Beasts Of Gor

"Sleep now, sweet slave," I said.

"Yes, Master," she said.

I lay awake for a time, wondering on the natures of women and men, and then I was pleased that I was on Gor, and not on Earth. I kissed the lovely slave beside me, but she did not know I kissed her, for she was asleep. I thought of Karjuk, and the ice. The word 'Karjuk', incidentally, in the language of the I

25

We Go Out Upon The Ice; We Follow Karjuk

It was bitterly cold. I did not know how far out on the ice we were.

"Shove!" called Imnak. Imnak and I, and the girls, tipped the sled over a slope of pack ice, it tilting and then sliding downward.

"Wait!" called Imnak to Karjuk.

Karjuk stepped off the ru

There were three sleds in our party. Karjuk had his own, and his own snow sleen. The second sled was Imnak's, and the third was Ram's, brought with him from the south, which the men of the permanent camp had drawn to the camp fol him. Imnak's sled was drawn by a snow sleen borrowed from his friend, Akko, and Ram's sled was drawn by another snow sleen, replacing the one the Kur had slain outside the camp. He had purchased it from Naartok for Bazi tea. Karjuk sledded alone; so, too, did Ram: Imnak and I brought up the rear with Imnak's sled, fashioned long ago at the remains of the wall. The four girls traveled with us, usually ru

Karjuk lifted his hand, to again commence our journey.

"No, wait!" called Imnak. He was looking up at the sky. No storm had yet struck, but the sky was growing overcast. We had been five days now upon the ice. A storm, for days, had foreboded, but it had not yet materialized. In this we had been fortunate. As I may have mentioned the arctic night is seldom completely dark. Indeed, the visibility is often quite good, for the light of the moons, and even the stars, is reflected from the vastness of the ice and snow. I looked about at the irregular and jagged shapes, wierd and mighty, yhich loomed about us, of the pack ice, eerie in the deep shadows, and bright, strange light of the moons and snow. We stood small in the midst of incredible and fearful geometries. There was a beauty and a menace in these gigantic structures, fashioned by the bitter gnawing of the wind and the upheavals of the sea stirring beneath us. Sometimes we could feel the ice move. Sometimes we bridged, carefully, leads of open water, broken open by the groaning, shifting ice, soon to close again, almost beneath our feet.

Imnak pointed upward, back toward the south. We could not see the stars there. Cloud cover obscured them.

"Let us make camp here," called Imnak to Karjuk.

Karjuk did not respond, but looked ahead, onward. Again he lifted his arm.

Ram came up to us. "There Is going to be a storm," said Imnak. "We must camp."

Karjuk again lifted his arm.

"I must check the ru

The ru

Imnak relieved himself, icing the ru

"Let us continue on," called Karjuk.

"A storm is coming," said Imnak, pointing to the southern sky. "Let us camp."

"We will camp later," said Karjuk.

"Very well," said Imnak.

"Is it wise to continue on now?" asked Ram of Imnak.

"No," said Imnak.

We righted our sled.

"Tie the slaves to the sled," said Imnak.

The wind was rising.

I took a length of binding fiber and tied it about Arlene's neck, knotting it tightly. It was about fifteen feet long.

"Master," protested Arlene.

"Oh!" she cried, struck brutally to the snow. She looked up at me, blood about her mouth, the tether on her neck.

Audrey hurried to me, to be fastened by me to the sled. I tied another piece of binding fiber, smiling to that with which I had secured Arlene, about her neck. Audrey then stood before me, tethered. I threw her to her knees in the snow before me, beside Arlene. Let Audrey not think she was privileged, or better, than Arlene. Both were only slave girls at my feet. I then tied the two loose ends of the tethers about the base of the tabuk-horn upright at the rear, right-hand side of the sled. Meanwhile Imnak had similarly secured Barbara and Poalu to the left-hand, rear upright on the sled.

"Do you want your wrists, too, bound behind your backs?" I asked Audrey and Arlene.

"No, Master," they said.

"On your feet, pretty beasts," I said.

They leaped to their feet, obeying me.

Karjuk stepped on the ru

Ram's sled fell into line behind him.

"On!" called Imnak, taking his place behind his sled, and cracking the long-bladed sleen whip over the snow sleen. Akko's beast, which was in his traces. The animal, with back hunched, and its wide, furred paws, claws extended, scratching, threw itself against the harness, making taut the trace and linkage, and the sled moved. From the side I gave it an additional shove, to help it gain momentum. Imnak did not now ride the ru

From time to time, then standing on the ru