| ~Assassin of Gor~ Written by John Norman (Copyright 1970 by John Norman) (Ballantine Books, Inc.) ~Back Cover~ Kuurus, of the dread Caste of Assasins, was on a mission of vengeance. For in the newly rebuild city of Ko-ro-ba, someone had foully murdered a young warrior with flaming red hair--the mark of Tarl Cabot of Ko-ro-ba, and formerly of Earth. All guilty men feared a hunting Assassin--for none knew which was to be the victim. ~Inside~ Slowly they were gathering in Ar, the city from which the great Ubar, Marlenus, had long since been banished. First, there was Kuurus, he of the hooded face and blood-bright sword, seeking vengeance--and something more. And Vella--Vella of Gor, once Elizabeth Cardwell of Earth--a slave now, and willingly, in the infamous House of Cernus, the most powerful slave dealer in Ar. Elizabeth too had a secret mission. As did Cernus. And Hup the Fool--who was no fool at all. And So-Sarl and Mip and a dozen more. None of them were what they seemed to be; each had a different purpose. Why were they all gathered here, in Ar? The answers would lie, for each of them, in the battles to be fought in the Stadium of Blades, but most of all in the Stadium of Tarns, when a great, black, warrior tarn, Ubar of the Skies, would lead the way for some--and seal the doom of others... |
| ~Quotations from the book, Assassin of Gor~ |
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| "From where she knelt she could see the low-hanging tharlarion oil lamps of the main portion of the paga tavern, the men, the girls in silk who, in a moment, belled, would move among them, replenishing the paga. In the center of the tables, under a hanging lamp, there was a square area, recessed, filled with sand, in which men might fight or girls dance. Beyond the area of the sand and the many tables there was a high wall, some twenty feet or so high, in which there were four levels, each containing seven small curtained alcoves, the entrances to which were circular, with a diameter of about twenty-four inches. Seven narrow ladders, each about eight inches in width, fixed into the wall, gave access to these alcoves." ~Assassin of Gor, page 8 & 9~ "At a gesture from the proprietor, the grimy man in the tunic of white and gold, one of the serving slaves, with a flash of her ankle bells, hurried to the Assassin and set before him a bowl, which she trembling filled from the flask held over her right forearm." ~Assassin of Gor, page 9~ “Few of them have even a smattering of Gorean,” he said. “And they act strangely. They beg and weep and whine. One would think they had never seen a slave collar or slave chains before. They are beautiful, but they are stupid. The only thing they understand is the whip,” Portus looked down, disgusted. “Men even go to see them sold, out of curiousity, for they either stand there, numb, not moving, or scream and fight, or cry out in their barbarian tongues.” ~Assassin of Gor, page 20~ “I have never been in one of these places before”….. “I now understand”, she said, “why it is that free women never enter Paga taverns.” ~Assassins of Gor, page 22~ "I have always been impressed with Ar, for it is the largest, the most populous and the most luxurious city of all known Gor. Its walls, its countless cylinders, its spires and towers, its lights, its beacons, the high bridges, the lamps, the langerns of the bridges, are unbelievable exciting and fantastic, particularly as seen from the more lofty bridges or the roofs of the higher cylinders." ~Assassin of Gor, page 25~ "But different human beings respond differently to the stabilization Serums, and the Serums are more effective with some then others. With some the effect lasts indefinitely, with others it wears off after but a few hundred years, with some the effect does not occur at all, with others, tragically, the effect is not to stabilize the pattern but to hasten its degeneration. The odds however, are in favor of the recipient, and there are few Goreans who, if it seems they need the Serums, do not avail themselves of them." ~Assassin of Gor, pages 30 & 31~ "At his right hand there was a Scribe with tablets and stylus. It was with this man that Vella had been placed, her registration papers and purchase having been arranged." ~Assassin of Gor, page 40~ "She ran rapidly to a place before the stone platform, before the curule chair of Cernus, where she fell to her knees in the position of pleasure slave, head bowed. I was amused, for she had run as a slave girl is sometimes taught to run, with rapid short steps, her legs almost straight, her feet scarcely leaving the ground, back straight, head turned to the left, arms at her sides, palms out at a forty-five degree angle, more of a dancer's motion than a true run." ~Assassin of Gor, page 45~ "Elizabeth, trembling, lowered her head to the floor and crossed her wrists beneath her, kneeling, as it is said, to the whip." ~Assassin of Gor, page 46~ "Is she trained?" he asked. "No," said Caprus. "She is Red Silk but she knows almost nothing." ~Assassin of Gor, page 