Authors: John Norman
Tags: #Science Fiction, #Fiction, #General, #Fantasy, #Adventure
the temperatures of the tubs, or pools, and the order in which one uses them. A
common fashion is to use the first tub for a time, soaking, and, if one wishes,
sponging, and then, emerging, to apply the oil, or oils. These are rubbed well
into the skin and then removed with the strigil. There are various forms of
strigil, and some of them (pg.59)are ornately decorated. They are usually of
metal and almost always of a narrow, spatulate form. With the strigil one
scrapes away the residue of oil, and, with it, dirt and sweat, cleaning the
pores. One then generally takes the “second tub”, which consists of clean water,
sponges away any remaining grime, residues of oil and dirt, and such, and then,
luxuriating, soaks again.
If one has a bath girl, of course, she does most of these things for sure.
Sometimes the services of a bath girl, including massage and love, in whatever
modalities the customer may elect, come in the price of the bath, and, at other
times, as here, at the Crooked Tarn, I gathered, at least normally, they are
extra. Needless to say, bath girls are almost always female slaves. Sometimes,
in certain cities, free women, found guilty of crimes, are sentenced to the
baths, to serve there as bath girls, subject, too, to the disciplines of such.
After a given time there, after it is thought they have learned their lessons,
and those of the baths, they are, commonly, routinely enslaved and sold out of
the city. It is probably just as well. By that time they will have been, in
effect, “spoiled for freedom.”
“Ai!” cried a fellow, stepped on by the newcomer.
Another rose up, in the half darkness, and was kicked aside.
I opened my other eye, to consider matters.
It was a swaggering fellow. He was naked, his clothes doubtless being hung on
one of the pegs beyond the latticework, in the outer area. Normally,
particularly when the baths are in full use, and the air is steamy in their
vicinity, that would be done. Mine, which had been wet, I had put behind the
bricked platform to dry. He held a sack in one hand, containing, I supposed, his
bath supplies, and, in the other, held by their straps, a scabbard and blade,
and what appeared to be a flat, rectangular pouch. He had chosen, too, I saw,
not to come unarmed to the baths. It is thought to be very bad form,
incidentally, to carry weapons in the baths, and, in large public baths, they
must often be checked upon entry. On the other hand, I certainly did not blame
him for carrying a blade into the baths, particularly in a place such as this. I
had done so, myself. I did not know, but I suspected that on the peg outside, by
its straps, there might hang a (pg.60) helmet. I recalled the tarn in the inn’s
tarncot. Though no insignia or harness had been about, it had seemed clearly a
war tarn, a warrior’s mount. That he had brought the rectangular pouch into the
baths with him, as well as the blade, suggested to me that it might be
important, too important to be left back at his space, or on the peg outside the
latticework. He hung his blade, and the pouch, on one of the tub hooks.
“What are you doing?” asked a fellow. He was the only other in the room who was
actually utilizing a tub. He had arrived later even than I, and was still
soaking in one of the first tubs, indeed, that which was most convenient to the
entrance through the latticework. I myself, in my choice of a first tub had,
and, indeed, of the second, as well, in which I now reclined, taken those
farthest from the entrance. In that way I would have the longest reaction
interval possible between someone’s entry and their possible arrival in my
vicinity.
“I take the first of the first tubs,” said the fellow.
“I do not share tubs,” said the fellow soaking in the tub, not too pleasantly.
Most Goreans, in the baths, at least in their own towns or cities, do share
tubs, of course. That is one reason the tubs are so large. To be sure, even in
one’s own area, one usually shares a tub only with friends or acquaintances.
If the baths are crowded, of course, it would be only polite to share with one’s
fellow citizens. The same customs, of course, generalized even further, normally
govern the use of pools, which, on Gor, are normally located at the baths, and,
indeed, are usually considered a part of them.
“Nor do I,” said the newcomer, climbing to the platform.
“Aiii!” cried the fellow in the tub, seized, and, in a moment, flung over its
edge to the slotted wooden bath floor. He struggled to his feet, to see, in the
half darkness, lit by a single lamp, and the reddish embers within the bricked
platforms, the unsheathed sword now in the newcomer’s hand.
“Stir up the fire,” said the newcomer.
Hastily the ejected fellow seized a fire rake and poked about within the
platform.
“Bring more wood,” said the newcomer. “Then tend the fire. Do not leave until it
is suitable.”
From one of the large barrels to the side, open near the bottom, the ejected
fellow scooped out, and returned with, a (pg.61) bucket of wood chips, which he
flung into the bricked platform. He then arranged these with the fire rake. He
then returned the bucket to its place by the barrel and, from one of the wood
bins, to the right, near the barrels, fetched an armload of kindling, then some
narrow hardwood logs. In a few moments the chips were burning well. He then
added kindling, and then, a bit later, thrust the narrow logs into the platform.
He then, the reddish glow of the flames from within the platform reflected on
his countenance, looked up, questioningly, frightened, at the newcomer.
“Get out,” said the newcomer.
Only too eagerly the ejected fellow hurried through the latticework, seized his
garments, and took his way from the bath area.
The newcomer then returned his blade to the sheath. He then climbed into the
tub. “Ahhh,” he grunted, settling back.
I did not think he had behaved well, but then it was not my affair.
Some of the fellows who had been reclining about the platforms then came closer
to the platform where the fire was built up. they did take care, however, to
leave open a generous passage through which the tub’s occupant, when he chose,
might make an unimpeded and convenient exit.
Being hungry then, and having, to my mind, soaked long enough, I emerged from
the tub, dressed, gathered my things, and the oil and such, and, picking my way
among the recumbent bodies, left the bath area.
