by John Norman
"You are Jason, of Victoria, are you not?" inquired Policrates.
"Yes," I said. Kliomenes stood beside the curule chair of Policrates. He was smiling. Four or five of Policrates' cutthroats stood about, with their arms folded. About the curule chair of Policrates, nestling about his feet, and on the stairs about the chair, were several of his girls. Most were nude, but some were silked, or clad otherwise revealingly, as befitted the wenches of pirates. Some wore threads of leather, another a bit of rope, another only her chains. Some of these wenches I remembered from the feast. There were dark-haired Relia and blond Tela, who was still kept in white silk, as a joke, though she must have served the pleasure of pirates a thousand times; and the blond sisters from Cos, Mira and Tala; short, dark-haired Bikkie; the girls who had danced at the feast, and had been thrown to the aroused men at the conclusion of their performances; and certain others. Most, however, I did not know, or recognize. Men such as Policrates are rich in women, as well as in gold.
"You are involved in the conspiracy of Tasdron, taverner of Victoria, who is in league with Glyco, of Port Cos," said Policrates.
"No," I said.
"We will deal with those fools soon," said Policrates. "And we will wreak a vengeance on Victoria of which men will dare not speak for a hundred years."
"There is no conspiracy," I said. "It was I alone, with some few men, who thought to take and fire the holding."
"And what of the beacon that was to be set," asked Policrates, "and of the ships waiting fruitlessly now upon the river?"
I was silent. Policrates obviously knew much.
"Relia, Tela, to him," said Policrates. These two girls, Relia discarding her red silk and Tela opening her white silk, and throwing it back, hurried to kneel near me. Relia began to kiss and bite at the palm of my right hand, and at my right arm and shoulder, and Tela addressed herself similarly to my left hand and arm. I struggled in the chains, but could not resist.
"Did you truly think to gain access to our stronghold with so simple a ruse?" asked Policrates.
"Yes," I said. I gasped in the chains. I could not pull away from the taunting caresses of the slave girls.
"It was the plan of a fool," said Policrates.
"It was an excellent plan," I said. "How did you know that we were not the scout ships of Ragnar Voskjard?" We had, after all, known the signs and countersigns, and, presumably, those of the holding of Policrates would not be familiar with all of the men or ships of Ragnar Voskjard.
"Would not it have been clear to anyone?" smiled Policrates.
"We were betrayed," I said.
"It would not have been necessary, of course," smiled Policrates, "but, to be sure, you were betrayed."
"You knew it would be I, and others?" I asked.
"Certainly," said Policrates. What fools he had made of us. How thunderously had the great sea gate descended, destroying our first galley.
"Who was the traitor?" I asked.
"Perhaps Tasdron himself," said Policrates, "perhaps even Glyco, posing as of your party. Perhaps your dear friend, Callimachus, secretly in our pay. Perhaps even a lowly slave, privy to your machinations."
"It could, too, be a soldier, one even with our galleys," I said.
'To be sure," agreed Policrates.
I struggled in the chains.
"Oh, do not struggle so, Master," whispered the red-haired girl at my side, soothingly, chidingly. "You cannot escape, you know. You are helpless. Be content to feel my hands and lips, and my body, against yours." I cried out with rage. I wondered if it had been Peggy, the Earth-girl slave, who had betrayed us. She could have overheard our doings, and well suspected our intentions. It would have been easy for her in the paga tavern to have informed on us. It could have been done with simplicity in the privacy, in the secrecy, of an alcove, her head to a pirate's feet. "Oh, Master," reproved the red-haired girl, kissing me as the slave she was. I tried to pull loose the chains, but they were of Gorean iron. It seemed to me then as if it must have been Peggy who had betrayed us. She might well have known or suspected all. Too, she was a slave and a woman! Who else could it have been? She, indeed, must be the traitress, so lovely in her collar! It could have been, surely, none other than she, the branded Earth girl! I struggled, and cried out with rage. I did not envy the lovely blonde if she were caught. I wondered if she knew the fire with which she played. The vengeances taken by Gorean men on traitorous female slaves are not gentle.
