Players of Gor

5 What Occurred in the Inn of Ragnar; I Will Return to the Camp of the Lady Yanina

I pounded on the door of the old inn of Ragnar, now closed, on the old west road. It lies in the midst of certain other buildings, mostly now, too, closed and dark. I heard a movement behind one of the boarded-up windows. It was a bit past the seventeenth Ahn. The door opened a crack.

"It is Brinlar," said a voice, that of one of the men of the Lady Yanina. "I did not think you would return," he said to me.

"He is a fool," said another of her men, from just within.

"He fears the sleen," said another.

"Let him in! Let him in!" said the voice of the Lady Yanina.

I was admitted into the dark vestibule of the inn, and the door was closed behind me.

"Were you successful?" asked the Lady Yanina, anxiously.

"Yes," I said.

"Marvelous!" she whispered.

"He is intrigued," I said. "He is eager to meet you. He is particularly impressed that you are so attracted to him that you, though a free woman, will serve him in the modalities of the slave."

"Superb!" she said. "The gullible fool!"

"He will be here at the eighteenth Ahn," I said.

"Marvelous, Brinlar," she said. "Marvelous! It is all going perfectly!" AS my eyes became accustomed to the darkness, I could see that her five men were here. I had thought they would be. I knew they were not at the camp. I had stopped at the camp on the way back from the fair. I had wished to pick up some things. The "work chain," heavily chained, secured between two trees, had not been guarded. They were unimportant to her now, I supposed. She wanted all of her men here. I could see, too, that she wore some form of belted robe. She was not veiled. "What are you carrying?" she asked.

"Some wine, and things," I said. "I took the liberty of stopping by the camp on the way back from the fair. I thought perhaps you might care for some refreshments. The wait until the nineteenth Ahn, and the arrival of your colleague, Master Flaminius, might be long. You might be hungry."

"You are a dream, Brinlar," said the Lady Yanina. "You are a treasure!"

"May I make a suggestion, Mistress?" I inquired.

"Of course," she said.

"I would, if I were you, light a small lamp or two, illuminating the main hall and perhaps the selected alcove. This should suggest an atmosphere of delicate openness to Bosk of Port Kar, encouraging him to believe that he is eagerly awaited. The darkness of a seemingly deserted inn might appear ominous, perhaps suggesting a trap."

"Light two lamps," said the Lady Yanina to one of her men, "one in the main hall and one in the first alcove."

He set about to accomplish her bidding.

"You are very clever, Brinlar," she said.

"I would further suggest," I said, "that you leave the door to the inn ajar, but that you make no particular effort to conceal your men."

She looked at me, puzzled.

"I have informed Bosk," I said, "that you might have men in attendance. After all, a free woman cannot very well be expected to traverse the old west road unattended. She might fall to a slaver's noose and his iron. The men, however, while not attempting to hide themselves, are expected to remain unobtrusive. Thus the door is to be left tactfully ajar. In this fashion we will not have to devise hiding places for them, nor risk the loss of time, and perhaps the noise, perhaps alerting Bosk of Port Kar, of their emergence from concealment."

"Oh, splendid, Brinlar," she said. "Splendid!"

The man was now completing the lighting of the second lamp. In a moment he had emerged from the alcove.

"I would now encourage my men to sit about the table, there," I said, indicating on e of the large rough-hewn tables, with benches, in the main hall. "I would further encourage them," I said, "to sit there as naturally as possible, perhaps even partaking of the refreshments which I have brought."

"Do it," she said.

"Good," said one of the men, taking the sack from me which I had stocked at the camp.

"Does Lady Yanina care to partake?" asked one of the men.

"Not now, not now," she said.

The men sat about the table, reaching into the sack, pulling out the flagon of wine, the goblets, the viands. One of them kicked aside some chains under the table, lying in the vicinity of a stout ring in the floor. The men of Torvaldsland sometimes chain naked bond-maids in such a place.

"I think there is at least one thing more," I said.

"What is that?" she asked.

"May I inspect Lady Yanina?" I asked.

"Inspect me?" she asked.

