John Norman - Rogue of Gor

“Is it a dangerous place?” I asked.

“You must be new on the river,” he said.

“Yes,” I said.

“Avoid Victoria,” he said.

“Why?” I asked.

“Are you a slaver?” he asked.

“No,” I said.

“Then avoid Victoria,” he said.

“Why?” I asked.

“It is a den of thieves,” he said. “It is little more than a market and slave town.”

“There is an important slave market there?” I asked.

“You can sometimes get cheap prices on luscious goods there,” he said.

“Why are the prices sometimes so cheap?” I asked.

“Girls who cost nothing can be sold cheaply,” he said.

“The marketed girls are then primarily captures?” I asked.

“Of course,” he said.

“I do not understand,” I said.

“It is well known on the river,” he said.

“What is well known?” I asked.

“That Victoria is once of the major outlets for the merchandise of river pirates.”

“I must go there,” I said eagerly.

“I am going to Tafa,” he said. “I will not put in at Victoria.”

“Let me row for you to the vicinity of Victoria,” I said. “Then put me ashore. I will find my way afoot into the town.”

“It will be useful to have another oarsman,” he said, “even as far as Victoria, and we will have the current with us.”

“Yes,” I said.

“Perhaps, too,” he said, “we could pick up a new oarsman west of Victoria.”

“Perhaps,” I said.

He looked at me.

“You need pay me nothing,” I said. “I will draw the oar for free.”

“You are serious?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said.

He grinned. “We leave within the Ahn,” he said.

“What am I offered for this girl?” called the auctioneer. “What am I offered for this girl?”

It was a blond-haired peasant girl, thick-ankled and sturdy, from south of the Vosk. She was being sold from a rough platform on the wharves of Victoria. She wore a chain collar.

“Two tarsk bits,” came a call from the crowd.

I pressed through the throngs on the wharves. The wharves were crowded with goods and men. The masts of river galleys bristled at the quays. There was the smell of the river, and fish.

“I have heard the topaz is being brought east,” said a merchant, speaking to another merchant.

“It bodes not well for security on the river,” said his fellow.

I thrust past them. Then I drew back, quickly. A brown sleen threw itself to the end of a short, heavy chain. It snarled. It bared its fangs. Such a beast could take a leg from a man at the thigh, with a single motion of those great jaws.

“Down, Taba,” said one of the merchants.

Hissing, the beast crouched down, its shoulder blades so prominent under its excited, half-lifted fur, its four hind legs still tensed beneath it. It seemed to me not unlikely that it might, if it had such a will, tear loose the very ring in the boards to which it was chained. I backed away. The merchants, paying me no more attention, continued their conversation. “Victoria has refused the tribute,” one of them was saying.

“They think they can find no other markets,” said the second man.

“That is foolish,” said the first.

“They could take their business to Tafa,” said the second.

“Or return it to Victoria, once she is properly chastened,” said the first.

“That is true,” said the second.

“Indeed,” said the first, “they cannot permit Victoria this insolence. Her example might be followed by every small town on the river.”

“They will feel Victoria must be punished,” said the second.

“Perhaps that is why the topaz is being brought east,” said the first.

“It would be the first time in ten years,” said the second.

“Yet, it is interesting,” said the first, “for I would not think they would truly need the topaz to subdue Victoria.”

“They are strong enough without it,” agreed the second.

“Perhaps then it is only a rumor that the topaz is being brought east,” said the first.

“Let us hope so,” said the second.

“If it is being brought east,” said the first, “I think it betokens more than the disciplining of Victoria.”

“I would fear so,” agreed the second.

I then turned away and left the vicinity of the merchants. I had not understood their conversation.

This morning, before dawn, I had been put ashore some pasangs upriver. I had gone a pasang inland to avoid river tharlarion and proceeded, paralleling the river, toward Victoria. I had come to the town an Ahn ago.

“Candies! Candies!” called a veiled free woman. She carried candies on a tray, held about her neck by a broad strap.

“Hot meat!” called another vendor. “Hot meat!”

“Fresh vegetables here!” called a woman.

“The milk of verr, the eggs of vulos!” I heard call.

Another merchant brushed past me. He was followed by a stately brunette in a brief tunic, collared, carrying a bundle on her head.

I stepped aside as a string of eight peasants, with bundles of Sa-Tarna grain on their shoulders, made their way down toward the wharves.

“Now that is what I call really hot meat,” a man was saying.

I heard a woman gasping. I looked down. To one side, on her back on the boards, her knees drawn up, her left ankle roped to her left wrist, her right ankle roped to her right wrist, there lay a slave girl. “Please, Masters,” whimpered the girl, looking up. “Touch me, Masters.” A fat fellow sat on a small stool. He held a light chain, which was attached to her collar. She had been cruelly aroused, but not satisfied. “Please, Masters,” she begged. “A tarsk bit for her use,” said the fat fellow. I looked down upon her. Then I heard a tarsk bit thrown into the copper bowl beside her. A leather worker pushed past me, crouching beside the slave. Piteously she lifted her body to him.

“Jewelry!” I heard. “Jewelry!”

Nearby there were four girls in a plank collar. This is formed from two boards into which matching semicircles have been cut. The two boards are connected and supported by five flat, sliding U-irons; when the U-irons are slid back, the collar is opened. When they are slid into place, and the two leaves are bolted together, the collar is closed. Two hasps with staples, secured with padlocks, occur, too, at opposite ends of the planks. These lock the collar. The four girls in the plank collar were kneeling, waiting for their master to conduct some business. He was of the peasants. They were nude. Their hands were tied behind their backs.

“When, fleeing from the brigands, I advised seeking refuge in the peasant village,” said one, “I did not realize they would take us.”

“Peasants are not too fond, generally, of free persons from the high cities,” said one of them.

“We were not of their village,” said another.

“Doubtless they will use the proceeds from our sale to supplement their income,” said one of them.

“If they do not drink it up in the paga taverns first,” said the second girl, bitterly.

“We are free women,” said the first girl, struggling in the thongs. “They cannot do this to us!”

“Think such thoughts while you may,” said the fourth girl. “We are soon to be branded slaves.”

“Look at that disgusting girl,” said the second girl, indicating with her head the moaning, writhing slave with the leather worker.

“Yes,” said the fourth girl.

“Can they make me do that?” asked the second girl, frightened.

“They can make you do anything, my dear,” said the fourth girl.

“Jewelry!” I heard. “Jewelry!”