Renegades of Gor (8 page)

           
Bath girl……………………………………………………………...2 C.T.

           
Sponge, oil and strigil………………………………………………..1 C.T.

           
Girl for the night……………………………………………………..5 C.T.

           
T., Greens and Stable………………………………………………...2 C.T.

           
T., Meat and Cot……………………………………………………..5 C.T.

A comment, or two, might be in order on this list of prices. First, it will be

noted that they are not typical. In many inns, depending on the season, to be

sure, and the readiness of the keeper to negotiate, one can stay for as little

as two or three (pg.52) copper tarsks a day, everything included, within reason,

of course, subject to some restraint with respect to page, and such. Also, the

bath girl, and the sponge, oil and strigil, in most establishments, come with

the price of the bath itself. The prices on the list on the wall seemed

excessive, perhaps to a factor of five or more. The prices, of course, were in

terms of copper tarsks.

For purposes of comparison, in many paga taverns, one may have paga and food,

and a girl for the alcove, if one wants, for a single copper tarsk. Dancers, to

be sure, sometimes cost two. I did not know what the “other food” might be. One

always inquires. It would vary seasonally, depend on the local suppliers, and,

in some cases, even on the luck of local hunters and fishermen. In most inns the

fare is simple and hearty. If one is particular about one’s food, one sometimes

brings it with one, and instructs the keeper how it is to be prepared. Some rich

men bring their own cooks. After all, one cannot always count on a keeper’s man

knowing how to prepare Turian vulo or Kassau parsit. The references to “greens”

and “meat”, and such, were pertinent to draft tharlarion and tarns, and so, too,

the references to stabling and cots, respectively.

It might be of interest to note that when I had come to Gor, some years ago,

domestic tarns, like wild tarns, almost always made their own kills. They may

still do so, of course, but now many have been trained to accept prepared, even

preserved, meat. Ideally, they are taught to do this from the time of

hatchlings, it being thrust into their mouths, given to them much as their

mother bird would do in the wild. Tongs are used. With older birds, on the other

hand, captured wild tarns, for example, the training usually takes the form of

tying fresh meat on live animals, and then, when the tarn is accustomed to

eating both, effecting the transition to the prepared meat. Needless to say, a

hunting tarn is extremely dangerous, and although its favorite prey may be

tabuk, or wild tarsk, they can attack human beings. This training innovation,

interestingly enough, and perhaps predictably, was not primarily the result of

an attempt to increase the safety of human beings, particularly those in rural

areas, but was rather largely the result of attempting to achieve military

objectives, in particular those having to do with the logistical support of

(pg.53) the tarn cavalry. Because of it, for the first time, large tarn

cavalries, numbering in the hundreds of men, became practical.

“Tal,” said a grizzled fellow, wearily, appearing through a door to the side.

“Tal,” said I to him.

“It is quieter outside now,” he said.

“It is still raining,” I said.

“It is ten tarsks a night,” he said. That agreed with the sign.

“That is very expensive,” I said.

“True,” he said. “I myself would not pay so much.”

“Perhaps I will leave now,” I said.

“The rain has slacked off?” he said.

“Are these prices negotiable?” I inquired.

“No,” said he.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said. “The keeper, believe me, I know, is a resolute and greedy

fellow.”

“He is probably not as bad as you think,” I said.

“Take my word for it, he is,” he said.

“I would like a bath, the sponge, and such, and a bath girl.”

“That will add two to your bill,” he said.

“Should it not add four?” I asked.

“No bath girl,” he said. “Because of the crowding, and the demand, we are using

them as inn girls.”

“I see,” I said.

“You will have to sponge, oil and strigil yourself,” he said.

“That seems somewhat barbaric,” I said. Also it was hard to reach certain spots

on the back.

“Times are hard,” he said.

“Where are your baths?” I asked.

“Through there,” he said, indicating a passage.

“Where is your paga room?” I asked.

“There,” said he, indicating another passage.

“Later,” I said. “I would like a girl sent to my room.”

“You do not have a room,” he said.

“What are the ten tarsks for?” I asked.

“Lodging,” he said.

“You do not have rooms?” I asked.

(pg.54) “Not separate rooms, for guests,” he said. “There are, instead, common

areas.”

“There are beds there?” I asked, apprehensively.

“Yes, beds,” he said.

“I see,” I said.

“Surely you know where you are,” he said.

“On the Vosk Road,” I said, warily.

“And within a hundred pasangs of the river,” he said. “No inns around here have

beds. You should know that. You seem uninformed.”

“Perhaps,” I said.

“Perhaps you would like to try one of the luxury inns between Ar and Venna,” he

said.

“They are over two thousand pasangs away,” I said.

“You are surely not going to hold me responsible for their location,” he said.

“I would not think do doing so,” I said.

“Do not be dismayed,” he said. “Even in these hard times, the keeper, who has

his congenial, noble side, has refused to surrender space lines.”

“That is good news,” I said. “What are space lines?”

“Most inn,” he said, “for your lodging, simply assign you to a large common

room, to be shared with others. Quite primitive. Here, at the Crooked Tarn,

however, we rent out spaces.”

“I see,” I said.

“Furthermore, they are clearly marked.”

“I am glad to hear that,” I said.

“You can accommodate fewer people that way, to be sure,” he said, “but then

there are fewer fights, and free women almost always prefer to have their own

space. Too, with spaces, you can charge more.”

“This inn then, in its way, I gather, is a luxury in for this area.”

“Precisely,” he said.

“Perhaps they you can send a girl to my space for the night,” I said.

“Not for the night,” said he, “but only for the quarter of an Ahn.”

(pg.55) “Your sign,” I said.

“I know,” he said, “but we are too crowded now for that. On the other hand, we

would charge you only three copper tarsks for the time.”

