Captive of Gor (12 page)

Several of the girls looked after it, the fin cutting the waters and

disappearing in the fog on the surface.

I huddled back from the edge of the pier, between Inge and Ute. Ute put her arms

about me.

A broad, low-sided barge began to back toward the pier. It had two large

steering oars, manned by bargemen. It (pg. 80) was drawn by two gigantic,

web-footed river tharlarion. There were the first tharlarion that I had ever

seen. They frightened me. They were scaled, vast and long-necked. Yet in the

water it seemed, for all their bulk, they moved delicately. One dipped its head

under the surface and, moments later, the head emerged, dripping, the eyes

blinking, a silverish fish struggling in the small, triangular-toothed jaws. It

engorged the fish, and turned its small head, eyes now unblinking, to regard us.

They were harnessed to the broad barge. They were controlled by bargemen, with a

long whipping stick, who was ensconced in a leather basket, part of the harness,

slung between the two animals. He would also shout at them, commands,

interspersed with florid Gorean profanity, and, slowly, not undelicately, they

responded to his cries. The barge grated against the pier.

The cost of transporting a free person across the Laurius was a silver tarsk.

The cost of transporting an animal, however, was only a copper tarn disk. I

realized, with a start, that that was what I would cost. Targo was charged

twenty one copper tarn disks for myself, the other girls, the new girl, and his

four bosk. He had sold four girls before reaching the banks of the Laurius. The

bosk were disengaged from the wagons and tied forward on the barge. Also forward

on the barge was a slave cage, and two guards, with the sides of their spears,

herded us onto the barge, across its planking and into the cage. Behind us I

heard one of the bargemen slam the heavy iron door and slide the heavy iron bolt

into place. I looked back. He snapped shut a heavy padlock. We were caged.

I held the bars, and looked across the river to Laura. Behind me I could hear

the two wagons being rolled onto the barge and then, with chains, being fastened

in place. They were mounted on large circles of wood, which would rotate. Thus

the wagon may be brought forward onto the barge and, when the circle is rotated,

be removed the same way. The fog had begun to lift and the surface of the river,

broad, slow-moving, glistened here and there in patches. A few dozen yards to my

right a fish leaped out of the water (pg. 81) and disappeared again, leaving

behind him bright, glistening, spreading circles. I heard the cry of two gulls

overhead.

The bargemen in the leather basket shouted out and slapped the two tharlarion on

the neck with the whipping stick.

There must be someone in Laura who could return me to the United States, or who

could put me in touch with those who could!

There were other barges on the river, some moving across the river, others

coming toward Laura, others departing. Those departing used only the current.

Those approaching were drawn by land tharlarion, plodding on log roads along the

edges of the river. The land tharlarion can swim barges across the river, but he

is not as efficient as the vast river tharlarion. Both sides of the river are

used to approach Laura, though the northern shore is favored. Unharnessed

tharlarion, returning to Lydius at the mouth of the Laurius, generally follow

the southern shore road, which is not as much used by towing tharlarion as the

northern.

On these barges, moving upriver, I could see many crates and boxes, which would

contain such goods, rough goods, as metal, and tools and cloth. Moving

downstream I could see other barges, moving the goods of the interior downriver,

such objects as planking, barrels of fish, barrels of salt, loads of stone, and

bales of fur. On some of the barges moving upstream I saw empty slave cages, not

unlike the one in which I was secured. I saw only one slave cage on a barge

moving downstream. It contained four or five nude male slaves. They seemed

dejected, huddled in their cage. Strangely, a broad swath had been shaven

lengthwise on their head. Lana saw this and shrieked out, hooting at them across

the river. The men did not even look at us, moving slowly across the current

toward Laura.

I looked at Ute.

“That means they are men who were taken by women,” said Ute. “See,” she said,

pointing up to the hills and forests north of Laura. “Those are the great

forests. No one knows how far they extend to the east, and they go north (pg.

82) as far as Torvaldsland. In them there are the forest people, but also many

bands of outlaws, some of women and some of men.”

“Women?” I asked.

“Some call them forest girls,” said Ute. “Other call them the panther girls, for

they dress themselves in the teeth and skins of forest panthers, which they slay

with their spears and bows.”

I looked at her.

“They live in the forest without men,” she said, “saving those they enslave, and

then sell, when tiring of them. They shave the heads of their male slaves in

that fashion to humiliate them. And that, too, is the way they sell them, that

all the world may know that they fell slave to females, who then sold them.”

“Who are these women?” I asked. “Where do they come from?”

“Some were doubtless once slaves,” said Ute. “Others were once free women.

Perhaps they did not care for matches arranged by their parents. Perhaps they

did not care for the ways of their cities with respect to women. Who knows? In

many cities a free woman may not even leave her dwelling, without the permission

of a male guardian or member of her family.” Ute smiled up at me. “In many

cities a slave girl is more free to come and go, and be happy, then a free

woman.”

I looked out through the bars. I could now see, fairly clearly, the wooden

buildings of Laura. The water was wet and glistening on the backs of the two

tharlarions drawing the barge.

“Do not be sad and miserable, El-in-or,” said Ute. “When you wear a collar and

have a master, you will be more happy.”

I glared at her. “I will never wear a collar and have a master,” I hissed at

her.

Ute smiled.

“You want a collar and a master,” she said.

Poor stupid Ute! I would be free! I would return to Earth! (pg 83) I would be

rich again, and powerful! I would hire servants! I would have another Maserati!

I restrained myself. “Were you ever happy with a master?” I asked, acidly.

“Oh, yes!” said Ute, happily. Her eyes shone.

I looked at her, disgustedly. “What happened?” I asked.

She looked down. “I tried to bend him to my will,” she said. “He sold me.”

