Players of Gor (52 page)

"You know the nature of Gorean masters," she said. "Do you think that if we were truly slaves, we would not be branded and collared? Gorean masters are not that permissive, not that indulgent, with their women!"

"You will soon learn, Lana," said Chino, "and more clearly and vividly than you can even now begin to imagine just how true that is."

She groaned.

"I am perplexed," Petrucchio informed the crowd. "Yet I think that I, as a soldier, must be prepared to take prompt and decisive action." He then turned to Chino and Lecchio. "Hold, rogues!" he cried. "I suspect chicanery here, for which I intend you shall sorely answer. Tremble! Shudder! Quake in terror, for I, Petruccio, draw upon you!" He then began to try to pull his great wooden sword from its lengthy sheath, dragging behind him. As was not unoften the case it seemed to be stuck. Chino, and then Lecchio, too, helped Petruccio, bit by bit, to free that mighty wooden blade. "Thank you," said Petrucchio. "You are welcome," said Chino and Lecchio.

"Now, craven sleen," cried Petrucchio, flourishing that great blade, freed at last of its housing, "be off!"

"Very well," said Chino. "Come along, girls."

"Hold!" cried Petrucchio.

"Yes?" asked Chino.

"Surrender to me these poor wronged women!"

"Wronged women?" asked Chino.

"These are not slaves," cried Petruccio. "They are free women!"

"But all women are slaves," said Chino. "It is only that some lack the collar and brand."

"Save us!" cried Rowena.

"They are not yet legal slaves!" said Petrucchio.

"Even if they are not yet legal slaves, for the sake of argument," said Chino, "that detail can be rectified by sundown."

"Surrender them to me," demanded Petruccio, grimly, resting the point of that sword on the platform, its hilt now, in his hand, over his head. With his other hand he characteristically twirled a mustache. "If you surrender them promptly, without a fight, I may be tempted to spare your miserable lives."

"That sounds fair," said Lecchio.

page 313

"We would be happy to surrender them," said Chino, paying his partner no attention.

"Good," said Petrucchio, transferring his sword to his left hand, that he might now twirl his mustache with his right hand.

"But unfortunately," continued Chino, "we cannot, according to our caste codes, do so without a fight."

"What?" asked Petrucchio, paling.

"I am very sorry," said Chino, "but the codes of cloth workers are very strict on such matters."

"Oh?' asked Petrucchio, wavering.

"Yes," said Chino. "I am very sorry, but we must engage now, it seems, in a blood melee."

"Are you sure?" asked Petrucchio.

"Yes," said Chino. "But do not blame me. It is not my fault. You know how uncompromising the codes are."

"Do we have enough combatants on hand for a melee?" asked Petrucchio.

"Doubtless much depends upon definitions," said Chino, "but we must make do as best we can."

"I really do not think we can muster the numbers necessary for a genuine melee," insisted Petruccio.

"Then," said Chino, "we must substitute a duel to the death."

"To the-death?" inquired Petruccio.

"Yes, I am afraid so," said Chino. "It seems that only one of us can leave the field alive."

"Only one?" asked Petrucchio.

"Yes," said Chino.

"That is not very many," said Petruccio.

"True," granted Chino.

"But you have no weapons," said Petrucchio.

"There you are mistaken," said Chino.

"I am?" inquired Petruccio, anxiously.

"Yes," said Chino, drawing forth from his pack a large pair of cloth-workers shears.

"What are those?" asked Petruccio, alarmed.

"Fearsome engines of destruction," said Chino, "the dreaded paired blades of Anango. I have never yet lost a fight to the death with them." At this point he snipped the air in his vicinity twice, neatly. "Though to be sure," he said, moodily, "I suppose there could always be a first time. There is seldom a second in such matters."

"The sun glints hideously from their flashing surfaces," said Petrucchio.

page 314

"I shall do my best," said Chino, "not to reflect the sun into your eyes with them, thereby blinding you, making you helpless, and thereby distracting you from your charge."