"Yes," I said. "Bosk is not a fool. He may be dismayed, or become suspicious, if he detects even the least inaccuracy or imperfection in your disguise."

"Turn away," she said to her men.

They did so.

"Look," she said to me, opening her robe. her body, now clad in slave silk, was incredibly lovely. She would doubtless, as I had earlier thought, bring a high price in a slave market.

"It is as I feared," I said.

"What is wrong?" she asked.

"You have a lining beneath the silk," I said.

"Of course!" she said.

"Remove it," I said.

"Brinlar!" she protested.

"Do you think a master would be likely to permit such a thing to a slave?" I asked.

"But I am not a slave," she said. "I am a free woman!"

"But supposedly you are brining bosk here, to serve him as a slave," I said.

She looked at me.

"Do you think he would not note so glaring a discrepancy in your costume?" I asked.

"Look away," she said.

I saw the wine slosh from the flagon I had brought into the goblets of the men.

"You may now look again," she said.

"Ah!" I said.

"I am more naked than naked," she said.

"Mistress is quite beautiful," I said. There was no doubt about that slave market price.

"It must be somewhere near the eighteenth Ahn," I said. "I think it is time for Mistress to go to the alcove." I turned her about and conducted her to the alcove. "Lie down there," I said, pointing to the furs. She did so. She looked well at my feet.

"Doubtless Mistress has arranged a signal wit her men," I said.

"It is quite simple," she said. "I shall merely cry out. They will then rush forward and seize Bosk of Port Kar. In moments, then, he will be stripped and in chains, my helpless prisoner."

"I see," I said.

"Do you think he will come?" she asked.

"Be assured of it." I said. "He will be here."

"But perhaps he will be suspicious," she said.

"Have no fear," I said. "He trusts me. He trusts me like I trust myself."

"What are you doing?" she asked, trying to draw back. I had taken her left ankle in my left hand. It was helpless in my grip.

"Completing your disguise," I said. I took the ankle ring, heavier than was necessary for a female, from the side of the alcove, on its chain, and, with my right hand, clasped it, locking it, about her left ankle.

She jerked at it. "I am chained!" she said.

"Yes," I said.

"Where is the key?" she asked.

"Just outside, on its hook," I said. I had made this determination earlier in the day, in scouting the inn, before she and her men had arrived.

"Can I reach it from where I am?" she asked.

"In no way," I said.

She looked at me, frightened.

"Do not be afraid," I said. "Your men are just outside."

"Yes," she said. "Yes." she examined the ring and the chain, her hands on the chain, frightened, fascinated. She looked up at me. "I'm chained," she said, "truly chained."

"Your men are just outside," I reminded her.

"Yes," she said.

"Is this how you intend to receive Bosk of Port Kar?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"The first moments may be crucial," I said. "You will wish to disarm his suspicions. What if he does not immediately put aside his weapons?"

"I do not understand," she said.

"Lie more seductively, Lady Yanina," I said. "Think slave."

"Brinlar!" she said.

"That is better," I said.

"Your hands!" she said.

"Part your lips slightly," I said. "Look at a man as a slave, feel your helplessness, feel burning heat between your thighs."

"you are posing me as a slave!" she said.

"You are not the first woman who has lain chained in this alcove," I said.

"But they were slaves!" she said.

"Most of them, probably," I said, "but perhaps not all."

She looked at me, frightened.

I rose to my feet.

"What time is it?" she asked.

"It must be quite near the eighteenth Ahn," I said.

"What are you going to do now?" she asked.

"I am going to withdraw from the alcove," I said, "I shall draw the curtains behind me."

"Then I must simply wait," she said, "wait for a man!"

"Yes," I said, "it would seem so."

She squirmed angrily.

"Many women have done so, of course," I said, "particularly women in such places, in such a bond."

"Of course," she said, angrily.

"And many of them," I said, "would not have known who it was who would come through the curtains, only that they must serve him, and exactly according to his dictates, and marvelously."

"Yes!" she said, angrily.

"You are very beautiful," I said. "Slave silk and a chain become you."

"Oh!" she said.

"It is difficult to conjecture how beautiful you might be, if you were truly a slave."

"Do you think I would be a beautiful slave?" she asked.

