"Vella," said she, "if it pleases Master."
"It is a pretty name," he said.
She dropped her head.
"I see," said Cernus, "that you wear the brand of the four bosk horns."
"Yes," she said.
"Kassar," he said, "isn't it?"
"No, Master," said she, "Tuchuk."
"But where is the ring?" he asked. Tuchuk women, both slave and free, have fixed in their noses a tiny ring of gold, small and fine, not unlike the wedding rings of Earth. The ponderous bosk, on which the Wagon Peoples live, among which are numbered the Kassars and the Tuchuks, also wear such rings, but there, of course, the ring is much larger and heavier.
"My last master," said she, "Clark of the House of Clark in Thentis, removed it."
"He is a fool," said Cernus. "Such a ring is marvelous. It bespeaks the barbarian, the promise of pleasures so wild and fierce a man of the cities could scarcely conceive of them."
Elizabeth said nothing.
"I had a Tuchuk girl once," said Cernus, "a wild girl of the wagons, of whom I was fond, but when she tried to kill me, I strangled her in the chain of the House of Cernus." He fingered the chain and medallion about his neck.
"I am not truly Tuchuk," said Elizabeth. "I am only a girl from the islands north of Cos, taken by pirates of Port Kar, sold to a tarnsman, carried to and sold again in the city of Turia, and hence for twenty boskhides traded to the Tuchuks, where I was ringed and branded."
"How came you to Thentis?" asked Cernus.
"Kassars raided Tuchuk wagons," she said. "I was abducted, later sold to Turians." She spoke numbly. "I was later sold in Tor," she said, "far to the north of Turia. A year later, by slave wagon, I reached the fair of Se'Var near the Sardar, where I was sold to the House of Clark, from which house I and many others were fortunate enough to be purchased by the House of Cernus, in Glorious Ar."
Cernus leaned back again, seemingly satisfied.
"But without the ring," said he, "no one will believe the brand of the four bosk horns." He smiled. "You will be regarded, my dear, as inauthentic."
"I am sorry," said Elizabeth, her head down.
"I will have a smith replace the ring," he said.
"As master wishes," she said.
"I will not hurt much the second time," said Cernus.
Elizabeth said nothing.
Cernus turned to Caprus, who stood near him. "Is she trained?" he asked.
"No," said Caprus. "She is Red Silk but she knows almost nothing."
"Slave," said Cernus.
"Yes, Master," said Elizabeth.
"Stand straight and place your hands behind your head, head back."
She did so.
"Turn slowly," ordered Cernus.
When Elizabeth had done so once, she remained standing before him, as he had commanded.
Cernus turned to Caprus. "Was she touched by the leather?" he inquired.
"The Physician Flaminius conducted the test," reported Caprus. "She was superb."
"Excellent," said Cernus. "You may lower your arms," he said to the girl.
She did so, and stood there, standing before him, her head down.
"Let her be fully trained," said Cernus to Caprus.
"Fully?" asked Caprus.
"Yes," said Cernus, "fully."
Elizabeth looked at him, startled.
I had not counted on this, nor had Elizabeth. On the other hand, there seemed to be little that could be done about it. The training, exhaustive and detailed, I knew would take months. On the other hand it would be done presumably in the House of Cernus. Further, such training, though spread over a period of months, normally consumes only about five of the Gorean hours daily, that the girls have time to rest, to absorb their lessons, to recreate themselves in the pools and gardens of the house. During this time, since Elizabeth was nominally of the staff of Caprus, we could surely find time to be about our work, for which purpose we had arranged to enter the House of Cernus.
"Are you not grateful?" inquired Cernus, puzzled.
Elizabeth dropped to her knees, head down. "I am unworthy of so great an honor, Master," said she.
Then Cernus pointed to me, indicating that the girl should turn.
Elizabeth did so, and suddenly, superbly, she threw her arm before her mouth and cried out, as though just seeing me for the first time, and remembering me with horror. She was marvelous.
"It is he!" she cried, shuddering.
"Who?" inquired Cernus, innocently.
I then began to suspect that my gamble, based on the often unpleasant sense of humor common among slavers, might begin to bear fruit.
Elizabeth had her head down to the stone floor. "Please, Master!" she wept. "It is he, the Assassin, who forced me in the streets to accompany him to the tavern of Spindius! Protect me, Master! Please, Master! Protect me, Master!"
"Is this the slave," asked Cernus sternly, "whom you forced to accompany you to the tavern of Spindius?"
"I think she is the one," I admitted.
"Hateful beast!" wept Elizabeth.
"You are only a poor little slave," said Cernus. "Was he cruel to you?"
"Yes," she cried, her eyes gleaming. "Yes!"
Elizabeth, I had to admit, was a really remarkable actress. She was an extremely intelligent and talented girl, as well as beautiful. I hoped she would not be too successful in her exhibition or I might end up bubbling in a vat of boiling tharlarion oil.
"Would you like me to punish him, for you?" asked Cernus, kindly.
Elizabeth threw him a look of incredible gratitude, her eyes wide with tears, her mouth trembling. "Yes!" she wept. "Please, oh Master! Punish him! Punish him!"
"Very well," said Cernus, "I will punish him by sending to his quarters an untrained slave girl."
"Master?" she asked.
Cernus turned to Caprus. "When she is not in training, 74673 will keep the quarters of the Assassin."
Caprus noted this with his stylus on his tablet.
"No!" howled Elizabeth. "Please Master! No! No!"
"Perhaps," said Cernus, "if your training proceeds rapidly and favorably you may, after some months, find other quarters."
Elizabeth collapsed weeping before the stone platform.
"Let that be an incentive to be diligent, Little Slave," said Cernus.
I threw back my head and laughed, and Cernus threw back his head and laughed, pounding on the arms of the curule chair, and the men-at-arms, too, roared with laughter. Then I turned and followed a man-at-arms, who would lead me to my quarters.
5 — IN THE HOUSE OF CERNUS
Kneeling back on her heels in my quarters, in the traditional fashion of Gorean women, Elizabeth laughed merrily and slapped her knees, so pleased was she.
I, too, was pleased.
"How smoothly it has all gone!" she laughed. "And poor Vella, who must keep the quarters of the Assassin! Poor, poor Vella!"
"Do not laugh so loudly," I cautioned her, smiling, while moving about the room.
I had closed the door, which was of wood and heavy, and barred it with the double beam. When not barred it might be opened from the outside, if the latch string were thrust through the latch hole. Otherwise one would have to cut through the wood. I reminded myself to remember and put the latch string through when I left the room. The disadvantage of such a door, naturally, is that when no one is in the room and the latch string is out, anyone might enter, and either search the room, or wait within. Valuables, in such a room, are kept in a heavy, iron-banded chest which is bolted to the wall and kept locked. Most doors giving entry into a compartment, or set of compartments, on Gor do, however, have locks, generally hand-crafted, highly ornate locks, usually set in the center of the door and controlling a long bolt.
Most of these locks, interestingly, though hand-crafted, are of the pin-tumbler variety, in which the locking is secured by a set of heavy pins extending into the lock plug; when the key is inserted the pins, of various lengths, are lifted to the surface of the lock plug, freeing it, so that when the key turns the plug may rotate, thereby moving the bolt. There are a number of other forms of lock also found upon occasion, a common variety being the disk lock in which moving disks, rather than pins are used.