, and that could be withdrawn to protect it from the cold. The rawhi
de straps on the sacks were then drawn tight, looped about, and tied tightly behind the hoods; the women could not reach the straps; they were, thus, effectively imprisoned.
"Tie the sacks on the sleds," I said. It was thus that the women would be transported.
The women moaned as they were carried helplessly to the sleds.
They would eventually learn to serve red masters.
She who had been the Lady Rosa was not, of course, with them. She was elsewhere, where I wanted her.
"Are we ready for departure?" I asked Imnak.
"Almost," said Imnak. Poalu, already furred, was with him.
"Come with me," I said to Imnak. "And bring, too, the bravest and best of your hunters, who performed for our cause in this place the best and noblest works of war."
There was a cheer.
"Surely Karjuk stands highest among them," he said.
"Come with us, Karjuk!" I cried.
"Go on without me," he said. He smiled wryly. "I am a sour and solemn man."
"Surely you would like a little thing to warm and pleasure you in your house?" I asked.
"I might grow too fond of it," he said. He bent down, tying a bundle, which he would put on his sled.
Imnak winked at me. "Come along, grim friend," said he. "You can help us make our choices."
"I know little of such matters," said Karjuk. "I am a lonely man."
"Come along," said Imnak. "Surely you can tell us which would be best at pulling sleds."
"You must look at the legs," said Karjuk. "Strong legs are important."
"Come along," said Imnak.
"Very well," said Karjuk.
We walked along a hallway. With us were many of the red hunters, some seventy or eighty, and Ram, and Drusus.
We entered a large room, off the hall.
In the room, alone, in its center, knelt a young red woman, her head down. She had been the only woman of her race, other than Poalu, who had been slave in the complex. She had been found in security chaining, in one of the slave rooms. She looked up.
"No one wants this one," said Imnak. "She has been a slave to white men."
There were tears in the girl's eyes. She was very pretty. She was short and plump like most of the women of the red hunters.
"What are you going to do with her?" asked Karjuk.
"Put her out in the snow," said Imnak. "She shames the People."
"I live apart from the People," said Karjuk.
"Do you want her?" asked Imnak.
"Of course not," said Karjuk, quickly. "She is too pretty for me."
"Do you know her?" asked Imnak.
"She was Neromiktok, of the Copper Cliffs Camp," he said. The word 'Neromiktok', in the language of the People, means 'Smooth-and-Soft-to-Touch'. I had learned this from Imnak. I had learned, too, that she had once been the beauty of the Copper Cliffs Camp.
"Do you know him?" inquired Imnak, innocently, of the girl.
"He is Karjuk, Master," she whispered, "once of Bright Stones Camp, who became the guard."
"It is said he left the camps and became the guard," said Imnak, "because his gifts were once refused by a proud girl of the Copper Cliffs Camp."
She put down her head.
"How did you become a slave," asked Imnak.
"I was too good for men," she said.
Several of the red hunters with us laughed, to hear a slave so speak.
"I ran away from Copper Cliffs to avoid an unwanted match," she said. "I was captured. I was made a slave."
"Are you still too good for men?" asked Imnak.
"No, Master," she said.
"You have shamed the People," said Imnak sternly.
"Yes, Master," she said, her head down.
"What sort of woman are you?" asked Imnak.
"One who wants to kneel at the feet of men, and love them," she said.
"Shameful! Shameful!" cried Imnak cheerfully.
"Yes, Master," she said, sobbing, not raising her head.
"Do you know the fate for shaming the People?" he asked.
"Please, no, Master!" she said.
"Seize her," said Imnak, to two of the red hunters. They seized her, each taking an arm, and dragged her to her feet.
"They are going to put me out in the snow!" she cried to Karjuk, agonized.
"Are you going to put her out in the snow?" asked Karjuk.
"Of course," said Imnak.
"But she has strong legs," said Karjuk.
The girl struggled in the arms of the red hunters. They released her and she flung herself to her knees before Karjuk, head down, sobbing, holding his legs.
"I suppose she could draw a sled," said one red hunter.
"Perhaps," said another.
"She might be pretty in the furs," said another.
"Keep me, Master! Keep me, Master!" begged the girl of Karjuk, sobbing. "I beg of you to keep me, Master!"
"No one wants you," said Imnak.
"Please, Master!" begged the girl, tears in her eyes, looking up at Karjuk.
"You are too good for me," said Karjuk.
