Slave girls rowed about me to pour my paga. The collars were lovely on their throats.

The proprietor approached our table and I sto up, holding my goblet of paga to welcome him. "You fought well, Jacon," he said. "Thank you," I said. I looked down. Kneeling at my right knee, her cheek against my knee, was the red-haired dancing girl. She looked up at me timidly, her eyes shining. As she knelt the slender chains at her collar depended to the polished floor. "you fought well, Jason," said the proprietor. "She is yours for the night. Use her for your pleasure." "My thanks, Kind Sir, " I said. I lifted the paga which I held, saluting the proprietor and too those at the table. "My thanks to you all," I said. Felicitations were exchanged. I then transferred the paga to my left hand. I then snapped my fingers and held my right hand open at my hips. Swiftly the girl rose to her feet and half crouching, put her head by my hand. I fastened the fingers of my hand deeply and firmly in her red hair. She winced and kissed at my thigh. I then, the goblet of paga in my left hand, her hair in my right, dragged her beside me, her slender chains rustling, to the nearest empty alcove.

Women are almost always auctioned naked. That way a man can see what he is buying. I turned away from the block in the barnlike structure in Fina, one of the many towns on the Vosk. I heard the auctioneer's calls fading behind me. I thought he wold get a good price for the pretty brunette. She was one of the last items of the evening. Before she had been dragged to the surface of the black, I had examined the remaning girls in the ready cage. She whom I sought was not among them.

Outside the barnlike structure I was stopped by tow guardsmen. "You are Jason, the brawler?" asked one. "I am Jason," I admitted. "You will leave Fina by tonight," advised the guardsman. "Very well," I said.

It had been my intention, anyway, to leave Fina before moring. This had not been the first time, incidentally, that guardsmen had suggested that I leave a town. It had happend once before at Tancred's Lansing.

Several days ago I had departed from Lara.The troops from Ar, tarnsmen, had not burned Lara. Inded, perhaps surprisinigly, they had done little but clear the town of river pirates and, here and there gather in a bit of loot and some women, mostly female refugees from Vonda who fell into their hands.Their action, however, the strike to Lara, had caused considerable consternation among the forces of Lara, marching toward Vonda.

Things, in this sense, had worked out well for the men of Ar, for the troops of Lara had, in consternation, hesitated in their march northward. They were not, hhus, involved in the action which took place shortly afterward northeast of Vonda.In this action, however, the forces of Port Olni had been, unexpectedly abetted by troops from Ti under the command of Thandar of Ti, one of the sons of Ebullius Gaius Cassius. The battle had been shart but indecisive. At nightfall of the second day both armies had withdrawn from the field. Ar's committed infantry had been outnumnbered byt its mobility and its support of their tarn cavalry had compensated to some extent for its lack of weight as a striking force.Thander of Ti, interestingly, had not challenged Ar in the skies, but had deployed the mercenaries of Artemidorus of Cos in actions against Ar's supply lines.

Eventually, after several days of uneasy encampments, the haruspexes of Port Olni, Ti an dAr, meeting on a truce ground, had determined by taking the auspices, read from the liver and entrails of slaughtered verr, that is was propritious for both armes to withdraw.In this sense, no honor, on either side was sacrified.The readings on these auspices had been challenged only by haruspexes of Vonda and cos.It was generally understood, or felt that neither the Salerian Confederation nor the city of Ar desired a full-scale conflict.Vonda, it was clearly understood, conspiring iwht Cos, had initiated hostilities.In burning and sacking Vonda, Ar had, for most practical purposed, satisfied its sense of militry propriety. Similarly, in stopping the advance of the troops of Ar, the Salerian Cnfederation could feel that it had maintained its own respect.

The trarnsmen of Artemidorus, incidentally, had not molesteed the slave wagons moving soutward.The drivers of these wagons, with their escorts, ahd only thrown back the canvas to reveal tha they carrried chained women.The tarnsmen of Artemidorus, then, had flow past, overhead, heedless of the uplifted hands and cries of the woman. There is a general Gorean feeling that if a woman has fallen slave, she may remain a slave.The women were then silenced with whips.

I think there is little doubt that the cessation of hostilties in the north was in no little art a function of the generosity of the men of Ar, a not impolitic generosity in my opnion, in sparing Lara the fate ofVonda.

They had demonstrated that the could have destroyed Lara, but they had not seen fit to do so. This was taken as an expression of disinterest on the part of Ar in all out warfare with the Salerian Confeeration. Also, of course in the future, this action might tend to divide the confederation in its feelings toward Ar.When it had become clear, incidentally, that Ar had for most practical purposes, spared Lara, the troops of Lara, not bothering to join with those of Port Olni and Ti, had returned to their city. There would now be sentiment in Lara favoring Ar. This would give Ar political leverae at the confluence of the Olni and Bosk, a strtegic point if Cos should ever choose to move in force eastward along the Vosk. Lara was the pivot between the Salerian Confederation and the Vosk towns.

"Hurry!" called the guardsman. I lifted my hand, acknowledging that I had heard him and continued my pace toward the wharves of Fina.

For several weeks, I had moved from one river town to the next, examining slave markets and attempting to obtain information on the whereabouts of the pirate, Kliomenes.Understandably I encountered few willing informants. Many people, I was sure knew more of this fellow then they admitted. His name, and that of his captain, Policrates, were apparently feared on the river. These river pirates were not, it must be understood, a few scattered crews of cutthroats. Various bands had their own strongholds and ships. It was not unusual that a single captain had as many as three or four hundred men and eight to ten ships. Similarly there were relationships among these bands, division of territory and alliances. They were a power on the river.

I had gone from Lara to White Water using the barge canal, to circumvent the rapids, and fron thence to Tancred's Lansing. I had later voyaged down reiver to Iskander, Forestport, and Ar's Station.Ar's Station incidentially is near the site where there was a gathering, several years ago, of the horde of Pa-Kur, of the Caste of Assassians, who was leading an alliance of twelve cities, augmented by mercenaries and assassins, against the city of Ar.This war is celebrated, incidentially, in the Gorean fashion, in several songs. Perhaps most famous among them are the songs of Tarl of Bristol.

The action is reputed to have taken place in 10,11 °C.A., Contasta Ar, from the Founding of Ar. It was now, in that chronology, the year 10,127.Ar's Station, incidentally, did not exist at the time of the massing of the horde of Pa-Kur. It was established four years afterward, as an outpost and trading station on the south bank of the Vosk.It also commands, in effect, the northern terminus of one of the great roads, the Viktel Aria, or Ar's Triumph, leading toward Ar. This is also the raod popularly known as the Vosk Road, particularly by those viewing it from a riverward direection.West of Ar's Station on the river I had visited Jort's Ferry, Point Alfred, Jasmine, Siba, Sais, and Sulport. I had stopped also at Hammerfest and Ragnar's Hamlet, the latter actually, now, a good-sized town.Its growth might be contrasted with that of Tetrapoli, much further west on the river. Ragnar's Hamlet began as a small village and, from this central nucleus, expanded.Tetrapoli, on the other hand, began as four separate towns, Ri, Teibar, Heiban and Azdal, as legend has it founded by four brothers. These towns grew together along the river and were eventaully consolidated as a polity. The four districts of the city, as might be supposed, reatin the names of the original towns. The expression 'Tetrapoli" in Gorean, incidentally, means "Four Cities" or " Four Towns."