There are varieties of slave wagons on Gor. A common type, used to transport female slaves, is covered with blue and yellow canvas. A central metal bar, hinged at one end, near the wagon box, and locked at the other, near the wagon bed's gate, usually occurs in such wagons. The girls' ankles are then chained about this bar. When the bar is freed and lifted they may then, still in their shackles, be removed through the rear of the wagon, the wagon gate being lowered. Another common type of wagon used generally in the transportation of women is the flat-bedded display wagon, with its mounted iron framework. The girls chained and manacled in various positions within and to this framework, sometimes compellingly attractive positions, are then visible. Sometimes buyers follow such wagons to the markets toward which they are bound. Sometimes, however, the girls are sold directly from such wagons, the wagons being in effect themselves traveling markets. In such cases usually one side of the flat wagon bed is used as an auction platform, a small but suitable scaffolding on which may be well displayed the lineaments of the girl's beauty, and on which may be exacted from her the provocative performances demanded by cruel and merciless vendors of their beautiful, degraded merchandise. Another common type of slave wagon on Gor is the cage wagon which, depending on the stoutness of its bars and security, may be used for either men or women. The particular slave wagon in which I was fastened combined the features of the cage wagon and common slave wagon. It was a converted tharlarion wagon and, with bars and extra planking, was unusually stout, probably because its purpose was to transport fighting slaves. It was a heavy wagon, with high sides and covered with a brown canvas. About the whole a cage had been built, with heavy bars, which opened by means of a small door in the back. Within the wagon, in low-sided, heavy stalls, by means of rings at the front and back of the stall, and on the side of the stall near our necks, we were chained by the ankles, wrists and neck. We had, thus, far less freedom of movement than is commonly accorded to females. On the other hand this additional security was only to be expected. We were male slaves, and fighting slaves. I pulled against the chains. They held me well. Gorean masters, for most practical purposes, simply do not lose slaves.
'Do you think there is danger?' asked Barus of Kenneth.
'I do not know,' said Kenneth.
The wagon then began to move again. I heard chains near me move. One of my fellows struggled angrily. He, too, of course, was absolutely helpless. We were both only Gorean slaves, efficiently chained by masters.
'Look to the right,' said Barus, after a time.
'I see it,' said Kenneth.
'And to the right of there,' said Barus.
'Yes,' said Kenneth.
I did not understand this conversation, and, I suppose, neither did my fellows.
'Look there,' suddenly said Barns. 'In the sky!'
'I see!' said Kenneth. The wagon stopped.
I heard someone descend from the wagon box. In moments I heard the lock rattling at the rear of the wagon. I then heard keys, swiftly, being inserted into locks. 'Get out of the wagon,' I heard Barus ordering someone down the line from me. In moments I felt a key being thrust into the locks on my ankle shackles, and then, an instant later, I felt my manacles, fastening my hands behind my back, freed of the ring to which they were attached. My neck chain, a moment later, was pulled loose of my collar ring and fell against the side of the wagon, behind me. 'Out of the wagon!' ordered Barus.
'Hurry!' called Kenneth. 'He will return with others in moments!'
Barus half pulled me from the stall and pushed me toward the end of the wagon. I was still hooded. Still were my wrists confined behind my back.
'Our of the wagon!' I heard Barus order another man.
I struck against the bars at the end of the wagon. I then lowered myself to the floor and, feet first, slipped through the small, barred gate. It is made so as to admit the entrance or exit of only one man at a time. I then stood barefoot in the dust of the road.
To my amazement I felt Kenneth thrusting a key into the locks on my manacles.
'He is coming now, with others!' said Kenneth.
'Out of the wagon!' Barus ordered another man.
The manacles were pulled away from my wrists and cast through the bars into the wagon.
'Unhood yourselfl' said Kenneth. He was then opening the manacles of another man. I fumbled with the buckles and then drew the hood away. The fresh air felt cold and wonderful. 'Unhood yourself!' said Kenneth to another man.
'They will be here in an Ehn or less,' cried Kenneth.
'Out of the wagon!' ordered Barns, addressing himself to the last man.
I looked back and to the right. There were two columns of smoke in that direction, far off. I also saw what I took, at first glance, to be a flock of birds in the sky, back and to the right.
'They are coming quickly!' said Kenneth.
I then realized that what I saw in the sky, in the distance, were birds, indeed, but tarns, and that doubtless mounted upon them, armed and purposeful, were men.
'What is going on?' cried one of the slaves.
Kenneth pointed to the sky. 'Tarnsmen!' he said.
'Men or Ar?' asked a slave.
'That, or worse,' said Kenneth. He then freed the last man. 'Unhood yourself,' he ordered him. The man, blinking, did so.
I watched the approaching riders, some pasang or so distant, some four or five hundred feet in the air.
'What do you think they will do with you?' asked Kenneth.
We stood there, uncertain, confused.
'Do you think you are lovely women, naked and alluring, whom they will simply chain up and take back to their camp, to be fitted with slave collars?'
We looked at him.
'Run!' said Kenneth. 'Scatter!'
Confused, startled, we fled, scattering in various directions.
I looked back once and saw Kenneth and Barus, too, hurrying from the vicinity of the wagon. I did not look back again until I had attained the refuge of an extended, linear terrain of trees and brush bordering a small stream. I saw the wagon burning. The tarnsmen then, in a moment or two, again took flight. They did not pursue us. They returned toward the twin columns of smoke in the distance. I saw the tharlarion which had drawn the wagon, cut loose and stampeded, lumbering away. I was breathing heavily. My heart was pounding wildly. I felt with my fingers the heavy collar of iron, with its ring, fastened on my neck.
26 I MAKE THE LADY FLORENCE MY PRISONER; WE FLEE THROUGH THE TUNNELS
There was a tearing of cloth. 'No!' she cried, twisting away from him, terrified, running to the wall.
He beckoned to her with his left hand. His right hand held a sword. 'Come here, my beauty,' he coaxed her.
'No, please!' she cried. She was breathing heavily. She was terrified. Her right hand held her robes about her left shoulder, from which they had been torn.
The rough fellow, bearded, grinning, sheathed his sword.
'Show me mercy!' she begged.
'I will show you the mercy which a master shows his slave,' he laughed.
He approached her and, as she wept, he tore down her robes to the waist.
I heard a girl screaming in the outer hall. It was probably Bonnie.
The rough fellow then, laughing, snapped slave bracelets on the wrists of the Lady Florence.
She cried out with fear as I seized the fellow by the back of the neck, thrusting my hand up under the helmet, and hurled him head-first into a wall. Stunned he turned about. I was on him in an instant. He could not
