Hunters of Gor (46 page)

I observed him.

Tina slipped within the gate. She was barefoot and my collar, still, was at her

throat, but she wore a fresh tunic of wool, brief and white, and her hair was

bound back with a woolen fillet. Behind her, blade in hand, that she might come

to no harm was the young Turus, he who had worn the amethyst-studded wristlet.

“You have done well,” I told her.

I would, in time, free her.

Turus stood with her, one arm about her.

Hura, and her women, Mira, too, crept miserably to one side, shrinking back

against the palings of the stockade, naked women, ready for the chains and

collars of slave girls. My men eyed them, appreciatively.

Marlenus, Rim, Arn, and the men of Marlenus chained within the stockade, came

forward. They were jubilant in the torch light. Their wrists were still locked

behind their backs. They were still fastened together, chained, by the neck.

Sarus turned from me to face Marlenus.

Marlenus looked at me and grinned, “Well done Tarl Cabot,” said he, “Warrior.”

“I am Bosk of Port Kar,” I said. “I am of the Merchants.”

I felt weak. The side of my tunic, the yellow of Tyros, was thick and stiff with

clotted blood. I could feel the dried blood on my left arm, rough and flaking,

even between the fingers, where it had run over my wrist and hand.

There were now more torches and lanterns in the stockade, carried by my men.

“Give me that crossbow,” said one of my men to Sheera. She surrendered the

weapon.

Slaves are not permitted weapons.

“Kneel,” I told her.

She looked at me and, angrily, did so, at my thigh. She was only slave.

She had been of assistance, but she was only slave. It was the duty of a girl to

be of use to her master.

I recalled that I had told her I would sell her in Lydius.

“They made me do it!” cried Tina, to my surprise. She broke away from Turus and

ran and knelt before Sarus who stood, still, near the fire, haggard, angry, his

blade in he hand. “I had no choice!” she cried. He looked down at her. She

leaped to her feet and put her arms about him, weeping. I did not understand her

behavior.

Sarus, angrily, violently, thrust her aside.

“Surrender your weapon,” I told him.

“Nom” he said. “No,”

“You have failed,” said I, “Sarus.”

He looked at me wildly.

His tunic was torn.

He stood unsteadily. In the very Ahn he had lost his victory, his certain

triumph.

All that he had come to the northern forests to accomplish he had failed to do

so.

He had failed his Ubar, Chenbar of Tyros, called the Sea Sleen.

“No!” cried he suddenly.

“Stop!” I cried.

He spun wildly and ran to Marlenus, Ubar of Ubars, sword high.

He stood before the Ubar, his sword raised to strike. But between Sarus and

Marlenus of Ar, there stood another, Verna, the crossbow she carried leveled at

the heart of Sarus.

He could not strike for she stood in his way, and did his arm over, her finger,

even were she struck, would jerk on the trigger of the weapon, flinging its

iron-headed quarrel through his body, perhaps even to the palings behind.

I removed the sword from Sarus’ uplifted hand.

Thurnock took him and thrust him, stumbling, and weeping, to stand by his men.

“Well done, Slave!” congratulated Marlenus of Ar.

Verna did not respond to him.

Instead she turned, and faced him. There was a gasp, and silence.

The crossbow, now, stood leveled at the heart of Marlenus of Ar.

The Ubar faced her. He was helpless in his chains.

I heard the fire of the torches crackling.

Marlenus did not flinch. “Fire,” he said.

She did not speak to him.

“I do not grant you freedom,” he said. “I am Marlenus of Ar.”

Verna handed the crossbow to a man who stood nearby. He took it, quickly.

She turned to face Marlenus of Ar. “I have no wish to kill you,” she said.

Then she walked to one side.

Marlenus stood for a moment in the light of the torches, and then he threw back

his head, with his long hair, and laughed. His head had not had the stripe of

degradation shaven in it, as had my head, and those of my men. He would leave

the forest as he had entered it, with his glory. He had lost nothing.

