'In your dreams,' she asked, 'what sort of man is it who touches you, who binds you and carries you away, who takes you to his fortress, who forces you to do his bidding?'
I recalled how, outside the penthouse, hurrying to the garage, a man had looked at me, and had not looked away, and how, fleeing, branded, frightened, helpless, I had felt, for the first time in my life, vulnerably and radically female. I recalled, too, how in the bungalow, when I had examined the mark on my thigh, and the collar that was then at my throat, how I had felt, briefly, helpless, owned, a captive, the property of others. I recalled the brief fantasy which had passed through my mind of myself, in such a band, marked as I was, naked in the arms of a barbarian. I had shuddered, frightened. Never before had I felt such a feeling. I recalled. I had been curious for the touch of a man a€“ perhaps for that of a master? I could not rid my mind of the brief feeling I had felt. It had recurred in my mind, from time to time, particularly at night in the wagon. Once it had made me feel so lonely and restless that I had wept. Two times I had heard other girls crying in the wagon. Once, Ute.
'I do not have such dreams,' I told her.
'Oh,' said Ute.
'El-in-or is a cold fish,' volunteered Lana.
I glared at her, tears in my eyes.
'No,' said Ute, 'El-in-or is only sleeping.'
Lana looked across the cage. 'El-in-or wants a master,' she said.
'No!' I screamed, weeping. 'No! No!'
The girls then, except for Ute, but even including Inge, began to laugh and cry out, mocking me, in a singsong voice, 'El-in-or wants a master! El-in-or wants a master!'
'No!' I cried, and turned away, putting my face against the bars.
Ute put her arms about me. 'Do not make El-in-or weep,' she scolded the other girls.
I hated them, even Ute. They were slaves, slaves!
'Look!' cried Inge, pointing upward.
Far away, through the sky, from the east of Laura, following the forest line, there came a flight of tarnsmen, perhaps forty of them, mounted on the great, fierce, hawklike saddlebirds of Gor, the huge, swift, predatory, ferocious tarns, called Brothers of the Wind. The men seemed small on the backs of the great birds. They carried spears, and were helmeted. Shields hung on the right sides of the saddles.
The girls thrilled, pressed against the bars, crying out and pointing. They were far off, but even from the distance I found myself frightened. I wondered what manner of men such men might be, that they could master such winged monsters. I was terrified. I shrank back in the cage.
Targo came forward on the barge, and, shielding his eyes against the early morning sun, looked upward. He spoke to the one-eyed guard, who stood behind him. 'It is Haakon of Skjern,' he said.
The one-eyed guard nodded.
Targo seemed pleased.
The tarnsmen had now, somewhere behind Laura, brought their great birds to the earth.
'The compound of Haakon is outside of Laura, to the north,' said Targo. Then Targo and the one-eyed guard returned toward the stern of the barge, where two of the bargemen handled the great steering oars. There were six in the crew of the barge, the man who directed the two tharlarion, the two helmsmen, the captain, and two other bargemen, who attended to matters on the barge, and handled mooring and casting off. One of the latter had locked the slave cage. We were now better than two thirds of the way across the broad river. We could see stone, and timber and barrels of fish and salt stored on docks on the shore. Behind the docks were long, planked ramps leading up to warehouse. The warehouses seemed constructed of smoothed, heavy timbers, stained and varnished. Most appeared reddish. Almost all had roofs had wooden shingles, painted black. Many were ornamented, particularly above the great double doors, with carvings, and woodwork, painted in many colors. Through the great doors I could see large central areas, and various floors, reached by more ramps. There seemed many goods in the warehouses. I could see men moving about, inside, and on the ramps, and about the docks. Various barges were being loaded and unloaded. Except for villages, Laura was the only civilization in the region. Lydius, the free port at the mouth of the Laurius, was more than two hundred pasangs downtown. The new girl had been Rena of Lydius, of the Builders, one of the five high castes of Gor. She still lay, secured, in the wagon. I expected Targo would keep her hooded and gagged in Laura, for it was possible she might be known there. I smiled to myself. She would not escape Targo. Then I shook the bars with rage. The tharlarion now turned slowly in the broad river, near Laura, and, under the stick, and cries, of their driver, began to back the barge against its pier. The helmsmen at their steering oars, shouting and cursing, brought the barge to its mooring. There was a slight shock as the heavy, wet, rolled hides tied at the back of the barge struck the pier. The two extra crewmen, standing on the deck, threw great looped ropes over heavy iron mooring cleats, fastened in the pier. Then they leaped to the pier and, with smaller ropes, fastened to the same cleats, began to dray the barge close to the pier. There is no rear railing on the barges and the barge deck matches the pier in height. Once the ropes are secured the wagons may be rolled directly onto the pier.