“For a quarter of an Ahn?” I said.

“The keeper is a scoundrel,” he said.

“I thought you said he had a congenial, noble side.”

“He keeps it under control,” he said.

“He may not be the scoundrel you think he is,” I said.

“No, he is a scoundrel all right.”

“Three tarsks seem a good deal for a quarter of an Ahn,” I said. I wondered if I

might not have greater success with the keeper himself. But I supposed he was

not up at this hour.

“We have a debtor slut serving in the paga room,” he said. “We could let you

have her for an Ahn for a tarsk bit.”

“Does she know she is subject to such uses?” I asked.

“No,” he said.

“I will take a look at her, and let you know later.”

“That would be fourteen copper tarsks,” he said.

“I would count twelve,” I said. “Ten for lodging, two for the bath and

supplies.”

“I thought you might want some blankets,” he said.

“Of course,” I said.

“Fourteen then,” he said. I saw this inked on a tab.

From a cabinet to one side, he fetched forth the bath supplies and put them on

the counter.

“I will pick up the blankets after I have eaten,” I said.

“I will reserve two for you, with your ostrakon,” he said.

“I would like a space near the wall, preferably in a corner,” I said.

“So would everyone else,” he said. “Your space is S-3-o7. That is 97, in the

south wing, on the third floor.”

“Very well,” I said.

“Try not to step on any drovers,” he said. “They can be ugly fellows when

stepped on in the middle of the night.”

“I will do my best,” I said.

“If you must step on them,” he said, “it is well to do it in such a way as to

incapacitate them, at least temporarily.”

“I understand,” I said.

“Do you wish to give your name?” he said.

“No,” I said.

(pg.56) He did not seem surprised. Many folks coming through here, I gathered,

did not identify themselves, or used false names.

“We shall make the bill out to your space then,” he said, “S-3-97.” He put the

identification on the tab.

“Excellent,” I said.

“Payment is due before, or at, departure,” he said. “To be sure, if the inn

grows suspicious, we reserve the right to require payment, to date, upon

demand.”

“That is reasonable,” I said.

“We think so,” he said.

“Your prices,” I said, “as I think you have admitted, or as much as admitted,

are rather expensive.”

“They certainly are,” he said. “I, for one, would not want to pay them.”

I looked at him.

“They are not negotiable,” he said.

“Are you really sure?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said.

“It is hard for me to believe that the keeper is as adamant as you portray him,”

I said.

“He is, I assure you,” said the fellow.

“Surely he cannot be the scoundrel you claim,” I said.

“He is,” said the fellow. “I know.”

“I do not suppose he would be up at this hour,” I said.

“But he is,” said the fellow.

“Do you think I might speak to him?” I asked.

“You have been doing so,” he said. “I am he.”

“Oh,” I said.

4
     
The Baths

(pg.57) I closed my eyes in one of the second tubs, the cleaning tubs. There

were five first tubs, and five second tubs. These were all large, shallow, round

tubs, of clay, covered with porcelain, mounted on open-bricked platforms, each

platform about a yard high. In this particular bath, adequate enough, I suppose,

for the area, the fires beneath the bricked platforms were stirred, tended and

cleaned with long-handled fire rakes. To be sure, it was late, and I suspected

that the fires had not been tended since perhaps the eighteenth Ahn. The water,

however, happily, was still comfortably warm. They would probably be built up

again around the fifth Ahn. I had hung my wet garments on racks about the brick

platform, behind the tub. They would probably be dry by now. Each tub was some

seven feet in width and some eighteen inches deep. On a hook, behind me, kept

for towels, and such, I had slung my scabbard.

More than one fellow, and even a Ubar or two, as history has it, had been

attacked in the bath. The baths here, of course, were very simple and primitive.

For example, they were heated in the same room, and not in virtue of

subterranean furnaces, heat from which would normally be conveyed upward through

vents and pipes. Here, too, there were no scented pools, no massaging rooms, no

steaming rooms. Too, of course, here there were no exercising yards, where one

might try a fall or two in wrestling or, say, have a game of (pg.58) catch,

either with the large or small ball. Similarly, there were no recreational

gardens, no art galleries, no strolling lanes, no arcades of merchants, no

physicians’ courts, no music rooms, or such.

The baths, in many Gorean cities and towns, are convenient and popular gathering

places. One can pick up the latest news and gossip there, for example. Many of

these establishments are opulently appointed. Many are capacious and even

palatial. Sometimes public funds are lavished upon them, as they are objects of

civic pride. Even poor men may feel rich seeking electric sometimes dispense

admittance ostraka to the poor. Some of these edifices, as in Turia or Ar, are

monumental in size, almost like vaulted, pillared stadiums, with dozens of rooms

and pools. One can become lost in them.

Gorean baths are almost always segregated, incidentally, if only be the time of

day. This does not mean that bath girls may not be available to tend to a strong

male’s various wants in the men’s baths, or that handsome silk slaves, if they

are summoned, may not appear in attendance in the baths of free women. A

latticework separated the bathing area from the outer area. It was open now. I

heard a fellow stirring in his sleep a few feet away, on the floor, near the

bricked platform. Some seven or eight fellows, the latticework open, were

sleeping in the bath area. I supposed they preferred the warmth of the baths to

their spaces in the unheated levels, or lofts, of the inn. This sort of thing is

not unusual in Gorean towns, incidentally, in cold weather, that folks should

sleep in the baths. They are often warmer than their houses. They leave in the

morning, of course, some of them doubtless to call on their patrons, hoping for

a breakfast or an invitation to dinner.

I opened one eye, hearing the outer door, that beyond the latticework, open.

There are many types of baths, and ways to take them, for example, depending on