Hunters of Gor (27 page)

from touching his.

“Do you like your lipstick?” asked Marlenus.

“Yes,” she whispered, “yes, Master!”

“It, too, excites you, does it not?” he asked.

“Yes, Master,” she whispered.

“How is that?” he asked.

“It, like the earrings,” she whispered, “males me feel more female, more slave.”

“You are female, and slave,” said Marlenus.

“Yes, Master, she whispered. “I know. I have been taught.”

He then, with his right hand, this first kiss that he placed upon the lips of

his slave girl, a kiss in which she was, by intent, permitted no part, save to

feel the bruising of it in her body. When he thrust her back there was blood at

her mouth, and fear in her eyes. She was now frightened of him, terribly

frightened. But he put her to her back, swiftly, casually, and his hand was at

her body. Then, though there was fear in her eyes, her body, as though of its

own will, began to leap to his touch, that of her master. Her body, as though of

its own will, obeyed the touch of Marlenus. Then she cried out, “Oh yes, Master,

yes!” Her head was back. Her eyes were closed. She twisted. “I love you,

Master!” she wept, “I love you!”

“Tomorrow,” said Marlenus, “you will put a talender in your hair.”

“Yes, Master,” she cried. “I will. I will!”

I slipped from the tent. I looked back once. I saw, to one side, a bowl of

scarlet, five-petaled flaminiums.

As I walked into the darkness I heard Verna’s helpless cries of joy. I heard,

too, the sound of slave bells. They had been locked on her left ankle. They

could not be removed, save by a key in the keeping of Marlenus.

“I love you, Master,” I heard her cry. “I love you. I cannot help myself. I love

you, Master! I love you, my Master!”

I envied Marlenus his girl, Verna. She was a beauty, and, in time, would be a

prize slave. I thought of Sheera. Many times the thought of her had crossed my

mind. I had told her I was going to sell her in Lydius. Perhaps I would not. I

found myself lonely for Sheera. I called myself a fool. She was only a slave.

But she was a slave not without promise. I recalled her in my shelter beside the

Tesephone, in the darkness, and in the following day. She was not displeasing.

Perhaps, with training, something could be made of her. I reminded myself that

it was said that panther girls, once conquered, made excellent slaves.

Lying in the darkness, wrapped in my blankets, I heard, in the distance, Verna’s

cries of pleasure.

I threw away the blankets. I walked through the camp, until I came to the chain

of Verna’s girls, they in their skins, each chained by the right ankle, the long

chain fastened between the two stakes.

They were asleep, on the ground. Marlenus had told me that any of the women in

the camp, save Verna, were free to me.

I looked along the chain, until I found one that pleased me.

She was sweet-bodied, wide-shouldered, dark-haired, like Sheera.

I knelt beside her and place my hand over her mouth. She squirmed helplessly. I

held her. She eyes, over my hand, were wild.

“Be silent,” I told her.

Then I removed my hand from her mouth. She looked up at me.

I took her skins by the shoulders, and drew them from her body, leaving them

about her right ankle, where it was fastened to the chain.

She lifted her arms to me, and her lips. I held her, gently, and them began to

touch her. I felt her lips on mine. “Be silent,” I whispered to her. “Yes,

Master,” she whispered. “Yes, Master.”

It was nearly dawn when I left her side. At times I had to keep her mouth

covered with my hand.

“What is your name?” I asked her.

“Rena,” she whispered.

“It is a lovely name,” I said, “and you, Rena, are a lovely slave.”

“Thank you, Master,” she whispered.

I returned to my blankets, to get an Ahn’s sleep, if I could, before the camp

became too much astir.

I looked up at the moons. I recalled Sheera. Yes, I did not think I would sell

her in Lydius.

I recalled her, as I had seen her chained at the bar in Lydius. Even then I had

wanted her. And I recalled her in the hold of the Tesephone, and later, in the

camp, in my shelter beside the Tesephone, that hot night, and the sweet day that

had followed.

No, when I returned, I would be in no hurry to sell her. She was a juicy slave,

and one of high intelligence. She was not without interest. I rather liked the

look of my collar on her throat.

I reminded myself that it was said that panther girls, once conquered, make

excellent slaves.

I think it is a true saying.

I rolled over in my blankets, and fell asleep. In the morning I must make my way

back to the Tesephone.

12
   
I Return to my Camp on the Banks of the Laurius

My emotions were much mixed as I made my way through the tall forest toward the

banks of the Laurius.

I had left my men at the camp of Marlenus, Arn, his outlaws, and the five men

from the Tesephone. I had wished to be alone on this journey. They would follow

me, in two days.

I carried my weapons, even the great bow, recovered from Verna’s camp, days

before.

I had come to the forest rich in my prides and my plans. I would, from under the

nose of Marlenus, preferably by trade, snatch Talena, thus evening the score for

his banishment of me from Ar, thus regaining her, thus winning glory, thus

setting my ladder against the political heights of the planet Gor, for, with

such a woman at my side, there were few doors and cylinders that would be locked

against me, and I, only a merchant of Port Kar, might have ascended unimpeded

the stairs of influence and power. At a stroke, companionship with such a woman,

coupled with my position and riches in Port Kar, would have made me one of the

most significant and prominent men of Gor.

I smiled.

