Swordsmen of Gor

Chapter Thirty-Eight THE DESTRUCTION OF THE RIVER CAMP; UNEXPECTED CARGO IS BOARDED; THE SHIP BEGINS HER JOURNEY

“Nodachi is on board,” said Tajima, in answer to my question.

It was early morning.

A sturdy, planked ramp led upward from the wharf. All night men and slaves, by the light of torches, carrying burdens, had come and gone on this ramp, which led to a large now-opened port in the hull, far below the higher bulwarks. Within this opening many men, some once of the scribes, sorted through these mountains of material and assigned its disposition, in virtue of preconceived arrangements, to various decks and holds.

“It is cold,” said Tajima.

“It will be far more bitter on Thassa,” I said.

I was uneasy noting the quantities of stores brought aboard. It reminded me of the preparations of a city knowing its besiegement was imminent. Months might be spent at sea, never viewing land, on such largesse. Great quantities of water were also brought aboard, this despite the common expedient, on round ships, of adding to one’s stores by capturing rain in extended volumes of sail canvas, thence conducting it to on-ship reservoirs. Commonly of course, the long ships replenish water from their many landfalls, which may be as frequent as every evening. Crates of larmas were brought on board, these to add important elements to a diet which, otherwise, in a long voyage, might lead to diseases of deficiency. The larma does not grow naturally in Torvaldsland, but certain hard fruits do, which, happily, will serve a similar purpose. One might suppose that food might be obtained from the sea itself but that source cannot be relied on. Most edible fish frequent banks, shallow banks, which are commonly near shores, where they are plentiful, not the open sea, where there is little for them to feed on. The nine-gilled Gorean shark will sometimes trail a ship, for garbage, but that is not a source to be relied on either. The shark, being a hunter, is likely to frequent prey areas, the banks, and the shallower waters. Too, sharks are less plentiful in colder, northern waters, than in warmer, southern waters. There would be few sharks, if any, for example, in the vicinity of the Alexandra. The waters are too cold. I had seen many bales of cloth brought aboard, and assorted boxes of various descriptions. I supposed there would be silver and gold, but I was not sure of the value, if any, of these commodities should our voyage succeed in reaching its projected terminus, wherever that might be. There were naval stores, too, lumber, tars, resins, and such, in abundance, and additional canvas. Sometimes sails are shredded in high winds, even carried away, with snapped masts. Much oil was brought aboard, not so much for the ship’s lamps, but for a substance with which to fill clay vessels, with wire handles, of which there were hundreds. These would constitute fire bombs which might be flung from tarnback or launched from catapults. These would be devastating at sea, as on the 25th of Se’Kara, and perhaps effective against tents and wooden buildings, but I feared they would not seriously discommode an infantry. The shield roof in an infantry is usually proof enough against even the arrows and missiles of tarn attack, but the tarn attack is commonly coordinated with an infantry advance. Clearly the shield cannot be used simultaneously to defend one both from the air and the ground. Catapult stones, too, were brought aboard, in hundreds, and “heavy arrows,” almost spears, which might be sped either singly, as from ballistae, or, from a springal, in showers, their flight propelled by a single fierce blow, that from a horizontal spring-driven board. Luxury items, as well, were in evidence, or what I supposed were luxury items at least, from amongst what was discernible, rich furs, rolled silks, wines and pagas, pans of jewelry, bracelets, anklets, armlets, bangles, necklaces, and such. One girl had carried, on her head, balancing it there with two hands, a bale of what I took to be diaphanous dancing silks. I had little doubt the slaves would later be hurrying about, lightly, serving, in the pleasure cabins on the ship. The men might pick and choose then from amongst what one might think of as on-board paga taverns.

The paga girl, or paga slave, is a well-known form of slave to Gorean free males. Indeed, many a slave, with an envied private master, had begun her bondage, fresh from the block, in the taverns, no more than another belled slave, summonable to the whips and chains of an alcove, her use accompanying, if one wished, the price of the drink she brings to the table. And, too, of course, many men first found their personal slave in so unlikely a place, little suspecting that the collared beauty, kneeling, head down at the table, serving their paga, one of others, might somehow come to seem special to them. Idly, perhaps as little more than a matter of course, she is ordered, as might be any other, to an alcove. But in the alcove, fastened in her chains, she seems to him interestingly, surprisingly, different from many others. He tests her body and discovers, to his interest, that her responses to his touch are extraordinary, and piteous. With what hope she looks at him and presses her lips to his whip. There seems something special in her responsiveness. He fears she might become of interest to him, and so, finished with her, he spurns her, thrusting her aside with his foot, leaving her behind him, in her chains, unable to follow, in tears. But he finds it difficult to forget her, her startled eyes, the leaping of her body. He recalls the slight sound of her silk, almost inaudible, as she knelt by the table, and how it fell about her, with its diaphanous mockery of concealment, as she preceded him obediently to the alcove. He recalls, in the alcove, how, writhing, she grasped the chain above her wrist rings, how she lifted her body and implored him not to desist in his touch, and, later, the wild jangle of the bells on her ankle as, ungovernedly in his power, she kicked wildly. He patronizes the tavern again, perhaps, and again, and finds she hurries to kneel before him, and take his order. When he dares, he sends her again to the alcove, and perhaps confirms what he had most feared, that she is not merely another slave to him, but that she is muchly different, and that they may have been selected for one another by nature, he as master, she as slave. So, eventually he buys her. She costs him more than he would care to admit to his fellows, but he will make it up, many times over, out of her lovely hide. And it is not such a fearful thing, he later learns, really, to have at his feet one for whom he would die, a love slave, and one who knew him, from his first touch, as her long longed-for love master. And so in the mysterious ways of nature the match is made. One must, of course, be particularly strict with a love slave, severe in her discipline, and such, not hesitating to put her to the whip for her least laxity or failure to fully please, but she would have it no other way, for he is her master.