Are you always victorious, Marlenus of Ar, I asked myself. I had freed him, he

whom I envied, he who had denied me bread, and fire and salt in Ar. He whom in

some respects I hated I had risked my life to liberate.

He would leave the forest as he had entered it, in glory. I wore in my head the

stripe of degradation. In my venture into the forest I had failed.

Both Sarus and I had failed. Only Marlenus of Ar would be victorious.

But he and his men might be mine. They stood in chains. I had ships at my

disposal. I might, rather than Sarus, take them as prizes to Tyros. I might thus

have my vengeance.

“Unchain me!” roared Marlenus of Ar, laughing.

I hated him, he, always victorious.

“Sarus,” said I,” the key to the chains of the Ubar and the others.

Sarus reached to his wallet, slung to his belt. “It is gone,” he said. He seemed

stunned.

“I have it,” said Tina. There was much laughter in the stockade. We recalled how

she had, for a brief moment, before being thrust away, clung to the dazed Sarus.

She had, in that instant, taken the key. She brought it to me.

“Similarly,” said Thurnock, “took she the key from the mate of the Rhoda and,

when the ships were tied together, and the men of the Rhoda and Tesephone were

drunk with her body and the vessels of paga she poured them, she brought it to

us. We freed ourselves, and put those who had been our captors in chains.”

“Well done,” said I, “Thurnock.”

“We put them in the hold of the Rhoda,” grinned Thurnock. “In the morning

doubtless they will be surprised to find themselves in chains. Their heads, too,

sore from the paga, will most likely cause them some displeasure.”

There was again much laughter. Marlenus, too, joined in the laughter.

I was furious.

“Unchain me,” said Marlenus.

Our eyes met.

I handed the key to Sheera, who knelt beside me. She rose to her feet, to

unchain the Ubar.

“No,” said Marlenus. His voice was quiet, and very hard.

Frightened Sheera stepped back. I took the key from her.

I handed the key to Thurnock. :Unchain the Ubar,” I said to him.

Thurnock hastened to unlock the manacles and heavy throat collar which bound the

great Ubar.

Marlenus did not take his eyes from me. He was not pleased.

I took the key from Thurnock, and, with it, unlocked the steel which confined

Rim and Arn.

I then gave the key to Arn, that he might free the men of Marlenus.

The eyes of Marlenus and I met again. “Do not come to Ar,” he said.

“I shall come to Ar if it pleases me,” said I.

“Bring clothing for the Ubar,” cried one of his men, as swiftly as he was

released.

Another of the men of Marlenus went to the belongings of the men of Tyros, to

seize garments.

“The women!” suddenly cried a man. “They flee!”

Hura and her women, and Mira, too, who had, supreptitiously, the attention of

those within the stockade being distracted, been nearing the gate of the

stockade, suddenly had broken into flight, like a bevy of tabuk, rushing into

the darkness.

“After them!” cried Thurnock.

But scarcely had the peasant giant cried out than, from the darkness about the

stockade, and toward the forest, we heard the surprised cries, and screams, of

startled, unexpectedly caught females. We heard, too, the laughter of me.

“Weapons ready!” cried Marlenus.

I placed my blade in its sheath.

We heard the sound of scuffling outside and more laughter.

In a moment, men, those of Marlenus’ men and mine, who had been chained in the

forest, appeared at the gate of the stockade. Several held, by the arms, or

hair, a stripped, squirming panther girl.

The girls, attempting to escape, had run into their arms.

The men threw their catches, terrified, before the fire. There they huddled,

kneeling, holding one another.

“Bind them hand and foot,” I told my men.

They leaped to secure the now-unresisting panther women.

Cara slipped past me to plunge herself, in her sweetness, weeping into the arms

of Rim, who crushed her to him.

“I love you, Rim!” she cried.

“I, too, love you,” he cried.

Cara had carried the tools I had stolen from the Rhoda, a heavy hammer and a

chisel, into the forest. She had followed the backtrail of the men of Tyros. She

had, in a matter of Ahn, found the place where Sarus had left several men of

Marlenus, and some of my men, chained. At that point she had, too, encountered

Vinca, the two paga slaves, Ilene, and my own slave chain of panther women.

