about her duties.” “Yes, Master,” had said Cara. She took Sheera by the arm, to lead her from my presence.
“When we reach Lydius again,” I told Sheera, “I will dispose of you there, in the slave market.” Her eyes looked at me, in horror. She then well knew herself slave. I turned away from her.
I thought of Talena, the beautiful Talena. We would repledge our companionship. She would take her place at my side. We would make a splendid couple, she and I, the beautiful Talena, daughter of the Ubar of Ar himself, and the great Bosk, Admiral of Port Kar, jewel of gleaming Thassa.
It would be a desirable and excellent companionship.
Who knew how high might be raised the chair of Bosk?
The birds carried on above me, as I passed slowly, carefully beneath them. Sometimes when I first moved below them, they would be silent, but then, seeing a moment that I was moving away, would begin to cry out again, and dart about from branch to branch. I stopped to wipe my brow on my forearm. Almost instantly they stopped, clutching the branches, the notes of their song for the instant stilled. If I had then sat down, or lain down, or remained standing for some time, but made no threatening move toward them, they would again resume their gatherings of food, their flights and songs.
I continued on.
Rim had returned from Laura, the afternoon of the day preceding our departure from the camp. With him, met in Laura, had come Arn, and four men. Arn had heard in Lydius that we had acquired little Tina, as I had thought he might. He was interested in obtaining her, now that she was salve. He had not forgotten that she, when free, had once in a tavern in Lydius, feigning passion, drugged him and robbed him of a purse of gold. Arn, and his four men, were now with my party, following. They were interested in picking up panther girls. I thought their services might prove valuable. I had given Arn no definite answer on his request to purchase Tina, his object in coming to my camp. It was not that I had any particular objection to selling, or giving, her to him. Those objections were Tina’s, not mine, and they were not of account, for she was slave. But I knew that one of my men, the young Turus, he with the amethyst-studded wristlet, had found her not displeasing. That she, too, seemed much excited by him did not enter into my considerations. She was merely slave. That which would be done with her would be not that which she pleased, but that which I, her master, pleased. His concern, however, that of Turus, was important to me, quite important. He was of my crew. I would decide on the disposition of lovely Tina later. Perhaps I would give her to him. There were far more important matters to attend to at the moment.
It was past the tenth hour, past the Gorean noon. I squinted at the sun through the branches, and then looked down again, into the greenery.
I continued on, through the brush and trees.
I hoped to be able to scout Verna’s camp before nightfall, so that we might arrange our attack, with nets, for dawn.
I thought of my men back at the camp. They would not fail to appreciate captured panther girls.
Men of Port Kar know well how to introduce women to slavery.
I smiled.
I wondered what the paga slaves now in the camp would think of such wild captives. They would doubtless much fear them. The day of my departure from the camp, at dawn, later in that same day, four paga slaves, in yellow silks, brought up from Laura, chained in a longboat, would have arrived at my camp. It had been the main object of Rim’s journey to Laura to arrange for their rentals and delivery. According to Rim they were beauties. I hoped that he was right, for their master, Hesius, tavern owner in Laura, had not charged high rentals nor excessive delivery charges. We would have them for a copper tarn apiece, per day. Further, Hesius had told Rim that he would send wine with the girls, at no additional cost. I did not particularly want the wine, but I had no objection to its inclusion in our order.
I hoped the girls would be beautiful, for the sake of my men.
I, too, of course, would see them upon my return, and make my appraisals. It is important for a captain to see to the satisfaction of his men. I trusted Rim. I knew him to have a keen eye for slave beauty. If he spoke highly of the four paga slaves, they were doubtless splendid specimens of female slaves.
“Their prices are not high,” I had told Rim.
He had shrugged. “Prices are low in Laura,” he had said.
It was true.
I pushed aside branches, and slipped through.
The paga slaves would doubtless, at first, much fear the captured panther girls, and, of course, the panther girls would much despise such slaves. I laughed softly to myself. It would soon be turnabout. My men would swiftly teach the panther girls their collars. When the paga slaves saw them simply as what they would then be, new girls, helpless, frightened, intimidated, raw girls, fresh to the delights and degradations of slavery, they would no longer fear them, but scorn them, properly, as far inferior to themselves. And the new girls would beg the paga slaves to impart to them something of their skills, that they might be more pleasing to men. And then the paga slaves, as the mood struck them, might do so or not. Some of the panther girls themselves, when sold to new masters, might find themselves just such paga slaves, girls precisely such as they would have scorned upon first being brought captive to my camp.
