Hunters of Gor (30 page)

constitute an incredibly dangerous set of foes.

I wondered if Marlenus required warning, even had I the chance to deliver it.

Even granting the men f Tyros the element of surprise and a superiority in

number of some fifty or sixty men, their enterprise was not without considerable

hazard.

They risked much. They risked much, unless there was more to be considered, more

than I had understood.

There must be more.

Then I realized what more there was.

The men of Tyros had planned carefully. I admired them. Their effort would be a

concerted one. But where might they find allies in the forests?

Marlenus, it seemed, for once in his life, had miscalculated. I can take any

city, he had told me, behind whose walls I can get a tarn of gold.

I walked behind the girls, and then behind the fourth, the slender,

black-haired, light-skinned girl I had so terrified in the water. “Do not turn

around,” I told her. I slipped the sleen knife from its belt sheath. I did so in

such a manner that she should hear the sound. She began to tremble. “Do not turn

around,” I cautioned her.

“Please, Master,” she whispered.

I took her by the hair and pulled her head back, and put the steel of the knife

at her throat. She saw the blade pass over her head before her eyes. She felt

it, like a narrow, obdurate line, on her throat.

“A slave girl,” I said, “should be completely open to her master.”

“Yes, Master,” she whispered.

“What occurs in the forest at the camp of Marlenus?” I asked.

“Am attack!” she whispered.

“By the men of Tyros,” I said, “and who?” I pulled her hair back, exposing her

throat more. She felt the blade press.

“Panther girls!” she whispered. “More than a hundred of them! The girls of the

band of Hura!”

I had known it would be her answer.

I did not remove the knife from her throat.

“Why did you not tell me this before?” I asked.

“I was afraid!” she wept. “I was afraid! The men of Tyros might kill me! The

panther girls might kill me!”

“Whom do you fear more?” I asked, “the men of Tyros, the panther girls, or your

master?”

“I fear you more, Maser!” she whispered.

I removed the knife from her throat, and she half collapsed in the coffle.

I walked to where she could see me. “What is your name?” I asked.

“Ilene,” she said.

It was an Earth name.

“Are you from the planet Earth?” I asked her.

She looked up at me. “Yes,” she whispered. “I was taken by slavers and brought

to Gor.”

“Where was your home?” I asked.

“Denver, Colorado,” she said.

“You have told me much,” I said. “It would not be well for you to fall into the

hands of those of Tyros, or the hands of Hura’s panther girls.”

“No, Master,” she said.

“You will, accordingly, obey me promptly and perfectly in all things,” I said.

“Yes, Master,” she said.

“Yes,” said I, “you were not completely honest with me. Accordingly, you will be

punished.”

“Master?” she asked.

“You will be sold in Port Kar,” I said.

The girl groaned. The others looked fearfully at one another.

“Posture!” I snapped.

The girls again stood, backs straight, heads high. They were very beautiful. In

the eyes of Ilene, of Earth, there were tears. She knew that she would be

punished. She had not been completely open to her master. It was in Port Kar

that she would ascend the block.

I then, speaking no more with them, strode from the beach and entered the

forest.

I carried sword, sleen knife, and bow with quiver. I did not bid the wenches to

follow me.

They might remain behind, naked and bound, tethered, as prey to sleen or

panthers, did they wish. They had served my enemies. I was not much pleased with

the. Their safety, or survival, as my actions made clear, was of little concern

to me.

“Wait, Master!” I heard.

I did not stop, but continued to make my way through the forest.

I heard them behind me, weeping, piteously, attempting to keep my pace.

14
   
I Give Evidence of my Displeasure

It was night.

I stood on a strong branch, against the trunk of a tree, some forty feet above

the ground.

I could survey the entire clearing.

This afternoon I had come to the camp of Marlenus. Its gate had swung in the

wind. Its pilings, forming its stockade, had been broken in various places, and

burned in others. There were sharpened logs about, fallen, some blackened by

fire. The tents had been struck, and were gone. In some places there was burned

canvas, indicating that the enemy had fired them from within. There was no sign

of the gate’s having been splintered or broken.

Bending over I found a string of cheap beads, formed from the shell of the bosk

sorp, broken. It might have been torn from the neck of a panther girl in a

struggle.

I studied the footprints, where they were clear. About some of the fires there

was the remains of a feast, and empty bottles. The bottles had been of Marlenus’

own stock, brought from Ar. I knew he did not, when outside of Ar, drink strange

wines.

Some birds flew over the ruins of the camp. Some flew down to peck at crumbs.

Marlenus for once in his life, had miscalculated.

It was not too difficult to conjecture what had happened. Marlenus was soon to

withdraw from the forest. There would have been a feast. To this feast, as

honored guests, would have been invited the panther girls of Hura’s band. The

men of Marlenus, celebrating the success of their expedition and the glory of

their Ubar, would have been, in the manner of warriors, much in their cups.

At the height of the feast some dozen or so panther girls would have overpowered

the guards at the gate, presumably drunken, and open the gate. Then, at a given

signal, the panther girls within, abetted by the men of Tyros without, would

have, with clubs and ropes, and the butts of their spears, sprung to the attack.

By treachery within and force from without the camp would have been swept.

Beyond the palisade several bodies had been dragged. Already some of them had

been mauled by sleen and other predators. I had examined the bodies. The men of

Ar had given a good account of themselves. Yes, altogether there were not more

than forty fallen, including some who had apparently been wounded, and whose

throats had been cut. Twenty-five of the fallen wore the yellow of Tyros.

The attack had apparently taken the camp by complete surprise, and had been

devastating and successful.

