Tal, Goreans,

Greetings, visitors,

Welcome once again to the Booknotes column. In "Assassin of Gor", the plot is currently thickening as if it has had a large lump of beurre manie whisked into it. Cernus the Slaver plans to become Ubar of Ar and has successfully been elevated to the Caste of Warriors, and he has engineered the downfall of Portus, his chief rival in the slaving business, by brilliantly framing him for abducting the Administrator's daughter, Claudia Tentia Hinrabia. But Cernus's is not the only spoon in the broth as Tarl is convinced he has spotted Marlenus, the outlawed former Ubar, in disguise at the Stadium of Tarns. On a subsequent visit to the Stadium he has become unexpectedly reacquainted with his magnificent tarn, Ubar of the Skies, whom he has flown in disguise under the colours of a new racing faction, the Steels. This doesn't seem to have come as a surprise to Ho-Sorl and Relius, the two guards assigned to the Earth-girl slaves Phyllis Robertson and Virginia Kent, whose training under the fiery Sura we have looked in on from time to time.

The only clouds on the horizon as far as Tarl Cabot is concerned are that up to now he has been unable to persuade Caprus, Cernus's chief Scribe, to release any of the incriminating documents he is supposed to be conveying to the Sardar, and that he is no nearer finding out the identity of the murderer he came to Ar to seek. Perhaps he is about to make some progress

Chapter Seventeen

I seem to have found myself saying "here's how an on-line Gor tradition got started" quite a lot during the course of this review, and here I go again. Perhaps I should just say "mushroom" the next time I spot an example. It is the feast of Kajuralia (the etymology might be a little shaky, but "slave holiday" would get the meaning across), which, continuing Ar's Imperial Roman theme, draws obvious inspiration from the Roman Saturnalia and from similar mediaeval Yuletide customs. Slaves of both sexes are given much licence to misbehave, including making a nuisance of themselves to Free persons, mess-making, rowdiness, drunkenness and petty theft. (From what I've seen of Gorean websites here and there, there are some online kajirae who seem to believe that Kajuralia comes three hundred and sixty-five times per year instead of once.)

Tarl takes a turn down the Street of Pots and soon finds himself the prisoner of some slave girls who fancy turning the tables for the day. But there are evidently unwritten rules that ought not to be broken even at Kajuralia and when the slave Phais goes a little too far Tarl takes it upon himself to teach her a summary lesson. Even so, this is the Tarl we know and love and the lesson is a gentle one that Phais does not seem to find unwelcome. Indeed, she enjoys it a great deal and they part on very amicable terms after a mutually pleasurable afternoon.

Heading back to the House of Cernus, Tarl muses on the events of the last season - for once again, Norman has jumped us forward in time three months and is now filling in the blanks. Cernus's plan to become Ar's Ubar has proceeded unhindered. Portus's downfall has been followed by the Administrator's, Minus Tentius Hinrabius himself, first ensnared in a web of spiralling debt partly fuelled by reckless gambling on the tarn-racing and also sponsoring races and games to keep the masses happy, and exacerbated by Cernus's "reluctant" calling in of certain loans.

The mood of the people generally is ugly, not aided by the general lawlessness of the times, and there is scope for a strong man to take command of Ar, possibly even a Ubar, an impression Cernus's agents are fostering at grass-roots level, which does not seem to please Ho-Tu, Cernus's Master Keeper, whom Tarl spots in a paga tavern listening grimly to one such blowhard. But there has not been much opportunity for Tarl to interfere in such plotting, as he has been busy in his spare time riding for the Steels under the nom-de-guerre of "Gladius of Cos" and - for this is Tarl we are talking about - enjoying tremendous success as the season approaches its climax with the championship headed for a three-way tie between the Greens (Cernus's favourites), the Yellows and the Steels. Meanwhile, the counterpart to Tarl's success under the hood in the Stadium of Tarns has been that of the enigmatic Murmillius in the Stadium of Blades, who has been doing pretty much as he wishes with Ar's finest blades, professional and amateur alike, and who also preserves the secret of his identity.

The flashback continues with Tarl telling us how the Hinrabian star continued to sink until the omens turned against the Adminstrator at the altar of the High Initiate, and he resigned. Exiled from the city, Minus Tentius and all his family have been slaughtered by "unknown brigands" (a likely story), all save the disgraced Claudia Tentia, whose whereabouts is unknown. Meanwhile, certain influential citizens who might have opposed Cernus's bid for the throne have suffered mysterious misfortune. In such a time it is Ar's nature to abhor a power vacuum, and the high seat has barely had time to cool before it is filled by Cernus, not as Administrator but as Ubar as he prophesied, and well within the timescale he had set himself.

Tarl takes what comfort he can from the knowledge that the spying mission against Cernus is well in hand and that Elizabeth, and also her constant companions Virginia and Phyllis, will be bought by an agent of Priest-Kings and so delivered to safety. His private mission of revenge has come to nothing, but this is only a minor disappointment.

