Vagabonds of Gor (85 page)

"Then stay with me," I said.

"I am collared, I am branded, I am only a slave!" she said. "Why do they want to kill me?"

"Get up!" I said.

"There she is," said a fellow a few yards away.

"Yes," said one of the closer fellows.

"Octantius is in the camp now," said another, "with the others."

"Splendid!" said a fellow.

"Just keep in contact," said a fellow.

"Let us charge together!" said another.

"Wait," said a fellow.

"There is no hurry," said another.

The word must have spread about rather quickly, because there were now some ten or twelve fellows about, some I had not seen before.

"Why do they want to kill me?" asked Ina.

"My speculation," I said, "is that Ar demands accountability for the disaster in the delta. I suspect that your fellow conspirators have selected you, and perhaps some others, to be identified and repudiated, as having duped others, and so on. In this way the more powerful conspirators may satisfy Ar's call for accounting and at the same time direct attention away from themselves. On the other hand, your more powerful fellows, I suppose, would not wish to risk the results of your testimony being taken in court."

"But I am only a slave," she said.

"But one who perhaps knows too much for her own good," I said.

"I could promise not to speak!" she said.

"You would speak," I said.

She looked at me, frightened.

"As you know," I said, "the testimony of slaves is taken under torture."

"Give her to us, and we will let you go," said a fellow.

I regarded them.

"Let us take her now," said one of them, "and share the reward only among ourselves!"

"Yes!" said another.

The eager fellow, perhaps too agreeable to the suggestion of the first, rushed forward. I kicked him back, off the sword, and whirled to face the second fellow who stopped, slipped to one knee, and scrambled back. I had no time to cut at him, he helpless there, as I whirled back in time to warn a third fellow away from Ina, who was crouching behind me.

"Give her to us," said one of the fellows, "and we will share the reward with you!"

"We will give you ten pieces of gold, tarn disks of Ar," proposed another, "full weight!"

"That is more than she would bring on the block," said another.

I glanced down at Ina. Yes, I thought, that would be considerably more than she would bring on the block.

"Accept the offer," said the fellow who had proposed the ten pieces of gold.

"Stay back," I warned him.

"Octantius will be here soon," said another, looking back. "The reward will then be too much divided."

"Deal with us," said another.

"Octantius will have bowmen with him," said another. "Resistance will then be useless."

"Deal with us," repeated the former fellow.

"Stay back," I said.

"There is nothing to be gained," wept Ina. "Give me to them!"

I lashed back at her with the back of my hand, and struck her to the dirt aisle. "You were not given permission to speak, slave girl," I said.

"Yes, Master!" she cried joyfully. "Forgive me, Master!"

"Come along," I said.

Ina, creeping at my side, I, moving through the aisle, looking about me, moved between the hunters, who fell back, on both sides, to let me pass. But then, as soon as I had passed them, they fell in behind me, and about me, as closely as they dared. I would move toward one or another, and that fellow would give way, but the cloud, like a pack of sleen scouting a larl, waiting for it to tire, or make a mistake, stayed with us.

"Where are you going?" asked one of them.

I did not respond to him.

I was moving in the direction in which the one fellow had looked back, when he had feared Octantius, with his men, might too soon arrive, thereby minimizing the shares in the projected reward.

"There are no tarns in camp," said one of the men. "There are no tharlarion within the wire."

I did not respond to him.

I had two plans, concerning the prospects of neither of which was I sanguine. In both of these plans I wished to encounter Octantius, in the first, by a bold ruse, if he did not have the gold with him, to convince him of the dubiousness of his receiving it, thereby hopefully at least buying time; and in the second, if he had the gold with him, perhaps to lure or shame him into personal combat, following which, if I were successful, I might be able to seize the gold and distribute it among the others, thereby hopefully disbanding them.

It was now past noon and, the animals having been for the most part fed and watered, and groomed, and the camp now open, there were several visitors, onlookers, guests, dealers, customers, and such, about. To be sure, as it was only the beginning of the business day, which would last until the 20th Ahn, the Gorean midnight, the crowds were not yet heavy. I was now making my way toward the main gate.

"There is Octantius!" said a fellow.

I stopped, and found myself then in the center of a large ring of men, some one hundred feet or so in diameter, waiting in the first concourse, near the main gate, surely at least seventy or eighty of them.

