“Perhaps they are not interested in Marlenus,” said Rim, looking at me. I regarded him, puzzled.
“Who knows,” he asked, “what may happen in the forests?”
“What shall we do, Captain?” asked Thurnock.
“We shall proceed with our plans,” I said.
“You know what you are to do?” I asked Sheera.
“Yes,” she said, standing before me, deep with the forests.
In the brief sleeveless garment of white wool, my collar at her throat, her hair bound back by a fillet of white wool, she might have been any slave girl. “Extend your wrists,” I said.
“You’re not going to bracelet me!” she cried.
If I did so, she would be almost helpless in the forests.
“No!” she cried.
I snapped the bracelets on her. Her wrists were confined some four inches apart. It would be difficult for her to run, almost impossible to climb.
“Do I mean nothing to you?” she asked.
“No,” I said.
“The hold,” she protested.
“It mean nothing,” I told her.
She put her head down, a braceleted slave girl.
Rim and Thurnock were with me, and five men. We had come deep into the forests. We had brought with us a pack of trade goods, some gold. The pack, and gold, was now flung to one side. Before that it had been strapped to Sheera’s back. We would now make camp, putting sharpened stakes about our camp, to protect us from animals, and the nocturnal attacks of panther girls.
Sheera lifted her eyes. “They may simply slay me,” she said.
“Panther girls,” said I, “are not likely to slay a braceleted slave.” “I am Sheera,” said the girl, suddenly, proudly. “I am the enemy of Verna. If she captures me, she may slay me.” “You are Sheera,” I said. “If you captured Verna, branded and collared, what would you do with her?” she looked at me, angrily. “I would return her to slaver,” she said, “and promptly.” “Precisely,” said I.
“What if I do not fall in with her?” asked Sheera.
I held the chain joining the slave bracelets. I shook it, that she might well feel the steel retainers on her wrists.
“Then,” I said, “I expect you will fall in with sleen, or forest panthers.” She looked at me, with horror.
“Permit me to start now,” she said.
I looked at the sun, and then away. “It is a bit early,” I said, “for a slave girl to escape.” “But the sleen,” she said, “the panthers!” “Kneel, and wait,” I said.
She knelt, braceleted.
I did not expect it would take long for Verna’s girls to pick her up. We had made no effort to conceal our movements, or trail. I suspected that, already, they were aware of our presence in the forests. I had seen, an Ahn earlier, before we had reached this camp site, a tawny movement in the brush, some fifty yards in front of us, and to our left. I did not think that it was a forest panther.
The men were cutting and sharpening stakes, and setting them in the ground, about our camp site.
I looked at Sheera, kneeling in the bracelets.
Then I sat down, cross-legged, and withdrew an arrow, for the great bow, from its quiver and, with thread and a tiny pot of glue, bent to refreshing one of the shafts.
Above Laura, north of her, there lie several slave compounds. It had taken the better part of the morning, but Rim and I, and Thurnock, had found the blazed tree, blazed with a spear point, several feet high on the trunk. We had then found the next tree, to establish the line. We had marked the points and line on our map. On the map, later, in the stern castle, we had traced out, with greater accuracy than had hitherto had been possible, following the directions of Tana and Ela, what should be the location of Verna’s camp and dancing circle. Our original estimate, we were pleased to note, was not grossly inaccurate. We would, of course, as before, if the need arose, not approach the camp by the familiar route. If it should prove necessary to storm the camp with slave nets, we would do so after a secret approach, striking decisively, and fiercely from an unexpected direction.
Things were going well.
I thought of the slave girl, Tana, paga slave in the tavern of Sarpedon of Lydius. I wondered how she would relish her new duties. I wondered if Sarpedon would have beaten her, for concealing from him her skills. It was quite probable. She would look well, when not carrying paga, dancing in the sand. A slave girl is not permitted to conceal her skill as a dancer from Sarpedon, her master. Yes, she would have been beaten. Then, that night, as Sarpedon had promised, she would dance.
As she danced, I trusted that she would think of me.
She had made her decision. It had been a brave decision. But it had not been a decision without its risks. She had gambled. She had lost.
I thought, too, of Telima. She, too, had made her decision. Let her remain, if she wished, in her beloved marshes.
I sought Talena.
I smiled.
