Outcast of Gor Chapter Two

 

The men’s names were Rolfe, Rollo, and Hergessvar. As I soon ascertained, Rolfe and Rollo were brothers through the same mother, and Hergessvar was a close cousin. They lived and fought together as a freelance mercenary unit, selling their spears and swords wherever there might be a major military conflict.

 

Rolfe returned from putting Kelsee to use and motioned that Rollo might be next.

 

I closed my eyes and tried not to think of the soft sobbing I could hear from the grass on the other side of the campsite. The sun had set and thankfully I didn’t have to watch what the men were doing to her.

 

“She was adequate,” said Rolfe as he sat down and carved off a strip of meat. “Barely adequate.” He threw the meat towards me. I felt sick. I couldn’t eat while Kelsee was… while Kelsee was…

 

I hated this. I hated being so impotent, so useless, that I had to sit and let these men take Kelsee in that way, simply so we might both be fed. What sort of man was I, that I couldn’t even provide for my slave?

 

Slave? I shouldn’t think of Kelsee like that. She was a captive at best. She wasn’t a slave.

 

And yet she wore a slave collar. In truth I was beginning to think of her as a slave. The thought kept entering my mind, unbidden. It seemed more and more natural as the days went by to think of her as a slave girl. 

 

A beautiful slave girl.

 

“Aren’t you going to eat?” Rolfe  gestured to the food. I felt ravenously hungry. Only my pride stopped me from eating. “There will be more, and your slave will be fed, too. We’re men of our word,” said Rolfe.

 

I picked up the hot sliver of meat. I had no idea what animal it came from, but I ate it, tearing into it with my teeth as Rolfe watched.

 

“How many days?” he asked.

 

“Three,” I said. The juices dribbled down my chin. Rolfe had noticed the fresh brand on my left hand. It marked me as an outcast from the Pax Argentum.

 

“What did you do?” he asked.

 

“I own an unbranded slave. A magistrate in Argentum didn’t like that.”

 

“Fuck Argentum,” said Rolfe as he passed me a bota of paga. “Living in a city saps your manhood. Too many laws and rules. What a man does with his slave should be his own business.”

 

“I’m glad you think so.” I took a drink of the paga and coughed. It was raw and much stronger than the paga I had tried in the Shackle and Chain in Argentum. Rolfe laughed as he saw my reaction.

 

“It will put hairs on your chest.”

 

“I have hairs on my chest,” I said, as I passed the bota back.

 

“More hairs, then. A man can never have too many hairs.”

 

“I’ll bear that in mind.”

 

Away to the left, lying on her back in the long grass, being taken by Rollo, Kelsee began crying out. I found myself clenching my hands into fists, in frustration.

 

“She’s just a slave,” said Rolfe. “Rollo won’t break her.”

 

I said nothing.

 

“Where are you headed?”

 

“Corcyrus.”

 

“Fuck Corcyrus, too,” he said as he drank some paga.

 

“You’ll be working for them, won’t you? Either them, or the officers of Argentum?”

 

“Of course. So long as they pay, and pay well.”

 

“Shouldn’t you show them some respect, then?”

 

“I may as well show respect to a pot-bellied tarsk, just because it provides me with bacon in the morning.” He passed the bota back to me. “Go on, it will dull the sound of your slave crying. Rollo is quite big, and he likes to take a girl in the ass.”

 

I did not want to know that. 

 

“Where are you from? Your accent is strange and you speak Gorean like it is an enemy shield wall, and you are trying to break it.”

 

“New York.”

 

“Newark? I do not know it.”

 

“It’s far away. And you?”

 

“Kassau, on the coast of the Northern Forest.” When I obviously didn’t know where that might be, he added, “North West of here. Between the isles of Hulneth and Scagnar.” I still didn’t know where that might be. 

 

“You’ve been fighting much?”

 

Rolfe shrugged. “There was some work for us from the city of Rovere - tarsk fuckers that they are - but central Gor is too damn peaceful lately. Thank the Priest Kings for Argentum and Corcyrus falling out! I hope the war rages back and forth for many years.”

