Explorers of Gor (9 page)

“There are some girls behind the paga taverns, on the northern shore of the Ribbon’s alley,” she said.

I released her and she sank to her knees, gasping.

The Ribbon is one of Port Kar’s better-known canals. A narrower canal, somewhat south of it is called the Ribbon’s alley. It was a bit past dawn and the paga taverns backing on the smaller canal would be throwing out their garbage from the preceding night. She-urts sometimes gather at such places for their pick of the remnants of feasts.

It would be less than an Ahn until the fullness of the tide. I quickly crossed two bridges, leading over canals, each joining the sea. Then I walked eastward, and took a left and a right, and crossed another small bridge. I was then on the northern shore of the Ribbon’s alley. The Ribbon’s alley, like most small canals, and many of the larger canals, does not join the sea directly but only by means of linkages with other canals. The larger canals in Port Kar, incidentally, have few bridges, and those they have are commonly swing bridges, which may be floated back against the canal’s side. This makes it possible for merchant ships, round ships, with permanently fixed masts, to move within the city, and, from the military point of view, makes it possible to block canals and also, when drawn back, isolate given areas of the city by the canals which function then as moats. The swing bridges are normally fastened back, except from the eighth to the tenth Ahn and from the fifteenth to the seventeenth Ahn. Most families in Port Kar own their own boats. These boats are generally shallow-drafted, narrow and single-oared, the one oar being used to both propel and guide the boat. Even children use these boats. There are, of course, a variety of types of craft in the canals, ranging from ramships harbored in the courts of captains to the coracles of the poor, like leather tubs, propelled by the thrusting of a pole. Along the sides of the major canals there are commonly hundreds of boats moored. These are usually covered at night.

I saw her with several other girls, behind the rear court of the Silver Collar. They were fishing through wire trash containers. These had been left outside until, later, when the girls had finished with them, when the residues would be thrown into the canals. It was not an act of pure kindness on the part of the attendants at the paga tavern that the garbage had not been flung directly into the canals.

I looked at the girls. They were all comely. There were seven of them there, not including the one in whom I was interested. They wore rags of various sorts and colors; they had good legs; they were all barefoot.

I saw the blond-haired barbarian standing back. She, apparently, was repulsed by the garbage. She did not wish to touch it. The other girls paid her no attention.

Except for her failure to exhibit interest in the garbage she might have been only one she-urt among the others. She was as pretty, and as dirty, as the rest.

Suddenly she saw me. For an instant I saw she was frightened. Then she doubtless reassured herself that I could not know her. She was, after all, only another she-urt. Her thighs were unmarked.

She went then, as not noticing me, to the basket of garbage. She tried to saunter as a she-urt. Steeling herself she thrust her hand into the fresh, wet garbage. She looked up at me. She saw I was still watching her. In her hand there was a half of a yellow Gorean pear, the remains of a half moon of verr cheese imbedded in it. She, watching me, lifted it toward her mouth. I did not think it would taste badly. I saw she was ready to vomit.

Suddenly her wrist was seized by the girl, a tall, lovely girl, some four inches taller than she, in a brief white rag, who stood with her at the basket. “Who are you?” demanded the girl in the white rag. “You are not one with us.” She took the pear from her, with the verr cheese in it. “You have not laid with the paga attendants for your garbage,” she said. “Get out!” Any woman, even a free woman, if she is hungry enough, will do anything. The paga attendants knew this. “Get out!” said the girl in the white rag.

Not unrelieved, though I do not think she understood much of what was said to her, the blond barbarian backed away. She reacted then, despite herself, with momentary horror, as the girl in the white rag bit thoughtlessly into the pear with verr cheese. Then, remembering herself, she tried to look disappointed. “Get out,” said the girl in the white rag. “This is our territory.” The other girls now, too, belligerently, began to gather around. “Get out,” said the girl in the white rag, “or we will tie you and throw you into the canal.”

The blond-haired barbarian backed away, not challenging them. The girls then returned to the garbage. The blond-haired girl looked at me. She did not know which way to go. She did not wish to pass me, but yet, on the other hand, she did not wish to leave a vicinity where the she-urts were common.

