Savages of Gor (21 page)

"Oh," I said. I added the next girl to the chain. The collars had front and back rings, were hinged on the right and locked on the left. This is a familiar form of coffle collar. The lengths of chain between the collars were about three to four feet long. Some were attached to the collar rings by the links themselves, opened and then reclosed about the rings, and some of them were fastened to the collar rings by snap rings. Another common form of coffle collar has its hinge in the front and closes behind the back of the neck, like the common slave collar. It has a single collar ring usually on the right, through which, usually, a single chain is strung. Girls are spaced on such a chain, usually, by snap rings. An advantage of the first sort of coffle arrangement is that the chain may, as girls are added or subtracted, be shortened or lengthened. A chain, which has been borne by fifty girls, would, of course, be impracticably heavy for five or six. An advantage of the second arrangement is that girls can be easily spaced on the chain, more or less closely together, and can be conveniently removed from, and added to, the chain. Which chaining arrangement is best for a given set of girls depends, of course, on the particular intentions and purposes of their master. The fellow in the broad-brimmed hat had opted, of course, for the first arrangement. This suggested to me that he expected girls, for one reason or another, to be subtracted from the chain.

"If you are not now in flight," he said, "I suggest that you consider its advisability."

I looked at him. He handed me another length of chain and a collar.

"You should leave town, and soon," he said.

I put another girl on the chain.

"Why?" I asked.

"The vanity of the Hobarts, a proud folk," he said, "was much stung this night, and before female slaves. They will come with their men, with crossbows and swords. They will want their revenge."

"I do not fear them," I said.

"When do you intend to leave Kailiauk?" he asked.

"In the morning," I said.

"Good," said he. "I would not alter my plans."

"I have no intention of doing so," I said. Martial dalliance was not germane to my mission.

"Put her on the chain," said the fellow, handing me another collar and length of chain.

I added a blonde to the chain. He then handed me another chain segment and collar, unlooping it from his shoulder.

"What are you going to do?" he asked.

"I have purchased some trade goods," I said. "It is my intention to enter the Barrens."

"That is dangerous," said he.

"That is what I have heard," I said.

"Do you know any of the languages? Do you know even "No," I said.

"Avoid them, then," he said.

I then added another girl to the coffle, a shorthaired, sturdy-legged brunet.

"I am determined," I said.

The fellow lifted the girl's short, dark hair. "It will be difficult to braid this hair," he said, "but it will grow."

I then, taking a collar and a length of chain from him, added the next girl to the coffle. She was also a brunet.

"I am curious," I said, "as to the nature of the girls you have purchased. These seven, though surely outstandingly attractive, seem to me to have been rather exceeded in beauty by several of the others, whom you did not choose to buy."

"Perhaps," he grinned. He handed me another collar, and length of chain, unloosing it from his shoulder.

"Please don't put me in a collar," said the seventh girl, looking up, tears in her eyes. She had spoken in English. She had light-brown hair. I put the collar on her throat, and locked it. She was then naught but another lovely component in the coffle. She put back her head, and choked back a sob.

"Are you truly determined to enter the Barrens?" asked the fellow.

"Yes," I said.

"How many kaiila do you have?'' he asked.

"Two," I said, "one to ride, another for the trade goods."

"That is fortunate," said the fellow. "No more than two kaiila are to be brought by any single white man into the Barrens. Too, no party of white men in the Barrens is permitted to bring in more than ten kaiila."

"These are rules in Kailiauk?" I asked.

"They are the rules of the red savages," he said.

"Then," said I, "only small groups of white men enter the Barrens, or else they would be on foot, at the mercy of the inhabitants of the area."

"Precisely," said the fellow.

Two slave girls, blindfolded, their hands tied behind them, were then thrust into the room. An attendant, holding them by the arms, brought them forward, and then, at the indication of the fellow in the broad-brimmed hat, knelt them down over the yellow line, in front of the hitherto first girl in the coffle. Both were frightened. They were Ginger and Evelyn. "To whom have we been sold?" begged Ginger. "Where are we being taken?" begged Evelyn. The attendant then, with his booted foot, kicked Ginger to her side on the floor. Then he took Evelyn's hair in his left hand and with his right hand lashed her face twice, with the palm and then the back of his hand, snapping it from side to side. He then knelt them again, on the line. "Forgive us, Masters," begged Ginger. "Forgive us, Masters," begged Evelyn, blood at the side of her mouth.

I then, with materials supplied by the fellow in the broad brimmed hat, added Ginger and Evelyn to the coffle.

"The three of them, together," said the attendant, "come to ten nine. The other will be brought forward in a moment."

I saw the coins change hands.

The small wrists of Ginger and Evelyn pulled futilely at their bonds.

In a moment, as the attendant had suggested, the red-haired girl was introduced into the room.

"She is a beauty," I said to the fellow in the broad brimmed hat.

"That she is," he said, "and, beyond that, it is the sort of girl she is. She will make a superb slave."

The girl, then, half stumbling, was brought forward. Rudely she was thrust down to her knees, where the fellow in the broad-brimmed hat indicated, at the head of the coffle. To her horror her knees were kicked apart. Her chin was then pushed up. In a moment she was fastened with the others.

I looked down at the red-haired girl. The man in the broad-brimmed hat lifted her hair, displaying it to me. "It is long enough to braid," he said.

"If one wished it," I said. I myself tended to prefer, on the whole, long, loose hair on a slave, tied back, if at all, with a headband or, behind the head, with a cloth or string.

He let her hair fall back, down her back.

"She would bring a high price," I said, "in almost any market with which I am familiar."

