Hunters of Gor (22 page)

at the moons. Beneath the moons, helplessly, I sought to free myself. I could

not do so.

Mira now, the others following, crying out, tore away the scraps of panther skin

that had yet concealed their beauty. They now wore only their gold, and their

ornaments. Now, moaning, crying out, the she-beasts of the forest, the panther

girls, hands lifted, clawing, began to stamp and dance beneath the fierce

brightness of the wild moons.

Then suddenly they stopped, but stood, still, their hands lifted to the moons.

Verna threw back her head, her fists clenched on her thighs, and cried out, a

wild scream, as though in agony.

She leaped to her feet and, looking at me, tore away her skins.

My blood leaped before her beauty.

But she had turned away and naked, her head back, had lifted her hands, too,

clawing at the moons.

Then all of them, together, turned slowly to face me. They were breathing

heavily. Their hair was disheveled, their eyes wild.

I lay before them, helpless.

Suddenly, as one, they seized up their light spears, and, swaying, spears

lifted, began to circle me.

They were incredibly beautiful.

A spear darted toward me, but did not strike me. It was withdrawn.

It could have killed me, of course, had its owner wished. But it had spared me.

Then, about me, the panther girls, circling, swaying, began a slow stalking

dance, as of hunters.

I lay in the center of the circle.

Their movements were slow, and incredibly beautiful. Then suddenly one would cry

out and thrust at me with her spear. But the spear was not thrust into my body.

Its point would stop before it had administered its wound. Many of the blows

would have been mortal. But many thrusts were only to my eyes, or arms or legs.

Every bit of me began to feel exposed, threatened.

I was their catch.

Then the dance became progressively swifter and wilder, and the feigned blows

became more frequent, and then, suddenly, with a wild cry, the swirling throng

about me stood for an instant stock still, and then with a cry, each spear

thrust down savagely toward my heart.

I cried out.

None of the spears had struck me.

The girls cast aside the spears. Then, like feeding she-panthers they knelt

about me, each one, with her hands and tongue, touching and kissing me.

I cried out with anguish.

I knew I could not long resist them.

Verna lifted her head. She laughed, “You are going to be raped,” she said.

I fought the thongs, but, by their bodies, was thrust back. I felt Mira’s teeth

in my shoulder.

Suddenly I saw a movement in the darkness, behind the girls. One of the girls

suddenly screamed, and was pulled from me, her arms pinned behind her back by a

man’s hands.

The girls suddenly looked about themselves, startled. They were seized from

behind by the strong hands of men. They screamed.

I saw Verna’s arms, too, pinned behind her. I recognized the men, in hunter’s

cap, who held her.

“Greetings,” said Marlenus of Ar.

10
   
Marlenus Will Hold Discourse with Me

The girls’ hands were tied behind their backs.

Marlenus handed Verna to one of his men.

He bent down, and with a sleen knife, slashed the binding fiber that fastened me

between the stakes.

“Marlenus! Marlenus!” cried a voice.

A girl struggled forward, her hands tied behind her back. One of Marlenus’ men

held her by the arm.

Marlenus looked up. “Release her,” he said to one of his men.

The man did so. The girl found her skins, and drew then on, tying them over her

left shoulder.

“Traitress!” cried Verna, held by the man to whom Marlenus had handed her.

“Traitress!”

Mira went to stand before Verna. She spit in Verna’s face. “Slave,” she said.

Verna struggled, but she was held, helplessly.

“I can take any city,” said Marlenus, “behind whose walls I can get a tarn of

gold.”

I sat up, rubbing my wrists and ankles. “My thanks,” said I, “Marlenus of Ar.”

“I will be second to Hura,” said Mira to Verna, “when her band arrives to

command this portion of the forests.”

Verna said nothing.

Marlenus rose to his feet and I, unsteadily, did so, too.

Marlenus unclasped his own hunting cloak, and hurled it to me.

“My thanks,” said I, “Ubar.” I fastened it about me, as a tunic.

Marlenus, as always, was victorious. He was truly the Ubar of Ubars.