 

“Who is winning?”

 

“Why should I care.” He drank some paga. “Both sides are tarsk fuckers.”

 

“You don’t have a preference?”

 

“Argentum has a ruling council full of fat fools with wine stained robes, from the High castes. They fill their bellies and tell men like you what they can do with their slaves. And Corcyrus has a woman ruler! A woman!” Rolfe laughed. “She wears skirts! What man chooses to obey the orders of a woman!”

 

I declined to comment. “They have a Tatrix, then?”

 

“Yes.” He considered the matter. “They have had several. They never last long. So you see, I have no preference, really. I only want their silver. And they have plenty of that.”

 

I heard Kelsee cry out in the dark. 

 

“Ah, Rollo is showing her how big he is.”

 

“Please don’t say things like that.”

 

Rolfe poked at the fire with a long stick. “He really is big.” He considered the matter. “Bigger than me, and I’m not small. A girl knows when I am putting her to use, but Rollo is a monster.” He gazed up at the stars and then added, “why are you going go Corcyrus?”

 

“Because I have an outcast brand on my left hand from the city of Argentum. I can’t think of anywhere else to go. I’m glad you didn’t kill us when we approached your camp.”

 

“Kill you? Why would I do that? I’m a warrior not an outlaw. I have codes. Besides,” he looked at me, “it would be like wringing the neck of a little vulo. Hardly worth the effort. Have you ever held a sword?’

 

“No.” I didn’t mention I knew how to kill him stone dead at thirty paces with a single shot from a handgun. I don’t think he would have understood. 

 

“Well, then. Besides, I’m comfortable by the fire, and don’t want to get up.”

 

“You got up to put Kelsee to use.”

 

“So, I am inconsistent in my urges.” He passed me the bota again. “There is a time for fucking, and a time for drinking beside a fire.”

 

Kelsee was crying out again. I couldn’t tell if it was cries of pain or pleasure. I drank some paga and felt guilty.

 

“Good, isn’t it?” said Rolfe as he accepted the bota back.

 

“Tastes like paint stripper.”

 

“Hah! That’s the good stuff! Your slave is shit, by the way. She needs training.”

 

“I’ll bear that in mind.”

 

“I could train her.”

 

“No thank you.”

 

“A couple of nights with me and she would know how to beg for use properly.”

 

“I’ll get by.”

 

Rolfe gazed up at the stars again. “Did you know there is another world out there?”

 

“Earth?”

 

“Yes. Earth. A planet full of natural slaves, just waiting to be abducted. They show men their legs and refuse to wear veils. They paint their faces with slave cosmetics and beg the collar, but their men don’t know what to do with them.”  

 

“Shocking.” 

 

We were interrupted as Rollo returned.

 

“Well?” asked Rolfe.

 

“Barely adequate,” he grunted.

 

“That’s what I thought.” Rolfe turned to me and added, “she does need training.” He cut some more meat and threw it to me.

 

“My turn, I suppose,” said Hergessvar, as he got up. “I can’t say I have high expectations of the girl, now.” 

 

“She juices well enough,” said Rolfe.

 

“Not where I went,” said Rollo. “I don’t think a man has had her there before.”

 

“Have some paga,” said Rolfe, handing the bota to his brother. 

 

In the darkness I heard Kelsee cry out as Hergessvar turned her onto her back and lay down on top of her. She was about to be taken for the third time.

 

“Here is to women!” said Rolfe as he raised his paga cup. “They make the world such a fine place for men.”

 

Thankfully I didn’t have a cup in my hand. I didn’t want to toast Kelsee’s gang rape in any way. 

 

Hergessvar only spent ten ehn with Kelsee. When he was done, he brought her back to the camp fire. She looked wild and in shock. When she saw me she hurried to my feet and lay down beside me, on her belly, not speaking.

 

“Well?” asked Rolfe.