"Was it you, Jason, he of Victoria," inquired Policrates, "whom we previously entertained in our holding as the courier of Ragnar Voskjard?"
"Of course," I said, angrily.
"Liar!" said Kliomenes. It surprised me that he had said this. Surely they must know that it had been I. Their informant must have known this.
"I do not think so, Jason," said Policrates, "though, to be sure, you wore tonight the same mask as he who posed as the courier."
"It was I," I said, boldly, "none other."
"Do you maintain this mockery?" asked Policrates.
"Can you not recognize my frame," I asked, "my voice?"
"There are surely strong similarities," mused Policrates.
"It was I," I said, puzzled.
"You would have been chosen precisely for these similarities," said Policrates.
"Why do you think it was not I?" I asked. "Did your informant not make it clear to you that I it was who brought you the topaz?"
"The topaz," said Policrates, "was delivered to us by the courier of Ragnar Voskjard."
"Oh?" I asked.
"The true courier," said Policrates.
"Oh," I said.
"What have you done with him?" inquired Policrates.
I was silent.
"I trust that you have not slain him," said Policrates, "for doubtless Ragnar Voskjard would not be pleased to hear that."
"I do not understand," I said. I was genuinely puzzled.
"You intercepted the courier, somehow, on his way back to Ragnar Voskjard," said Policrates. "It was from him, or perhaps from papers on his person, that you learned the signs and countersigns for admittance to the holding."
"No," I said, "it was you yourself who gave to me the signs and countersigns, when I posed as the courier of Ragnar Voskjard."
"That is false," said Policrates.
"It is true!" I cried. "True!" I moaned. I tried to move in the chains. Why would he not call off his slaves!
Two of the men of Policrates laughed.
"Bikkie, to him," said Policrates. I saw Kliomenes smile.
"Yes, my Master," said the short, dark-haired girl, and she, smiling, barefoot, descended the marble stairs of the dais and, taking her place on my left, lowered herself gracefully to lie on her side beside me. She began to kiss and lick at me, and caress me. "I am pleasing him," said the red-haired girl on my right. "I can please him more," said the dark-haired girl. I did not cry out to Policrates for mercy. I knew he would grant me none. I suppressed a moan. Bikkie was excellent. I had little doubt but what she was a valuable slave, and would bring a high price. Bikkie wore, like one or two of the other girls still on the dais, only threads of leather, some dozen or so, depending from a leather sheathing encasing the locked, steel collar on her throat. On the front of the leather sheathing, which opened only at the back, to admit the key to the collar lock, there was sewn a red leather patch, small, in the shape of a heart. The heart to Goreans, as to certain of those of Earth, is understood as a symbol of love. The life of a slave girl, of course, is understood, too, as a life of love. She is given no alternative. The leather threads depending from the collar are stout enough to bind the hands of a girl, perhaps at her collar, that she may not interfere with what is done to her body, but they are not stout enough to bind a man. They may be used, of course, in pleasing a master, not only in setting off the girl's ill-concealed beauty, but in touching him, brushing him, stimulating him, twining about him, and so on. The girl knows that the same strands which can bind her helplessly as a slave, a
re strong enough only to delight and please her master. This helps her to understand that he is a man, and that she is a woman.
I turned my head to the side.
"Do you still insist that it was you who entered my holding, posing as the courier of Ragnar Voskjard?" inquired Policrates.
"Yes," I said. "Yes!"
"We know that that is not true," said Policrates.
"How can you know that?" I asked. Certainly I was prepared to corroborate my claim, if need be, with descriptions of the holding, and accounts of the feast and of our conversations, descriptions and accounts much too detailed to have been likely to have been extracted from a captive.
"There are many reasons," said Policrates. "One is that you are a man of Earth, and no man from that dismal, terrorized world, where men are mean and small, could have dared to enter this holding."
"How do you know I am from Earth?" I asked.
"We know that from Beverly, a slave in this holding," said Policrates.