Marlenus looked at Verna. “Tie that woman,” he said, “between the stakes.”

Swiftly Verna was thrown to her back between the stakes. Four men, swiftly, tied

her wrists and ankles, widely apart, to the stakes. She lay bound where I had

lain bound. She lay bound as I had lain bound.

Marlenus stood over her. He looked down upon her. “You have caused me much

inconvenience, Outlaw,” he said.

The girls of Verna, with the exception of Mira, their hands tied behind their

backs, were now, by a long strip of binding fiber, being fastened together by

the ankle.

“But though you are an outlaw,” said Marlenus, looking down upon Verna, “you are

also a woman.”

She looked up at him.

“It is for that reason,” said Marlenus, “that I do not have you now hung upon a

tree.”

She regarded him, motionless. Her eyes met his.

“Rejoice that you are a woman,” said Marlenus. “It is only your sex that has

saved you.”

She turned her head to one side. She pulled at the binding fiber, but she was

helpless.

“Yes,” said Marlenus, “it is to your sex that you owe your life.”

She turned her head swiftly away. She had been spared because she was a female.

She had been spared only because she was a female.

“I have information,” I said, “that, soon, there are more panther girls entering

this portion of the forest. It might be well to withdraw before their arrival.”

Marlenus laughed. “They are the girls of Hura,” he said. “They are in my hire.”

Verna cried out with rage.

He looked down at Verna. “I thought they might prove useful in hunting for this

one,” he said. He indicated Verna with his foot.

“But this one,” said Marlenus, reaching out and shaking Mira’s head with his

large hand, “was the most useful of all.” He laughed. “With my gold, Hura has

increased her band to many girls. It will be the strongest band in the forest.

And, with my gold, I purchased our Mira the lieutenancy in that band.”

“And other gold for Mira, too,” she said.

“Yes,” said Marlenus. From his belt he took a heavy pouch.

He handed it to Mira.

“My thanks, Ubar,” said Mira.

“Then she betrayed to you the location of the camp and dancing circle?”

“Yes,” said Marlenus.

“Are my men at the camp?” I asked.

“We went first to the camp,” said Marlenus. “There we freed them.”

“Good,” I said.

“But their heads had been shaved,” said Marlenus.

I shrugged.

“Some of them appear to be outlaws,” said Marlenus.

“They are my men,” I said.

Marlenus smiled. “We freed them all,” he said.

“My thank, Ubar,” said I. “It seems I owe you much.”

“What is to be done with us?” said Verna.

“Curiosity,” said Marlenus, “is not becoming in a Kajira. You might be beaten

for it.”

Verna gasped in fury, and was silent.

“We owe each other much,” said Marlenus, putting his hands on my shoulders.

He had not forgotten the throne of Ar.

“You banished me from Ar,” I said. “You denied me bread, and fire and salt.”

“Yes,” said Marlenus, “for long ago you had purloined the Home Stone of Ar.”

I was silent.

“I learned from spies,” said Marlenus, “that you were to come to the forests.”

He smiled. “I hoped to see you once more, but scarcely as I found you.”

He looked at the top of my head.

I drew away, angrily.

Marlenus laughed. “You are not the first to fall to panther girls,” he said. “Do

you wish a cap?”

“No,” I said.

“Come with my men and me to our camp, north of Laura,” he said. “Your are

welcome there.”

“It does not count, I trust,” I asked, “being your camp, as part of the realm of

Ar?”

Marlenus laughed. “No!” he said. “Ar is where the Home Stone of Ar lies!” He

chuckled. “You will be a welcome guest. I promise not to torture and impale you,

for breaking the banishment.”

“You are most generous,” I said.

“Do not be bitter,” he smiled.

“Very well,” I said.

I looked about. I saw Mira. She had now rearmed herself. At her belt was her

sleen knife. In her hand was her light spear.

“Mira was clever.” I said. “She claimed that you had withdrawn your forces to

Ar, even that you had disowned Talena. The forged document to that effect was a

superb subterfuge.”

Marlenus’ eyes were suddenly hard.

