by John Norman
"What of beasts?" I asked Constance.
"I do not know their number either," said Constance. "But I think they are considerably fewer in number than the men."
"You are not now on a neck chain," I said.
"Nor was I this morning," she said. "I was brought here directly from my kennel. I was thrown into this cell. You were still unconscious." She looked at Arlene, not pleasantly. "This slave," she said, emphasizing the word, "was already here. The gate was then locked."
"I do not understand why this slave," said Arlene, also emphasizing the word, "was put in with us."
"I own you both," I told her.
"Oh," said Arlene.
"She is very pretty," said Arlene. "Do you find her attractive?"
"Be quiet," I said to Arlene.
"Yes, Master," she said, looking away.
"I have missed the touch of my master," said Constance.
Arlene looked at her with fury.
"You said you were brought here this morning," I said. "Is it morning?"
"This complex, in its way," she said, "is its own world. It operates on a day of twelve divisions. I do not know how long the division is. I think it is well over an Ahn."
I remembered the timing devices in the crashed ship encountered in the Tahari desert, devices set to control the detonation of the fearsome explosives housed within its steel hull. They had been calibrated into twelvefold divisions. I speculated that they might be indexed to the periods of revolution and rotation of the Kurii's original world. Also, I suppose the twelvefold division may have some remote relation to the base-twelve mathematics utilized by the Kurii, itself perhaps a function of the six-digited paw. The complex, then, that in which I was prisoner, I conjectured, might well have a clock similar to those used on Kur ships, and in the distant steel worlds, a clock doubtless once developed for use on their former world, doubtless long since destroyed in their internecine wars.
"We can tell the morning from the night by the illumination in the complex," said Constance. "It seems to be controlled by some sort of device which regulates its intensity."
I supposed that it would not be difficult to arrange a rheostatic mechanism to control the degree of illumination. The mechanism, I conjectured, would be analogized to the waxing and waning of light on a native world.
"The beasts," she said, "move mostly at night. I sometimes hear their claws on the plates outside my kennel. There must be some light for them. But it is too dark for the human eye to see."
I nodded, understanding. The Kur, though its activities are not limited to the darkness, tends, on the whole, in most of its varieties, to be a predominantly nocturnal animal. Its hunt, and its day, commonly begins with the fall of darkness.
I grasped the bars of the cell. I shook them. They did not yield.
I heard the movement of a key in a lock, from some yards away, in the door in the larger room within which our cell lay.
I backed away from the bars. This might encourage someone to approach them more closely. I could move to them swiftly. Arlene and Constance knelt to one side and behind me. This was proper. They were slaves.
"Drusus," I said.
The man stood in the doorway, in the somber garb of his caste.
"I see you wear the scarlet of the warrior," he said. It was true. I had awakened in the tunic of my caste. The furs had been taken from me.
"And you, my friend," said I, "are clothed now in the proper habiliments of your caste." He wore now, brazenly, the black of the Assassin. Over his left shoulder, on a ringed strap, he wore a blade, the short sword.
"May I welcome to our humble headquarters," said he, "my colleague in the arts of steel."
I inclined my head, in courtesy.
"It pleases us to have you in our power," he said. "You were a fool to come north."
"I come visiting," I said.
"You are welcome," said he, smiling. Then he snapped his fingers. Through the door, bearing a tray, came a small, exquisite, brunet female slave. She was naked except for her collar and a leather-and-metal lock gag. Her mouth was closed. I saw the curved metal bars, rounded, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, emerging from the sides of her mouth. By means of a ratchet and pawl arrangement the device is fitted to the individual girl. It locks behind the back of the neck. It cannot be removed, even though the girl's hands are free. She knelt before the gate of the cell and put her head to the steel floor. Two flasks on the tray she placed through the bars. She then slipped the tray through an opening, some four inches in height, in the bottom of the cell door. She then, reaching through the bars, placed the two flasks again on the tray. She then backed away, on her knees, and then again put her head to the floor, and then stood up and withdrew, backing away, her head down. She looked at Drusus, who indicated she should leave the room. She slipped swiftly out, obedient, barefoot on the steel plates.
