Rogue of Gor (21 page)

"That is true," she said. "We were brought to Gor to be collared, and made slaves"

"She is free," I reminded her.

"Enslave her," said Peggy.

"But then she would be only another Gorean slave girl," I said, "no different from others."

"True," said Peggy.

"And she would be mine, to do with exactly as I pleased," I said, "totally."

"Precisely," said Peggy. "Oh," she said, suddenly, "you are so strong."

"I must put such thoughts from my head," I said.

"Why?" she asked, clutching me, pressing closely against me.

"Men must not think such thoughts," I said.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because they so considerably increase their virility?"

She held to me, tightly. "I would rather they put thoughts from their heads," she said, "which made them miserable and weak. How can thoughts be good which make men miserable and weak? How can thoughts be wrong which make men great and strong? I am a slave in your arms. Does your blood not call you to your destiny, my Master? My blood, racing in my weakened body, opened like a flower to you, yielding, calls me to mine. I submit to you, my Master. I beg you to be strong with me, to own me. Peggy begs Master to take her!”

I then took her, and she screamed with pleasure, a taken slave.

Later I held her closely. "Are you a contented slave?" I asked her.

"I am a slave," she whispered, "whether I am contented or not."

"Speak," I said.

"Yes, Master," she whispered, softly, "I am a contented slave."

18

I MAKE THE ACQUAINTANCE OF GUARDSMEN FROM PORT COS;

I DO NOT TAKE ACTION AGAINST MISS HENDERSON;

SHE IS A FREE WOMAN

I hung in the ropes. My back was still sore from the whipping.

"As far as we can determine," said the guardsman from Port Cos, "he is ignorant as to the whereabouts of the topaz."

"I vouch for him," said Tasdron. "He is an honest worker, well known on the wharves. He has been in Victoria for weeks."

When I had emerged from the tavern of Tasdron I had been suddenly surrounded by guardsmen in the livery of Port Cos. Several crossbows were trained on me.

"Do not draw your weapon," I had been told. "Do not resist."

"Is this he?" had asked the leader of the guardsmen.

"It is he," had said Miss Henderson.

"You are under arrest," had said the leader of the guards. men.

"On what charge?" I asked.

"Vagrancy," said the leader of the guardsmen.

"That is absurd," I said.

"Your innocence, if you are innocent, may always be established later," said the man.

"This is Victoria," I said.

"The power of Port Cos marches with the men of Port Cos," said the man. "Bind him."

My hands had been tied behind my back.

"I am finished with you, Jason," said Miss Henderson, facing me. Then she had turned to the leader of the guardsmen of Port Cos. "Pay me," she said.

"Bind her, as well," he had said. To her consternation her small wrists were tied behind her back. "Bring them both to our headquarters," had said the leader of the guardsmen,

"I vouch for him," said Tasdron. "He is an honest worker, well known on the wharves. He has been in Victoria for weeks."

"Did he come from east on the river, or west?" asked the guardsman.

"From the east, from Lara as I understand it," said Tasdron.

"That is much what he, too, claims," said the guardsman.

"In my own tavern," said Tasdron, "he had difficulty with Kliomenes, the pirate. He could have been killed. That scarcely seems what one would expect from the courier of Ragnar Voskjard. Too, he does not seem skilled with the sword.”

"It is not claimed he is the courier," said the guardsman. "It is claimed only that he knows the whereabouts of the topaz.”

"Is there any reason to suppose that that is true?" inquired Tasdron.

"Only the word and story of a free woman, whom he keeps," said the guardsman.

"I see," said Tasdron. "And have you had similar situations before?"

"Four times," said the guardsman, disgustedly.

"Doubtless you have searched his compartments," said Tasdron.

"He has a small house," said the guardsman. "We have searched the house and the garden."

"What did you find?" asked Tasdron.

"Nothing," said the guardsman.

"Does the woman seem well disposed towards him?" asked Tasdron.

"She hates him," said the guardsman.

"And does she seem interested in the reward for information leading to the acquisition of the topaz?" asked Tasdron.

"Yes," said the guardsman. "The money seems quite important to her."

"Ten silver tarsks is a considerable sum," said Tasdron. "The guardsmen from Ar's Station, also in Victoria searching for the topaz, are offering only six silver tarsks."

"Cut him down," said the leader of the guardsmen to one of his men.

When the ropes were cut from my wrists I fell to the floor but did not lose my footing.

"He is strong," said the leader of the guardsmen.

My tunic was torn down about my waist. "My thanks, Tasdron," I said to him, "for your helpful words."

"It is nothing," he said, and left.

"You may go," said the leader of the guardsmen to me. "You may pick up your things at the door."

"Had you found the topaz," I asked, "what would have been done with me?"

"You might have looked forward," said he, "if fortunate, to a lifetime chained at the bench of a state galley"

"I see," I said.

"Do not forget your things at the door," he said.

"Very well," I said.

At the door, I drew the shreds of my tunic about me. I picked up my pouch and the sword belt, with its scabbard and sheathed steel. Among these things, in the robes of the free woman, her hands tied behind her, and her ankles tied, knelt Miss Henderson.

"Do not leave her behind," said the leader of the guardsmen. "She is yours."