I had stopped one girl at the foot of the ramp, my finger to her shoulder, who was carrying a number of garments. She stood very straight, and kept her head up, and looked straight ahead. “Slave tunics,” I said. “Yes, Master,” she said. “Proceed,” I said. “Yes, Master,” she said. “Thank you, Master.” I had seen other girls, similarly burdened. These were surely more tunics than were required for our girls. I had similarly examined the burdens, shallow boxes, of two or three fellows, as well, as they would ascend the ramp. These boxes, to my interest, contained an abundance of custodial hardware, coffle chains, siriks, slave bracelets, ankle rings, and such. It was light chaining, such as is used for the chaining of women. I saw more than one fellow ascend the ramp with, strung on a spear, over his shoulder, a large number of dangling slave collars, with their keys wired to them. The collars were sturdy, but light, and comfortable, such as are put on women. Another fellow carried a number of irons, of the sort which are used to brand animals. From these observations I supposed that Lords Nishida and Okimoto might have in mind a disposition for the women of the enemy or, at least, those who pleased their senses. The women of the enemy, of course, become the property of the victors. I noted, incidentally, no such arrangements, heavy chaining or such, prepared for male prisoners. The war, as I recalled from a remark of Lord Nishida in the pavilion of Lord Okimoto, was to the knife, without quarter.

Torgus, Ichiro, Lysander, and others, would be with the cavalry. The birds would be brought aboard later, in some four days, joining us near the mouth of the Alexandra.

On the other side of the ship, larger ports had been opened now, and, on ramps sloping up from the water, the six galleys were being drawn on board, and were being rolled to berths in a lower hold. Similar boarding ports were on the starboard side, which was now near the wharf, lying against its cushions of rolled leather, these to prevent damage to either ship or wharf. In this way, galleys might be nested from either side of the great ship.

Tajima, who was standing beside me, suddenly stepped back, and bowed. I, too, bowed. Lord Okimoto himself was boarding, being borne in a sedan chair by eight Pani, which chair was followed by an entourage of contract women and guards.

After this, Aëtius, who seemed to be the fellow in charge of supervising matters, began to marshal and board, in long lines, both Pani and others.

“Four days,” said Tajima. He would be with the cavalry.

“That is our estimate,” I said.

“I understand,” said Tajima.

Much depended on the current, and whether or not the descent of the Alexandra would be without incident. The downriver journey had been sounded with care, but a river is not a bridge, a street, a reliable road of stone, layered in blocks, like a sunken wall, feet into the earth, like the Viktel Aria, leading to Ar, built for millennia. The river is less reliable. Its twists and turns might differ from week to week, even day to day. Floods can extend her shores, and rearrange her depths and course. Droughts can dry and parch her. It is hard to know, to predict, the whims, vagaries, and moods, the surfeits and famines, of a river.

The estimate of four days was from the time it had taken two small boats to reach Thassa.

“Be certain,” I said, “to board the tarns before we are beyond the sight of land.”

“I understand,” he said.

I did not think that Lord Nishida would care to delay his voyage at the mouth of the Alexandra, nor be forced to return.

The tarns had been familiarized, over the past few days, with departing from, and returning to, the quarters prepared for them. Three areas were involved, each on its own deck. The first area was on the first deck below the open deck, and the second and third areas were on the next lower decks. Three ramps were involved, one leading from the third lower deck to the second lower deck, one from the second lower deck to the first lower deck, and one from the first lower deck to the top deck, or open deck, once a great hatch had been rolled back.

Three men passed, lifting their hands in salute, which salute I returned. These were Telarion, Fabius, and Tyrtaios, whom I had met in the tent of Lord Nishida at Tarncamp, the night of the feast. At least one, I had gathered from Lord Nishida, was a spy, and one amongst them, the same or another, was of the Assassins. These three, I had noted, had been present at the pyre a few nights past, which pyre had supposedly been that of the shipwright, Tersites.

“I would you were with the cavalry,” said Tajima.

“Perhaps we will ply the wind road later, together, at sea,” I said.

“Lord Nishida does not trust you,” he said.

“I know,” I said.

Tajima was to command the cavalry in my absence.

As we were speaking, numerous Pani, and mercenaries, were ascending the ramp, boarding.

I could already see smoke to the east.

“They have begun to burn the camp,” I said.

“I must return to the cavalry,” said Tajima.

“I wish you well,” I said.

“I, too, wish you well, Tarl Cabot, tarnsman,” he said. He then turned about, and withdrew.

I watched men ascending the ramp, boarding.

“Pertinax,” I said, for he had approached. With him were Cecily and his Jane, both protected against the cold. Both were fetching, even jacketed and cloaked as they were. It is interesting how attractive slaves are, even when bundled. Perhaps that is because one knows they are slaves, and not free women. One can then, so to speak, unbundle them. One is well aware of what lies beneath that bundling, a slave, in her collar.

“Tal,” said he.

“Tal,” said I.

To be sure, not even free women are immune from the speculations of virile males. Do they not sometimes understand the eyes of men are upon them, speculatively. One would suppose so. One wonders if they suspect, within all those layerings, scarves, hoods, and veils, what the men are thinking. Would they be uneasy if they knew how they were viewed by strong men, would they tremble, would they be afraid, or would they redden and glow, as though helpless at a master’s feet? Surely they must understand those looks. They must be aware that men are conjecturing their lineaments, curiously, even idly, appraisingly, wondering if, under all that paraphernalia, all those wrappings, there might be something worth putting to its knees, worth collaring, and owning. Are the men conjecturing what they might look like, on a chain, being exhibited to buyers, naked, as women are sold, and such, perhaps groveling on the furs in an alcove, hoping to be found pleasing, perhaps even tunicked, barefoot, being sent to a market, running along, lightly, collared, on their errands.

The great majority of women on Gor are, of course, free women, of many diverse castes. On the other hand, female slavery is common. One sees them in the streets, in the markets, in the fields, and so on. Few slaves, statistically, are obtained from the slave farms. Most were originally free women, obtained by capture, in raids, by abduction, in war, and such.

As noted earlier the women of the enemy become the property of the victor. They are booty, as much as vessels, cloths, metals, kaiila, and such. To be sure, they are a particularly desirable form of booty, and men enjoy having it about, as slaves. Most slaves are purchased, of course, in the markets, where their captors put them up for sale. The sales-platform girls are supplemented, to some extent, by captures brought from Earth, but those captures, though quite numerous, abstractly considered, constitute only a small fraction of Gorean female slaves, perhaps one in two or three hundred. They do tend to be popular in the markets, however, perhaps in part due to their charms as barbarians but, too, I suspect, due to their responsiveness to Gorean males, men of a sort for whom their former civilizations and cultures have but ill prepared them. Never had they thought to be at the feet of such men, slaves, to what are to them uncompromising and magnificent beasts. They are, of course, merely the natural male, who is a master by nature.

