26 Mercenaries

"Pietro Vacchi!" exclaimed Aulus, drawing back his tharlarion. "I should have known it would have been you!" I was terrified at his stirrup, the chain on my neck. It was like being tethered at the side of a mountain of scales and muscle. These beasts are unexpectedly agile for their size. Very little I would think could stand against their charge, lest it be a terrain of pits, a forest of peeled, inclined, sharpened stakes. The handful of riders had approached us on the Viktel Aria, they moving north. Only a few yards from us had they halted, wheeling their mounts. The very earth on which we stood had shaken. It had been, I suppose, a joke, that we must wait to see if we were to be struck, trampled, or impaled on their spears. Aulus had retained his composure well, I though, considering the provocation. Actually we were not far at all from Venna, only a few pasangs. They had ridden north, it seems, to meet us.

"my old friend, Aulus!" called the fellow. He held his seat well on the gigantic, impatient, hissing beast. He had bright, dark eyes, and curly black hair. in his ears were rings. His beard, too, was curly and black, even ringleted. In it ribbons were tied. Across his back was slung a shield. Beside him, in a saddle sheath, reposed the butt of a lance. His hand was on the shaft. "It seems you have been recruiting again," said Aulus.

"Surely recruiting is no activity unfamiliar to your employer, the good Ionicus of Cos," he said.

"What have you against Ionicus of Cos," asked Aulus.

"Nothing," said the fellow. "Indeed, I remember him with fondness, for I once labored on one of his chains."

Aulus" s tharlarion was now quiet. I therefore knelt beside it, on the stones of the Vitkel Aria, the chain lopping up from my neck to his stirrup. I was naked. "Those I recruit come willingly to my service," said the fellow. "Doubtless those you recruit can say the same."

I looked up at the bearded fellow. He was a man of incredible vitality. Accordingly I spread my knees more widely before him.

"Doubtless," grinned Aulus.

"Had it not been for a captain recruiting, long ago, like myself," said the fellow, "I might still be on his chain."

"I am empowered to negotiate on behalf of my employer, Ionicus," said Aulus. "It is for that reason that I have brought coins with me, those in the wagon behind, under his guard of twenty men."

"Perhaps I will take the coins, and be on my way, keeping the chains," said the fellow.

"You may do so, of course," said Aulus, "but I think that that would not do your reputation, even such as it is, my friend, much good, nor, more importantly, would it be likely to be likely to expedite any future dealings with Ionicus of Cos, or others like him."

"You are a clever fellow, Aulus," he said. "You could ride with me." "I have taken fee," said Aulus.

"But with Ionicus of Cos!" cried the fellow, suddenly, angrily. The knuckles of his hand were white on the shaft of the lance.

"The fee has been taken," said Aulus, quietly.

I saw the fellow" s hand relax. He leaned back. He grinned, his teeth very white in the curly, ringleted blackness of that beribboned beard. "You are more of a mercenary than I," he laughed.

Aulus shrugged.

"Yes," he said, "you could have ridden with me."

"You have all five chains," asked Aulus.

"That is a pretty slave at your stirrup," said the fellow.

I quickly put my head down.

"Look up, child," he said.

I did so.

"Kneel straight," he said. "Put your head back."

I obeyed.

"Yes," he said, "she is pretty."

"Yes," said Aulus.

"She has her knees nicely placed, too," he said.

"She is that sort of slave," said Aulus.

I blushed, but I knew that before a man such as that before me now, on the tharlarion, my knees belonged apart, widely apart.

"She is a three-tarsk girl," said the fellow.

"She cost Ionicus five, and a tarsk bit," said Aulus.

"And a tarsk bit?" asked the fellow.

"Yes," said Aulus.

"Then she was a lure girl," he said.

"Yes," said Aulus.

"Is she negotiable?" asked the fellow.

"All slaves are negotiable," said Aulus.

"Some of my men are not too fond of lure girls," he said. "I think that I would let you keep her. They might kill her."

I had to keep my head back. I was very frightened.

"That would be a tragic waste of slave meat," he said.

"I would think so," said Aulus.

"What do you call her?" asked the fellow.

"Tuka," said Aulus.

"I have taken five chains," said the fellow. "I spared the guards. You may have them back, if you wish. There were two hundred and fifty men, exactly on the chains. I am recruiting one hundred and seventy-seven of them. Some I am freeing, because they are from Brundisium, whose Home Stone, before my outlawry, was mine. The rest I will sell back to you for, I think, something in the neighborhood of what you paid for them."

"You are turning back the genuine prisoners, of course," said Aulus. "Not all of them," said the fellow. "Some of them can handle weapons. They will stay with me."

"Of what numbers are we speaking?" said Aulus.

"Five were from Brundisium," said the fellow.

"Then," said Aulus, "if you are recruiting one hundred and seventy-seven, and releasing five, from Brundisium, who may, or may not take service with you, then we are talking about less than seventy men."

"Sixty-eight, to be exact," said the fellow.

"Yes," said Aulus. "You have been very zealous in your recruiting, it seems. Can we not do a little better than that?"

"The one hundred and seventy-seven have already taken the campaign oath," he said.

"Then that is that," said Aulus. "What about the five from Brundisium." "They are from Brundisium," he said.

"Of course," said Aulus.

"A silver tarsk apiece," said the fellow.

"That seems high," said Aulus.

"It is an average praetor" s price," he said. To be sure, some serving shorter sentences, would presumably go for less, and some, more dangerous fellows, perhaps, serving longer sentences, might go for more. "Too," he said, "I expect you pay to much, or more, for the fellows you get from illicit suppliers." "True," said Aulus. This was the first inkling I had had of what the fellows I had helped to entrap in Argentum might have brought Tyrrhenius. I, twice, had gone for at least five times as much. To be sure, once was because Tyrrhenius had wanted to pick up a good lure girl and once was because Ionicus, or perhaps his agent, acting on a standing policy, had wanted, as a joke, to put me at the service of men I had trapped. If it were not for such things I did not know what I would be likely to sell for, perhaps two silver tarsks. I did not know. Still I was a dancer, and we tend to bring higher prices. We are useful not only in brothels, cabarets, taverns, public pleasure gardens, and such, but wherever there are strong men, wherever there are men who enjoy seeing a woman move before them excitingly, and beautifully, and as a total female. Indeed, it is said some of the finest and most sensuous dancers are private slaves who perform in delicious secrecy, and totally, for a single master. We, and our uses, of course, may also be rented out for private dinner parties, for banquets and feasts, and such. Some of us, too, serve as imbonded camp followers, and will count as part of the loot should the camp fall into enemy hands. Some of us serve, too, in remote army posts, where we are kept to relieve the tedium of the troops. Some, too, of course, as would be expected, serve in the houses of rich men and even in the palaces of the Ubars, where we commonly dance for them at their suppers, entertaining them and their guests. Dancers have many uses on Gor, both public and private. I suppose this is only to be expected, given the vitality, the masculinity, the strength of Gorean males. Any female taken to Gor, I suppose, must expect to learn at least the rudiments of slave dance. "Very well," said Aulus, "sixty-eight silver tarsks. That is cheaper than going about, trying to replace these fellows in other ways. Too, the Vennans are eager to get on with their work."