47~ "Let her be fully trained," said Cernus to Caprus. "Fully?" asked Caprus. "Yes," said Cernus, "fully." Elizabeth looked at him, startled. I had not counted on this, nor had Elizabeth. On the other hand, there seemed to be little that could be done about it. The training, exhaustive and detailed, I knew would take months.” ~Assassin of Gor, page 48~ “The male slave, or Kajirus, seldom has a locked collar; normally a band of iron is simply hammered about hisneck; often heworks in chains, usually with other male slaves; in some cities, including Ar, an unchained male slave is almost never seen; there are, incidentally, far fewer male slaves than female slaves; a captured female is almost invariably collared; a captured male is almost invariably put to the sword.” ~Assassins of Gor, page 51~ "At this I swept her from her feet and carried her to the broad stone couch in the room, where I placed her on the piles of furs that bedecked it. "I have heard," she said, smiling up at me, "that it is only a Free Companion who is accorded the dignities of the couch" "True," I cried" ~Assassin of Gor, page 56~ "There are twelve twenty-five day Gorean months, incidentally, in most of the calendars of various cities. Each month, containing five five-day weeks, is separated by a five-day period, called the Passage Hand, from every other month, there being one exception to this, which is that the last month of the year is separated from the first month of the year, which begins with the Vernal Equinox, not only by a Passage Hand, but by another five-day period called the Waiting Hand." ~Assassin of Gor, page 78~ "But on the Vernal Equinox, which marks the first day of the new year in most Gorean cities, there is great rejoicing; the doorways are painted green, and there is song on the bridges, games, contests, visitings of friends and much feasting, which lasts for the first ten days of the first month, thereby doubling the period taken in the Waiting Hand." ~Assassin of Gor, page 78~ "Months names differ, unfortunately, from city to city, but, among the civilized cities, there are four months, associates with the equinoxes and solstices, and the great fairs at the Sardar, which do have common names, the months of En Kara, or En'Kara-Lar-Torvis; En'Var, or En'var-Lar-Torvis; Se'Kara, or Se'Kara-Lar-Torvis; and Se'Var, or Se'Var-lar-Torvis." ~Assassin of Gor, page 78~ "The slave goad, unknown in most Gorean cities, is almost never used except by professional slavers, probably because of the great expense involved." ~Assassin of Gor, page 84 & 85~ "….there hung a slave goad, rather like the tarn goad, except that it is designed to be used as an instrument for the control of human beings rather than tarns. It was, like the tarn goad, developed jointly by the Caste of Physicians and that of the Builders, the Physicians contributing knowledge of the pain fibers of human beings, the networks of nerve endings, and the Builders contributing certain principles and techniques developed in the construction and manufacture of energy bulbs. Unlike the tarn goad which has a simple on-off switch in the handle, the slave goad works with both a switch and a dial, and the intensity of the charge administered can be varied from an infliction which is only distinctly unpleasant to one which is instantly lethal." ~Assassin of Gor, page 84 "At the wall on my right there were fifteen slave rings. To each, on furs, there was chained, by the left ankle, a bare-breasted girl……Their lips were rouged and they wore eye-shadow. Some glistening red substance had been sprinkled on their hair." ~Assassin of Gor, page 88~ “Serve him wine,” said he, “or you will be stripped and thrown into a pen of male slaves.” The girl turned and withdrew, then approached again, climbing the stairs, delicately, as though timidly, head down. Then she leaned forward, bending her knees slightly, her body graceful, and spoke, her voice a whisper in my ear, an invitation, “Wine, Master?” as though offering not wine, but herself. In a large house, with various slave girls, it is thought only an act of courtesy on the part of a host to permit a guest the use of one of the girls for the evening. Each of the girls considered eligible for this service, at one time or another during the evening, will approach the guest and offer him wine. His choice is indicated by the one from whom he accepts wine. I looked at the girl. Her eyes met mine, softly. Her lips were slightly parted. “Wine, Master?” she asked. “Yes,” I said, “I will have wine.” She poured the diluted wine into my cup, bowed her head and with a shy smile, backed gracefully down the stairs behind me, then turned and hurried away." ~Assassin of Gor, page 89~ "I could see the black disk now, moving swiftly, but not at great altitude, passing among the night clouds, under the three moons of Gor…. The black disk approached, more slowly now, seeming to sense its way. It dropped among the peaks and, moving delicately among the rocks, neared our shelf….. About a hundred yards from the shelf