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shore and cutting saplings in the forest, to build the narrow rectangular wall
which shields such camps. Cooking, and most living, is done within the camp,
within the wall and at the side of the Tesephone. The wall is open, of course,
to the water. Canvas sheets, like rough awnings on stakes, are tied to the
Tesephone, and these provide shade from the sun and protection in the case of
rain.
I was fond of my crew. I would have girls, paga slaves, brought up for them
from Laura.
 How goes the work? I asked Thurnock.  It goes well, said he,  my captain.
The men would soon be finished.
The camp of Marlenus, the great Ubar of Ar, I had learned was somewhere within
the forest, north or northwest of Laura. It was quite possibly the same camp
he had used several months ago, when, as recreation from the duties of the
Ubar, he had gone hunting in the northern forests, a sporting trip in
which he had captured a large number of animals, and, as well, Verna, a famed
outlaw woman, and her entire band.
Marlenus, I was certain, would be overconfident.
Verna, I was certain, would not be so easily taken a second time.
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 Another two stakes, and we are done, said Thurnock.
I looked at the sun, it was now low, behind the trees, well below them. In
half an Ahn, it would be dusk.
It was now time for a slave girl to escape.
I looked at Sheera.  On your feet, Slave Girl, I said.
She stood up, her wrists braceleted before her body. She faced me. She wore
the brief, sleeveless garment of white wool, her dark hair back by the fillet
of white wool. She was barefoot. My collar was at her throat.
I realized, suddenly with a start, that she was a quite beautiful woman.
She regarded me.
Her fists were clenched in the slave bracelets. The short chain, joining the
bracelets, was taut.
 Is this why you purchased me? she asked.
 Yes, I said.
She turned quickly, wrists braceleted, and slipped between two stakes, where
Thurnock had not yet closed the defenses of the camp. She sped swiftly into
the forest.
It was in her best interest, braceleted, to fall swiftly into the hands of
Verna s band. Within the Ahn, hungry, nocturnal sleen would slip from their
burrows to hunt.
 What shall we do now, Captain, asked Thurnock. He had finished closing the
wall, setting the two stakes, sharpened, inclined toward the forests, into
place.
 We shall cook some food, I said,  and we shall eat, and we shall wait.
About the twentieth Ahn, the Gorean midnight, we heard a sound, beyond our
defensive perimeter.
 Do not put out the fire, I told my men,  but stay back from it.
That we kept the fire burning would indicate that our intentions were not
hostile, and that we wished to make contact.
We remained back from the fire to make it more difficult for the panther
girls, were it their intention, to slay us from the darkness with arrows.
But that was not their intention. Had it been I do not believe we would have
heard the sound we did. It had been the breaking of a branch, to alert us, to
permit them to see what our response would be.
But the fire was not covered.
I stood near the fire, and lifted my arms, that they might see I held no
weapons.
 I am Bosk, of the Free Island of tabor, said I.  I am a merchant. I would
hold converse with you.
There was only silence.
 We have trade goods, I said.
From the darkness, beyond the perimeter, there stepped forth a woman, boldly.
She carried a bow. She wore the skins of panthers.
 Build up your fire, she commanded.
 Do so, said I to Thurnock.
Reluctantly Thurnock heaped more wood on the fire, until the interior of the
perimeter was well illuminated in the darkness.
We could not see beyond the fire.
 Keep the fire high, said the woman.
 Keep it high, said I to Thurnock.
Each of us, now within the defensive perimeter, between the stakes, was
an easy mark.
 Remove your sword belts and weapons, said the woman. I dropped my belt, with
sword and sheath, and knife, to the ground, beside the fire. My men, at my
signal, did likewise.
 Excellent, said the woman, from the other side of the stakes.
She looked at us. In the light from the recently built-up fire I could see her
more clearly. I saw the brief skins, the bow. She had a golden armlet on her
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left arm, a golden anklet on her right ankle.
She was truly a panther girl.
 You are surrounded, she said.
 Of course, I said.
 You understand, she asked,  that you might be now, should it please us,
taken slave?
 Yes, I said.
 Of what would you hold converse? she asked.
 Let us speak, I said.
 Remove some of the stakes, she said,  and we will speak.
I gestured to Thurnock. :Remove four stakes, I said. Reluctantly the peasant
giant did so.
The panther girl, her head high, strode into the camp. She looked about
herself. Her eyes were strong, and fearless. With her foot she kicked the
dropped weapons closer the fire, away from my men.
 Sit, she said to them, indicating a place near the back of the wall of
stakes,  and face the fire.
I indicated they should comply with her direction.  More closely together,
she said.
I again indicated that they should comply with her directive.
She had had them face the fire, that their eyes might not quickly adapt to
night vision. If the fire were suddenly extinguished they would, for an Ehn,
for all practical purposes, be blind, at the mercy of the panther girls. They
had been told to sit together that an arrow loosed into their midst could not
but find a target.
The girl now sat down across from me, cross-legged, near the fire.
There was another sound from beyond the perimeter. I saw something white move
in the darkness, stumbling between two panther girls.
A panther girl holding each arm, she was thrust into the camp. She was still
braceleted, of course, but now her hands, in the bracelets, with binding
fiber, had been tied close to her belly. Her brief white garment had been torn [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]