Tribesmen of Gor (59 page)

"What can I do?" she wept. "What can I do?"

"You are a slave," said Hassan, cruelly. "Please us."

And in that foul cell, on the stinking straw, in the feeble light of the lamp outside, the once proud Tarna, now only a nameless slave girl, chained by masters, struggled to please us. We were not easy with her. We were harsh, and hard, and cruel. Often she wept and despaired of her ability to please us, but she was cuffed and kicked and set again about her duties.

At last Hassan and I rose to our feet.

"The slave hopes that she has pleased her masters," whispered the girl.

Hassan looked at me. "She has much to learn," he said, "but I think, in time, she may be satisfactory."

I nodded, concurring in his judgment. We then stepped outside. We were encountered in the hall by a soldier, with a lifted lamp. "I search for Tarna," he said.

"Tarna is not here," I said. "In the cell there is only a female slave."

The soldier looked into the cell, and lifted the lamp. The girl lay on the straw, curled up, the collar and chain leading to her throat. She shielded her eyes from the lamp. It was not bright, but, in the dimness of the cell, it hurt her eyes.

She was beautifully curled on the straw. She lifted her head, shielding her eyes.

"Master?" she asked.

"What is your name, Girl?" asked the soldier.

"Whatever master wishes," she said.

He held the lamp up, examining her beauty. With a sinuous movement, with a rustle of chain, she sat upright, her back straight. She extended her right leg, looking at him over her right shoulder; her toes were pointed; her leg was flexed, revealing to its best, delicious advantage, the curve of her calf.

I felt like raping her,

"What is the name of your master?" asked the soldier.

"I do not know," she said. "I belonged to Tarna. Now I hear from soldiers that Tarna has fallen, I do not know who will be my master."

 
She looked at him. "You seem strong," she said.

 
She, sitting, as she was, thrust forward her breasts, accentuating the line of her beauty.

 
"Slut," he laughed.

 
She put her head down, chastened.

 
He laughed. "Be as you were before," he said. She obeyed. "More so," said he. She obeyed.

 
"I search for Tarna," he said.

 
"Do not search for her," begged the girl. "Stay with me."

 
"You are dirty," he said. "And you stink."

 
"Bring slave perfume," she said to him. "Rub it on my body."

 
He turned from the door. She fled to the length of her chain, kneeling, her hands outstretched to him. "The fourth level is deep," she said. "I am in a cell to myself. Many men do not even know I am here. The kasbah has fallen and only two soldiers have entered my cell. Stay with me!"

 
"I must search for Tarna," said the man.

 
"When you have finished your search," said the girl, arms outstretched, "return to me."

 
"I will," said the soldier. He laughed brutally.

 
"Thank you," she cried, "beloved Master!"

 
He turned to go.

 
"Beloved Master," she whispered. She knelt. She put her head down. "If I were a bold free woman," she said, "and not a bond girl, I would ask that you bring with you on your return a bottle of wine for your pleasure, that you would enjoy me more."

 
"Little she-sleen!" he laughed. He entered the cell and, putting down his lamp, kicked and cuffed the girl, until she rolled in the straw, tangled in the chain, covering her head, her body half covered with straw, at the wall. He then again took up the lamp, and went to the door. "I shall return," he said, " and when I do, I shall bring wine."

 
She rolled to a sitting position. "Thank you, Master!" she cried. "And I will bring slave perfume, too," he said, "to souse you with, You stinking little slut of a slave."

 
"Thank you, Master!" she cried.

 
Laughing he left the cell, to continue his search for Tarna.

 
"Let us go upstairs," said Hassan. "Doubtless there are those who wonder as to the whereabouts of Haroun, high Pasha of the Kavars."

 
"Doubtless," I said.

 
I looked into the girl's cell. "You are an excellent actress," I said.

 
She looked at me, puzzled.

 
"The soldier," I said, "I wager he will return."

 
She broke a bit of straw between her fingers. "I hope so," she said.

 
I looked at her. "You want him to return?" I asked.

 
"Yes," she said. Her head had lifted, in the chain and collar.

 
"Why?" I asked.

 
"Did he not seem strong to your?'' she asked. "Did you not see the ease, the audacity, the authority with which he handled me?"

 
"Yes," I said.

 
"I want to be had by him," she said. "I want him to have me."

 
"Are you serious?" I asked.

 
"Yes," she said. "I want to serve him as a female slave."

 
Hassan stood behind me. "I wish you well, Girl," he said. "I, too, wish you well, Slave Girl," I said.

 
"A slave girl gives you her gratitude," she said. As we turned and left, she said, "I wish you well, Masters."

26

THE MARCH

It was early morning.

I could hear the drums. The march was soon to begin. The kaiila shifted in the sand. Leather was looped and loosely knotted about the high pommel of my desert saddle. My boots were in the stirrups. The scimitar was at my side. I held the light lance of the Tahari, its butt in the stirrup sheath on my right.

I saw Haroun, high Pasha of the Kavars, in swirling white, ride past. At his side, in the black kaffiyeh and white agal cording of the Aretai, rode Suleiman, high Pasha of that tribe, holder of the great kasbah at Nine Wells, master of a thousand lances. Behind Haroun rode Baram, sheik of Bezhad, his vizier. Behind Suleiman, on a swift kaiila, rode Shakar, with silver-tipped lance, a high captain of the Aretai.

I looked behind me, at the long lines of men. The sun was now striking the south wall of what had been the kasbah of Abdul, Ibn Saran, who had been the Salt Ubar. The line of march extended from this kasbah, across the desert, to the kasbah which had been once the holding of Tama, once a beautiful and proud desert chieftainess. It was at that kasbah that could be found the head of the march.

