Witness of Gor (104 page)

Only a few feet below me urts were tearing at the bodies of Herminius and Titus. The water of the pool was scarlet. The Lady Ilene, out of the cage, tied to it by a rope fastened under her arms, bound hand and foot, gagged, dangled over the urt pool. But she seemed of no interest now to the urts, None circled beneath her. None tried to leap up to seize a foot or leg. Readier meat lay within their province now. I did not know, but I thought that the urts would not be able to reach her. It was a risk, of course, which the peasant had been willing to take. I wondered what thoughts went through her head. She had figured, but a bit ago, as a diversion.

Now she had another role to play, I suspected, one which had doubtless been projected for her earlier, one independent of the entry of the determined, tenacious black-tunicked men onto the walkway, the role of a dangling lure, one which might serve, for some purpose, as a distraction to urts. Certainly she had figured at least once in the plans of a man.

Perhaps she understood herself better now as a female, and what might be done with her. Surely to the collar would now be but a short step for her. To be sure, she now seemed, as things had turned out, of little current interest to the urts. They, feeding eagerly, had been drawn away from her, to the blood and bodies below the railing. The peasant, presumably, would not have been able to count on that development. It was, presumably, a fortunate one for the Lady Ilene, particularly if the peasant had underestimated the capacity of the urts to leap from the water.

Tensius, from the left, Abnik, from the right, hurried toward the peasant.

But he did not load the bow, for a last shot. Rather, to my horror, he took a quarrel between his teeth and, bow in hand, leapt over the railing, into the urt pool itself.

"He is insane!" cried the officer of Treve.

Almost at the same moment Tensius had come to the place on the walkway from which the peasant had dived into the pool. He looked into the water, in consternation. Abnik, a moment later, came to the same place.

"Fire! Fire!" cried the lieutenant.

Uncertain, Tensius and Abnik, judging as they could the likely path beneath the water of the peasant, loosed their quarrels. They hissed down into the water.

"Reload!" cried the lieutenant.

He himself bent down and picked up the bow which had been that of Herminius. Its quarrel had become dislodged but, in a moment, it was again fitted in the guide. I did not doubt but what, at one time or another, the lieutenant had been quite practiced with such a weapon. It, like the dagger, would doubtless be familiar to the wearers of the dark habiliments.

"Illuminate the pool!" cried the lieutenant.

We all, then, save the pit master, with his torch, brought our lamps or torches to the railing.

The light reflected up from the surface of the pool. Below me the urts were still feeding.

The lieutenant scanned the water tensely.

No body surfaced, penetrated with quarrels.

There seemed no sign of the peasant.

Then Tensius and Abnik had reset their bows.

"Where is he!" cried the lieutenant, his bow in hand.

But he received no answer.

We waited, about the railing. The urts continued to feed. The remains of the bodies rolled about in the water, under the stress of the feeding. Sometimes they were tugged under, and then, again, in a moment, surfaced. They were pulled back and forth.

The light of the torches and the lamps shone, reflected, from the water.

"He must have drowned," called Tensius, from across the pool.

Certainly one would have expected the peasant to surface by now, if he were still alive. It was, of course, dark in the pool, and the light was uncertain.

"Urts have taken him, under the water," called Abnik.

"Is there an exit from the pool!" demanded the lieutenant of the pit master, standing behind him, his torch lifted. "Of course," said the pit master, "that through which the urts enter it, through their nest.”

"Where is the exit?" demanded the lieutenant.

"There, under the water, at the side," said the pit master, indicating an area of the pool to our right, as we faced the pool, we near the portal through which we had entered the pool area, the point indicated rather opposite where the cage dangled.

"Close the panels which permit access to the walkway!" said the lieutenant.

This took but a moment to do, as the pertinent levers were just outside the portal.

The peasant now could not return through the nest, even if he survived there, to the walkway.

I did think it possible, as doubtless so, too, did the lieutenant, that the peasant might now, at this time, the urts otherwise occupied, successfully reach the nest, which would be above water, on the other side of the wall. Indeed that might explain why he had not surfaced. To be sure, he might have surfaced, unnoticed. As I have indicated, the light was uncertain.

"Tensius, Abnik, into the water!" cried the lieutenant, gesticulating to the pool.

They looked across the pool as though their officer might be mad.

"I am bloodied," said Tensius. He had lost blood from the bites of urts, when he had separated them, near the closed gate, earlier.

"It is safe now," said the lieutenant.

The urts did seem to be feeding now. To be sure, I doubted that all of them, and there must have been seventeen or eighteen of them, had had their fill.

"The nest opening is there!" pointed the lieutenant. "Enter it! Find him! Kill him!”

"Would you send them to their deaths?" asked the officer of Treve.

"We have taken fee," said the lieutenant.

I supposed that the nest might be empty now. But it would not be likely to long remain empty.

I shivered.

In dealing with urts there are certain things to be kept in mind. One does not intrude into their nest. One tries to avoid placing oneself between them. And one never denies them an avenue of escape.

"Into the water!" screamed the lieutenant. The men looked at him.

"It is safe now," said the lieutenant, "The urts feed. Go! Go!”

"He is drowned!" cried Tensius.

"Urts took him!" said Abnik.

"Bring me the body!" said the lieutenant.

The lieutenant, this officer of the men in the black habiliments, seemed as tenacious as might be a sleen itself, this world's finest and most relentless tracker, a sleen on its scent, single-minded, implacable, driven. He wanted confirmation of the kill.

