Renegades of Gor (30 page)

there were those here, those who had not granted me preferments, on whom I would

have my vengeance. I even wanted some of the women consigned to me as slaves, so

that I could sell them to men.”

“You were thorough,” I said.

“Yes,” she said.

“You needed then only count on the honor of Cos.”

“Men are honorable,” she said.

“So, too, are some women,” I said.

“My allegiance it to myself,” she said, angrily.

“There are dispositions for women such as you,” I said.

“I do not understand,” she said.

“Proceed,” I said.

“My terms agreed to,” I said, “I received extremely specific instructions. These

instructions to the supply of information on various topics, matters pertaining

to supplies within the city, the condition of the gates and walls, and which

were the weaker and less defended points, the numbers of the active garrison,

civilian and military, the relative distributions and dispositions of these

components, the numbers of the ready militia, the posting of guardsmen, the

timing of their watches, and such. I could not find such things as the signs and

countersigns. Too, I understand they are changed daily.”

“Generally,” I said.

“Bit by bit,” she said, “I parceled out such information, as I could acquire it,

each night. To be sure, some of the things I could not learn. In return I now

received gold and jewels.”

I smiled.

“Did you make your name known to your confidant, or more likely, confidants, at

the foot of the wall?” I asked.

“I was too clever for that,” she said. “I did, however, (pg.203) demand, and

receive, a letter of safety, and an acknowledgment of services rendered, made

out to the bearer.”

“You are a clever woman,” I said.

“I am extremely clever,” I said.

“How came you then to be naked in a cell?” I asked.

She made a tiny, angry noise.

“Continue,” I said.

“Perhaps I had excited suspicion,” she said. “Perhaps guardsmen had noted my

appearance frequently on the wall, at the same time and place. Once I had to

strike another girl away from my place, fighting her for it. She did not

understand my intensity. She had thought it perhaps only an excellent place for

fishing. But it was my place! Perhaps my inquiries in the city, or my going

about, examining places, had been noticed. Perhaps suspicions had been cast upon

me by enemies. Perhaps some were angry that I had not had my hair cut for

catapult cordage. Perhaps they were jealous of my beautiful hair! But I was a

free woman! They could not make me have my hair cut, make me cut my beautiful

hair!”

Her hair, now, of course, had been cropped.

I heard a small sound outside the cell, perhaps someone passing in the corridor

outside. It must be, I thought, in the neighborhood of noon.

“Continue,” I said.

“I grew bold,” she said. “I would be rich. I saw Ar’s Station, to my

satisfaction, grow weaker each day. But when it fell, I would be safe! Too, I

would have my vengeance on my enemies!”

“The city, of course, would be likely to be destroyed,” I said.

“Either way I would have my vengeance,” she said.

“I see,” I said.

“Too,” she said, “as you may recall, I had reserved my pick of certain women, to

be consigned to me as slaves.”

“Personal enemies?” I said.

“Of course,” she said.

“Whom you might then sell to men?”

“Yes,” she said. “And that pleasure would presumably remain mine even if Ar’s

Station were burned to the ground, and salt cast upon the ashes!”

“Of course,” I said.

(pg.204) “And so I went again to the wall, as I had so many times,” she said.

“This time the papers hidden in my basket pertained to the defenses at the great

gate, the posting of guardsmen, the arrangement of their watches, and such. I

put the basket over the wall, through the same crenel, and had begun to lower

it. I had even feigned some weakness on the parapet, stumbling a little, as

though I might be faint with hunger. I thought that I had acted skillfully. My

attention was on the rope and basket. Then I felt the loops of a rope put about

my neck, closely, tightly, and I was drawn backward. “Do not make a noise,” said

a voice. But I could not have made a noise, had I wished, so tight was the rope.

I had made a noise, had I wished, so tight was the rope. I had wanted to drop

the basket but I had had no opportunity to do so. There were three men. as one

man had put his rope on me, making me his prisoner, another had taken the rope

from my hands. A third, standing back, had a dark lantern. I had not even heard

them approach. It took them only a moment, in the unshuttering of the dark

lantern, to rifle beneath the cloth and money in the basket and find the papers.

Their nature was immediately determined. I was immediately stripped. The rope

which had made me its prisoner was then fastened on my neck as a tether. My

clothing was put in the basket and lowered. I gathered that the nature of its

message would not be lost on him, or those, below. The rope was then drawn up

again and removed from the basket. My arms were then bound tightly to my sides

with it, in what seemed a hundred coils. It is hard for me to make clear to you

how helpless I felt. I was then drawn to my home, where my money and jewels were

found, notes on my next reports and the letter of safety, with the

acknowledgment of services. I was then conducted as I was, bound and naked, on a

tether, before Aemilianus. I was knelt before him so. The evidence pertinent to

my case, both from the parapet and from my home, was presented before him. That

very night, I was put in this cell, as I am.

“And you now await the pleasure of those whom you betrayed,” I said.

“Yes,” she said. In her voice there was terror.

I heard a sound behind the door, the placing of a pan on a stone.

“And what is your story?’ she asked.

(pg.205) “I am a courier of Gnieus Lelius, Regent of Ar,” I said, “mistaken for

a spy.” I was sure that there was significant treachery in Ar, and in high

places. The regent’s message, I was sure, had been removed from, or had never

been inserted in, the letter cylinder. A substitution had been made, doubtless,

of the contents of the cylinder or cylinders themselves. I had not, of course,

seen the regent place the message in the cylinder and seal it. There would be

nothing unusual in that, of course, for it is not permitted that couriers be

present at such times. Seldom are they privy to the councils of state. Normally

they simply receive the sealed letter or closed cylinder, or such, from a

subordinate, later, and are on their cylinder, or such, from a subordinate,

later, and are on their way.

