"Have you heard anything from the Sardar?" I asked, again.
Samos looked down at the board. I did not press him. His reticence to respond directly puzzled me. If he had heard something, of course, it was perhaps none of my business. I had no intention of prying into his affairs, or those of Priest-Kings. Also, of course, perhaps he had heard nothing.
"You are not playing your usual game," I told him.
"I am sorry," he said.
A new girl, Susan, was now dancing. She who had been the Lady Rowena of Lydius was o her belly on a table, clutching its sides, her teeth gritted. Tula was being handed from man to man. Some of the other girls, too, were now being used by masters. And others were licking and kissing at them, and whispering in their ears, begging for attention.
We played another pair of moves.
"What is bothering you?" I asked Samos.
"Nothing," he said.
"Is there much news?" I asked.
"Tarnsmen from Treve had raided the outskirts of Ar," said Samos.
"They grow bold," I said.
Cos and Ar are still at odds," he said.
"Of course," I said.
"The building of ships in Tyros continues," he said.
"Chenbar has a long memory," I said. Much of the naval power of Tyros had been destroyed in the battle of the 25th of Se'Kara. This had taken place in Year One of the Sovereignty of the Council of Captains, in 10,12 °C.A.
"On Cos, as our spies have it," said Samos, "there is much training of men, and a recruitment of mercenaries."
"We could strike at the shipyards of Tyros," I said, "ten ramships, a thousand men, a picked force."
"The yards are well fortified," he said.
"Do you think Cos and Tyros will move?" I asked.
"yes," he said.
"When?" I asked.
"I do not know," he said.
"It is interesting," I said. "I cannot see Port Kar as a great threat to them. The power of Ar in the Vosk Basin would seem a much greater threat to their influence, and their sphere of trade."
"One would think so," said Samos.
"Matters are complicated there now, of course," I said, "by the formation of the Vosk League."
"That is true," said Samos.
"What is the nature of the training being given the men on Cos?" I asked.
"Infantry training," he said.
"That is interesting," I said. it did not seem likely to me that infantry, at least in its normal deployments and tactics, would be successful in an assault on Port Kar. This had primarily to do with her situation, in the northwestern portion of the estuary of the Vosk, the waters of the Tamber Guld and Thassa before her, the vast, trackless marshes of the Vosk's delta behind her.
"Can it be," I asked, "that Cos is planning to challenge Ar on the land?"
"That would be madness," said Samos.
I nodded. Ar is the major land force in known Gor. The Cosian infantry, meeting her on land in open battle, in force, would be crushed.
"It seems clear then," said Samos, "that they are planning on using the infantry against Port Kar."
I nodded. Cos would never challenge Ar on the land. That was unthinkable.
"That is what is bothering you?" I asked.
"What?" he asked.
"The possibility that Cos and Tyros may move against Port Kar," I said.
"No," he said.
"What is bothering you?" I asked.
"Nothing," he said.
"Are you disturbed by the proximity of the Waiting Hand?" I asked.
This is a frightening and difficult time for many Goreans.
"No," he said.
"Let us stop playing and adjudicate the game as a draw," I suggested.
"No," he said. "It is all right."
I moved my Ubara's Builder to threaten his Ubar. This movement of the builder produced a discovered attack on his Home Stone by my Ubara's Initiate. He interposed his own Ubar's Builder, which I then took with the Initiate, a less valued piece. The Initiate's attack, of course, continued the threat on the Home Stone. he then took the Initiate with his Ubara's Builder, and I, of course, removed his Ubar from the board with my Ubara's Builder.
Samos turned to Linda. "Dance," he said. She leaped to her feet and hurried to the center of the tiles. Susan, then, was pulled by the hair to the place of a keleustes, on who marks time, usually on a pounding block or a ship's drum, for oarsmen. In some navies, and on ships of some registry, the office of the keleustes is referred to as that of the horator. He reports directly to the oar-master. The oar-master, like the helmsman, of which two are generally on duty at any one time, most Gorean ships being double ruddered, reports to the captain.
We watched Linda dance. It seemed she had eyes only for Samos. Her fingers played teasingly with the disrobing loop at her left shoulder.
"Strip, slave," said Samos.
She drew the disrobing loop. There was Gorean applause. She danced well. There was little left in her now of the Earth female. How happy and fulfilled she was on Gor. To be sure, she was only a slave.
I returned my attention to the board, as did Samos.
"It is capture of Home Stone in four," I said.
He nodded. He removed his Home Stone from the board, resigning.
He lifted his head, regarding Linda. "She is pretty," he said.
"Yes," I said.
"Do you trust me?" he asked.
"Yes," I said.
She writhed well, the Gorean slave.
"Why did you invite me this night to your holding?" I asked. "Surely not to play Kaissa?"
He was now resetting the pieces. He would take Yellow this time.
"Ubar's Spearman to Ubar Five," he said.
This move attacks the center and opens a diagonal for the Ubara. It also makes possible a positioning move, matching him positionally in the center, stopping an advance on that file and securing the same advantages for the Ubara and Ubar's Tarnsman. This is one of the most common opening moves in kaissa.
We played twice more that night. I won both games easily, the first with a battering ram of Spearmen and Riders of the High Tharlarion on the Ubar's side, and the second with a middle-game combination of Ubara's Scribe, Ubara and Ubar's Tarnsman. It was now late. Linda lay curled on the tiles near Samos. She was naked, save for her collar. She was beautiful and curvaceous. She was his.
