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body, about the shoulders, with the scent. I knew the scent.
I had carried it with me to Klima. I had not forgotten it.
Her eye, as she put aside the tiny bottle of perfume, was caught by the bit of silk,
lying to one side on the vanity.
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10 Tribesmen of Gor
She looked at it, puzzled, curious.
I recalled the morning I had, in chains, waited to be herded with other wretches to
Klima. I had looked up. In a narrow window in the wall of the kasbah, high over
my head, there had stood a woman, a slave girl, veiled and robed in yellow, a
slave master behind her. With the permission of the slave master she had removed
her veil. With what contempt, and scorn, and triumph she bad looked upon me, a
mere male slave, chained and bound for Klima, below her. She had thrown me a
token, a square of silk, slave silk, red, some eighteen inches square, redolent with
the perfume fitted by some perfumer, on the order of her master, to her slave
personality, her slave nature and slave body. It was something by which I might
remember her at Klima, I had vowed to return from Klima. She had wished to see
me hooded and led away. This treat, as useful discipline, despite her pleas, had
been denied her by the slave master. She had thrown me a kiss, and then, before
the slave master, hurried from the window.
I stood back in the room. I flicked the switch on the ring I wore, that I might be
visible to her.
She picked up the bit of silk. She opened it. It was tattered, faded, almost white.
She held it open before her, looking at it. She took it in her hands and held it to her
face, inhaling it. Suddenly she cried out in joy Tarl! She turned, springing to her
feet. Tarl! she cried. Tarl! She ran to me, with a clash of bangles, and took me
in her arms, her head at my chest, weeping. Tarl! she wept. Tarl! Tarl! I love
you! I love you!
I took her wrists, and forced them, slowly, from my body. I held them. She
struggled to reach me, to press her lips to my body. I did not permit this. She
threw her head, in frustration, from side to side. Her face was stained with tears.
She wept. Let me touch you, she cried. Let me hold you! I love you! I love
you!
I held her, by the upper arms, from me. She looked up into my eyes. Oh, Tarl,
she wept. Can you ever forgive me? Can you ever forgive me?
Kneel, I told her.
Slowly, numbly, the beauty slipped to her knees before me. Tarl? she said.
I drew from my garment a rag. It was thin, brief, tattered, much torn; it was cheap
rep-cloth, brown and coarse; it was stained with dirt, with grease. I had found it in
the kitchens of Ibn Saran.
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10 Tribesmen of Gor
I threw it against her body. Put it on, I told her.
I am a high slave, she said.
Put it on, I told her.
She parted the bit of yellow silk she wore, dropping it to one side. She reached for
the bit of rep-cloth.
Remove first the bangles, I told her. She sat on the tiles and, one by one, slipped
the bangles from her left ankle. Then she stood up, and pulled the rag over her
head. Her body involuntarily shuddered as the grease-thick rag slipped over her
beauty and clung snug, revealingly, about it; I examined her, walking about her; I
tore the neckline down, to better expose the beauty of her breasts; I ripped away a
strip from the garment s hem, shortening it; she must now walk with exquisite
care; I ripped the left side of the garment a bit more, to better reveal the delicious
line from her left breast to her left hip.
I backed away a few feet from her.
She faced me. The gown much reveals me, she said, Tarl.
Cross and extend your wrists, I told her. She did so. With a strip of leather
binding fiber, I fastened them together. The strip was long and enough was left to
lead her, serving as tether.
We do not have a great deal of time, I told her. There will soon be fighting in
the kasbah.
I love you, she said.
I looked at her with fury.
She was startled at my anger. I am sorry I have so offended you, she whispered.
I have suffered much for it. You cannot know how I have suffered, weeping in
the nights. I am so sorry, Tarl!
I did not speak.
I was cruel, and terrible, she said, and petty. She looked down, miserably. I
can never forgive myself, she whispered. She looked up. Can you forgive me,
Tarl, ever? she asked.
I looked about. I could use one of the tharlarion-oil lamps by the large mirror.
I testified against you at Nine Wells, she said. I lied. I spoke falsehood.
You did as you were told, Slave Girl, I told her.
Oh, Tarl! she wept. She looked at me, fearlessly. For Lydius, she said, I
wanted to send you to Klima!
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10 Tribesmen of Gor
Your wishes are not of interest to me, I told her.
She looked at me with horror. She wept then, and put down her head. I identified
you for Ibn Saran, she said.
I shrugged.
Are you not angry! she cried.
A slave girl, I said to her, owes her master absolute obedience.
She looked aside, angrily. I dare not even speak to you what else I did, she said.
You betrayed Priest-Kings, I told her, fully, and to the best of your ability.
She turned white. Will it make a difference? she said.
I do not know, I told her. It could mean the loss of Earth and Gor, the ultimate
victory of the Kurii.
She shuddered. I was weak, she said. There was a dungeon. I was stripped,
chained. It was dark. There were urts. I was terrified. I could not help myself.
They told me I would be freed.
By the leather strap I yanked her wrists, indicating to her that they were well tied.
You will not be freed, I told her.
Oh, Tarl, she wept. Then she asked, Will what I did make a difference?
I do not know, I told her. Perhaps those on the steel worlds will not believe
your protestations. They may believe you only spoke sincerely what you believed
to be true, not what, necessarily, was true.
She shuddered miserably.
There are many who know of your treachery, I said. Doubtless some will he
captured, or fall into the bands of agents of Priest-Kings. Soon your life will be
worth little among the agents of Priest-Kings. I thought of Samos. He was not a
patient man.
She lifted her eyes to me. I could be tortured and impaled, she said.
You are a slave girl, I told her. No such honorable death would be yours. You
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