Hunters of Gor Read Free Page A

its
    splendors, its comforts and pleasures.
    Rim lifted the girl to the feet by the hair, twisting her head and bending her
    body. “Go to the Torian room,” he said, “and prepare me a bath, and foods and
    wines, and gather together whatever you might need, bells and cosmetics, and
    such, to please my senses.”
    “Yes, Master,” said the girl.
    He twisted her hair more. She winced, her back bent painfully. “Do you wish me
    to submit to you now?” she begged.
    “Do so,” said he.
    She fell to her knees before him, and lifted her head to regard him. “I will be
    your slave,” she said. Then, she knelt back on her heels, lowered her head, and
    lifted and extended her arms, wrists crossed, as though for binding. She was
    very beautiful. “I am your slave,” she said, “ – Master.”
    “Hasten to the Torian room,” said Rim, “In its privacy, I will have use for my
    slave.”
    “May I not beg a name?” she asked.
    He looked at her. “Cara,” he said.
    She had been named.
    “Go, Cara,” said he.
    “Yes,” she whispered, “Master.” She leaped to her feet and, weeping, fled from
    the room.
    “Captain,” said Rim, regarding me. “I thank you for the wench.”
    I nodded my head.
    “And no, noble Samos,” said Rim, boldly, “I would appreciate the arousal of one
    in your employ, a metal worker, to remove this collar.”
    Samos nodded.
    “Further,” said Rim, “I would appreciate your sending me the key to Lady Cara’s
    collar, that I may remove it, and providing another.”
    “Very well,” said Samos. “How shall it be inscribed?”
    “Let is say,” suggested Rim, “I am the slave Cara. I belong to Rim, the Outlaw.”
    “Very well,” said Samos.
    “And, too,” said Rim, “prior to my retiring to the Torian room, I would
    appreciate a sword, with sheath, a knife, and a bow, the great bow, with
    arrows.”
    Rim wished to be armed.
    “Were you once of the warriors?” I inquired.
    He smiled at me. “Perhaps,” he said.
    I tossed him the pouch of gold, from which I had drawn the coins to purchase his
    freedom, and the arrogant, slender, red-silked girl for him, to be his slave.
    He caught the purse, and smiled, and threw it to Samos, who caught it.
    He turned away. “Lead me to your armory,” said he, to one of the guards. “I
    require weapons.”
    He left, following the guards, not looking back.
    Samos weighed the gold in his hand. “He pays well for his lodging,” said Samos.
    I shrugged. “Generosity,” I said, “is the prerogative of the free man.”
    Gold had been nothing to Rim. I suspected then, he might once have been of the
    warriors.
    The torches burned.
    Samos and I looked down upon the board, with its hundred squares of red and
    yellow, the weighted, carved pieces.
    “Ubar to Ubar Nine,” said Samos. He looked at me.
    I had planned well. “Ubar to Ubar Two,” I said, and turned, robes swirling, and
    strode to the portal, whence I might leave the hall.
    At the broad, bronze-linteled portal I turned.
    Samos stood behind the board. He looked up at me, and spread his hands. “The
    game is yours,” he said.
    I regarded him.
    “You will not reconsider?” he asked.
    “No,” I told him.
    2       I Gather Information
    “There!” said Rim, pointing off the starboard bow. ”High on the beach!”
    His slave, Cara, in a brief woolen tunic, one-piece, woven of the wool of the
    Hurt, sleeveless, barefoot on the deck, graced by his collar, stood behind him
    and to his left.
    I shaded my eyes. “Glass of the Builders,” I said.
    Thurnock, of the Peasants, standing by me, handed me the glass.
    I opened it, and surveyed the beach.
    High on the beach, I saw two pairs of sloping beams. They were high, large and
    heavy structures. The feet of the beams were planted widely, deeply, in the
    sand; at the top, where they sloped together, they had been joined and pegged.
    They were rather like the English letter “A”, though lacking the crossbar.
    Within each “A”,