Players of Gor (48 page)

I looked up at the Lady Yanina. How small and soft, and luscious, she was. How absurd then, and how unnatural, seemed her position of power, temporary though it might be, over these men. how envious she seemed of men, particularly of her rival, Flaminius. How she was straining to seem a leader, how she must have studied what she took to be its lessons well, how she must have firmly resolved to act that role with determination. Perhaps if she did it well she could fool men; perhaps, if she did it well, she would be accepted almost as though she were a real leader, a true leader. Perhaps, if she did it well, no one would notice that she was really only a small, soft, shapely, lovely creature, one whose natural destiny would be found quite elsewhere than in the saddle of a tharlarion, at the head of troops.

"You are a despicable sleen," she said to me.

"Doubtless," I said. There was probably much in what she

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said. I regarded her. How absurd that she could be in power over these men. They were soldiers. She should be put in her place, the place of the female, kneeling and serving. Perhaps on e day someone would put her there, and she would then come to understand finally and profoundly what she was, a female.

"Smile, if you will, for whatever secret reason, fool," she said, "but it is you who wear the manacles, you who are held in irons at my stirrup."

"It would seem so," I said.

"You are my key to power," she said.

How insolent she was, how arrogant.

"Because of you," she said, "my fortunes will be made in Brundisium! Because of you I will climb there to hitherto undreamed of heights!"

"Perhaps," I said.

"It is I who am victorious," she said. "It is I who am triumphant!"

I recalled she had whipped me.

She turned to one of her men, he whom I had taken, apparently rightly, to be her immediate subordinate. "Put a chain on his neck," she said.

"We anticipated that one of your astuteness might not be deceived by the trickery of the fugitive," said Boots, "that you might suspect his bold return to this camp. Accordingly, we seized him and held him for you."

"Our thanks, actor," she said. "Have no fear. You will be rewarded."

Her man unlooped a chain.

"But moreover," said Boots, "we have arranged things in such a way as to enhance your triumph."

"How is that?" she asked, curious.

"That your prisoner, whom I gather is important to you, may be presented with drama, with flair, nothing so common, so mundane and predictable, as being led in like a pet tarsk."

"What do you have in mind?" she asked, interested.

"I envisage a feast," said Boots, "a triumphal feast."

"No," I said, "no!"

"Hold him," suggested Boots, apprehensively, to Chino and Lecchio. They again seized my arms.

"Anyone," said Boots, "could lead him in on a chain. That fellow Flaminius did it that way, as I recall."

"yes," said the Lady Yanina. Indeed, she had been brought in on a chain by Flaminius at the same time, marched at the stirrup of one of his men, barefoot, her wrists bound behind her,

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wearing only a sack, that which had been her common garment in the camp, that in which I had put her long ago for my amusement, that which had once contained Sa-Tarna flour. It must have been a difficult moment for the proud Lady Yanina, to have been so returned to her city.

"Imagine this," cried Boots, expansively, with a great gesture, his eyes lighting up, "an incredible banquet, a glorious feast, a feast of victory, a triumphal feast, the most abundant and delicate viands, the finest of entertainment, and then, at the climax of this great feast, you bring forth a great locked trunk! You open it! Within it there is a slave sack! You untie this slave sack! You have its occupant drawn forth. He is helpless and in chains. You display him to the crowd! He is your prisoner! He is your prize! You give him then to your Ubar! It is your moment of triumph!"

"Yes," she cried. "Yes!"

"No!" I cried. "Never! Never! No such triumph for you! No such humiliation for me!" I shook Chino and Lecchio about, fiercely, throwing them even from their feet, but they clung, tenaciously, desperately, like sleen, to my arms. Then, in their grip, still in place, held now again below her, she in the high saddle of the tharlarion, I looked up at the Lady Yanina. She was smiling.

"Never!" I cried.

She did not respond.

"Do not subject me to such humiliation," I said.

She did not respond.

"How can you even think of such a thing," I asked.

She smiled.

"Please, no," I said.

"Bring the slave sack," she said.

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16
       
What Occurred in the Feasting Hall

"Here," I said, snapping my fingers. The naked blond slave ran swiftly to me and knelt before me. "My fingers are greasy," I said. "Yes, Master," she said, and, putting down her head, she began to lick the palms of my hands, as I held them out to her, and then about my hands, and then to run her tongue down between my fingers and the hands, and then, not touching them with her own hands of fingers, carefully and delicately, to kiss and suck my fingers individually. She then extended her head towards me and I dried my hands and fingers on her long blond hair. She looked at me. The collar looked well on her throat. I pulled her across the low table on her stomach, scattering vessels and plates, and then, turning her, threw her to her back on the tiles behind the table. Swiftly then I had her. Those near me took no note of this. I stood then over her. She looked up at me, gasping, fearful, one knee raised, the palms her hands facing down. Her fingernails had scratched at the tiles. I kicked her. "Return to your work," I told her. "Yes, Master," she said, hastening to rise, then hurrying away.

"More food," I said, returning to my place, "and clear this mess!" "Yes, Master," said a naked brunet. "Yes, Master!" said a naked redhead. They hurried to serve, kneeling. They looked well in their collars. The collar accentuates the nudity and beauty of a slave, and, too, of course, it proclaims her bondage. I retrieved a large grape, about the size of a small plum, from the

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table, before they could clear it away. It lay near an overturned wine goblet, in a wine stain. It had rolled there, across the sparkling cloth, when it had been dislodged from its position in its shallow, golden bowl in the blonde's transit. It was peeled and pitted, doubtless laboriously by female slaves. It was a Ta grape. One often associates them with the terraces of Cos, but they are grown, of course, in many other places, as well. I thrust it in my mouth. then I gave my attention to the performance in progress between the tables, on a small, raised platform.