I continued on, through the brush and trees. Leaves, gently, brushed my face. It was now near the twelfth Ahn.
My plans were proceeding well. I hoped, by nightfall, to have scouted Verna’s camp.
I could strike before Marlenus of Ar could find it. He was still hunting the woods in the neighborhood of Laura.
It did not displease me that I should bring his daughter to safety from the forests before him, or that I should have Verna, and her band, prisoner, tied in binding fiber, waiting for my iron, while he still, unknowingly, sought them where they were not.
Marlenus, in Ar, had once banished me, denying me bread, fire and salt. I had not forgotten that.
I laughed to myself. Let the great Ubar rage, I thought. Let him learn that one of Port Kar, one whom he once banished from his city, has swiftly, arrogantly, bettered him at his work.
The glory that was to have been Marlenus’ would now be mine.
I considered my return in triumph to Port Kar, the flowers in the canals, the cheerings throngs in the windows and on the rooftops.
At my side, in robes worthy of a Ubara, would stand Talena.
Let official word then be sent to Ar that his daughter now sat safe at my side, consort of Bosk, Admiral of Port Kar, jewel of gleaming Thassa.
We would make a splendid couple. The companionship would be an excellent one, a superb one.
Who knew, in time, how high might be raised the chair of Bosk?
I pushed aside more branches, and leaves, slipping between them.
I thought of Sheera, as she had leaped to me, her lips to mine. Then I dismissed her from my mind. I would dispose of her in the slave market at Lydius. She was merely slave.
Suddenly I stopped.
The birds had stopped singing.
I lowered my head swiftly.
The arrow struck the trunk of a tree not inches from my face.
It hit with a solid, hard sound, and I saw the shaft, feathered, quiver in the wood.
Some seventy-five yards through the trees I thought I saw a movement, furtive, the flash of a thigh.
Then there was only silence.
I was furious. I had been discovered. If the attacker reached her camp, all hopes of a surprise attack would be lost. The girls, alerted, might abandon the camp and flee deeply into the forests, taking Talena with them. My most careful plans would be undone.
I swiftly leaped in pursuit.
In moments I had come to the place whence the arrow had been loosed. I saw the marks on the leaves and grass where the attacker had stood.
I scanned the woods.
A bent leaf, a dislodged stone, guided me.
The attacker kept well ahead of me, for more than an Ahn. Yet there was little time to adequately conceal a trail. My pursuit was quick, and hot, and I was close. The attacker, much of the time, fled. It was not them difficult to follow. Crushed leaves, broken twigs, turned stones, bent grass, footprints, all spelled the trail clearly to the detecting eye.
Twice more arrows sped from the underbrush, passing beside me, losing themselves in the greenery behind me.
Often I heard the running from me.
I followed swiftly, not rapidly closing the ground between us.
My bow was strung. At the hemp string, whipped with silk, was a temwood arrow, piled with steel, fletched with the feathers of the Vosk gull.
The attacker, at all costs, must not be permitted to make contact with others. Another arrow struck near me, with a quick, hard sound, followed by the tight vibrating of the arrow.
I lowered my head, bending over. I no longer heard running.
There was no movement in the brush ahead.
I smiled. The attacker was at bay. The attacker was concealed in the thicket ahead, waiting.
Excellent, I thought, excellent.
But it was now the most dangerous portion of the chase. The attacker waited, invisible in the greenery, not moving, bow ready.
I listened, not moving, to the birds, intently.
I lifted my head to the trees in the thicket ahead, the tangles of brush and undergrowth. I noted where the birds moved, and where they did not. I did not draw my bow. I would not immediately enter the thicket. I would wait. I studied the shadows for a quarter of an Ahn.
I surmised that the attacker, aware of my hot pursuit, would have turned within the thicket, and would have waited, bow drawn.
It is very painful to hold a bow drawn for more than an Ehn or two. But to ease the bow is to move, and it is to be unready to fire.
Birds moved about, above me.
I listened, patient, to the drone of insects. I continued to study the shadows, and parts of shadows.
Perhaps I had gone ahead, perhaps I had evaded the thicker, perhaps I had turned back.
I waited, as a Gorean warrior waits.
Then, at last, I saw the slight movement, almost imperceptible, for which I had been waiting.