It seemed clear, from materials brought on board, shackles, collars, and such, that Lords Nishida and Okimoto might have in mind, were their projects successful, the acquisition of large numbers of women, who might then be distributed, or sold. This is a way, of course, familiar on Gor, of financing further campaigns, further actions, and such.

Consider such women, now the property of victors.

Their rich raiment and status will be exchanged for the tunic of a slave, if that, and a collar. No longer do they possess goods but are now themselves goods. And let these goods then kneel and press their soft lips to the boots of conquerors, gratefully, thankful for their lives, spared now, at least for a time. And let them tremble, as well, realizing they are now no longer their own, but belong to masters, in whose grasp they will discover what it is to be a slave. The tiring, complex games of the free woman are now behind them. It is now theirs to serve and please, or die. Surely in their dreams they have considered this sort of thing, and now they discover, on their knees, it has become their reality. And what might it be, they might wonder, which has won them this incredible, welcome reprieve, temporary as it might be, from the ax or torch? Could it be that it is their sex and beauty, their exquisite features and lovely slave curves, to which they may have hitherto given little thought, save for occasionally regarding them in the mirror, perhaps wondering what they might be worth on a sales platform, those and, of course, the lust of men, to which they owe their lives? Perhaps. Had they been hitherto curious, perhaps idly so, as to what they might sell for in an open market, what price they might bring an owner who vends them, with others? They may now learn. Had they considered, hitherto, what it might be to be in the arms of a master? They will now learn.

“Thank you for bringing her,” I said to Pertinax, indicating Cecily.

He nodded. We had arranged it so, for I had come early to the wharf, to observe more of the lading.

I spoke of Cecily as having been brought, for she was a slave. In this sense, she had not accompanied Pertinax, but had been brought by him, as might have been, say, a dog. The same held for his Jane, of course.

Last night, leaving the slaves chained in the shed, we had boarded our gear.

Pertinax, no more than I, by the instructions of Lord Nishida, was to be with the cavalry. In its way, this was flattering. It indicated that Lord Nishida now regarded Pertinax as someone with whom to reckon. Too, of course, Pertinax and I shared quarters, could speak a language unfamiliar to most of the Pani, and so on. Pertinax, then, probably primarily because of his relationship with me, was now conceived of as deserving suspicion.

I supposed this was a compliment, in its way.

On the other hand, it was one which I, at least, would have been just as pleased to be without.

I wondered if he realized that his life must now be in greater danger.

If Lord Nishida decided to do away with me, I would suppose that Pertinax would be included in the instructions.

On the wharf, their progress arrested, Cecily and Jane knelt, as was appropriate for slaves in the presence of free persons. It would have been the same had a free woman been present.

Such things might seem unimportant or inconsequential to those unfamiliar with cultural protocol, but they are not. They are quite important and quite consequential. Such things, perhaps seemingly small to an outsider, are rich with significance. They, in their beauty and appropriateness, make perfectly clear relationships and conditions which are momentous. The kajira realizes very clearly why she is on her knees. She is a slave. Such a posture and attitude is quite meaningful to the collar-wearer. What may be more difficult for the outsider to grasp is that she regards this posture and attitude as appropriate for her. She feels comfortable and secure on her knees. As a slave, she knows she belongs on her knees. But, too, mastered, she wants to kneel, and loves doing so.

“When do we board?” inquired Pertinax.

“Soon,” I said.

I was waiting for Lord Nishida. Lord Okimoto had already boarded.

“Have the slaves been boarded yet?” he asked.

“Saru was put on board last night,” I said.

“Oh?” he said.

“About the twentieth Ahn,” I said. “She is doubtless within somewhere, nicely chained, probably by the neck.”

“My question was general,” he said. “I have no interest in the slut, Saru.”

“That is surprising,” I said. “Most men would find her of interest.”

“She is a slut,” he snarled.

“Yes,” I said, “and the best sort, a helpless, needful slut, who is a collared slave.”

“I despise her,” he said.

“She wants to be at your feet,” I said.

“I would kick her away,” he said.

“And she would crawl back, to kiss the boot which kicked her,” I said.

“She is contemptible,” he said.

“Not at all,” I said. “She is a needful slave.”

“Contemptible!” he said.

“Not at all,” I said. “There is nothing contemptible in a slave’s plaintive, desperate need. Most men find such needs unobjectionable, even pleasant.”

“She is worthless, utterly despicable,” he said.

“Strange then,” I said, “that she would be thought fit for a shogun.”

“As a slave!” he said.

“Of course,” I said. “As what else?”

“I find her of not the least interest,” he said.

“Even on Earth,” I said, “you wanted her naked, in your collar.”

“No!” he said. “No!”

“And you want her now,” I said.

“No!” he said.

“At your feet, yours, helpless, in your collar, your slave,” I said.

“No!” he cried.

“No?” I said.

“Her hair is too short,” he said, angrily.

“I grant you that,” I said.

Jane, kneeling near him, took this opportunity to brush back her hood, and arrange her hair more evenly, more attractively, over her shoulders.

Saru had been put on board at night, singly, several Ahn before Lord Okimoto, this morning, had been borne up the ramp.

I wondered if he knew of her existence.

She would doubtless make a lovely gift for a shogun. Perhaps Lord Nishida might purchase high favor by means of such a gift, a favor which might possibly exceed even that of a shogun’s cousin.

But Lord Okimoto, I was sure, was no fool.

Lord Nishida might be putting himself at some risk. To be sure, he had a large number of men, swordsmen, glaivesmen, archers, and others, at his disposal. Such cohorts tend to reduce risks, at least in battle. They afford, however, little shelter from the flighted quarrel, the knife cast from the darkness. I had taken it as a foregone conclusion that the unknown assassin of whom Lord Nishida was wary was in the fee of an understood foe, but I supposed that that need not be true. Not all enemies, I recalled, are strangers. In Gorean the saying would literally translate as not all strangers are strangers.