"A pretty little slave," I said. "Why is she in lock gag?"
"It pleases me," he said.
"Of course," I said.
He turned to leave.
"Drusus," said Arlene. "You must help us!" She had once commanded him.
He looked at her, and she shrank back. "There is a pretty little slave, too," he said.
She, terrified, tried to cover her body with her hands, half naked in the pleasure silk. How vulnerable pleasure silk makes a woman.
"I own her," I told him.
"I shall have her," he said.
"Oh?" I asked.
"Yes," he said, "she was originally brought to Gor with the eventual object of being at my feet. I picked her out from several future slaves."
"I see," I said.
"Perhaps you should join forces with us," said Drusus. "The Kurii are generous with women."
"I am of the Warriors," I said. "I will take by the sword what women please me."
"Of course," he said. He continued to look at Arlene, who put her head down, trembling.
"Too," I said, "it is my intention to keep by the sword what women should please me." I gestured to Arlene. "This one," I said, "at the moment pleases me."
She looked at me, frightened.
"We shall see," said Drusus.
I watched him, from behind the bars.
"Join us," he said.
"No," I said.
"Your friend, Imnak, has joined us," he said.
"I do not believe you," I said.
Drusus shrugged.
"The Kurii are generous with women," he said, "—and gold."
He turned to leave.
"I would see Zarendargar," I said. "Half-Ear."
"None sees him," said Drusus. Then he turned away again. The heavy metal door closed.
I grasped the bars, angrily.
Then I turned to face the girls. I strode to Arlene. "You called out to him," I said.
"Yes," she said.
"You called a free man by his name," I said, "and you spoke, too, without petitioning permission."
"Forgive me, Master," she said.
I struck her down to the furs and steel.
"Master," said Constance, "there is food." She served me the hot bosk meat, the yellow bread, warm and fresh, and the wine. Later, when she had served me she mixed the water and gruel which, too, had been brought by the brunet slave. With their mouths and fingers then, kneeling, in my sight, the two girls fed upon their gruel. Arlene looked at me over the rim of her bowl. There were tears in her eyes. There was blood at her lip. When she had finished, she came near to me, to where I sat, cross-legged, feeding. She lay on the steel, her face near my knee.
"You struck me," she said.
I looked at her. I did not speak to her. I continued feeding.
"I am sorry I displeased you, Master," she said. She then knelt beside me. She took her hair in her right hand and, gently, wiped the grease from my mouth. "I am sorry, Master," she said. Our lips were quite close. With the tip of my tongue I touched her lips. Some slave cosmetics are flavored. "Does Master enjoy my taste?" she asked. "T
he lipstick is flavored," I said. "I know," she said. "It reminds me of the cherries of Tyros," I said. "I do not know what the flavor is," she said, "but it is lovely, is it not?" "Yes," I said. "Taste your slave again," she begged. I kissed her. My hands were hard on her arms. "Kiss it from my mouth, ruthlessly, owning me, Master!" she begged. "Oh," she cried, my hands so hard on her arms. But then I put her from me.
"Master?" she asked.
"I must save my strength," I said. "I must think."
She crept away from me. I sat in the middle of the cell, cross-legged, in the position of the warrior.
29
The Cage Cart
The men on either side of the cage cart carried some sort of projectile weapon. It fired, I conjectured, judging from the breech, a long, conical, gas-impelled dart. The principles of the weapon, I assumed, were similar to those of a rifle, except that the missile would not be a slug of metal but something more in the nature of a tiny quarrel, some six inches in length. The weapons had carved wooden stocks, reminiscent of a time in which rifles were the work of craftsmen. Eccentric designs surmounted these stocks. The actual firing of the weapon was apparently by means of a button in the forepart of the stock. Although this button could be depressed quickly it could not be jerked, as a trigger might be, either on a rifle or crossbow, an action which sometimes, in moving the weapon, ruins or impairs the aim. Each man carried a bag at his left hip. It contained, I supposed, among other accouterments, the missiles, or darts, for the weapon.
