I agreed with him but would not say so. "It seems she was fetching water," I pointed out.

"You like her, don't you?" asked Kamchak.

"l feel sorry for her," I said.

"Did you enjoy her yesterday?" asked Kamchak.

"I did not see her after she left the enclosure of the dance," I said.

"If I had known that," said Kamchak, "I would have had the sleen out last night."

"Then," I said, "it is fortunate for the girl that you did not know it.

"Agreed," smiled Kamchak. "Why did you not make use of her?" he inquired.

"She is only a girl," I said.

"She is a woman," said Kamchak, "with blood."

I shrugged.

By this time Elizabeth had returned with the whip and bracelets, and had handed them to Kamchak. She then went to stand by the left, rear wheel of the wagon. There Kamchak braceleted her wrists thigh over her head about the rim and over one of the spokes. She faced the wheel.

"There is no escape from the wagons," he said.

Her head was high. "I know," she said.

"You lied to me," he said, "saying you went to fetch water."

"I was afraid," said Elizabeth.

"Do you know who fears to tell the truth?" he asked.

"No," she said.

"A slave," said Kamchak.

He ripped the larl's pelt from her and I gathered that she would wear the garment no longer.

She stood well, her eyes closed, her right cheek pressed against the leather rim of the wheel. Tears burst from be- tween the tightly pressed lids of her eyes but she was superb, restraining her cries.

She had still uttered no sound when Kamchak, satisfied, had released her, but fastening her wrists before her body with the bracelets. She stood trembling, her head down. Then he took her braceleted hands and with one hand raised her hands over her head. She stood so, her knees slightly flexed, head down.

"You think," said Kamchak to me, "she is only a girl."

I said nothing.

"You are a fool, Tarl Cabot," said he.

I did not respond.

Coiled, in his right hand, Kamchak still held the slave whip.

"Slave," said Kamchak.

Elizabeth looked at him.

"Do you wish to serve men?" he asked.

Tears in her eyes she shook her head, no, no, no. Then her head fell again to her breast.

"Observe," said Kamchak to me.

Then, before I could realize what he intended, he had subjected Miss Cardwell to what, among slavers, is known as the Whip Caress. Ideally it is done, as Kamchak had, unex- pectedly, taking the girl unawares. Elizabeth suddenly cried out throwing her head to one side. I observed to my amaze- ment the sudden, involuntary, uncontrollable response to the touch. The Whip Caress is commonly used among Slavers to force a girl to betray herself.

"She is a woman," said Kamchak. "Did you not see the secret blood of her? That she is eager and ready that she is fit prize for the steel of a master that she is female, and,"

he added, "slave?"

"Nor" cried Elizabeth Cardwell. "Nor" But Kamchak was pulling her by the bracelets toward an empty sleen cage mounted on a low cart near the wagon, into which, still braceleted, he thrust her, then closing the door, locking it.

She could not stand in the low, narrow cage, and knelt, wrists braceleted, hands on the bars. "It is not truer" she screamed.

Kamchak laughed at her. ''Female slave," he said. She buried her head in her hands and wept. She knew, as well as we, that she had showed herself that her blood had leaped within her and its memory must now mock the hysteria of her denial that she had acknowledged tows and to herself, perhaps for the first time, the incontrovertible splendor of her beauty and its meaning.

Her response had been that of an utter woman.

"It's not true!" she whispered over and over, sobbing as she had not from the cruel strokes of the whip. "It's not truer"

Kamchak looked at me. "Tonight," lie said, "I shall call the Iron Master."

"Don't," I said.

"I shall," he said.

'Why?" I asked.

He smiled at me grimly. "She was too long in fetching water."

I said nothing. Kamchak, for a Tuchuk, was not unkind.

The punishment of a runaway slave is often grievous, some- times culminating in death. He would do no more to Elizabeth Cardwell than was commonly done to female slaves among the wagons, even those who had never dared to speak back or disobey in the least particular. Elizabeth, in her way, was fortunate. As Kamchak might have said, he was permitting her to live. I did not think she would be tempted to run away again.

I saw Aphris sneaking to the cage to bring Elizabeth a dipper of water. Aphris was crying.

Kamchak, if he saw, did not stop her. "Come along," he said. "There is a new kaiila I want to see near the wagon of Yachi of the Leather Workers' Clan."

It was a busy day for Kamchak.

He did not buy the kaiila near the wagon of Yachi of the Leather Workers though it was apparently a splendid beast.