the ship stopped, stationary…. Cernus, now, from beneath his cloak, removed a small, flat box, and with his finger pressed a button on this box. A tiny light on the box flashed red twice, then green, then red again. There was a moment’s pause and then, from the ship there came an answering light, repeating the signal, except that its signal terminated with two reds. The men stirred uneasily. The ship then began to ease toward the shelf…. Cernus looked at me. “To speak of what you see is, of course, death,” said he. A panel in the side of the black ship slid back and a man’s head appeared. “Hurray!” called the man…..those of the staff of the House stood lined before the panel and received various goods which they placed in the carrying baskets. Certain of the boxes which were unloaded, to my surprise, bore lettering in various languages of Earth. I recognized English, and French and German, something that was presumably Arabic, and either Chinese or Japanese.……… I then watched while ten cylindrical tubes, apparently of transparent plastic, were removed from the ship. Each was marked and sealed, but in each, at two points, there were valve openings, through which in flight I suppose two tubes might pass, one perhaps for oxygen and another gas used to sedate the occupant, and one to draw the carbon dioxide from the cylinder….Each cylinder contained a beautiful girl, unclothed and unconscious. About the left ankle of each there was locked a steel identification band. They were doubtless girls kidnapped on Earth, brought to Gor to be slaves. The man then reentered the ship, and the panel slid shut. There had been no bill of lading, or receipts of any kind, exchanged. I gathered that no such checking, common in legitimate exchanges, was felt desirable or necessary. The lives of these men, I supposed, was their bond.…………. I turned and observed the black disk, which had now silently lifted itself from the rocky ledge and was moving horizontally away, vanishing among the peeks of the Voltai." ~Assassin of Gor, pages 93 – 101~ "Less impressive perhaps but even more essential to the operation of the House were its kitchens, its laundries, commissaries and storerooms; its medical facilities, in which dental care is also provided." ~Assassin of Gor, page 111~ "I suspected the House of Cernus was attempting to create a need for barbarian girls, if only to add variety to a rich man’s Pleasure Gardens—girls of a sort it seemed it could supply in numbers not possible to competing slavers. The major obstacle to this plan, of course, was that barbarian girls tended to be ignorant and untrained." ~Assassin of Gor, page 111~ "I looked into one of the private salesrooms in the House of Cernus. It would seat no more than a hundred buyers. The tiers in the room were of marble. the room itself was draped in rich purple. The block itself, interestingly, as tradition required, was rounded and of wood. On it's surface there was sprinkled, again in one of the conventions of Gorean tradition, some sawdust." ~Assassin of Gor, pages 112 & 113~ "One girl was dictating from a piece of record paper held in her hand and the other girl was copying it rapidly on a second piece of record paper. The speed with which this was done informed me that some form of shorthand must be being used. Elsewhere in the room there were some free men, Scribes I gathered though they were stripped to the waist, who were inking, using a silk-screen process, large sheets of layered, glued ray paper. One of them held the sheet up inspecting it, and I saw that it was a bill, which might be pasted against the wall of a public building, or on the public boards near the markets. It advertised a sale. Other such sheets, hanging on wires, proclaimed games and tarn races." ~Assassin of Gor, page 113~ "Beyond the glass I looked into what seemed to be a Pleasure Garden, lit by energy bulbs radiant in its lofty ceiling. There were various hues of grass, some secluded pools, some small trees, a number of fountains and curving walks." ~Assassin of Gor, page 114~ "In the room, I saw an open wardrobe closet, some chests of silks, a silken divan of immense size, several choice rugs and cushions about, and a sunken bath to one side. It might have been the compartment of a lady of High Caste save that, of course, in this house it was a cell. "It is used for special captures," said Ho-Tu. "Sometimes, " he added, "Cernus amuses himself with the women kept in this room, leading them to believe that if they serve him well they will be well treated." Ho-Tu laughed. "After they yield to him they are sent to the iron pens." ~Assassin of Gor, page 117~ “In the cylinder there are several varieties of retention areas, ranging from the luxuriousness of the cell shown to me earlier by Ho-Tu, in which Cernus was accustomed to keep special captures, to the iron pens. Some of the facilities were simply lines of reasonably clean cells, some with windows, usually a lavatory drain and something in the way of a mat to sleep on. Other rows of cells were rather more