"Ho, varlets, craven churls, away!" cried lanky Petrucchio, drawing his great wooden sword form the preposterous sheath which dragged behind him. This took some time. "Away, away!" I say, he kept repeating, and at last had managed, bit by bit, yank by yank, to free the sword. he now waved it about, menacingly, seemingly almost as though it might decapitate anyone within a range of several feet. The three women seeming to cower behind him, covered from head to toe in robes of concealment, huddled together, ducking its great swings. Before Petrucchio, as though just having entered into the same area, the object of his attention, were Chino and Lecchio, in the garb of cloth workers, and with packs on their backs. "Back, even in your vast numbers, you warriors and foes," cried Petrucchio, grimly, "lest I slice you like roast tarsk, lest I shred you like tur-pah and peel you like suls!"

Chino and Lecchio, understood as two simple travelers on the road, come unexpectedly on Petrucchio and his companions, looked at one another, wonderingly.

"Avaunt, speedily!" cried Petrucchio, swinging the great sword again, the girls behind him ducking once more.

"But, good sir," called Chino, keeping his distance, "we are but two humble cloth workers!"

"Do not seek to deceive Petrucchio, captain of Turia!" cried Petrucchio. "To him your disguises, as brilliantly contrived as they may be to deceive others, are as flimsy and transparent as a veil of Anango!" The Petrucchio character, it might been noted, is commonly, in the northern hemisphere, portrayed as a captain from Turia, a city securely far away, off in the southern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, I have heard, he is usually presented as a captain from Ar. The important thing, apparently, is that he comes from a city which is large and impressive, and which tends to evoke a certain apprehension, or envy, and is far away. It is always easier to believe that folks far away are pretentious cowards. One has seldom met them in battle. Another advantage of choosing a distant city is that there

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are not likely to be citizens of that city in the audience, who might take exception to the performance, though, to be sure, most Goreans understand what is going on and tend to enjoy the farce immensely, even if the captain is supposed to be one of their own.

My own identity, incidentally, at least if one could believe my credentials, which had brought me into the feasting hall, was supposed to be of Turia. These credentials had been loaned to me by a fellow down whose throat I had stuffed enough Tassa powder to put a kailiauk under for several Ahn. To make sure I had also thrust him, tightly bound and effectively gagged, almost as perfectly as though he might have been a female slave, into a closet. He would presumably be found there tomorrow, or the day after, by a cleaning slave. The reference to a "veil of Anango," of course, was a reference to the veil in a well-known farce, "The Veil of Anango," performed by many companies. Indeed, it was one of the more frequently played items in the repertory of Boots's company. The leading character in it, or the female lead, is played by the Brigella character. That role now, of course, was played by Boots's slave, "Lady Telitsia." It was a reference which would be understood by Gorean audiences. Too, of course, in this context, it was supposed to convey that Petrucchio regarded himself as a very clever fellow, certainly not one to be easily fooled.

"You see our garb," protested Chino. "It is that of the cloth workers."

"Yes," insisted Lecchio.

"Hah!" cried Petrucchio, skeptically, but he rested the point of the great wooden sword on the platform, and, with one hand, beneath that long-nosed halfmask, he characteristically began to twirl one half of the huge, fearsome mustache.

"and here are our packs!" cried Chino, exhibiting the packs.

"Doubtless filled with weapons," surmised Petrucchio, twirling the fearsome mustache.

The girls in the robes of concealment, cowering behind Petrucchio, cried out in fear.

"Quiver not in such abject terror, my dears," said Petrucchio, reassuringly. "Indeed, it is not even necessary to shudder, unless it should please you to do so. Indeed, you may even breathe calmly, if that should be your wish, for as much as though you were safe in your beds within your stone keeps, protected each by the vigilance of a thousand valiant guards, you are safe here, nay, safer, though even on a public road, for here you stand within the walls of my steel."

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"My hero!" cried the first girl.

"My hero!" cried the second

"My hero!" cried the third.

Chino and Lecchio looked at one another.

Petrucchio then, twirling his mustache, turned confidentially to the audience. "In case it is not altogether clear what is going on here," he said, "I am Petrucchio, a captain from Turia, and have here, under my protection, three noble ladies, each of gentle birth and high station."

There was much laughter here. The girls, of course, as the audience well knew, would all be slaves. They were, after all, upon a stage. They were, of course, Rowena, Lady Telitsia and Bina. There were only men in the audience. To be sure, there was an empty place at the right hand of Belnar, the ubar of Brundisium. I had seen him only once before, in a royal box, set among the tiers at the baiting pit. He was a corpulent, greasy-looking fellow. On his left hand sat Flaminius, who seemed in a glum mood this evening. Also about them were various officers and officials. Two or three cushions down, on Belnar's left, was a fellow in the robes of the caste of players, Temenides, of Cos. It was interesting to me that a member of the caste of players should be seated at the first table, and particularly, in this city, one allied with Ar, one of Cos. To be sure, there tend to be few restrictions on the movements of players on Gor. They tend to travel about, on the whole, pretty much as they please. They tend to have free access almost everywhere, being welcomed, unquestioned, in most Gorean camps, villages, town and cities. In this respect, they tend to resemble musicians, who generally enjoy similar privileges. There is a saying on Gor, "No musician can be a stranger." This saying is sometimes, too, applied to members of the caste of players. The saying is somewhat difficult to translate into English, for in Gorean, as not in English, the same word is commonly used for both "stranger" and "enemy." When one understands that, of course, it is easier to understand the saying in its full meaning.

"Is it true that you are," inquired Chino, "as you suggested when first you called our attention to your perspicacity in penetrating disguises, Petrucchio?"