Raiders of Gor (20 page)

Admittance to the council is based on being master of at least five ships.

Surbus had not been a particularly important captain, but he had been the master

of a fleet of seven, now mine. These five ships, pertinent to council

membership, may be either the round ships, with deep holds of rmerchandise, or

the long ships, ram-ships, ships of war. Both are predominantly oared vessels,

but the round ship carries a heavier, permanent rigging, and supports more sail,

being generally two-masted. The round ship, of course, is not round, but it does

have a much wider beam to its length of keel, say, about one to six, whereas the

ratios of the war galleys are about one to eight.

The five ships, it might be added, must be of at least medium class. In a round

ship this means she would be able, in Earth figures, to freight between

approximately one hundred and one hundred and fifty tons below decks. I have

calculated this figure from the Weight, a Gorean unit of measurement based on

the Stone, which is about four earth pounds. A Weight in ten Stone. A

medium-class round ship should be able to carry from 5,000 to 7,500 Gorean

Weight. The Weight and the Stone, incidentally, are standardized throughout the

Gorean cities by Merchant Law, the only common body of law existing among the

cities. The official “Stone,” actually a solid metal cylinder, is kept, by the

way, near the Sardar. Four timea a year, on a given day in each of the four

great fairs held annually near the Sadar, it is brought forth with sclaes, that

merchants from whatever city my test their own standard “Stone” against it. The

“Stone” of Port Kar, tested against the official “Stone” at the Sardar, reposed

in a special fortified building in the great arsenal, which complex was

admininstered by agents of the Council of Captains.

Medium class for a long ship, or ram-ship, in determined not by freight capacity

but by keel length and width of beam; a medium-class long ship, or ram-ship,

will have a keel length of from eighty to one hundred and twenty feet Gorean;

and a width of beam of from ten to fifteeen feet Gorean. The Gorean foot,

interestingly, is almost identical to the Earth foot. Both measures doubtless

bear some distand relation to the length of the foot of an adult human male. The

Gorean foot is, in my estimation, just slightly longer than the Earth foot;

based on the supposition that each of its ten Horts is roughly one and

one-quarter inches long, I would give the Gorean foot length of roughly twelve

and one-half inches, Earth measure. Normally, incidentally, in giving measures,

the Earth foot, unless otherwise specified, should be understood. It seems

pertinent, however, in this instance, to state the ratios in Gorean feet, rather

than translate into English measure, where the harmony of the proportions would

be obscurred. As in the case of the official “Stone,” so, too, at the Sardar in

a metal rod, which determines tht Merchant Foot, or Gorean foot, as I have

called it. Port Kar’s Merchant Foot, like her “Stone,” is kept in the arsenal,

in the same building as her “Stone.”

Not only the ships of Surbus had become mine, his men having declared for me,

but his holding as well, and his assets, his treasures and equipments, and his

slaves. His holding was a fortified palace. It lay on the eastern edge of Port

kar, backing on the marshes; it opened, by the means of a huge barred gate, to

the canals of the city; in its courtyard were wharved his seve ships; when

journeying to Thassa the great gate was opened and they were rowed through the

city to the sea.

It was a strong holding, protected on the one side by its walls and the marshes,

and on its others by walls, the gate, and the canals.

When Clitus, Thurnock and I, and our slaves, had first come to Port Kar, we had

taken quarters not far from that holding. Indeed its nearest paga tavern was

that at which Surbus and I had met, and had crossed steel.

The voice of the scribe droned on, reading the records of the council’s last

meeting.

I looked about myself, at the semicircles of curule chairs, at the five thrones.

Although there were some one hundred and twenty captains in the council, seldom

more than seventy or eighty, either in person or by proxy, made an appearance at

its meetings. Many were at sea, and may saw fit to employ their time otherwise.

One one chair, some fifteen yards away, somewhat lower and closer the thrones of

the Ubars, sat an officer, whom I recognized. He was the one who had come to the

rence islands, who had had upon his helmet the two golden slashes. I had not

seen Henrak, who had betrayed the rencers, in Port Kar. I did not know if he had

perished in the marshes or not.

I smiled to myself, looking upon the bearded, dour countenance of the officer,

his long hair tied behind his head with scarlet string.

His name was Lysias.

He had ben a captain for only four months, having acquired the fifth ship,

medium-class, required.

He was rather well known now in Port Kar, having lost six barges, with their

slaves and cargo, and most of his crews, in the marshes. The story was that they

had been attacked by more than a thousand rencers, abetted by a conjectured five

hundred mercenaries, trained warriors, and had barely escaped with their lives.

I was ready to grant him part of this story. But still, even in the face of such

reputed odds as he had faced, there were those in Port Kar who smiled behind his

back, thinking to themselves how he had gone forth with so fine a showing and

had returned with little more than his life, a handful of terrified men, and a

narrow wooden punt.

Though his helmet still bore the two golden slashes, in now bore as well a crest

of sleen hair, permitted only to captains.

He had received his fifth ship as a gift from the Ubar Henrius Sevarius,

claiming to be the fifth of his line. Henrius Sevarius was said to be a mere

boy, and his Ubarate one which was administered by his regent, Claudius, once of

Tyros. Lysias had been client to the house of Sevarius, it was said, for five

years, a period coterminous with the regency of Claudius, who had assumed the

power of the house following the assassination of Henrius Sevarius the Fourth.

Many of the captains, incidentally, were client to one Ubar or another.

I myself did not choose to apply for clienthood with a Ubar of Port Kar. I did

not expect to need their might, nor did I wish to extend them my service.

I noted that Lysias was looking at me.

