'They will be tied in hides,' said the young man. 'Because the trading hides arecheap in places like Fort Haskins and Kailiauk.'
'There is another reason, a recent reason, why girls are so cheap in this area,' said the young man.
'What is that?' I asked.
'Barbarians,' he said.
'Barbarians?' I asked.
'Yes,' he said, 'unskilled, untrained, raw, luscious little beasts, many of whomcan speak almost no Gorean.'
'Where do they come from?' I asked.
'I do not know,' he said. 'The source for their delivery to be somewhere in thevicinity of Kailiauk. They are not good for the market.'
This information intrigued me. The delivery points for the slavers league withKurii shifted about on the surface of Gor. This practice, doubtless, wasintended to aid them to detection by Priest-Kings.
'Are these barbarians commonly shipped west over the Boswell Pass?' I asked.
'Almost never,' said the young man. 'They are generally taken south and,apparently, transported over the southern passes.'
This new information confirmed my suspicions that these were indeed the fruitsof slaving on Earth. If they were transported over the Boswell Pass they might,eventually, come to the attention of Clark of Thentis, a slaver of Thentis, hadrendered services to Priest-Kings.
'Interesting,' I said. The vicinity of Kailiauk, with its nearness to theBarrens, seemed a remote and useful place for a delivery point. Too, this mightexplain how the story might have come to the attention of Kurii. They might havean agent in Kailiauk, or in its vicinity.
'It is said that such barbarians, properly tamed and trained, make excellentslaves,' said the young man.
'I am glad to hear that,' I said.
'But I would not want to own one,' said the young man.
'Have you ever owned one?' I asked.
'No,' he said.
'Then you should not speak so soon,' I said.
'That is true,' he said, laughing.
I myself thought the young man did not know what he was missing. Earth girls,brought to Gor after years of sexual starvation on Earth, finding themselvessuddenly subjected to total domination, finding themselves absolute slaves, evento the market and the whip, the brand and the collar, the touch of an insolentmaster, finding themselves given no choice but to release and manifest theirdeepest and most and beautiful, most profound, most hitherto hidden femalenature often made the most grateful, rapturous and perfect of slaves.
'Still,' said the young man, 'they are not good for the market.'
'That may be true,' I said. It seemed to me not unlikely that an influx ofbarbarian females, in a given area, at a given time, might depress prices. To besure, the slavers in league with the Kurii usually distributed these girlsthrough out various markets. This made the females more difficult to trace backto their delivery points and, of course, tended, on the whole, to improve theprices one could receive for them.
'It will soon be time to camp,' said the young man.
'The slaves, I trust,' I said, jerking my head back toward the lovely, boundinmates of the wagon, 'are on their slave wine.'
'Yes,' laughed the young man.
'Please, Master,' begged the girl who had spoken earlier to the young man,'when we camp, tie my neck to a tree and untie my ankles. 'I desire to serveyou.'
'No, I!' cried another girl. 'I!' cried another.
The young man laughed. He saw the girls desired to placate him. But, too, ofcourse, to be honest, he was a handsome fellow, and they were bound femaleslaves. Carting such freight about does not pay high wages but there are fringebenefits connected with such work. If the girls are not virgins such a teamstercommonly has his pick of the load.
'My neck, too, can be tied to a tree, and my ankles, too can be untied, Master,' said another of the girls, addressing me. She was a luscious blonde.
I slapped the wood of the wagon box with pleasure.
'Look!' said the young man, suddenly, pointing to our right. 'Smoke!'
Almost at the same moment he rose to his feet and cracked his long whip over thebacks of the tharlarion. Grunting, they increased their lumbering pace.
Twice more he cracked his whip. The girls, in the back were suddenly quiet. Igripped the edge of the wagon box. To our right, in a long, sloping valley, sometwo or three pasangs from the road, there were three narrow, slowly ascendingcolumns of smoke.
'Faster! Har-ta!' cried the young man to the tharlarion.
'Surely we must stop,' I said. 'Perhaps we can render assistance.'
'It is too late,' he said, 'by the time you can see the smoke. Everyone here, bynow, would be dead, or taken.'
One of the girls in the back cried out in fear. Naked, bound slaves, they wereabsolutely helpless.
'Nonetheless,' I said, 'I must make inquiries.'
'You will do so then by yourself,' said the young man.
'Agreed,' I said. 'Stop the wagon.'
'Riders!' said the young man. Ahead, on the road, there was a rolling cloud ofdust. He jerked the tharlarion back. Grunting they scratched at the gravel ofthe road. They tossed their snouts in the nose straps. The young man lookedwildly about. He could not turn the wagon on the narrow road. The girlsscreamed, squirming in their bonds.
'They are soldiers,' I said. I stood on the wagon box, shading my eyes.
'Thank the Priest-Kings!' cried the young man.
In moments a troop of soldiers, lancers and crossbowmen, mounted on kaiila,reined up about us. They wore the colors of Thentis. They were covered withdust. Their uniforms were black with sweat and dirt. The flanks of theirprancing kaiila were lathered with foam. They snorted and, throwing back theirheads, sucked air into their lungs. Their third lids, the transparent stormmembranes, were drawn, giving their wild, round eyes a yellowish cast.
'Dust Legs,' said the officer with the men. 'The road is closed. Whither are youbound?'
'Fort Haskins,' said, the young man.
'You cannot remain here, and it would be dangerous to go back,' said theofficer. 'I think you are best advised to proceed to Fort Haskins as quickly aspossible.'
'I shall do so,' said the young man.
'It is unusual, is it not, for the Dust Legs to be on the rampage?' I asked. Ihad understood them to be one of the most peaceful of the tribes of the Barrens.
Indeed, they often acted as intermediaries between the men of the settlementsand the wilder tribes of the interior, such as the Yellow Knives, the Sleen andKaiila.
'Who are you?' asked the officer.
'A traveler,' I said.
'We do not know what has stirred them up,' said the officer. 'They have taken nolife. They have only burned farms and taken kaiila.'
'It is perhaps a warning, of some sort,' I said.
'It would seem so,' said the officer. 'They did not, for example, attack atdawn. They came openly, did their work unhurriedly, and withdrew.'
'It is very mysterious,' I said.
'They are a peaceful folk,' said the officer, 'but I would be on my way, andwith dispatch. Sleen or Kaiila may be behind them.'
One of the girls in the back whimpered in terror.
The officer, slowly, rode around the wagon, looking through the wooden bars atour bound cargo. The girls