“My question was innocent, and general,” said Pertinax. “Have the slaves been boarded yet?”

“Look behind you, to the east,” I said.

“Ah,” said Pertinax.

The majority of public slaves, or, perhaps better, the slaves without private masters, camp slaves, kitchen slaves, laundry slaves, girls selected for trading and selling, girls from the slave house, and such, would be soon conducted on board. I could see the column forming now, east of the wharf, on the beach. Private slaves were taken on board, for the most part, with their masters.

Most of the men, artisans, storesmen, smiths, tarnsters, Pani, mercenaries, and others, marshaled and hastened by Aëtius, had now boarded.

Almost every female slave desires a private master, and, too, hopes to be his only slave.

The slaves to the east would be bound and coffled.

I had seen coffles, and sometimes more than one such linkage, after the fall of cities, which contained fifteen hundred to two thousand women. Needless to say this considerably depresses the market, and it is, accordingly, often the case that these coffles must be broken up and widely dispersed, or marched far afield, sometimes better than a thousand pasangs, to more favorable markets. Sometimes too, the women are kept off the market, sometimes for months, while their owners wait, hoping for better prices. During such times they are exercised and trained, which increases their value. Slavers often buy such women in lots, for pittances, on speculation. Considerations of these sorts, of course, as a matter of economics, appertain to any sort of goods, the value of which is likely to fluctuate according to the condition of the market.

“They are nearly ready,” I said to Pertinax.

“I see,” he said.

The column of camp slaves, and others, had now been formed. Pani were now tying their hands behind their backs, and putting them on a long rope, which was strung from neck to neck. It was thus they would ascend the ramp. They did not know to what they were being taken but neither, too, did other animals already boarded, tarsk and verr.

I heard the sound of chains, heavy chains, strike the ascending ramp, dragging upon it, and looked about. Licinius Lysias of Turmus, who had made the attempt on the life of Lord Nishida during the training exercise, laden with chaining, was being prodded up the ramp by the butt of a Pani glaive. Perhaps unwisely, I had spared him at Tarncamp, that he might have some chance for life. This had doubtless been regarded by Lord Nishida as a woeful indiscretion, if not an act of outright treason. On what grounds, comprehensible to one such as he, might a would-be assassin be freed? Had I been in league with him? I suspected that one of less stature in the camp, one who, say, was not the commander of the cavalry, might have fared rather poorly following such an act. Certainly it gave Lord Nishida excellent grounds for regarding my services with considerable circumspection. And later I had participated in a mysterious interview, on tarnback, over the forest, the nature of which I had been reluctant to disclose. It was not surprising, I supposed, that I was not this morning with the cavalry. In any event, Lord Nishida had sent numerous Pani forth to track and return Licinius to custody. They had discovered him some pasangs from Tarncamp, where, for four or five days, frightened, haggard and starving, he had apparently wandered in circles. He had soon been brought back, back-shackled, on a neck chain. Perhaps I had done Licinius no great favor, considering he seemed ill equipped with forest craft, was seemingly unable to live off the land, hold a direction, elude pursuit, and such. He was presumably less a warrior than a mercenary, and less a mercenary than a brigand. I knew he had sword skills but they would do him little good when, weakened, scarcely able to stand, he would find himself ringed by glaives. Licinius, partway up the ramp, saw me. He stopped for an instant, but did not attempt to address me or communicate in any way. Then he was struck by the butt of the glaive, and thrust rudely upward. Had I turned him over to Lord Nishida he would doubtless have been tortured. The Pani, I gathered, had methods likely to encourage volubility in their informants. Subsequently he was to have been crucified. Now, supposedly in deference to me, he had been spared crucifixion. I did not know if he had been tortured or not. If so, and if Lord Nishida had cared to do away with me, it would have been easy enough for him to extract incriminating testimony from a harried body which would beg to babble whatever might be wished, if only the pain would cease, or the welcomed knife plunged mercifully to the heart. But I had seen nothing in the glance of Licinius which had suggested shame or pleaded for pity and understanding. Accordingly I gathered he had not yet, at any rate, been forced to utter fabrications under duress. I had gathered he was to be chained to a bench, presumably in one of the galleys. Most oarsmen, of course, would be free. Round ships, incidentally, commonly made use of slaves, fastened to the benches, but the long ships, ships of war, commonly relied on free oarsmen, for reasons which, I suppose, are obvious. Many consecutive shifts at the oars, as free oarsmen exchanged positions, would doubtless be imposed on the wearied, aching body of Licinius Lysias of Turmus. I dismissed him from my mind. I had given him, perhaps unwisely, given his treachery and crime, an opportunity for escape and freedom, an opportunity which, as it turned out, he had been unable to turn to his advantage. He was no longer my concern. He was now the prisoner of Lord Nishida. I did not know what his present life might be. Lord Nishida had informed me that many would have preferred crucifixion.

The camp slaves, and others, were now boarding.

Last night hundreds of tarn eggs had been brought aboard, to be nestled in padded containers below decks. These were being chemically incubated, to keep the egg viable. Later, responsive to a second chemical, which might not be administered for months, hatching was to occur. Clearly Lord Nishida’s plans involved tarns beyond those of the present cavalry.

The wind was bitter now, at the river’s edge.

Whistles came from the stern castle of the great ship.

The structures of the camp were now much aflame, and the flames were whipped by the wind.

I could see the mighty, towering frame, which had held the ship of Tersites, was now, too, afire.

“I do not like the direction of the wind,” said Pertinax.

“No,” I said.

The men who had fired the camp, and some stragglers, were now hurrying down the wharf, to board.

“Is Lord Nishida aboard?” asked Pertinax.

“I do not think so,” I said.

“What of his contract women?” asked Pertinax.

“I do not know,” I said.

Again we heard the whistles from the stern castle.

“Should we not board?” asked Pertinax.

“Shortly,” I said.

“The wharf itself may soon be afire,” said Pertinax.

“Yes,” I said.

I could see some mariners, far above, at the railing of the stern castle, reading the flames and their progress.

“The ship may be in danger,” he said.

“Eventually,” I said, “not now.”

