Conspirators of Gor

Chapter Forty-Three

“All is lost,” said Desmond of Harfax.

“How so, Master?” I inquired.

“Grendel has been seized,” he said. “His execution has been arranged. He will be taken outside the Cave and killed, his body left for sleen and larls.”

“He is a traitor to our cause,” I said. “He was to have garnered remote support for the conquest of Gor.”

“You camisked, collared little fool,” he said. “It is from Grendel that we have learned of the conspiracy, its plans, and its projected ends. It is from Grendel that we learned of the kaissa sheets, and were supplied with the materials, the privacy, and time required to copy them. It was thanks to him that we came to a clearer understanding of the card codes, though he was not then clear as to how the messages were conveyed. Thanks to him, we later managed to adopt the very Kur device, the card codes, to our own purposes. We can order cards with subtle and clandestine intent as well as they. And the Kurii are, or were, unaware of our capacity to do so. Grendel supplied us regularly with information. It was he who was essentially behind our small counter-conspiracy. I was his factor. It was he who was my principal, communicating commonly through Astrinax.”

“Why Astrinax?” I asked.

“In order that he might the more closely monitor the condition and safety of the Lady Bina, for whom I suspect he would willingly die.”

I recalled that she had been placed largely in the keeping of Astrinax.

“He spoke to me,” I said. “He cited complacent treachery, greed, contempt for the Lady Bina.”

“And you, fool, believed him.”

“Yes!” I said.

“You belong in a collar,” he said.

“Not for such a reason,” I said.

“And you will be kept in one,” he said.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because you belong in one,” he said. “Get on your belly!”

“Yes, Master,” I said.

“You are unworthy to kiss my feet,” he said. “Kiss the floor before me.”

I obeyed. Also my thighs were heated. I felt helpless.

“How else could he obtain his release from his cell?” asked Desmond of Harfax. “How else could he secure the liberty to move about, to organize an opposition, to attempt to frustrate and oppose the dark schemes of Agamemnon?”

“I did not know,” I whispered.

“And it was well you did not,” he said. “Were you conscious of the duplicity you might well have ruined it, behaved suspiciously, gave some revealing sign that might have been noted by the adherents of Agamemnon.”

“Yes, Master,” I whispered.

“Things began to go badly several days ago,” said Desmond of Harfax. “Much of this had to do with the revolt of Lucius. Grendel refrained from participating in this small war, on either side. This displeased Agamemnon and his cohorts, who had naturally expected him to ally himself with them, to kill without question, and such. More seriously, Grendel refused to execute the Kurii of Lucius who availed themselves of the supposed amnesty. This aroused suspicion amongst the adherents of Agamemnon. Had it not been for his projected value as an influencing emissary to a steel world, he would doubtless have been immediately killed.”

“Why has he just now been taken?” I asked.

“I do not know,” said Desmond of Harfax. “Perhaps the patience of Agamemnon and his cohorts was finally exhausted.”

“I do not think so,” I said, “with so much at stake. Who but Grendel might plausibly, and with a better prospect of success, conduct Agamemnon’s embassy to a certain far world?”

“A certain far world?” he said.

“Yes,” I said.

“I have heard such talk,” he said. “Grendel himself has spoken in such a way.”

“You are skeptical?” I asked.

“There are things here which I find it hard to understand,” he said. Then he said, “Kneel up. I want to look at your eyes, slave.”

I obeyed immediately, as one obeys a Gorean master. I did not look forward to being under his scrutiny.

“Where is Earth?” he said.

“Master?” I said.

“Is it north of the Vosk?” he asked. “Is it east of the Barrens?”

I looked at him. Surely he knew Earth was another world. Did he not have access to the Second Knowledge? Perhaps he was indeed a Metal Worker, one of a lower caste, and had attained only to the First Knowledge. It is said there is a Third Knowledge, but that is reserved to Priest-Kings. He must know of other worlds. Had he not spoken of a steel world, one flung farther away than Tor-tu-Gor itself? Was he testing me, somehow? I supposed he might well not be aware of how such worlds might be reached.

“No,” I said.

“It is another world?” he said.

“Yes,” I said.

“You are not lying?” he said.

“No, Master,” I said.

“How did you come here?” he asked.

“I do not know,” I said. “I was rendered unconscious on my former world, and when I awakened I found myself on Gor, in a small, dark cell, naked and chained, hand and foot.”

“There was a ship?” he said.

“Doubtless,” I said.

“I am told,” said he, “that there is a strange ship in the higher levels of the Crag, a ship which might sail amongst mountains, a ship borne not by water, but by air, or less.”

“Such things are possible,” I said.

“I learned of this from Grendel, through Astrinax,” he said.

I supposed the lair of this ship, perhaps somehow housed within the crag, had been discovered by Grendel. Certainly he had been often enough out of the Cave.

“Doubtless it was in such a ship,” I said, “that he was to be envoyaged to the distant world, one of metal, where he was to plead the cause of Agamemnon, acquire resources, and enlist allies.”

“Four times,” said Desmond of Harfax, “before the revolt of Lucius, despite the importunities of Agamemnon, Timarchos, Lysymachos, and others, Grendel sought to postpone this journey, meanwhile laboring on our behalf.”

“I understand,” I said.

“One pretext after another was proposed, each more exasperating to Agamemnon and his adherents than the other. Then, before we were well organized, the abortive revolt of Lucius took place. The aftermath of the revolt has been unfortunate. The movements of Agamemnon have become more guarded, men have been disarmed, and Kurii patrol the Cave and guard the great portal.”

“Things would be difficult,” I said.

“Even with Grendel, and some trust in him by Agamemnon and his cohorts, I fear they would have been impossible.”

“I saw him taken,” I said, “by the great portal.”

“Why now?” he asked.

“I do not know,” I said.

“Nor I,” he said.

I recalled Grendel, roped, being led down the hall, preceding his captors, bearing their primitive but terrible weapons.

“Our plans have come to naught,” he said.

I was silent.

“There is another danger,” he said.

“What is that?” I asked.

“Given the suppression of the revolt, and the increased security in the Cave,” he said, “the increased suspicion and watchfulness, the fear of further disruption or dissension, the intensified vigilance, our small organization of men, secret and subversive, intent on exposing the machinations of Agamemnon and his cohorts, is in ever greater jeopardy. How can it not be discovered, if not now, tomorrow, or the day after?”

“Perhaps all will survive,” I said.

“It is clear how at least one might survive,” he said.

“How?” I asked.

“By betraying the rest,” he said.