Renegades of Gor (21 page)

like. In this case of the tarn one’s very life can depend on such things as

understanding its speed, its rate of climb, the sharpness of its turns, and so

on.

My lovely, half-naked, blindfolded servant cried out, flung back, her arms

almost straight, her small hands, the wrists braceleted closely together,

gripping the pommel.

The bird hovered well, arrested in flight.

The girl gasped and cried out again, in fear, her back almost horizontal as the

tarn climbed. The ascent was steep and swift. The air grew cold. Such a maneuver

is often useful. More than once it had carried me above adversaries, their

attack speed prohibiting so swift an adjustment in their trajectory. The girl

clung desperately to the pommel. She seemed very frightened, for some reason.

Too, now, clad as she was, in what was, in effect, no more than a curla and

chatka, fit garments for a slave, not a free woman, she must be very cold.

Doubtless she was in extreme discomfort. In a few Ehn I had established the

approximate ceiling of the bird. The earth seemed far below. I could see the

surface of a lake, like a shimmering puddle, to my right. I had not even

hitherto known it was there. On the left, far below, I could see the (pg.140)

Vosk Road, like a bright thread in the sun. “Please, let us go down. Let us

stop!” she wept.

“You are braceleted,” I told her. “Such matters are no longer within your

control.”

“Let us go down!” she wept.

“Are you cold?” I asked.

“Yes!” she wept. “But I am frightened, too! We are high, are we not?’

“Yes,” I said.

“Please, let us go down!” she begged.

“It was my mistake to let you ride in such honor,” I told her. “It is more

appropriate for a woman on tarnback to ride differently, to be tied across the

saddle on her back or belly, or, say, if she is one of a brace, perhaps

wrist-tied to one end of a shared rope thrown over the saddle, or, say, tied to

a ring at the side, this, too, providing a balance with the other captive.

“I am a free woman,” she said. “Surely you would not dare to tie me so.”

“I would think little of it,” I informed her.

She shuddered, though whether with the thought of this restraint which I might,

if I wished, impose upon her, or of cold, I do not know.

“Please, let us go down,” she said.

“What does your will mean?” I asked.

“Apparently it means nothing,” she said.

“Hold tightly, woman,” I said.

“’Woman’?” she said. Then she screamed, a long, wild, wailing scream, as the

tarn, responding to the four-strap, began a sudden, precipitous descent. With

one hand I kept her on the saddle. Her hair flew above us, trailing like a flag.

The tarn dove well. The swiftness of that descent is incredible. Its force, even

arrested at the last moment, can break the back of a full-grown tabuk. I let the

bird come within fifty yards of the earth before I reined back, and it swooped,

low, leveling, over the grass.

“Stop! Stop! Stop!” she begged. “What are we doing! Where are we?”

“We are within a man’s height of the ground,” I said. In such flight one can use

the screening of a forest or of low hills, even buildings, to make an approach

to an objective. (pg.141) Too, of course, lower flight, in general, reduces the

possibilities of sightings.

“We are going too swiftly!” she said. “Please, stop!”

“It is better that you are blindfolded,” I said.

“What are you going to do?” she cried.

“One must try out a tarn,” I said/

“Monster!” she wept.

“Hold tightly,” I said.

She moaned. She hunched over the pommel, clinging to it, sobbing.

She screamed, suddenly, flung to the left, as I drew the two-strap and

three-strap at the same time, the tarn veering to the right. It was responsive.

I then tested it in a dozen ways, to speeds, to flights, to turns. The girl was

beside herself with fear. She sobbed, moaned, gasped, cried out, whimpered, and

screamed, in turn, in the darkness of the blindfold, clutching the pommel, as

the bird, obedient to the obligations of the harness, bent itself to his

maneuvers. I was well satisfied. It was a warrior’s mount, indeed.

“Please, please,” wept the girl.

I had now returned the tarn to the vicinity of the Crooked Tarn.

I then made three passes near the Crooked Tarn, two over the palisade, over the

tarn wire, and a third near its bridge and gate.

In the first pass I hovered the bird for a time, some fifty yards over a portion

of the court on the top of the palisaded plateau, one rather behind and to the

left of the main inn buildings, as one would face them, entering. There,

sitting, heavily chained to a sleen ring, its plate bolted into the stone,

wrists and ankles, fastened quite closely to it, was a large, naked, bearded

man, the burly fellow. I gathered he had not had the means wherewith to pay his

bill. Seeing me, he seemed somehow agitated, even extremely so. He could do

little more, however, than crouch, struggling, and pulling, at the ring, his

head back, his face upward. He was howling something, but I could not well hear

what he said. It is perhaps just as well. I did wave the pouch on its strap to

him, cheerily, before proceeding onward, to make the second pass. He did not

seem pleased with matters. I supposed I could not, in fairness, blame him.

(pg.144) In my second pass I hovered near the front of the inn building on the

left, as one would enter. It was there that several sets of chains had enjoyed

the possession of fair occupants, whose names, as I had learned in the paga

room, all from the Lady Temione, were Rimice, Klio and Liomache, all from Cos,

Elene, from Tyros, and Amina, a citizeness of Venna. These chains were now

empty. I had taken the liberty early this morning, acting through my agent, a

sutler, a splendid, if somewhat put-upon and long-suffering chap, whose name was

Ephialtes, to redeem them all, my expenses in the matter, 182 C.T. for the five

of them, being considerably defrayed by means of the loot I had acquired from

the gang of Andron the evening before.

Doubtless they were initially delighted to find that they had been redeemed.

