Lydius. I wondered how she would relish her new duties. I wondered if Sarpedon
would have beaten her, for concealing from him her skills. It was quite
probable. She would look well, when not carrying paga, dancing in the sand. A
slave girl is not permitted to conceal her skill as a dancer from Sarpedon, her
master. Yes, she would have been beaten. Then, that night, as Sarpedon had
promised, she would dance.
As she danced, I trusted that she would think of me.
She had made her decision. It had been a brave decision. But it had not been a
decision without its risks. She had gambled. She had lost.
I thought, too, of Telima. She, too, had made her decision. Let her remain, if
she wished, in her beloved marshes.
I sought Talena.
I smiled.
Talena was not a simple paga slave, as was Tana. Talena was not a simple rence
girl, indigenous to the marches, as was Telima. Talena was the daughter of a
Ubar!
It was not simply that Tana was beneath me, a rich man, Bosk, admiral in Port
Kar. She, slave, was beneath any free man. She was only kept alive for one
purpose, to serve such men, and be pleasing to them. And Telima, though she was
very beautiful, was a rence girl. She was of low caste. She was scarcely fit
consort for one of my position. But Talena, she was the daughter of a Ubar.
She might, with fitness, sit by my side.
She would be acceptable.
I mused.
In time, I might become first captain in the Council of Captains. And who knew
what political occurrences might take place in Port Kar? I was popular in the
city. Perhaps in time there would be a Ubar in Port Kar.
At my side Talena would be the most beautiful, the richest and the most powerful
woman on Gor.
I finished with the arrow on which I was working.
I would rescue her.
We would repledge our companionship. And who knew to what heights I might raise
the chair of Bosk? Indeed, with Talena at my side, the daughter of the great
Ubar of Ar, my fortunes, in many matters, might be much improved. The
companionship would be an advantageous one. She, by virtue of her influences and
associations, could bring me much. Who knew to what heights, in time, might be
raised the chair of Vosk? Perhaps, in time, it might stand as high, or higher,
than the throne of Ar? And might there not come to be, in time, an alliance of
Gor’s greatest sea power and her greatest land power, and, perhaps, in time, but
one throne?
We would make a splendid and powerful couple, the envy of Gor, Bosk, the great
Bosk, and Talena, the beautiful Talena, daughter of a great Ubar, his consort.
I rose to my feet, the arrow well refeathered, and set it to one side, across
two rocks. In the morning it would be dry and I would replace it in the quiver.
I looked at Sheera.
The shadows were longer. It was late in the afternoon. She looked at me.
I turned away from her.
It was not yet time for a slave girl to escape.
Things were going well.
I went to inspect the work of the men, setting the sharpened stakes about the
camp.
We had made one alteration in our original planes, an alteration to take into
account the arrival in Laura of the Rhoda of Tyros.
We had taken the Tesephone from the wharves of Laura, and ascended the river
some twenty pasangs. It was there, on the north bank, that we made our camp.
Above Laura the river is less navigable than below, particularly in the late
summer. The Rhoda, though a shallow drafted galley, was still considerably
deeper keeled than the Tesephone. Moreover, it was a much longer ship. The Rhoda
would be unable to follow us to our camp. Furthermore, I would post guards,
downriver, to warn us of any approach, say, by longboats, from Laura. I had also
pointed guards about the camp, in case, as was unlikely, there should be an
attempt to make an approach through the forests.
I suspected that these precautions were unnecessary, but I saw fit to decree
them nonetheless.
Furthermore, the camp above Laura, on the north bank of the Laurius, provided us
with privacy for our business. We might be simply, as far as those in Laura
knew, attempting to achieve better prices on sleen fur by establishing this
camp. Such things were sometimes done. No one in Laura need know the true object
of our expedition.
The riverside camp was not untypical of a semipermanent Gorean naval camp. The
Tesephone had been beached, and lay partly on her side, thus permitting
scraping, recalking and resealing of the hull timber, first on one side and
then, later, when turned, on the other. These repairs would be made partly from
stores carried on board, partly from stores purchased in Laura. There would
also, of course, be much attention given to the deadwork of the ship, and to her
lines and rigging, and the fittings and oars. Meanwhile, portions of the crew
not engaged in such labors, would be carrying stones from the shore and cutting
saplings in the forest, to build the narrow rectangular wall which shields such
camps. Cooking, and most living, is done within the camp, within the wall and at
the side of the Tesephone. The wall is open, of course, to the water. Canvas
sheets, like rough awnings on stakes, are tied to the Tesephone, and these
provide shade from the sun and protection in the case of rain.
I was fond of my crew. I would have girls, paga slaves, brought up for them from
Laura.
“How goes the work?” I asked Thurnock.
“It goes well,” said he, “my captain.”
