They risked much. They risked much, unless there was more to be considered, more than I had understood.
There must be more.
Then I realized what more there was.
The men of Tyros had planned carefully. I admired them. Their effort would be a concerted one. But where might they find allies in the forests?
Marlenus, it seemed, for once in his life, had miscalculated. I can take any city, he had told me, behind whose walls I can get a tarn of gold.
I walked behind the girls, and then behind the fourth, the slender, black-haired, light-skinned girl I had so terrified in the water. “Do not turn around,” I told her. I slipped the sleen knife from its belt sheath. I did so in such a manner that she should hear the sound. She began to tremble. “Do not turn around,” I cautioned her.
“Please, Master,” she whispered.
I took her by the hair and pulled her head back, and put the steel of the knife at her throat. She saw the blade pass over her head before her eyes. She felt it, like a narrow, obdurate line, on her throat.
“A slave girl,” I said, “should be completely open to her master.”
“Yes, Master,” she whispered.
“What occurs in the forest at the camp of Marlenus?” I asked.
“Am attack!” she whispered.
“By the men of Tyros,” I said, “and who?” I pulled her hair back, exposing her throat more. She felt the blade press.
“Panther girls!” she whispered. “More than a hundred of them! The girls of the band of Hura!” I had known it would be her answer.
I did not remove the knife from her throat.
“Why did you not tell me this before?” I asked.
“I was afraid!” she wept. “I was afraid! The men of Tyros might kill me! The panther girls might kill me!” “Whom do you fear more?” I asked, “the men of Tyros, the panther girls, or your master?” “I fear you more, Maser!” she whispered.
I removed the knife from her throat, and she half collapsed in the coffle. I walked to where she could see me. “What is your name?” I asked.
“Ilene,” she said.
It was an Earth name.
“Are you from the planet Earth?” I asked her.
She looked up at me. “Yes,” she whispered. “I was taken by slavers and brought to Gor.” “Where was your home?” I asked.
“Denver, Colorado,” she said.
“You have told me much,” I said. “It would not be well for you to fall into the hands of those of Tyros, or the hands of Hura’s panther girls.” “No, Master,” she said.
“You will, accordingly, obey me promptly and perfectly in all things,” I said. “Yes, Master,” she said.
“Yes,” said I, “you were not completely honest with me. Accordingly, you will be punished.” “Master?” she asked.
“You will be sold in Port Kar,” I said.
The girl groaned. The others looked fearfully at one another.
“Posture!” I snapped.
The girls again stood, backs straight, heads high. They were very beautiful. In the eyes of Ilene, of Earth, there were tears. She knew that she would be punished. She had not been completely open to her master. It was in Port Kar that she would ascend the block.
I then, speaking no more with them, strode from the beach and entered the forest.
I carried sword, sleen knife, and bow with quiver. I did not bid the wenches to follow me.
They might remain behind, naked and bound, tethered, as prey to sleen or panthers, did they wish. They had served my enemies. I was not much pleased with the. Their safety, or survival, as my actions made clear, was of little concern to me.
“Wait, Master!” I heard.
I did not stop, but continued to make my way through the forest.
I heard them behind me, weeping, piteously, attempting to keep my pace.
14 I Give Evidence of my Displeasure
It was night.
I stood on a strong branch, against the trunk of a tree, some forty feet above the ground.
I could survey the entire clearing.
This afternoon I had come to the camp of Marlenus. Its gate had swung in the wind. Its pilings, forming its stockade, had been broken in various places, and burned in others. There were sharpened logs about, fallen, some blackened by fire. The tents had been struck, and were gone. In some places there was burned canvas, indicating that the enemy had fired them from within. There was no sign of the gate’s having been splintered or broken.
Bending over I found a string of cheap beads, formed from the shell of the bosk sorp, broken. It might have been torn from the neck of a panther girl in a struggle.
I studied the footprints, where they were clear. About some of the fires there was the remains of a feast, and empty bottles. The bottles had been of Marlenus’ own stock, brought from Ar. I knew he did not, when outside of Ar, drink strange wines.
Some birds flew over the ruins of the camp. Some flew down to peck at crumbs. Marlenus for once in his life, had miscalculated.
It was not too difficult to conjecture what had happened. Marlenus was soon to withdraw from the forest. There would have been a feast. To this feast, as honored guests, would have been invited the panther girls of Hura’s band. The men of Marlenus, celebrating the success of their expedition and the glory of their Ubar, would have been, in the manner of warriors, much in their cups. At the height of the feast some dozen or so panther girls would have overpowered the guards at the gate, presumably drunken, and open the gate. Then, at a given signal, the panther girls within, abetted by the men of Tyros without, would have, with clubs and ropes, and the butts of their spears, sprung to the attack. By treachery within and force from without the camp would have been swept. Beyond the palisade several bodies had been dragged. Already some of them had been mauled by sleen and other predators. I had examined the bodies. The men of Ar had given a good account of themselves. Yes, altogether there were not more than forty fallen, including some who had apparently been wounded, and whose throats had been cut. Twenty-five of the fallen wore the yellow of Tyros. The attack had apparently taken the camp by complete surprise, and had been devastating and successful.
I had not found the body of Marlenus among the fallen. I thus conjectured that the great Ubar, as well as some eighty-five of his men, had fallen captive. Nine of my men had been with Marlenus. I did not find them among the dead. I assumed they, too, had been captured. Rim, earlier, had returned to my camp. He had been captured there, when the camp had fallen, and, according to the report of one of the paga slaves, had been taken into the forest. I thus conjectured, with Rim, and Marlenus, that Sarus of Tyros, leader of the enemy, held some ninety-six men. He would, also hold, of course, several female slaves, and her women, taken from the camp of Marlenus; and the girls of Marlenus, taken too, from his camp.
I supposed that the men of Tyros, those who had been engaged in the attack, now numbered somewhere in the neighborhood of one hundred and twenty-five. I left the camp in the afternoon. There was little more to be gained there. As I left I heard a sleen scratching among the bodies beyond the palisade. The men of Tyros, I was sure, would be eager to march their captives through the forests north of Laura and Lydius to the exchange point where they would meet, by prearranged rendezvous, the Rhoda and the Tesephone.
It would take time for the men of Tyros to march their captives, in slave chains, through the forest.
When they reached the exchange point it was doubtless their intention to embark their captives and carry them slaves to Tyros. Doubtless, too, near one of the exchange points, they would attempt to locate and seize, or purchase, Talena, the former daughter of Marlenus of Ar.
It would be a great triumph in Tyros, to bring the great Marlenus, naked, in the chains of a slave, branded, before their council. Doubtless they would first bring him so through the streets, between jeering throngs, chained to the back of a tharlarion wagon, white-silk maidens of Tyros dancing beside him, casting love blossoms upon him. Marlenus would doubtless make great holiday in Tyros. But men in slave chains cannot move rapidly, even under the whip.