"Are they efficient weapons?" inquired Petrucchio, shuddering.

"Against one such as you, doubtless they will be of small avail," said Chino, meditatively, "but against lesser warriors, war generals, high captains, pride leaders, battle chieftains, instructors in swordmanship, and such, they have proven more than adequate. Let me say simply that they, in their time, have divided the tunics, so to speak, of hundreds of warriors."

"Perhaps the women are not all that beautiful," said Petrucchio.

"What!" cried Rowena.

"Stay on all fours, Lana," warned Chino.

"Yes," said Rowena, quickly adding, as Lecchio lifted the switch menacingly, "-Master!"

"They do seem to be slaves," said Petrucchio.

"Clearly," said Chino.

"We are free!" cried Rowena. "Ai!" she cried, in misery. Her outburst had earned her a smart stroke from Lecchio's switch. She was then silent, the chain clinking, dangling from her collar.

"Perhaps it would be churlish of me," said Petrucchio, "to slay you here upon the road, after we had become such fast friends."

"I would really think so, honestly," said Chino.

"I spare your lives," said Petrucchio generously.

"Thank you," said Chino, warmly.

"That is a relief," said Lecchio. "I was preparing to return a tarsk-bit to Chino from whom I borrowed it last year. Now I need not be in a hurry to do so."

"Furthermore," said Petrucchio, grandly, "I give you the slaves!"

"Slaves!" cried Rowena. Then she again cried out sharply, in pain and protest, and then again, Lecchio having seen to it that a certain portion of her anatomy had renewed its unwilling acquaintance with his fierce switch, was quite docile, and quite silent.

"That is an act of incredible nobility!" cried Chino, overwhelmed.

"Do not even consider it," said Petruccio, as though the astounding magnanimity of such a gesture could possibly be dismissed lightly.

"I cannot praise your generosity to highly," said Chino,

page 315

leaving it to the audience to interpret this perhaps somewhat ambiguous remark.

"It is nothing, my friend," said Petruccio, modestly.

"Surely the glory of such an act must be long remembered in the songs of Petrucchio, Captain of Turia," exclaimed Chino.

"Have you heard such songs?" inquired Petrucchio.

"In a hundred halls," said Chino, "about a thousand campfires."

"Really?" asked Petrucchio.

"Surely you know them well?" asked Chino.

"Well, some of them," said Petrucchio.

"Your modesty, then, and our time, they being so numerous and lengthy, forbid me recounting them to you."

"Naturally," said Petrucchio.

"We wish you well, noble captain," said Chino, shaking Petrucchio's hand, warmly. "I do not think we shall soon forget our chance encounter with the great Captain Petrucchio."

"That is for certain," said Lecchio.

"Few do," Petrucchio admitted.

"May we have your permission to tell our children and our grandchildren about this?" inquired Chino.

"Yes," said Petrucchio.

"Thank you," said Chino.

"It is nothing," said Petrucchio, as though it might really have been nothing, the bestowal of so priceless a right.

Chino took the switch from Lecchio, and lightly tapped Rowena on the shoulder with it. "Lana," he said, instructing her as to her new name. "Yes, Master," she said, trembling at the touch of the switch, accepting the name. "Tana," he said, tapping Lady Telitsia on the shoulder with the switch. "Yes, Master," she said, accepting the name. "Bana," he said, tapping Bina on the shoulder. "Yes, Master," she said, accepting the name.

Chino handed the switch back to Lecchio who used it, tapping the girls here and there, and brushing it against them for delicate adjustments, to line them up in an exact and careful order.

"Well," said Chino to Petrucchio, after having satisfied himself with the quality of Lecchio's work, "it is time to be on our way. It is time to herd these pretty little she-tarsks to market."

"I hope you get good prices for them," said Petrucchio.

"I am sure we will," said Chino.

The girls, together, aghast, reproachfully, regarded Petrucchio.