The House of Cernus is in uproar, of course, with much feasting, merrymaking and rough mischief. Even Ho-Tu the Master Keeper doesn't escape without a prank played against him; the finger of suspicion points at Elizabeth and almost certainly belongs there. Virginia experiences competition for Relius's attentions when a slave called Lana sets her cap at him, and Lana has a card Virginia can't trump in that she is already Red Silk. Virginia delivers a stern hands-off message in the shape of a thorough hiding and she and Relius then enjoy a chaste and loving snuggle together. The focus then shifts to Phyllis, who is bold enough to tease Ho-Sorl by serving him milk instead of wine. She is less than thrilled though when Ho-Sorl announces his intention to relieve her of her virginity there and then, volunteering to compensate Cernus for the drop in her value; but this too is just a Kajuralia joke. She is so upset by the teasing that Virginia is moved to push the boundaries of Kajuralia a little too far by anointing Ho-Tu with his own porridge in a straightforward and unfunny manner, but Elizabeth rescues the tense situation by pouring wine over Tarl's head and then Cernus's. Fortunately for her, this goes accepted as general Feast-of-Fools mischief and a huge food fight erupts.

No sooner is one tense situation dealt with than another rears its head, though. After Ho-Tu has sent the spiteful Lana to be sold, so that she will not have a clear run at Relius after all with Virginia out of the House, Sura herself is dragged in to be made the centrepiece of an enormous gang-bang, the order to be decided by a game of dice. Even Ho-Tu's loyal service to Cernus isn't enough to spare her this. It's her lucky day though, as Tarl goes into Sir Galahad mode once again, takes part in the game, blatantly cheats and informs his fellow gamers that he will have not only the first but the sole use of her, in private. None dares to argue with the terrible Assassin ("mushroom"), and Cernus chooses not to intervene but only to remark, probably for Ho-Tu's benefit, that he understands that the Killer is a terror with the women.

Of course, once Tarl has the door to Sura's quarters safely shut, he refuses to molest her, but nearly pays dearly for his good deed when he finds a child's doll in her belongings. Sura views this as no laughing matter and tries to kill him with a slave goad set for a lethal shock, but Tarl overpowers her as easily as you would expect. It's even more her lucky day than she knew, though, for she goes unpunished for the terrible crime of raising a weapon to a Free Man and Tarl even apologises for his insensitivity; it turns out that the doll is the last material memento Sura has of her mother. Tarl listens sympathetically to her tales of her annual Kajuralia humiliation - one year, she was even mated to a dwarf off the street, though she did not see him, and bore a child that was given away. As for Ho-Tu, it turns out that, despite his loyalty and good service to Cernus and his family, he was castrated and made to drink acid years ago for daring to gainsay Cernus; but he loves Sura and does his best to protect her in the house of his oppressor.

Tarl kindly serves her wine and, as a Kajuralia present, teaches her Kaissa, at which she turns out to be an absolute natural, instead of shaming Ho-Tu by sharing a more horizontal pleasure with her. But just as the conversation takes an interesting turn and puts Ho-Tu possibly in the frame for the murder Tarl is investigating, Sura screams: "No, Ho-Tu!"

Chapter Eighteen

A fight ensues between Ho-Tu and Tarl, but they quickly declare a truce when Sura threatens to kill herself with the slave goad ("mushroom") and Tarl establishes that Ho-Tu's only motive was jealousy at the thought of what Tarl had been up to with Sura. Once this is understood, the entire quarrel is dropped and they part on good terms. Tarl goes to have his wound treated and chats with Flaminius the Physician about the latter's life-long dream of finding a cure for Gor's one remaining serious disease, Dar-Kosis. This project has been on hold ever since the Initiates managed to punish him for his blasphemy in trying to cure the "Holy Disease" and Flaminius is now a little over-fond of the bottle.

Leaving Flaminius to his Paga, Tarl finds a remark of Cernus's preying oddly on his subconscious as he tours the House: "You, Killer, would not make a Player". He is warned away from the cell where the "beast" is kept and learns that it goes into a terrifying berserk rage when it smells human blood. He takes a detour via the kitchen to find a bottle of Paga - and on his way through, notices a slave girl with no nose (insert very old joke here) - and then makes his way down to the dungeons. Here, in the deepest, darkest, securest oubliette in all of Cernus's House, Tarl finds a prisoner; a Scribe; none other than Caprus - not the Caprus he has been dealing with all these months, but the real Caprus. This, of course, means that Tarl has been royally set up, and both the imposter Caprus and Cernus himself appear to inform him so, along with enough crossbow-wielding guards to make any resistance on Tarl's part utterly futile.

