making dupes of men. Doubtless they had, at least until now, congratulated themselves on their success in such matters. Now, however, they were chained to a log wall in an inn's court. Frightened now, it seemed that they, even though free, were ready to escalate the level of their artifices. Perhaps in more normal times, perhaps even while they were still fully clothed, and veiled, they might have found eager fellows to make good their bills, perhaps at the first sign of distress, even the moistening of an eye. These, however, were not normal times. I considered the four women. They had requested to be tastes, as slaves. One had even begged explicitly, as I had seen to it she would, she who reputed herself to be of high caste. That had amused me. Only the first woman had not so demeaned herself. She, of all of them, was different. I heard the small sound of her shackle chains on the ring. 'I beg to be tasted,' she said.
I looked upon her.
I saw that she was beautiful, and not different from the rest. She, too, was only a slave.
'I beg it,' she said. I regarded her.
'Are you disappointed in me?' she asked.
'If you were a free woman, perhaps,' I said, 'but not if you are a slave.' Even in the apparently freest of women, of course, there is a slave who waits for her master. There is a Gorean saying to the effect that among women there are only slaves who have masters and slaves who do not have masters. Some men fear the slave in a woman; others provide it with the mastering it longs for, and needs.
'Please,' she said.
'Who begs to be tasted?' I asked.
'The Lady Amina of Venna begs to be tasted,' she said.
Her sisters at the wall gasped at her boldness, that she should use her own name in this fashion, rather as might a slave.
She looked at me.
She could not pull far from the wall because of her shackles. If she were to be kissed, it would be at my discretion.
'Lady Amina begs it,' she said.
She was a free woman. Yet I saw that she was well curved, and would nestle well within the arms of a master.
'Please,' she said.
I went to her and took her in my arms. I drew her toward me, from the wall. The shackle chain moved in the ring. Because of the chaining she was bent back. I looked upon her. Though she was free she, like the others, was neither clothed nor veiled. Thus, though she was a free woman, her lips were open to me, naked to me, exposed, in the manner of the slave. She looked up at me, those lovely, vulnerable lips parted. She felt slave good in my arms. I kissed her.
'Oh!' she said, softly, as I drew back.
I had made the determination in which I was interested. She belonged in a collar.
I against considered them. They were all beautiful, stripped, and shackled close to the wall. They had all, it seemed, more or less recently, chosen to live dangerously. But perhaps they had chosen to live a little too dangerously. I thought they might all look well on a slave block.
But I proceeded under the overhang to the open space between the two parts of the inn, the covered way there, with its high roof, that which it shared with the two parts of the inn, and then across it, to the right portion of the inn, in which the porter had informed me was the keeper's desk. In this covered way, too, it might be mentioned, passengers, with some protection from the weather, may board and alight from fee carts, and such. It was late. It was not raining much now. The night had turned chilly, however. I was looking forward to a hot bath, a place to dry my clothes, some food, some drink, a warm bed. 'Please!' I heard the first woman calling after me. 'Please!' But I left them behind me, at the wall, stripped and shackled, and tasted.
3 The Inn
I struck the keeper's desk twice.
Behind the desk, on the wall, there was posted a list of prices. They were quite high. I did not think that those were normal prices. If they were, I did not see how the inn could manage to be competitive.
I struck the keeper's desk twice more.
There was a tharlarion oil lamp hanging on three chains from the ceiling, to my right, above the desk.
Sample items from the list were as follows:
Bread and paga...2 C.T.
Other food....3 - 5 C.T.
Lodging......1 °C.T.
Blanket(s)....2 C.T.
Bath...1 C.T.
Bath girl...…2 C.T.
Sponge, oil and strigil...…1 C.T.
Girl for the night...…5 C.T.
T., Greens and Stable...…2 C.T.
T., Meat and Cot...…5 C.T.
A comment, or two, might be in order on this list of prices. First, it will be noted that they are not typical. In many inns, depending on the season, to be sure, and the readiness of the keeper to negotiate, one can stay for as little as two or three copper tarsks a day, everything included, within reason, of course, subject to some restraint with respect to page, and such. Also, the bath girl, and the sponge, oil and strigil, in most establishments, come with the price of the bath itself. The prices on the list on the wall seemed excessive, perhaps to a factor of five or more. The prices, of course, were in terms of copper tarsks.
For purposes of comparison, in many paga taverns, one may have paga and food, and a girl for the alcove, if one wants, for a single copper tarsk. Dancers, to be sure, sometimes cost two. I did not know what the 'other food' might be. One always inquires. It would vary seasonally, depend on the local suppliers, and, in some cases, even on the luck of local hunters and fishermen. In most inns the fare is simple and hearty. If one is particular about one's food, one sometimes brings it with one, and instructs the keeper how it is to be prepared. Some rich men bring their own cooks. After all, one cannot always count on a keeper's man knowing how to prepare Turian vulo or Kassau parsit. The references to «greens» and «meat», and such, were pertinent to draft tharlarion and tarns, and so, too, the references to stabling and cots, respectively.
It might be of interest to note that when I had come to Gor, some years ago, domestic tarns, like wild tarns, almost always made their own kills. They may still do so, of course, but now many have been trained to accept prepared, even preserved, meat. Ideally, they are taught to do this from the time of hatchlings, it being thrust into their mouths, given to them much as their mother bird would do in the wild. Tongs are used. With older birds, on the other hand, captured wild tarns, for example, the training usually takes the form of tying fresh meat on live animals, and then, when the tarn is accustomed to eating both, effecting the transition to the prepared meat. Needless to say, a hunting tarn is extremely dangerous, and although its favorite prey may be tabuk, or wild tarsk, they can attack human beings. This training innovation, interestingly enough, and perhaps predictably, was not primarily the result of an attempt to increase the safety of human beings, particularly those in rural areas, but was rather largely the result of attempting to achieve military objectives, in particular those having to do with the logistical support of the tarn cavalry. Because of it, for the first time, large tarn cavalries, numbering in the hundreds of men, became practical.
'Tal,' said a grizzled fellow, wearily, appearing through a door to the side. 'Tal,' said I to him.
'It is quieter outside now,' he said.
'It is still raining,' I said.
'It is ten tarsks a night,' he said. That agreed with the sign.