The men would soon be finished.
The camp of Marlenus, the great Ubar of Ar, I had learned was somewhere within
the forest, north or northwest of Laura. It was quite possibly the same camp he
had used several months ago, when, as recreation from the duties of the Ubar, he
had gone hunting in the northern forests, a sporting trip in which he had
captured a large number of animals, and, as well, Verna, a famed outlaw woman,
and her entire band.
Marlenus, I was certain, would be overconfident.
Verna, I was certain, would not be so easily taken a second time.
“Another two stakes, and we are done,” said Thurnock.
I looked at the sun, it was now low, behind the trees, well below them. In half
an Ahn, it would be dusk.
It was now time for a slave girl to escape.
I looked at Sheera. “On your feet, Slave Girl,” I said.
She stood up, her wrists braceleted before her body. She faced me. She wore the
brief, sleeveless garment of white wool, her dark hair back by the fillet of
white wool. She was barefoot. My collar was at her throat.
I realized, suddenly with a start, that she was a quite beautiful woman.
She regarded me.
Her fists were clenched in the slave bracelets. The short chain, joining the
bracelets, was taut.
“Is this why you purchased me?’ she asked.
“Yes,” I said.
She turned quickly, wrists braceleted, and slipped between two stakes, where
Thurnock had not yet closed the defenses of the camp. She sped swiftly into the
forest.
It was in
her best interest, braceleted, to fall swiftly into the hands of
Verna’s band. Within the Ahn, hungry, nocturnal sleen would slip from their
burrows to hunt.
“What shall we do now, Captain,” asked Thurnock. He had finished closing the
wall, setting the two stakes, sharpened, inclined toward the forests, into
place.
“We shall cook some food,” I said, “and we shall eat, and we shall wait.”
About the twentieth Ahn, the Gorean midnight, we heard a sound, beyond our
defensive perimeter.
“Do not put out the fire,” I told my men, “but stay back from it.”
That we kept the fire burning would indicate that our intentions were not
hostile, and that we wished to make contact.
We remained back from the fire to make it more difficult for the panther girls,
were it their intention, to slay us from the darkness with arrows.
But that was not their intention. Had it been I do not believe we would have
heard the sound we did.
It had been the breaking of a branch, to alert us, to permit them to see what
our response would be.
But the fire was not covered.
I stood near the fire, and lifted my arms, that they might see I held no
weapons.
“I am Bosk, of the Free Island of tabor,” said I. “I am a merchant. I would hold
converse with you.”
There was only silence.
“We have trade goods,” I said.
From the darkness, beyond the perimeter, there stepped forth a woman, boldly.
She carried a bow. She wore the skins of panthers.
“Build up your fire,” she commanded.
“Do so,” said I to Thurnock.
Reluctantly Thurnock heaped more wood on the fire, until the interior of the
perimeter was well illuminated in the darkness.
We could not see beyond the fire.
“Keep the fire high,” said the woman.
“Keep it high,” said I to Thurnock.
Each of us, now within the defensive perimeter, between the stakes, was an easy
mark.
“Remove your sword belts and weapons,” said the woman. I dropped my belt, with
sword and sheath, and knife, to the ground, beside the fire. My men, at my
signal, did likewise.
“Excellent,” said the woman, from the other side of the stakes.
She looked at us. In the light from the recently built-up fire I could see her
more clearly. I saw the brief skins, the bow. She had a golden armlet on her
left arm, a golden anklet on her right ankle.
She was truly a panther girl.
“You are surrounded,” she said.
“Of course,” I said.
“You understand,” she asked, “that you might be now, should it please us, taken
slave?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Of what would you hold converse?” she asked.
“Let us speak,” I said.
“Remove some of the stakes,” she said, “and we will speak.”
I gestured to Thurnock. :Remove four stakes,” I said. Reluctantly the peasant
giant did so.
The panther girl, her head high, strode into the camp. She looked about herself.
Her eyes were strong, and fearless. With her foot she kicked the dropped weapons
closer the fire, away from my men.
“Sit,” she said to them, indicating a place near the back of the wall of stakes,
“and face the fire.”
I indicated they should comply with her direction.
“More closely together,” she said.
I again indicated that they should comply with her directive.
She had had them face the fire, that their eyes might not quickly adapt to night
vision. If the fire were suddenly extinguished they would, for an Ehn, for all
practical purposes, be blind, at the mercy of the panther girls. They had been
told to sit together that an arrow loosed into their midst could not but find a
target.
The girl now sat down across from me, cross-legged, near the fire.
There was another sound from beyond the perimeter. I saw something white move in
the darkness, stumbling between two panther girls.
