by John Norman
“Earlier,” said he, “you hesitated, if only briefly, in carrying out a command.”
“Forgive me, Master,” she begged, turning white.
“Leading position,” he said.
Sobbing, she rose to her feet, and put her head down, at what would be the height of a man’s waist, her legs flexed. A guard walked over and fastened his hand in her hair. “Have her whipped,” said Policrates. “Yes, Captain,” said the man. He then left the chamber, pulling the girl, sobbing, at his side. I was pleased to see that Policrates was a strict master. The girl was, of course, guilty. She had clearly hesitated in carrying out a command. How can a girl expect such laxities to go unnoticed, or unpunished?
Policrates then nodded to the men who held me. “Take him away,” he said.
I was then dragged from the room.
Chapter 31 - THE CHAMBER OF THE WINDLASS; I BEGIN TO PUT MY PLAN INTO EFFECT
“Cease your lying!” cried the pirate. “Put your back into it!”
“Yes, Captain,” I said to him, though surely he was not a captain.
The whip cracked across my back.
I, sweating, chained, pressed my bare feet against the flat, wooden slats nailed on the large, raised wooden disk, the treading platform, some five feet above the floor, encircling the windlass. I could hear the chain turning on its winding axle below the level of the platform. The gate is raised by muscle power, abetted by two heavy, drum-like weights which partially balance its weight, transmitted to the windlass by means of metal windlass poles, or bars, these being used to rotate the windlass. The gate, which is heavier than the drum-like weights, has a gravity descent. In lowering the gate the windlass, under the control of its workers, serves primarily as a brake, sufficing to regulate the speed of its descent. The principles and gearing of the windlass, which is an upright windlass, are analogous, of course, to those of the capstan.
I pressed against the heavy metal pole, or bar, almost five inches in diameter, fixed now, like a spoke, in the shaft of the windlass. My neck, in its collar, by a chain, was fastened to this pole. It was thus that I was kept in my place. My wrists and ankles were also chained. I had some eighteen inches of play for my feet. I had some twenty-four inches of play for my hands. These arrangements represent what is theoretically an optimum compromise between prisoner security and the degree of freedom essential to efficiently operate the windlass.
“Push!” cried the pirate.
Again the whip struck across my back. I thrust again against the bar. The whip, then, struck elsewhere, too, and there were cries of pain, and the sounds of men moving in chains. There were five large poles, or bars, set in the windlass. At each, five men, chained as I was, labored. These poles may be inserted into the windlass and, if one wishes, removed from it. When inserted into the windlass they are normally locked within it, as they were now, by a pin-and-lock device. The collars and neck chains keep men fastened to the pole, whether it is inserted within the windlass or not. When moving about, the pin-and-lock device opened, the men will carry the pole with them. When the pole is on the ground, and not lifted, one can rise no higher, of course, than on one’s knees, with one’s head deferentially lowered.
“Push, push! Move!” called the pirate.
The lash struck amongst us.
As the windlass turned slowly, creaking, we heard, too, overhead and to the side, the movement and swinging of the great drum-like counterweights on their chains. Without these counterweights we could not have moved the sea gate.
I again felt the lash, as did the others, too. The pirate walked about us.
It is dim, and musty, in the chamber of the windlass. It can be hot during the day. My hands slipped on the bar. Then I had it again. Too, at night, it can be extremely cold. There was a smell of wastes in the chamber. Perhaps it would have been less unpleasant if our captors had permitted us clothing.
“Work, work!” called the pirate. “Work!” But he did not strike us again. The weights were now in motion.
There is little to amuse one in the chamber of the windlass, save, I suppose, eating and drinking, and dreams. There is a shallow trough for water, cut in the stone, near one wall, where we would be chained when not working. This is filled twice daily. Too, at the wall, we would be thrown crusts of bread, and scraps of meat and fruit, usually the garbage of the feasts of pirates, our captors. Then, at night, chained, cold, when we would fall asleep, we would have our dreams. These dreams would usually be of slave girls, soft and warm, luscious, licking and kissing in our arms. Then we would awaken, to the straw, to the cold, to the stones, to the damp, cold, heavy iron of our chains.