"Nonetheless," I said, "it was I who entered this holding and deceived you, in the guise of the courier of Ragnar Voskjard."
"Impossible," said Policrates.
"It is true," I averred.
It angered me that Policrates and Kliomenes, and the others, could not even accept this possibility. Surely not every man of Earth was as meaningless, as trivial, as obedient, as unquestioning, as well trained, as emasculated and effete as their various political imprisonments demanded. I had little doubt but that somewhere on Earth, in spite of censorship, media control, manipulated education and outright political suppression, and the almost nonexistent channels for expressing alternative viewpoints, some males remained men. Not every man can forget he is a man, even when he is instructed to do so. Why, he might ask, should I forget it? Indeed, why should I not be a man? It is, after all, what I really am. You may not like it, but that does not make it wrong. Do you truly know better than nature? There seems no guarantee that the perversion of nature is more likely to lead to general human happiness than its recognition and celebration. Only in remaining true to nature can we remain true to ourselves. All else must be falsehood and pathology.
"I crossed swords with the courier of Ragnar Voskjard in the great hall," said Kliomenes. "He was not unskilled. Jason of Victoria, on the other hand, does not know the sword."
"Accordingly, it could not have been I?" I asked.
"Certainly not," said Kliomenes.
"We have information," said Policrates, "that it was the true courier of Ragnar Voskjard who came to the holding, independently of the evidence that it was he who gave us the topaz, which stone presumably could have been only in the possession of the true courier."
"Information?" I asked.
"Which, further," said Policrates, "has assured us that the true courier was captured, and is now being held by those in league with Tasdron and Glyco."
Suddenly I began to understand what must be the case. Whoever had betrayed us must be, or be in contact with, the courier of Ragnar Voskjard, he who had tried to obtain the topaz from me on the wharves of Victoria. And it must have been he, or one in league with him, who had communicated with Policrates. Of course, the true courier would not wish it known that he had lost the topaz, that a false courier had gained access to the holding. The true courier, in this respect, was protecting himself. Doubtless he did not wish to be bound to the shearing blade of one of Ragnar Voskjard's galleys. He could always maintain later that he had managed to escape from Tasdron's confinement.
An idea suddenly sprang into my mind, one of a possible modality of escape for myself.
"No, it was I," I said, but I faltered, or seemed to falter, as I said this.
Policrates smiled. "Do not be afraid, Master," said the red-haired girl at my side. "No, Master," said Bikkie, the dark-haired wench, so lasciviously active on my left, "you are only chained helplessly before your enemies."
"Do you still maintain the pretense of having posed as the courier of Ragnar Voskjard?" inquired Policrates.
"Yes," I said. "I mean—I mean it is not a pretense. It was I!" I made my voice tremble, as though I had been found out.
"Beware," said Policrates, "there are tortures in this holding to which you might be subjected other than the caresses of slave girls—the twisting of chains, of burning irons, of knives."
The girls laughed.
"Make the fool writhe," said Policrates. I gritted my teeth.
"Beverly!" called Policrates, sharply. I tried to control myself.
Then I saw she who had once been Beverly Henderson hurry into the room, commanded by her master.
She ran immediately to the tiles before the dais on which reposed the large, curule chair of Policrates. Swiftly she knelt there, head down, small and beautiful. She wore a tiny bit of yellow silk, a steel collar, and her brand. "Yes, Master," she said.
"Rise, and turn about, Slave, and regard a prisoner," said Policrates.
Gracefully, swiftly, the girl did so. She looked at me, startled. The girls, as she had entered, had desisted in their attentions to my body. They would resume their ministrations upon the indication of Policrates.
My fists clenched in the chains.
"Do you know him?" asked Policrates.
"Yes, my Master," said the pirate's slave. "He is Jason, from Victoria. Once he was of Earth, as I, your slave."
Policrates lifted a finger and the girls about me again began to fondle, and to kiss and caress at my body.
Beverly, as her masters had chosen to call her, regarded me, unmoved.
"How do you regard the men of Earth?" Policrates asked her.
"I hold them in contempt," she said.