I looked away, out through the bars. The fog had now dispelled. The morning sun

was bright on the surface of the river.

“In every woman,” said Ute, “there is a Free Companion and a slave girl. The

Free Companion seeks for her companion and the slave girl seeks her master.”

“That is absurd,” I said.

“Are you not a female?” asked Ute.

“Of course,” I said.

“Then” said Ute, “there is a slave girl in you that wants her master.”

“You are a fool,” I told her savagely. “A fool!”

“You are a female,” said Ute. “What sort of man could master you?”

“No man could master me!” I told her.

“In your dreams,” she asked, “what sort of man is it who touches you, who binds

you and carries you away, who takes you to his fortress, who forces you to do

his bidding?”

I recalled how, outside the penthouse, hurrying to the garage, a man had looked

at me, and had not looked away, and how, fleeing, branded, frightened, helpless,

I had felt, for the first time in my life, vulnerably and radically female. I

recalled, too, how in the bungalow, when I had examined the mark on my thigh,

and the collar that was then at my throat, how I had felt, briefly, helpless,

owned, a captive, the property of others. I recalled the brief fantasy which had

passed through my mind of myself, in such a band, marked as I was, naked in the

arms of a barbarian. I had shuddered, frightened. Never before had I felt such a

feeling. I recalled. I had been curious for the touch of a man – perhaps (pg.

84) for that of a master? I could not rid my mind of the brief feeling I had

felt. It had recurred in my mind, from time to time, particularly at night in

the wagon. Once it had made me feel so lonely and restless that I had wept. Two

times I had heard other girls crying in the wagon. Once, Ute.

“I do not have such dreams,” I told her.

“Oh,” said Ute.

“El-in-or is a cold fish,” volunteered Lana.

I glared at her, tears in my eyes.

“No,” said Ute, “El-in-or is only sleeping.”

Lana looked across the cage. “El-in-or wants a master,” she said.

“No!” I screamed, weeping. “No! No!”

The girls then, except for Ute, but even including Inge, began to laugh and cry

out, mocking me, in a singsong voice, “El-in-or wants a master! El-in-or wants a

master!”

“No!” I cried, and turned away, putting my face against the bars.

Ute put her arms about me. “Do not make El-in-or weep,” she scolded the other

girls.

I hated them, even Ute. They were slaves, slaves!

“Look!” cried Inge, pointing upward.

Far away, through the sky, from the east of Laura, following the forest line,

there came a flight of tarnsmen, perhaps forty of them, mounted on the great,

fierce, hawklike saddlebirds of Gor, the huge, swift, predatory, ferocious

tarns, called Brothers of the Wind. The men seemed small on the backs of the

great birds. They carried spears, and were helmeted. Shields hung on the right

sides of the saddles.

The girls thrilled, pressed against the bars, crying out and pointing.

They were far off, but even from the distance I found myself frightened. I

wondered what manner of men such men might be, that they could master such

winged monsters. I was terrified. I shrank back in the cage.

Targo came forward on the barge, and, shielding his eyes against the early

morning sun, looked upward. He (pg. 85) spoke to the one-eyed guard, who stood

behind him. “It is Haakon of Skjern,” he said.

The one-eyed guard nodded.

Targo seemed pleased.

The tarnsmen had now, somewhere behind Laura, brought their great birds to the

earth.

“The compound of Haakon is outside of Laura, to the north,” said Targo.

Then Targo and the one-eyed guard returned toward the stern of the barge, where

two of the bargemen handled the great steering oars. There were six in the crew

of the barge, the man who directed the two tharlarion, the two helmsmen, the

captain, and two other bargemen, who attended to matters on the barge, and

handled mooring and casting off. One of the latter had locked the slave cage.

We were now better than two thirds of the way across the broad river.

We could see stone, and timber and barrels of fish and salt stored on docks on

the shore. Behind the docks were long, planked ramps leading up to warehouse.

The warehouses seemed constructed of smoothed, heavy timbers, stained and

varnished. Most appeared reddish. Almost all had roofs had wooden shingles,

painted black. Many were ornamented, particularly above the great double doors,

with carvings, and woodwork, painted in many colors. Through the great doors I

could see large central areas, and various floors, reached by more ramps. There

seemed many goods in the warehouses. I could see men moving about, inside, and

on the ramps, and about the docks. Various barges were being loaded and

unloaded. Except for villages, Laura was the only civilization in the region.

Lydius, the free port at the mouth of the Laurius, was more than two hundred

pasangs downtown. The new girl had been Rena of Lydius, of the Builders, one of

the five high castes of Gor. She still lay, secured, in the wagon. I expected

Targo would keep her hooded and gagged in Laura, for it was possible she might

be known there. I smiled to myself. She would not escape Targo. Then I shook the

bars with rage.

(pg. 86) The tharlarion now turned slowly in the broad river, near Laura, and,

under the stick, and cries, of their driver, began to back the barge against its

pier. The helmsmen at their steering oars, shouting and cursing, brought the

barge to its mooring. There was a slight shock as the heavy, wet, rolled hides

tied at the back of the barge struck the pier. The two extra crewmen, standing

on the deck, threw great looped ropes over heavy iron mooring cleats, fastened

in the pier. Then they leaped to the pier and, with smaller ropes, fastened to

the same cleats, began to dray the barge close to the pier. There is no rear

railing on the barges and the barge deck matches the pier in height. Once the

ropes are secured the wagons may be rolled directly onto the pier.

A man came forward and untied the straps leading to the nose rings of the bosk

from the bosk ring on the deck. He led them back toward the stern of the barge

and onto the pier. The broad circles of wood on which the wagons were mounted

were now rotated, so that the wagon tongues faced the pier. The bosk, now,

bellowing and snuggling, and skuffing at the wood with their hoofs, were being