to my left and saw rows of targets, perhaps forty or fifty.
These were perhaps something in the neighborhood of a foot and a half in width, and some six feet high. Portions of the targets were colored, rather at the level of what might be a man’s waist, chest, neck, and head.
When I turned back, the specks were no longer specks but clearly spread ranks of flighted creatures, at four levels, and, as I later determined, each rank was followed by its column, the ranks in these columns separated by some fifty yards, or so.
The fellow who had arrested our progress, then, with a snap of wings and a shower of dust, departed the field.
Shortly thereafter four waves, or ranks, of tarnsmen swept by, the lowest wave perhaps no more than five yards from the ground, the highest perhaps twenty or twenty-five yards from the ground. In a moment they were gone, arrows launched, but, wheeling about, they returned from the opposite direction, and again loosed their missiles, and then wheeled about, again, and, approaching from the original direction, loosed another volley of missiles, and then sped away. There had been three passes. The targets were bristling with arrows, front and back. Fellows from the margins of the field went to the targets and retrieved the arrows. I would later learn that records were kept, as each arrow could be identified as that of a given bowman. In this way, marksmanship might be evaluated, and bowmen distinguished. The bows used, though I did not realize the importance of this at the time, were short bows. Such a bow can clear the saddle, enabling its missile to be fired easily in any direction. The crossbow is well known on Gor, but its rate of fire is far exceeded by that of the straight bow, either the peasant bow or the shorter, saddle bow.
I was much frightened by what I saw. Almost every arrow fired had struck a target. How frightening, I thought, to be the quarry of such marksmen!
I would later learn that there had been, some days previous, an attack on this camp, which had been repulsed, in part by such tarnsmen.
Shortly after the exercise, the flights apparently departed for some rendezvous, the fellow who had cleared the field returned.
“May we proceed?” called our coffle master.
“Do you want to run any of your girls?” asked the tarnsmen.
“No,” said the coffle master.
I did not understand this exchange. One or two of the other girls, however, must have understood, for their relief, given the negative response of the coffle master, was evident.
“Burdens up,” called the coffle master, and we retrieved our burdens. I think we were all pleased to leave the training area.
Later that evening, we were camped along a road leading east from the training area, toward a place called Shipcamp. We lay in the leaves and grass, as usual, our hands bound behind us, our coffle rope tied between two trees. We could speak to one another then, though softly, that the men not be disturbed.
“I am frightened,” I whispered, to Relia, who had earlier had the lot number Eighteen. It was she who had fled toward the stairs in the dungeon, but had been precluded from reaching them by one of our keepers. She had looked well on her knees, licking and kissing a man’s feet, in gratitude for not having been beaten. Prior to this experience she had been insufferably proud, and arrogant, at least with some of us, though not daring this with the masters, and was certainly so with myself, for I was only a barbarian. She had apparently once been of the Merchants, perhaps the high Merchants, and had even held herself to be of high caste, despite the fact that few Goreans accepted the Merchants as a high caste. It was regarded as a rich caste, but that is not, in the eyes of many, the same as being a high caste. It was, of course, a powerful caste, given its wealth, and even Ubars might court its favor. How are men to be paid, and wars waged, if not with gold? In any event, she who had once been “Eighteen” had now changed considerably, and surely was now better aware of the meaning of the mark which had been burned into her left thigh, just under the hip. She was still reserved with me, and regarded me with condescension, but would no longer strike me, or speak to me as she had originally,