Tal Goreans,
Greetings visitors,

Welcome once again to the Booknotes column. Having dealt with the fearsome Kur general Zarendargar, also known as Half-Ear, Tarl is no doubt bound for warmer climes - he would, after all, be hard put to it not to be, given that he has just returned from the frozen North. There is still plenty of Gor to see, of course; we have become acquainted with a city or two, the Northern forests, Torvaldsland, the southern plains, the equatorial desert and the swamps of the Vosk delta, but that is hardly all of the planet. We had better find out what Tarl is up to and where he proposes to lead us this time; and on that note, I lift the cover of Explorers of Gor.

Chapter One

Tarl is being entertained by Samos of Port Kar, his friend and fellow member of the Council of Captains and his nominal superior as Agent of Priest-Kings, though Tarl doesn’t seem to see himself as part of any formal organisation. Samos and Tarl are being waited on by Linda, an Earth-girl slave previously used as a message-bearer by the Kurii in what can only be described as a mindboggling waste of resources on a par with any potlach you care to mention, what with the ludicrous expense of shipping her all the way from Earth just to deliver a single piece of ribbon. It’s not all waste from Samos’s point of view, though, as he has kept her as a slave and caused her to blossom under his care; and, in Tarl’s opinion, Samos has himself a love slave after all these years (and who knows how old Samos might be?).

Such matters are of small importance, as is the disposal of Vella, the former Elizabeth Cardwell, who betrayed many important secrets to Kurii agents (told in Beasts of Gor), for which Samos would fain punish her; but Tarl only responds that Vella is his and will be punished as he and he alone sees fit. Samos agrees, and the two turn to weightier matters.

The pair adopt the barbarous expedient of telling each other a number of things that they both know perfectly well, but the reader does not, for the sake of establishing some story background. Specifically, they talk about the geography of Gor’s tropical jungles and the recent career of a great explorer, Shaba. We also hear about a black Ubar, Bila Huruma, whom one might speak of as the black Marlenus, a friend to Shaba and sponsor of his expeditions. Tarl asks, reasonably enough, why Samos chooses to bring up the subject, and Samos first shows him a prisoner, yet another Earth female, and a ring that looks very like the invisibility ring Tarl acquired in an earlier adventure (see Tribesmen of Gor), a piece of advanced Kur technology. Samos tells us something of the history of the ring’s making, and establishes that the ring they are now looking at is not the invisibility ring, which was meant to be conveyed to the Sardar for the Priest-Kings’ inspection, but a counterfeit, possibly one bearing a booby-trap. (Once again, one is forced to conclude that the Priest-Kings are remarkably unadvanced for a species that has been civilised and technological for millions of years, if they can be threatened by, in effect, a simple bomb.)

Unfortunately it seems that Shaba has made off with the real ring, no doubt in consideration of a large sum of money, and a man called Msaliti seems to be implicated somehow. The Earth female was another of the ill-informed couriers that messages and vital packets get entrusted to from time to time in these stories (see Tribesmen, Slave Girl and Beasts, for a start) and may represent a means of finding a way to Shaba.

So off goes Tarl, warned to beware of Bila Huruma, who is not a man to be taken lightly, even though he is a man of brilliance and vision and currently prosecuting a plan to have the great rivers Ushindi and Ngao joined by a canal, but since Tarl’s mission should take him only to the port of Schendi, it seems unlikely that their paths will cross. Whereupon Tarl takes his leave and goes to begin his latest adventure.

Chapter Two

The first move in the game is to watch the nameless Earth girl being sold, which affords Tarl the opportunity for some musing on human nature, the essential rightness of female slavery, the superiority of the “flower”-like Gorean way to the “machine”-like Earthen way, and so on. The girl does not take well to being exhibited on the slave block and bidding on her is initially slow, until the auctioneer employs the dreaded Slaver’s Caress to prove that she is, in spite of appearances to the contrary, hot, sensual and passionate, even if in denial. This leads to a bid of one silver tarsk being made on her, a very good price for a non-Gorean-speaking, untrained barbarian slave girl; and accordingly she is knocked down to one Ulafi, a sea captain of Schendi. Tarl makes a mental note of the name of the ship belonging to Ulafi and the time that the slave is to be delivered, and takes his leave as the sales proceed.