ornate, with heavy intricate grillwork taking the space of bars, hung with red silks, floored with furs and perhaps lit by a tharlarion oil lamp set in a barred recess in the ceiling. But the pens, of which there were several sorts, boasted no such luxuries. The expression “The Iron Pens,” incidentally, generally refers to all of the subterranean retention facilities in the house of a slaver, not simply cages, but pits, steel drums, wall chains and such; it is the name of an area, on the whole, rather than a literal description of the nature of the only sort of security devices found there. The expression “kennels” is sometimes used similarly, but more often it refers to a kind of small, cement cell, customarily about three feet by three feet by four feet, with an iron gate, which can be raised and lowered; similar cells, but entirely of bars, are also common, and are to be found I the house of slavers; the smaller cells can function as separate units, and may be used to ship slaves, but they can also be locked together I groups to provide tiers of cells, usually bolted into a wall, conserving space.” ~Assassin of Gor, pages 122 – 123~ “Ho-Tu led the way, moving from catwalk to catwalk, spanning cages below. In these cages, through the bars, male slaves, crowded together, naked and wearing heavy collars, glared sullenly up at us.”……….. The only sanitation facility was an open metal mesh, supported by close-set horizontal bars, in the bottom of the cages, beneath which, some five feet below, was a cement floor, washed down and cleaned by slaves once daily. There was a feed trough at one side of each cage and a low watering pan on the other, both filled by means of tubes from the catwalk…… I did not try to count the pens over which we passed, and we descended two more levels, which were similarly tenanted. We stopped on the fourth subterranean level, beneath which I was told there were three more levels, retention levels, on the whole similar to those we had just passed. The fourth level, though containing many retention facilities, is used for the processing, assignment, interrotgation and examination of slaves; it can be reached independently by a spiral ramp and tunnel which does not pass through the area of iron pens…….I gathered, seeing certain racks and chains, certain stone tables with straps, certain carefully arranged instruments designed for the exaction of pain, certain irons and high-heat-level fires in perforated metal drums……………. There was a drum fire near the center of the room on the floor………….I saw a branding rack, noted that there were irons in the drum fire. There was also an anvil in the room, resting on a large block of wood. Against the far wall there were thirty kennels, five rows of six each, tiered, with iron runways and iron stairs giving access to them. They reached to the ceiling of the room. Elsewhere in the room there were some slave cages, but they were now empty. Slave rings were mounted on one wall. Hanging from the ceiling, worked from a windlass, dangled a chain, attached to which was a pair of slave bracelets. Against one wall, I noted a variety of slave whips, of different weights and leathers.” ~Assassin of Gor, pages 123 & 124~ "Eat your gruel," said Flaminius. "No," she said. "No!" "Does Phyllis remember the lash?" asked Flaminius. The girl's eyes widened with fear. "Yes," she said. "Then say so," said Flaminius. I whispered in Gorean to Ho-Tu, as though I could not understand what was transpiring. "What is he doing with them?" Ho-Tu shrugged. "He is teaching them they are slaves," he said. "I remember the lash," said Phyllis. "Phyllis remembers the lash," corrected Flaminius. "I am not a child!" she cried. "You are a slave," said Flaminius. "No," she said. "No!" "I see," said Flaminius, sadly, "it will be necessary to beat you.” "Phyllis remembers the lash," said the girl numbly. "Excellent," said Flaminius. "Phyllis will be good. Phyllis will eat her gruel. Phyllis will drink her water." She looked at him with hatred. His eyes met hers and they conquered. She dropped her head, turning it to one side. "Phyllis will be good," she said. "Phylllis will eat her gruel. Phyllis will drink her water." "Excellent," commended Flaminius" ~Assassin of Gor, Page 131~ "You will be trained as a slave girl," said Flaminius, "you will be taught to kneel, to stand, to walk, to dance, to sing, to serve the thousand pleasures of men." He laughed. "And when your training is complete you will be placed on a block and sold." ~Assassin of Gor, page 136~ "I looked to one side and was startled. Watching us was a woman in Pleasure Silk, of remarkable beauty, yet with a certain subtle hardness and contempt about her. She wore a yellow collar, that of the House of Cernus, and yellow Pleasure Silk. The slave bells, a double row, were locked on her left ankle. About her throat there hung a slave whistle. From her right hand, looped about the wrist, there dangled a slave goad. She was fairly complected but had extremely dark hair and dark eyes, very red lips; the movement