Tal Goreans,
Greetings visitors,

Welcome once again to the Booknotes column.

Lady Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrus, formerly known as Tiffany Collins of Earth, has lately been made aware that she is but the plaything of Ligurious, First Minister of that city - as though this was any surprise. And this may be rather alarming, given that the war that is being prosecuted in her name (but thanks to Ligurious’s machinations) is going badly, and that her he-man of a personal bodyguard, Drusus Rencius, has been dismissed. Plainly Ligurious is up to something - but what? Let’s read a few more chapters and find out.

Chapter Twelve

Ligurious is giving orders for Lady Sheila to be dressed as for a special occasion, while outside there is battle in the city. The attackers from Argentum have used a stratagem not dissimilar to that adopted so long ago by the Tuchuks in Nomads of Gor and are within the city gates; and much to Lady Sheila’s distress, most of the citizens are on the side of the invaders. She is left behind in the palace, which is almost deserted, and obviously she is fearful at being left alone. But Ligurious assures her that she still has a part to play, and that someone will be along to fetch her shortly. For himself, he plainly has urgent business elsewhere, and he takes with him a woman draped under a sheet and dressed as a slave - that same woman with whom Ligurious himself seems to be somewhat smitten, and who apparently bears a resemblance to Lady Sheila. He makes his exit, leaving Lady Sheila with the sound of a battering ram in her ears - wielded by the citizens of Corcyrus, who have a bone to pick with their Tatrix just as soon as they can effect an entry to the palace.

Chapter Thirteen

So someone does indeed come for Lady Sheila, and with not much delay. This is Miles of Argentum, who previously played Corcyrus a diplomatic visit on which there was much ill-feeling on both sides. He is delighted to be able to afford Lady Sheila the golden-barred cage he earlier promised her, as soon as he has established her identity. Of course she protests that her true identity is that of Tiffany Collins, an Earth woman, but thanks to Ligurious’s efforts earlier, not only does Miles know her by sight but so do most of the population of the city, and even her slave Susan has to temper her corroboration of Tiffany’s own story with the admission that she has been known to her as Lady Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrus - and to this is added the word of Drusus Rencius himself, captain of Ar and now on temporary secondment to the forces of Argentum.

Soon she is stripped naked except for a collar and set of chains of gold, in which she is exhibited to the jeering crowd and then conveyed to the golden cage earlier spoken of. But Miles is quick to reassure her that the cage is not of soft gold but tough alloy, strong enough to hold her many times over; and in this she will be taken away to Argentum for her eventual fate: impalement.

Chapter Fourteen

After having been borne forth from Corcyrus for the general amusement of the crowd, in which the usual pelting with garbage and so forth has taken place, Lady Sheila finds herself on the road to Argentum in the camp of Miles, her golden cage suspended from a tall tree for the night. She speculates miserably on her fate; but she is surprised to find herself being lowered to the ground and freed from the cage. One of her rescuers must be a locksmith of some skill, as he has not only unfastened the door of her cage but also removes her chains and collar with the same aptitude. The men put the cage back - plainly so that her removal will not be speedily noticed - and hurry her off through the camp, without even tying her up.

They stop, still within the camp but a fair way from the cage, and set her down, hitching her ankles with a temporary tie that she will be able to loosen with some minutes’ work, but answer none of her questions except that the locksmith merely tells her that he is repaying her for a past kindness and considers accounts now settled; the other man, who is larger, has nothing to say, but appears enraged when she pleads with the men to take her as a slave. The locksmith only says that they have done her far more favour than she deserves, and advises her that she has three Ahn (less than four hours) before the camp will be awake.

Chapter Fifteen

By the time it is getting light, Lady Sheila has yet to make good her escape, and she fears the cage will soon be found empty. Nevertheless she manages to give her pursuers the slip, successfully passing herself off as a slave girl and mingling with a group of them for a while. She finds their lascivious conversation horrifying and congratulates herself for being free, and she also witnesses the summary punishment of a slave girl for petty theft, in the shape of the disciplinary slave rape for which Gor is famous.

Of course she cannot hope to masquerade as a slave for any length of time, and she needs a more permanent escape from the camp itself before she is found by a systematic search using, for instance, trained sleen. She hits upon an extremely bold scheme, seeing a number of basket-carrying tarns about the camp: she manages to get into one of the baskets and conceal herself. Perhaps fortunately for her, the tarnsman whose mount is due to carry off this basket is late for his assignment, plainly having been disporting himself with drink and slave girls, and perhaps this renders him somewhat inattentive when the tarn takes off. At that, it is none too soon when this happens, as a general alarm breaks out, and we can very well guess why.

Chapter Sixteen

For three days Lady Sheila hitches a ride with the tarnsman, who evidently sees no need to check his tarn basket; and she even manages to slip out while he is asleep and help herself to some food and drink. But she realizes she will have to quit the tarn basket for good before they reach some urban area where she will be noticed and, even if not noticed, shut in. She has to escape from a walled inn courtyard and she manages this by stowing away aboard a wagon, which in turn she has to abandon.