There were no pretty slave girls in the chamber of the windlass, as Policrates had told me. But we had our dreams. One girl, more than any others, appeared in my own dreams, she who had once been Miss Beverly Henderson, though she now appeared generally in my dreams not as the lovely, free Earth girl, Miss Henderson, but, under a variety of names, as a Gorean slave girl. When, in my dreams I would encounter a slave girl, perhaps suddenly turning to greet me; perhaps in a market, imploring me to buy her; perhaps on a rounded slave block, I with a purse of gold in hand, having ready the means with which to buy her; perhaps an escaped slave, pilfering in my compartments, then turning, then knowing herself caught; perhaps being pulled from a slave sack I had bought on speculation; perhaps drawn by the hair from the tent of an enemy; perhaps chained in the darkness, and then illuminated; it would generally, almost always, suddenly, somehow, seem she.
“My Master!” she would say, knowing herself mine, acknowledging herself mine, kneeling before me. One dream I had had several times. We were having dinner in the restaurant, as we had had long ago. She was wearing the white, off-the-shoulder dress. She had the beaded purse. In the candlelight she was very beautiful. We finished the dinner, and our coffee, and I had paid the check.
“Now take off your clothes,” I told her. “I am going to make you a slave girl.”
“You cannot do that,” she told me. “You are mistaken,” I told her. “How can I be mistaken?” she asked. “It is very simple,” I said. “You do not know the nature of men.”
“This is a public place,” she said. “That is all right,” I told her. She turned to a man at a nearby table. “He intends to make me a slave,” she said to him. “That is all right,” said the man. “You are a slave.”
“Strip now, and do not dally longer, Woman,” I told her.
Then, in my dream, slowly and gracefully, the clothing, put aside, seeming to float from her, Miss Henderson, standing beside the table, on the carpet of the restaurant, stripped herself. I then unbound her hair, so that it fell loosely, almost floating, about her shoulders. No one in the restaurant paid us the least attention. I then removed a black leather cord from my pocket and bound her small wrists behind her back. The ends of the cord were long, and fell to the level of the back of her knees. “Precede me now from the restaurant,” I told her. “I wish to see how you move.” She made her way between the tables.
On the way out we passed the two women whom we had seen long ago in the restaurant. “My Master has tied me,” she said to them, “Yes,” said the larger of the two women. “Yes,” said the smaller of the two women. As we approached the door of the restaurant we passed, on our left, the hat-check counter. “Excellent slave meat,” said the blond hat-check girl, Peggy, behind the counter. “You, too,” I told her, “are excellent slave meat.”
“My Master has not yet claimed me,” she said. “Be patient,” I told her. “Yes, Master,” she said.
At the door to the restaurant we stopped. “On the other side of this door, at this moment,” I told her, “is another world. It is called Gor. It is quite different from your old world. If you cross this threshold now, you will be in that world. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Jason,” she said. “And in that world,” I told her, “you will be, legally and completely a slave.”
“Yes, Jason,” she said. I then opened the door. Beyond
that door lay not the bricks, the gutters, the dingy air, the hurrying of traffic, the triviality and misery, which had previously lain outside it, but now, as the door opened, we, saw open fields, vast and green, and a sky that was gloriously blue, studded with scudding clouds. The air was gloriously fresh, pure and clean. She stepped across the dark, stained, flat board that marked the threshold of the restaurant, out onto the grass, into the sunlight and wind.
“You have crossed the threshold into the world of Gor,” I told her. She turned to face me. “Yes, Master,” she said. I turned and closed the door, the dark, heavy door, with the rectangular panes of glass set in it, with the curtains behind the glass. As the door closed, it, and the restaurant, and its world vanished. I turned to face the girl. We were alone in the field, in the sunlight. “It is time to begin to accustom you to your slavery,” I told her. “Yes, Master,” she said. “On your back, Slave,” I told her. “Yes, my Master,” she said.
