other slaves, better slaves. Yet I had little doubt but what the slave house had changed her. It does that to a woman. She would no longer be able to help herself. By now, despite any pretense she might make to indifference, or disinterest, and despite any asseverations to the contrary, there would be combustible tinder beneath that tiny, flimsy tunic, which might be ignited by a glance, or touch. We make them slaves; they soon learn to beg. I did not now think, all in all, that she was all that inferior as slave stock, at least considering that she was only barbarian collar meat. Axel, I recalled, had not despised her, not wholly. I imagined her, exhibited naked on the block, in chains, dancing to the flute and tabor, to the snap of the auctioneer’s whip, her belly promising untold pleasure to the master who would buy her. No, I thought, she was not all that unattractive, not really. Perhaps, I thought, she might bring as much as two and a half. It was hard to tell. I recalled the first time I had seen her, long ago, in the aisle of the huge emporium, startled, frightened, clearly a slave but not yet collared. I recalled, with amusement, those outlandish, concealing garments she had worn.
How dared she, a slave, so conceal herself? Surely she should have been stripped and lashed! Why did those of the polluted world not assess their women, and divide them into the slave and free, and see to it that those who were slaves, and should be slaves, were dressed accordingly, as what they were, slaves? Surely that would be pleasant, to see them so distinguished. Why should they be permitted the audacity of indiscriminately mingling amongst free women? Did they not know they were slaves?
But then are not all women slaves, bred so over a thousand generations?
But I gathered she did not know at that time that she belonged in a tunic and collar, in which she would soon find herself, a Gorean slave.
I pondered, sitting alone in the camp.
As each Ahn passed I realized the chances of locating the slave before some beast of the forest were rapidly diminishing.
Why should I care?
But I did not know where to look.
A hundred men might have combed a thousand pasangs.
I was only one man, who had perhaps followed a hundred false trails.
Even had I Tiomines at my disposal it was not clear I could have given him an unambiguous scent.
There is a game, called Blind Kaissa.
It is played in the training of high officers, in Ar, in Treve, in Kasra, and Jad, even in far Turia.
It is played much like ordinary Kaissa save that there are two boards, separated by a vertical screen, precluding each player from seeing the moves of the other. An arbiter is at hand who can see both boards. It is his role to warn against illegal moves, and to announce captures, threats to the Home Stone, and such. In this manner, as neither player can see either his opponent or his opponent’s moves, a premium is placed on intuition, sensitivity, reading the character and nature of the opponent, and probable conjecture. Such situations are not unprecedented in war, where one may not know the position of the enemy, the forces at his disposal, his plans, where he might strike, and so on. One gambles. On the board one may lose pieces; in the field one may lose cities.
I granted that the slave was highly intelligent. Were this not so she would not, in all likelihood, have been collared. But I also supposed she would be ignorant of woodcraft, and untutored in techniques of evasion. Not being a Panther Girl I doubted she could read signs, even something as obvious as territorial spoor markings. I would suppose her capable of little more than making a fire. Surely she would know enough to do that, as it is easy enough to construct a fire drill or find fire rocks and strike them together over dried leaves. In most camps, of course, a simple fire maker is used, which is more convenient. A free person will retain the fire maker, and the slave, who has usually arranged the materials for the fire, will tend it once it is burning. A slave is seldom permitted to handle such a device. Too, of course, she is not permitted to touch a weapon. This can be a capital offense. I supposed she would be unlikely to