Hunters of Gor

by John Norman

"Because I displeased you, because I disobeyed you," she said.

  "Such things are the prerogatives of a free woman," I said.

  "Too," she said, "I was frightened because, in that moment, you looked so—so Gorean."

  I shrugged.

  "Are you angry?" she asked.

  "No," I said.

  "Then you forgive me," she said.

  "Do you wish to be forgiven?" I asked.

  "Very much," she said.

  "Very well," I said, "I forgive you."

  "Thank you," she said.

  I regarded her.

  "Tarl?" she asked.

  "Go to the wall," I said.

  "Surely not!" she said.

  "Must a command be repeated?" I asked.

  "'Command'?" she asked.

  "Yes," I said.

  "No," she said.

  She put down her vessel of paga, and rose lightly. I saw the beauty of her body beneath the silk. She went to the wall, where Tendite had been chained.

  I went to the proprietor. "Key," I said, handing him a copper tarn disk.

  It was number ten.

  I went to the wall, and indicated that the girl should kneel before ring ten. It, like the others, had, strung through it, a short length of chain, some five inches or so, each end of the chain terminating in an opened slave bracelet.

  She put her hands above and behind her head, and I snapped her wrists into the slave bracelets.

  I sat down, cross-legged, across from her.

  "For a moment I thought you were serious," she said. "It is clever of you to treat me as a slave. None now will know that we are not strangers. You treat me as though I might be no more than any other girl."

  I looked upon her.

  "You look upon me," she smiled, "as though I might be no more than a chained slave."

  She was beautiful, chained.

  "You look well, chained," I told her.

  "It will be good to be rescued," she said.

  I said nothing.

  "It will be good to be free again," she smiled.

  "Perhaps I cannot afford you," I said.

  "I will not cost much," she said.

  "You were expensive in Ar," I said.

  "But not here," she said. "Here I am only a common girl."

  "True," I said.

  She looked at me, briefly, angrily. Then she made a tiny movement in the bracelets. "It is true, of course," she said.

  "Yes," I said.

  "You will not return me to Earth, will you?" she asked, suddenly, frightened.

  "No," I said.

  "Thank you, thank you, Tarl," she breathed.

  She leaned forward a little. She had been forced to affix upon her lips lipstick, the cosmetics of a slave. Such things are not worn by free women on Gor.

  She smiled. "Tarl," she whispered.

  "I am Bosk," I said.

  She moved back a little. She moved her wrists in the slave bracelets. She smiled. "It seems, in any event, you have found me," she said.

  "Or caught you," I said.

  "Do not speak of me as though I were a slave," she said.

  "Where did you go?" I asked.

  "I sought the northern forests," she said. "I knew that girls, sometimes, are free in them."

  She put down her head.

  "So you arrived at the edge of the forests," I said, "and released the tarn."

  "Yes," she said.

  "And you entered the forests?"

  "Yes," she said.

  "What happened?" I asked.

  "I lived for some days in the forest, but poorly, on berries and nuts. I tried to make snares. I caught nothing. Then, one morning, when I was lying on my stomach beside a stream, drinking, I lifted my head to find myself surrounded by armed panther girls. There were eleven of them. How pleased I was to see them! They seemed so proud, and strong, and were armed."

  "Did they permit you to join their band?" I asked.

  "They had been watching me, unbeknownst to myself," she said. "And they had not been satisfied with me."

  "You were unskilled in woodcraft?" I asked.

  "That was not it," she said.

  "Why did they not permit you to join their band? Did they think you were a scout, a spy, for slavers?"

  "No," she said.

  "I do not understand," I said.

  "They made me stand, and turn about, and examined me, closely, almost as might have men," she said. "This examination, it seemed, conclusively confirmed their earlier conjectures, that I was unfit for them."

  "What was the difficulty?" I asked. "What was the reason for your rejection?"

  "I was—was feminine."

  "I see," I said.

  "They scorned me, and looked upon me with contempt. How they hated me!"

  "Perhaps not," I said.

  "They told me that I was unfit for them, that I was completely, vulnerably, helplessly feminine, that I belonged at the feet of men! At the feet of men! Me! That was the sort of woman I was, that that would be my true happiness, that that was my natural and suitable destiny!"