Perhaps they had laughed and clapped their hands with joy. Their delight,

however, had doubtless been tempered somewhat by finding their necks were being

put in iron collars, collars on a chain. As I briefly hovered there, over the

court, I could see, too, partly to my irritation, and partly to my amusement, to

one side, some additional evidence of the business acumen of the keeper. He had

not simply permitted the women to be redeemed. He had gotten something of value

from them, perhaps as a penalty fee, or as something in the way of compensation

for the inconvenience they had caused him, over and above the amount of their

unpaid bills. There, to one side, on a rack, long and lovely, hung pelts of

female hair. Such, as I have mentioned, particularly in time of siege, though

there is always a market for it on Gor, is highly prized for the making of

catapult ropes. I had little doubt that the fellow, given my suppositions as to

his probably thoroughness in such matters, would not even have had the

graciousness to shear the heads of the ladies. In shearing, you see, one might

lose a fifth of a hort or so of hair. doubtless he had had their heads shaved.

Many girls will strive hard to please, for example, to be permitted to keep

their hair, or to be permitted to let it grow out again. There were six pelts on

the rack. The sixth was a lengthy and lovely auburn. I had also, by means of

Ephialtes, redeemed Lady Temione. Her redemption had cost me a silver tarsk,

five. This was expensive, but she would look well on her knees, collared. All

told then, at the exchange (pg.143) rate of 100 C.T. per silver tarsk, the women

had cost me two silver tarsk, 87 C.T. These women were now, if all had gone

well, on their way to Ar’s Station, probably chained behind, and attached to,

the wagon of Ephialtes. The shaving of their heads would doubtless lower their

value, but I did not object, because I was not particularly concerned with

whether I made a profit on them or not. That was not their essential role in my

plans. Indeed, if their heads were shaved, that might be just as well. That

might suggest that they had come into the keeping of an exploitable fellow, one

in desperate need of funds.

On the third flight in the vicinity of the inn I examined, hovering briefly, the

area near the foot of the plateau, by the bridge. There were still some wagons

there. I was particularly interested in one. At the side of it now, a stocky

blond woman was kneeling. She was naked. A heavy chain was on her neck. It went

back, under the wagon, where it was fastened. A fellow stood before her, holding

a whip. I saw her put down her head, frightened, and kiss his feet. She was not

the slender, dark-haired slave beauty who had been under the wagon last night,

huddling in the tarpaulin, in the storm.

That one Ephialtes, if all had gone well, had purchased this morning. She would

be made first girl over the coffle of “free women,” the Lady Temione, and the

others, that she might teach them something of discipline and the basic arts of

giving pleasure to men, lessons which might soon make a serious difference not

only with respect to the quality of their lives, but to the very existence of

those lives, as well.

The canvas covering of the wagon had been drawn back, probably to air the

contents from the dampness of the storm. No one seemed to be within the wagon,

or about it, other than the pair at the side of it. I had little doubt,

accordingly, that the blond woman kneeling before the fellow with the whip was

his free companion, or former free companion. The girl who had been beneath the

wagon last night, had been formerly purchased, and primarily purchased, I had

suspected, in an attempt, I thought, by the fellow to encourage his companion to

take her relationship with him more seriously. She had apparently done so, at

least to the (pg.144) extent of treating the slave with great cruelty. But now

the slave was gone, and there was a chain on her neck. He had apparently now

gone to the heart of the matter. If she were still his free companion, it seemed

she would now be kept in the modality of bondage, but perhaps she was now only

his former free companion, and had been reduced to actual bondage, now being

subject to purchase by anyone. I recalled how she had bent in terror to kiss his

feet. There was no doubt that she would now take her relationship to him

seriously.

It is difficult not to do so when one is owned, and subject to the whip. The

woman would now discover that her companion, or former companion, a fellow

perhaps hitherto taken somewhat too lightly, one perhaps hitherto accorded

insufficient attention and respect, one perhaps hitherto neglected and ignored,

even despised and scorned, was indeed a man, and one who now would see to it

that she served him well, one who would now own and command her, one who would

summon forth the woman in her, and claim from her, and receive from her, the

total entitlements of the master.

I then turned the tarn, and brought it to a suitable cruising altitude. Below me

now lay the Vosk Road, and we flew north. It would take a regiment of Gorean

infantry, in normal marches, given time for the fortification of a camp in the

late afternoons, and so on, three days to reach Ar’s Station from the Crooked

Tarn. I supposed that the wagon of Ephialtes, particularly if he let the girls

ride, as he probably would, later, would make the same time. The common marches

of Gorean infantrymen, for example, are usually accompanied by wagons, those of

their supply train, proper, and vehicles such as those of sutlers and masters of

camp slaves.

I did not know what the name of the girl whom I had used under the wagon last

night had been. It did not really matter, as she was a slave. I had not bothered

to inquire. Now, however, if I were to own her, I should probably give her a

name. It is better, I think, for a girl to have some name to answer to. It is

more convenient, too, for the master, I think, to give her a name. It is thus,

for example, easier to refer to her, and to summon her and command her. Too,

that she has a name put on her by your power, and that she understands the

meaning of this, has a good effect on her. “Who obeys?” “Tina obey!”

(pg.145) I suppose, too, one has upon occasion seen a lovely woman and wished

that she might have a certain name, for one might think that an excellent name

for her. If she is a slave, of course, and one owns her, one can give her any

name of one’s choosing, indeed, perhaps that very name which is, at least in

your opinion, ideal for her. Too, she might beg a name she has always wanted,

and, if it is acceptable to the master, he might put it upon her. Names, too, of

course, may be used to humble and punish a woman, and such names, humbling

names, and punishing names, are as much real names as the most beautiful of

names. That is, then, who she is. Perhaps in the future she will try much harder

to be pleasing, that she might be given a better name. I considered the lovely