“Do not slack, you Sleen,” said the pirate, snapping his whip. “Work! Work!”
We had, in the last few days, many times raised and lowered the sea gate. I speculated that these activities were largely connected with the coming and going of scout ships, and supply ships and fitting vessels. Then, yesterday, the gate had been open for some four Ahn. I speculated that the fleet of Policrates was now abroad. In his own hall, when his girls had finished with me, making me yield in his presence, his enemy, for the amusement of himself and his men, I had heard him, as he had spoken to Kliomenes, declare an intention to move his fleet east. Now, I gathered, he had done so. Doubtless this was to discourage the formation of an alliance among the eastern towns, and to prevent ships being sent to stop or delay Ragnar Voskjard at the chain west of Port Cos.
“Keep moving,” called the pirate. Again the whip cracked.
As I made my way about the windlass, treading the slatted, circular platform, with my fellow prisoners, thrusting against the metal pole, I saw, chained to the wall, and at one side, behind the water trough cut in the stone, their necks still fastened to their own poles, two other sets of prisoners. There are thus, in reserve, additional chained crews for the work of the windlass. Too, as was clear, no one at the windlass was indispensable. This comprehension doubtless played its role in keeping order amongst us. We knew that any one of us could be cut from his chains at the merest whim of our jailer.
“Hold!” called the pirate. We stopped, the gate lifted. He engaged the holding pawl. The gate would not now slip. The weights, overhead and to one side, swung on their chains. We reversed our position at the poles, stepping under them and then standing, turning the chain swivels, to which the chains on our collars were attached. We were now in position to brake the gate, in its lowering. I, then, like several of the others, the holding pawl now engaged, put my head down on the bar, resting. It is not easy to raise the gate.
Outside I supposed that one or more ships, river galleys, might be gracefully entering or leaving the lake-like courtyard of the holding of Policrates. The signal to raise or lower the gate is given by a guard on the wall, at the west gate tower, one of two towers flanking the sea gate. It is a voice signal. Accordingly its authenticity is seldom in doubt. Anyone, of course, might strike on a bar or blow on a trumpet. The windlass apparatus was within the west gate tower.
It felt good to rest.
Yesterday the gate had been open for some four Ahn. I conjectured the fleet had left. Too, it seemed likely to me that Policrates would have accompanied the fleet. Indeed, in his hall, I had gathered, from what I had heard, that the fleet was to set forth under his personal command. The work afoot, thus, was doubtless too serious to be left now to subordinates. Kliomenes, I suspected, would then have been left in charge of the holding. That, at any rate, was my hope.
“The gate is soon to be closed,” said the pirate. “Be ready.”
It takes less time to close the gate than open it, but that, too, because of the weights involved, the windlass stress and the need to control the windlass, requires a considerable effort. To make the gate fall with extreme swiftness, incidentally, as was done when my galley was shattered, it is necessary only to disengage one of the counterweights. The pole-like spokes, of course, by which the windlass is normally turned, or managed, should be freed of the windlass before this is done, a disengagement which is effected by loosing the pin-and-lock devices and withdrawing the poles from the windlass. If this were not done the poles would spin wickedly, turning with the rotating windlass. This eventuality would be extremely dangerous, of course, to anyone within the compass of the poles’ movement or who might be, as we were, chained to the poles themselves.
There are two counterweights, as I have mentioned, which partially balance the weight of the gate. The disengagement of one is quite sufficient to permit the gate to rattle viciously downward. If both were disengaged the gate itself might be severely damaged.
“Be ready!” called the pirate.
I looked upward, the collar slipping on my neck. A golden shaft of light filtered downward, falling gently into the chamber. In it there danced a myriad specks of golden dust. It was very beautiful. I also noted that the window was too narrow to admit the egress of a man.
“I fooled Policrates himself,” I mentioned to the fellow next to me, “when I brought the topaz to him. He did not know me for an imposter any more than the dolt, Kliomenes.”
The fellow looked at me, blankly.
“Liar!” screamed the pirate. “I have warned you about your lies!”