“Forgive me,” said I, “Ubar.”

“The document,” said Marlenus, “was not forged. Talena, by the permission of

Verna, and by way of Mira, Verna’s messenger, with whom I dealt, sued for her

purchase, such not being the act of a free woman.”

“Then the disownment.” I said, “ is true?”

“It is true, and it is valid,” said Marlenus. “Now let us not speak of it. I

have been much shamed. I have done what was needful, as a warrior and a father,

and a Ubar.”

“But what of Talena?” I said.

“Who,” asked Marlenus, “is this person of whom you speak?”

I was silent.

Then Marlenus turned to Verna. “It is my understanding,” he said, “that you hold

a girl, once known to me, slave.”

Verna was silent.

“It is my intention to free her,” said Marlenus. “She will then be taken to Ar,

and may have quarters in the palace,” said Marlenus.

“You will sequester her?” I asked him.

“She will have an adequate pension, and quarters in the palace,” said Marlenus.

Verna looked up. “She is near an exchange point,” said Verna. “She is being held

there.”

Marlenus nodded. “Very well,” he said.

Verna looked up at him. “Are you always victorious, Marlenus of Ar?” she asked.

Marlenus turned away from her, and went to examine the line of bound girls,

Verna’s band. They stood, their hands bound behind their backs, fastened

together by the long length of binding fiber, knotted about the right ankle of

each. He examined them carefully, walking about the entire line, then girl by

girl, sometimes pushing up her chin with his thumb.

“Beauties,” he said.

The girls regarded him, frightened.

He turned to face his men. “How many of you carry a slave collar with you?” he

asked.

There was much laughter.

“My pretties,” said Marlenus, addressing the line of secured woman, “earlier I

thought you were much aroused.”

They looked at one another, apprehensively.

“It would be cruel,” said he, ”to deny you your pleasures.”

They regarded him with horror.

“Put them in the Ubar’s collar,” he said.

The men rushed forward, seizing the captives. They forced them back to the

grass. They fastened steel collars on their throats.

Marlenus returned to where Verna lay bound. I could hear the girls crying out,

whimpering.

“Have you no collar for me, Ubar?” asked Verna.

“Yes,” he said, “in my camp. I have a collar for you, my pretty.”

Verna looked at him in fury. He had addressed her as a woman.

She pulled helplessly at the binding fiber.

“I will not make the same mistakes with you this time,” he said, “that I did

last time.”

She looked up at him, miserable.

“There are no traitors now among my men, no spies from Treve. Each of them is a

known man, a sword companion, one of glorious Ar.”

She turned her head away.

“Further,” he said, “last time I intended to return you to Ar in honor, in a

retinue, in a stout cage, fastened in the manacles of a man.”

“And now?” she asked coldly.

“I had forgotten” he said, “ that you were only a woman.”

She stiffened.

“You had best chain me heavily, Ubar,” she warned Marlenus.

“Slave bracelets, or a sirik, will be sufficient to hold you,” said Marlenus.

She struggled in the thongs.

“Too,” he said, “you will not need this gold.” He indicated the rude ornaments

which bedecked her beauty, at the throat, on her arms, and her ankle. “These

things will be removed from you,” he said.

“You will permit me at least,” she said, :the skins of forest panthers.”

“You will wear slave silk,” he said.

“No!” she cried. “No!” She reared up, fighting the thongs.

“And you will be returned to Ar,” said Marlenus, “not in a retinue, but on

tarnback, like any other captive girl.”

She closed her eyes.

Marlenus, patient as a hunter, waited until she again regarded him.

“In my camp,” he said, “you will wear slave rouge.”

She looked at him with horror.

“And,” said Marlenus, “I will have your ears pierced.”

She turned her head to one side, and wept.

“You weep,” said Marlenus, “like a woman.”

She cried out in agony, and turned her head to one side.

Marlenus sat down, cross-legged, by Verna. He looked on her, intently. He

studied her. He gave her great attention. She turned her head to one side, her

wrists secured in many turns of binding fiber, her fists clenched. I knew that