I pulled a little at my bound wrists. The wonder and terror of this suddenly came to me. How was it that I should be here? I did not even know how I had come to this world! But I was here now, helpless, owned, where I must serve, and please and obey, a slave girl on an alien, exotic world. Who had first seen me, who had marked me out, who had first decided this? Who had speculated how I might look in a collar, who had conjectured my liniments, who had read my body, and my heart?
“The Turian opening?” asked the pit master.
“Perhaps,” said the officer of Treve.
I became suddenly angry. How could they play a game, now, at a time like this?
Sometimes I, and others, had served as prizes in such contests, between guards. Sometimes we must lie to one side, or even under the table, chained hand and foot, waiting to see who would be victorious, to whom we would be awarded for the evening.
“You are intent on the Turian,” said the pit master.
“Perhaps,” said the officer.
I was furious.
I hated the game.
How often I had had to wait for contentment, even such as might be granted to a slave, because of Kaissa! How often I had been uneasy, restless, in my kennel, pressing a tear stained face against the bars, grasping them, they damp from the sweat of my palms. How I would squirm with need, and must wait! Could they not understand my small cries and moans, and then I would be warned to silence, that I not distract them from their foolish game! Then I would crawl back in the kennel, my fists clenched, trying not to cry.
After a time one of the black-tunicked men said, “It is the twelfth Ahn.”
“Vanarik preceded us,” said a man, limping, he whose foot had been twisted in the stirrup of the crossbow, when the peasant had attacked him and the other. His fellow’s head had been almost ripped from his body by the stone on the chain. “Two gates fell, one before, one behind. A panel slid upward. Tharlarion entered the area. Before we could kill them Vanarik was pulled from the gate, he clinging to it, not inches from us.”
“That would be on level two, in passage eighteen,” said the pit master not looking up from the board.
Another of the black-tunicked men died where two passages had intersected. The crossbows had been armed, the men tense. The leader of the strangers, I recalled, had advised them to fire even at a shadow. That shadow had been one of their own men, brought down with three quarrels.
The black-tunicked men had had better fortune in another passage, where five urts had charged them. One of these sleek beasts had been directly killed, by bolts. Two others, wounded, had been turned back. Two others had been, wheeling about amongst them, slashing and biting, destroyed my swords. The men had then pursued the two wounded urts, following a trail of blood, until they had them cornered, quarrels hanging from their flanks, where they slew them, hissing and snarling, against a gate with further quarrels. One of the black-tunicked men had been seriously bitten, and another clawed, but none had perished. The bows had served, in their way, as shields, the urts snapping at them, clinging to them, permitting the defender to draw and hack at their stretched necks with his sword. Sleen would not have made that mistake. They go for warmth and blood.
I found it of interest that so many of the gates in the corridors had not been sealed.
The passages were armed, but they had not been, oddly enough, closed, their gates locked down.
“It is the fifteenth Ahn,” said a man.
Clepsydras are of two sorts, the inflow and outflow varieties. The inflow devices add water to a container and the level in the container measures a unit of time; the outflow devices drain water, the time measured then by the level of water remaining in the vessel. The device in the quarters of the pit master was an outflow device. Its accuracy is controlled by two major factors, its shape and the size of the aperture though which the water drains. It tapers toward the bottom to keep the water pressure constant, that being required to regularize the speed of the flow, a larger amount of water over a larger area exerting a pressure equivalent in its effect to that of a lesser amount over a smaller area. The second major factor is the aperture itself. This is a drilled plug which is periodically replaced. If this were not the case the passage of the water, over time, even in stone, would enlarge the aperture, deregularizing the device.
“We found these,” said one of the black-tunicked men, reporting back. He held chains.
“Come here!” said the leader of the black-tunicked men to the pit master who, accommodatingly, left his table and game.
“Yes,” said the pit master, examining the chains. “These are undoubtedly those which were worn by our prisoner. Surely you can recognize them as well as I.” There would be little possibility of mistake, at any rate, I supposed, about the chain with the plate and ring attached. Bolts were still loose in the plate.
“Where did you find these?” demanded the leader of the strangers.
“In a place where there were tools,” said the man.
“The workroom,” said the pit master. “There is an anvil there, a forge, hammers, chisels. Chaining, unchaining, the fitting with common shackles, and such, you understand, is done there. It is more convenient than going to the surface.”
“Are such places not guarded?” demanded the leader of the strangers.
“The guard was dismissed,” the pit master reminded him.
“He is now free of his chains,” said the leader of the strangers.
“I would assume he still wears the collar, and what is left of the neck chain,” said the pit master. “That would be difficult to remove by oneself, with the tools there.”
“There are no metal saws there, or files?”
“No,” said the pit master. “It would be dangerous to keep such things in the depths.”
Shackles, of course, and links of chain, if one wishes, may be forced apart, or even broken, given proper tools and sufficient strength. There are files and metal saws, too, which can do such work, though it takes more time. I had been in the workroom several times. The tools there were heavy toots. It was not regarded as advisable to have files and metal saws there, things which might be easily concealed.
“We know the prisoner is still in the depths,” said the lieutenant.
“There is no doubt about that,” said the leader of the strangers.
“It is only a matter of time then,” said the lieutenant, “until we have gone though every passage.”
“Are there missile weapons in the depths?” asked the leader of the black-tunicked men.
“Only yours,” said the pit master.
“Excellent,” said the leader of the black tunicked men.
“Take me to the surface!” suddenly cried Gito, from where he crouched by the wall. “I want to go to the surface!”
“We need not even close with him then,” said the leader of the black-tunicked men, paying Gito no attention.
“I want to go to the surface!” cried Gito.
“Call in the search parties,” said the leader of the black-tunicked men. “In the morning we will form a single, larger group. Even in the darkness we can blanket an area with quarrels.”
One of the men went out, into the corridor. From various points we heard him blowing blasts, on a reed whistle.
“You two will accompany us tomorrow,” said the leader to the officer of Treve and the pit master. “We have no intention of leaving you behind. Too, the slaves will be with us. I trust a concern for their safety, or for that of one or more of them, will ensure your diligence as guides. They will precede us, you see. In this fashion we will keep them in view, which will doubtless be pleasant for you, not of the black caste, and there will be no slipping of them away.”
Whereas the Gorean slave girl commonly heels her master, her master sometimes orders her to walk before him, for the pleasure of seeing her walk. And if she knows what is good for her she had best walk beautifully. This also gives him an opportunity to assess her interest to other men, for example, to see if men look after her, as she passes. This is useful if he should be thinking of selling her, but it is also tends to be of independent interest, and not only to the master, but also to the slave. We are very curious to know, vain beasts that we are, what men might pay for us, if we were to be offered for sale.