At one point, he wrapped a heavy fur and leather robe-about his left arm and struck the beast suddenly on the snout with his right hand. It had not struck back at him swiftly enough to please him, and there were only four needlelike scratches in the arm guard before Kamchak had managed to leap back and the kaiila, lunging against its chain, was snapping at him.

"Such a slow beast," said Kamchak, "might in battle cost a man his life." I supposed it true. The kaiila and its master fight in battle as one unit, seemingly a single savage animal, armed with teeth and lance. After looking at the kaiila Kamchak visited a wagon where he discussed the crossing of one of his cows with the owner's bull, in exchange for a similar favor on his own part. This matter was arranged to their mutual satisfaction. At another wagon he haggled over a set of quiva, forged in Ar, and, obtaining his price, ar- ranged to have them, with a new saddle, brought to his wagon on the morrow. We lunched on dried bask meat and Paga and then he trooped to the wagon of Kutaituchik, where he exchanged pleasantries with the somnolent figure on the robe of gray boskhide, about the health of the bask, the sharpness of quivas and the necessity of keeping wagon axles greased, and certain other matters. While near Kutaituchik's wagon, on the dais, he also conferred with several other high men among the Tuchuks. Kamchak, as I had learned before, held a position of some importance with the Tuchuks. After seeing Kutaituchik and the others, Kamchak stopped by an Iron Master's wagon, and, to my irritation, arranged for the fellow to come by the wagon that very night. "I can't keep her in a sleen cage forever," Kamchak said. "There is work to be done about the wagon." Then, to my delight, Kamchak, borrowing two kaiila, which he seemed to have no difficulty doing from a Tuchuk warrior I had not even seen before rode with me to the Omen Valley.

Coming over a low, rolling hill, we saw a large number of tents pitched in a circle, surrounding a large gra.s.sy area. In the gra.s.sy area, perhaps about two hundred yards in diame- ter, there were literally hundreds of small, stone altars. There was a large circular stone platform in the center of the field.

On the top of this platform was a huge, four-sided altar which was approached by steps on all four sides. On one side of this altar I saw the sign of the Tuchuks, and on the others; that of the Ka.s.sars, the Kataii and the Paravaci. I had not mentioned the matter of the Paravaci quiva which had al- most struck me last night, having been in the morning dis- turbed about the disappearance of Elizabeth Cardwell and in the afternoon busy following Kamchak about in his rounds. I resolved to mention the matter to him sometime but not this evening for I was convinced this would not be a good evening for anyone in the wagon, except perhaps for Kamchak, who seemed pleased about the arrangements he had made with the herder pertaining to crossing livestock and the bargain, it seemed, he had contracted with the fellow with the quivas and saddle.

There were a large number of tethered animals about the outer edge of the circle, and, beside them, stood many haruspexes. Indeed, I supposed there must be one haruspex at least for each of the many altars in the field. Among the animals I saw many verrs; some domestic tarsks, their tusks sheathed; cages of flapping vulos, some sleen, some kaiila, even some bask; by the Paravaci haruspexes I saw manacled male slaves, if such were to be permitted; commonly, I understood from Kamchak, the Tuchuks, Ka.s.sars and Kataii rule out the sacrifice of slaves because their hearts and livers are thought to be, fortunately for the slaves, untrustworthy in registering portents; after all, as Kamchak pointed out, who would trust a Turian slave in the kes with a matter so important as the election of a Ubar San; it seemed to me good logic and, of course, I am sure the slaves, too, were taken with the cogency of the argument. The animals sac- rificed, incidentally, are later used for food, so the Omen Taking, far from being a waste of animals, is actually a time of feasting and plenty for the Wagon Peoples, who regard 'the Omen Taking, provided it results that no Ubar San is to be chosen, as an occasion for gaiety and festival. As I may have mentioned, no Ubar San had been chosen for more than a hundred years.

As yet the Omen Taking had not begun. The haruspexes had not rushed forward to the altars. On the other hand on each altar there burned a small bosk-dung fire into which, like a tiny piece of kindling, had been placed - an incense stick.

Kamchak and I dismounted and, from outside the circle, watched the four chief haruspexes of the Wagon Peoples approach the huge altar in the center of the field. Behind them another four haruspexes, one from each People, carried a large wooden cage, made of sticks lashed together, which contained perhaps a dozen white vulos, domesticated pigeons.

This cage they placed on the altar. I then noted that each of the four chief haruspexes carried, about his shoulder, a white linen sack, somewhat like a peasant's rep-cloth seed bag.

"This is the first Omen," said Kamchak, "The Omen to see if the Omens are propitious to take the Omens."

