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Smugglers of Gor [Gor #32] [MultiFormat]
eBook by John Norman
eBook Category: Fantasy
eBook Description:  This is an unusual book, having to do with alleged events on the alleged world, Gor, the Antichthon, or Counter-Earth, as it seems to have two narrators, or authors, who, as the texts will have it, see, and relate to, certain events, possibly of consequence to the fate of worlds. It may be recalled that the great ship of Tersites, to the best of our knowledge, was the first ship to successfully negotiate Thassa, the sea, in a voyage which led to the World's End, an unusual gaming board on which two, from the human point of view, alien species may be gambling for a world, the pieces being men. In this book, which, in its way, constitutes a prequel to MARINERS OF GOR, we learn that a mysterious cargo, suitably disguised, was covertly placed on the great ship, a cargo which might influence the outcome of the aforementioned gamble, or wager. One narrator is a young woman, once a Miss Margaret Alyssa Cameron, and the other is an individual whose name, for reasons which will become obvious, is withheld in the manuscript. It does seem clear, however, that the individual referred to was somehow instrumental in bringing the former Miss Cameron to the height of a large slave block in the coastal city of Brundisium, one of Gor's major ports.
eBook Publisher: E-Reads/E-Reads, Published: 2012
Fictionwise Release Date: October 2012
 
Chapter One
How helpless one is, when one is tied!
His foot turned me over. I was then on my back.
"A half tarsk," he said.
I did not understand what he meant.
I had been warned that I was not to speak.
Such as I, I gathered, must be given permission before we might speak.
I did not wish to be whipped, as had the other girl, who had dared to speak. She was now quiet, absolutely so. No longer did she dare to speak.
It was hard to conjecture what the whip might feel like, on my bare body. All of us had been stripped. I gathered that such as we might be kept in such a fashion. We had been laid side by side, in four lines. There were three aisles amongst us. It was as though we were not persons, but tethered animals. We were all females. As we lay there, the size of males, and their strength, and how different we were from them, impressed me as I think it hadn't before.
Too, the males about were standing, or walking about.
We were at their feet, literally.
I did not understand how they were dressed. They wore some sort of tunics. Their feet were shod in sandal-like boots, open somewhat, but with leather straps about the leg. Some wore headbands. Two carried whips.
I did not understand what was going on. I did know that I, as the others, were naked, and bound, hand and foot.
A fellow was moving amongst us, from one to the other. He carried a coiled whip. He would crouch down, hold the whip to one's lips, and say, "Kiss it, and say 'La kajira'."
He was then close to me. I was on my back. I pulled at the bonds, futilely. Then he was beside me, and the heavy, snakelike coil of the whip was held before me. "Kiss it," he said, "and say 'La Kajira'."
I lifted my head a little, and kissed the whip. "La Kajira," I said. I did not know what it meant.
"The capsules are ready," called a fellow.
I did not understand that either.
A second fellow was following the first, and he, in a moment, was beside me. I caught sight of a large, thick square of soft, damp, folded, white cloth. One hand was placed behind the back of my head, holding me in place, and the other hand held the cloth, firmly, over my nose and mouth. I struggled a little, but was helpless. The cloth was damp. There was an unusual odor. I did not recognize the odor. It was pungent. It was irresistible. I looked up, and saw the ceiling of the large building, like a warehouse, and the lights, not now on. The light was dim. I tried to move my face beneath the thick folds of cloth, but they were held firmly over my nose and mouth. I squirmed. I tried to struggle. My wrists were crossed and tied behind my back; my ankles were crossed, and lashed together. I tried to pull against the bonds, but was helpless. Things began to go black. There was only the odor. I lost consciousness.
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