of her exquisite body was a torment to observe; she looked at me with a slight smile, regarding the black of the tunic, the mark of the dagger; her lips were full and magnificently turned, probably a characteristic bred into her; I had no doubt this black-haired, cruelly beautiful woman was a bred Passion Slave. She was one of the most rawly sensuous creatures on which I had ever looked. "I am Sura," she said, looking at me, "I teach girls to give pleasure to men." ~Assassin of Gor, page 150~ "Then without speaking she flicked on the slave goad and rotated the dial. The tip began to glow brightly. Then suddenly she struck at the three kneeling girls. The charge must have been high, judging by the intense shower of fiery yellow needles of light and the screams of pain from the three girls. Again and again Sura struck and the girls, half stunned, half crazed with pain, seemed unable to even move, but could only scream and cry. Even Elizabeth, whom I knew was swift and spirited, seemed paralyzed and tortured by the goad. Then Sura dialed the goad down, and turned it off. The three girls lying in pain on the stones looked up at her in fear, even the proud Elizabeth, their bodies trembling, their eyes wide. I read in their eyes, even those of Elizabeth, a sudden terror of the goad." ~Assassin of Gor, page 155~ "All the girls in the Pool of Blue Flowers cost the same, except novices in training…There were dozens of pools in the vast, spreading Capacian Baths. In some of the larger pools the girls went as cheaply as one coper tarn disk. For the fee one was entitled to use the girl as he wished for as long as he wished, his use, of course, limited by the hours of the pool’s closing………..The Bath Girls of Ar….said to be the most beautiful of all Gor." ~Assassin of Gor, page 160 and 164~ "She was sold to a keeper of one of the public kitchens in a cylinder, a former creditor of her father, who had in mind making a profit on her; she worked in the kitchen for a year as a pot girl, sleeping on straw and chained at night." ~Assassin of Gor, page 164~ "The Pleasure Slaves who served wore green Pleasure silk." ~Assassin of Gor, page 167~ “I looked up and saw the three moons of Gor, the large moon and the two small ones, one of the latter called the Prison Moon, for no reason I understood.” ~Assassin of Gor, page 170~ “Sura's training room lay directly off her private compartment, which might have been that of a free woman, save that the heavy door locked only on the outside and, at the eighteenth bar, it became her cell. The training room was floored with wood, laid diagonally across beams for additional strength; one twelve-foot area of the room was a shallow pit of sand; against one wall were various chests of raiment, cosmetics and retention devices, for girls must be trained to wear chains gracefully; certain dances are performed in them, and so on. To one side there was a set of mats for Musicians, who almost invariably were present at the sessions, for even the exercises of the girls, which were carefully selected and frequently performed, are done to music; against one wall were several bars, also used in exercise, not unlike a training room in ballet except that there were four parallel bars fastened in the wall, which are used in a variety of exercises. Near the chests of raiment and such were several folded mats and sets of love furs. One entire side of the room, the left, facing the front, was a mirror. This mirror was, as might be expected, a one-way mirror. Various members of the House might observe the training without being noted from behind this glass. I used it sometimes myself, but at other times, sometimes alone, sometimes with others, would enter the room and sit near the back. Sura encouraged males to observe, wanting the girls to sense their presence and interest. And, though I do not think I would have told Elizabeth, her performances with men clearly present, and she knowing it, were almost invariably superior to those in which she did not know herself observed.” ~Assassin of Gor, pages 192 & 193~ “I spoke calmly. "Free men do not much interfere in the squabbles of slaves." ~Assassin of Gor, Page 202~ "A good deal of the training of the slave girl, surprisingly, to my naive mind, was in relatively domestic matters. For example, the Pleasure Slave, if she is trained by a good house, must also be the master of those duties commonly assigned to Tower Slaves. Accordingly, they must know how to cut and sew cloth, to wash garments and clean various types of materials and surfaces, and to cook an extensive variety of foods, from the rough fare of Warriors to concoctions which are exotic almost to the point of being inedible..