Chapter Three

As Tarl makes his way to the pier where Ulafi’s ship is to be found, he is importuned by a “she-urt”, a free beggar girl, not generally worth the trouble of collaring. She offers to please Tarl for a tarsk-bit, but he is not very interested, and in any case she is only the foil for an assailant who tries clumsily to cudgel Tarl while his back is turned. This, of course, ends in tears, whereupon Tarl takes the she-urt up on her offer and leaves her and her confederate to await their respective punishments - banishment and enslavement - as he goes to investigate the sound of an alarm bar being rung.

Chapter Four

He learns that the girl sold two chapters ago has escaped, which she would surely not have done had she known what is done to fugitive Gorean slaves, and also helpfully reports the capture of his two muggers. These are soon brought in, Lady Sasi and Turgus, and dealt with as predicted; Lady Sasi is immediately placed on sale for the first reasonable offer. Meanwhile Tarl attempts to book passage on the “Palms of Schendi”, the ship of Ulafi, and is refused despite offering a generous fare. He decides that he can best improve his chances of acceptance if he succeeds in recovering the runaway slave, and by putting two and two together he deduces that she is hiding among the she-urts. She is not too hard to find - firstly by her appearance, secondly because she is not known by the other she-urts, thirdly because she does not act quite like one, and fourthly, of course, because she has nothing to say for herself when spoken to.

She is taken before the praetor and for a short while it seems as though she might escape identification, until the auctioneer happens by and confirms that she is indeed no free woman but an unmarked slave. The she-urts are outraged but are made to clear off after they have been allowed some expression of their displeasure, and Ulafi makes it clear to the slave that she can be punished severely for running away or telling lies (she having previously denied being a “Kajira”, one of the few words of Gorean she can recognise). For having helped recapture her Tarl is now allowed to buy passage on the “Palms”, and before he goes he trots along to where Sasi has still not being sold, and obtains her extremely cheaply, thinking she might make useful cover, in addition to her obvious use.

Chapter Five

Aboard ship, Tarl amuses himself with teaching Sasi her collar, which she takes to very naturally (and on her own say-so, was for all practical purposes born collared, for she is a woman), and watching as the unnamed blonde barbarian is taught the rudiments of slavery and of Gorean. He chats amiably with Ulafi, who reveals that one Uchafu, a slaver of Schendi, is interested in the blonde, thought for what reason he does not know. He supposes that it is at the behest of another, but he does not know who that might be either. Ulafi warns Tarl to take care in Schendi, saying that there are dangers both in the city itself and from the interior, mentioning the ubarate of Bila Huruma.

The blonde, overhearing Sasi being brought to slave orgasm, is aroused and resentful, though still far from at ease with her own slavery, and she is moved to remark upon the strange feelings in her in Tarl’s hearing, but in English, thinking that he does not understand her; and he does not choose to enlighten her for the moment.

Chapter Six

Approaching Schendi, the “Palms” is suddenly surrounded by a flotilla of fighting ships, but Ulafi affects indifference and makes no move to order the ship to quarters, not that it could have effectively fought them off. These are raiding vessels, but as Ulafi points out, they need the port facilities of Schendi too much to court disfavour by preying on ships from Schendi. Otherwise Tarl enjoys a quiet voyage without incident and soon arrives at his destination. The blonde barbarian seems to have the hots for him, though she is trying to fight the dawning suspicion that she might really be a slave. At one moment she admits it; at another she denies it vehemently. Tarl likens her to a prisoner in a dungeon who has heard the door open but fears to step out into the light.

On arrival at Schendi all personnel aboard, slave and free alike, are examined by a physician before being certified healthy and granted entrance. This is on account of an earlier outbreak of plague in the port of Bazi. The alert reader will recall that we were advised, in Assassin of Gor, that there is no disease save Dar-kosis on Gor thanks to the Goreans’ willingness to let themselves evolve immunity to disease rather than waste time trying to cure such. This can clearly be amended to “except when we may need a serious disease as a plot device,” and let the reader pay attention.

Given a clean bill of health, Tarl prepares to disembark. The blonde slave suddenly, impulsively, pleads to be bought, which attracts Sasi’s ire as she does not wish to share her master. Tarl says that another will buy her; but he muses on the feel of her lips and tongue on his feet, and reflects that she might be useful. She will, he hopes, lead him to Shaba the geographer, explorer and discoverer of Lake Ngao and the Ua river, and so to the missing invisibility ring; for it is this that he seeks, along with, perhaps, the blood of Shaba the traitor to Priest-Kings.

On which suitably dramatic note it is fitting that we break off, as Tarl strides down the gangplank and prepares to become acquainted with Schendi and with Gor’s equivalent of the Dark Continent, whereof we have more to see next month as we rejoin the Explorers of Gor.

I wish you well,

Socrates