"I will be able to get five hides of the yellow kailiauk for her," said the man,

"Oh, no, Master!" cried Ginger, suddenly, dismally. "No. Master!'' protested Evelyn. "Please, no! Please, no'

The man in the broad-brimmed hat bent down and, one after the other, untied the wrists of Evelyn, Ginger and the red-haired girl. Ginger and Evelyn were trembling, half in hysteria. Yet they had presence of mind enough to place their hands, palms down, on their thighs. The palms of the red-haired girl, forcibly, her wrists in his grasp, were placed on her thighs. When her left hand wished to stray to her brand he took it and placed it again, firmly, palm down, on her thigh.

"Yes, Master," whispered the girl, in English. I was pleased to see that she was intelligent. A fresh brand is not to be disturbed, of course.

The fellow in the broad-brimmed hat then removed the blindfolds from Ginger and Evelyn. "Oh, no!" wept Ginger. "No, no!" wept Evelyn. "Not you, please!" They regarded who it was who owned them, in dismay, and with horror. Yet, I think, but moments before, surely they had sensed, and surely feared, who he might be. Their worst fears had now seemed confirmed. I did not understand their terror. He seemed to me a genial enough fellow. "Sell us, beloved Master!" begged Ginger. "Please, Master," begged Evelyn, "we are only poor slaves. Take pity on us! Sell us to another!'' "Make us pot girls!" begged Ginger. "Shackle us! Send us to the farms!" "We are only poor slaves," wept Evelyn. "Please, please, Master, sell us to another! We beg you, Beloved Master. Sell us to another!"

"The house of Ram Seibar," said the fellow, amused, "wishes you both taken from Kailiauk."

Several of the other girls now, I noted, were frightened and apprehensive. The red-haired girl, too, seemed frightened. They could not understand Gorean but the terror of the other slaves was patent to them. None of them, I noted, to my satisfaction, had dared to break position. Already, I conjectured, they had begun to suspect what might be the nature of Gorean discipline.

"Master!" wept Ginger.

"Please, Master!" wept Evelyn.

"Position," snapped the man in the broad-brimmed hat.

Immediately the girls knelt back in the coffle, back on their heels, their knees wide, their hands on their thighs, their backs straight and heads lifted. Seeing this, the other girls, too, behind them, hurriedly sought to improve their posture. The red-haired girl, who could not see behind her, from the sound of the command, and the movements in the chain, reaching her through the back collar ring, fearfully sensing what was going on, straightened herself as well.

"These two girls, the second and third," I said, indicating Ginger and Evelyn, "seem quite disturbed to discover that you are their master."

"It surely seems so," granted the fellow in the broad brimmed hat.

"Why should they regard you with such terror," I asked, "more than seems necessary on the part of a slave girl with respect to her master?" It is natural for a slave girl, of course, to regard her master with a certain trepidation. She is, after all, an animal, who is owned by him, over whom he has total power. The rational slave girl will almost never intentionally displease her master. First, it is just too costly to do so. Secondly, for reasons that are sometimes obscure to men, these having to do with her being a female, she seldom desires to do so.

"I do not think that it is I, personally, whom they regard with such terror," he grinned.

"What then could be the source of such terror?" I asked.

"Who knows what goes on in the heads of pretty little slaves," he said.

"You seem evasive," I observed.

"Perhaps," he admitted.

"Your coffle," I said, "is striking, an assemblage of chained beauties. Yet I think there seems a rather clear distinction between the first three girls and the last seven, and, if I may say so, between the first and the second two."

"Yes," he said, "that is true. Observe the last seven girls. Do you know their nature? Do you know what they are?"

"What?" I asked.

"Pack animals," he said. "They are pack animals."

"I thought they might be," I said. The fellow's itinerary now seemed clear to me. No more than two kaiila, I remembered he had said, may be brought in by any given white man.

"And the first girl," I asked, "is she, too, to be a pack animal?"

"She, too, will serve as a pack animal," he said, "as will they all, but, ultimately, I have a different disposition in mind for her."

"I see," I said.

"She will be worth five hides of the yellow kailiauk to me," he said.

"Then you will make a splendid profit on her," I said.

"Yes," said he. A robe of yellow kailiauk, even in average condition, can bring as much as five silver tarsks.

I looked at the red-haired girl in the coffle, the former Millicent Aubrey-Welles. She did not even know she was the subject of our conversation.

"And what of these other two?" I asked, indicating Ginger and Evelyn.

"By means of them I can communicate with the red-haired girl," he said. "In their barbarous tongue they can make clear to her, and quickly, the nature of her condition, and the efficiency, intimacy and totality of the services that will be required of her. Too, they can teach her some Gorean, which will keep them all busy, and help me train her."

"I see," I said.

He adjusted the remainder of the chains and collars on his shoulder. He had not come to the sales barn, apparently, knowing exactly how many girls he would purchase. It is difficult to anticipate such things accurately, of course, particularly when buying in lots. Much depends on what is available and what turns out to be the going prices, on a given night. "The treks can be long," he said.

"Treks?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"I note," I said, "that all of these girls are barbarians, even the second and third girl. Why have you not purchased some Gorean girls for your pack train?"

"For pack animals it is surely more appropriate to use meaningless barbarians than Gorean girls," he said.

"Of course," I granted him.

"But there is, of course," he grinned, "another reason, as well."

"What is that?" I asked.

"These barbarian girls will march along in their coffle as ignorant and innocent as kaiila," he said.

"Whereas?" I asked.

"Whereas," he grinned, "Gorean girls might die of fear."