The whip fell again and again on me. “Persist in these lies,” cried the pirate, “and I will bring the matter to the attention of Kliomenes himself!”
“Forgive me, Captain,” I said, as though frightened. But I had also gathered from his remark that my conjecture that Policrates was not now in the holding was correct. Surely if Policrates had been in the holding he would have threatened me with his name and not that of Kliomenes, since I had expressly mentioned Policrates and he stood higher in the holding than Kliomenes. Kliomenes must now, I gathered, be in charge of the holding. This, I felt, was in the best interests of my plan.
“Lower the gate!” we heard a man call. “Lower the gate!” Then, far above us, and to the right of the windlass chamber, angry, entering out onto a small balcony extending into the chamber, a balcony reached through a guardroom, we saw a pirate. “What is going on down there?” he called.
“Nothing!” called the pirate who had been striking me.
“Did you not hear the signal?” called the man on the balcony.
The pirate with us glared at me, in fury. He loosened the holding pawl. Immediately we felt the stress in the windlass poles.
“Pay attention, you fool,” called the man on the balcony. “Listen! Get the gate down!”
“Lower the gate!” cried the pirate with us, angrily. “Hurry, you fools!”
We felt the bars pulling against our arms and, slowly, with effort, as the weights ascended, permitted the descent of the gate.
Then the gate was down.
I met the eyes of the pirate. He looked at me, in fury. I looked down, as though frightened.
But I was not displeased with the occurrences of the day.
Chapter 32 - MY PLAN IS SUCCESSFUL; I TAKE MY LEAVE FROM THE HOLDING OF POLICRATES
“Let them be whipped,” said Kliomenes, “both of them.”
Kliomenes reclined in the curule chair of Policrates, holding his court.
Mira and Tala, the blond sisters from Cos, kneeling naked before the chair of Kliomenes, their hands bound behind their back, their necks joined by a length of binding fiber, cried out with misery. They had failed to sufficiently please Jandar, one of the minor captains in the holding of Policrates. Each, in the opinion of Jandar had not tried hard enough to outdo the other in addressing themselves to his pleasure. Perhaps the fact that they were sisters had to some extent inhibited them, each fearing to appear the most lascivious slave before the other. Yet, of course, such inhibitions, under
any circumstances, are not permitted to slave girls. They would get over them, or die. Too, I suspected that Jandar had not handled them well. If he would have handled them with adequate skills I had little doubt that each, indeed, would have striven desperately to outdo the other, each trying to be the favorite. Properly handled he could have had them in moments at one another’s throats, as competitive love slaves.
“Should this complaint be brought again to my attention,” said Kliomenes to the girls, “I shall have you cast naked into the jaws of tharlarion.”
“Yes, Master!” said Mira. “Yes, Master!” said Tala.
“Take them away,” said Kliomenes. The two girls, by the binding fiber which tied them together by the neck, were pulled, half choking, to their feet, and dragged from his presence.
“Why have I been brought here, Captain?” I asked the pirate at my side, who had conducted me to the tiles of the hall. It was he who was commonly in charge of the workers at the windlass.
“Kliomenes is holding court,” he grinned.
“But I have done nothing,” I said, as though frightened.
“We shall let Kliomenes be the judge of that,” he said.
“Please, no, Captain,” I said.
“Be silent,” he said, grinning.
“Yes, Captain,” I said. The collar and chain which had fastened me to the windlass pole had been removed from my neck, but I wore still, on my wrists and ankles, the other chains from the room of the windlass.
“What is next?” inquired Kliomenes.
“The disposition of loot,” said a pirate.
He thrust five, low, flat coffers of coins across the tiles, and put beside them a tangle of jewelry and a bowl of pearls.
“And there is this, too,” said the man. He thrust forward a chained girl. Her ankles were joined by some two feet of graceful chain, and her wrists, too, were linked by some two feet of chain. This type of chaining is not so much to confine a girl as it is to have her in chains, and display her. This type of chaining is very beautiful. The primary bond on such a girl, of course, is her slavery itself. On Gor what stronger bond need a girl wear?