Tal Goreans,
Greetings visitors,

Welcome once again to the Booknotes column. Last month Tarl Cabot managed to escape from the Amusements of Tharna and carry off its Tatrix, only to be betrayed when he brought her to the Pillar of Exchanges in the hope of liberating his friends. He is now chained up in the deepest level of Tharna’s silver mines, with the ever-present threat of death by drowning should he give the slave-drivers there the least trouble. We left him jollying along his fellow-prisoners... could it be he has a plan?

Chapter 18

Life in the mines is short of amusement, but some is afforded by the news that Lara, the cruel Tatrix, has been abducted by a daring tarnsman, one Tarl of Ko-ro-ba. This comes as some news to Tarl, since he brought her safely back to the Pillar of Exchanges, but when he last saw her he did hear Dorna the Proud triumphantly informing Lara that she wasn’t going back to Tharna, and this gives him something to mull over while he is eating his bread and surprisingly Terran vegetables.

Once he has the full confidence and support of the guys on the chain with him, and has built enough of an esprit de corps, he starts planning an escape. Ost, it will surprise no-one to learn, is horrified, fearing for his miserable life, and as expected he feigns injury the next day in order to be removed from the chain, no doubt spilling the beans to the overseers the first chance he gets.

Even those who have come to trust Tarl are despondent, looking gloomily at the duct in the ceiling by which their chamber will no doubt be flooded that very night; but Tarl has been counting on this. He gets a helping hand into the duct and gets his hands on the security grille, put there to prevent just such an escape attempt, and manages to yank it out of the way. That achieved, he urges the man at one end of the chain to start climbing, and after a couple of false starts, the man, challenged to show what a man of Tharna can do, gets past the slippery bit; and, even as the chamber is being flooded, Tarl and company escape.

It’s a close-run thing, and four men are drowned before they escape, but not beyond resuscitation, duly applied by three men from Port Kar and, of course, Tarl, who is a regular Boy Scout. (And, for all we know differently, he might have been one in his boyhood.) This whole business has been a bonding experience, and they affirm their brotherhood with the slogan "We are of the same chain".

Chapter 19

Ost is caught bang to rights with his hands on the valve that flooded the mine-chamber, and although Tarl might have urged mercy even for this creep, he’s prevented from interfering while Kron pitches Ost down the shaft into the water, with the grim but just observation that Ost will have a better chance than he gave them. Ost vanishes into obscurity with a distant splash, surely never to be seen again.

The fugitives get their first look at the open sky, which some of them haven’t seen for years. Thus heartened, and getting hold of some tools for Kron the Metal Worker to strike off their chains, they set about liberating the rest of the miners. They do Tarl proud both in this and in that they do not drown their former masters when they have the chance.

Now the flames of revolution are well alight and Andreas is off to the slave-worked Great Farms where Linna has been taken, but Tarl’s business is elsewhere, with the Priest-Kings. All he wanted from Tharna in the first place was the chance to get some provisions and a tarn, and he has a shrewd idea where he will find the latter. Andreas, of course, knows as well as any Gorean that no-one ever comes back from the Sardar, and so, believing he will never see Tarl again, he takes his last chance of saying "Tal" to him, even though this is a greeting and not a farewell.

Chapter 20

Tarl is short of equipment after escaping from the mines. Seeing about this as best he can, he finds the dead body of the former Administrator of the mines, and hopes that, cruel though he was, he had a chance to die fighting. There is nothing much of use that hasn’t been scavenged by the revolutionaries, so Tarl takes what there is - a gem-inlaid scabbard and a damaged helmet - and clears off.

He is hoping to find Ubar of the Skies in the vicinity of the Pillar of Exchanges and he isn’t disappointed; the bird is not only there but seems delighted to see him, and the happy pair resume Tarl’s interrupted journey to the Sardar. It is En-Kara, the Spring equinox, and the Sardar fair is under way. This gives us time for another of Norman’s digressions, this time on the Gorean calendar; but it is a brief digression.