I grasped the bars of the cage cart.
It was wheeled through the halls by two men, leaning on handles from behind. Bringing up the rear, also with a dart weapon, was Drusus.
A comely slave girl, naked, carrying a roped bag of wine flasks over her shoulder, knelt to one side as we passed. Her head was down. Besides her collar there was a neck chain fastened on her throat. This dangled downward from one of two overhead tracks in the ceiling. The guard on my left lifted the chain over his head and held it to the side, that the cart might pass. He then let it fall behind us. I saw the girl, when we had passed, rise to her feet and hurry, barefoot, along the steel hall. She did not look back. If she had been caught looking back, I supposed she might have been beaten. From what I could gather the girls were kept under close discipline in the complex. That is, of course, as it should be, in a master's house. I was puzzled, though, at the overhead track system. That seemed a security unwarranted by the minimal damage or mischief which, presumably, might be wrought by a lightly clad or naked slave. What harm might one woman or man wreak in such a formidable complex?
"Hold!" said Karjuk.
The cart stopped.
"Greetings, someone from the south," he said.
"Greetings," I said to him.
Karjuk had emerged from a door at the side of the hall. He wore fur trousers and boots, and some necklaces. He was stripped to the waist. There was a headband about his brow. "It seems we have you in a cage," he said. "That is where wild animals belong."
I grasped the bars. The cart was on eight wheels, some four inches in diameter, rimmed with rubber. It was some four feet by four feet, by some seven feet in height. It was barred on four sides, and closed at the top and bottom by steel.
"You were easily tricked," said Karjuk.
"Perhaps not so easily," I said.
In the doorway, to one side, that through which Karjuk had emerged, there loomed a white-pelted Kur, a large one. In its ears were golden rings. Its lips drew back from its fangs, a Kur's sign of amusement or pleasure.
"Behold the Kur, my ally," said Karjuk. "It was he who attacked Ram, your friend, but was prevented from finishing him by the interference of yourself and the men of the village. You thought I slew him."
"No," I said, "I did not."
"No?" said Karjuk.
"No," I said. "I examined the head which you brought to the camp. The rings of gold in the ears of that ice beast were smaller and lighter, I think, than those in the ears of this beast. Further, they had been newly set in the ears, as might have been determined by the condition of the ear. Beyond this the head of the ice beast was such that it had not been recently killed, but had been dead for some two or three southern days, at least. Too, the ice beast which had attacked Ram had eaten of the sleen which drew his sled. There was no trace of blood on the tongue, or in the mouth or jaws, or on the lips or fur of the head you brought to camp. Lastly, it was simply not the same animal."
Karjuk looked at me.
"Do you think I cannot tell one Kur from another?" I asked. Warriors are trained in acute observation and retention. The recognition and comprehension of a detail, sometimes subtle, can sometimes make a difference between life and death.
"You are right," said Karjuk. "It was the head of an ice beast, earlier slain, in whose ears we had placed the golden rings."
"From what I have heard of your skills in the ice," I said, "too, it did not seem likely that a beast would have slipped past you, or, if it did, that you, trailing it, would have taken so long to apprehend it."
"You honor me," said Karjuk.
"Considering all these things, and the obvious fraud of the severed head, which you purported was that of the infiltrating ice beast, it seemed clear that you were in league with Kurii, and that, indeed, you and the first beast had presumably been traveling together. You arrived almost at the same time in the vicinity of the camp."
"You are clever," said Karjuk.
"Too, in the journey, from time to time, Imnak and I found sign, and occasionally even glimpsed this beast," I said, indicating the white Kur, "paralleling or following our trail."
Karjuk looked at me.
