Tal Goreans,
Greetings visitors,

Welcome once again to the Booknotes column.

In last month’s episode Jason Marshall made a couple of definite strides in his journey of personal growth and self-discovery. First he established that he is self-confident enough to demand the intimate services of a slave girl in exchange for a drink of water - and she seemed quite happy with the bargain, although it just happened that Jason’s erstwhile girlfriend, Beverly Henderson, witnessed the event and was horrified by it - and then he learned that he is a strong man when Beverly’s present owner would have him beaten up for talking to her without permission, and he won the ensuing fight with unexpected ease. Jason’s owner, Lady Florence, professed to be horrified by both of these, but Jason suspects that her outrage may be more for form’s sake than wholly genuine. Is he starting to, as we say Earth-side, “grow a pair”? We had better have another peep between the covers and find out.

Chapter Fourteen

Back in the security of her own house, Lady Florence takes it upon herself to array herself in sheer silk and talk of intimate things with her slave. She confesses to a restlessness and discontent and, from her allusions to the mating habits of various well-known Gorean animals, is in need of some serious male dominance. When she asks Jason to take her in his arms, he obliges, but unfortunately he fails to release her upon command and Lady Florence becomes frightened. This, she informs him, will mean a beating.

Chapter Fifteen

And indeed it does. It is worth mentioning, as Jason does, that on the previous occasion when he was beaten with the snake whip, he was begging for mercy after the second blow, whereas this time he bears his punishment in silence and without losing his footing. Indeed, he stubbornly courts and receives extra blows of the whip for daring to talk back to his mistress, and they are not light blows, at that. Yet Lady Florence coquettishly admits to being excited by Jason and indicates that he may be permitted to take her in his arms again, as long as he does exactly as he is told. Then she hands him over to her stable-masters, Kenneth and Barus, for safe-keeping, giving him the rest of the day off. Kenneth, who seems not altogether unsympathetic, is curious to learn if Jason has ever fought, though we don’t yet know why.

Chapter Sixteen

A little later we see Jason waiting patiently in a perfumier’s shop, and he spends the delay telling us about the customs of Gorean castes, including the interesting fact that, other than the Physicians, women of the various castes do not practise the crafts of the castes, and even the Physicians do so only after bearing the proverbial “heir and a spare.”

Turbus the perfumier is evidently not one to take any sauce from his customers, even the important and rich ones, and doesn’t fight shy of telling one of them that she ought to consider slavery, as she seems to be suffering from the same kind of frustration that besets Lady Florence. After dealing with her he finally gets around to serving Jason, who even though on a free person’s errand ranks pretty durn low in the pecking order. Like one or two other people we have encountered, he remarks on Jason’s size and asks if he has ever been entered in the stable bouts; Jason, of course, has not.

As he departs in some haste from the shop at Turbus’s peremptory command, he has the ill-fortune to bump into a pair of free men, and expects to be punished for it. What he does not expect is to be summarily trussed up and carted off for an unknown destination, but that is exactly what happens.

Chapter Seventeen

It turns out that Jason is to be used in a pawn of one of the petty games some Gorean free women see fit to play with each other. Specifically, the Lady Melpomene, Lady Florence’s arch-rival since time out of mind and now thoroughly on her uppers, has abducted him in order to have her wicked way with him as an insult to his owner. She also helps herself to her rival’s expensive perfume while she is at it.

Fortunately Lady Melpomene’s fortunes are about to improve, as she informs Jason. She has some inside knowledge on the tharlarion races of Venna and has sold her last remaining property in order to make a killing with the odds merchants. This will come none too soon for her, for she is up to her ears in debt and expects to be called to account at any moment. Having thus unburdened herself, she gets down to business with Jason, enthusiastically and repeatedly.

Chapter Eighteen

We rejoin Jason to find that he is back in Lady Florence’s keeping, or more specifically Kenneth’s, as she is infuriated enough by what has happened with Lady Melpomene to banish Jason from his cushy number as her silk slave and he is now having to earn his existence at more traditional slave labour. Kenneth was by no means displeased at this turn of events, and he was accommodating enough with Jason to inform him of the contents of the taunting note with which Lady Melpomene returned him. He asks Jason yet again if he knows how to fight, and Jason admits that he does not; but he tests Jason’s strength and toughness and finds him acceptable, and announces cheerfully that he expects to win money for himself and his friend Barus - and also that Jason may be rewarded with the odd slave girl from time to time.

So by the time the narrative timeline gets straightened out, and Lady Florence is inspecting the slaves, time enough has gone by for Lady Melpomene’s sure-fire racing tips to have had the effect that such tips tend to have for the compulsive gambler, and in the spirit of Damon Runyon’s story All Horse Players Die Broke, Lady Melpomene now doesn’t have a receptacle to micturate in. She is now hiding out in Vonda, a ruined woman, with nothing but the protection of her Home Stone between her and her various creditors. As for Jason, he has taken well to the occupation that Kenneth intended him for, and is not only the champion brawler in Lady Florence’s own stables but has beaten five local rival champions as well. All this in only five weeks since first being taken under Kenneth’s wing is an achievement of considerable magnitude, and hints at the possibility that, despite his unfortunate start on Gor, Jason may be as much of a “natural” in his own way as Tarl Cabot is in his.

Lady Florence enquires as to the scope of his successes and the nature of his rewards, which include whichever stable slut takes his fancy, subject to Kenneth’s approval, and does not deign to interfere, except to enquire which of the kajirae is Jason’s favourite and order her sold. This could be simple spite or she might have some deeper motive; Jason does not know or especially care.