Flying over the Sardar, Tarl suddenly receives clear proof that something lives there when his tarn screams in panic and finds itself unable to fly. Clearly it is the victim of some Priest-King brain-scrambling device and after it has heroically tried and tried again, Tarl spares it further punishment by landing and dismounting. He sends it off to hunt and prepares to continue on foot, but he is interrupted by a girl’s scream.

Chapter 21

It’s nothing to worry about, just business as usual in the camp of an everyday slaver. An iron is being got ready to brand a new girl and she is less than happy at the prospect. The grizzled old one-eyed guy who’s about to do the deed gags her and gives her a few kindly words to settle her down, but Tarl observes that she really doesn’t want to be branded and, still being a right Sir Galahad in these early days, he intervenes, saying he wants to buy her. Targo, the slaver, comes huffing over, and finding that Tarl has no money he understandably thinks he’s dealing with a time-waster, until Tarl’s sword persuades him to be patient a minute longer.

Some bargaining ensues, Targo wildly exaggerating both quality and price of the girl, and the one-eyed man (a loveable scoundrel, and we don’t even get to find out anything about him) giving Tarl some nods and winks behind his boss’s back before she herself begs to be bought, astonishing the slaver and his man, for up to now she has proved most unmanageable. Tarl hands over his only trade goods, the gem-inlaid scabbard and the broken helmet, ruefully reflecting on the cheapness of human life on Gor. Then he finds out who it is he has bought. It is Lara.

Chapter 22

Indicating a pleasure-rack nearby, Lara enquires whether Tarl wishes to use her at once (and, of course, he doesn’t), and then expects him to kill her straight away (and, of course, he doesn’t). Lara despondently expresses the opinion that she deserves no better, with which sentiment Tarl disagrees. He points out that she once told a man not to strike him, once said it was hard to be first in Tharna, once sighed over a field of talenders; and he overlooks little matters like sentencing him to the arena, feeding him to a tarn, and betraying him atop the Pillar of Exchanges.

Lara is tossed like a cork on a sea of emotions, hating Tarl for not wanting her (for the love of his life is Talena) and then not hating him but admitting that she did when she was Tatrix, because he reminded her of her own dreams of being a slave. We learn something of the history of Tharna:

Once it was as harsh as anywhere on Gor, and Lara recites the ritual of enslavement that used to be performed on a scarlet mat as the slave was bound with yellow cords. But the Tharnans were lenient with their womenfolk, granted them increasing licence and then equality, only to find that equality was not stable. Women took advantage of the opportunities that nurturing and educating children afforded them, female values were emphasised at the expense of male, until women became dominant and men second-class citizens - but misery resulted, because female dominance is not natural.

For a Norman sermon, this is a very mild one. They become much more vehement later. It leads into one of Tarl’s philosophical epigrams:

"I have sometimes wondered if a man, to be a man, must not master a woman, and if a woman, to be a woman, must not know herself mastered."

Tarl speculates on what might happen if the pendulum swung back in Tharna, but for now he frees Lara, though she begs to be made his slave first, on a scarlet mat with yellow cords. And Tarl is obliging.

Chapter 23

Tarl is not taking Lara to the Sardar with him, but back to Tharna, reasoning that she is now a much fitter Tatrix than she was a few days ago. As if telepathically summoned, Ubar of the Skies turns up again, speeding the journey back. Lara weeps at the sight of the devastation the rebels have wrought, but Tarl points out that they were given reason. There is now a full-blown civil war in progress; the free men of Tharna have caught it from the mine slaves, and savage reprisals have only stiffened their resolve and swayed the uncommitted. "Sa’ng-Fori" is the slogan, literally "Without Chains" and figuratively "Freedom!".

Lara and Tarl stumble across a wounded guardsman, one of the Tatrix’s loyal men, who is horrified to learn that he has been serving a usurper. More of Dorna’s guardsmen turn up and the trio flee, only to blunder into the clutches of a gang of rebels. Fortunately, Tarl is recognised by one of them - he who was formerly first on the chain in the mines - and they soon join up with the chiefs of the rebels, Kron and Andreas, the latter now reunited with Linna.

