'No,' I said, 'I think it is pretty good.'
'May I see the quiva?' asked the man.
'Yes,' I said.
'Interesting,' said he.
'What?' I asked.
'The quiva,' said he.
'But what is interesting about it?' I asked.
'It is Paravaci,' he said.
In the morning, to my dismay, Elizabeth Cardwell was not to be found.
Kamchak was beside himself with fury. Aphris, knowing the ways of Gor and the temper of Tuchuks, was terrified, and said almost nothing.
'Do not release the hunting sleep,' I pleaded with Kamchak.
'I shall keep them leashed,' he responded grimly.
With misgivings I observed the two, six-legged, sinuous, tawny hunting sleen on their chain leashes. Kamchak was holding Elizabeth's bedding a rep-cloth blanket for them to smell. Their ears began to lay back against the sides of their triangular heads; their long, serpentine bodies trembled; I saw claws emerge from their paws, retract, emerge again and then retract; they lifted their heads, sweeping them from side to side, and then thrust their snouts to the ground and began to whimper excitedly; I knew they would first follow the scent to the curtained enclosure within which last night we had observed the dance.
'She would have hidden among the wagons last night,' Kamchak said.
'I know,' I said, 'The herd sleep.' They would have torn the girl to pieces on the prairie in the light of the three Gorean moons.
'She will not be far,' said Kamchak.
He hoisted himself to the saddle of his kaiila, a prancing and trembling hunting sleen on each side of the animal, the chains running to the pommel of the saddle.
'What will you do to her?' I asked.
'Cut off her feet,' said Kamchak, 'and her nose and ears, and blind her in one eye, then release her to live as she can among the wagons.'
Before I could remonstrate with the angry Tuchuk the hunting sleen suddenly seemed to go wild, rearing on their hind legs, scratching in the air, dragging against the chains. It was all Kamchak's kaiila could do to brace itself against their sudden madness.
'Hahl' cried Kamchak.
I spied Elizabeth Cardwell approaching the wagon, two leather water buckets fastened to a wooden yoke she carried over her shoulders. Some water was spilling from the buck- ets.
Aphris cried out with delight and ran to Elizabeth, to my astonishment, to kiss her and help with the water. 'Where have you been?' asked Kamchak.
Elizabeth lifted her head innocently and gazed at him frankly. 'Fetching water,' she said.
The sleen were trying to get at her and she had backed away against the wagon, watching them warily. 'They are vicious beasts,' she observed.
Kamchak threw back his head and roared with laughter.
Elizabeth did not so much as look at me.
Then Kamchak seemed sober and he said to the girl. 'Go into the wagon. Bring slave bracelets and a whip. Then go to the wheel.'
She looked at him, but did not appear afraid. 'Why?' she asked.
Kamchak dismounted. 'You were overly long in fetching water,' he said.
Elizabeth and Aphris had gone into the wagon.
'She was wise to return,' said Kamchak.
I agreed with him but would not say so. 'It seems she was fetching water,' I pointed out.
'You like her, don't you?' asked Kamchak.
'l feel sorry for her,' I said.
'Did you enjoy her yesterday?' asked Kamchak.
'I did not see her after she left the enclosure of the dance,' I said.
'If I had known that,' said Kamchak, 'I would have had the sleen out last night.'
'Then,' I said, 'it is fortunate for the girl that you did not know it.
'Agreed,' smiled Kamchak. 'Why did you not make use of her?' he inquired.
'She is only a girl,' I said.
'She is a woman,' said Kamchak, 'with blood.'
I shrugged.
By this time Elizabeth had returned with the whip and bracelets, and had handed them to Kamchak. She then went to stand by the left, rear wheel of the wagon. There Kamchak braceleted her wrists thigh over her head about the rim and over one of the spokes. She faced the wheel. 'There is no escape from the wagons,' he said.
Her head was high. 'I know,' she said.
'You lied to me,' he said, 'saying you went to fetch water.'
'I was afraid,' said Elizabeth.
'Do you know who fears to tell the truth?' he asked. 'No,' she said.