"To whom do you belong?" asked Policrates.
"To Gorean men," she said, "who are my natural masters."
I tried to resist the caresses of the slave girls.
"Could you ever yield to one such as he?" asked Policrates.
"Never," she said.
I looked at Beverly, the slave, standing on the tiles, barefoot, in the bit of silk, almost naked. The collar was very beautiful on her throat, and her dark hair, loose and soft, as a slave's hair is commonly worn, was soft and lovely about her shoulders. I almost gasped at the sight of her beauty, the lineaments of her face, and the exquisite curves of her body. I recalled, long ago, how we had met in a restaurant on Earth, and she had desired to speak intimately to me, of fears and dreams, and matters which troubled her. I suspected that there might have been at least one matter of which she had not spoken to me, to which she had perhaps implicitly alluded, but of which she had refused to explicitly speak. I wondered what it might have been. Then I remembered how she had looked, with her hair drawn severely back, and fastened in a bun, but wearing a svelte, feminine, off-the-shoulder, white, satin-sheath gown. Too, she had worn a bit of lipstick and eye shadow, and had worn a tiny bit of perfume. On her feet had been golden pumps, fastened with a lace of golden straps. She had carried a small, silver-beaded purse. The linen had been very white, and the silver soft and lustrous in the flickering candlelight. Had I been able to see her then as I was now enabled, by my Gorean experience, to see her now, I would have been able to see instantly through the trappings of her freedom to the slave beneath. I would have known for certain then as I knew for certain now that she belonged in the collar. Then, as now, though I was not able to recognize it clearly then, Beverly Henderson was the sort of woman who belonged to men, the sort of woman who should be put naked upon the block and sold to the highest bidder. What an exultant pleasure to own such a woman, and to have her at your bidding, your slave, among your treasures.
"This fellow claims to have impersonated the courier of Ragnar Voskjard, and to have deceived us all," said Policrates to the girl.
The girl regarded me in astonishment, in disbelief. "That is absurd, Master," she said.
"You were given to the courier of Ragnar Voskjard for the night, were you not?" asked Policrates.
"Yes, Master," said the girl. "That was
your command. You had me sent to his chambers."
"Did he make you yield?" inquired Policrates.
"Yes, Master," she said, head down. "He made me yield, and many times, and he made me yield totally, and abjectly, and as his full slave."
"Did you find the evening instructive?" inquired Policrates.
"Yes, Master," she said. "I learned that I was a woman, and a slave."
"And?" inquired Policrates.
"And, Master," she said, keeping her head down, "that I loved being a woman, and a slave."
"Was this the man who used you," asked Policrates, "this man chained here before you?"
"Of course not, Master!" she said, lifting her head, scandalized.
"Are you certain?" asked Policrates.
"Yes, Master," she said. "He is a man of Earth. No man of Earth could make me yield like that."
"Are you sure?" asked Policrates.
"Yes, Master," she said. "The arms that held me, Master," she said, proudly, "were Gorean."
"I thought so," smiled Policrates.
I now began to writhe, unable to help myself, beneath the caresses of the slaves.
"May I now withdraw, Master," she asked. "The sight of this weakling offends me."
"Remove your silk, Slave," said Policrates.
Instantly she did so, frightened, commanded.
"To him, Slave," said Policrates.
"But he is only a man of Earth, Master!" she cried, protesting.
Policrates regarded her.
"Forgive me, Master!" she cried, and fled to kneel beside me, with the other girls. Then I felt the lips, too, of she who had once been Beverly Henderson upon my body.
I clenched my fists. I gritted my teeth, but how could I resist them?
"Describe to me, if you were truly one who posed as the courier of Ragnar Voskjard, the nature and furnishings of the chambers in which he reposed the night in which we guested him within the holding," said Policrates.
"I cannot. I cannot!" I said. This was in accord with my plan.
Policrates and Kliomenes laughed. Surely now none would believe that it had been I who had brought the topaz to them. Let them, at least for the time, believe that they had received it from the true courier of Ragnar Voskjard.
