Quarry of Gor by John Norman

Author:John Norman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Distribution
Published: 2019-06-04T13:06:48+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

What Occurred in the Lesser Al-ka Market

“Who would want this one?” asked a man. “She cannot speak.”

“Yet she is well-formed and comely,” said the slaver’s man. “And she is cheap.”

But the fellow had turned away.

I raised my head and looked up, eyes half closed; the sun was high; the shelf was hot; then I lay down again, on the towel given us, to protect us from the roughness of the cement, my legs drawn up. I and the others, some twenty on the long narrow shelf, were naked; that is the way women are commonly sold. The shelf was not full as five rings were empty. Each of us was chained by the neck to one of the rings. When the market is crowded, more than one girl may be fastened to the same ring. Enough chain is allowed that we may be posed, and may stand, to be examined. I think I slept for a time.

It was late afternoon.

A slaver’s man put one of the shallow metal bowls of gruel on the cement near my ring and I rose to all fours, put down my head, and began to feed. He then proceeded to the next ring and, from the tray carried by a slave behind him, placed another bowl on the cement, near the next ring, and blonde Kira rose to all fours.

Kira was Cosian. She had been taken at sea. She was brought to Port Kar tied at the prow of the corsair which had taken her vessel. It is not unusual for a ship, its voyage successful, to return through the western or southern sea gates, making its way slowly, in a stately fashion, through the canals to the arsenal harbor, with a lovely captive, the best of the catch, so displayed. This is a rather vaunted exhibition of a trophy, it seems, a public display of success, doubtless a vanity of sorts. Otherwise, one might have recourse to the arsenal sea gate, reaching the harbor directly. Perhaps less successful voyages when they return, if they return, do slip into the city by means of the arsenal sea gate. I do not know.

“Thank you, Master,” said Kira.

I had hoped my voice would soon return, that the effect of whatever had been done to me in the apartment which might have robbed me of speech might wear off, but, as yet, I was as helplessly unable to speak as before. I feared I might be permanently deprived of speech, on a world where I was illiterate. I wondered how Addison Steele could have done to me what he did, and then I recalled I was a slave.

After a few Ehn the serving slave returned and retrieved the metal bowls.

On my walks within the city I had not passed by the girl markets. Most are located in the vicinity of the western and southern sea gates, both giving access unto the Tamber Gulf. The market in which I was now displayed was one of those associated with the House of Samos.

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