"Come now, girls," said Chino, "we must be on our way."

"Move, Lana!" said Lecchio, speeding her into motion with a

page 316

swift stroke of the fierce, supple switch. "Move, Tana!" said Lecchio, adding another stripe to her, as she, in her place, hastened to move past him. "You, too, Bana!" said Lecchio, adding a swift, smart stripe to her, as well, as she, moaning, at the end of the chain, tried to hurry past him.

Chino and Lecchio, then, following the neck-chained girls, left the stage.

"I wish you well!" Petrucchio called cheerily after them. He then turned to the audience, twirling a mustache. "And thus," he said, "concludes another of the adventures of Petrucchio, Captain of Turia. This has been the story of how Petrucchio penetrated the disguises of three clever female slaves, masquerading as free women, captured them, and returned them to their rightful bondage. IN it has also been told how he generously bestowed the slaves, asking nothing for himself, upon two needy wayfarers."

Petrucchio then apparently looked into the distance. "Oh! Oh!" he cried. "Is that dust upon the horizon? Or is it perhaps my imagination? It could be a group of verr, browsing in the fields. But, too, perhaps, it is nothing. But, too, perhaps it is men from the warring towns, as reported by the cloth workers, intensely combing the hills the fields for harmless Turians. Perhaps I should teach them a lesson. But then again, perhaps it is nothing, a stirring of wind, or even only my imagination. I wonder in what direction I should go? I shall let my sword decide!" Here he seemingly closed his eyes and swung his word about in vast, eccentric circles. "Very well, sword," he said, opening his eyes. "You have mad the choice. I must abide by it, however reluctantly. It is in this direction that we will seek new adventures, lands to be devastated, armies to be defeated, cities to subdue, noble free women to be protected and guarded on dangerous roads." He then set out in the direction in which the sword had pointed. It was, of course, the direction exactly opposite that in which he had, but a moment ago, fearfully, thought he might have discerned a movement of dust in the distance.

IN a moment, smiling and bowing, all the actors had returned to the stage. Rowena, Lady Telitsia and Bina, freed of their chains, now had their collars bared. The scarves which they had worn about them were now knotted about their hips. They were knotting at the left hips, so that the opening was at their left thighs, were, on the thighs, could be seen the circular, adhesive patches they had worn during the play, those patches which, in the conventions of the theater, informed the audience that they

page 317

were to be taken, for the purposes of the play, as free women, and not the slaves that they really were. Boots Tarsk-Bit leaped, too, to the stage, bowing to the audience, and, with expansive gestures, proudly displayed his actors. Petrucchio, stepping forward, received the most applause. Boots removed, one by one, the circular adhesive patches from the thighs of the girls, this baring their brands. The theatrical convention was now terminated. Once again the girls were revealed to be what they had actually been all the time, only female slaves.

"Thank you, generous folks, noble patrons, citizens of Brundisium, guests and friends of Brundisium!" called Boots. No copper bowls were passed. No coins rattled to the stage. The troupe had already received a purse of gold from Belnar, Ubar of Brundisium. As a reward for their part in my capture the Lady Yanina, as Boots had hoped, had arranged for their performances at the banquet. Boots had spoken to her of such a banquet, and of the "finest entertainment." He, of course, had had in mind his own troupe. "Thank you! Thank you!" called Boots, blowing kisses to the crowd in the Gorean fashion, brushing them from the side with an open hand to the audience.

I looked to the table where reposed Belnar, Ubar of Brundisium. On his left hand sat Flaminius, who, it seemed, had not joined in the applause. Flaminius, as I had earlier noted, did not seem too pleased with the nature and progress of the evening. It was at this table, too, where sat Temenides, a member of the caste of players, one who stood among the high boards of Cos. At the right side of Belnar there was a vacant place. Since this evening was to be a great triumph for the Lady Yanina, celebrating her capture of me and her restoration to favor in Brundisium, I supposed that that place had been reserved for her.