  "And that infuriates you?" I asked.

  "Of course!" she said, in the half darkness, squirming in the bracelets and silk.

  "What happened then?" I asked.

  "They told me to remove my clothing. Then they tied my hands behind my back and put a leash on my throat. They took me to the banks of the Laurius where they tied me to a pole set in the stones, my hands over my head, my neck, belly and ankles, too, bound to it. A river craft passed. I was sold for one hundred arrow points. I was purchased by Sarpedon, master of this tavern, who occasionally scouts the river, to pick up such girls."

  I looked at her. "You were foolish," I said.

  Her fists clenched in the slave bracelets. Her collar, yellow and enameled, shone in the darkness, at her throat. Her hair, a black sheen, loose, fell over her shoulders, and to the small of her back. She was beautiful in the bit of yellow silk. She pulled at the bracelets. Then she relaxed.

  She smiled. "It seems," she said, "you have found me, Tarl."

  "I am Bosk," I told her.

  She shrugged.

  "What has happened to you, since we parted?" she asked.

  "I have become rich," I told her.

  "Then you can well afford me," she smiled.

  "Yes," I said.

  "And what of Priest-Kings?" she asked.

  "I no longer serve Priest-Kings," I told her.

  She looked at me, troubled.

  "I serve myself," I said, "and do what I wish."

  "Oh," she said.

  Then she looked up at me.

  "Are you angry," she asked, "that I fled the Sardar?"

  "No," I said. "It was a brave act."

  She smiled at me.

  "I now seek Talena," I said. "I will hunt for her in the green forests."

  "Do you not remember me?" she asked.

  "I seek Talena," I told her.

  She put down her head. Then she lifted it. "I did not want to be returned to Earth," she said.

  "I understand," I said.

  "But now, Tarl, you have found me, or 'caught me,' if you wish," she said. "I know that I am now in your power. I can be cheaply purchased. You can do with me as you will."

  I nodded.

  "You will not return me to Earth, will you?" It seemed she wished to make very certain of that. Did she think that a free man gave his word lightly on such matters?

  I regarded her. "No," I said. "I will not return you to Earth."

  "Thank you, Tarl," she whispered.

  For a time we said nothing.

  "You are now rich?" she asked.

  "Yes," I said.

  "Rich enough to buy me?" she asked.

  "Ten thousand times over," I told her, and truly.

  She relaxed visibly in the chains, and smiled.

  "Tarl—" she said.

  "Bosk," I corrected her, sharply.

  "I would hear my name on your lips once more," she whispered. "Speak my name."r />
  "What is your name?" I asked.

  She seemed startled. "You know me," she said. "Surely you know me."

  "Who are you?" I asked.

  "Elizabeth," she said. "Elizabeth Cardwell!"

  "What is locked on your left ankle?" I asked.

  "Slave bells," she said.

  I put my hand in the bit of silk. "What is this?" I asked.

  "Slave silk," she whispered.

  I pointed to the yellow collar on her throat. "And that?" I asked.

  "The collar of Sarpedon," she whispered, "my master."

  "What is your name?" I asked.

  "I see," she said coldly.

  "Your name?" I asked.

  "Tana," she said.

  I smiled. It was the same name which had been that of one of the girls I had had Thurnock sell this morning, one of the two panther girls. It is a fairly common Gorean name, but not heard that often. It was something of a coincidence that the two girls had both that name, the one sold this morning, the other now chained before me.

  "Your name is Tana," I told her. "You are simply Tana, the slave girl."

  Her fists clenched in the slave bracelets. She was indeed that now, simply an unimportant, lowly paga slave in Lydius.

  I regarded her beauty.

  "What are you going to do with me?" she asked.

  "I have paid the price of a cup of paga," I told her.

  * * * *

  I regarded her in the shadows of the small alcove, lit by the tiny lamp, its draft carried by the tiny ventilating hole above it.

  She still wore the chains I had put her in. The bit of yellow silk, crumpled, soaked with sweat, lay to one side.

  "How does it feel to be a paga slave?" I asked.