I did take the opportunity, in leaving, once on the other side of the
latticework, to inspect the pegs. In the light of the small lamp there, near the
exit, I determined that the helmet bore the insignia of the company of
Artemidorus of Cos.
5
The Paga Room; I Stop at the Keeper’s Desk
(pg. 62) “Stand her,” I said. “Closer.” I indicated a place on my right, near
the low table in the paga room, behind which I sat, cross-legged.
With a sound of chain she came closer.
She then stood there.
I checked the shackling on her ankles. The shackles were lock shackles. They
fitted nicely, closely, about her ankles. Their staples were separated by about
eighteen inches of chain, more than enough. I pulled her wrists down to me. They
wore lock manacles. Their fit was snug, efficient, inescapable. The staples on
the manacles were separated by some twelve inches of chain.
“Does my shackling meet with Sir’s approval?” she asked.
I did not respond to her. I did release her wrists, and she straightened up.
“Is Sir finished with his inspection?” she asked, acidly. She was naked, except
for her chains.
“Turn,” I said, “slowly, and then again face me.”
“I am a free woman,” she said, angrily.
“Must a command be repeated?” I inquired.
She turned, slowly, and then, again, faced me.
“What would you like—I mean,” she said, boldly, haughtily, “to eat, Sir.”
“You are bold, for a free woman,” I said.
“I may not be used,” she said, “as I am free.”
(pg.63) “Is there another free woman serving in the paga room?” I asked.
“No,” she said.
This must be she, then, of whom the keeper had spoken. I recalled that he had
told me that although the use of an inn girl would cost me, in these times,
three copper tarsks for only a quarter of an Ahn, I might have the free woman
working in the paga room for an Ahn for only a tarsk bit. To be sure, that
perhaps overrated her value considerably, as she was only a free woman. Whereas
free women, technically, are priceless, they are also, usually, in bed,
worthless. They are not worthy of kneeling and humbly holding candles within a
thousand pasangs of a slave. To be sure, they commonly hold an inflated opinion
of their expertise and desirability. They are no good, however, until they have
been imbonded, and have begun, vulnerably and fearfully, to tread, willingly or
not, the paths to fulfillment, and ecstasy. The outrageousness of the price, of
course, was doubtless to be expected, given the general inflations of the times.
I had told him I would let him know later. I would.
“And may you not be whipped,” I asked, “as you are free?”
She turned white.
Although she apparently had not been informed that she was subjectable to the
inn’s clients, for their pleasures, as her behavior, even though she was free,
surprisingly perhaps, was subject to correction, such corrections doubtless
including such things as the attentions of the five-stranded Gorean slave whip.
“What is your name?” I asked.
“It is none of your business,” she said.
“Have you ever been whipped?” I asked.
“I am Temione, Lady of Telnus,” she said. “No, I have not been whipped,” she
added.
Telnus is the major port on the island of Cos. Too, it is the capital of that
island ubarate.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
She did not answer.
“Doubtless you followed Cosians,:” I said, “or their suppliers, smelling booty,
lured by the possibilities of spoils, by (pg.64) the supposed imminent passage
south of men laden with the plate and coin of Ar’s Station, men who might
succumb to your claims of need and plight, hoping perhaps even to contract an
alliance, a companionship, with an enriched officer, or, if necessary, a
profiteering merchant.”
She looked at me, in fury.
“You would bargain with your beauty,” I said. I smiled to myself. I suspected
that her beauty in the future might, indeed, figure in bargains, here and there,
from time to time, but they would not be her bargain. They would be the bargains
of others.
With a movement of her head she tossed her hair behind her, angrily.
“Are you angry?” I asked.
“Would you care to order?” she asked.
“What color is your hair?” I asked. “It is hard to tell in this light.”
“Auburn,” she said.
“A natural auburn?” I asked.
“Of course,” she said.
“That color, particularly when natural, often brings an excellent price in slave
markets,” I said.
“I am free,” she said.
“There are some others outside,” I said, “who may have had similar ideas to
yours, in one way or another. They are now in the court, chained naked to rings.
Do you know them?”
She looked away, angrily.
“Lady Temione,” I said, “you have been asked a question.”
“There are five others,” she said, “Rimice, Klio, and Liomache, from Cos.
Elense, from Tyros, and Amina, a Vennan.”
“What do you think will happen to them?” I asked.
“Doubtless they will be redeemed and freed,” she said. “We are all free women.
Men, some sorts of men, will save us. Men, some sorts, cannot so much as stand
to see a tear in a woman’s eye. To such men it is unthinkable that we might bear
the consequences of our actions.”
“Do you think I am such a man?” I asked.
“No,” she said, “else I would have petitioned redemption from you.”
(pg.65) “Men such as those of whom you speak,” I said, “those who are so
solicitous, so kindly, those who are so eager to render you succor, who will
strive so desperately to help you, and please you, do they stir you deeply in
your belly?”
“I am a free woman,” she said. “We do not consider such things.”
“But you must fear the iron,” I said.
“It will never happen,” she said.
“But you must fear it,” I said.
“Perhaps,” she said.
“Things, then,” I said, “would be quite different.”
“Yes,” she said. “They would then be quite different.”
This was quite true. The slave girl is in a totally different category from the
free woman. it is the difference between being a person and being a property,
between being a respected, legally autonomous entity, entitled to dignity and
pride, and being a domestic animal. The same fellow who will go to absurd
lengths to please a free woman, and even make a fool of himself over her, will,
even with the same woman, if she has been enslaved, simply gesture her with his
whip, and without a second thought, to the furs.
“When were you, and your fraud sisters, taken into custody?” I asked.
“Payment was demanded this morning,” she said. “When our evasions failed to
satisfy the attendants ropes were put on our necks, over our robes and veils,