I was confused.
'I have been sold to a chain of Ionicus,' I said.
'Yes?' he said.
When I had learned, days ago, outside Argentum, that I had been sold to a chain of Ionicus, I had almost collapsed in fear. 'Which chain, Masters?' I had begged. 'Which chain? Please, Masters, which chain?' But my importunities had earned me then only a cuffing. It had not been until they were loading me, and four of the other girls, each of us tied within a tall, narrow leather sack, our heads exposed, the sack locked shut beneath our chins, into the cargo net, to be slung beneath a draft tarn, that I found out my specific information pertinent to my fate. 'Whither are we bound, Master?' I had asked of the fellow who would fly the lead tarn, the others in a roped coffle behind him. 'To the loading docks of Aristodemus,' he had said, 'outside the defense perimeter of Venna.' 'Thank you, Master!' I had cried, elated. Venna is a small, lovely city, largely a resort city, north of Ar, on the Viktel Aria. It is know for its tharlarion races. It is also a common locale, it and its vicinity, for villas of the rich, usually from Ar. I had feared that we might be bound for Torcadino, a city currently under siege by Cosians, and their allies, where, employed in the siegeworks, digging investing trenches, raising earth walls, and such, labored the 'black chain of Ionicus,' that chain for which I had aided in the «enlistment» or «recruitment» of several of its members. Two days ago we had arrived at the 'docks of Aristodemus.' Tarn traffic, because of the conditions of war, and alarms of war, was currently extremely restricted in the vicinity of Venna, as I took it, it also was in the vicinity of Ar. The point of this was apparently to render aerial reconnaissance more difficult and to subject the environing skies to at least partial control. An unauthorized flight into the area, particularly a day flight, would thus be easier to detect. Tarnsmen, too, frequently aflight, conducted patrols. Measures of this sort not only improve the probabilities of detecting raiders. Or other invaders of airspace, spies, for example, but also, of course, facilitate the deployment of defensive forces. Raiders afoot, of course, move much more slowly, and may find themselves at the mercy of the skies. At the 'docks of Aristodemus' we were put in work tunics. We were also put in the chains we now wore, with the exception of the coffle chain. We were then put in slave wagons, with other girls, who had apparently been awaiting our arrival, to be taken to the work camp. In these wagons our chained ankles were threaded about the central bar, which was then locked in place. In this way we are kept in the wagon until masters might be pleased to release us. Once within the wire of the work camp we were taken from the wagon, one by one, and put in coffle. We were now making our way through the camp to the tent of the overseer, near which, for his convenience, would be our pens.
I looked about myself, and back, at the long chain of me. Some of them were still looking after our coffle. I was frightened. 'What chain is this, Master?' I asked.
'It is the black chain,' he said.
I cried out in fear.
'What is wrong?' he grinned. I am sure he knew.
'The black chain,' I said, 'is at Torcadino. It is at Torcadino!' 'It was at Torcadino,' he said. 'It is not there any longer. It was moved. It is here, now, at Venna.'
I reeled in the chains. Things seemed suddenly to move about me, dizzily, and blackness seemed to leap about me. The chain pulling at the collar ring, in front, kept me moving.
'The siegeworks at Torcadino,' he said, 'or most of the heavy work there, at any rate, was completed months ago.'
I felt sick, but I must move in the chains.
'Perhaps you are the slut Tuka,' said the guard.
I looked at him, in misery. He had heard my name. I still bore the name which had been put on me by former master, Tyrrhenius of Argentum. It had been kept on me. I now, frightened, began to suspect why.
He looked at me.
'Yes, Master,' I said. 'I am the slut Tuka.'
'I thought so,' he said. 'You have many friends on the chain.'
'Protect me,' I begged. 'Protect me!'
'Perhaps,' he smiled.
'I will serve you as abjectly as the lowest slut on Gor,' I wept.
'You must so serve anyway,' he laughed. 'You are a slave.'
'Yes, Master,' I moaned.
'The guards have heard that you were an excellent lure girl,' he said. 'They suspect, thusly, that you might be rather good. They are looking forward to trying you out.'
'Yes, Master,' I said. I would try to serve with perfection.
We were now ascending the rise toward the square tent, the overseer' s tent. Behind it, and to the left, at the foot of the hill, on the low ground, in a soft area, were the pens for the female work slaves. I could see a corner of them as we climbed the hill.
'I was told, Master,' I said, 'that I was sold to my master, Ionicus, for five silver tarsks and a tarsk bit.'
'I have heard that,' he said.
'Is that not a high price to pay for a female work slave?' I asked. 'It would be quite high, under normal circumstances, for a normal work slave,' he said, amused. 'But my employer, Ionicus, enjoys a good joke. He is the sort of man who will pay high, to be amused.'
I see,' I whispered.
'Stop here,' he called to the coffle. We had now ascended the rise, and were on a flat, open space, before the tent.
'This, ladies,' said he, 'is the tent of the overseer. Much may depend on how you please him.'
Murmurs of fear coursed through the chain.
'You will be removed from the coffle, and taken before him, one by one,' he said. 'It is my advice that you open your tunics.'
One by one, beginning with the first girl, we were removed from the coffle. As each of us was removed from the coffle, we briefly crouched down, so that we might reach the upper part of our tunics with our chained hands, the chain joining our hands chained, in turn, to our ankle chain. We then pulled open our tunics. 'Let me help you,' said the guard. I stood up, before him, the collar gone now from my neck. He jerked the sides of the tunic apart, and then pulled it down, back over my shoulders. 'Excellent!' he said.
24 In the Work Camp
'Let me carry water to them,' she said. Her legs were excellent. She had a long mane of dark hair. it was no wonder she had once served in a tavern. The brief, clinging work tunic well revealed her. Our feet were covered to the ankles in the sand.
I stepped back. I would not dispute the labor with her. I feared to approach this group of fifty men.
'No,' said the guard, grinning. 'Tuka.'
Ten days now I had been with the 'black chain of Ionicus.' Never before, however, had I been assigned to this crew. Two girls, commonly, are assigned to each crew. The 'black chain,' as a whole, consisted of several such groups, most of some fifty men. The other chains of Ionicus, the 'red chain,' the 'yellow chain,' and so on, were at other locations, not in the neighborhood of Venna. Ionicus was on of the major masters of work chains. He himself resided, I understood, in Telenus, the capital of Cos, where his company had its headquarters. His work chains, however, were politically neutral, understood under merchant law as hirable instruments. They might, accordingly, and sometimes did, work for both sides in given conflicts. The tarsk of gold is the symbol of such men.
I looked down into the area where the men labored. The men were bagging sand, later to be used in the making of mortar. The Vennans were concerned to repair and heighten their walls.
'Do you hesitate?' asked the guard.
'No Master, of course not, Master!' I said.
'Beware,' said the other girl.
My body, and even my legs, ached from the weight of the water bag, slung on its strap over my shoulder. I