Too, I supposed, in a short while, the urts about, it might be difficult to obtain remains sufficient to constitute convincing evidence to a fee giver that the task which had been agreed upon had been successfully accomplished.

Tensius first, who had refrained from attacking the sleen in the passage, but who had later separated the urts, removed his helmet and set aside his bow. The black dagger was still on his forehead, from yesterday morning. He then put his knife between his teeth and, with great care, lowered himself over the railing, and dropped down into the pool.

He did this as gently as was possible. Abnik followed him, similarly. The lieutenant remained on guard, with the bow, surveying the water.

"They are brave men," said the officer of Treve.

Tensius and Abnik swam to the edge of the pool, to our right.

They looked back.

The lieutenant pointed to the place where the pit master had indicated lay the underwater entrance to the nest.

I saw Tensius first submerge. He was followed, in a moment, by Abnik.

"Look!" said the pit master.

One of the urts, an arm in its jaws, was swimming back toward the nest.

"Kill it!" urged the pit master.

"It takes time to reload," said the lieutenant.

"It may just brush past them," said the officer of Treve. "It has its meat.”

"Yes," said the lieutenant, surveying the surface of the water, "that is what it will do.”

"Not if there are young in the nest," said the pit master.

"Are there young in the nest?" asked the officer of Treve.

"Yes," said the pit master.

"It takes time to reload," said the lieutenant.

"It is too late now," said the officer of Treve.

The urt, too, had submerged.

"Space the light about the pool," said the lieutenant, with a gesture of his arm.

The slaves spaced themselves then more about the pool. I remained with Fecha a little to the left of the entrance, as one would enter the area of the pool. The lieutenant was a few feet to our right. The pit master was behind him holding aloft his torch, The officer of Treve was nearby. Gito was not in the pool area, but back in the passage. I had glimpsed him. He was crouched down, his back to the wall of the passage, looking toward the portal.

We waited, it seemed for a long time.

"Should your men not have returned by now?" asked the officer of Treve.

The lieutenant did not respond. He continued to survey the flickering surface of the pool.

There was a sound of chain as the cage swung a little. It was a few yards away, above us. It had been moved by the weight of the bound, gagged free woman, dangling on the rope over the pool.

She looked at me.

I was suddenly, intensely, ashamed, aware of my nudity. How such as she must scorn such as I! In what contempt must she hold me! How she must despise me! But I was not such as she!

I was a slave! I was collared! I must be as men would have me! If they saw fit to deny me clothing then I would not have clothing! If they ordered me to dance, I must dance. If they wished me to serve, I must serve! I was not such as she! But then I, for anything. would not have wished to be such as she! I had learned my womanhood! I would never, never surrender it, not now that I had tasted it, not for all the garbage and politics in the world. I had learned it at the hands of strong men, their precious gift to me, an inestimable treasure, men to whom I would be forever grateful. I had now found myself, and accepted myself, and loved myself! I was not a man, or a kind of man. I was a woman, something radically different and wonderful. I pitied men not being women! But then, suddenly, even though I knew her to be free, I did not sense contempt or scorn in her. It was strange. I quickly looked away.

It is seldom wise for a female slave to look directly into the eyes of a free woman. But then I recalled that she had been in the cage. There, suspended in the darkness, helpless, alone, perhaps she had had time to think, to ask herself what she was, and wanted to be, and might be, and where she herself might be found.

"Surely your men should have returned by now," said the officer of Treve.

"It is not clear what has occurred," said the lieutenant.

The urts continued to feed, turning the two bodies about in the water.

I saw another swimming toward the nest, a shred of muscle trailing behind it.

"By now," speculated the officer of Treve, "it seems he should have been taken, or the body found.”

"The two of you," said the lieutenant, not taking his eyes from the water, "have been insufficiently cooperative. Your actions, you may be assured, will be reported to the administration.”

The pit master continued to hold his torch aloft, as he had, rather behind the lieutenant.

"They must have found him, they must have killed him, by now," said the lieutenant.

"Undoubtedly," said the officer of Treve, "Perhaps they have all died in the nest," said the pit master.

"He may have drowned," said the lieutenant. "Possibly," said the pit master.

"Where is he?" cried the lieutenant.

"Somewhere, one supposes," said the officer of Treve.

"Masters," cried Gito, from back in the passage, "let us go to the surface!”

"Go!" said the lieutenant, not taking his eyes from the pool.

"I do not know the way!" cried Gito.

"Where is he?" asked the lieutenant. He received no response.

"He must have drowned," said the lieutenant. He received no response.

"Where are my men?" asked the lieutenant.

"I would not know," said the pit master.

"They are in the nest," said the lieutenant, "waiting for the way to clear of urts.”

"Perhaps," said the officer of Treve.

"They are clever fellows," said the lieutenant.

"Doubtless," said the pit master.

"Picked men.”

"I do not doubt it," said the pit master.

It was an elite squad, I gathered, which had come to Treve. To someone, it seemed, their mission must have been of great moment.

"They have with them the body, or the head, of the prisoner," said the lieutenant.

"Possibly," said the officer of Treve.

"They will return any moment," said the lieutenant, determinedly.

"Possibly," said the officer of Treve.

"There is something across the way," said the pit master. He gestured toward the opposite wall, several yards from the nest entrance. There, something humped, like a cloth filled with air, had come to the surface.