Conspirators of Gor (78 page)

“That seems unlikely,” he said, “for, as far as we know, the conspirators feel themselves unidentified and secure at present. Into whose hands would they wish such a thing to fall, and for what purpose, at present?”

“Perhaps into your hands,” I said, “and that of your principal.”

“If we were suspected,” he said, “I do not think we would find ourselves at liberty.”

“Perhaps,” I said, “it is not that the cards are meaningful, but that they are not yet meaningful, that they might become meaningful.”

“They must now be meaningful,” he said.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because we have the list,” he said, tapping that small sheet of paper on the table.

“I thought poorly,” I said.

“No, no,” he said. “Any thought is welcome.”

“Why am I here?” I asked.

“You served in a house of chance,” he said. “I thought you might be helpful.”

“The door is bolted,” I said. “Was there no other reason?”

“No,” he said.

I put my cheek on his knee. “I am uncomfortable,” I said. “My body whispers to me.”

“Do not tell me that the little barbarian’s slave fires have begun to burn,” he said.

“Men have done things to me,” I said.

“The cards,” he said, “the deck, the order. Think, think!”

“My presence here has been unavailing,” I said.

“Tell me about the tables, the play, everything,” he said.

“I know nothing,” I sobbed. “They invite men to the tables, some seek them by themselves, games are suggested, drinks are brought, decks are produced, and opened, men divide the decks, disarrange the cards, distribute them to the players in certain fashions, depending on the game. Other cards may be drawn, such things.”

“Of course!” he said.

“Master?” I said.

“That is it!” he said. “You have it!

“What?” I asked.

“It is so simple, so deceptively simple!”

“I do not understand,” I said.

“We were looking for the wrong things in the wrong places!” he said. “We were too sophisticated, too devious, too clever, too stupid! It was there before us, all the time!”

“What?” I asked.

“The list is the preparation for a message, not the message,” he said. “You were right. It is not that the cards are meaningful, but that they might become meaningful, and easily so.”

“I do not understand,” I said.

“Remind me to give you a sweet,” he said.

“For what?” I asked.

“You have solved our problem,” he said.

“How?” I asked.

“‘How’?” he asked.

“Yes, how?” I asked.

“I thought you were intelligent, Allison,” he said.

“It seems not, Master,” I said.

“Nonetheless,” he said, “you remain of slave interest.”

“I do not understand,” I said.

He rose and went to the door, unbolted it, and held it open.

“Return to the slave quarters,” he said.

“Yes, Master,” I said.

I paused in the threshold. “Master finds Allison of slave interest?” I said.

“Perhaps,” he said.

“Allison is pleased,” I said.

“And run!” he said.

“Yes, Master,” I said, hurrying through the portal. If one runs quickly enough, it is unlikely that one will be caught, and one’s thigh marked. It is easy to mark a thigh, of course, when one is in a camisk. Sometimes one’s leg is held. The writing is then boldly visible, for all to see. In this way it is clear to everyone that the girl has been reserved for that evening, and also clear who has reserved her.

Chapter Thirty-Six

“You know the master named Desmond, do you not?” asked Nora. She sounded frightened.

“Yes, Mistress,” I said. “I was even in his keeping, on the journey to the Crag of Kleinias.”

Nora clutched a small package in her hands. “I have been instructed by him to deliver this to Master Kleomenes,” she said.

“That is understandable enough,” I said, “as you are frequently called to the slave ring of Master Kleomenes.”

“This Desmond of Harfax,” she said, “knows you. Why would he not have you deliver it to Master Kleomenes?”

“I do not know,” I said, though I could easily speculate as to a possible motivation.

“It is clear the matter is sensitive,” said Nora. “If you were to deliver it, it might be noted. Curiosity might be aroused.”

“Perhaps,” I said.

“I am afraid,” she said.

“I would not disobey a master,” I said.

“I do not want my tongue slit, or removed,” she said.

“No,” I said. I recalled such threats were made once to her by Desmond of Harfax. Since then she had lived in fear of him. It pleased me, somehow, that Nora, so proud, severe, and magisterial with us, so imperious and exacting a first girl, was no more than a cringing slave before Desmond of Harfax. I recalled her in the small slave cage into which he had forced her, kneeling, naked, clutching the bars, looking up at him in fear.

“What is in the package?” she asked.

“It is loosely wrapped,” I said. “There seems no secret about it. Why not look, and see?”

We turned back the wrapper.

“It is a deck of cards,” she said.

“You see,” I said, “there is nothing to worry about.”

She almost fainted with relief.

“May I see it?” I asked.

I took the deck of cards in my hand, and moved the cards about a little. I detected no slips of paper hidden amongst the cards, nor anything on the cards that was foreign to the expected designs and markings. As far as I could tell, it was a normal deck of cards. Perhaps, I thought, there is nothing more here than what appears to be here. Might this not be innocent? Perhaps Kleomenes had expressed an interest in play, which interest had come to the attention of Desmond of Harfax, who had somehow located and supplied a suitable means for exploring this interest? Certainly they knew one another from the time of the caravan. Kleomenes had been twice at a camp of ours, when we first met him and his hunters, and, second, when he had visited us after his hunt, the night the tharlarion had been driven away. The one difference in this deck of cards from the deck which I had earlier seen in the keeping of Desmond of Harfax was the attractive speckling on the edges of the deck, a sort of design with which I was familiar from the house of chance. Goreans tend to be fond of beauty and color, in garments, architecture, paving stones, utensils, tableware, and such. Often even the cords and straps, the binding fiber, and such, and sometimes even the chains with which slaves are bound, are colorful.

