"Are you not Earth girls?" asked blue-eyed, auburn-haired Sidney Anderson of the two kneeling girls, in their short fur tunics, the strings on their throats, and tethers, their hands tied behind their backs.
"Yes! Yes!" said the blond girl suddenly, "Yes!"
Sidney Anderson, I conjectured, was the first. person on Gor whom they had met who spoke English.
"What are you?" asked Sidney Anderson.
"We are slaves, Mistress," said the blond girl.
"What are your names?" asked my lovely captor.
"Barbara Benson," said the blond girl. "Audrey Brewster," said the dark-haired girl.
"I scarcely think," said my captor, "that those names would have been given to you by an Indian."
I had not really thought of the red hunter as an Indian, but I supposed this was true. The men of the polar basin are usually referred to as the red hunters in Gorean. Certainly they were culturally distinct from the red savages, tarn riders, of the countries north and east of the Thentis mountains, who maintained a feudal nobility over scattered agricultural communities of white slaves. Those individuals, more than the red hunters, I thought of as Indians. Yet, doubtless the red hunters, too, if one were to be strict about such matters, were Indian. On the other hand the children of the red hunters are born with a blue spot at the base of the spine and those of the red savages, or red tarn riders, are not. There is, thus, some sort of racial disaffinity between them. There are also serological differenees. Race, incidentally, is not. a serious matter generally for Goreans, perhaps because of the inter-mixtures of people. Language and city, and caste, however, are matters of great moment to them, and provide a sufficient basis for the discriminations in which human beings take such great delight.
The blond-haired girl looked up at Sidney Anderson. "I am Thimble," she said.
"I am Thistle," mid the dark-haired girl.
How beautiful they looked, kneeling, with their hands bound behind them.
"Are you not shamed to be slaves?" asked Sidney Anderson.
"Yes, yes!" wept the blond-haired girl. I remembered she had once worn the brief, denim shorts, raveled, and the man's shirt, tied under her breasts.
"Good," said Sidney Anderson.
They looked at her.
"Look at yourselves," she said. "Consider your attire. You should be ashamed."
"Are you going to free us?" breathed the blond-haired girl. Then she added, "-Mistress?"
Sidney Anderson regarded them with contempt.
"Some women," she said, "should be slaves."
"Mistress," protested the blond-haired girl.
"I look upon you," said Sidney Anderson, "and I see women who deserve to be only meaningless slaves."
"Mistress!" protested the blond-haired girl.
"Take them away," said Sidney Anderson.
"Do you want them killed?" asked a guard.
"Wash and comb them," she said, "and then chain them in the long house for the guards."
"It will be done," said the man.
The girls were dragged away.
"Doubtless you have other girls, too," I said, "kept for the men."
"Those are the only two," she said. "I have given orders that our sutlers not peddle slave sluts in the camp."
"When I was captured," I said, "a blond slave named Constance was taken, too. I would have thought she would have been brought here."
"No," said my lovely captor.
"Where was she taken?" I asked.
"I do not know," she said…
She tugged on the rawhide leash I wore. Then she reached up and removed it from my neck, and coiled it, and replaced it on the ring on her belt.
"The sun is beautiful in your auburn hair," I said.
"Oh?" she asked.
"Yes," I said. "Did you know that girls with auburn hair often bring higher prices on the slave block?" I asked.
"No," she said, "I did not." Then she said to guardsmen who stood about. "Take him to the whipping frame. Secure him there and beat him well. Use the snake. Then pen him and chain him. Tomorrow put him to work on the wall."
"The red hunters depend on the tabuk," I told her. "Without it they will starve."
"That is not my concern," she said.
The men put their hands on my arms.
"Oh," she said, "incidentally you may know of a ship of supplies which had been bound for the high north."
"I know of such a ship," I said.
"It has been sunk," she said. "Its crew doubtless will greet you tomorrow. They, too, labor on the wall."
"How could you take the ship?" I asked.
"There are five tarnsmen here," she said, "though now they are on patrol. They fired the ship from the air. Its crew, abandoning the ship, were apprehended later. The ship, burned to the waterline, was steered onto the rocks and fell awash. In the rising of the tide it was freed and sank. Sharks now frequent its hold."
I looked at her.
"We are thorough," she said.
"The red hunters will starve," I told her.
"That is not my concern," she said.
"Why are you holding the tabuk?" I asked. "What have you to gain?"
"I do not know," she said. "I am merely discharging my orders."
"The red hunters," I said.
"They are not my concern," she said. Then she said, "Take him away."
Two men seized me and conducted me from her presence. I was confident that I saw the point of stopping the tabuk. Its role in the plans of Kurii seemed clear to me. I was puzzled that the girl did not see its import.
She knew no more, it seemed, than she needed to know.
10
What Occurred In The Vicinity Of The Wall
"Is he still alive?" asked a man.
I lay chained in the slave pen.
"Yes," said the red hunter.
"He is strong," said another man.
I wanted the woman in my power who had had me beaten. I struggled to a sitting position.
"Rest now," said Ram. "It is nearly dawn."
'They have you, too," I said. I had left him in Lydius, in the paga tavern.
He grinned wryly. "Late that night," said he, "in the alcove they surprised me with Tina. At sword point I was hooded and chained."
"How was the girl? I asked.
"In a quarter of an Ahn," he said, "I had her screaming herself mine." He licked his lips. "What a slave she is!" he marveled.
"I thought she would be," I said. "Where is she?" I asked.
"Is she not here?" he asked.
"No," I said.
"Where have they taken her?" he asked.
"I do not know," I said.
"I want her back," he said.
"She is only a slave," I said.
"I want to own her again," he said.
"Do you think she is your ideal slave?" I asked.
"Perhaps," he said, "I do not know. But I will not be content until she is again at my feet."
"But did you not make her serve you paga publicly in her own city, and as a slave girl?"