43

Talunas

"See the size of it," said Ayari.

"I do not think it will attack a canoe," said Kisu.

Ayari shoved it away from the side of the canoe with his paddle and it, with a snap of its tail, disappeared under the water.

"I have seen them before," I said, "but they were only about six inches in length."

The creature which had surfaced near us, perhaps ten feet in length, and a thousand pounds in weight, was scaled and had large, bulging eyes. It had gills, but it, too, gulped air, as it had regarded us. It was similar to the tiny lung fish I had seen earlier on the river, those little creatures clinging to the half-submerged roots of shore trees, and, as often as not, sunning themselves on the backs of tharlarion, those tiny fish called gints. Its pectoral fins were large and fleshy.

"Oh, men!" we heard cry. "Men! Men! Please help me! Take pity on me! Help me!"

"Look, Master!" cried Alice. "There, near the shore! A white girl!"

She was slender-legged and dark-haired. She wore brief skins. She ran down to the edge of the water. Her hands were not bound together but, from each wrist, there hung a knotted rope. It was as though she had been bound and, somehow, had been freed.

"Please save me!" she cried. "Help me!"

I examined the condition of the skins she wore. I noted, also, that she wore a golden armlet and, on her neck, a necklace of claws. She also had, about her waist, a belt, with a dagger sheath, though the sheath was now empty.

"Save me, please, noble sirs!" she wept. She waded out a few feet into the water. She extended her hands to us piteously. She was quite beautiful.

I considered the forest behind her. The trees were thick, the brush, near the river, heavy.

Kisu and I dipped our paddles into the water. "Master!" cried Janice. "Surely you cannot leave her here?"

"Be silent, Slave Girl," I said to her.

"Yes, Master," she said. She choked back a sob. She again dipped her paddle into the water.

"Please, please help me!" we heard the girl cry.

Then we had left her behind.

"Master," sobbed Janice.

"Be silent, Slave Girl," I said.

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Look!" cried Alice. "There is another!"

Now, on the shore, standing at a post, chains about her body, we saw a blond girl. "Please help me!" she cried, straining against the chains. She, like the first, was dressed in brief skins and, like the first, was ornamented, with an armlet and necklace. Too, about her left ankle, there was a golden bangle.

We removed the paddles from the water.

"A beautiful wench," said Kisu.

"Yes," I said.

"Please help me!" cried the girl, straining against the chains. "Save me! Save me! Take pity on me! I have been left here to die! Take pity on me! Save me! Please, save me!"

"Have mercy on her, Master, please," begged Janice. "You cannot simply leave her here to die."

"I think we have lingered here long enough," said Kisu, looking about. "This is a dangerous place."

"Agreed," I said.

"Do not leave without her, please, noble masters," begged Janice. "Please, Master," begged Alice. "Please, Master," begged Tende.

"What little fools you all are," said Kisu. "Can you not see that it is a trap?"

"Master?" asked Tende.

Kisu threw back his head and laughed.

"Master?" asked Janice.

"They speak Gorean," I pointed out. "Thus they are not originally of the jungle. The color of their skins alone, white, should make that clear to you. Consider the first girl. The lengths of rope dangling from her wrists seemed rather long for any usual form of binding. Eighteen inches of rope is quite sufficient for tying a girl's hands either before her body or behind. Too, it is common to loop a wrist binding, and use a single knot, rather than tie each wrist separately."

"Perhaps she was tied about a tree," said Janice.

"Perhaps," I said. "But, too, the rope was cut, not frayed. How would it have been cut?

"I do not know, Master," she said.

"Consider also," I said, "that she retained her belt and dagger sheath. A normal captor would surely have discarded these. What need has a captured woman for such accouterments?"

"I do not know, Master," she said.

"Too," I said, "she, like the girl at the post, there on the shore, wore clothing and ornaments. One of the first things a captor commonly does with a woman is to take away her clothing. She is not to be permitted to conceal weapons. Also, it helps her to understand that she is a captive. Also, of course, a captor commonly wishes to look upon the beauty of his capture. This pleases him. Also, of course, he may wish to form a conjecture as to its market value or the amount of pleasure he will force it to yield to him. At the very least it seems reasonable that her ornaments, and in particular those of gold, would be removed from her. One does not expect to find rich ornaments of gold on the body of a captured woman. Surely such things belong rather in the loot sank of her captor. She might, of course, wear them later, as her master's property, he using them then to decorate his slave. Consider, too, the nature and condition of their garments. The garments are not ripped or torn. They show no signs of a struggle or of the abuse of their owner. Too, they are skins, of the sort which might be worn by free women, huntresses, not rep-cloth or bark cloth, not rags, of the sort which might be worn by slaves."

"Their bodies, too," said Kisu, "showed no signs of lashings or bruises. Presumably, then, they were not fresh captures."

I nodded. Sometimes a free woman must be taught that she is now subject to discipline. Some women refuse to believe it until the whip is on them.

"Other clues, too," I said, "suggest that they are not what they seem. Consider the girl at the post. Her hands are not fastened over her head, which would lift and accentuate the beauty of her breasts. You must understand that a post is often used to display a girl, not merely to secure her. As it is, we do not even know if her hands are truly fastened behind her or not. We simply cannot see. Too, captors in the forests, natives of these jungles, would not be likely to have chains to secure their captures."

"Please help me!" called the girl, plaintively.

"How long have you been at the post?" I called to her.

"For two days," she wept. 'Take pity on me! Help me,please!"

"Have you any doubt now?" I asked. "Consider her condition. It is prime. Does she truly seem to have been at the post for two days?"

"No, Master," said Janice.

"Too," I said, "had she been at the post overnight is it not likely that tharlarion would have discovered her and eaten her from the chains?"

"Yes, Master," said Janice.

"I am, too, made uncomfortable by the thickness of the brush and trees in these areas, both before and now. They seem fit to conceal the numbers of an ambuscade."

"Perhaps we should hurry on," said Tende, looking about.

"Take up your paddles," said Kisu. "Continue on."

"Please, stop!" begged the girl in chains. "Do not leave a poor woman here to die!"

"But can we truly leave her?" asked Janice.

"Yes," said Kisu.

"Yes," I said.

Janice moaned.

"Paddle," I told her.

"Yes, Master," she said.

As our canoe moved away we looked back. "After them!" cried the girl. She slipped from her chains and bent to the grass beside her, seizing up a light spear. From the, brush about her appeared numbers of girls similarly. clad and armed. We saw canoes being thrust into the water.

"Perhaps now you will paddle with a better will," I said.

"Yes, Master!" said Janice.

There were now some eight canoes behind us. In each canoe there were five or six girls. In the prow of the first canoe was the blond girl who had seemed to be chained at the post. In the prow of the second was the slender-legged, dark-haired girl whom we had seen earlier. She still had the dangling ropes knotted on her wrists.