Kajira of Gor (27 page)

Dress her in her most regal robes,” commanded Ligurious.

“Yes, Master,” said Susan, fumbling with the garments.

I stood before the mirror in my quarters. I watched the glorious robes of state

being placed about my shoulders.

Earlier I had stood frightene.d behind the door, now kept locked, my ear to the

wood.

“They are within the city!” I had heard cry.

“Impossiblel” had cried a guard.

“How was it done?” inquired another, insistently, bewilderedly.

“It seems a Sa-Tarna wagon was fleeing before the approaching enemy, seeking to

reach the city before being overtaken,” said a man.

“There was time, happily, it seemed, though the matter would be close, for the

wagon to win its race, and sorely, as you know, did we need the grain. Ile gate

was opened to admit the wagon. Surely there would then be time, and time enough,

given the distances involved, to close the gate. One wagon seemed to be drawn by

two strings of male slaves, twenty in each string, as is common. These men,

however, were not slaves. The wagon within the portal, they threw off their

harnesses and from beneath the grain drew forth swords. They prevented the

closing of the gate. In moments the vanguard of the enemy had arrived.” see

I had hurried then to the barred window. I could smoke rising from the city.

Shortly thereafter Ligurious and Susan had arrived at my quarters.

Ligurious wore soldierly garb, but of a sort with which I was not familiar. I

did not know the insignia, the markings.

“Put her in the veil of state,” said Ligurious. Susan brought forth a long,

lovely veil, intricately embroidered. She adjusted my robes about me,

concealing, in the fashion of the robes of concealment, now not thrown back, but

drawn up, my hair and much of my head. She then pinned the veil in place. It was

very beautiful. It was opaque.

Little could now be seen of me but my eyes and a bit of the bridge of my nose. I

had not even known such a veil existed. Hitherto I had generally worn veils only

when intending to travel incognito in the city, and I had never worn them on

official occasions of state.

Come along,” said Ligurious. He took my arm and, half dragging me, conducted me

from my quarters.

In moments we were hurrying through the halls. Falling in behind Ligurious were

some five or six men, not my guards, who were dressed much as he was.

The halls seemed, for the most part, oddly deserted. Occasionally a man ran

past. At one point, crouching down, then kneeling, as wt passed, by hangings at

the side of the corridor, was a slave girl. She was terrified. She wore some

twists of silk about her. She wore a collar of a sort, rather high and ornate,

which is often jeweled. No jewels, however, caught the light as we passed. They

had been, I gathered, pried from their settings.

Susan was not with us. I did not know where she was. Apparently she had been

left behind.

I was thrust into an anteroom, one off the great hall. In this room there were

some four or five men and a woman. The woman wore a robe, hooding her, and was

turned away from me. She -was about my height Interestingly she was barefoot and

the robe she wore came only a bit below the -x. I thought she had nice calves

and ankles. Mine, I thought, might be better, A man, dressed rather in the

fashion of Ligurious and the others, was lifting a sheet about her. She clutched

this sheet about her, drawing it even about her head, and holding it together,

before her face, effectively veiling herself with it. She turned to face me.

Then she turned away. Her eye color, I noted, was not dissimilar to mine.

Ligurious turned me, so that I faced the door to the great hall, where, on the

lofty dais, reposed the throne of Corcyrus.

“Is all ready?” asked Ligurious.

“Yes,” responded a man.

“The tarns?” asked Ligurious.

“Yes,” said the man. “Everything is ready.”

I turned. I saw that the sheet, now, had been drawn completely over the woman,

as though thrown over her. As it hung about her, its bern fell midway between

her ankles and knees. I was startled. It was almost as though, under the sheet,

she might be naked. I gasped. Something was being fastened about her throat,

over the sheet, under her chin. It was round. There was a long strap connected

with it. It was a slave collar and leashl

Ligurious took me by the arm and turned me about, again, facing me toward the

door to the great ball.

I did not know who the woman was, but I suspected that she might be she with

whom Ligurious had confessed himself to be so smitten, she to whom I apparently

bore some resemblance. It seemed odd to me, almost incomprehensible, that

Ligurious, a man such as he, who must have had some fifty women at his feet,

women such as Susan, women kneeling in terror and awe about him, for he was

their total master, should be so much like a callow youth, should -be so weak,

with this woman. Did he not know, I asked myself, scornfully, that she, too,

ultimately, was only a woman, that she, too, ultimately, needed only the whip

and a master?

I was then conducted into the great hall by Ligurious. It was empty. The two

great entrance doors, at the far end, were locked from the inside, with the

great beams in their brackets. It took ten guardsmen to move those beams. I

could not begin to budge them.

“Is there any sign of the men of Cos?” I heard a man ask behind us, from the

anteroom.

“They are not locals,” said another man. “They will not meet Ar on the land.”

“Do the people resist the enemy?” I heard another man ask.

“No,” said another man. “They abet them.”

I ascended the steps of the dais, conducted by Ligurious.

At his indication I took my place on the throne.

“The doors of the anteroom will be locked behind us,” said Ligurious. “You will

not be able to open them.”

“what is going on?” I asked.

“You will soon serve your purpose,” said Ligurious.

“What purpose?” I said.

“That purpose which we feared might one day have to be served, that purpose, or

major purpose, why you were brought to Gor.”

“I do not understand,” I said. I did recall that last night I bad been assured

that everything bad been planned for, that all contingencies, according to

Ligurious, bad been anticipated. JI

I wondered if I still had a role to play in these contingencies.

“You still need me, then?” I said. “I still figure in your plans?”

“Of course,” be said.

I was relieved to hear this. I was afraid as to what might prove to be my fate

if a man such as Ligurious no longer had any particular or special use for me. I

was pretty. I could .conjecture what fates might lie in store for me.

