Kajira of Gor

22 The Wagon; Caught!

"Please, do not make any noise," I whispered.

"Who is there!" said the woman, frightened. I heard the movement of a chain. "Please be quiet," I whispered. "I will not hurt you."

"What is going on?" whispered another woman. I heard the movements of bodies, of chains.

"Be quiet, please," I said. I had crawled over the side of the slave wagon. I had lowered myself, in the darkness, to the interior. I felt the wood of the wagon bed, beneath a blanket, or blankets, beneath my knees. The wagon, unhitched, was drawn among some trees. Two tharlarion were tethered nearby. Also a few yards away there was a tent.

"Please be quiet," I whispered. I lowered myself to my belly in the wagon. I did not wish to risk my upper body being seen over the side of the wagon.

Although the wagon was normally open when on the road it was now, on this night on which it had rained off and on, rigged with a temporary, now-partially-rolled-up cover. The cover consisted of a tarpaulin sewn about long poles on two sides. This cover was placed over a frame which consisted of five poles; two of these poles, braced, crossed and tied together near the top, were at the front of the wagon; a similar pair was fixed at the back of the wagon; between these two pairs of poles there lay, across them, parallel to the long axis of the wagon, like a ridgepole, a fifth pole. The tarpaulin, then, was laid over this long pole and held in place by its own two poles, resting against the sloping sides of the crossed poles at the front and back of the wagon. The tarpaulin was rolled up and tied about its poles in such a way that there was a gap of about a yard between itself and the side of the wagon. huc "Please," I begged. I lay on my stomach in the wagon. My body was wet; my feet were muddy.

"Who are you?" whispered a woman.

"I am one who is hungry, and in desperate need of help," I said "But we are naked slaves," said a woman.

"And we are chained," said another.

"Give me some food," I begged. "I must have foodl" I had not eaten in more than twenty Ahn, indeed, since I had received a feeding from Speusippus, and a rather sparing one, on the evening preceding my escape. He had on the whole fed me intelligently, but seldom generously. It seemed to be his intention, through diet and exercise, in so far as he could, to see to it that my body became as shapely as that of a pleasure slave.

"There is no food in the wagon," said a woman.

I moaned in misery.

"Our food is measured out to us in small, exact quantities," said a woman, "and then we must, under supervision, consume it entirely."

"There must be food," I said.

"There is food within the tent," said a woman, "but the drivers are there, and it is kept locked up."

"You must help me," I said. "I am as sheared as you."

"What can we do?" asked a woman.

"You had best flee," said another.

"I do not know what to do, or where to go," I sobbed.

"Who are you?" asked a woman.

"I am a free woman," I said.

I heard a reaction, a shrinking back in the chains.

"Do not be afraid," I said. "I will not hurt you. Too, do not kneel, please." "You are not a free woman," said a woman.

"You are a runaway slave," said another.

"If you were a free woman," said another, "you would not come to slaves. You would go to free persons!"

"I am hungry and miserable," I said. "I need help. I do not care whether you think I am slave or free."

"She is not branded, I do not think," said a woman. I pulled back. I felt hands checking my left and right thighs, the two most common brand sites for a Gorean slave.

"No, I do not think so," said another woman, apprehensively.

"Some men do not brand their slaves," said a woman.

"They are fools," said another.

"Yes," said another.

"But she is sheared," said another, feeling my head.

"She must then be a slave," said another.

"Some free women have themselves sheared, to sell their hair," said another. "I am a free woman," I sobbed.

"She is naked," said another woman.

"She doesn't even have a string on her belly," said another.

I pulled back, angrily, from them. a,

"Free women do not run about the countryside naked, my dear," said another woman.

"Nonetheless," I said, "I am a free womanl"

"Where are your clothes?" asked a woman.

"A man captured me," I said. "He took my clothesl He sheared my hair, too, for moneyl"

"Why didn't he keep you?" asked i woman.

"She must be ugly," said one of the women.

"I am not uglyl" I said.

"Then why didn't he keep you?" asked the woman.

"I don't knowl" I said.

"You are a slave," said a woman.

"Nol" I said.

"Liarl" said another.

"I am a free woman," I sobbed. "I am a free woman.

"If you are a free woman, and are not from this area," said one of the slaves, "I think you should flee. It is not safe for you here."

"I do not understand," I said.

"Surely it would not do for you to be caught here," she said.

"No!" I said, frightened.

"Then I think you should flee, now, while there is still time.

"Where can I go?" I asked. "Where can I run?"

"Anywhere," said a woman. "But hurryl"

"Why?" I asked.

"It is nearly time for slave check," said a woman.

"Slave check?" I asked.

"Yes," she said.

"It is too late!" whispered a woman.

I looked wildly about. Not feet away I saw a lantern approaching the back of the wagon. I quickly lay down, with.the others, huddled against them, as if asleep. I heard the wagon gate being lowered in the back. It swung down on its binges, striking against the wagon. I heard the boards of the wagon bed creak as they were subjected to additional weight. I sensed the light of the lantern in the wagon, under the tentlike tarpaulin, illuminating bodies.

I lay very still.

"Well," said a voice, "what have we here?" I felt a foot kick me. I turned about, blinking up into the light of the lantern, terrified.

"You have been caught, Slavel" said a woman near me, elatedly.