"Oh," I said.

Each of the four haruspexes then, after intoning an in- volved entreaty of some sort to the sky, which at the time was shining beneficiently, suddenly cast a handful of some- thing doubtless grain to the pigeons in the stick cage.

Even from where I stood I could see the pigeons pecking at the grain in rea.s.suring frenzy.

The four haruspexes turned then, each one facing his own minor haruspexes and anyone else who might be about, and called out, "It is propitious!"

There was a pleased cry at this announcement from the throng.

"This part of the Omen Taking always goes well," I was informed by Kamchak.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said. Then he looked at me. "Perhaps,"

he proposed, "it is because the vulos are not fed for three days prior to the taking of the Omen."

"Perhaps," I admitted.

"I," said Kamchak, "would like a bottle of Paga."

"I, too," I admitted.

"Who will buy?" he asked.

I refused to speak.

"We could wager," he suggested.

"I'll buy it," I said.

I could now see the other haruspexes of the peoples pouring with their animals toward the altars. The Omen Taking as a whole lasts several days and consumes hundreds of animals. A tally is kept, from day to day. One haruspex, as we left, I heard cry out that he had found a favorable liver.

Another, from an adjoining altar had rushed to his side. They were engaged in dispute. I gathered that reading the signs was a subtle business, calling for sophisticated interpretation and the utmost delicacy and judgment. Even as we made our way back to the kaiila I could hear two more haruspexes crying out that they had found livers that were clearly unfavorable. Clerks, with parchment scrolls, were circulate ing among the altars, presumably, I would guess, noting the names of haruspexes, their peoples, and their findings The four chief haruspexes of the peoples remained at the huge central altar, to which a white bask was being slowly led.

It was toward dark when Kamchak and I reached the slave wagon to buy our bottle of Paga.

On the way we pa.s.sed a girl, a girl from Cos taken hundreds of pasangs away in a raid on a caravan bound for Ar. She had been bound across a wagon wheel lying on the ground, her body over its hub. Her clothing had been re- moved. Fresh and clean on her burned thigh was the brand of the four bosk horns. She was weeping. The Iron Master affixed the Turian collar. He bent to his tools, taking up a tiny, open golden ring, a heated metal awl, a pair of pliers. I turned away. I heard her scream.

"Do not Korobans brand and collar slaves?" asked Kamchak.

"Yes," I admitted, "they do."

I could not rid my mind of the image of the girl from Cos weeping bound on the wheel. Such tonight, or on another night, would be the lovely Elizabeth Cardwell. I threw down a wild swallow of Paga. I resolved I would somehow release the girl, somehow protect her from the cruelty of the fate decreed for her by Kamchak.

"You do not much speak," said Kamchak, taking the bottle, puzzled.

"Must the Iron Master be called," I asked, "to the wagon of Kamchak."

Kamchak looked at me. "Yes," he said.

I glared down at the polished boards of the wagon floor.

"Have you no feeling for the barbarian?" I asked.

Kamchak had never been able to p.r.o.nounce her name, which be regarded as of barbarian length and complexity.

"E-liz-a-beth-card-vella" he would try to say, adding the "a"

sound because it is a common ending of feminine names on Gor. He could never, like most native speakers of Gorean, properly handle the "w" sound, for it is extremely rare in Gorean, existing only in certain unusual words of obviously barbarian origin. The "w" sound, incidentally, is a complex one, and, like many such sounds, is best learned only during the brief years of childhood when a child's linguistic flexibility is at its maximum those years in which it might be trained to speak any of the languages of man with native fluency a capacity which is, for most individuals at least, lost long prior to attaining their majority. On the other hand, Kamchak could say the sound I have represented as "vella" quite easily and would upon occasion use this as Elizabeth's name. Most often, however, he and I simply referred to her as the Little Barbarian. I had, incidentally, after the first few days, re- fused to speak English to her, thinking it would be more desirable for her to learn to speak, think and hear in Gorean as rapidly as possible. She could now handle the language rather well. She could not, of course, read it. She was illiterate.

Kamchak was looking at me. He laughed and leaned over and slapped me on the shoulder. "She is only a slaver" he chuckled.

"Have you no feeling for her?" I demanded.

He leaned back, serious for a moment. "Yes," he said, "I am fond of the Little Barbarian."

"Then why?" I demanded.

"She ran away," said Kamchak.

I did not deny it.

"She must be taught."

I said nothing.

"Besides," said Kamchak, "the wagon grows crowded and she must be readied for sale."