  She turned her head to one side.

  I had exacted the full performance of the paga slave from her.

  "You are angry," she said, "because I fled from you. Now you take your vengeance on me."

  "I merely used you as the paga slave you are," I told her. It was true. I had treated her no worse, or better, than such slaves are commonly treated. Moreover, she knew that. She knew I had forced her to serve precisely as a paga slave, no more nor less.

  I had not taken vengeance on her. I had simply treated her exactly as what she was.

  In my use of her I had, of course, addressed her only as Tana. That was the name of the slave.

  She looked at me, in her chains. I, sitting cross-legged, was buckling my belt. "What are you going to do now?" she asked.

  "I am going to seek Talena," I said. "I will hunt for her in the forests."

  She lay back, in the chains. Then she rose to one elbow.

  "You are different," she said, suddenly. "You are different, from when I knew you."

  "How is that?" I asked, curious.

  "You seem harder now," she said, "less soft, less gentle hearted."

  "Oh?" I asked.

  "Yes," she whispered. "You have become more—"

  "Yes?" I asked.

  "More Gorean," she whispered. "You are now like a Gorean man." She looked at me, frightened. "That is it," she said. "You have become a Gorean man."

  I shrugged. "It is not impossible," I said.

  She shrank back, in the chains, against the low, curved wall of the alcove.

  I smiled at her.

  I fastened the sword, with the sheath straps, to my belt. I began to tie on my sandals.

  When I had finished tying my sandals, she spoke. "You said that you were rich," she said.

  "Yes," I said.

  "That you were rich enough to buy me."

  "Yes," I said. I smiled. "More than ten thousand times over," I said.

  She smiled. "Now that you have found me," she said, "you will not return me to Earth, will you?"

  "No," I said. "I will not return you to Earth."

  Had the slave not heard my word, now twice reiterated? I considered beating her for her importunity. The well-curved luscious beauty, Tana, the slave of Sarpedon, I thought, could use a bit of discipline. I did not think that she, at this time, truly understood her collar.

  She had fled the Sardar. She had made her decision. It had been a brave act. I admired her for it. But it had been an act not without its risks.

  "Sarpedon," she said, "does not know that I was trained in Ar. He will not charge more than twenty pieces of gold for me."

  "No," I said, "I do not think he would."

  "It will be good," she said, "to again be free."

  I could recall that once, it now seemed long ago, this girl, in a marvelously staged sale, with all the skills of the great auction house, the Curulean, in Ar, had, with two other girls, Virginia Kent and Phyllis Robertson, brought fifteen hundred gold pieces. Virginia Kent had become the free companion of the warrior, Relius of Ar. Ho-Sorl, another warrior of Ar, had obtained Phyllis Robertson. I expected he still kept her in collar and silk, liking her that way. Now this girl, once Elizabeth Cardwell, of Earth, now a paga slave in Lydius, would bring only fifteen to twenty-five pieces of gold. Contexts, and markets, were interesting.

  She was surely as beautiful as she had been, when she had been sold in Ar.

  But now, comparatively, she was cheap.

  It did not seem to me impossible that I might be able to obtain her for ten.

  "Perhaps," I suggested, "I could get you for as little as ten."

  She looked at me, angrily. "Perhaps," she said.

  "If I wished," I added.

  "What do you mean?" she whispered.

  "I seek Talena," I told her.

  "Buy me," she whispered. "Buy me. Free me!"

  "In the Sardar," I said, "you made your decision. That decision was not without risks."

  She looked at me with horror.

  "You gambled," I said. "You lost."

  She shook her head, no!

  "Do not think that I do not admire you," I said. "I do. You performed a brave act. I admire you greatly for it. But, as I have told you, such acts are not without their risks. You have made your decision. Now there are consequences to be paid. You gambled. You lost."

  "Do you know what it is to be a paga slave?" she whispered.

  "Yes," I told her.

  "Buy me!" she begged. "Buy me! You are rich! You can buy me!"

  "Is that how a slave begs?" I asked.

  "Buy Tana!" she wept. "Buy Tana!"

