Kajira of Gor

12 I Sit Upon the Throne; I Wait in the Hall

"Dress her in her most regal robes," commanded Ligurious.

"Yes, Master," said Susan, fumbling with the garments.

I stood before the mirror in my quarters. I watched the glorious robes of state being placed about my shoulders.

Earlier I had stood frightene.d behind the door, now kept locked, my ear to the wood.

"They are within the city!" I had heard cry.

"Impossiblel" had cried a guard.

"How was it done?" inquired another, insistently, bewilderedly.

"It seems a Sa-Tarna wagon was fleeing before the approaching enemy, seeking to reach the city before being overtaken," said a man.

"There was time, happily, it seemed, though the matter would be close, for the wagon to win its race, and sorely, as you know, did we need the grain. Ile gate was opened to admit the wagon. Surely there would then be time, and time enough, given the distances involved, to close the gate. One wagon seemed to be drawn by two strings of male slaves, twenty in each string, as is common. These men, however, were not slaves. The wagon within the portal, they threw off their harnesses and from beneath the grain drew forth swords. They prevented the closing of the gate. In moments the vanguard of the enemy had arrived." see I had hurried then to the barred window. I could smoke rising from the city. Shortly thereafter Ligurious and Susan had arrived at my quarters.

Ligurious wore soldierly garb, but of a sort with which I was not familiar. I did not know the insignia, the markings.

"Put her in the veil of state," said Ligurious. Susan brought forth a long, lovely veil, intricately embroidered. She adjusted my robes about me, concealing, in the fashion of the robes of concealment, now not thrown back, but drawn up, my hair and much of my head. She then pinned the veil in place. It was very beautiful. It was opaque.

Little could now be seen of me but my eyes and a bit of the bridge of my nose. I had not even known such a veil existed. Hitherto I had generally worn veils only when intending to travel incognito in the city, and I had never worn them on official occasions of state.

Come along," said Ligurious. He took my arm and, half dragging me, conducted me from my quarters.

In moments we were hurrying through the halls. Falling in behind Ligurious were some five or six men, not my guards, who were dressed much as he was.

The halls seemed, for the most part, oddly deserted. Occasionally a man ran past. At one point, crouching down, then kneeling, as wt passed, by hangings at the side of the corridor, was a slave girl. She was terrified. She wore some twists of silk about her. She wore a collar of a sort, rather high and ornate, which is often jeweled. No jewels, however, caught the light as we passed. They had been, I gathered, pried from their settings.

Susan was not with us. I did not know where she was. Apparently she had been left behind.

I was thrust into an anteroom, one off the great hall. In this room there were some four or five men and a woman. The woman wore a robe, hooding her, and was turned away from me. She -was about my height Interestingly she was barefoot and the robe she wore came only a bit below the -x. I thought she had nice calves and ankles. Mine, I thought, might be better, A man, dressed rather in the fashion of Ligurious and the others, was lifting a sheet about her. She clutched this sheet about her, drawing it even about her head, and holding it together, before her face, effectively veiling herself with it. She turned to face me. Then she turned away. Her eye color, I noted, was not dissimilar to mine. Ligurious turned me, so that I faced the door to the great hall, where, on the lofty dais, reposed the throne of Corcyrus.

"Is all ready?" asked Ligurious.

"Yes," responded a man.

"The tarns?" asked Ligurious.

"Yes," said the man. "Everything is ready."

I turned. I saw that the sheet, now, had been drawn completely over the woman, as though thrown over her. As it hung about her, its bern fell midway between her ankles and knees. I was startled. It was almost as though, under the sheet, she might be naked. I gasped. Something was being fastened about her throat, over the sheet, under her chin. It was round. There was a long strap connected with it. It was a slave collar and leashl Ligurious took me by the arm and turned me about, again, facing me toward the door to the great ball.

I did not know who the woman was, but I suspected that she might be she with whom Ligurious had confessed himself to be so smitten, she to whom I apparently bore some resemblance. It seemed odd to me, almost incomprehensible, that Ligurious, a man such as he, who must have had some fifty women at his feet, women such as Susan, women kneeling in terror and awe about him, for he was their total master, should be so much like a callow youth, should -be so weak, with this woman. Did he not know, I asked myself, scornfully, that she, too, ultimately, was only a woman, that she, too, ultimately, needed only the whip and a master?

I was then conducted into the great hall by Ligurious. It was empty. The two great entrance doors, at the far end, were locked from the inside, with the great beams in their brackets. It took ten guardsmen to move those beams. I could not begin to budge them.

"Is there any sign of the men of Cos?" I heard a man ask behind us, from the anteroom.

"They are not locals," said another man. "They will not meet Ar on the land." "Do the people resist the enemy?" I heard another man ask.

"No," said another man. "They abet them."

I ascended the steps of the dais, conducted by Ligurious.

At his indication I took my place on the throne.

"The doors of the anteroom will be locked behind us," said Ligurious. "You will not be able to open them."

"what is going on?" I asked.

"You will soon serve your purpose," said Ligurious.

"What purpose?" I said.

"That purpose which we feared might one day have to be served, that purpose, or major purpose, why you were brought to Gor."

"I do not understand," I said. I did recall that last night I bad been assured that everything bad been planned for, that all contingencies, according to Ligurious, bad been anticipated. JI I wondered if I still had a role to play in these contingencies.

"You still need me, then?" I said. "I still figure in your plans?" "Of course," be said.

I was relieved to hear this. I was afraid as to what might prove to be my fate if a man such as Ligurious no longer had any particular or special use for me. I was pretty. I could.conjecture what fates might lie in store for me.

"Listen," said he. "Do you hear it?"

"Yes," I said. It was a dull, striking sound, coming as though from a great distance. It had a rhythm to it.

"It is a ram," said he, "doubtless slung from a cradle, drawn by ropes, doubtless with a will by citizens of Corcyrus.

"It sounds far away," I said.

"It is at the outer gate," he said.

"The citizens of Corcyrus love me," I said.

"Do not doubt it," be said. "I must now take my leave. I fear there is little time."

"But what of me?" I said. "I am afraid. Will you come back for me?" "Have no fear, Lady Sheila," he said. "You will be come for."

"Soon?" I asked.

"Yes," he said. He then backed down the stairs. He bowed deeply.

"Farewell, Lady Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrus," he said.

He then withdrew.

I heard a splintering in the distance, and then, in a moment, a new striking, doubtless on the interior gate.

I heard the closing of the anteroom door behind Ligurious, and then the dropping in place of beams, the sliding of bolts. It had been locked from within, from the other side.

I sat on the throne, clutching its arms, alone in the great hall.