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about her left ankle, there was still the anklet of threaded shells.
She looked at us, in rage.
So you perhaps have some more men to sell us? I asked.
She went wild, jerking and moaning, pulling at the chain. Then she subsided.
She looked at us, sullenly.
Greetings, Sheera, said I.
Do you like her? asked a voice. It was one of the slaver s men.
She is not bad, I said.
A panther girl, he said, as you may have guessed. She was brought in but
last night, in the darkness.
I smiled. This meant that probably she had fallen to an outlaw. Such often
bring their captures to a market late, after dark. They are then less likely
to be recognized.
An outlaw brought her in? asked Rim.
Yes, said the man.
His name? I asked.
Arn, said the man. Sheera pulled again at her slave bracelets, helplessly.
Rim and I laughed.
We were pleased that Arn, whom we knew, had taken her.
I did not know that a panther girl could fall to an outlaw, said Rim.
Especially, I added, a panther girl such as this one.
She jerked at the bracelets. Then she turned her head away, in fury.
Would you care to taste her lips? asked the man.
Very well, said Rim. He held her hair in his hands, and forced his lips to
hers, for a long Ehn.
I, following Rim, took her in my arms and, forcing her back over the bar, for
more than an Ehn raped the proud lips of the chained woman.
Then we observed her. Outraged, chained, she regarded us.
We must dip oars soon, said Rim.
Sheera, her head down, her hair now forward, was fighting the chain and slave
bracelets.
I watched her. She knew the forests. She was a panther girl.
Girl, I said.
Sheera lifted her head. In her eyes I saw that she had not forgotten my
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kiss.
Is it true, Girl, I asked, that you are the enemy of Verna, the panther
girl?
Yes, she said, sullenly. She once stole two men from me,
I will give you ten copper pieces for her, I told the man.
Sheera looked at me, in fury.
Her price, he said, is four gold pieces.
Too high for her, I said.
I knew she had been purchased from an outlaw, from Arn. Outlaws seldom
command, from professional slaves, the prices which others might. The house,
if one may so speak of the compound at Lydius, had probably not paid more than
two tarsks for her.
I will give you four tarsks, I said.
In Ar, said the man, she would go for ten gold pieces.
We are not in Ar, I pointed out.
I hate you! screamed Sheera. I hate you! I hate you!
Her breasts, I said, are a bit small, and her ankles and wrists are too
thick,
She is a beauty, said the man.
We examined her, carefully. She turned her head to one side.
She is a raw girl, I said, nor broken to a collar, untrained.
We must dip oars soon, Rim said.
That is true, I agreed. I did not wish to miss the crest of the tide.
Rim and I made as though to turn away.
Wait, Masters, said the man. She is a beauty! we turned again, and, for
some time, looked closely upon the proud
Sheera.
Three pieces of gold, said, and five tarsks.
She is yours, said the man.
He, with a key at his belt, unsnapped her bracelets and turned her about,
rudely, and pushed her belly against the bar. Put your hands behind your
back, and cross your wrists, he said to the girl, not pleasantly. Sullenly,
she did so.
Rim, with his belt, then lashed her hands behind her back.
I paid the man his three gold pieces and his five tarsks. He was not too
pleased. He waved his hand at the girls, sitting against the board fence. We
Rim seized her by the arm, and pushed her ahead of us, stumbling, out of need
cage space, he said, angrily. Take her.
the compound.
When we reached the Tesephone, less than a hundred yards from the slave
market, the tide was at a knife s edge of its crest.
On the deck Sheera stood, her feet widely apart, to face me.
I had no time for her. I must attend to the ship. Take her below, I said,
and chain her in the first hold.
Rim pulled her rudely below.
Thurnock brought to me the wind and oil, and the salt. I stood at the rail.
My men stood.
In a moment, Rim was again on deck, and he, too, stood watching.
To one side, two girls, Cara and Tina stood, both in their brief woolen slave
garments. Tina s hands at her belly, where they were still confined by the
slave strap and bracelets.
Ta-Sardar-Gor. Ta-Thassa, said I, in Gorean. To the Priest-Kings of Gor,
and to the Sea.
Then, slowly, I poured the wine, and the oil into the sea, and the salt.
Cast off! cried Thurnock. Men on the dock threw off the lines which had
been looped on the mooring cleats. Two men at the bow thrust against the wharf
with their poles.
The wharf, as though it, and not we, were moving, dropped back from us.
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Out oars! called Thurnock. Ready oars!
seamen began to pull on the yard ropes to raise the yard.
The helmsman leaned on the great helm.
I saw Cara and Tina watching. The docks were filled with men. Several had
paused in their work, to watch the Tesephone moving away from the wharf.
Port oars! Stroke! called Thurnock.
The bow of the Tesephone swung upriver. The carved, painted wooden eyes on the
tarnshead turned towards Laura.
Men were aloft on the long, sloping yard. Then the sail fell, snapping and
tugging, and took its shape, billowing before the gentle wind from Thassa.
Full oars! called Thurnock. Quarter beat! Stroke!
The Tesephone began to move upriver. waving toward Lydius. Some men on the
dock, small now, too, lifted their hands.
I saw Cara and Tina standing by the rail. Cara was lifting her hands, and
Tina could not lift her hands to bid city farewell, for her wrists were locked
in slave bracelets, fastened at her belly, strung through the ring of a slave
strap.
I stepped behind her and unbuckled the slave strap.
She looked up at me.
She turned away from me and toward Lydius. Piteously she lifted her two hands,
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