A man came forward and untied the straps leading to the nose rings of the bosk from the bosk ring on the deck. He led them back toward the stern of the barge and onto the pier. The broad circles of wood on which the wagons were mounted were now rotated, so that the wagon tongues faced the pier. The bosk, now, bellowing and snuggling, and skuffing at the wood with their hoofs, were being backed toward the harness. The two extra crewmen were unchaining the wagon. Some men came down to the pier to watch us land. Others stopped, too, for a time, to regard us.
The men wore rough work tunics. They seemed hardly.
There was a strong smell of fish and salt in the air.
There is a little market in simple Laura for the more exquisite goods of Gor. Seldom will one find there Torian rolls of gold wire, interlocking cubes of silver from Tharna, rubies carved into tiny, burning panthers from Schendi, nutmegs and cloves, spikenard and peppers from the lands east of Bazi, the floral brocades, the perfumes of Tyros, the dark wines, the gorgeous diaphanous silks of glorious Ar. Life, even by Gorean standards, is primitive in the region of the Laurius, and northward, to the great forests, and along the coast, upward to Torvaldsland.
Yet I had little doubt that the strong, large-handed men of Laura, sturdy in their work tunics, who stopped to regard us, would not appreciate the body of a slave girl, provided she is vital, and loves, and leaps helplessly to their touch.
'Tal, Kajirae!' cried one of the men, waving.
Ute pressed against the bars, waving back at him.
The men cheered.
'Do not smile at anyone,' warned Lana. 'It would not be well to be sold in Laura.'
'I do not care where I am sold,' said Ute.
'You are high on the chain,' said Inge to Ute. 'Targo will not sell you until he reaches Ar.' Then Inge looked at me, frankly. 'He might sell you,' she told me. 'You are an untrained barbarian.'
I hated Inge.
But I feared she was right. I suddenly became afraid that I might b sold in this river port to spend the rest of my life as the slave of a fisherman or woodsman, cooking and tending his hut. What a fate for Elinor Brinton! I must not be sold here! I must not!
One of the extra bargemen came and, with his heavy key, unlocked the large padlock that secured the gate of our slave cage. With a creak, he swung open the gate.
Our own guards were behind him. 'Slaves out,' said one of them. 'Single file.' We saw that the bosk had now been harnessed.
When we emerged from the cage, one by one, we were given our camisks, and placed in throat coffle, fastened therein with a long length of bonding fiber, the fiber looped about the neck of each, knotted, and then passed on to the next girl. Our hands and feet were free. Where would one run in Laura? Where would one run anywhere?
Barefoot we left the barge and stepped out onto the pier, walking along the left sides of the wagons.
I could see a long wooden ramp leading up from the pier to a long wooden road winding between the crowded warehouses. We, in coffle, followed this road. I liked the smell of Laura, the fresh fields before the forests, even the smell of the river and the wood. We could smell roast tarsk from somewhere. We, and the wagons, passed between wooden sleds, with leather runners, on which there were squared blocks of granite, from the quarries west of Laura; and between bales of sleen fur and panther hides, from the forests beyond. I put out my hand and touched some of the sleen fur as I passed it. It was not unpleasing to my touch. There were men who came to stand along the edge of the road to watch us pass. I gathered that we were good merchandise. I walked very straight, not looking at them. Then one of them, as I passed him, reached out and seized my leg, from the back, behind the knee. I cried out in alarm, leaping away. The men laughed. One of the guards stepped between us, with his spear. 'Buy her,' he said, not unpleasantly. The man bowed low to the guard in mock apology. The other men laughed, and we continued on our way. I could feel his hand on my leg for several minutes. For some reason I was pleased. No had had reached out to touch Lana!
The smell of roast tarsk became stronger and, to our delight, the wagons turned and rolled into one of the huge warehouses. The floor was smooth. When we were inside the doors were closed. Then, kneeling, delighted, we were fed bread and roast tarsk, and hot bosk milk.
I became aware of Targo standing over me.
'Why did the docksman touch you?' he asked.
I put down my head. 'I do not know, Master,' I said.
The one-eyed, grizzled guard stood near Tyros. 'She now walks better than she did,' he said.
'Do you think she might become beautiful?' asked Targo.
That seemed to me a strange question. Surely a girl is either beautiful or not beautiful.
'She might,' said the guard. 'She has become more beautiful since we have owned her.'
This pleased me, but I did not understand it.
'It is hard for a white silk girl to be beautiful,' said Targo.
'Yes,' said the guard, 'but there is a good market for white silkers.' I did not understand this. When I looked at Targo again, he said, 'Put her six on the chain.' I looked down, flushed with pleasure. When I looked up again Targo and the guard were elsewhere. I began to chew my bread and roast tarsk. I glanced at the former five and six girl, now four and five. They were not much pleased. 'Barbarian,' said the six girl. 'Five girl,' I said to her.
But Targo did not display this chain in Laura, to my relief. He wanted higher prices.
After we had eaten we continued on our way, climbing the wooden streets, tied together by the neck beside the wagons. Once we passed a paga tavern, and,