To be sure, I expected that mooring ropes would be soon cast off, and the great ship, obedient to rudder and current, would edge into the river.

Aëtius, I was sure, was anxious to depart.

“Perhaps we should board,” said Pertinax.

“I would be curious to see the last to board,” I said.

“Where is Lord Nishida?” asked Pertinax.

“He may be dead,” I said.

“You jest,” he said, uneasily.

“I think it unlikely,” I said. I did not, of course, rule it out. There might be, I thought, frictions or dissensions amongst the Pani. Surely they were human, and not unaware of the attractions of power. Perhaps Lord Nishida had served his purpose, supplying lumber to the shipwrights at the Alexandra camp, arranging for the formation and training of a tarn cavalry, and such. Perhaps he was no longer required by Lord Okimoto, who was, it seemed, a cousin to the shogun, some shogun.

“They are going to raise the ramp,” said Pertinax.

“Not yet, surely,” I said.

The great frame in which the ship of Tersites had been formed was now muchly ablaze. A timber collapsed with a crash.

“I fear for the wharf,” said Pertinax. “The ship must cast off.”

In the river some ice drifted downstream.

I estimated that there must be some twenty-five hundred to three thousand men on board.

Many lined the rails, far above.

Enormous quantities of foodstuffs had been brought on board. This had caused me considerable uneasiness. So might a city have been supplied, anticipating its beleaguering. And who might the foe be, if not the sea? How long was this voyage to be? Such stores would suffice to carry one beyond Cos and Tyros, and beyond these, the farthest of the western islands. But I feared they might be but little used. I feared, rather, given the coming of winter and its season of storms, that the walls of this city, so to speak, would be shortly breached, that they would be unable to resist the raging blows of green Thassa, the blows of her towering, mountainous hammers, that the city must soon fall, succumbing to the implacable, voluminous ingression of cold waters. One does not venture upon Thassa in this season.

“You do intend to board, do you not?” asked Pertinax.

“Certainly,” I said.

“The fire encroaches,” said Pertinax, uneasily.

“There is time,” I said.

“Look,” said Pertinax, “across the river.”

We could see a longboat putting away from the shore, on the opposite bank.

“Enemies?” asked Pertinax.

“Unlikely,” I said.

“The camp is on the northern bank,” said Pertinax. “The boat departs from the southern shore.”

“Something, then,” I said, “was housed there.”

“What?” he said.

“I do not know,” I said.

We saw the oars dipping, water falling from the blades.

There were numerous small cabins for officers on the great ship. Pertinax and I each had our cabin. Doubtless much ampler quarters were provided for Lords Nishida and Okimoto, and those ranking high amongst the Pani, probably in the stern castle. I did not object to the tiny quarters. In a sense they were a luxury, inside, sheltered from the weather. In many Gorean ships, shallow-drafted galleys, with which I was familiar, and on which I had sailed, there was not much in the way of cabins at all, though there might be a hold in which one might place stores, chain slaves, and such. Officers and crew often slept on the deck, under the stars, or at the side of the ship, on land, if it were beached at night. The holds were not pleasant. Slaves often petitioned, most piteously, to be permitted on deck, though it be but to be chained to a stanchion, or caged.

To an outsider, one unfamiliar with such things, I suppose that our cabins would have seemed miserably tiny and cramped, but space is usually precious on a ship, even a large ship. And to me, if not to Pertinax, as I suggested, it was something of a luxury to have a cabin, at all. I was well pleased. There was a single berth in the low-ceilinged cabin, on the left, as one entered. This berth was built into the wall. Beneath the berth, also built into the wall, was a locker, which was the primary storage facility. Across from the berth was a cabinet for small articles. The only furniture, so to speak, in the cabin was a small bench, some three feet in length. There were also, here and there, hooks in the ceiling, from which paraphernalia might be suspended. A small, glass-enclosed tharlarion-oil lamp was hung from the ceiling, at the center of the cabin. It could not be removed from its chain. Fire at sea, particularly in wooden ships, is a hazard which must be taken with the utmost seriousness. Most welcome was a tiny port, some four inches in diameter, with its hinged window, opposite the door. By means of this aperture, one could look outside, and, the port opened, ventilate the cabin. Closed, the window was proof against cold and high seas. From a distance, given their tininess, these ports, if noticed at all, would seem little more than dots in the hull. The door was small and narrow, and would swing inward from the adjacent companionway. In this way, if opened, it would not obstruct the companionway. I could not stand fully upright in the cabin, but one does not intend to spend much time there. Both Cecily and Jane could stand upright in the cabin, with room to spare. I hoped they understood the luxury of their quarters. It was far superior to the pens, kennels, cages, chaining rings, and such, which were the lot of several of their collar-sisters. To be sure, even such accommodations were likely to be far superior to those afforded on typical slave ships, in which the slaves were often supine and tiered, chained, wrists over head, ankles together, on pallets of slatted wood, enclosed by mesh, to keep away the urts. All the hair on their bodies is removed, to reduce the infestation of parasites. The chaining arrangement, incidentally, is not only to keep the girls from tearing the mesh, which might allow the entry of urts into the space, but, also, to keep them from lacerating their own bodies, tearing at them to relieve the misery consequent upon the depredations of parasites, usually ship lice. Racks of these tiers stretch substantially from wall to wall in the hold, with only a tiny walk space between and about them. A panel in each space opens, by means of which a crust of bread may be placed in the mouth of each slave. Similarly, they are watered, by means of a bota or hose.

The approaching boat was now midriver.

It had eight oarsmen, and a fellow at the tiller, and another at the bow. Its cargo, between the gunwales, was covered by a tarpaulin.

I looked to Cecily and Jane, kneeling on the planks, beside us.

“You know your cabins?” I asked.

“Yes, Master,” said each.