The buildings were on one side, the canal on the other. Then she began to walk toward me, to pass me. She tried to walk as a she-urt. She came closer and closer. She tried not to look at me. Then when she was quite close to me, she looked into my eyes. Then she looked down. I think she was not used to seeing how Gorean men looked at women, at least slaves and low women, such as she-urts, assessing them for the furs and the collar. Then she looked boldly up at me, brazenly, trying to pretend to be bored and casual. Then she tossed her head and walked past me. I watched her walk past me. Yes, I thought, she would make a good slave.

I began to follow her, some twenty or thirty feet behind her. Surely this made her nervous, for she was clearly aware of my continued nearness. Surely she must have suspected, and fearfully, that I knew who she was. But she could not know this for certain.

Behind us we heard two girls squabbling over garbage, contesting desirable scraps from the wire basket.

I would let her continue on her way. She was going in the direction which I would take her.

In a few moments, beside one of the canals leading down to the wharves, in the vicinity of the Spice Pier, we came on four she-urts. They were on their bellies beside the canal, fishing for garbage.

The blond-haired girl joined them. Her legs and ankles were very nice.

I knew she was intensely aware of my presence. Boldly she reached out into the water and picked up the edible rind of a larma. She looked at me. Then she bit into it, and then, tiny bite by tiny bite, she forced herself to chew and eat it. She swallowed the last bit of it. I had wanted her to eat garbage out of the canal. It would help her to learn that she was no longer on Earth.

I would now capture her. I wished Ulafi, if possible, to sail with the tide.

I busied myself in the sea bag and, not obviously, drew forth a small strip of binding fiber; then I drew the bag shut by its cords.

The girl had risen to her feet and, looking at me, and tossing her head, turned away.

I caught up with her quickly, took her by the back of the neck and, shoving, thrust her, stumbling, running obliquely, against the wall to my right. I tossed the sea bag to her left. As I had thrown her to the wall it would be most natural for her to bolt to the left. She stumbled over the sea bag and half fell. Then I had her left ankle in my left hand and her right ankle in my right hand. I dragged her back, towards me, on her belly. I then knelt across her body and jerked her small hands behind her. I tied them there.

A small fist struck me. “Let her go!” cried a girl. I felt hands scratching at me. Small fists pounded at me. The four girls who had been fishing for garbage in the canal leaped upon me. “Let her go!” cried one. “You can’t simply take us!” cried another. “We are free! Free!” cried another.

I stood up, throwing them off me. I cuffed two back and two others crouched, ready to leap again to attack.

I stood over the blond girl, one leg on each side of her, She lay on her belly, her hands tied behind her.

Another girl leaped toward me and I struck her to one side with the back of my hand. She reeled away and sank to her knees, looking at me. I think she had never been struck that hard before. Her hand was at her mouth, blood between the fingers.

The other girl who, too, had been ready to attack, backed now uneasily away. She did not wish to come within reach of my arm.

“Let her go!” said the leader of the four girls. “You can’t just take us! We are free! Free!”

“We will call a guardsman!” cried another.

I grinned. How delightful are women. How weak they are. How fit they are to be made slaves.

“I am sorry I struck you as hard as I did,” I told the girl I had last struck. “I lost my patience,” I said. “I am sorry.” She, after all, was not a slave. She was a free woman. Slaves, of course, may be struck as long and as hard as one wishes. The girl between my feet, a slave, would learn that.

“Free her,” said the leader of the girls, pointing to the blond-haired barbarian helpless between my feet.

“You cannot just take her,” said another girl. “She is a free woman.”

“Do not fret your heads about her, my pretty’ little she-urts,” I said. “She is not a free woman. She is an unmarked slave, escaped from Ulafi of Schendi.”

“Is it true?” asked the leader of the she-urts.

“Yes,” I said. “Follow me, if you will, to the praetor station, where this fact may be made clear to you.”

“Are you a slave?” asked the leader of the girls to the girl between my feet.

“She does not speak Gorean,” I said, “or much of it. I do not think she understands you.”

The girl between my feet was crying.

“If she is a slave,” said one of the girls, “she had best learn Gorean quickly.”