 

“I actually thought she was quite good. Easy to enter, squirmed well. And she has good thighs.”

 

“Perhaps.” Rolfe handed his cousin some paga. “But there was this girl in Rovere - ah, what a girl she was! She could put a pleasure slave to shame.”

 

“So you keep saying,” remarked Hergessvar as he resumed his seat and carved off a piece of meat. “I am beginning to wonder if she is real. The tale you tell seems implausible at best.” 

 

“I will go back to Revere one day just to enjoy her again.”

 

“She might be sold by then,” said Rollo. 

 

“True enough.” Rolfe cut some slices of meat from the spit and threw them down onto the grass beside Kelsee’s face. “Eat, girl, you have earned some food tonight.”

 

She whimpered softly. She was quivering where she lay. I put my hand on her head and felt her twitch. “Kelsee? There is food.”

 

“You may have to feed her by hand,” suggested Rolfe. “She is probably tired.”

 

“I will need to cut the meat into small pieces. May I reach for my knife without alarming you?”

 

“Why not,” Rolfe said with a magnanimous gesture. “I don’t think you would be capable of killing us with it, anyway.”

 

Yeah, great.

 

And so I began to feed Kelsee, who, despite her ordeal, was ravenous. She rolled onto her right side and accepted the pieces of meat I cut and placed between her lips. She continued to say nothing, but just lay there, only occasionally trembling. We had food tonight, no thanks to me. 

 

I stroked her head and continued to feel an intense sense of shame for where we now were. What made it worse was her belief that I had saved her, when I knew full well that it was me that had trapped her in the collar in the first place. I wanted to tell her. I felt like I should unburden my soul to her, but I knew she would hate and despise me if she knew the truth. It would be a secret I could never share with her. 

 

The men talked amongst themselves as the fire burned, keeping us all warm on what would otherwise have been a cool night. I took no part in their conversation. For the most part they spoke of things I knew nothing of, and in any event, I was in no mood to chatter. I remained beside Kelsee, stroking her hair softly, and whispering to her that I wasn’t going anywhere. 

 

Gradually, with the fire burning lower, and with the paga bota being drained dry, the men settled down to sleep. Rolfe reached into a pack and produced a spare blanket that he tossed to me. “For you and your slave girl,” he said.

 

I nodded. While I didn’t want anything from the man, Kelsee deserved the comfort of a blanket at least. I wrapped it about the girl and held her in my arms. She sobbed piteously. I felt wretched. This was Gor. This was normal on Gor. It wasn’t a crime I could report to the authorities. This was the way things were. In their eyes, Kelsee was a slave girl. 

 

She looked like a slave girl. Her collar caught the light from the camp fire. I brushed her hair back a little to look at it. Without my help she was fated to wear that collar, or another one very like it, for the rest of her life. And without me, in time she would have a brand to go with the collar. I was the only man standing between her and genuine slavery. 

 

On Gor she could only be a slave girl now. There was nowhere she might run to, no one she might appeal to. Every man would see the collar and they would treat her as a runaway slave. 

 

I lay down beside Kelsee, with my arm about her waist and I tried to get some sleep. 

 

I woke to the sound of a kettle whistling. The men had relit the smouldering embers of the campfire in order to prepare breakfast. 

 

I suddenly became aware I had a hangover from that paint stripper paga. 

 

“He lives,” laughed Rolfe. “He drank our paga and survived!”

 

“It’s more than I did,” groaned Rollo. “I think I died last night.”

 

“You are too ugly to die from paga,” remarked Rolfe. “You are destined to die with a sword in your hand, defending a Home Stone.”

 

“I don’t think I can hold a sword,” said Rollo. “Excuse me, brother, I am going to be sick.”

 

And he was, on the other side of the camp site. 

 

“Tea?” Rolfe handed me a cup. It was some herbal shit – not proper tea. But I drank it down.

 

Kelsee stirred beside me, her eyes opening as she blinked at the dawn sunrise. When she saw the men, she huddled close to me for reassurance.