……... Elizabeth was, however, to my satisfaction, taught a large number of things which, to my mind, were more appropriate to the training of slave girls, including a large number of dances, dozens of songs, and an unbelievable variety of kisses and caresses." ~Assassin of Gor, page 204 & 205~ “The Slavers, incidentally, are of the Merchant Caste, though, in virtue of their merchandise and practices, their robes are different. Yet, if one of them were to seek Caste Sanctuary, he would surely seek it from Slavers, and not from common Merchants. Many Slavers think of themselves as an independent caste. Gorean law, however, does not so regard them. The average Gorean thinks of them simply as Slavers, but, if questioned, would unhesitantly rank them with the Merchants. Many castes, incidentally, have branches and divisions. Lawyers and Scholars, for example, and Record Keepers, Teachers, Clerks, Historians and Accountants are all Scribes.” ~Assassin of Gor Page 208~ "On the first day of the Waiting Hand, the last five days of the old year, the portals of Ar, including that of even the House of Cernus, had been painted white, and in many of the low-caste homes, had been sealed with pitch, not to be opened until the first day of En'Kara. Almost all doors, including that of the House of Cernus, had nailed to them some branches of the Brak Bush, the leaves of which, when chewed, have a purgative effect. It is thought that the pitch and the branches of the Brak Bush discourage entry of bad luck into the houses of the citizens. During the days of the Waiting Hand the streets are almost deserted, and in the houses there is much fasting, and little conversation, and no song." ~Assassin of Gor, page 211~ "Bracelets!" snapped Ho-Sorl suddenly, and Phyllis flung her wrists behind her back, threw back her head and turned it to one side, the instantaneous response of a trained girl." ~.Assassin of Gor, page 214~ "Thank you," said she, "Master". The Gorean slave girl addresses all free men as "Master" and all free women as "Mistress" ~Assassin of Gor, page 215~ "At one time,' said he, 'centuries ago, men of my caste claimed age was incurable. Others did not accept this and continued to work. The result was the Stabilization Serums." ~Assassin of Gor, pages 265 & 266~ "In Ar, as on Gor generally, a slave, on threat of torture and impalement, must endure whatever abuse a free person cares to inflict on him." ~Assassin of Gor, page 282 & 283~ "The northern forests, the haunts of bandits and unusual beasts, far to the north and east of Ko-ro-ba, my city, are magnificent, deep forests, covering hundreds of thousands of square pasangs. Slave girls who escape masters or some free women, who will not accept the matches arranged by their parents, or reject the culture of Gor, occasionally flee to these forests and live together in bands, building shelters, hunting their food, and hating men; there are occasional clashes between these bands of women, who are often skilled archers, and bands of male outlaws inhabiting the same forests; hardy Slavers sometimes go into the forests hunting these girls, but often they do not return; sometimes Slavers simply meet outlaws at the edges of the forests, at designated locations, and buy captured girls from them; interestingly, at other locations, on the eastern edges of the forests, Slavers from Port Kar meet the female groups and purchase men they have captured, who are used as galley slaves; it is not too uncommon that a Slaver Warrior has entered the forest only to be captured by his prey, enslaved, and eventually, when the girls tire of him, be sold, commonly for arrow points and adornments, to Port Kar Slavers, whence he will find himself chained to the oar of a cargo galley." ~Assassin of Gor, pages 293 & 294~ "She was beautiful, and had been free; she was not trained....She did nothing to move the buyers but stood, head down, numb on the block until she was completely revealed. Her movements were wooden. The crowd was not pleased....Then taking the whip from the whip slave the auctioneer stepped to the disconsolate girl; suddenly, without warning, he administered to her the Slaver’s caress, the whip caress, and her response was utterly, and uncontrollably, wild, helpless. She regarded him with horror. The crowd howled with delight." ~Assassin of Gor, pages 294 & 295~ "Scribes at nearby tables endorsed and updated papers of registration, that the ownership of the girls be legally transferred from the state to individual citizens." ~Assassin of Gor, page “Would you consent,” asked Relius, “to be the companion of a Warrior?” “Companion?” she asked. Relius nodded his head. He held her very gently. She looked at him, unable to comprehend his words. “It is the hope of Relius,” said he, “that the free woman, Virginia, might care for a simple Warrior, one who much loves her, and accept him as her companion.” She could not speak. There were tears bright in her eyes. She began to cry, to laugh. “Drink with me the cup of the Free Companionship,” said Relius, rather sternly. ………… “Bring the wine of Free Companionship!” decreed Marlenus. The wine was brought and Relius and Virginia, lost in one another’s eyes, arms interlocked, drank together. He carried her from the court of the Ubar, she lying against him, weeping with happiness. There were cheers in the court of the Ubar." ~Assassin of Gor, pages 401 & 402~ |