'A slave,' said Kamchak.
He ripped the larl's pelt from her and I gathered that she would wear the garment no longer.
She stood well, her eyes closed, her right cheek pressed against the leather rim of the wheel. Tears burst from be- tween the tightly pressed lids of her eyes but she was superb, restraining her cries.
She had still uttered no sound when Kamchak, satisfied, had released her, but fastening her wrists before her body with the bracelets. She stood trembling, her head down. Then he took her braceleted hands and with one hand raised her hands over her head. She stood so, her knees slightly flexed, head down.
'You think,' said Kamchak to me, 'she is only a girl.' I said nothing.
'You are a fool, Tarl Cabot,' said he.
I did not respond.
Coiled, in his right hand, Kamchak still held the slave whip. 'Slave,' said Kamchak.
Elizabeth looked at him.
'Do you wish to serve men?' he asked.
Tears in her eyes she shook her head, no, no, no. Then her head fell again to her breast.
'Observe,' said Kamchak to me.
Then, before I could realize what he intended, he had subjected Miss Cardwell to what, among slavers, is known as the Whip Caress. Ideally it is done, as Kamchak had, unex- pectedly, taking the girl unawares. Elizabeth suddenly cried out throwing her head to one side. I observed to my amaze- ment the sudden, involuntary, uncontrollable response to the touch. The Whip Caress is commonly used among Slavers to force a girl to betray herself.
'She is a woman,' said Kamchak. 'Did you not see the secret blood of her? That she is eager and ready that she is fit prize for the steel of a master that she is female, and,' he added, 'slave?'
'Nor' cried Elizabeth Cardwell. «Nor» But Kamchak was pulling her by the bracelets toward an empty sleen cage mounted on a low cart near the wagon, into which, still braceleted, he thrust her, then closing the door, locking it. She could not stand in the low, narrow cage, and knelt, wrists braceleted, hands on the bars. 'It is not truer' she screamed.
Kamchak laughed at her. `'Female slave,' he said. She buried her head in her hands and wept. She knew, as well as we, that she had showed herself that her blood had leaped within her and its memory must now mock the hysteria of her denial that she had acknowledged tows and to herself, perhaps for the first time, the incontrovertible splendor of her beauty and its meaning.
Her response had been that of an utter woman.
'It's not true!' she whispered over and over, sobbing as she had not from the cruel strokes of the whip. 'It's not truer'
Kamchak looked at me. 'Tonight,' lie said, 'I shall call the Iron Master.'
'Don't,' I said.
'I shall,' he said.
'Why?' I asked.
He smiled at me grimly. 'She was too long in fetching water.'
I said nothing. Kamchak, for a Tuchuk, was not unkind. The punishment of a runaway slave is often grievous, some- times culminating in death. He would do no more to Elizabeth Cardwell than was commonly done to female slaves among the wagons, even those who had never dared to speak back or disobey in the least particular. Elizabeth, in her way, was fortunate. As Kamchak might have said, he was permitting her to live. I did not think she would be tempted to run away again. I saw Aphris sneaking to the cage to bring Elizabeth a dipper of water. Aphris was crying.
Kamchak, if he saw, did not stop her. 'Come along,' he said. 'There is a new kaiila I want to see near the wagon of Yachi of the Leather Workers' Clan.'
It was a busy day for Kamchak.
He did not buy the kaiila near the wagon of Yachi of the Leather Workers though it was apparently a splendid beast. At one point, he wrapped a heavy fur and leather robe-about his left arm and struck the beast suddenly on the snout with his right hand. It had not struck back at him swiftly enough to please him, and there were only four needlelike scratches in the arm guard before Kamchak had managed to leap back and the kaiila, lunging against its chain, was snapping at him. 'Such a slow beast,' said Kamchak, 'might in battle cost a man his life.' I supposed it true. The kaiila and its master fight in battle as one unit, seemingly a single savage animal, armed with teeth and lance. After looking at the kaiila Kamchak visited a wagon where he discussed the crossing of one of his cows with the owner's bull, in exchange for a
