only the upper portions of my face.
There was a pounding at the inn door. Guards, sliding back a panel in the door looked through. Then they admitted another small group of refugees. There would be no rooms for them, as there were none for many of the guests, but they, too, albeit only for a space in a crridor, would be charged a full silver tarsk for their lodging. The inn of Strobius was not thught to be a good inn, but it was a large inn, and a stout one. Too, it was one of the few inns remaining open in Lara. Many o f the refugees, destitute, who had come to Lara had not been permitted to land at the quays, but had been driven further downriver. Too, here and there in the city, river pirates, with impunity, sought women and plundered.
Several of the men in the room, other than myself, wore masks. I lowered the sul porrage to the table. It ws not good, but it was hot.
'I am a free woman of Vonda!' the woman at the counter was crying. 'You cannot put me out!'
Oneander of Ar, the salt and leather merchant, and some others, had worn masks at the loot camp outside the city of Vonda.He had been, perhaps, well advised to do so. He had intended to trade with Lara, a member of the Salerian Confederation.
This would not make him popular in Ar, or in the strongholds of Ar. Too, he had been, as I had ascertained, attacked by river pirates on the south bank of the Olni and, embattled, had bargained for his life and those of his men by delivering his goods and slaves to the assailants. It was little wonder that he had chosen to mask his features. he did not wish to encounter the wrath of those of Ar, and he wished, doubtless, to conceal his chagrin and shame over the embarassing termination of his business venture in the north.
I had waited outside the food tent in the loot camp. The sky to the west was lit with the flames of Vonda.
'Are you Oneander of Ar?' I asked the fellow who emerged from the tent. 'No,' he said. 'I think you are Oneander of Ar,' I said to him. 'Do not speak so loudly,' had said he, looking about, 'you fool!'
I had then reached to his tunic and seized him, dragging him toward me. 'Remove you mask,' I told him. 'Is no one to protect me?' he called. 'What is going on here?' inquired a guardsman. 'I think this is Oneander of Ar,' I said. 'I had heard he ws in the camp,' said the guardsman, 'Are you he?' Yes,' said the man, hesitantly, angrily. 'Remove the mask,' I said, 'Or I shall.'
Angrily he drew away the mask. 'It is Oneander,' said the guardsman, not pleased. 'Do not leave me here with him,' called Oneander of Ar. But the guardsman had turned his back and left.
'Who are you?' asked Oneander of Ar, apprehensively. 'I was once a silk slaves,' I said. 'You may recall me from the streets of Ar, some months ago, in the neighborhoood of the shop of Phileubs. You set two slaves upon me.'Do not kill me,' he whispered.
'I have heard,' said I, 'that you were embatted near lara and surrendered slaves and goods.' 'On the south bank of the Olni,' he said, 'yes, it is true.' 'You did well,' I said, 'to save the lives of your men and yourself.' 'I have lost much,' he said.'What do you conjecture,' I asked, 'to be the fate of your goods and slaves?' They are no longer mine,' he said. 'They are now the property of the river pirates, theirs by the right of sword and power.' 'That is true,' I said. 'But what do you conjecture is to be their fate?'
'It is not likely they could be sold in Lara, or northward,' he said. 'Usually the river pirates sell their goods and captures somewhere along the river in one of the numerous river towns.
'What towns?' I asked. 'There are dozens,' he said. 'Perhaps Ven, Port Cos, Iskander, Tafa, who knows.' 'He who attacked you, the pirate chieftain,' I was, 'who was he?' There are many bands of river pirates,' he said. 'Who was he?' I asked. 'Kliomenes, a lietenant to Policrates,' he said. 'In whta town does he sell his wares?' I asked. 'It could be any one of a dozen towns,' said Oneander. 'I do not know.'
I seized him by the tunic and shook him. 'I do not know!' he said. 'I do not know!' I held him. 'Please do not kill me,' he whispered. 'Very well,' I had said, and released him. I had then turned about and went toward the tarn cots of the loot camp, that I might arrane with some bold tarnsman to provid me with transporataion by a suitably circuitous route to the vicinity of Lara.