I closed the wrapper.

“You had best deliver it,” I said.

“Perhaps you would like to do so,” she said.

“Are you prepared to disobey a master?” I asked.

“No!” she said.

“Have you ever disobeyed a master?” I asked.

“Once,” she said, “in the training house. I never dared to do so again.”

“You have never disobeyed Master Kleomenes?” I said.

“I do not want to disobey him,” she said.

“What would happen if you did?” I asked.

“He is not man of Earth,” she said. “I am a slave. He is a Gorean master.”

“You would be punished?” I said.

“Of course,” she said. “If it were not the case, how could I yield to him with the trembling helplessness of the eager slave?”

“You had best deliver the package,” I said.

She sped from the slave quarters. It pleased me to see the proud Nora, whom I remembered from Earth, running as a slave.

She was well submitted, I gathered, to Master Kleomenes. I was sure he well knew what to do with a woman.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

“I have explained to you my understanding of things,” said Desmond of Harfax.

There were eleven men in the room, and four slaves, the three who had been in the party of the Lady Bina, Jane, Eve, and myself, who had either prepared or copied the kaissa sheets, and Mina, formerly the Lady Persinna of Ar, who had been purchased by Trachinos. Amongst those in the room were Astrinax, Lykos, Trachinos, and Akesinos.

“Astrinax!” I had said, seeing him in the room.

I had inquired after the Lady Bina.

“She is essentially a prisoner,” said Astrinax. “For some reason they are holding her.”

“Is the throne of a Ubara still in her thoughts?” I asked.

“If so,” he said, “she no longer expects it from Kurii. Her rations have been reduced, and she is no longer treated with the respect with which she was originally received.”

“She has been repudiated by Grendel,” I said, “whose true feelings have now been revealed. She served his purpose as a pretext for hesitation in allying himself with Kurii, to win himself a more estimable offer of wealth and power. That received, she is no longer of use to him.”

“I fear she will be killed,” said Astrinax.

“No,” I said. “She is beautiful. She would bring a high price on a block. Let her be collared.”

“You do not understand, dear Allison,” he said. “That is because you are a barbarian. She is not an animal, such as you, which might be roped and claimed as such, bought and sold as such. She is a free woman. Thus, she is far more likely to be slain.”

“Might not Grendel speak for her,” I asked, “that she might be simply marked and collared?”

“She is of no concern to him,” said Astrinax.

“How treacherous and hateful he is,” I said.

“How is he different from any other of these beasts?” he asked.

“How, Desmond of Harfax,” inquired Kleomenes, “have you arrived at your understanding of things?”

“I prefer, at present,” said Desmond, “to keep my source confidential.”

“How can you expect us to believe you?” asked Kleomenes.

“I give you my word,” said Desmond.

“The word of many in this Cave,” said Kleomenes, “is worthless.”

“Obviously,” said Desmond, “I am willing to risk much. Even summoning you to this secret meeting is fraught with danger.”

“You have placed us all in jeopardy,” said Kleomenes.

“Yet you have come,” said Desmond. “And no one has left. To have come shows that you have suspected what might be afoot, that you have remained shows you suspect what I say is true.”

“There may be spies amongst us,” said a man.

“If so,” said Desmond, “they are fools, for they would be involved in the common peril.”

I noted that one or two of the fellows in the room held what appeared to be a deck of cards.

“If what you say is true,” said Kleomenes, “what can we do?”

“Pausanias, with his drivers, and wagons, has already left,” said Desmond. “That means, I believe, that things have begun. I do not expect them to return in the spring. I think they will scatter and initiate the intrigues I spoke of in a hundred cities.”

“Then it is too late,” said a fellow.

“No,” said Desmond, “for a hundred cities might be warned.”

“I see,” said Kleomenes.

“It is too fanciful,” said a man.

“We would not be believed,” said another.

“We must try,” said Desmond of Harfax.

“The snows will soon commence,” said a man.

“The passes will be closed,” said another.

“It will be safest to pretend we suspect nothing of this,” said a man, “and wait until spring.”

“That would give the conspiracy a start of months,” said Desmond.

“I am not eager to be hunted down by Kurii,” said another, “now, later, in the cold, in the snow, in the thaws of spring, in the heat of summer, anytime.”

“The beasts have use for us, for a time,” said another. “Is it not better to live for a time, than not to live, at all?”

“The beasts are formidable,” said Desmond, “but, within the laws of Priest-Kings, they are not invincible. The spear and sword, the bolt and arrow, speak to them as well as to us.”

“The hunted larl, the hunted sleen,” said a man, “often becomes the hunter.”

“Who would pursue the Voltai tarsk into a thicket, the wild bosk into the high grass?” said a fellow.

“Good, good!” said Desmond.

“How are we to proceed?” asked a fellow.

“We must enlist who we can amongst the humans,” said Desmond. “Gather supplies, secretly, and flee.”

“Soon,” said a fellow, “—the winter, the snows.”

“Yes,” said Desmond.

“But Kurii, the Cave, will remain,” said a fellow.

“Would it not remain a center for subversion and intrigue?” asked another.