Talena was not a simple paga slave, as was Tana. Talena was not a simple rence girl, indigenous to the marches, as was Telima. Talena was the daughter of a Ubar!
It was not simply that Tana was beneath me, a rich man, Bosk, admiral in Port Kar. She, slave, was beneath any free man. She was only kept alive for one purpose, to serve such men, and be pleasing to them. And Telima, though she was very beautiful, was a rence girl. She was of low caste. She was scarcely fit consort for one of my position. But Talena, she was the daughter of a Ubar. She might, with fitness, sit by my side.
She would be acceptable.
I mused.
In time, I might become first captain in the Council of Captains. And who knew what political occurrences might take place in Port Kar? I was popular in the city. Perhaps in time there would be a Ubar in Port Kar.
At my side Talena would be the most beautiful, the richest and the most powerful woman on Gor.
I finished with the arrow on which I was working.
I would rescue her.
We would repledge our companionship. And who knew to what heights I might raise the chair of Bosk? Indeed, with Talena at my side, the daughter of the great Ubar of Ar, my fortunes, in many matters, might be much improved. The companionship would be an advantageous one. She, by virtue of her influences and associations, could bring me much. Who knew to what heights, in time, might be raised the chair of Vosk? Perhaps, in time, it might stand as high, or higher, than the throne of Ar? And might there not come to be, in time, an alliance of Gor’s greatest sea power and her greatest land power, and, perhaps, in time, but one throne?
We would make a splendid and powerful couple, the envy of Gor, Bosk, the great Bosk, and Talena, the beautiful Talena, daughter of a great Ubar, his consort. I rose to my feet, the arrow well refeathered, and set it to one side, across two rocks. In the morning it would be dry and I would replace it in the quiver. I looked at Sheera.
The shadows were longer. It was late in the afternoon. She looked at me. I turned away from her.
It was not yet time for a slave girl to escape.
Things were going well.
I went to inspect the work of the men, setting the sharpened stakes about the camp.
We had made one alteration in our original planes, an alteration to take into account the arrival in Laura of the Rhoda of Tyros.
We had taken the Tesephone from the wharves of Laura, and ascended the river some twenty pasangs. It was there, on the north bank, that we made our camp. Above Laura the river is less navigable than below, particularly in the late summer. The Rhoda, though a shallow drafted galley, was still considerably deeper keeled than the Tesephone. Moreover, it was a much longer ship. The Rhoda would be unable to follow us to our camp. Furthermore, I would post guards, downriver, to warn us of any approach, say, by longboats, from Laura. I had also pointed guards about the camp, in case, as was unlikely, there should be an attempt to make an approach through the forests.
I suspected that these precautions were unnecessary, but I saw fit to decree them nonetheless.
Furthermore, the camp above Laura, on the north bank of the Laurius, provided us with privacy for our business. We might be simply, as far as those in Laura knew, attempting to achieve better prices on sleen fur by establishing this camp. Such things were sometimes done. No one in Laura need know the true object of our expedition.
The riverside camp was not untypical of a semipermanent Gorean naval camp. The Tesephone had been beached, and lay partly on her side, thus permitting scraping, recalking and resealing of the hull timber, first on one side and then, later, when turned, on the other. These repairs would be made partly from stores carried on board, partly from stores purchased in Laura. There would also, of course, be much attention given to the deadwork of the ship, and to her lines and rigging, and the fittings and oars. Meanwhile, portions of the crew not engaged in such labors, would be carrying stones from the shore and cutting saplings in the forest, to build the narrow rectangular wall which shields such camps. Cooking, and most living, is done within the camp, within the wall and at the side of the Tesephone. The wall is open, of course, to the water. Canvas sheets, like rough awnings on stakes, are tied to the Tesephone, and these provide shade from the sun and protection in the case of rain.
I was fond of my crew. I would have girls, paga slaves, brought up for them from Laura.
“How goes the work?” I asked Thurnock.
“It goes well,” said he, “my captain.”
The men would soon be finished.
The camp of Marlenus, the great Ubar of Ar, I had learned was somewhere within the forest, north or northwest of Laura. It was quite possibly the same camp he had used several months ago, when, as recreation from the duties of the Ubar, he had gone hunting in the northern forests, a sporting trip in which he had captured a large number of animals, and, as well, Verna, a famed outlaw woman, and her entire band.