  She extended her chained wrists to me. I took her by the arms, and kissed her, long. I tasted the slave rouge in my mouth.

  Then I thrust her back from me.

  "What are you going to do?" she begged.

  "I am going to leave you here," I said, "—as a paga slave."

  "No," she wept. "No!"

  I left the alcove, not speaking further to the slave girl, Tana.

  Rim and Thurnock were waiting below. It was a bit late now in the afternoon. We could begin the purchase of supplies in the morning.

  I noted that Tendite now, again, served in the tavern. I noted, too, that, clad in yellow silk, belled on the left ankle, as another paga girl, the dancer, she whom Thurnock had sported with, too, carried a vessel of paga about. When she was not dancing, Sarpedon, I gathered, used her as a common paga slave, not unlike the others. It was more economical, I supposed, to do so.

  "Greetings, Captain," said Thurnock.

  "Greetings, Captain," said Rim.

  Both men seemed well relaxed.

  I nodded with my head toward the dancer, now serving as a common paga slave. I did not wish my men to be cheated. "How much did she cost you?" I asked Thurnock.

  "Since, when not dancing, she serves with the common slaves," said Thurnock, "she came, like the others, for the price of a cup of paga."

  "Good," I said. Thurnock had not been cheated.

  The girl looked angrily over her shoulder at Thurnock, and then poured paga.

  We were standing near the counter of the proprietor, which is to the left of the door, as one leaves.

  "All my girls," said Sarpedon, "come with th
e cup. Even the dancers." He grinned. "It is house policy," he said proudly. He looked at us. "Did masters enjoy themselves?"

  "Yes!" boomed Thurnock.

  "How was Tendite?" asked the proprietor.

  "Exquisite," said Rim. "She taught me a couple of things. I must now, when I return to the ship, teach them to my own slave, Cara."

  I recalled the slender, beautiful Cara, on the Tesephone, Rim's slave, clad in the brief slave tunic of white wool, her hair bound back with the woolen fillet.

  "How was Tana?" inquired the proprietor.

  "Quite good," I told him.

  "She is one of my most popular girls," said the proprietor. "A little beauty."

  "And one," I said, "who cannot resist her arousals."

  "She kicks and squirms, and moans well," said Sarpedon. "She can be played like a kalika."

  "Yes," I said. I recalled the responses of the slave. I had used her as the paga slave she was. What she may not have understood was that she had responded as a slave, as well. On Gor one learns the feel of a slave in one's arms. Tana had that feel. There was no mistaking it. I wondered why she resisted her slavery, for she was a slave, clearly, a natural slave, one who could fulfill herself totally only in the collar.

  The panther girls had understood her well. But she had not yet come to understand herself.

  "Incidentally," I said, that Sarpedon not be cheated of his dues, "I have seen this Tana before, in Ar. She is an exquisitely trained pleasure slave, and a most stimulating performer of slave dances."

  "The she-sleen!" laughed the proprietor. "I did not know. My thanks to you, Captain! This very night she will dance in the sand for my customers!"

  I turned to leave.

  "Will you return to see her?" asked the proprietor.

  "No," I said, "I have many matters of business to attend to."

  5

  We Enter Upon the River

  It was now four days following my arrival, the master of the Tesephone, in the harbor of Lydius, near the mouth of the broad, winding Laurius River.

  We had taken on supplies, and my men, on shore, in the paga taverns, had rested, and had muchly pleasured themselves with the lovely recreations of the port.

  I stood at the rail of my ship.

  The urt shields were still fastened to the mooring ropes, circular plates, preventing small port urts from boarding the ship. The urts which had been placed in the lower hold, before making landfall in Lydius, those which had figured in my interrogation of the panther girls, Tana and Ela, had been removed the following morning. Thurnock and Rim, with snares and nets, and by the light of tharlarion oil lamps, had captured them. As we coasted the shores pasangs above Lydius, we had thrown them overboard. They had splashed beneath the water and then, in a moment, their snouts and sleek heads had poked upward, shining and dripping, and then, they, all six of them, noses like compass needles, smelling the land, had turned in the water and, tails whipping, leaving snakelike curves in the water, had sped toward the distant forests.