The girl again stirred in the corner of the room. She rolled to her back. One knee was raised. She was lucious in the slave rag and collar. She turned her head from side to side. She made a small noise. She opened and closed one small hand. I wondered if she were aware, dimly, of the corase fibers of the slave mat beneath her back. I did not think so, not yet.
'I am a free woman of Vonda!' the woman at the counter had been crying out last night. 'You cannot put me out!' You will pay or be ejected,' Strobius had told her. 'You cannot put me out into the street'! she said. I had taken another sip of the sul porridge.
The woman at the counter had been veiled as is common with Gorean women, particularly those of high caste and of the high cities. Many Gorean woman in their haughtiness and pride, do not choose to have their features exposed to the common view. They are too fine and nobel to be looked upon by the casual rabble. Similarly the robes of concealment worn by many Gorean women are doubtless dicated by similar sentiments. On the other hand veiling is a not impractical modesty in a culture n which capture, and the cahin and the whip are not known.
One justification for the veiling and for the robes of concealment, which is not regareded as inconsiderable, is that it is supsed to provide something of a protection against abduction and predation. Who would risk his life, it is said, to carry off a women who might when roped to a tree and stripped, turn out to be as ugle as a tharalarion? Slave girls, by contract, are almost never permitted veils. Similarly, they are usually clad in such a say that their charms are manifest and obvious to even th e casual onlookers. This, aside from having such utilities as remining the girls that they are total slaves and giving pleasure to the men who look upon them, is supsed to make them, rahter than free women, the desiderated objects of capture and rapine. I think there is something to this theory for statistically, it is almost always the female slave and hot her free sister who finds herself abducted and struggling in the lashings of captors or slavers. On the other hand, in spite of the theories pertaining to such matters, free somen are certainly not immmune to the ftes of capture and enslavement. Many men, despite the theories pertaining to such matters, and accepting the risks involved, enjoy taking them. Some slavers specialize in the capture of free women. Indeed, it is thought by some, perpaps largely because of the additional risks involved, and the interest in seeing what one has caught, that there is a special spice and flavor about taking them. Similarly it is said to be pleasant, if one has the time and patience, first to their horror and then to their joy, training them to the collar.
'You cannot put me out into the street!' had cried the free woman. 'I can,' he informed her soberly. 'I am a free woman of Vonda,' she said, 'a member of the Confederation.' 'I am an innkeeper,' said he. 'My politics are those of the ledger and silver.'
I had sipped the sul porridge while listening to this conversation.
There are various reasons why Gorean men, upon occassion resort to masks. Oneander had worn a mask as had others in the loot camp because of his fear of the anger of the men of Ar, concerning his trading venture with Larak and doubtless, because of his shame at his failure in that venture. Several men in the main room of the inn wore masksnow presumable to conceal their identity for various reasons.
Times were troubled. It might not well serve their purposes to be recognized, as perhpas men of wealth or position, now in diffiuclt straits. Some might have been seized or held for ransom. Others perhaps shamed by the fall of Vonda orthe necessity for their flight from the city, did not iwsh to be recognized in Lara. Maskes too are sometimes worn by men in disgrace, or who wish to travel incognito. I recalled the Lady Florence. Dougtless the young men of Vonda and the estates aout Vonda who would attend her secret auction might wear masks. She might now know who had purchased her until she knelt his slave, before him, at the foot of his couch. I wore a mask because I had not wished to be recognized in Lara. In Lara there were many refugees from Vonda and its vicinity. Some might hae watched me in the stable bouts. I did not think my tasks would be either expedited or facilitated by being recognized as a former fightling slave. Now, however, for an independent reason, I was pleased to have worn the mask.
Sometimes, incidentally, free young men wear masks and capture a free woman, taking away her clothing and forcing her to perform as a slave for them. Sheis then commonly released. Afterwards, of course, in meeting them, she does not know for which of them, if any of them, she was forced to perform as a slave. Such a woman commonly begins to take risks inappropriate for a free woman. She is, sooner or later, caught and enslaved. She is then, as she has wished, sold, and will truly wear the collar. Perhaps one of the yound men will buy her and keep her as his own.
