Assassin of Gor by John Norman Page A

again.
     
    "I am taking you to Ko-ro-ba," I said, "and there you will stay! That is all there is to it!"
     
    "No," she said, "that is not all there is to it!"
     
    "You are not going to Ar," I told her angrily. "Do not speak more of it."
     
    "I am of Earth," she said. "Earth owes its freedom to Priest-Kings. I, for one, am grateful. Moreover, I am free and I can do precisely what I want, and I will!"
     
    "Be quiet!" I snapped.
     
    "I am not your slave girl," she said.
     
    I stepped back. "I am sorry," I said. "I am sorry, Elizabeth. I am sorry." I shook my head. I wanted to hold her but she stepped back, angrily. "It is too dangerous," I said, "too dangerous."
     
    "No more so for me than for you," she said, " and perhaps less for me." She looked up at Misk and stepped to him. "Send me!" she said.
     
    Misk looked at her, his eyes luminous, his antennae dipping toward her. "Once," said Misk, "I had such a human she as you, many years ago, when humans were slave in the Nest." Misk touched her shoulders with the antennae. "She once saved my life. Sarm, who was my enemy, ordered her slain." Then Misk straightened himself. "It is too dangerous," he said.
     
    "Do you think," demanded Elizabeth, of both myself and Misk, "that a woman cannot be brave? Will you not honor her as you would a man with danger, not permit her to do something worthy of her species, something important and fine, or is all that is significant and meaningful to be reserved for men?" Elizabeth, almost in tears, stepped away from us both and spun about, facing us. "I, too, am a Human!" she said.
     
    Misk looked at her for a long time, his antennae focused. "It will be arranged," said he, "that you will be placed as a slave in the House of Cernus, as a member of the staff of Caprus. Papers will be prepared on you and you will be transmitted to the House of Clark, in Thentis, whence you will be taken by tarn caravan to Ar, where you will be sold privately, your purchase to be effected by the agents of the House of Cernus, under the instructions of Caprus."
     
    "There!" said Elizabeth brazenly, facing me, hands on her hips.
     
    "I shall follow her," I said, "probably as a mercenary tarnsman, and attempt to take service with the House of Cernus."
     
    "You are both Humans," said Misk, "noble Humans."
     
    Then he had placed his antennae on us, one on my left shoulder and the other on Elizabeth's right shoulder.
     
    Before we began our dangerous journey, however, at Misk's suggestion, both Elizabeth and I returned to Ko-ro-ba, that we might rest some days and, in a peaceful interlude, share our affections.
     
    My return to the city was affecting, for here it was that my sword had been pledged to a Gorean Home Stone; here it was that I had trained in arms and learned Gorean; it was here that I had met my father, after long years of separation; it was here that I had made dear friends, the Older Tarl, Master of Arms, and small, quick-tempered Torm, he of the Caste of Scribes; and it was from this place that I had, many years before, in tarnflight begun the work that would shatter the Empire of Ar and cost Marlenus of Ar, Ubar of Ubars, his throne; and, too, it was to this place, I could not forget, that I had once brought on tarnback, not as a vanquished slave but as a proud, and beautiful, and free, joyous woman, Talena, daughter of that same Marlenus, Ubar of Ubars, had brought her to this place in love that we might here together drink, one with the other, the wine of the Free Companionship.
     
    I wept.
     
    We crossed the partially rebuilt walls, Elizabeth and I, and found ourselves among cylinders, many of which were in the process of reconstruction. In an instant we were surrounded by Warriors on tarnback, the guard, and I raised my hand in the sign of the city, and drew on the four-strap, taking the tarn down.
     
    I had come home.
     
    In a short time, I found myself in the arms of my father, and my friends.
     
    Our eyes told one another, even in