Chapter Nineteen

Jason’s training consists, in a large part, of being equipped with lead boxing gloves (gunni) and being made to punch away at a wooden pillar with them. His strength and timing are coming on by leaps and bounds under such training and he proves able to shatter wooden pillars with some rapidity. We learn that he has been fighting every four or five days as often as not and that despite losing initially he soon began winning and has kept on winning, which of course has meant that Kenneth and Barus have indeed been making a bucketload of money betting on him. They are evidently so pleased with him that, despite obeying Lady Florence’s order to sell his favourite slave girl, Telitsia, they let her visit him one last time so that the two slaves can say goodbye in fitting manner - and this is unusual latitude for any slave, as students of Gor will know.

Another slave is sent to replace Telitsia, and this is Taphris, one of Lady Florence’s serving wenches. Although she is ostensibly out of favour with the Mistress and has been sent to the stables as a punishment, she comes with a cover note exempting her from the usual duties of such, especially from serving the pleasure of the male slaves, and giving her more licence than most to move about and watch what is not her business, and to report to the house at regular intervals. Possibly she could have been more ostentatious if she had the words “Mistress’s Spy” inked on her forehead, but at any rate Kenneth does not trust her, and he is smart enough to guess that it is Jason she is to spy upon.

Chapter Twenty

Jason is in a seriously tough fight with a slave named Kaibar, who gives him a rough ride before all is done, and in the course of which Jason gets to learn a few valuable lessons in tactics. But he is on a roll at present, and when he gets properly into his stride he disposes of Kaibar with a succession of mighty blows. Miles of Vonda, a wealthy free man who has previously courted Lady Florence with indifferent success, announces that he will procure a champion who has the beating of Jason, and Kenneth politely urges Miles to bring it on.

Lady Florence herself turns up to congratulate Jason on his success, and orders that he is to be well rewarded - but only with an extra ration of food, and some wine: specifically, he is not to be given the use of a kajira. Kenneth protests, but he must accede to the wishes of his employer; however, she graciously reveals that she has a slut in mind for Jason, and he will be properly rewarded at a time of her choosing.

Chapter Twenty-One

Later, Jason is assisting Barus in the hatching shed, delivering baby tharlarion to increase Lady Florence’s large herds of the same. They have the unwilling assistance of Taphris, who is exceedingly unpopular with Barus and Kenneth on account of her spying mission, which they view as bad for discipline and morale. Additionally, she seems to regard herself as the superior of the other girls in the stables, which does not go down at all well with the average Gorean master, and Kenneth and Barus are well up to the mark in this respect.

Meanwhile the political situation seems to be taking on a decidedly “interesting times” complexion, as relations between Ar and the Salerian Confederation are becoming strained. Barus doesn’t mind discussing the topic with the male slaves during a work break, although he certainly sees to it that they make good the time so spent and they, for their part, plainly appreciate the courtesy and return him full value for it.

But meanwhile, Jason is still going wenchless, to his increasing frustration, with which Barus apparently sympathises, and we may assume Kenneth thinks the same way. Nevertheless they carry out the Mistress’s orders. Kenneth has news for Jason when the tharlarion hatching is done; he is to be given the next day off work and is to report to the house for some purpose of the Mistress, something to do with an entertainment she is planning.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Being a wealthy landowner with a large income from her tharlarion stables, Lady Florence can afford to entertain in some style, and she has some distinguished guests for dinner, including - are you ready for this? - Lady Melpomene. It turns out that Lady Florence has offered her long-term rival a lifeline, returning good for the evil Lady Melpomene lately did her. She has advanced Lady Melpomene a large loan, large enough to pay off all the debts she owes, amid pledges of good friendship and many compliments, though to be sure, a compliment such as informing the company that Lady Melpomene is beautiful enough to be a slave girl is a rather daring one in polite society and might even be a word of some ill omen.

Kenneth, however, remarks quietly to Jason, who is mutely observing all of this, that absolutely everything Lady Melpomene is presently possessed of, even to the clothes she stands up in, belongs to Lady Florence, and it can easily be seen that this puts her in a position of some vulnerability. Therefore, the reader having had some opportunity to form an opinion of Lady Florence’s character and the nature of the rivalry between these two women, it possibly comes as no surprise whatever when, while the ink on the documents is yet wet, Lady Florence haughtily demands immediate payment of the debt. This, of course, Lady Melpomene is in no position to render, and accordingly she is made slave with almost indecent haste.

Now it becomes clear why Jason has lately been denied the use of a slave girl, for the newly enslaved Melpomene is thrown to him and ordered to please him to his full satisfaction, on pain of death; and Jason, rather clearer in his own mind than he was when the spiteful Lola was given to him a few chapters ago, enjoys the situation to its fullest. Yet there is some irony to be found here. Melpomene, though brought so low, finds herself responding to her enslavement with undreamed-of enthusiasm, while Lady Florence is left unsatisfied and, one might say, jealous. As for Jason, his march to Gorean manhood proceeds apace. Present at the dinner are a number of strong men, skilled with arms and used to handling male slaves, and yet Jason realizes that he is not afraid of them. Moreover, though there are some there who in their turn are not afraid of him, he is able to read that they too know that he is not afraid of them. This speaks much for his growing self-confidence on this alien, harsh world.

And so we take our leave for another month of Jason Marshall and all the other participants in this drama. Melpomene is off to a new life as a slave; but how does Lady Florence truly feel? How much of a nuisance is her spy Taphris going to prove? What of Miles of Vonda’s mysterious champion, and what of the rumours of war? All will be revealed next month, as we plough into the final chapters of Fighting Slave of Gor!

I wish you well,

Socrates