Two days ago we had taken them on board, to show them our cabins, and, in general, familiarize them with the ship. In this tour we had tied their hands behind their backs and then tied them together by the neck. From a custodial point of view this was unnecessary, of course, but such things are seldom done for custodial purposes. Where is a slave to run? Indeed, when a slave is chained, if we are interested in custodial matters, it is commonly done not so much to confine her, though she is confined, and perfectly, and knows it, but to prevent her theft, for she is property. It is no great challenge for a male to subdue and carry off an untended slave. The two most common reasons for binding slaves, which is very frequently done, are, first, mnemonic, and, second, stimulatory. Binding, thonging, chaining, and such, makes it exceedingly clear to them that they are such that such things may be done to them, that they are subject to such things, that that is what they are, slaves. When the girl is helpless, and knows herself such, there can be little doubt about what she is, that she is a slave. Thus they are frequently bound, caged, and such. Secondly, bonds, in virtue of reinforcing the slave’s sense of her lesser strength, her vulnerability, and helplessness, are sexually stimulatory. They know themselves then objects vulnerable to, and readied for, sexual predation. This is related to the radical sexual dimorphism of the human species, the obvious complementarity of the sexes, and the dominance/submission ratios pervasive in nature. That the slave is helpless, then, not only accentuates the acuteness and viability of these natural responses, but intensifies them, exponentially. Surely Pertinax and I had had ample proof of this matter when we returned that afternoon to our quarters. The slave is likely to very well understand what is done to her, and why, but this avails her naught. She is still helpless, and a slave. Too, if her slave fires have been kindled, as is likely to be the case, she desires and needs the pleasures of her bondage. It is not unusual for her, left in her bonds, to beg for sexual relief.

Too, it might be noted, as a passing, prosaic observation, that when a woman’s hands are tied together behind her back she is likely to get into little trouble. It would not do, for example, on such a tour, to have them fussing about, rearranging objects, straightening things, folding things, picking up things, handling things, noting textures, and such. Having them on a neck bond, too, of course, keeps them together. Thus they are not likely to wander off, become separated, and find themselves lost in the labyrinthine companionways of the great ship.

“Cecily,” I said.

“Master?” said the English girl, formerly a student at an Oxford College, the name of which, as mine, shall not be noted.

I regarded her, I standing, she kneeling.

She was a lovely slave.

She looked up at me, to attend my words.

We had been selected for one another by Priest-Kings, to be irresistible to one another. Her shallow, empty, pretentious life on Earth had changed overnight, so to speak, she retiring one evening, smug in her beauty, indulged and practiced in the pleasures of despising, attracting, and tormenting men, and awakening, to her astonishment and terror, unclothed, pressing her small hands against the thick, stout, transparent walls of a containment capsule on the Prison Moon, one of the three moons of Gor. This capsule she found occupied by two others, myself, and a beautiful, young, human female from a Steel World, a Kur pet, who was unspeeched. The English girl had been placed in the capsule to bring about my downfall. Who could long resist her? And should she fail in this there was the Kur pet, in her way a primitive human animal, as innocent and sexual as a cat in heat. In one way or another, then, my honor was to have been lost, as, sooner or later, given the imperatives of nature and the provocations to which I was exposed, I must be unable to resist, as I must feast upon one or both of these delicacies, putting one or both of them, again and again, to my pleasure. Neither, you see, was a slave, at least legally. Both were free, at least legally. And therein lay the difficulty. I have little doubt but what, sooner or later, I would have taken the proud, vain, selfish English girl in my arms, and she would learn what it would be to be used by a Gorean warrior, and as might be a mere slave. This denouement did not materialize, however, because, as recounted earlier, Kurii raided the Prison Moon and freed me, a raid which had had me, interestingly, as its very object. During the raid the English girl, hoping to avoid death, had declared herself slave. She intuitively understood that as a free woman she was worthless, save perhaps as food to the beasts, but might, as a slave, have whatever worth a slave might have. Intuitively she sensed she might have that value, some value, however minimal, as a female slave. But the cry, too, had seemed to come from her heart, as an outburst from the depths of her heart, releasing a tension that might have been pent-up for years, a cry of enormous relief, a cry that seemed to suggest she had at last cast aside a dreadful, encumbering falsity, that at last a great weight, an immense burden of fear and denial, had been cast from her. As many women, if not all, she had recognized from puberty onward that there were two sexes, quite different, and devastatingly complementary to one another, and that she had, from whatever source, slave needs. She was well aware of these needs, for years, in many ways, from dreams from which she awakened suddenly, discovering she was not truly in chains, that her lips were not truly pressed to a master’s whip, from persistent fantasies from which she tried to flee, but to which, in fascination and fear, she must constantly return. How often she dreamed of herself, and fantasized herself, helpless in the power of dominant males, as no more than their possession, their prize, and plaything, their slave. Hating the tepidity, the ineffectuality, the weakness of the males she knew she took out on them her spite and disappointment, torturing them as only her beauty made possible. She did not hate men, truly, but only males who refused to be men, who would not see to it that she was put to their feet. But how soon, after her declaration on the Prison moon, she had tried to unsay her confession! But the words once spoken are irrevocable, for the speaker is then a slave. She was later branded and owned by male cohorts of the Kurii. Torn between her lingering pretenses of freedom and her slave needs, she had been found insufficiently pleasing by her masters, and was to be cast to eels in a pool in a Pleasure Cylinder, associated with a Steel World. She had begged my collar. I consented to the piteous pleas of the slave, and would honor her with my collar, which I then locked on her neck. That night, chained in an alcove, at my mercy, she was taught, finally and well, what it is to be a slave. A natural slave, she had become a legal slave; then, a legal slave, she had become a true slave.

“Cecily,” said I.

“Master?” she said.

“Go to the cabin,” I said, “remove your clothing, completely, and lie in the berth, and wait for me.”

“Yes, Master,” she said, and leapt up, hurrying to the ramp.

“Cecily,” I called.

“Yes, Master?” she said.

“And first lay out the whip,” I said.

“Yes, Master!” she said, and was then up the ramp.

I had no intention of using the whip on her, but this small ritual has its effect on the slave, reminding her she is a slave, and readying her and loosening her for use. Sometimes, in the use of a slave, one might ask, “Do you see the whip?” “Yes, Master,” she might say, “it is on its peg.” “Do you wish it to remain there?” she might be asked. “Yes, Master,” she responds, with fervency. “Are you being sufficiently responsive?” he might ask. “It is my hope that I might be found pleasing,” she says. “Excellent,” might say the master. “Yes, Master,” she might exclaim. “Yes, Master! Yes, Master!” Then perhaps her mouth needs be covered, with the flat of one’s hand, that her cries may not be obtrusive. To be sure, it is often pleasant to hear her cry out, weep, gasp, and moan, she in your arms, beside herself in helpless, uncontrollable ecstasy.