A panther girl holding each arm, she was thrust into the camp. She was still
braceleted, of course, but now her hands, in the bracelets, with binding fiber,
had been tied close to her belly. Her brief white garment had been torn to her
waist. The fillet was gone from her hair. Sheera was thrust forward, and forced
to her knees, head down, by the fire. She had been much switched.
“We encountered this strayed slave,” said the girl.
“She is mine,” I said.
“Do you know who she was?” asked the girl.
I shrugged. :A slave,” I said.
There was laughter from girls beyond the perimeter, in the darkness. Sheera
lowered her head still more.
“She was once a panther girl,” said the girl. :She was once Sheera, the panther
girl.”
“Oh,” I said.
The girl laughed. “She was a great rival to Verna. Verna now takes pleasure in
returning her to you.” The girl looked at Sheera. “You wear a collar well,
Sheera,” said she.
Sheera looked at her, her eyes glazed in pain.
“This merchant,” said the girl, “tells us that you are his slave. Is that true?”
She looked at her, in fury.
“Speak, Slave,” said the girl.
“Yes,” said Sheera, “he is my master.”
The girl laughed, and so, too, did the others. Then the girl looked at me, and
nodded at Sheera. “Is she any good?” she asked.
I looked at Sheera. “Yes,” I said, “she is quite good.”
Sheera looked away, in fury, and put down her head. There was much laughter from
the girls.
“We will take four arrow points for her,” said the girl, “for returning her to
you.”
“Your fee is quite reasonable,” I remarked.
“More than enough,” said the girl, “for a cheap girl.”
Sheera’s fists were clenched. Then she put her head down, and wept, a slave.
I indicated that one of the girl’s companions might remove four arrow points
from the pack of trade goods. She did remove four, just four, and no more.
“So you are Verna?” I asked the girl
“No,” she said.
I looked disappointed.
She regarded me warily. “You seek Verna?” she asked.
“I have come far,” I admitted, : to do business with her.” I looked at the girl,
not much pleased. “I had understood that this was the territory ranged by Verna
and her band.”
“I am of the band of Verna,” said the girl.
“Good,” I said. I was now more pleased.
The girl facing me was blond, and blue-eyed, like many panther girls. She was
lovely, but cruel looking. She was not particularly tall.
For some reason, I found myself not displeased that this woman was not Verna.
“I am Bosk, of Tabor,” I said.
“I am Mira,” she said.
“Do you come from Verna?” I asked. “Can you speak for her?”
“Yes,” she said. “For whom do you speak?”
“For myself,” I said.
“That is interesting,” she said. Then she mused, “Verna told us that Marlenus of
Ar would not approach us as you have done, and that he would not use a merchant
to do his
business for him.”
I shrugged. “She is probably right,” I said. Marlenus, with men, would hunt the
forests. He would not be likely to address himself to a panther girl unless she
was stripped and knelt before him in slave chains.
“Do you know Marlenus is in the forest?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said, “I have heard that.”
“Do you know the location of his camp?” she asked.
“No,” I said, “other than the fact that it is said to be somewhere north or
northeast of Laura.”
“We know where it is” said Mira.
“I am interested in obtaining,” I said, “a woman, who is rumored to be a
prisoner in Verna’s camp.”
“A slave?’ smiled Mira.
“Perhaps,” I said. “She is said to be dark haired, very beautiful.”
“You speak of Talena,” smiled Mira, : the daughter of Marlenus of Ar.”
“Yes,” I said. “Is she in your camp?”
“Perhaps,” said Mira. “Perhaps not.”
“I am prepared to offer much,” I told her. “I am prepared to offer weights in
gold.”
The weight is ten Gorean stone. A Gorean stone is approximately four pounds in
weight.
“If you obtained her,” said Mira, “would you sell her back to Marlenus of Ar,
for even more?”
“It is not my intention,” I said, “to take a profit on her.”
Mira stood up. I, too, stood up.
“Tens of weights of gold,” I said to Mira.
But I looked into her eyes, I realized that Talena was not for sale.
“Is the girl in your camp?” I asked.
“Perhaps,” said Mira, “Perhaps not.”
“Set a price on her,” I said.
“These woods,” said Mira, “belong to panther girls. In the morning, Merchant,
leave them.”
I faced her.
“It is well for you,” said the girl, lifting the four arrow points she had
received for the return of Sheera, “that e have done business.”
I nodded, understanding her.
She looked at my men, as a man might have looked upon women. “Some of these
men,” she said, “seem interesting. They are strong and handsome. They would look
well in the chains of slaves.”
She strode to the opening in the stakes, and there turned, again to face me.
“Be warned,” said she. “These are the forests of panther girls. Leave them!”
“I understand,” I said.
“And, Merchant,” said she, “do not seek hereafter to mix in the affairs of Verna
Norman, John - Gor 08 - Hunters of Gor.txt Page 11