Cernus, as it turns out, has known all along who Tarl is, and has been playing him for a patsy in the assurance that by doing so he will prevent the Priest-Kings from sending any more clued-up agent after him. Indeed, the whole murder business was a fix from the beginning; there never was any intention to kill Tarl but only a look-alike so that Tarl would come in search of the murderer. Now, of course, it is time for Tarl to pay, beginning with watching Elizabeth sold on the block in the belief she is going to freedom.

Chapter Nineteen

Some days later Tarl, who has had an unenjoyable few days, is dragged along in public humiliation (though without his identity being revealed) to the Curulean, in the company of the false Caprus, whose real name is Philemon. Tarl takes the opportunity to tell us a great deal about this, Ar's greatest slave-market, which on the whole needn't concern us for now. He gets to watch some brilliant salesmanship, in which the much-rumoured "barbarian" women are left until last and are given plenty of negative build-up by the way as the other lots are sold off, including some Panther Women from the northern forests, concerning whose purchaser Tarl says: "I trust the security of his Pleasure Gardens is superb, else he might waken to a knife at his throat and the demand for a tarn" ("mushroom").

At last Elizabeth, Phyllis and Virgina are brought in and sold off as a matched set of barbarians, and Elizabeth, who has been eagerly anticipating the exciting experience of being sold, especially as she knows she will get out of it all right, cooperates fully and imaginatively in her own sale and helps to push the price for the trio up to an unheard-of fifteen hundred pieces of gold. But at this point a bid is made by Samos, a slaver of the inescapable pirate city of "squalid, malignant" Port Kar - nay, its First Slaver and doubtless unparalleled on all Gor as an example of cruel mastery - who doubles the stakes to an unbeatable three thousand gold tarns.

Tarl's heart naturally sinks; and as Elizabeth is being led off, as she believes to freedom, Tarl is revealed to her as a prisoner and the full horror of her condition is brought home to her in time for us to hear her screams.

Chapter Twenty

Cernus's triumph is rampant, and Tarl has several companions in misery: Relius and Ho-Sorl, who tried to free him by force of arms, and Sura, who essayed less direct means. Her punishment has begun with the destruction of her favourite doll and is unlikely to end there. Meanwhile, Cernus makes an end of Portus, having him cut up in a mockery of a hook-knife fight and taken off to be fed to the beast, and then brings in Claudia Tentia Hinrabia. He taunts her with the revelation that her abduction from the Central Cylinder was achieved with the connivance of the Taurentians themselves, supposedly the honour guard of the Administrator but secretly in Cernus's pay. Now Claudia, regular readers of this column will remember from the last issue, famously disfigured a slave girl for a piffling offence, and it's to be payback time, Cernus announces, as he brings in the noseless slave we saw in the kitchens the chapter before last.

To his surprise and annoyance though, the slave, one Melanie by name, chooses not to respond in kind for the injury that Claudia did her, and in anger Cernus has the pair removed. It's too late to feed them to the beast, which has just had a bellyful of prime Portus, and so he defers this for ten days and instead turns his attention to Tarl. He pretends to offer him a chance of freedom as a stake in a game of Kaissa, but rather than let him play for himself he tells Tarl that he will have a champion. Tarl sees his slender chance at once and nominates the raw but gifted Sura, but this arouses Cernus's ire and in any case he has another champion in mind. This is Hup the Fool, who obliges with some idiotic capers when he is brought in along with his room-mate, the blind Qualius who was seen but not named way back in Chapter Three.

Of course Cernus has to make matters fair by having a nominee himself, and this will be Scormus, Ar's arrogant and frighteningly good champion. But there is an odd moment when Scormus is brought in and Sura exclaims "It is he!". Cernus does not understand; nor does Scormus; but Tarl notes Scormus's cruelly handsome features, echoing Sura's own, and his club foot, not unlike Hup's, and puts two and two together. Also Hup seems to understand more than he lets on as well, and this gives Tarl furiously to think, most especially whether Scormus inherited his Kaissa brain from one parent only, or from both.

Scormus soon recognises that the so-called Fool is, at the very least, an idiot savant, and the pair enjoy a tremendous game which ends in a rare defeat for Ar's champion. He congratulates his opponent, who is doing his painful best to stand up straight in front of his son, on a brilliant and original game, and takes his leave. This ought to mean Tarl's freedom, as he cheerily informs Cernus, but of course Cernus welshes on the offer, surprising nobody, least of all us.

But whether Tarl is going to have anything but a good feeling to console himself on the morrow, as he is led out to die in the Stadium of Blades, and what Elizabeth's chances are of escaping the terrible clutches of cruel Samos, will have to wait until next month, when we will gird our loins for a final reel of Ben Hur-like epic proportions, a by no means unsuccessful attempt to outdo the superb final chapters of "Nomads", in a last decisive tilt at Volume Five, "Assassin of Gor"!

I wish you well,

Socrates