"yes," I said.

"I thought I might be," she said, cuddling down in the furs, "but let men despair, for I shall never be a slave."

I then withdrew from the alcove, closing the curtains behind me. I heard a small sound of the chain, from within, as she moved her ankle.

I conjectured that it must now be about the eighteenth Ahn. Flaminius, probably with his men, would be arriving in the neighborhood of the nineteenth Ahn. This did not give me a great deal of time for all I wished to do. I looked about the inn. The Tassa powder which I had placed in the wine had already, mostly, taken its effect. One of the Lady Yanina's men lifted his head from the table, looking at me groggily, and then tried to rise to his feet. His legs failed him and he sprawled back, over the bench, and then, half catching himself, slipped to the tiles of the inn floor. I had had little difficulty in locating the Tassa powder. It had been contained among the belongings of the lady Yanina. I had discovered it on my first full day as her servant, while tidying her tent. It had been contained in a small chest of capture equipment, such as weighted slave nets, ropes, hoods, gags and manacles. Similarly I had had access to the general stores of the camp, that I might more conveniently wait upon and serve her and her guards. With the aid of the lamp taken from the table, about which the guards now lay sprawled, I soon located, in one of the farther alcoves, what I was looking for.

I then returned to the table about which the guards lay and replaced the small lamp on its surface. The things I had taken from the alcove I put to one side. I then went to the curtained threshold of the alcove wherein lay the Lady Yanina. I jerked apart the curtain.

"Brinlar!" she said, startled, drawing back on the furs, her legs under her, with a movement of chain, against the back wall of the alcove.

I regarded her.

"You startled me," she said.

I did not speak.

"Is he here?" she whispered.

"yes," I said. "He is here."

"Where?" she asked, in a whisper.

"Just outside the alcove," I said. "I suggest you compose yourself. I suggest you prepare yourself for him. I suggest you invite him to your arms."

"Yes," she whispered, frightened. "Yes."

I stepped back a bit, as though to yield the threshold, that it might admit the entrance of another.

The Lady Yanina now lay seductively on her side. She was quite beautiful in the slave silk, and the chain, in the light of the tiny lamp. She gathered together her powers of concentration. Then she extended one hand. "I love you, Bosk of Port Kar," she called, softly. "I have loved you from the first moment I saw you. At the very thought of you I am helpless and weak. Do not be dismayed that someone whom you do not know and whom you have perhaps never even seen is madly in love with you!" I have fought my passion for you! But it has conquered me! I am yours!"

She looked at me. "Very good," I said, nodding.

"Permit me to confess my love for you," she called. "Permit me, too, the dignity, as I am a free woman, of using your name in my doing so, before perhaps, if it pleases you, you impose upon me the discipline of a slave."

I nodded.

"I love you, Bosk of Port Kar," she cried. "I love you!

There was silence.

"What is wrong?" she whispered to me.

I shrugged. "Perhaps he intends to make you wait a moment or two," I said.

She make a small movement of impatience.

I frowned.

She then again composed herself, seductively. Again she extended her hand. "I lie here panting with passion," she called, "as submitted as a slave."

Many of the things which she had said, incidentally, were not different from the genuine, heartfelt declarations of women in love, particularly those so much in love that they find themselves, in effect, the slaves of masters. One the other hand, of course, the Lady Yanina was acting. It is not difficult for a skilled master, incidentally, to discriminate between such declarations which are genuine and those which are not, usually in virtue of incontrovertible body clues. The lying female is then punished. Soon she learns that her passion must be genuine. She then sees to it, with all the consequences, physical, psychological and emotional, attendant upon it, consequences which, at first, are sometimes found horrifying or disturbing but which, ultimately, because of their relation to her depth nature, when she surrenders to this, are found joyfully and gloriously fulfilling. She is then herself, fully.

"Hurry to me, Bosk of Port Kar!" she cried. "I desire your touch! I desire to serve you! I beg to please you! I plead to please you! Take pity on me! Do not torture me so! Do not make me wait longer! Hurry to me, Bosk of Port Kar, my lover, my master!"

"Good," I said.

"Enter my alcove!" she cried. "I am yours!"