I had not found the body of Marlenus among the fallen. I thus conjectured that

the great Ubar, as well as some eighty-five of his men, had fallen captive.

Nine of my men had been with Marlenus. I did not find them among the dead. I

assumed they, too, had been captured. Rim, earlier, had returned to my camp. He

had been captured there, when the camp had fallen, and, according to the report

of one of the paga slaves, had been taken into the forest. I thus conjectured,

with Rim, and Marlenus, that Sarus of Tyros, leader of the enemy, held some

ninety-six men. He would, also hold, of course, several female slaves, and her

women, taken from the camp of Marlenus; and the girls of Marlenus, taken too,

from his camp.

I supposed that the men of Tyros, those who had been engaged in the attack, now

numbered somewhere in the neighborhood of one hundred and twenty-five.

I left the camp in the afternoon. There was little more to be gained there.

As I left I heard a sleen scratching among the bodies beyond the palisade.

The men of Tyros, I was sure, would be eager to march their captives through the

forests north of Laura and Lydius to the exchange point where they would meet,

by prearranged rendezvous, the Rhoda and the Tesephone.

It would take time for the men of Tyros to march their captives, in slave

chains, through the forest.

When they reached the exchange point it was doubtless their intention to embark

their captives and carry them slaves to Tyros. Doubtless, too, near one of the

exchange points, they would attempt to locate and seize, or purchase, Talena,

the former daughter of Marlenus of Ar.

It would be a great triumph in Tyros, to bring the great Marlenus, naked, in the

chains of a slave, branded, before their council. Doubtless they would first

bring him so through the streets, between jeering throngs, chained to the back

of a tharlarion wagon, white-silk maidens of Tyros dancing beside him, casting

love blossoms upon him. Marlenus would doubtless make great holiday in Tyros.

But men in slave chains cannot move rapidly, even under the whip.

I expected that the men of Tyros would be eager to hurry their captives to the

sea.

But first, I expected, panther girls would choose to exact their dues.

This night, I conjectured, was reserved for the cruel rites of the panther

girls.

I had returned to where I had left the four paga slaves, bound.

I had tied them in a secluded place, in pairs, standing back to back. Each pair

was bound in the same fashion. Two girls, stood, back to back, under a branch

which was over their head. The left wrist of the front girl was crossed, over

the branch, with the right wrist of the back girl, and their two wrists were

then tied together, over the branch. Then, of course, the right wrist of the

front girl was crossed over the branch with the left wrist of the back girl, and

was similarly fastened. The left ankle of the front girl was then tied to the

right ankle of the back girl, and the right ankle of the front girl was lashed

to the left ankle of the back girl. The other pair, of course, was fastened

identically. From the slave silk of two of them, torn into strips for strap and

wadding. I had improvised gags. I did not wish them to make outcry.

I looked upon Ilene. She was beautiful. I removed her gag, and kissed her. She

looked at me, startled. I had no time to use her. I thrust the wadding again in

her mouth, and fastened it tightly in place with the slave silk.

“You gags will remain fixed,” I told them.

I had them put them again in throat coffle, as before, their wrists bound behind

their backs.

Again, not speaking I strode from them. Again they followed, swiftly. Their

gags, for the time being, would remain fixed. We were now in the vicinity of the

enemy. The slaves would be silent.

I returned to the camp of Marlenus, and easily picked up the trail of the men of

Tyros and the panther girls of Hura’s band, and the trail, too, of the wretches,

chained, they drove between them.

It was night

I stood on a strong branch, against the trunk of a tree, some forty feet above

the ground.

I could survey the entire clearing.

It was the clearing that would be used at Hura’s circle of conquest.

It was also the night camp of the men of Tyros.

There were several large campfires in the clearing. Among them, staked out, were

the men of Marlenus. A man of Tyros had a hide drum and, at one side of the

clearing, was pounding out a monotonous, repetitive preparatory rhythm. Panther

girls, proud in their skins and gold, with their light spears, strode about. I

could see, too, the yellow of the men of Tyros. The reflections of the

firelight, intermingled with the intense, soft black shadows, illuminated the

trunks of the surrounding trees, and their lower leaves and branches.

I saw, within the circle, at one point, long-legged Hura and blond Mira,

standing together, conversing. I could have felled them with arrows. I did not

do so. I had other plans for them.

At one side of the clearing I saw Sarus, Captain of the Rhoda, leader of the men

of Tyros. He lifted his yellow helmet from his head and wiped his brow. The

night was hot.

There are various warrior strategies. One is to first slay the leader. Another

is to reduce him to helplessness and impotency before his men. I elected the

second.

I saw two men of Tyros bringing forth a brazier, filled with glowing coals. They

carried it by means of two metal bars thrust through it, the bars held by

gloves. From the brazier there protruded the handle of a slave iron.

From the shadows then was dragged forth, chained, a large man, strong,

struggling. He was thrown to his back on the grass, between four stakes. He was

beaten back, when he tried to rise, with the butts of spears. His foot manacles

were unsnapped and his two ankles were bound, widely apart, to two of the

stakes. When his wrist manacles were removed it took four men to press him back.

Then his left wrist was bound to one stake, and then his right wrist to another.

His wrists and ankles had been tied widely, painfully, apart. He struggled, but

was helpless.

Marlenus of Ar had been staked out.

The tempo of the man with the drum increased. I could see the shadows of tents

beyond the clearing.

Individuals, panther girls and men of Tyros, not, idly, some still eating food

from the supper fires, entered the conquest circle.

The brazier, fierce with heat, stood not two yards from Marlenus of Ar. Its

coals were poked and stirred with one of the metal bars. Then one of the men of