“No! she said. “You are lying! You are trying to save yourself! You, too, are a

spy!”

“Perhaps,” I said.

The observation panel in the door slid back. Lady Claudia quickly hurried

forward, to kneel a few feet before the door, back from it, thusly, but in easy

view from the panel. “Kneel beside me,” she whispered, tensely. “We are fed but

once a day!” I saw no one in the observation panel. I remained sitting, as I

was. “Kneel beside me,” begged Lady Claudia. I then heard something like a stool

or platform scrape on the stones outside the door. A moment later I saw a small

head rise up behind the panel, that of a child or woman. I could see little, but

it seemed to be a delicate head, covered closely with a white, scarflike turban,

and I saw deep eyes, and a bit of veil, over the bridge of a fine, delicate

nose.

“I se, Lady Claudia,” said a woman’s voice, from behind the door, amused, “that

you will not be so lonely now.”

“Glory to Ar!” cried Lady Claudia, frightened. Then she turned to me. “Kneel

beside me,” she begged, “or we will not be fed!”

I knelt beside her, and the woman behind the door laughed. Then she snarled,

“Spies!” I did not think I could get my hand through the panel, as it was

narrow. “Glory to Ar,” said the woman behind the door.

“Glory to Ar! Glory to Ar! Glory to Ar!” cried Lady Claudia. Then she turned,

distraught to me. I had been silent. “Please!” she begged.

“Glory to Ar,” I said, three times.

(pg.206) The woman behind the door laughed.

I wished I had a way to get my hands on her. Her small, turbaned, veiled head

then disappeared from behind the opened panel and, a bit later, the low panel

slid back and a pan of water was slide partway beneath the door. Lady Claudia

went to it and took it back to the right, where she emptied it in a small,

shallow cistern in the cell. She then slid it back under the door, and returned

to kneel where she had been before. It did not seem probably I could get my hand

well through the low portal, to seize an ankle or wrist. It was worth

considering, of course. A male warder, taller, could see through the observation

panel, and determine that we were kneeling in our proper places, at the same

time that he might shove pans beneath the door with his foot. The woman would,

however, would not be tall enough for that.

Her head again appeared behind the panel.

“Food pan forward,” she said.

Lady Claudia immediately fetched a shallow pan from the side and put it about

five feet in front of where she now again knelt. I gathered she had been well

trained in these feeding procedures. Presumably to have put the pan forward

earlier, before receiving the order, or permission, would have been regarded as

presumptuous, and perhaps have resulted in its remaining empty for the day.

“You are pretty, naked, Lady Claudia,” said the voice.

Lady Claudia choked back a sob.

“Glory to Ar!” said the voice behind the door, sternly.

“Glory to Ar!” cried Lady Claudia, three times. I repeated this formula, as

well, three times.

The head then disappeared again from the panel. At the same there was a tiny

scrape, as of wood on stone, probably from a platform on which she had stood.

There was then silence, no sound of pans, or such. I quickly, to the

consternation of Lady Claudia, moved to the observation panel and looked through

it. I saw the warder going down the corridor. She was barefoot, and wore tatters

which barely covered her calves. These tatters appeared to be the remains of

what had perhaps once been a double dress, now shortened. The hems of both the

inner and outer skirt, doubtless in their shortenings, had been deeply serrated,

each in a series of some seven or eight large, triangular points. These points

were alternated (pg.207) in such a way that those of the inner skirt appeared

between those of the outer skirt. Thus, though the general appearance of the

garment suggested rags, they were, in their way, contrived rags. In a way,

though she perhaps did not understand this, they invited a man to their removal.

Perhaps it was her hope that if the city fell such a garment might save her

life, sparing her for the collar. The white, scarflike turban on her head, I

supposed, was a vanity, to conceal shortly cropped hair. The veil, of course,

was appropriate for a free female. I observed her calves, her bare feet, the

cleverly contrived rags she wore. Perhaps she had already rehearsed how she

would surrender herself to a man. If the time came, I was sure, stern warder

though she might pretend to be, she would submit herself quickly enough and

appropriately enough, ending her farce, accepting nudity and a collar, to a

master. She bent down and picked up a bucket, and, before she turned back, I

left the observation panel and returned to my place.

“Do not leave your kneeling position at such a time,” begged Lady Claudia, tears

in her eyes.

The head appeared behind the observation panel and found us in our places. As

soon as it left the panel this time I bent down to see if it might be possible

to seize her somehow from under the door. But, to my irritation, a pan, into

which had been ladled some meal and a piece of bread was thrust beneath the door

with a rod. Lady Claudia rushed to the pan and placed the meal and bread in the

cell’s food pan some five feet in front of her and then replaced the delivery

pan half under the door. It was pulled back with the rod. The warder, given that

she was a female, had been well taught suitable alterations in the common

routines of warders. Doubtless, too, somewhere there were men about, to back her

up, if need be. I was angry. I then straightened up in time to be in place when

she looked through the panel again. The use of the two pans is not primarily for

security as one pan could be used, or an exchange of pans, provided suitable

distances between the prisoners and the warders are maintained, but rather to

keep pans localized to given cells. This helps to prevent the spread of

infections and makes each cell responsible for its own hygiene.

“Please give us more to eat!” cried Lady Claudia.

“You are too fat now,” said the warder.

(pg.208) “Please!” begged Lady Claudia.

:Lady Claudia, in my opinion, was certainly not fat. On the other hand, it was

probably true that she had been better fed than most in Ar’s Station, at least

prior to her incarceration in the cell, given her former hoarding and the