I entered the alcove. I did not have a great deal of time.

"Brinlar," she cried, drawing her legs under her, "what are you doing!"

"What do you mean, 'what am I doing!?" I asked.

"Where is Bosk of Port Kar?" she asked.

"He is here," I said.

"Where?" she asked.

"Here," I said, jerking my thumb toward my chest. "I am he."

"Do not be absurd!" she said.

"Kneel," I said.

"Is this some form of mad joke, Brinlar?" she asked. "Have you taken leave of your senses?"

"I believe you received a command," I said.

"Men!" she cried, leaping to her feet. "Men! Men!"

I let her run to the threshold of the alcove, where the shackle on her left ankle held her up short. She looked wildly out into the main hall. From where she stood, at the curtains, in the light, and shadows, of the small lamp on the table, she could see the slumped, fallen, senseless figures of her guards.

"Tassa powder," I explained. "It was your own. I believe you are familiar with its effects."

I then took her by the upper arms and hurled her back into the alcove, with a rattle of chain, onto the furs.

She scrambled about, and looked at me, wildly. "You are not Bosk of Port Kar!" she cried. "You cannot be Bosk of Port Kar!"

"I am Bosk of Port Kar," I assured her.

"You have gone mad, Brinlar!" she cried. "This is an outrage! Release me!"

I smiled.

"Sleen! Sleen!" she wept.

"You are a female," I said, "and you are in slave silk, and chained. I suggest you keep a respectful tongue in your head, unless you wish to have it removed."

She looked at me, frightened.

"Do you recall having received a command earlier?" I asked.

She knelt.

"How does it feel to be kneeling before a man?" I asked.

She clenched her fists.

"You are wearing slave silk," I said.

"Yes," she said.

"Remove it," I said.

"No," she said.

I reached to the wall and took a slave whip from its hook. Such things are common in the alcoves of inns and taverns on Gor. They help a girl be mindful of her duties.

"Now," I said.

` She jerked the silk angrily from her body.

"You are quite beautiful," I said, "for a free woman."

She tossed her head, angrily. "Thank you," she said.

"Kiss the whip," I said.

"Never!" she said.

"You will kiss it now, or after you have felt it," I said. "It does not matter to me."

"I will kiss it," she said angrily.

"More lingeringly," I said, "and lick it, as well."

She complied.

"Now, kiss it again," I said.

She complied.

"Now say, 'I have licked and kissed the whip of a man, " I said.

"I have licked and kiss the whip of a man!" she said. "Now what are you going to do with me?"

I do not have much time," I said.

"I do not understand," she said.

"Turn about," I said, "and lean forward, resting on the sides of your forearms."

"No!" she cried.

"Assume the position, as instructed," I said.

"No!" she protested.

I lifted the whip.

She complied.

A few moments later, having freed her ankle from the shackle, I dragged her by her right arm out of the alcove, to the side of the table about which her men lay sprawled. Her lovely dark hair was down about her face. I forced her down on her knees, under the table. I put her over the ring, in the midst of the chains.I clasped the ankle rings about her ankles, locking them. I thrust the short, attached chain, attached to the ankle-ring chain at one end, and the wrist-ring chain at the other, and the wrist rings, on their short chain, between her legs and through the sturdy floor ring. I then, close to the floor, locked her wrists snugly into the wrist rings. She was now held helplessly in place beneath the table. "In such a fashion," I told her, "the men of Torvaldsland sometimes secure their bond-maids. Thus they have them at hand and may use them, to some extent, to please them under the table. In this fashion, similarly, it is easy to feed them by hand and throw them scraps of meat. It is a useful arrangement in their training and, too, even a skilled, experienced girl, even one who is highly esteemed, is sometimes confined so, when it pleases the master to do so."

Her eyes were glazed. Her hair was down before her face. She pulled at the chains, weakly.

"But perhaps you are not interested in the lore of Torvaldsland," I said.

"What you did to me," she said.

"Perhaps you are hungry," I said.

She looked at me, angrily. She moved her head to the side, trying to free her face of hair. I took her hair and, arranging it, put it back over her shoulders. "You are quite beautiful in chins," I said. Perhaps you should be a slave."

