'Would you wait outside, Marcus?' I asked.
'Certainly,' he said, exiting.
'A nice lad,' said the fellow.
'There are serious risks involved,' I said to the fellow.
'For you perhaps,' he said. 'Not for me.'
'We have gold,' I said, 'obtained in the north.'
'And you do not know better than to try futilely to force this wealth upon me, even against my will?' asked the fellow.
'I would like you to consider it,' I said.
'That is the least I can do for a friend,' he said 'It will help to defray the expenses of the troupe in the north,' I said. 'It is then a contribution to the arts?' asked the fellow.
'Certainly,' I said.
'And you would be grievously offended if I did not accept it?'
'Certainly,' I said.
'Under those you leave me no choice.'
'Splendid,' I said.
'The amount, of course, I leave to your well-known generosity.'
'Very well,' I said.
'It should be commensurate, of course, as you are the patron, with your concept of the risks involved and not mine.'
'So much gold,' I said, 'is not in Gor.'
'Really?'
'Yes.'
'Then I trust that my estimate of the risks involved is a good deal more accurate than yours.'
'It is my fervent hope,' I said.
'Do you think an entire gold piece, say, a stater, or a tarn disk, would be too much in a cause to perpetuate and enhance the arts on an entire world?'
'Not at all,' I said.
'What about two gold pieces?'
'It can be managed,' I assured him.
'In that case perhaps you can return the young fellow's wallet to him.' He handed me Marcus' wallet. I felt quickly for my own. It was still in place. 'It is all there,' he said, 'what there was.'
'Very well,' I said. Marcus and I did not carry much money about with us. 'Be careful,' I said to him.
'If I were not careful,' he said, 'there would be a great deal more than eleven warrants out on me, and I would have a great deal more creditors than the twenty-two who know where to fine me.'
I was silent.
'I must go upstairs now,' he said, 'and content Telitsia. Since she has become a slave she is quite different from the free woman you once knew.'
'I am sure of it,' I said.
In bondage, the once proud, arrogant Telitsia, of Asperiche, had learned slave arousal. I could imagine her upstairs now, probably chained by the neck to a ring, probably stripped, given the heat of the higher apartments, probably lying on the floor, where she had been put, near the ring, her small hands on her neck chain, or her fingers on the ring, now and then moaning, and turning about, or squirming, with a movement of chain, awaiting the return of her master.
'I wish you well,' I said.
'I wish you well,' he said.
He then turned about and, with considerably less speed than he had manifested in his descent, began to climb the stairs. In a moment or two, as he was not carrying a light, he had disappeared in the darkness. I listened, however, for some time, to his climbing. I then went outside and rejoined Marcus.
'Do you know who that was?' I asked.
'A magician,' he said.
'Here is your wallet,' I said.
'Ai!' said Marcus, slapping at his belt.
'Supposedly its contents are unrifled, or at least intact.'
'It was wafted away by magic,' said Marcus.
'Sometimes I believe him to be more light-fingered than is in his own best interest,' I said.
'No,' said Marcus. 'I felt nothing. It was magic. He is a true magician!'
'Perhaps he is a bit vain of his tricks,' I said.
I could well imagine many Goreans leaping upon him with a knife under such circumstances, or, at any rate, looking him up later with that in mind, having discovered their loss in the meantime.
'Perhaps we should exchange him to use magic in his attempt on the Home Stone,' said Marcus. 'I would not wish him to be torn to shreds on the rack.'
'His mind is made up,' I said. 'He would not hear of it.'
'Such courage!' said Marcus.
'Do you know who he is?' I asked.
'Renato, the Great,' said Marcus.
'That is not his real name,' I said.
'What is his real name?' I said.
'In an instant you would know it, if I told it to you,' I said. 'You would be astonished that such a fellow has deigned to help us. He is known far and wide on Gor. He is famous. His fame is spread throughout a thousand cities and a hundred lands. He is known from the steaming jungles of Schendi to the ice packs of the north, from the pebbly shores of Thassa to the vast, dry barrens east of the Thentis range!'
'What is his name?' inquired Marcus, eagerly.
'Boots Tarsk-Bit!' I said.
'Who?' asked Marcus.
'Put your wallet away,' I said.
'Very well,' he said.
I also checked my own wallet, again. It was in place, and its contents were in order.
19 The Field Slave
'That is she,' I whispered to Marcus.
We were astride rented tharlarion, high tharlarion, bipedalian tharlarion. Although our mounts were such, they are not to be confused with the high tharlarion commonly used by Gorean shock cavalry, swift, enormous beasts the charge of which can be so devastating to unformed infantry. If one may use terminology reminiscent of the sea, these were medium-class tharlarion, comparatively light beasts, at least compared to their brethren of the contact cavalries, such cavalries being opposed to the sorts commonly employed in missions such as foraging, scouting, skirmishing and screening troop movements. Rather our mounts were typical of the breeds from which are extracted racing tharlarion, of the sort used, for example, in the Vennan races. To be sure, it is only select varieties of such breeds, such as the Venetzia, Torarii and Thalonian, which are commonly used for the racers. As one might suppose, the blood lines of the racers are carefully kept and registered, as are, incidentally, those of many other sorts of expensive bred animals, such as tarsks, sleen and verr. This remark also holds for certain varieties of expensive bred slaves, the prize crops of the slave farms. Venna, a wealthy town north of Ar, is known for its diversions, in particular, its tharlarion races. Many of Ar's more affluent citizens kept houses in Venna, at least prior to the Cosian war. To date, Venna, though improving her walls and girding herself for defense, had not been touched in the Cosian war. This is perhaps because it is not only the rich of Ar who kept properties within her walls, but those of many other cities, as well, perhaps even of Kasra and Tentium, in Tyros, and of Telnus, Selnar,