Something in his face seemed puzzled.

He may have seen me that night, among the rencers on the island, but he did not

place me, one who now sat on the Council of the Captains of Port Kar.

He looked away.

I had seen Samos, First Slaver of Port Kar, only once at the meeting of the

council. He was said to be an agent of Priest-Kings. Originally I had intended

to come to Port Kar to contact him, but I had, of course, now chosen not to do

so.

He had not seen me before, though I had seen him, at teh Curulean Auction House

of Ar, something less than a year ago.

I had done well in Port Kar, since I had come to the city some seven months ago.

I was now through with the serves of Priests-Kings. They might find others to

fight their battles and risk their lives for them. My battles now would be my

own; my risks would be undertaken only for my own gain.

For the first time in my life I was rich.

I depised, I discovered, neither power nor wealth.

What else might motivate an intelligent man, other perhaps than the bodies of

his women, or those he would decide to make his women, which might serve him for

recreation?

In these days, in myself, I found little that I could respect, but I did find

that I had come, in my way, to love the sea, as is not uncommon with those of

Port Kar.

I had seen her first at dawn, from the high roof of a paga tavern, holding in my

arms the body of a man dying of a wound, one which I had inflicted.

I had found her beautiful then, and I had never ceased to do so.

When Tab, young, lean, gray-eyed, who had been second to Surbus, asked me what I

would have him do, I had looked upon him and said, “Teach me the Sea.”

I had raised my own flag in Port Kar, for tehre is no single flag for the city.

There are the five flags of the Ubars, and many flags for many captains. My own

flag bore the design of the head of a black bosk against a background of

vertical green bars on a white field. I took the green bars to symbolize the

rence marshes, and the flag, thus, because that of Bosk, a Captain, who had come

from the marshes.

I had discovered, to my pleasure, that the girl Luma, whom I had saved from

Surbus, wahs of the Scribes. Her city had been Tor.

Being of the Scribes she could, of course, read and write.

“Can you keep accounts?” I had asked her.

“Yes, Master,” she had responded.

I had made her the chief scribe and accountant of my house.

Each night, in my hall, before my master’s chair, she would kneel with her

tablets and give me an accounting of the day’s business, with reports on the

progress of various investments and ventures, often making suggestions and

recommendations for further actions.

This plain, thin girl, I found, had an excellent mind fro the complicated

business transactions of a large house.

She was a most valuable slave.

She much increased my fortunes.

I permitted her, of cours, but a single garment, but I allowed it to be opaque,

and of the blue of the Scribes. It was sleeveless and fell to just above her

knees. Her collar, however, that she might not grow pretentious, was of simple

steel. It read, as I wished, I BELONG TO BOSK.

Some of the free men in the house, particularly of the scribes, resented that

the girl should have a position of such authority. Accordingly, when receiving

their reports and transmitting her instructions to them, I had informed her that

she would do so humbly, as a slave gir, and kneeling at their feet. This

mollified the men a good deal, though some remained disgruntled. All, I think,

feared taht her quick stylus and keen mind would discover the slightest

descrepancies in their columns and tally sheets, and, indeed, they seemed to do

so. I think they feared her, because of the excellence of her work and because,

behind her, stood the power of the house, its Captain, Bosk of the Marshes.

Midice now possessed a hundred pleasure silks, and rings and beads, which she

might twine in her now-jeweled collar.

The dark-haired, lithe girl, so marvelously legged, I discovered, made an

excellent slave.

Once I had discovered her gazing upon Ta, and I had beaten her. I did not kill

him. He was a valuable man to me.

Thurnock and Clitus seemed pleased with Thura and Ula, who now wore expensive

silks and jeweled collars. They were wise to have made themselves my men. They

had much advanced themselves in doing so

Telima I kept mostly in the kitchens, with the other Kettle Slaves, with

instructions to the Kitchen Master that the simplest and least pleasant tasks be

hers, and that she be worked the hardest of all. I did, however, specify that it

would be she who must personally wait my table and serve my food each night,

that I might each night renew my pleasure at finding my former Mistress, weary

from her day’s labors, soiled and uncombed, in her briefm miserable, stained

re-cloth garment, serving me as Kettle Slave. Following the meal she would

retire to my quarters which, on hands and knees, with brush and bucket, she

wouls scrub to the satisfaction of a Whip Slave, with strap, standing over her.

Then she would retired again to the kitches for the work there that would have

been left for her, after which, when finished, she would be chained for the

night.

Generally in the evening I ate with Turnock and Clitus, with their slaves, and

Midice. Sometime we were joined by Tab.

Captain, commonly, do not eat with their men.

My attention was returned now to the meeting of the Council of the Captains of

Port Kar.

A seaman, reportedly escaped from Cos, was telling of the preparation of a great

fleet intending to sail against Port Kar, a fleet that would be enlarged by the

forces of Tyros as well.

There was little interest in this report. Cos and Tyros, when not at one

another’s throats, are always threatening to join their forces for an onslaught

on Port Kar. The rumor was a persistent one, a common one. But not in over a

hundred years had the untied fleets of Cos and Tyros challenged Port kar, and at

that time, because of storms, they had been scattered and beaten off. As I have

mentioned, the warfare between Cos and Tyros and Port Kar had been, for years,

small-scale, seldom involving more than a few dozen galleys on a side. All

parties had apparently slipped into an arrangement which was now almost

sanctioned by tradition, an arrangement characterized by almost constant

conflict but few, or no, extensive commitments. The risks of engaging fleets was

doubtless, by all, thought to be great. Further, raids, interpersed with