“Jane,” said Pertinax, “go to my cabin and lay out the whip, and then wait for me, naked, in the berth.”

“Yes, Master!” said his Jane, happily, and hurried after Cecily.

It is not unusual for a master to have his slave await him, naked, in the furs. The wait, and her nudity, well impresses upon her that she is a slave. Too, when he arrives, she is heated, needful, and ready for him.

And if the whip is at hand, so much the better.

“Would you not enjoy having Saru in your berth, naked, waiting for you?” I asked.

“— Yes,” he said.

“Good,” I said.

“She is a slave,” he said.

“Do not forget it,” I said.

“No,” he said.

“And could you use the whip on her?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“Excellent,” I said. “Unfortunately she belongs to Lord Nishida.”

“I am well aware of that,” he said.

“Do you think she would make a nice gift for a shogun?” I asked.

“I do not know,” he said. “Perhaps.”

“Perhaps you would like to receive her as a gift,” I said.

“She is from Earth,” he said.

“Some of the loveliest gifts come from Earth,” I said.

The boat which had come from the other side of the river had now drawn up on the beach, below the wharf.

“There is some cargo there,” I said, “covered with a tarpaulin.”

The great frame in which the ship of Tersites had been formed suddenly collapsed in a shambles of burning timber.

“I fear for the wharf,” said Pertinax.

I nodded. Indeed, the far end of the wharf was beginning to burn. Some Pani were there.

“Look,” said Pertinax, pointing to the right, to the end of the wharf farthest from us, away from the flames, that nearest the bow of the great ship.

“Good!” I said. It was the retinue of Lord Nishida. With him were his guard, several officers, and two contract women, who were doubtless Sumomo and Hana.

I was much relieved to see Lord Nishida. I had feared the worst.

“Let us meet him,” I said. “We will now board.”

I pulled my cloak more about me.

I now expected to hear once more the whistles from the stern castle, which would now be the final signal, or warning, that prior to casting off.

Behind the stern of the ship, some fifty yards back, the wharf was now clearly afire. Pertinax’s apprehensions had now some justification. Certainly the ship must soon cast off.

Wind whipped my cloak about me, wind from the east.

I could see its passage on the river, in raising swells. I saw a log from upriver turning in the current.

Followed by Pertinax I made my way to the other side of the ramp.

“Greetings,” said I to Lord Nishida.

“Greetings,” said he, “Tarl Cabot, tarnsman.”

“Did you expect me to be here?” I asked.

“Certainly,” he said, politely. “You are curious, you wish to accompany the cavalry, you find it difficult to resist the unknown, you are unwilling to step aside from the path to adventure, a trait with which we of the Pani are not unfamiliar, and you are interested in a far shore.”

“True,” I said.

“Had I not been sure of this,” he said, “I would have had you killed.”

“I see,” I said.

We then approached the ramp.

Men stood by, with ropes and weights, on pulleys, to draw the ramp within, after which the port would be drawn up, similarly moved, and closed.

“Winter,” I said, “is not yet afoot, and yet there is ice in the river.”

“True,” said Lord Nishida.

“Your contract women,” I said, “are cold.”

Certainly Sumomo and Hana, even though warmly wrapped, seemed miserable, in the background.

“They prefer a milder climate,” said Lord Nishida.

“At least you will not be wintering by the river,” I said.

“I do not much care for this clime, in this season,” he said.

“Nor perhaps will you much care for Thassa in this season,” I said.

“I had thought,” he said, “that you would now be aboard.”

“I was waiting for you,” I said.

“I see,” he said.

I gathered he was not pleased.

“Lord Okimoto is already on board,” I said.

“Excellent,” he said.

“Shall we board?” I asked.

The eastern third of the wharf was now afire.

Above, mariners, at the rails, were marking the blaze.

Lord Nishida indicated to his retinue that they should proceed up the ramp. Certainly Sumomo and Hana hurried aboard. Ito paused, but was waved ahead by Lord Nishida.

Lord Nishida and I, and Pertinax, then stood alone on the right side of the ramp, which was approximately amidships.

I looked back to the beach, and noted that the tarpaulin had been thrown aside. Huddled, kneeling, crouched down, crowded between the gunwales, were a number of pathetic figures. These were the cargo which had been brought to the beach from the opposite side of the river. The fellow who had been in the bow yanked on a chain leash and the first of the figures was yanked its feet, and drawn rudely over the gunwales, and it fell, helpless, and miserable, on the sand. The other figures were lifted over the gunwales, and knelt, brutally, in a line, on the sand. The first figure then, which had fallen into the wet, cold sand, and still lay there, prone, frightened, afraid to move, by its upper arm, the right, was pulled to her knees, and knelt as well. The figures were then aligned, kneeling. They were fastened together, coffled, by the neck, with chain. Their hands were behind their backs, doubtless fastened together there. Interestingly, each was hooded, the entire head covered in the hood, a slave hood. In such a device its prisoner is disoriented, and helpless, dependent for movement and direction on its custodian.

“Shall we board?” said Lord Nishida.

“Presently,” I said.

The coffle was then ordered to its feet, and it struggled to stand, barefoot, on the cold beach.

A command was barked, and there was a snap of the whip, and the coffle, the left foot of each figure first moving, began to move, approaching, paralleling the beach side of the wharf, several yards of which were now ablaze.

“Tarl Cabot, tarnsman?” inquired Lord Nishida, politely.

“Presently,” I said.

At various points along the wharf there were steps leading to its surface from the shore.

“Draw back a bit, Tarl Cabot, tarnsman,” said Lord Nishida.

We withdrew some yards from the ramp.

“Steps,” we heard, uttered by the fellow who had the leash on the first figure.

There was a cry of pain as the first figure on the chain was drawn against the steps, and stumbled, and was then jerked to its feet.

As the cry of pain had been audible the hoods must not be gag hoods, hoods furnished with internal straps and packing. Such hoods are sometimes used in the abduction of free women, in order that they may be unable to call attention to their plight, perhaps while being transported through the streets and beyond the gates of their city, doubtless often within yards of guardsmen. I supposed, however, that the figures would have been forbidden speech. That is commonly forbidden to the hood’s occupant.

