Captive of Gor by John Norman Page A

lifted her head and gazed at me, her eyes glazed. She was naked. I wore a
    camisk! In fury, I struck her face. “Slave!” I screamed. “Slave!” I struck her
    again. A guard (pg. 77) pulled me away. Ute went to the girl and put her arms
    about her shoulders. Comforting her. I was furious.
    “Into the wagons,” called Targo.
    “Into the wagons!” repeated the guards.
    The binding fiber was removed from our ankles and soon we were chained again in
    the wagons.
    The new girl was placed in our wagon, near the front. She was bound hand and
    foot and tied on her side, that she might not tear at her brand. A slave hood,
    with gag, was placed on her, that her weeping and cried might not disturb our
    rest.
    Soon, to my interest, the guards had hitched up the bosk, and, by the light of
    the three moons, we were moving slowly again over the fields.
    Targo did not wish to remain too long in this place.
    “Tomorrow,” I heard him say, “we reach Laura.”
    8       What Occurred North of Laura
    (pg. 78) We reached the banks of the Laurius shortly after dawn the following
    morning.
    It was foggy, and cold. I , and the other girls, with the exception of the new
    girl, freshly branded, hooded and gagged, bound on her side, had crawled between
    the layers of canvas on which we rode in the wagon. I, and some of the other
    girls, lifted up the side canvas of the square-canvassed wagon and peeped out,
    into the early morning fog.
    We could smell fish and the river.
    Through the fog we could see men moving about, here and there, some low wooden
    huts. Several of the men must be fishermen, already returning with a first
    catch, who had hunted the river’s surface with torches and tridents at night.
    Others, with nets, were moving down toward the water. We could see poles of fish
    hanging to the sides. There were some wagons, too, moving in the direction that
    ours was. I saw some men, too, carrying burdens, sacks and roped bundles of
    fagots. In the doorway of one of the small wooden huts I saw a slave girl, in a
    brief brown tunic, regarding us. Where the tunic parted, at her throat, I caught
    a glint of a steel collar.
    Suddenly the but of a spear struck at the canvas where we were looking and we
    quickly put down the side wall.
    I looked about at the other girls, in the early light. They were awake now. They
    seemed excited. Laura would be my first Gorean city. Would there be someone here
    who would send me home? How frustrated I was, chained in the wagon. Even the
    back flap of the wagon had been tied down. The (pg. 79) canvas was damp, and
    stained from the dew and fog, and an early morning rain. I wanted to cry out and
    scream my name, and cry for help. I clenched my fists and did not do so.
    The wagon began to tilt forward then and I knew we were moving down the slope
    toward the river bank. I could also tell that the wheels were slipping in the
    mud, and I heard the creak of the heavy brake being thrown forward, backing the
    shoe against the front left wheel rim. Then, bit by bit, releasing the brake and
    applying it, the wagon, jolting, slipped and slid forward and downward. Then I
    heard pebbles beneath the wheels and the wagon was level again.
    We sat there for several minutes, and then, eventually, we heard Targo haggling
    with a barge master for passage across the river.
    The wagon then rolled forward onto a wooden pier. The bosk bellowed. The smell
    of the river and the fish was strong. The air was cold and damp, and fresh.
    “Slaves out,” we heard.
    The back flap of the wagon was tied up and the back gate of the wagon swung
    downward.
    The grizzled, one-eyed guard unlocked the ankle bar, lifting it.
    “Slaves out,” he said.
    As we slid to the back of the wagon our ankle rings were removed. Then, naked,
    unchained, we were herded to the river edge of the wooden pier. I was cold. I
    saw a sudden movement in the water. Something, with a twist of its great spine,
    had suddenly darted from the waters under the pier