 

“They’re not going to touch you again,” I whispered. “I won’t let them.” 

 

“Breakfast,” said Hergessvar. He handed me a battered tin plate with what looked like bacon and scrambled eggs on it. I realised I was hungry again and accepted the food. Who knows when I might next find some? 

 

But I fed Kelsee first, before I ate anything. She wolfed down the scrambled eggs and seemed more conscious than she had been last night when Hergessvar had led her back to me.

 

“Are you okay?” I asked.

 

“Please don’t ever leave me, Master. Please.” She touched my chest with her hands.

 

“Kelsee, I wouldn’t… I wouldn’t.”

 

Did she honestly think I would abandon her on Gor? Abandon her while she wore a collar? But I think she had had a glimpse of what her life might be like on Gor, without me by her side. 

 

Rolfe paced about the camp site and sniffed the air. “It will rain later on. Sometime around the seventh ahn.”

 

“Eighth,” said Rollo.

 

“Hmm, as you say.” He turned to regard me as I continued to feed Kelsee with scrambled egg. I spooned it with my fingers and placed it to her lips. She kissed and sucked my fingers clean as she ate her food. 

 

Just like a slave girl might.

 

“You have a long walk to Corcyrus.”

 

“I suppose so. I don’t even know if I’m heading the right way.”

 

“The road leads there. And to the battle fields you must cross before you might reach the city walls. Today, many men I shall never know will die a glorious death!” He raised his fist in the air. “Blood and steel, my nameless brothers! In time I shall join you in the feasting halls.”

 

It was a curious thing to say, and it reminded me of the pagan Dark Age traditions of the northern lands of Earth, though to my knowledge Goreans worshipped the Priest Kings, and they had no feasting halls. 

 

Rollo and Hergessvar began clearing camp, stamping out the last of the fire and burying their waste. I watched as they picked up their heavy round shields and hung them on their backs. They then hung Greek style helmets from a shoulder strap, lifted their packs and gripped their long spears. They resembled the hoplites of ancient Sparta, I supposed. These would be professional soldiers – the warrior caste of Gor. Any man can hold a spear. Any man can be drafted to war, in defence of his Home Stone, but the warriors were the elite, like knights of old, or Samurai. 

 

I sat beside Kelsee and watched as they made ready to depart. I had no idea whether they would even say goodbye to us. 

 

“Well?” said Rolfe as he lifted his spear.

 

“Well what?”

 

“Are you just going to sit there like a pregnant tarsk? It will rain at the seventh ahn.”

 

“The eighth,” corrected Rollo.

 

“The eighth, then. We must march ten pasangs before we take shelter.”

 

“Wait. You want us to come with you?”

 

“Want? I don’t want anything. I just thought you might not want to die, murdered by bandits and outlaws on the road east of here. There are some truly bad people roaming this land. Some of them may even be willing to overlook the poor performance of your slave in the grass. They are probably desperate men if they can do that.”

 

“I rather liked her, cousin,” said Hergessvar. “She has warm thighs.” 

 

“You would fuck a tarsk if it had warm thighs, Hergessvar.” 

 

“I’m not giving you use of Kelsee again,” I said, sharply.

 

“She can cook, fetch water, make camp, break camp, wash and clean our clothes, polish our weapons. We will soon find other women to squirm in the grass in her place.”

 

“You mean that? You won’t put her to use her again?”

 

“Not unless I’m desperate,” said Rolfe, suddenly looking very serious. When I must have looked alarmed, he burst out laughing. “Your face! She is your slave. We will not take her from you. We have codes. We are not outlaws.”

 

“Outlaws probably make more money,” grumbled Rollo.

 

“Quiet. We have codes.”

 

The men turned, without saying anything more, and in single file  with Rolfe in the lead, they marched out, re-joining the Argentum/Corcyrus road. I waited three ehn and then made my decision. Taking Kelsee’s hand. I rose and began to follow them.