“Steps,” cried the man, “did you not hear me call ‘Steps’?”

But the figures, of course, could not see the steps, nor know their height nor width, nor number. They were confused, and helpless. The whip fell amongst them. They could not use their hands, either to break their fall or to assist in maintaining their balance. I think that in that clumsy, agonizing ascent, there was not one who did not fall, and more than once, upon the steps, thence to struggle frantically to regain its feet, only sometimes, drawn unexpectedly, off balance, by the chain again, to fall yet again, and some were unable to regain their feet, and were half dragged upward, on their knees. One, unable to find its feet, was drawn upward, on its side, thrusting, scrambling, with its feet. At last some, mercifully, were lifted and carried upward by oarsmen, and set on their feet, on the wharf.

“Clumsy fools!” cried the fellow who had been in the bow. “Two blows for each!”

These were administered, the figures bent over, and cringing, each receiving its two prescribed lashes.

“It seems these are being treated with unusual cruelty,” I said to Lord Nishida.

“They are slaves,” he said.

“Why were they kept across the river?” I asked.

“Some are superb,” he said. “We did not wish the men to fight over them.”

The slaves were now being aligned again, at the foot of the ramp.

The fire on the wharf was roaring, some seventy yards to the east, only several yards away, now, from the stern of the great ship.

A spark stung my cheek.

“These slaves,” I said, “appear to be held in a splendidly effective custody.”

“That is not unusual, is it not?” he asked.

“No,” I said. “Not really.” Still, for the latitude, the menace of the forest, and such, I was surprised at the precautions, the hoods, and a coffle not of rope, but of iron collars and chain. One would suppose that they might have been slaves in a city, or women of some value or importance.

Too, as their hands were doubtless fastened behind their backs, given the other arrangements, I supposed their hands would be fastened behind them not with thongs, cord, or rope, but metal, that their small wrists would be enclosed snugly in linked, steel circlets, in slave bracelets, designed to be put on women.

Some of the slaves wept, and cried out with pain, recoiling in their tethering, stung by sparks from the fire.

The fellow who had been in the bow looked back at the fire and then drew on the chain leash, and the first girl, whimpering, was drawn forward, she followed then by the others.

The ramp, with its slope, would be easily negotiated by the coffle.

The first girl was now on the ramp.

I saw that my conjecture as to the girls’ wrist fastenings was correct. The hands of each were pinioned behind them in steel, in slave bracelets, and, I noted, in close-linked slave bracelets.

Before the first girl reached the top of the ramp, her progress was arrested, by a whip held to her bosom.

The girls were then all on the ramp, standing.

They began to shiver and tremble, but were not allowed to proceed.

“Why have they been stopped?” I asked Lord Nishida.

“My instructions,” he said.

“It is bitterly cold by the river,” I said. “Why are they naked?”

“That they may better learn they are slaves,” he said.

I gathered then that these were new slaves. Once a girl has been a slave for a time, she has well learned she is a slave.

“What do you think of them?” asked Lord Nishida.

“You had better get them inside,” I said. “You do not wish to lose them from exposure.”

“What do you think of them?” he asked, again.

“It is hard to tell,” I said, “as they are hooded.”

“Of course,” said Lord Nishida.

“Their figures are superb,” I said.

“They are not Pani,” said Lord Nishida, “but all are comely.”

“Collar-girls?” I said.

“Perfectly so,” he said.

I considered the girls. One could not determine their features, of course, for the hoods, but their figures, their slave curves, were fully worthy of a Gorean block. Not one of the slaves, I was sure, was more than five feet six inches in height. Each was slender enough, but not in the Earth sense. Each, rather, had the exciting body of the genetically honed slave of men, the typical body of the natural human female, deliciously seizable, and lusciously curved, curves selected for, turned on the lathe of masculine lust, for centuries, the sort of female body hunted, sought, prized, enslaved, and sold for millennia. The typical Gorean male is a natural male, ambitious, possessive, energetic, powerful, a master. It is no wonder then that his taste, as is evidenced in his buyings and huntings, runs to the natural female, she whom nature has appointed to him as his proper slave.

“You do not think Gorean males would be disappointed in them?” I said.

“Certainly not,” he said, “nor Pani.”

“Excellent,” I said. “Now perhaps you might put the stock inside.”

“Do you notice, Tarl Cabot, tarnsman,” he asked, “anything of particular interest about the second to the last slave on the coffle?”

“No,” I said. “She does have one of the better figures.”

Lord Nishida gestured to the coffle master, and he drew his whip away from the bosom of the first girl. He then said, “Proceed,” and the coffle ascended the ramp and disappeared inside the great ship.

“Do not fear, Tarl Cabot, tarnsman,” he said. “They will be warmly bedded within. There will be an abundance of straw in each stall, within which each will be chained by the neck.”

I nodded.

I suspected then that Saru had probably been similarly quartered.

I wondered why Lord Nishida had asked me about the second girl from the end of the coffle. She had had one of the better figures. Too, interestingly, there had been something familiar about her slave flanks.

“The fire approaches,” said Pertinax. “Let us board.”

The third whistle, insistently, almost frantically, sounded from the stern castle.

Pertinax and I followed Lord Nishida aboard. Behind us came some other fellows, some Pani, some oarsmen, and such. Several docksmen freed the great ship from its moorings and, as the ropes were drawn upward, leaped to the ramp, and assisted in drawing it inboard. Shortly thereafter, the large side port was raised and closed. Aboard, the port closed, I sensed the ship begin to move.

I recollected the slave brought to my attention by Lord Nishida. There had seemed something familiar about her slave flanks.

Then I dismissed the thoughts of the slave from my mind. She was only another slave.

I made my way upward, from deck to deck, emerged onto the open deck, and went aft, to the stern castle.

The wharf behind us was raging with fire.

The ship was safe.

She, caught in the slow current, had begun her journey down the Alexandra.

I watched for a time from the stern castle, seeing the beauty of the river, and the forests slipping behind, to each side, and then I made my way to my cabin, where Cecily would be waiting.

Gorean men have what they want from women.