I thought that was true.

“I hope for your sake,” said the leader of the she-urts to the girl, “that you are not a slave.” Then she said to the other girls, “Find pieces of rope.”

“Are we going to the praetor station?” asked one of the girls, uneasily.

“Of course,” said the leader.

“I do not want to go to the praetor station,” said one of the girls.

“We have done nothing,” said the leader. “We have nothing to fear.”

‘There are men there,” said one of the girls.

“We have men to fear,” said another.

“We are going,” said the leader, determinedly.

I picked up the Earth-girl slave, and threw her over my shoulder. She squirmed helplessly, crying. I picked up my sea bag then, and, the girl on my shoulder, the sea bag in my left hand, made my way toward the pier of the Red Urt.

“Are her thighs marked?” asked the praetor.

“No,” said a guardsman. He had already made this determination.

The girl stood, her hands bound behind her, in the brief rag of the she-urt, before the tribunal of the praetor. The neck strap of a guardsman was on her throat.

“Is this your slave?” asked the praetor of Ulafi of Schendi.

“Yes,” said he.

“How do I know she is a slave?” asked the praetor. “Her body, her movements, do not suggest that she is a slave. She seems too tight, too cold, too rigid, to be a slave.”

“She was free, captured by Bejar, in his seizure of the Blossoms of Telnus,” said Ulafi. “She is new to her condition.”

“Is Bejar present?’ asked the praetor.

“No,” said a man. Bejar had left the port yesterday, to again try his luck upon gleaming Thassa, the sea.

“Her measurements, exactly, fit those of the slave,” said a guardsman. He lifted the tape measure, marked in horts, which had been applied, but moments before, to the girl’s body.

The praetor nodded. This was excellent evidence. The girl’s height, ankles, wrists, throat, hips, waist and bust had been measured. She had even been thrown on a grain scale and weighed.

The praetor looked down at the girl. He pointed to her. “Kajira?” he asked. “Kajira?”

She shook her head vigorously. That much Gorean she at least understood. She denied being a slave girl.

The praetor made a small sign to one of the guardsmen.

“Leash!” said the fellow, suddenly, harshly, behind the girl, in Gorean.

She jumped, startled, and cried out, frightened, but she did not, as a reflex, lift her head, turning it to the left, nor did the muscles in her upper arms suddenly move as though thrusting her wrists behind her, to await the two snaps of the slave bracelets.

“Nadu!” snapped the guard. But the girl had not, involuntarily, begun to kneel.

“I have her slave papers here,” said Ulafi, “delivered with her this morning by Vart’s man.”

He handed them to the praetor.

“She does not respond as a slave because she has not yet learned her slavery,” said Ulafi. “She has not yet learned the collar and the whip.

The praetor examined the papers. In Ar slaves are often fingerprinted. The prints are contained in the papers.

“Does anyone know if this is Ulafi’s slave?” asked the praetor.

I did not wish to speak, for I would, then, have revealed myself as having been at the sale. I preferred for this to be unknown.

The four she-urts, with which the blond-haired barbarian had fished for garbage in the canal, stood about.

“She should have been marked,” said the praetor. “She should have been collared.”

“I have a collar here,” said Ulafi, lifting a steel slave collar. It was a shipping collar. It had five palms on it, and the sign of Schendi, the shackle and scimitar. The girl who wore it would be clearly identified as a portion of Ulafi’s cargo.

“I wish to sail with the tide,” said Ulafi. “In less than half an Ahn it will be full.”

“I am sorry,” said the praetor.

“Has not Vart been sent for,” asked Ulafi, “to confirm my words?”

“He has been sent for,” said the praetor.

From some eighty or so yards away, from the tiny shop of a metal worker, I heard a girl scream. I knew the sound. A girl had been marked. She who had been the Lady Sasi, the little she-urt who had been the accomplice of Turgus of Port Kar, had been branded.

“I am afraid we must release this woman,” said the praetor, looking down at the girl. “it is unfortunate, as she is attractive.”

“Test her for slave heat,” suggested a man.

“That is not appropriate,” said the praetor, “if she is free.”

“Make her squirm,” said the man. “See if she is slave hot.”