"Captain," said one of the two guardsmen standing before our table. They were the fellows in whose custody the free woman, the Lady Rowena of Lydius, had earlier been drawn to our attention The woman who had been the Lady Rowena of Lydius was now again in their custody. She was now on her knees between them, facing us, her arms held high and to either side of her, each of her wrists in the grasp of a guard. She was now a slave.
"Is it the sleen for her, Captain?" asked he who was first of the two guardsmen, he who had just spoken.
"Dorto, Krenbar," said Samos.
"Yes, Captain," said the men. Dorto was the oarsman who had opened the former Lady Rowena of Lydius for the uses of men. Krenbar was another oarsman. He had used her twice in the evening, after putting her through intricate slave paces each time.
"Does this slave," asked Samos, "give some indication that she might eventually prove to be at least somewhat adequate in a collar?"
"Yes, Captain," said Dorto. "Yes, Captain," said Krenbar.
"Tonight, as you know, my dear," said Samos, "you danced and performed for your life."
"I beg to have been found pleasing," she said.
"Based on the evidences submitted by Dorto and Krenbar, and my own judgment in the matter, your performances, at least for a new slave, have been found acceptable."
I thought she might almost faint with relief.
"Accordingly, at least for the moment, you will not be thrown to sleen."
"Thank you, Master!" she said.
"You are Rowena," he said.
"Thank you, Master," she said, named. There is some security in a slave having a name. Most masters will not name a slave whom they are planning on having immediately destroyed. It would be a waste of name. To be sure, names may be put on slaves and taken off them on a master's whim.
"Though you have been spared, at least for now, do not grow complacent," said Samos.
"No, Master!" she said.
"You are now, like any other slave, you must understand, under standard, unconditional slave discipline."
"Yes, Master!" she said. She was now a slave like any other, neither more nor less.
"Take her below," said Samos to he who was first of the two guardsmen. "Mark her, left thigh, common Kajira mark. Collar her, common house collar."
"Yes, Captain," he said. In the case of the girl, Rowena, of course, as she was already a self-pronounced slave, the brand and collar were little more than identificatory formalities. Nonetheless she would wear them. They would be fixed visibly and clearly upon her. This is in accord with the prescriptions of merchant law. Too, for all practical purposes, they make escape impossible for the Gorean slave girl.
"Then bring her to my chambers," said Samos.
"Yes, Captain," said he who was first of the two guardsmen.
"Master!" protested Linda.
Samos looked at her, and she lowered her head. "Forgive me, Master," she said.
"I shall try to be pleasing, Master!" Rowena avowed, frightened.
Then the two guardsmen pulled her about and conducted her from our presence.
"She is fat," said Linda. I did not think this remark was fair on Linda's part. The slave, Rowena, was not fat. She was sweetly shapely. To be sure, by a strict regimen of diet and exercise, she would soon be brought, in a manner congenial to her basic structure, within indisputable latitudes of slave perfection.
The Gorean slave girl is not a free woman. Accordingly she must keep herself beautiful.
"Do you not like Linda any more?" she pouted.
"Yes, I like you," he said.
"Linda can please you more than Rowena," she said.
"Perhaps," said Samos.
"I can, I will!" she said.
"Who?" asked Samos.
"Linda can, Linda will!" she said.
"To your kennel," said Samos.
"Yes, Master," she said, taking up her tunic, rising to her feet, tears in her eyes.
"Do not fret," he said. "Tomorrow night it will be you who will be chained at my slave ring."
"Thank you, Master!" she said.
"And tonight, for you have not been fully pleasing," he said, "tell the kennel master to put you in close chains."
"Yes, Master!" she laughed and, happily, dismissed, clutching her tunic, rose to her feet and scurried away. She would not spend a comfortable night, locked in the steel of close chains, but she was radiantly happy. She had been reassured of the interest of her master.
"What are you going to do with the slave Rowena?" I asked.
"She is one of a lot of one hundred," said Samos. "They are to be sold at the fair of En'Kara."
"The slave, Linda," I said, "doubtless would have been pleased to hear that."
"She will doubtless learn of it, in one way or another, sooner or later," said Samos.
"Doubtless," I said.
I rose to my feet. I was stiff from having sat for so long. I suspected Samos cared for the Earth-girl, Linda. It was no secret in Port Kar that the shapely collar-slut was first on his chain.
Samos, too, with a grunt, rose to his feet. "Ah," he said.
We looked about. The men and slaves had left the room. We were alone.
Our eyes met. I saw in his eyes that he wanted to speak to me, but he did not do so.
"Your men and boat are waiting," he said.
He accompanied me from his holding to the small landing, with its steps, leading down to the water, outside.
I stepped down into the longboat and, shaking him by the shoulder, awakened Thurnock, the blond giant, he of the peasants. He awakened the rowers. I took my place at the tiller. One of Samos' men cast the line into the boat.
"I wish you well," said Samos.
"I wish you well," I said.
We then pushed off, thrusting against the steps with the port oars. In a moment, with unhurried strokes, we were making our way down the canal, back toward my holding. The canal was dark now. In two days, however, it would be lit with lanterns, thrust out on jutting poles from the bordering, clifflike house and strung with garlands and flags. It would then be the time of the Twelfth Passage Hand, the time of carnival.
I heard the ringing of the time bar from the arsenal. It was the Twentieth Ahn, the Gorean midnight.
I was very puzzled as to why Samos had invited me to his holding tonight. I was sure that he had wished to speak to me. But he had not, however, done so.
I dismissed these considerations from my mind. If he chose to keep his own counsel, it was not mine to inquire into his motivations.
I thought that I had played kaissa well tonight. To be sure, Samos was not an enthusiast for the game. He preferred, as I recalled, a different kaissa, one of politics and men.