John Norman - Vagabonds of Gor

"Have you found her yet?" I asked one of Ina's pursuers.

"No," he said, turning about, and taking my sword in the gut.

"The killer!" cried one of the fellows up on the tiers. "Look out! The killer!"

He began to thrust slave cages toward me, from the top tier, their occupants screaming, four or five tumbling down toward me, then crashing to the dirt aisle.

I could not get to any of the others.

If Ina were here somewhere she was safe for the moment. I climbed up, climbing on the cages, to get to the top tier. From there I could look between the rows. From this vantage, too, of course, I could look about, over the vast floor of this open structure, beneath its wooden roof, supported on numerous tall, squared pillars. I saw more rows of cages, a commissary, two kitchens, the infirmary, a punishment area, two mat areas, the harness booth, some holding areas, chains of women. I also saw various shops, rather like stalls in a bazaar. Looking down between the cages I saw only an urt below. In the aisle at the foot of the cages I saw several dislodged cages, tipped about one way and the other, some of which had been pulled loose in their search, and some of which, tumbling down, had been directed at me, none of which, happily, had struck me. I also saw the fellow I had run through, sprawled in what was now, about him, red mud.

I could see fellows readying the camp for its opening. It was near the tenth Ahn, the Gorean noon.

I looked about again, over the floor. I doubted that Ina could long remain hidden once the camp had opened. It would then be swarming with visitors and patrons, many of them wholesalers from distant towns. I had seen one fellow yesterday in the robes of Turia.

I heard a girl moaning in one of the cages below. She was doubtless shaken from her rude trip from the upper tiers. She was doubtless terribly frightened, and well bruised. Indeed, perhaps a limb was broken.

Where, I asked myself, would Ina, who was extremely feminine, a slave in her deepest heart and belly, be likely to hide? I could hear some fellows on the roof above. If I were thinking to hide, as a man, I might have attempted to reach the roof. I did not think, however, that Ina would have been likely to have been able to reach the roof, or, if she could, that she would be likely to think of such a place, one so vast and open. At any rate there were apparently fellows up there now. It would have occurred to them, as it had to me, that it was an excellent possibility. But, too, I supposed, it might not have occurred to them, as it had to me, that Ina, a lovely female, would not be likely to think in terms of such a place. She would probably think in terms of a more feminine hiding place, a smaller, more-closed-in, more-sheltered, safer-seeming place, a closet, a cabinet, a trunk, a box, a cage, a wagon, a sack, such places, or else to think in terms of putting herself where it might seem to her that she belonged in a camp such as this, with other slaves like herself, inserting herself among them as what she would then be, merely one slave among others, perhaps even to be put on their chain and taken away with them. Indeed, when I had started out for the camp this morning I had hoped to be able to conceal her in just such a fashion, and, hopefully, have her elude her pursuers, perhaps as a hooded girl in a slave wagon or a shaved-headed beauty bound for a shelf on a slave ship.

I glanced again about the floor, and at the booths in the distance, under the roof, various sorts of booths, for the sales of whips, leashes, collars, chains, jewelry, cosmetics, perfumes, slave garb and such. I saw two or three of the fellows who had been pursuing Ina about, too, on the floor, turning things over, pushing them to one side, and such. I looked from the top tier toward the booths again, and, for some reason, the booth where slave garb was sold. There, on pegs, and ropes, were hanging numerous slave garments, camisks, tunics, silks, and such. I then descended from the tiers. I glanced into some of the overturned cages, lying on their sides. In each, now lying on the side of the cage, was a chained girl. These, frightened, wide-eyed, huddled back in the cages, away from the barred gates. The ankles of each were joined by about a foot of chain, and their wrists by about six inches of chain. The ankle chaining, by its center, and the wrist chaining, by its center, were joined with a short length of chain, about two feet in length. One of the girls was moaning and holding her left arm tightly against her body. It must have been severely bruised, if not broken. If it were broken it could be set, and she could then be returned to the cage. I did not know if the injury would be likely to delay her sale in the camp or not. I did not think it would if she were an item in a lot due to be wholesaled, for then she would not be likely to be retailed for weeks, but it might if she was intended for an immediate retail sale. Doubtless in such a case haggling might occur, as to whether or not she should be discounted, or marked down. It seemed to me that I was trying to think of something, something which had nearly occurred to me on the height of the tiers. I moved away from the moaning girl. I was restless. What I wanted to think of seemed on the point of revealing itself. I walked a bit back, down the aisle, before the tiered cages, and among some which had been tumbled down. I looked into another cage. This one, however, farther down the line, was on its back, so that its gate was up, like a lid. As I glanced in, a girl, lying on the back of the cage, now its bottom, as it was turned, averted her eyes and drew her limbs closely together. I moved a bit further on. I suddenly sensed the nearness of the thought again. Suddenly, near me, another female, perhaps seeing my feet and legs before the gate of her tipped cage, began to scream and thrash in her cage. The thought fled. I looked angrily into the cage. The girl continued to scream and kick in the chains. I lost my anger almost instantly seeing how beautiful she was in her chains. I picked up an iron rod fallen to the dust, which had become unhooked from the side of one of the cages. It is used usually for poking through the bars. The girl was terrified seeing it in my hand. Even though she was, I think, a free female, she already well knew its powers. I used the rod, however, only for striking twice on the bars. "Be silent," I warned her. "Yes, Master!" she said. "Are you a slave?" I asked. "No, Master," she said. "But you have already learned to call men "Master"," I said. "Yes, Master!" she said. "Good," I said. I then discarded the rod in the dust of the aisle. I heard her whimper in relief inside the tiny cage. At that moment I suddenly hurried toward the booths which I had seen from the upper tier.

The same thought must have occurred to one of Ina's pursuers at about the same time for I could see him now heading for the booth where slave garb was displayed.

In such areas there are usually, at the rear of the sales area, some small, curtained dressing areas. These are not provided to protect the modesty of the slave for, strictly, the slave girl is not permitted modesty but rather to permit her to change unseen and then emerge to be beheld, fully changed, all at once, by her master. The moving aside of the curtain and the stepping forth of the slave in the new ensemble, then, is primarily for the purpose of achieving this effect, that of presenting herself dramatically before the master. She may then turn and move before him, modeling the new ensemble, assuming poses, being put through slave paces in it, whatever he chooses, as he is master. He may then send her back into the curtained area again and again, to try out new outfits. I would suppose that this business of the sudden presentation of the slave before the master, as he may never have seen her before, and the suspense and revelation, and delight, involved, tends to increase sales. The fellow was ahead of me tearing garments from pegs and dragging down ropes of clothes, trampling them underfoot, much to the consternation of the merchant. I saw a girl flee out from behind the counter but she was a brunet and presumably the merchant's, probably used as a model, useful for fellows who did not have their own slave along, or perhaps wished to surprise her by flinging her a new outfit when he returned home, one which she must then wear before him.