Vinca and her cohorts had built fires about the men, protecting them from

animals, and had been feeding them and bringing them water. With the hammer and

chisel, and rocks, Vinca and the paga slaves, perhaps aided by Cara, would have

managed to break or open the hand chains of one of the men of Marlenus, or one

of my men. Then he, with his man’s strength, could strike away other chains, and

free his fellows. It would have takes Ahns, but once a single man was freed and

the tools lay ready, it was but a matter of time until all were freed. As soon

as the men of Marlenus, sixty-seven of them, and the balance of my men, eight,

had been freed, they had trekked to the beach followed by the women, with the

slave chain. As they had come they had broken themselves clubs. They had come

prepared, though naked, to make war, though it be with but the branches of trees

and stones of the forest. About the wrists of many, though separated, still

clung iron manacles; about the throats of many, too, still clung collars of

iron, some with dangling, broken lengths of chain.

Their leader lifted his arm to Marlenus, in the salute of Ar.

Marlenus returned the gesture.

Cara, in Rim’s arms, looked at me, and then looked quickly away. She had wished

to carry the tools into the forest, but in her own way, free. I had instead,

however, tied them about her neck, and bound her wrists securely behind her

body. She would, accordingly, if she did not find Vinca and the chained men,

perish in the forest. I had given her no choice but, if she would live, to

deliver the tools.

“I love Rim,” she had cried to me. “Let me be free to carry the tools for him as

a free woman!”

But I had bound her as a slave. It was thus, under duress, she had complied with

my will. She was slave. One does not trust slaves.

I looked at her. She was lost in her joy of Rim’s arms.

I shrugged.

I examined the panther women, now supine, now tightly bound, before the fire.

“There are two others, who are missing,” I said to Thurnock. Hura and Mira were

not among the captives.

I looked at one of the men of Marlenus, who had come in from the darkness.

He spread his hands. :These are all we caught,” he said. “If there were two

others, they must have slipped past us, or eluded us, in the darkness.

“I want Hura!” cried Marlenus. “Find her!”

His men fled into the darkness.

But I did not think they would be successful. Hura, and Mira, too, were panther

girls.

In time, in a half of an Ahn, his men had returned. There was little point in

prolonging the pursuit. The two women had slipped away, successfully, in the

darkness.

They had made good their escape.

I noted, too, that Verna and Sheera were missing. I had lost blood. I was angry.

I seemed very weary. It was little to me that they, too, taking advantage of the

confusion, had slipped away.

“Where is the slave Verna!” cried Marlenus.

His men looked at one another.

“She is gone,” said one of them.

I wanted to rest. I had lost blood.

“Captain?” said Thurnock.

“Take me to the Tesephone, Thurnock,” I said. “I am tired. I am tired.”

“Where, Bosk of Port Kar,” challenged Marlenus, “is the slave Verna?”

“I do not know,” I told him. Then I turned away. It was over now. I wanted only

to rest.

“Bring paga and food from the ships!” ordered Marlenus.

Thurnock looked at me.

“Yes,” I said, “let him have what he wished.”

“You will be paid,” said Marlenus, “in the gold of Ar.”

Thurnock helped me to the longboat. The beacon of Sarus was now only reddish

stones of wood, like the eyes of beasts, looming in the darkness, lying on the

sand.

“We will have a feast!” I heard Marlenus cry, and his men responded with a

cheer.

“Chain these men of Tyros,” I heard Marlenus order. I heard chains.

“Lie in the boat, my captain,” whispered Thurnock.

“No,” I told him.

“Free the females,” cried Marlenus. “They will serve us in our feast.” I heard

the screams of women, as they were freed of their bonds. I knew they would serve

the feast in the manner of Gorean slave girls, fully. I did not envy them. I

heard the gate of the stockade swing shut. It would be secured, locking them

within with the men, their former captives. I heard some of them pounding

helplessly at the gate with their small fists. I heard the laughter of men.