30. I Am Interrogated in the Hall of Policrates; A Girl it to be Whipped I am Taken to the Chamber of the Windlass
"Taunt him," said Policrates.
The red-haired beauty, nude, began to press herself against me, in the long, sensuous, full-body caresses of the female slave. I struggled in the chains. My hair was still wet from the dark waters of the lakelike couryard othe the holding of Policrastes. There were rope burns on my neck, from the coarse tether, now removed, on which I had been dragged, bound into his presence. My clothes had been cut from me. I had then been chained, hand and foot, on my back to four iron rings set int the tiles before the dias on which reposed his curule chair. Policrates, indolent in the chair, lifted a finger and another girl, one whom I recalled was called Tais, from the feast, dark-haired, nude, knelt beside me and began to kiss and lick at my right foot and leg.
"For whom are you an operative?" inquired Policrates."For no one," I said, angrily.
Again Policrates signaled and this time Lita, who had once been a free woman of Victoria, pausing only to discard the bit of silk she wore on the marble steps, hurried to kneel beside me.
I noticed how the bit of yellow silk lay on the steps. She had been humiliatingly and pblicly stripped and knelt on the boards of the wharf at Victoria, before large numbers of her fellow citizens, inactive and frightened. She, nude, kneeling, the blade of the pirate at her throat, had tied the know of bondage in her own hair. She had been ordered then to the galley, to be bound there as an exposed slave, to be taken to the stronghold of her masters. The bit of yellow silk lay partly on one stair and descending gracefully, partly on another. It took the edge of the stair beautifully, for such silk is very fine. It reveals even the subtlest lineaments of that to which it clings. It is slave silk. I could see the graining of the marble through the silk. The girl now began to kiss at my left foot and leg. She kissed well. I saw that she belonged in a collar. It was too bad, I thought, that that discovery had first been made by pirates and not by strong free men, before whom pirates might quail. But free men, I knew, were often too simple or ignorant to gather up the unclaimed booty which might lie about them, even though such booty might beg piteously to serve, and to be taken into their homes to be treasured.It is not easy always, of course, to recognize a slave who wears the robes and veils of concealment; the identification bcomes simple, of course, once she has been put in a collar and slave tunic. It is said on Gor that the garments of a free women are designed to conceal a woman's slavery, whereas the accouterments and garments of a slave, such as the brand and collar, the tunic or Ta-Teera, are made to reveal it.
"You are Jason of Victoria are you not?" inquired Policrates. "Yes," I said. He was smiling. Four or five of Policrates' cutthroats stood about, with their arms folded. About the curule chair of Polirates, nestled about his eet, and on the stairs about the chair, were serveral of his girls. Most were nude, but some were silked or clad otherwise revealingly, as befitted the wenches of pirates. Some wore threads of leather, another a bit of rope, another only her chains. Some of these wenches I remembered from the fesat. There were darkh-haired Relia and blond Tela, who was still kept in white silk, as a joke, though she must have serve the pleasure of pirates a thousand times and the blond sisters from Cos, Mira and Tala; short, dark-haired Bikkie; and the girls who had danced at the feast, and had been throawn to the aroused men at the conclusion of their performances; and certain others. Men such as Policrates are rich in women, as well as in gold.
"You are involved in the conspiracy of Tasdron, taverner of Victoria, who is in league with Glyco of Port Cos," said Policrates. "No," I said.
"We will deal with these fools soon," said Policrates. "And we will wreak a vengeance on Victoria of which men will dare not speak for a hundred years." "There is no conspiracy," I said, "It was I alone, with some few men, who thought to take and fire the holding." "And what of the beacon that was to be set." asked Policarates, "and of the ships waiting fruitlessly now upon the river?"
I was silent. Policrates obviously knew much.
"Relia, Tela, to him," said Policrates. These two girls, Relia discaring her red silk and Tela operning her white silk and throwing it back, hurried to kneel near me. Relia beagn to kiss and bite at the palm of my right hand, and at my right arm and shoulder, and Tela addressed herself similarly to my left hand and arm. I strugged in the chains, but could not resist.
"Did you truly think to gain access to our stronhold with so simple a ruse?" asked Policrates. "Yes," I said. I gasped in the chains. I could not pull away from the taunting caresses of the slave girls. "It was the plan of a fool," said Policrates. "It was an excellent plan," I said, "How did you iknow that we were ot the scout ships of Ragnar Voskjard?"
We had after all, known the signs and countersigns and, presumably, those of the holding of Policrates would not be familiar with all of the men or ships of Ragnar Voskjard."Would not it have been clear to anyone?" smiled Policrates. "We were betrayed," I said. "It would not have been necessary, of course," smiled Policrates, "but to be sure you were betrayed."
"You knew it would be I and others?" I asked.
"Certainly," said Policrates. What fools he had made of us. How thunderously had the great sea gate descended, destroying our first galley."Who was the traitor?" I asked. "Perhaps Tasdron himself," said Policrates, "perhaps even Glyco, posing as of your party. Perhaps your dear friend, Callimachus, secretly in our pay. Perhaps even a lowly slave, privy to yourmachinations."It could, too, be a soldier, one even with our galleys," I said. "To be sure," agreed Policrates.I struggled in the chains.
"Oh, do not struggle so, Master," whispered the red-haired girl at my side, soothingly, chidingly. "You cannot escape, you know. You are helpless. Be content to feel my hands and lips and my body against yours." I cried out with rage. I wondered if it had been Peggy, the Earth-girl slve, who had betrayed us. She could have overheard our doings, and well suspected our intentions. It would have been easy for her in the paga tvern to have informed on us. It could hve been done with simplicity in the privacy inthe secrecy of an alcove, her head to a pirate's feet. "Oh Master," reproved the red-haired girl, kissing me as the slave she was. I tried to pull loose the chains, but they were of Gorean iron. It seemed to me then as if it must have been Peggy who had betrayed us. She might well have known or suspected all. Too, she was a slave and a woman! Who else could it have been? She indeed must be the traitress, so lovely in her collar! It could have been surely none other than she, the branded Earth girl! I strugged and cried out with rage. I did not envy the lovely blonde if she were caught. I wondered if she knew the fire with which she played. The vengeances taken by Gorean men on traitorous female slaves are not gentle.