“Listen,” said he. “Do you hear it?”

“Yes,” I said. It was a dull, striking sound, coming as though from a great

distance. It had a rhythm to it.

“It is a ram,” said he, “doubtless slung from a cradle, drawn by ropes,

doubtless with a will by citizens of Corcyrus.

“It sounds far away,” I said.

“It is at the outer gate,” he said.

“The citizens of Corcyrus love me,” I said.

“Do not doubt it,” be said. “I must now take my leave. I fear there is little

time.”

“But what of me?” I said. “I am afraid. Will you come back for me?”

“Have no fear, Lady Sheila,” he said. “You will be come for.”

“Soon?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. He then backed down the stairs. He bowed deeply.

“Farewell, Lady Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrus,” he said.

He then withdrew.

I heard a splintering in the distance, and then, in a moment, a new striking,

doubtless on the interior gate.

I heard the closing of the anteroom door behind Ligurious, and then the dropping

in place of beams, the sliding of bolts. It had been locked from within, from

the other side.

I sat on the throne, clutching its arms, alone in the great hall.

13
   
The Golden Cage; Miles of Argentum Speaks With Me

I clutched the arms of the throne in terror.

Before this I had heard the screams of the crowd outside the doors, their

shouting and pounding, then the striking of a heavy beam against the door.

Men and women, many in rags, brandishing knives and implements, mixed with

soldiers, poured into the great ball. The doors were open, and one bung awry on

its hinges. The mob, with the soldiers, swirling about the heavy beam, now

dropped, which had been used to breach the doors, flooded toward the dais. At

the foot of the dais, shaking fists, shouting angrily, some restrained by

soldiers, the crowd stopped.

“Cut her to piecesl” I heard. “Tear her to piecesl”

“She is ‘Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrust” cried men in the crowd. “It is Sheila,

Tatrix of Corcyrusl” “It is shel” “It is Sheilal” “It is Sheila, the Tatrix of

Corcyrusl”

I moaned. I was terrified that they should know that.

Miles of Argentum sheathed his sword. He handed his helmet to one of the men

with him.

He approached the throne.

“Please, don’t,” I said.

Then he jerked away the veil of state from my features. I, though a free woman,

had been face-stripped before free men. My face was as bare to them as though I

might be a slave. Face-stripping a free woman, against her will, can be a

serious crime on Gor. On the other hand, Corcyrus had now fallen. Her women,

thusly, now at the feet of her conquerors, would be little better than slaves.

Any fate could now be inflicted on them that the conquerors might wish,

including making them actual slaves. The hand of Miles of Argentum then brushed

back my robes, that my whole head and features, to the throat, might be revealed

to the crowd.

“This is the way in which I am more accustomed to seeing you,” he said.

“Greetings, Lady Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrus.”

if

“I am Tiffany Collins,” I said, weakly. “I am from Earth.”

“Your features,” said Miles of Argenturn, “are surely well known to hundreds, if

not thousands.”

“Cut her to piecesl” cried men in the crowd. “Tear her to piecesl” cried women

in the crowd.

“I am from Earthl” I cried. “I am Tiffany Collinsl”

“Bring forth the palace slave called Susan,” said Miles of Argentum.

Susan, from somewhere in the back, was thrust forward. I gasped.

She was absolutely naked, save that she still wore the collar of Ligurious. Her

hands were bound behind her back.

In her nose there was a small, circular, wire apparatus which P;j had apparently

been held open, thrust through her septum, and then permitted to spring shut.

Attached to this apparatus, tied through it, dangling, was a looped thong, about

two feet in length. It was clearly a device by means of which a slave, or

perhaps any female, might be led.

“You are Susan, are you not,” inquired Miles of Argentum, “who was as personal

serving slave to Sheila, the Tatrix of Corcyrus?”

“Yes, Master,” she said.

He indicated that she might kneel before the throne.

“Is this she who was to you as Mistress?” inquired Miles of Argenturn,

addressing himself to the terrified slave from Cincinnati at his feet.

“Tell them I am Tiffany Collins, from Earth I” I told Susan.

“’She is truly from Earth, I think, Master,” wept Susan, and that is what, I

recall, she told me her name was.”

I almost cried out with relief.

“And putting aside such former names and worlds,” said Miles, “as whom do you

know her here?”

Susan began to tremble.

“You know the penalties for a slave who lies,” said Miles. “Think carefully and

well, my small, nose-ringed beauty.”

“She is she who was to me as Mistress,” said Susan, sobbing, “she whom I served,

Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrus.”

There was a cry of elation from the crowd.

“Forgive me, Mistressl” cried Susan. She then, at a sign from Miles, led by the

thong, in the grip of a soldier, hurrying, almost running, that she did not

place the least stress on the device in her nose, was being conducted rapidly

from the room. I supposed she would be placed with other women, perhaps wearing

similar devices. They can be tied about slave ring% fastened to other such

thongs, and so on. Just before the soldier had grasped the thong I had seen her

wildly look at Miles of Argentum. Doubtless she remembered him well from the

audience, so long ago. Too, I thought it quite likely that be remembered her. In

that audience he had looked upon her as though she might not be likely to

quickly slip his mind. Too, he had had her summoned to the dais by her palace

name. She had tried to read in his countenance, in that brief, wild instant,

before she was removed from the dais, her fate, but she had been unable to do

so. He was not, perhaps by intention, even looking at her. She did not know then

if, when the collar of Ligurious was removed from her, she would be sent to his

headquarters or not. There, of course, if she were found sufficiently pleasing,

after perhaps a closer examination and trial, another collar might be put on

her. She would, in any case, wear one collar or another, somewhere. She was a

slave.

I the captain from Ar,” said Miles of Argentum.

lean figure entered the hall, and approached now ‘long aisle.