I saw the young khan of the Tajuks, in white turban, ride by, going to the rear of the columns. He was accompanied by twenty riders.

The march would proceed to Red Rock, thence to Two Scimitars, thence to Nine Wells, thence, by a major caravan route, to Tor. Different bodies of men would leave the march at various points, as tribesmen returned to their lands. Only some few hundred would journey as far as Tor, and those largely to conduct herded slaves to the fine markets of that city, which is the Tahari clearing house for slaves to be sold north. Already word had been sent ahead to Tor that preparations be made. Cages must be scheduled, chains forged, slave meal garnered. For the female slaves cosmetics and perfumes must be anticipated. Arrangements must be made for auction houses. Dates must be set. Advance publicity is particularly important. The sale must be widely and thoroughly advertised, in many cities. Before the first girl, barefoot, nude, ascends the block, to be sold, much must be done. A great deal of planning, and organization and hard work must take place before she lifts her head to the buyers, looking out upon them, one of whom will own her, and she bears the first call of the auctioneer, he lifting his coiled whip behind her, "What am I bid?"

In the march were Kavars, Ta`Kara, Bakahs, Char, Kashani, Aretai, Luraz, Tashid, Raviri, Ti, Zevar, Arani and, holding the position of the rear guard, with black lances, Tajuks.

In the march were hundreds of pack kaiila, many carrying water.

The tempo of the drums increased, indicating that the time for the beginning of the march would be soon.

The sun was now full on the south wall of what had been the kasbah of Abdul, Ibn Saran, the Salt Ubar.

A dozen kaiila moved past in stately line, laden with water.

Some six hundred women had been taken in the two kasbahs, all female slaves.

Some fifteen hundred men, who had surrendered, now wore the chains of slaves.

The men would march toward the rear of the columns, before the rear guard. The women, for there were insufficient wagons or kaiila for them, would march, in separate groups of fifty, within the columns amid toward their center. They were more valuable than the men. Each female slave group was a fifty bracelet coffle.

I moved the kaiila over to regard the female slave groups, which stood at the wall, not yet herded to their places in the columns. Each girl was fastened by the left wrist, in wrist coffle in her group. Each girl was separated by some five feet of light, gleaming chain. It was not a heavy chain to carry. As I moved the kaiila slowly along the line of chained girls, to examine them, the leather, looped and knotted about the pommel of my saddle, grew taut. It led to the crossed, bound wrists of the girl I had tethered to the pommel. She had ten feet of tether. She followed.

The feet of the women had been bound in leather. They stood ankle deep in the sand. Later, when the sun was high, sheets would be thrown over them, to protect their eves from the glare, their bodies from the sun. The sheet is placed over the head, completely, so that the girl cannot see. Then, with a piece of string, looped twice about her neck and tied snugly, it is held in place. This is inferior, of course, to moving a woman in a sheltered slave wagon or in a kurdah.

The sheets, of course, had not yet been placed.

The girls stood straight, proud under the gaze of a warrior. "Tal, Master," said many of them, as I rode slowly by. "Buy me in Tor, Master," called another. One girl, in the fourth group, pressed out from the others, her left wrist behind her, held by the chain. She pressed her face against the left forequarter of my kaiila and, turning looked up at me, her face tear-stained. It was Tafa. I recalled her from the dungeon in what had been the kasbah of Ibn Saran, the morning before I had begun the march to Klima. She was a good wench. I moved the kaiila on. Zina, who had been taken with Tafa in a caravan raid by Hassan, the bandit, had not been at the two kasbahs in the desert. We did not know to whom she had been sold. We did not know at whose feet she knelt.

Toward the beginning of the fourth group I saw another girl I remembered. She turned away, trying to hide her face. I stopped the kaiila. Sensing that I had stopped, she fell to her knees and faced me, her head down. "Forgive me, Master," she whispered. "Look at me, Slave, Girl," I told her. She looked up, frightened. It was Zaya, the red-haired girl, who had served sugars with the black wine in the palace of Suleiman Pasha. She had testified against me at Nine Wells.

"Do you recall," I asked, "who it was who struck Suleiman Pasha?"

"Hamid!" she wept. "Hamid, lieutenant to Shakar, captain of the Aretai!"

"Your memory has improved," I congratulated her. From my saddlebags I threw her a candy.

"Are you not angry with me, Master?" she asked. "No," I said.

She thrust the candy in her mouth. I moved the kaiila on.

Hamid was not chained with the male prisoners. He had been taken to a remote Aretai oasis. There, in this exile, he would be a slave.

In the second group from the front I passed two women I had earlier met, Lana, the tall girl, who had been the seraglio mistress in the kasbah of Tama, and the other girl, who had served with her, in charge of the oils of the bath. They stood proudly, as chained slave girls. Their utility in the seraglio terminated by myself and Hassan, Tarna had, in fury, sent them to the lowest levels of her kasbah, to serve there as wench sport for her soldiers. Little did they know but their proud mistress, whom they had never seen had recently, as they had, now, too, a rightless slave girl, served men, she herself richly yielding rude soldiers delicious wench sport.

"Tal, Master," they said to me.

"Tal, Slave Girls," I said to them.

I moved the kaiila on. The male slaves of the seraglio had been freed. They were to be given money and safe conduct to Tor. They, though afoot, joined the march. One exception had Haroun, high Pasha of the Kavars, made. "That one," he had said, sitting in court, in the audience chamber of what had been the kasbah of Ibn Saran, indicating the silken fellow who had worn the ruby necklace, who had tried to betray us to the guards of Tarna, "that one sell in Tor--sell him to a woman." The fellow had been dragged away. He was with the male slaves toward the rear of the column; he alone among them was not stripped; he wore his seraglio silk, the ruby necklace; they did not look pleasantly upon him.