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excellent slaves.
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I think it is a true saying.
I rolled over in my blankets, and fell asleep. In the morning I must make my
way back to the Tesephone.
12 I Return to my Camp on the Banks of the
Laurius
My emotions were much mixed as I made my way through the tall forest toward
the banks of the Laurius.
I had left my men at the camp of Marlenus, Arn, his outlaws, and the five men
from the Tesephone. I had wished to be alone on this journey. They would
follow me, in two days.
I carried my weapons, even the great bow, recovered from Verna s camp, days
before.
I had come to the forest rich in my prides and my plans. I would, from under
the nose of Marlenus, preferably by trade, snatch Talena, thus evening the
score for his banishment of me from Ar, thus regaining her, thus winning
glory, thus setting my ladder against the political heights of the planet Gor,
for, with such a woman at my side, there were few doors and cylinders that
would be locked against me, and I, only a merchant of Port Kar, might have
ascended unimpeded the stairs of influence and power. At a stroke,
companionship with such a woman, coupled with my position and riches in Port
Kar, would have made me one of the most significant and prominent men of Gor.
I smiled.
Men of lowly origins and great ambition and talent, I knew, had often used
alliances with high-born women to further the fortunes of their designs.
Such alliances, portions of their planning, lifted them to strata where their
talents and energies might have full play, strata otherwise closed to them by
dominant, controlling groups and families, jealous of and protective of their
own interests.
The dominant and effective families thus take into themselves newcomers of
energy and intelligence, who, in exchange for position and opportunity, when
they themselves are allied with such families, help keep the families high and
dominant in the society. Human structures are group structures, and closed
groups, with senses of their own best interest, yet open enough and
intelligent enough to accept a certain amount, carefully selected, of new and
driving blood, regulate society. Many people are unaware of such groups, for
they are seldom identifiable save through lines of social relation and
connection. The first families of a city usually constitute one or more of
such groups, sometimes competitive groups. When a city falls, the daughters of
such families are most avidly sought by the conquerors as slaves. Their first
duty, naked and collared, is to serve
the conquerors at their victory feast. Subsequently, they are commonly awarded
to high officers or men who have especially distinguished themselves in the
taking of the city, perhaps an individual who has led a sortie which
successfully stormed a gate, or the first man upon the enemy s walls, or one
who has captured a member of the city s council. In the latter case, if the
council member has a daughter, it is common to give her to the man who has
captured her father.
I was, of course, only of the merchants.
I laughed.
With the daughter of a Ubar as a consort there would be few who would dare to
recall that I was not of high caste. And, surely, with such a woman at my
side, many cities, vying for my good will, would beg me to accept investiture
as a warrior, a high caste, in their rolls.
Companionship with the daughter of Marlenus, Ubar of Ubars, would have brought
me much, I needed much.
I was already a rich and powerful man, but my political power did not extend
beyond Port Kar. And in Port Kar, I recalled my political power, strictly,
extended no further than my vote in the Council of Captains. I was not even
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first in the council. That post was held by Samos.
In the past years, in Port Kar, my ambitions had enlarged. Economic power and
political power are like the left and the right foot. My ventures in
merchantry had secured me wealth. My companionship with Talena, opening up a
thousand avenues and alliances, conjoined with my riches, would have made me
easily among the most splendid and powerful men on Gor.
Who knew how high might have been raised the chair of Bosk?
I laughed bitterly. How foolishly I had brought my prides and my plans to the
northern forests.
I had little to show for my efforts. I would be a laughing stock.
I and my men had fallen to panther girls. We had been outwitted, and tricked.
Though we were men, we had fallen to women. Our heads, in token of our
humiliation, had been shaved by our captors. Each of us, including the mighty
Bosk, wore the two-and-one-half inch swath on our heads, running from our
foreheads to the back of our necks, making it clear to all who it was who had
taken us in the forests.
I, and my men, would have been raped and sold, summarily, had we not been
rescued by the great Marlenus, Ubar of Ubars.
He had succeeded, casually, where we had failed. It was he, not Bosk, to whom
Verna and her girls had fallen. It was he, not Bosk, who would sell them, or
do with them as he pleased.
And he had even extended to me and my men the courtesy of his camp,
magnanimously. I shook my head. Marlenus was indeed a Ubar, a Ubar of Ubars.
Verna, had been a rude, proud, strong, defiant, ill-tempered, magnificent
outlaw woman, hating men. Then she had fallen to Marlenus of Ar, who would not
accept her as such. He had played a savage game, crushing her, turning her
into a slave girl. Verna was not property, to be bid upon, and bought and sold
by any free man. But, too, paradoxically perhaps, she was joyful in the
discovery of herself, her sex and her body. It mattered not that the discovery
had been forced upon her. Too long had she fought and denied her womanhood. As
a
slave, she would no longer be permitted to do so. She had been a proud outlaw
woman, fierce, resenting men, hostile toward them. Marlenus had touched her.
She was feminine, utterly feminine, unlocked, opened, a conquered, helpless,
loving slave. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]