Renegades of Gor (9 page)

the temperatures of the tubs, or pools, and the order in which one uses them. A

common fashion is to use the first tub for a time, soaking, and, if one wishes,

sponging, and then, emerging, to apply the oil, or oils. These are rubbed well

into the skin and then removed with the strigil. There are various forms of

strigil, and some of them (pg.59)are ornately decorated. They are usually of

metal and almost always of a narrow, spatulate form. With the strigil one

scrapes away the residue of oil, and, with it, dirt and sweat, cleaning the

pores. One then generally takes the “second tub”, which consists of clean water,

sponges away any remaining grime, residues of oil and dirt, and such, and then,

luxuriating, soaks again.

If one has a bath girl, of course, she does most of these things for sure.

Sometimes the services of a bath girl, including massage and love, in whatever

modalities the customer may elect, come in the price of the bath, and, at other

times, as here, at the Crooked Tarn, I gathered, at least normally, they are

extra. Needless to say, bath girls are almost always female slaves. Sometimes,

in certain cities, free women, found guilty of crimes, are sentenced to the

baths, to serve there as bath girls, subject, too, to the disciplines of such.

After a given time there, after it is thought they have learned their lessons,

and those of the baths, they are, commonly, routinely enslaved and sold out of

the city. It is probably just as well. By that time they will have been, in

effect, “spoiled for freedom.”

“Ai!” cried a fellow, stepped on by the newcomer.

Another rose up, in the half darkness, and was kicked aside.

I opened my other eye, to consider matters.

It was a swaggering fellow. He was naked, his clothes doubtless being hung on

one of the pegs beyond the latticework, in the outer area. Normally,

particularly when the baths are in full use, and the air is steamy in their

vicinity, that would be done. Mine, which had been wet, I had put behind the

bricked platform to dry. He held a sack in one hand, containing, I supposed, his

bath supplies, and, in the other, held by their straps, a scabbard and blade,

and what appeared to be a flat, rectangular pouch. He had chosen, too, I saw,

not to come unarmed to the baths. It is thought to be very bad form,

incidentally, to carry weapons in the baths, and, in large public baths, they

must often be checked upon entry. On the other hand, I certainly did not blame

him for carrying a blade into the baths, particularly in a place such as this. I

had done so, myself. I did not know, but I suspected that on the peg outside, by

its straps, there might hang a (pg.60) helmet. I recalled the tarn in the inn’s

tarncot. Though no insignia or harness had been about, it had seemed clearly a

war tarn, a warrior’s mount. That he had brought the rectangular pouch into the

baths with him, as well as the blade, suggested to me that it might be

important, too important to be left back at his space, or on the peg outside the

latticework. He hung his blade, and the pouch, on one of the tub hooks.

“What are you doing?” asked a fellow. He was the only other in the room who was

actually utilizing a tub. He had arrived later even than I, and was still

soaking in one of the first tubs, indeed, that which was most convenient to the

entrance through the latticework. I myself, in my choice of a first tub had,

and, indeed, of the second, as well, in which I now reclined, taken those

farthest from the entrance. In that way I would have the longest reaction

interval possible between someone’s entry and their possible arrival in my

vicinity.

“I take the first of the first tubs,” said the fellow.

“I do not share tubs,” said the fellow soaking in the tub, not too pleasantly.

Most Goreans, in the baths, at least in their own towns or cities, do share

tubs, of course. That is one reason the tubs are so large. To be sure, even in

one’s own area, one usually shares a tub only with friends or acquaintances.

If the baths are crowded, of course, it would be only polite to share with one’s

fellow citizens. The same customs, of course, generalized even further, normally

govern the use of pools, which, on Gor, are normally located at the baths, and,

indeed, are usually considered a part of them.

“Nor do I,” said the newcomer, climbing to the platform.