She did not respond.

"You look well chained under a table," I said.

"Thank you," she said, angrily.

I took a piece of meat from the table, one of the viands I had brought from the camp, a small tidbit of roast tarsk.

I held it out to her.

"No," she said.

"Eat," I said.

Her wrists pulled upward, against the wrist rings, but her hands, chained as they were, could lift but a few inches from the floor. "I cannot reach it," she said.

"I am not a patient man," I said.

"I am a free woman!" she said.

"I am well aware of that," I said. "If you were a slave, you would probably have received at least two beatings by now."

She extended her head.

"Excellent, Lady Yanina," I said. "You take food well on your knees, from a man's hand."

Then next few pieces of meat I scattered on the tiles. She must take them without touching them with her hands. While she was doing this I disarmed the guards, slinging their weapons about my shoulder.

I then came back to regard the Lady Yanina.

"Have you finished the meat, Lady Yanina?" I inquired.

"Yes!" she said.

I picked up the things, lying to one side, which I had taken from the farther alcove. Her eyes suddenly widened, and she regarded me with terror.

"This key," I said, "I found concealed in your robes. It is, I assume, the key to one of the chests, which contains, doubtless, the keys to certain other chests, and perhaps other keys, as well, such as those pertinent to the shackles of your work chain. If it does not, of course, I may have to make use of certain tools in your camp."

She began to tremble in the chains.

"Among your belongings," I said, "there are also doubtless other things of interest, such as rings, and moneys, and such, pilfered from your captives. I alone am missing a considerable wallet. Too, I think I may count on your having independent stores of coins and notes, and, given your apparent wealth and elegance, a suitable measure of costly cloths, gems and jewelries. These materials I shall distribute among the members of the work chain, to compensate them somewhat for their inconvenience and loss of time. These weapons I carry, too, save for those I reserve for my own use, I shall give to skillful, worthy fellows. We shall then, still free men, make our way to the fair. At the fair, as you know, fighting, enslavement, foul play, and such, are not permitted. After some days of sport and recreation at the fair, we may then, if we wish, from the fairgrounds themselves, take tarns to Port Kar, an expensive proposition to be sure, but one which your resources will doubtless prove sufficient to fund. If you see a light in the sky later, it may be your camp burning."

"Do what you wish," she pleaded, in her chains. "Free the men, take the gold, burn the camp, but do not touch that packet!"

"Oh, yes, this," I said, lifting the leather packet which I had taken from the farther alcove. "This contains the materials, doubtless, which you were to deliver to your dear friend, Flaminius."

"Leave it!" she said.

"Why?" I asked.

"I am a courier," she said. "I must deliver that to Flaminius!"

"I gather that that will be difficult for you to do," I said, "chained as you are."

"Please," she said. "Do not even think of taking that! Leave it! I beg you!"

"It must be very important," I said.

"No," she said, quickly, moving in the chains, drawing back, "No. No."

"Then its loss will be negligible," I said.

"The materials will be meaningless to you!" she cried. "They will mean nothing to you!"

"Where are they from?" I asked.

"From Brundisium," she said.

"Who are they from?" I asked.

"From Belnar, my Ubar," she said. I assumed that was a lie. Presumably there was no Belnar who was a Ubar in Brundisium. Still, I did recall that she had referred to a «Belnar» at yesterdays rendezvous with Flaminius.

"And you were to deliver them to Flaminius?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. "Yes!"

"And what is he supposed to do with them?" I asked.

"He is to deliver them to the appropriate parties in Ar," she said.

"In Ar?" I asked.

"Yes," she said.

That surprised me. I wondered if she knew the true destination of the materials. I assumed they must actually be transmissions to the Sardar. Presumably it was merely her intention to mislead me.