I looked down at her. She did not meet my eyes.

"Those in your situation before," said the leader of the guardsmen, "stripped such women and took them, bound, to the market, where they sold them."

I crouched beside Miss Henderson and freed her ankles. I then helped her to her feet, and untied her wrists. I then left the small headquarters of the guardsmen of Port Cos, in Victoria. She followed me outside. Once outside, and a few yards from the headquarters, I turned about, and faced her.

"If you needed money, or wanted it," I said, "I would have given you money."

"Stay with me tonight," she said.

"I am going to the paga tavern," I told her.

"Why?" she asked.

"There are more interesting women there," I said.

"Slaves!" she said.

"Yes," I said.

"I am a free woman," she said. "Do you find slaves more interesting than I?"

"Of course," I said.

"Why?" she asked.

"For one thing," I said, "they are owned"

"That makes them fascinating, doesn't it?" she said, bitterly.

"Yes," I said.

"And doubtless," she said, angrily, "they do not have the inhibitions and frigidities of their free sisters!"

"They are not permitted them," I admitted.

"I hate female slaves," she said.

I shrugged.

"Why are they preferred over free women?" she asked.

"Because they are slaves," I said.

"What are the differences?" she asked.

"There are thousands," I said. "Perhaps, most simply, the female slave is submitted to men. This makes her the most total of women."

"Disgusting," she said.

"Perhaps," I said.

"No man could ever break my will," she said.

"That is the sort of thing which is usually said by a woman who is yearning for her will to be broken, by a strong man," I said.

"I hate female slaves," she said.

I did not speak.

"Do you think I would make a good female slave?" she asked.

"I think you would make an excellent little slave," I said.

"Stay with me tonight," she said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Break my will," she said. "Make me a slave."

"You are a woman of Earth," I told her.

"I see," she said. "I am too fine, and different."

"Of course," I told her. "Do you need to be told that?"

"No!" she said. "I know it!"

"Very well," I said, angrily.

"Stay with me tonight," she begged. "Make me your slave!"

I looked at her.

"My will, broken, will lie before you as yielding, as supine and vanquished as my body," she said. "I beg of you, Jason, make me your slave!"

"I am going to the paga tavern," I said.

"I hate you!" she cried.

I turned away from her then and began to make my way toward the house. She, after a moment, running in her sandals, followed me.

"Jason," she said, "wait! Wait for me!"

But I did not wait.

I opened the door and looked within. Then I stepped back, and indicated that she should precede me into the house.

"I expected to heel you into the house," she said.

"You are a free woman," I said. "You will enter first."

She looked at me, warily. "What is to be done with me inside?" she asked.

"You are a woman of Earth," I reminded her. "Nothing."

"Where is the topaz?" she asked.

"What topaz?" I asked.

She cried out in anger, and then entered the house. She would enter first, for she was a free woman.

19

GLYCO, OF PORT COS;

I OBTAIN A SILVER TARSK;

HE, SEEKS CALLIMACHUS

"Stop, Thief!" cried the portly fellow, his robes swirling.

Darting away from him was a small, quick fellow, clutching in his hand a bulging purse, its strap slashed. In the small fellow's right hand there was clutched a dagger.

Men stood aside to let the thief run by them.

"Stop him!" cried the portly fellow, stumbling, puffing, trying to pursue the running man.

I watched, a bale of rep fiber on my shoulder, near the rep wharf.

As the running man approached me I lowered the bale of rep fiber and, as he came within feet of me, suddenly slid it before him. He struck the bale and stumbled over it, rolling on the boards. Instantly I was upon him. He slashed at me, on his back, with the knife and I seized his wrist with both hands and yanked him to his feet. He dropped the purse. I spun him about twice by the wrist and then, with this momentum, hurled him into a tower of nail barrels on the side. They cascaded down. I jerked him back, groggy. He was bloody. There were splinters in his tunic and face. I then, with two hands, broke his wrist and kicked the fallen knife to the side. I then turned him about to face me. He looked at me wildly, clutching his wrist. A bone fragment was jutting through it. I then kicked him squarely and he threw back his head, screaming with pain. I then turned him about again and, holding him by the back of the neck, ran him to the edge of the wharf where, seizing his ankle, and holding his neck, I upended him into the water below. He struck out toward the shore, then clambered toward it, getting his feet under him. He screamed twice more. When he stood in about a foot of water, among pilings, near the next wharf, he struck down madly at his legs with his left hand, striking two dock eels from his calf. Then, painfully, he moved himself up the sand, staggering, holding his legs widely apart.

"Where are the guardsmen, to apprehend him?" puffed the portly fellow, who wore the caste colors of the merchants, white and gold.

"There are no guardsmen in Victoria," I said.

"Two copper tarsks, one to each of you," said the merchant to two dock workers who stood nearby, "to apprehend and bind that fellow!"

Swiftly the two dock workers set out after the thief.

Though men stood about none had attempted to steal the purse of the merchant, which lay nearby. Most of those of Victoria are honest fellows.

One of them handed the purse back to the merchant, who thanked him.

"What is your name, Fellow?" asked the merchant of me.

"Jason," I said.

"Of Victoria?" asked the merchant.