“Aiii!” cried the fellow in the tub, seized, and, in a moment, flung over its

edge to the slotted wooden bath floor. He struggled to his feet, to see, in the

half darkness, lit by a single lamp, and the reddish embers within the bricked

platforms, the unsheathed sword now in the newcomer’s hand.

“Stir up the fire,” said the newcomer.

Hastily the ejected fellow seized a fire rake and poked about within the

platform.

“Bring more wood,” said the newcomer. “Then tend the fire. Do not leave until it

is suitable.”

From one of the large barrels to the side, open near the bottom, the ejected

fellow scooped out, and returned with, a (pg.61) bucket of wood chips, which he

flung into the bricked platform. He then arranged these with the fire rake. He

then returned the bucket to its place by the barrel and, from one of the wood

bins, to the right, near the barrels, fetched an armload of kindling, then some

narrow hardwood logs. In a few moments the chips were burning well. He then

added kindling, and then, a bit later, thrust the narrow logs into the platform.

He then, the reddish glow of the flames from within the platform reflected on

his countenance, looked up, questioningly, frightened, at the newcomer.

“Get out,” said the newcomer.

Only too eagerly the ejected fellow hurried through the latticework, seized his

garments, and took his way from the bath area.

The newcomer then returned his blade to the sheath. He then climbed into the

tub. “Ahhh,” he grunted, settling back.

I did not think he had behaved well, but then it was not my affair.

Some of the fellows who had been reclining about the platforms then came closer

to the platform where the fire was built up. they did take care, however, to

leave open a generous passage through which the tub’s occupant, when he chose,

might make an unimpeded and convenient exit.

Being hungry then, and having, to my mind, soaked long enough, I emerged from

the tub, dressed, gathered my things, and the oil and such, and, picking my way

among the recumbent bodies, left the bath area.

I did take the opportunity, in leaving, once on the other side of the

latticework, to inspect the pegs. In the light of the small lamp there, near the

exit, I determined that the helmet bore the insignia of the company of

Artemidorus of Cos.

5
     
The Paga Room; I Stop at the Keeper’s Desk

(pg. 62) “Stand her,” I said. “Closer.” I indicated a place on my right, near

the low table in the paga room, behind which I sat, cross-legged.

With a sound of chain she came closer.

She then stood there.

I checked the shackling on her ankles. The shackles were lock shackles. They

fitted nicely, closely, about her ankles. Their staples were separated by about

eighteen inches of chain, more than enough. I pulled her wrists down to me. They

wore lock manacles. Their fit was snug, efficient, inescapable. The staples on

the manacles were separated by some twelve inches of chain.

“Does my shackling meet with Sir’s approval?” she asked.

I did not respond to her. I did release her wrists, and she straightened up.

“Is Sir finished with his inspection?” she asked, acidly. She was naked, except

for her chains.

“Turn,” I said, “slowly, and then again face me.”

“I am a free woman,” she said, angrily.

“Must a command be repeated?” I inquired.

She turned, slowly, and then, again, faced me.

“What would you like—I mean,” she said, boldly, haughtily, “to eat, Sir.”

“You are bold, for a free woman,” I said.

“I may not be used,” she said, “as I am free.”

(pg.63) “Is there another free woman serving in the paga room?” I asked.

“No,” she said.

This must be she, then, of whom the keeper had spoken. I recalled that he had

told me that although the use of an inn girl would cost me, in these times,

three copper tarsks for only a quarter of an Ahn, I might have the free woman

working in the paga room for an Ahn for only a tarsk bit. To be sure, that

perhaps overrated her value considerably, as she was only a free woman. Whereas

free women, technically, are priceless, they are also, usually, in bed,

worthless. They are not worthy of kneeling and humbly holding candles within a

thousand pasangs of a slave. To be sure, they commonly hold an inflated opinion

of their expertise and desirability. They are no good, however, until they have

been imbonded, and have begun, vulnerably and fearfully, to tread, willingly or

not, the paths to fulfillment, and ecstasy. The outrageousness of the price, of