"No, No, Master," she cried, "I am only a slave, a slave!"
"You are very pretty," said Karjuk.
"A slave is pleased if her master should find her pleasing," she said.
"What do you want?" he asked.
"To kneel at your feet, and to serve you and love you," she wept.
"Shameful!" cried Imnak.
"One cannot have everything," said Karjuk, defensively.
"Please, Master," she begged.
"Let us consider important things," said Karjuk. "Can you sew, and cook?"
"Yes, Master!" she cried.
"Can you make a good sleen stew?" he asked.
"Yes, Master," she said. "And though I know you are above such things I can show you wonders in the furs, which I have been taught as a slave."
Karjuk shrugged. "It is not wrong to broaden one's experiences," he said.
"Keep me, Master," she begged.
"I will call you Auyark," he said.
"I am Auyark," she said, joyfully, putting her head against his leg, weeping.
He looked down at her. "I think you will make a summer in my house," he said. Auyark is a word in the language of the People which means Summer.
"Look up at me," he said, "Girl."
She looked up at him.
"I will keep you," he said, "but you must understand that you are kept as a slave, completely as a slave, and only as a slave."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"And if you are not pleasing," he said, "I will put you out into the snow."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Come now," he said. "On your feet. We must load a sled."
She stood up.
"Let me load the sled, Master," she said.
He looked at her. "Yes," he said. "You will load it, lovely slave."
They left the room, he first, she following.
"Imnak," I said, "you arranged this entire thing."
"It is not impossible," he said. "But, hurry, there are other wenches to distribute, and there is little time."
* * * *
I looked down at Arlene, kneeling in line, with the other girls. She was in the first line. There were four such lines, of fifty or so girls each. They were the girls who had been slaves in the complex.
"We are your spoils," said Arlene.
All the girls were stripped. All knelt in the position of pleasure slaves.
She who had been the Lady Rosa knelt to one side, similarly exposed and positioned.
She, too, was a slave girl.
"Yes," I said to Arlene.
"Women have always been the spoils in the victories of men," she said, "the tokens, symbols, the fruits and prizes of their conquests."
"Of course," I said. "How do you feel about that?"
"I find it indescribably thrilling," she said.
"Kneel straighter," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"
Why are Thimble and Thistle," I asked Imnak, "in with the flesh loot?" The two Earth girls, Audrey and Barbara, knelt near Arlene.
"I have Poalu," said Imnak.
The girl Belinda, whom I had used on the steel plates of the corridor, while she wore her long neck chain, fastened in the overhead track system, knelt a few girls away, in the second row. She lifted her body to me, her eyes pleading, but did not break position.
Constance, the lovely blond-haired slave from Kassau, whom I had embonded in the fields south of the Laurius, knelt in the fourth row.
She was very beautiful.
Chains were brought, sirik chains, with their collars, and wrist and ankle loops, all attached, strung on an individual hold chain.
I threw six sirik chains over my left shoulder.
"Let us begin," said Imnak.
I threw two of the sirik chains to the tiles, one after the other.
Arlene and Audrey, swiftly, rose to their feet and ran lightly to kneel before me.
They looked up at me.
"I am a slave. I beg your chains," said Arlene.
"Pick them up," I said, indicating a sirik to her. She lifted up the chains.
"I am a slave. I beg your chains," said Audrey.
"Pick them up," I said, indicating the other sirik. She picked up the chain, with its collar, and wrist and ankle rings. I saw her lift it, tears in her eyes. Gently, head down, she licked and kissed the metal. I smiled. As I had thought, the former rich girl was the first to lick and kiss her chains.
Arlene, angry, lifted the chains to her lips. She, looking at me, pressed the chains to her lips and kissed them. Then, delicately, touching the chain with her small, soft tongue she licked the metal. Then she kissed it again. Then she held the chain diagonally in her mouth, her small, fine white teeth gently closed upon it. She then removed it from her mouth. "You see, I can lick and kiss my chains even better than she, Master," said Arlene.
"Oh, oh," said Audrey, softly. Her body trembled. She looked up from the chain. She was almost in orgasm.
"But do you understand the meaning of it?" I asked Arlene.
Suddenly Arlene shuddered, and looked at the chain. She held it in her small hands. It, locked on her body, would confine her obdurately, making her helplessly the rightless slave of a master. Every organism has its place in nature. That of woman is at the foot of man.
"I love being a woman, Master," she said. She held the chain against her bared beauty.