"they are state papers," she said. "They must now fall into the wrong hands!" I assumed they were not state papers, of course. On the other hand, I was prepared to believe that they had their origin in Brundisium, and that there was some fellow named Belnar associated with them. He would be, I supposed, an agent of Priest-Kings. I was curious. I considered waiting for Flaminius and his men. Yet I had no special wish to kill them and particularly if they were agents of Priest-Kings. I had already killed one fellow who, I took it, was an agent of Priest-Kings, the fellow, Babinius, in Port Kar. I had once served Priest-Kings. I did not wish now, whatever might be their current attitudes toward me, to make a practice of dropping their agents. To be sure, I did not know for certain that this Belnar, and Flaminius, the Lady Yanina, and those associated with them were agents of Kurii.

"Do you serve Priest-Kings?" I asked the Lady Yanina.

"I do not understand," she said.

"Do you serve Beasts?" I asked.

"I do not understand," she said.

"Whom do you serve?" I asked.

"Belnar," she said, "my ubar, Ubar of Brundisium."

"Why should this Belnar, whom I do not know, supposedly the Ubar of Brundisium, a city with which I have never had dealings, find me of such interest? Why should he send a killer against me, or desire my apprehension?"

"I do not know," she said.

I smiled.

"I do not!" she said.

It could be, of course, that she, for all her beauty, was only a lowly counter in an intricate, complex game beyond her understanding. She might not even know, ultimately, whether she served Priest-Kings, or Kurii. That was an interesting thought.

"I am going now," I said.

"Don't go!" she cried.

"On the other hand, I recommend that you remain where you are, waiting for Flaminius."

She shook the chains, in helpless frustration.

"He will be along shortly," I assured her.

"Leave the packet!" she begged.

"Do you beg it, naked, on your knees, chained, as might a slave?" I asked.

"Yes!" she cried. "I beg it on my knees, naked, in chains, as might a slave!"

"Interesting," I said.

"Leave it," she begged.

"No," I said.

She looked a me, aghast.

"But you did beg prettily," I said, "and had the matter been otherwise, for example, had you been begging to serve my pleasure, I would truly have been tempted to give you a more favorable response."

"I am a free woman," she said. "How can you, a free man, deny me anything I want?"

"Easily," I said.

She looked at me, angrily.

"Many free women believe they can have anything they want, merely by asking for it, or demanding it," I said, "but now you see that that is not true, at least not in a world where there are true men."

She shook the chains in frustration. "You make me as helpless and dependent on you as a slave!" she cried.

"Yes," I said.

"Wait!" she said.

"Yes," I said, turning.

"What will they do with me?" she asked.

"I do not know," I said.

"Belnar will not be pleased," she said. "In Brundisium we do not look lightly on failure. AT the least I shall be considerably reduced in rank. I will be denied the use of footwear. My pretty clothes will be taken away. I will be permitted only plain robes, and shortened so that my calves may be seen by men. I may even be forced to go publicly face-stripped. I may even be expelled from the palace. It could even mean the collar for me!"

I wondered if she were truly of the household of the palace. If so, perhaps this Belnar might be a resident of the palace. Perhaps he was an official or minister of some sort in the government of Brundisium. It did not seem to me likely that he would be the Ubar of Brundisium. So important a personage as a Ubar would not be likely to have much of an interest in a captain of Port Kar. On the other hand, I supposed it was possible. He might, I supposed, be both a Ubar and an agent of Priest-Kings, or of Kurii. If he were indeed so prominent then it seemed to me more likely that he might serve Kurii than Priest-Kings. The Priest-Kings, at least on the whole, it seemed to me, seldom picked prominent, conspicuous personages for their agents. Samos had been in their service before he had become the first captain in the Council of Captains in Port Kar. Perhaps then Flaminius and the Lady Yanina, and those associated with them, did serve Kurii.

"I see then," I said, "that you will have much to think about while awaiting the arrival of Flaminius."

"Flaminius!" she laughed bitterly. "Dear Flaminius! He will shed few tears, I assure you, over my plight!"

"That would be my impression," I said.

"He will find my downfall amusing, relishing it," she said.

"Perhaps if your punishment is enslavement," I said, "you might aspire to be one of his girls."

"Perhaps," she said, bitterly.

"He seems the sort of man who would know how to make a woman crawl beneath his whip," I said.

"That, too, is my understanding," she said. "Wait! Wait!"

But I had then withdrawn from the inn of Ragnar. Then I was making my way back to her camp.