"Tal," said Octantius, rising from a chair, beneath an awning, handing his beverage to a subordinate. Such chairs, awnings, and such, as well as food and drink, are available in the camp. Conveniences, facilities, refreshments, and such, are commonly available in large camps, as they are, for example, at games, tharlarion races, and Kaissa matches.

"Tal," said I to him.

He pointed to a sack, in the hands of a fellow near him. "I had not expected the entire slave to be delivered so conveniently to me," he said. "I thought to receive only her head, to be placed in this sack."

None of the fellows in the large ring approached me. I looked about to make certain of this.

Ina sank to her knees beside me. I do not think she now found it possible to stand. On the other hand, it was appropriate for her to kneel, as she was in the presence of free men.

"Do you recall me?" he called to Ina.

"Yes," she said.

"I once took orders from her," said Octantius.

There was laughter from some of the men about.

"Where are your veils and fine robes now?" he called.

She was silent.

"You are now what you should always have been," he said, "a slave girl."

She was silent.

"Is it not true?" he asked.

"Yes," she said.

I looked at her, sharply.

"Yes, Master!" she called to Octantius.

"And with pierced ears!" he called.

"Yes, Master!" she wept.

There was much laughter from the ring of men about. What a reduction in her status had taken place! What a lowly slave she had become! Besides the men of Octantius there were several others, too, who had gathered about, a small crowd, in fact.

"Will it not be amusing," called he to her, "to deliver your head to my superior, with its ears pierced."

There was laughter. She shuddered.

"Will it not?" he asked, sternly.

"Yes, Master!" she wept. There was more laughter.

"It has been reported to me that you have fought well," said Octantius to me.

I did not respond to him.

"Cut off her head," he said.

"No," I said.

"Deliver her to us and you will be spared," he said.

"No," I said.

"Very well," said he. "The choice is yours." He signaled to some fellows about him, crossbowmen. There were some ten of them. They drew their quarrels and placed them in the guide.

"Wait!" I said.

He lifted his hand, the bowmen then not leveling their weapons.

"The gold will never be paid for her!" I said.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Saphronicus," I said, "is dead."

He seemed suddenly startled.

I assumed, of course, surely a reasonable assumption, and apparently a correct one, that he was the agent of Saphronicus, commander of the forces of Ar in the north. Saphronicus, presumably the major conspirator in the north, would be the fellow most likely to direct Octantius and provide the reward.

"Saphronicus is not dead," said Octantius.

"He is dead," I insisted.

"How have you heard this?" inquired Octantius, smiling.

"I have heard it," I said. I had, of course, heard nothing of the sort. I hoped, of course, if Octantius did not have the gold with him, that there would now be doubt, in the event of the death of Saphronicus, as to its eventual appearance. I hoped in this way to buy time. I did not think they would be likely to kill Ina, who was now a very lovely slave, for nothing. There are obviously much better things to do with beautiful slaves. Keep them, to serve perfectly, subject to the full rigors of the mastery.

Octantius put back his head and laughed.

"Saphronicus is dead!" I insisted, addressing this more to the other fellows about than Octantius.

The men of Octantius, a rough crew on the whole, looked at one another uneasily. Too, as I have mentioned, there were now several others about also, a small crowd, and, as a matter of fact, now more than before. As fellows came in they naturally drifted to the circumference of the circle, and about it, to see what might be occurring.

"Octantius?" asked one of his men, in the ring.

"He is lying," said Octantius.

The men looked at one another.

"It is a game, a ruse, to buy time," said Octantius. "Can you not tell?"

I saw, to my satisfaction, that the men were not completely convinced of this. News, on Gor, of course, does not travel in a uniform, reliable fashion. Too, given the distances and the modes of transportation, and occasionally the hardships and peril of travel, it does not always move quickly. Too, it can depend on things as simple as the luck of a messenger, and who speaks to whom. There were doubtless many cities on Gor which did not even know, as yet, of the fall of Ar's Station. Too, as one might expect, in such a milieu, rumors tend to be rampant. If it is often difficult even in a Ubar's court, perhaps because of the shadings and distortions of reports from subsidiary cities and towns, to ascertain exactly what happened, one may well imagine the problems encountered by the populace in general, in the markets, the baths and taverns.

"Even if Saphronicus were dead, which he is not," said Octantius, angrily, "it does not matter."

The men looked at one another.