"He was clumsy," I said. I was curious as to what the Kur could understand. I saw its eyes flash and its ears suddenly lay back against its head. That told me he could follow Gorean. He was then a ship Kur, trained in the apprehension of a human mode of speech. He could probably, too, make some sounds recognizable to humans. He and Karjuk would have had to have some way to communicate. I saw no translation device in the vicinity. I did not know if Kur technology had attained to this sophistication.
"He was unused to the ice," said Karjuk, excusing him. "He is, as you have doubtless conjectured by now, not a wary ice beast, but a different sort of Kur, one from faraway."
"He is a ship Kur," I said.
Karjuk looked puzzled. I gathered he did not know of the remote, orbiting steel worlds.
"From worlds in the sky," I said.
"Are there worlds in the sky?" he asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Are they far off?" he asked.
"Not as far as many would like to think," I said.
"If you are so clever, why did you follow me north?" he asked.
"I have business in the north," I said. "I have an appointment with one called Zarendargar, Half-Ear."
"None sees him," said Karjuk.
"You were the guard," I said.
"I am the guard," he said.
"You betrayed your post," I told him.
"I keep my post in my own way," he said.
"Where is Imnak?" I asked.
"He, too, is one with us," said Karjuk.
"You are a liar," I said.
"How do you think you were taken?" he asked.
"Liar!" I cried. I reached out to seize his throat, through the bars, but he stepped back. "Liar!" I cried. "Liar!"
Then the cart was again being wheeled down the hall. "Traitor!" I cried, turning in the cart, looking back at the thin, dour Karjuk, in his necklaces, standing behind me in the hall, the Kur at his side. "Liar! Traitor! Liar! Traitor!" I cried.
Then they turned and withdrew into the room whence they had earlier emerged.
"If I am not mistaken," said Drusus, walking behind the cart, behind the two men who wheeled it along, "your friend, Imnak, approaches."
I spun about, to look down the hall, in the direction in which the cart was moving.
Down the hall came Imnak. He lifted his hand
in greeting, fifty yards away.
"Imnak!" I cried.
He, like Karjuk, was clad in boots and trousers. He, too, was stripped to the waist. He, too, wore a headband, tying back his blue-black hair. Several heavy gold necklaces were looped about his throat. He was chewing on a leg of roast vulo. Behind him, in pleasure silk, came three girls. Poalu was in brief yellow pleasure silk, and Audrey and Barbara in brief red pleasure silk. They were barefoot, and collared; they wore cosmetics; their right wrists wore bracelets; each, on her left arm, had a golden armlet; each, on her left ankle, had a golden anklet.
"Greetings, Tarl, who hunts with me," said Imnak, grinning widely.
"You, too, have been captured," I said.
"No," said Imnak. "I have not been captured. You have been captured."
"I do not understand," I said.
"It is too warm in here," said Imnak, biting on the vulo leg.
"How is it that you are free?" I asked.
"Why do you think they keep it so warm in here?" he asked.
"You were on watch," I said.
"I was watching for Karjuk," he said.
"Why are you not in a cage, as I am?" I asked.
"Maybe I am smarter than you," said Imnak.
I looked at him.
"Why should I be in a cage?" asked Imnak. "I do not understand."
"You have been captured," I said.
"No," he said, "it is you who have been captured." He turned to Poalu. "Isn't Poalu pretty?" he asked.
"Yes," I said.
"These garments are not practical for the ice," said Poalu.
"Maybe that is why they keep it so warm in here," speculated Imnak.
"They would have me believe that you have betrayed me, Imnak," I said.
"And you do not believe them?" he asked.
"Of course not," I said.
"If I were you," said Imnak, "I would give the matter serious consideration."
"No," I said. "No!"
"I hope that you will not permit this to interfere with our friendship," said Imnak, concerned.
"Of course not," I said.
"That is good," said Imnak.
"It is strange, Imnak," I said. "With some other man in your position, I would doubtless wish to kill him, and yet I find it hard to even be angry with you."