Chapter 24

It’s time for some R’n’R in the Kal-da shop, with a number of silver masks learning the ways of the Paga slave (against the day when there should actually be any Paga in Tharna). Tarl has a serious talk with Kron about bringing the civil war to an end and restoring the true Tatrix to the throne. This goes down like a lead balloon; only the appeal "Are we not of the same chain?" even persuades Kron to listen at all. But then Kron espies Lara, going about tending the wounded and generally carrying on like a reformed character. She even comes over all meek directly to him, and he is much moved, no doubt by the sight of his Tatrix acting like a woman after all these years.

Thus convinced, Kron leads a truce party to denounce Dorna’s treason, and once a few of the enemy have recognised Lara, everyone’s natural reluctance to wage war against his own kindred kicks in and all of Dorna’s side desert her. All save Thorn. The civil war has made a new man out of him in only a few days - fulfilling his true nature will do that for a man - and when he sees the way things are going, he and Dorna flee to the throne-room. There, minutes later, Tarl catches up with them, and Thorn turns at bay to defend the golden-masked woman seated impassively on Tharna’s throne.

Chapter 25

Thorn fights well, but Tarl fights better and soon Thorn is lying on the floor, mortally wounded. He has time to say "I have won!" and smile in triumph before dying, whereupon the golden-masked woman comes and weeps all over him. This is a strange way for frigid, misandric Dorna to be carrying on, and no wonder, for it is not Dorna at all but Vera of Ko-ro-ba - remember her? In gratitude for Thorn’s kind treatment of her she has willingly taken part in this subterfuge to buy time for Dorna, the object of Thorn’s unrequited love, to escape.

Guided by Lara, Tarl heads for the roof, there to be confronted by the giant urt from round about Chapter 11 and its handler. That detail attended to, Tarl is too late to keep Dorna from making good her escape in a tarn-basket; her last two guardsmen refuse to kill him, though, as she has chosen to abandon her city.

Those who have reaffirmed their loyalty to Lara rub the point in. They give the true Tatrix the Tharnan equivalent of three hearty cheers: in this case, five cheers accompanied by clashing of weapons and shields. Hearing this, Dorna recoils as though struck five times. (Hmm, we know what else inflicts five blows in one hit, don’t we? I wonder if the symbolism was intentional.) She snarls hatred, defiance, and vows of revenge at Tarl, but Tarl is moved to wonder how long she will remain free, a woman alone on Gor.

Chapter 26

Tarl addresses the men of Earth. The revolution is over, the pendulum has indeed swung very far back. By Lara’s decree, each silver mask will have six months to find a Free Companion; any man she proposes to may enslave or refuse her instead, and after six months any woman still unclaimed will lose even this right of choice. Only Vera is an exception, not having been a Tharnan silver mask. The rest of the women of Tharna need to learn love, Lara reasons, and if this must be in a slave-collar then so be it.

The masks - the actual masks themselves - are melted and coined, even the golden mask of the Tatrix; Tharna is being brightened up and trade is flooding in to absorb all the excess money. The men of Tharna are going about with a spring in their step and yellow cords in their belt, all ready for the first ex-silver mask who will approach them. Reflecting the Tharnans’ new boldness, Kron orders the guard-rails removed from the high bridges, and to Tarl’s objection, responds "Let those who fear to walk the high bridges not walk the high bridges."

His work thus being done, Tarl is about to resume his journey to the Sardar. He and Lara make tearful farewells, she promising to remember the lessons she has learned. Tarl has no great hopes of coming back alive, but he is not unhappy. Life has been good in spite of all the perils he has undergone, he hears the sounds of Tharna and the scream of his tarn outside, and is content.

Footnote by John Norman:

The author reports the supposed delivery of Cabot’s manuscript via Harrison Smith, speculates that Tarl did indeed enter the Sardar, and claims that it is unlikely anyone will ever know what he found there. I shan’t say whether this is true or not, except to state that it will be business as usual here next month!