Men of lowly origins and great ambition and talent, I knew, had often used

alliances with high-born women to further the fortunes of their designs. Such

alliances, portions of their planning, lifted them to strata where their talents

and energies might have full play, strata otherwise closed to them by dominant,

controlling groups and families, jealous of and protective of their own

interests. The dominant and effective families thus take into themselves

newcomers of energy and intelligence, who, in exchange for position and

opportunity, when they themselves are allied with such families, help keep the

families high and dominant in the society. Human structures are group

structures, and closed groups, with senses of their own best interest, yet open

enough and intelligent enough to accept a certain amount, carefully selected, of

new and driving blood, regulate society. Many people are unaware of such groups,

for they are seldom identifiable save through lines of social relation and

connection. The first families of a city usually constitute one or more of such

groups, sometimes competitive groups. When a city falls, the daughters of such

families are most avidly sought by the conquerors as slaves. Their first duty,

naked and collared, is to serve the conquerors at their victory feast.

Subsequently, they are commonly awarded to high officers or men who have

especially distinguished themselves in the taking of the city, perhaps an

individual who has led a sortie which successfully stormed a gate, or the first

man upon the enemy’s walls, or one who has captured a member of the city’s

council. In the latter case, if the council member has a daughter, it is common

to give her to the man who has captured her father.

I was, of course, only of the merchants.

I laughed.

With the daughter of a Ubar as a consort there would be few who would dare to

recall that I was not of high caste. And, surely, with such a woman at my side,

many cities, vying for my good will, would beg me to accept investiture as a

warrior, a high caste, in their rolls.

Companionship with the daughter of Marlenus, Ubar of Ubars, would have brought

me much, I needed much.

I was already a rich and powerful man, but my political power did not extend

beyond Port Kar. And in Port Kar, I recalled my political power, strictly,

extended no further than my vote in the Council of Captains. I was not even

first in the council. That post was held by Samos.

In the past years, in Port Kar, my ambitions had enlarged. Economic power and

political power are like the left and the right foot. My ventures in merchantry

had secured me wealth. My companionship with Talena, opening up a thousand

avenues and alliances, conjoined with my riches, would have made me easily among

the most splendid and powerful men on Gor.

Who knew how high might have been raised the chair of Bosk?

I laughed bitterly. How foolishly I had brought my prides and my plans to the

northern forests.

I had little to show for my efforts. I would be a laughing stock.

I and my men had fallen to panther girls. We had been outwitted, and tricked.

Though we were men, we had fallen to women. Our heads, in token of our

humiliation, had been shaved by our captors. Each of us, including the mighty

Bosk, wore the two-and-one-half inch swath on our heads, running from our

foreheads to the back of our necks, making it clear to all who it was who had

taken us in the forests.

I, and my men, would have been raped and sold, summarily, had we not been

rescued by the great Marlenus, Ubar of Ubars.

He had succeeded, casually, where we had failed. It was he, not Bosk, to whom

Verna and her girls had fallen. It was he, not Bosk, who would sell them, or do

with them as he pleased.

And he had even extended to me and my men the courtesy of his camp,

magnanimously.

I shook my head. Marlenus was indeed a Ubar, a Ubar of Ubars.

Verna, had been a rude, proud, strong, defiant, ill-tempered, magnificent outlaw

woman, hating men. Then she had fallen to Marlenus of Ar, who would not accept

her as such. He had played a savage game, crushing her, turning her into a slave

girl. Verna was not property, to be bid upon, and bought and sold by any free

man. But, too, paradoxically perhaps, she was joyful in the discovery of

herself, her sex and her body. It mattered not that the discovery had been

forced upon her. Too long had she fought and denied her womanhood. As a slave,

she would no longer be permitted to do so. She had been a proud outlaw woman,

fierce, resenting men, hostile toward them. Marlenus had touched her. She was

feminine, utterly feminine, unlocked, opened, a conquered, helpless, loving

slave.

I asked myself, as Verna had twice before, Marlenus, are you always victorious?

Now I returned to the Tesephone, without Talena, with nothing.

Marlenus, as was his right, she being an ex-citizen of Ar, would free her, and

return her, in simple robes of concealment, in disgrace, to her former city.

She had been disowned.

She was now nothing.

She had only her beauty, and that was branded.

Companionship with such a person, for anyone of position or power, was

unthinkable. It would result in the equivalent of ostracism. With her as

companion one could be only rich. Companionship with such a person, an ex-slave,

one without caste, one without family and position, would be, politically and

socially, a gross and incomparable mistake.

I wondered of the daughters of Ubars. It was unfortunate that the great Ubar,

Marlenus, had no such daughter. Had he one, she might have been ideal.

Lurius of Jad, Ubar of the island of Cos, was said, by a long-dissolved

companionship, to have a daughter. Phanius Turmus, of Turia, was said to have

two daughters. They had once been enslaved by Tuchuks, but they were now free.

They had been returned, though still wearing the chains of slaves, as a gesture

of good will, by Kamchak, Ubar San of the Wagon Peoples. Turia was called the Ar

of the south.

Cos and Port Kar, of course, are enemies, but, if the Companion Price offered

Lurius were sufficient, I would not expect him to hesitate in giving me the

girl. The alliance, of course, would be understood, on all sides, as not

altering the political conditions obtaining between the cities. It was up to

Lurius to dispose of his daughter as he saw fit. She might not desire to come to

Port Kar, but the feelings of the girl are not considered in such matters. Some

high-born women are less free than the most abject of slave girls.

Clark of Thentis had a daughter, but he was not a Ubar. He was not even of high

caste. He, too, was of the merchants. Indeed, there were many important

merchants who had daughters, for example, the first merchant of Teletus and the

first merchant of Asperiche. Indeed, the two latter individuals had already, in

the past year, approached me with the prospect of a companionship with their

daughters, but I had declined to discuss the matter.

I wanted a woman of high caste.

I could probably have Claudia Tentia Hinrabia, of the Builders, who had been

daughter of Claudius Tentius Hinrabius, once Ubar of Ar, but she was now without

family. Marlenus, in whose palace she held her residence, probably in his