It’s only a matter of time, of course, before a defenceless naked woman on Gor will run into something she cannot handle, and in this case Lady Sheila has the ill fortune to be picked up by a couple of men who not only pooh-pooh the idea that she might have been attacked by bandits and escaped with the loss of her clothes, but are quickly able to puncture her hastily-adopted cover story of being from Lydius. (Personally I often think that Tarl Cabot’s claim to have come from Bristol would not last five minutes if he were interviewed by me who lived within twenty miles of that city for a number of years.)

So they decide to take her along in chains, under the name she has chosen to call herself, Lita; but they are by no means cruel to her and readily give her food when she asks. She learns that she is on the Viktel Aria, one of Gor’s most famous roads built as both highway and defensive wall by the city of Ar. The men are bound for Venna, of which we have heard before in the Jason Marshall stories, and there she will be handed over to the law.

Chapter Seventeen

In Venna Lita (as we will call her for now) finds herself put on a slave block, under a notice which, to her distress, she cannot read; and several attempts to persuade someone to read it for her all meet with failure, and in one case the severe displeasure of a free woman who plainly resents slaves in general and having the misfortune to share their gender in particular, not to mention her Companion’s obvious liking for them. After several hours she notices one man in the crowd whose face she recognises, and hopes that he does not in his turn recognise hers. It is a man she had expelled from Corcyrus, in one of the few pieces of good justice she actually enacted as Tatrix, for the crime of selling sub-standard goods. Unfortunately for Lita once again, he does indeed notice her, and she will have to hope for the mercy of Speusippus the peddler of Turia.

Chapter Eighteen

Speusippus’s mercy appears to be negotiable, at least, after Lita’s desperate bluff is called; and he announces his intention to keep her as a free woman and force her to serve him as a slave while still, presumably, the Tatrix of Corcyrus. She is obliged to accept this, since he has the alternative of simply denouncing her, and once this has been agreed Speusippus obligingly identifies her as his escaped slave. Lita willingly corroborates this, which persuades the law officers of Venna to accept Speusippus’s undocumented claim, and he leads her off in delight at being addressed by her as “Master.”

Chapter Nineteen

It pleases Speusippus to call his captive Lady Sheila, so we had better revert to that appellation for now. His use of her begins with putting her to menial and degrading labour, such as washing his draft tharlarion, and he then forces her to recite the service she is to undertake. He is eager and willing for her to work off the grudge he has against her, and of course his power over her is absolute since she must be impaled if he only speak a word in the right ear. And of course this leads inevitably and with some promptness to Lady Sheila’s first experience of sex, which takes place at some length and with considerable attention to detail.

Her reaction to this is mixed. She finds Speusippus detestable, as being both unprepossessing and venal, and yet she finds herself responding to his use of her and craving more, if not from him then from some other more desirable man. But for now she gets shut up in a slave box with orders not to be troublesome, there to reflect on what has happened to her and how to please her Master better.

Chapter Twenty

A few days later Lady Sheila (but known to the slave girls as Lita) is washing clothes by a stream and gossiping, as slaves will do, about this and that. The subject of their Masters arises quite soon, and it is interesting to note that Lita does not speak ill of Speusippus. Indeed, she admits that he is not a bad master (although she is surprised and pained that he has not put her to further sexual use, as she was looking forward to more and has even approached him with a view to soliciting same). She has, however, had all her hair cut off, which is somewhat to the good as it will make her harder to identify as the Tatrix of Corcyrus.

She was relieved a day or two previously when Speusippus turned off the Viktel Aria, as she certainly does not want to go nearer to Ar than she can help. But when the conversation gets around to the escape of the Tatrix of Corcyrus, she learns two things that seem to explain Speusippus’s strange treatment of her. One is that there is a price of a thousand gold tarns on the head of the Tatrix; and the other is that the road they are presently on leads to Argentum. Sheila, or Lita, or Tiffany, whatever we are to call her, is not slow on the uptake. She makes some excuse for a moment alone which is time enough for her to conceal a small sharp stone on her person; and she mentions to the reader that the box she is being carried in is only an ordinary wooden trunk, and not a slave box.

So it appears that Tiffany has realized just about in time what Speusippus intended for her, and it is easy to guess what use she intends to make of the stone. But even supposing she can escape from captivity once again, what are her prospects, a woman alone on Gor, without even the possibility of passing herself off as a free woman of any city? Where has Ligurious gone, and the mysterious woman with him? What has their game been? And what of Drusus Rencius, who appeared much taken with the Tatrix Sheila? The reader will have to rejoin us this time next month, when we shall take our fourth look into Kajira of Gor.

I wish you well,

Socrates