"Passage, Master?" inquired a fellow. "I would deal with others," I told him.
"We are cheap," he called. "Cheap!" "Thank you," I said to him, and continued on. I had discovered in various towns that I was likely to get the best fares at the quays themselves.
On the way down to the river, I passed four of the big warehouses whose doors were marked with the kajira sigh. I saw tiny barred windows high in their outer walls. During daylight hours a small amount of light can filter through such a window and then fall through a matching, somewhat lower winder, to the interior of the holding area. There are similar apertures, too, sometimes in the roofs of such structures. In some of the warehouses, incidentally, those which seem to be but one story high, the logged holding areas are substantially underground, as though in a log-walled, sunken room. Windows are commondly small and from eight to ten feet above a girl's head. The light in such a structure is as besst dim. The floor areas are commonly wood excpet for a central strip of dirt some twenty feet wide. This is primarily for drainage. A network of welded iron bars, set an inch or two beneath the surface, unlerlies the planking of the floor and the surface of the dirt. Straw is scattered at the edges of the room, on the wood. In the log walls, at various heights, but usually less then a yeard from the floor, there occur slave rings. The ground level is commonly reached by ascending a dirt ramp. Such places, as one might suppose, are usually characterized by the smells of held slaves. "Eat!" I heard a man say, from withint one of those structures. Then I heard the lash of a whip and a girl's cry of pain. "Yes, Master!" she cried. "Yes, Master!"
I continued toward the quays. Sometimes I almost dispairedof finding Miss Beverly Henderson. How could one hope to find one girl among thousands, even tens of thousands, scattered throughout the cities and towns, the fields and villages of Gor. Too if she had been transported by caravan or tarn she might, by now, be almost anyware.Yet I was determined to continue my search. I had two things clearly in my favor I knew she had been taken recently, and by Kliomenes, the pirate. My search was thus far from hopeless.I had little doubt but what I might find Miss Henderson, if I could but find it what market or markets, Kliomenes would see fit to dispose of his most recent prizes.
"You there fellow," said a captain, at the quays, "You seem strong. Look you for work?" "I am intending to go downriver," I said."We are bound for Tafa," he said. "We are short an oarsman."
The next towns west on the river were Victoria and Tafa. West of Tafa was Por Cos, which had been founded by settlers from Cos over a century ago. The major towns west of Por Cos, discounting minor towns were Tetrapoli, Ven and Turmus. Ven at the junction of the Ta-Thassa Cartius and the Vosk, and Turmus, at the eastern end of the Vosk's great delta, the last town on the river itself.
"I would go to Victoria," I said. That was the next town west on the river. "You are an honest fellow, are you not?" asked the captain. "I think so, reasonable so," I said warily, "Why?"
"If you are an honest fellow," said the captain,"why would you wish to go to Victoria?" "Surely there are honoest doings in Victoria," I said. "I suppose so," said the captain.
"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 one 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 wil find my way afoot into the town."
"It will be useful to have another oarsman," he said, "even as far as Victoria, and we wil have the current with us." "Yes," I said. "Perhaps, too," hesaid, " 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 withing the Ahn," he said.
7. I Arrive in Victoria; I Hear of the Sales Barn of Lysander
"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 drew back quickly. A brown sleen threw itself to the end of a short, heavy chain. It snarled. It bared its fags. Such a beast could take a leg from a man at the thigh with a single motion of those great jaws. "Down Tavak" said one of the merchants.
Hissing, the beast crouched down, its shoulder blades still prominent under its excited, half-lifted fur, its four hind legs still tensed beneath it. It seeemed to me not unlikely that is might, if it had such a will, tear loose from 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 Vicotria, once she is prperly chastened." said the first.
"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 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 discipling 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.