Scipio Metellus (8) The fate of Nicola Van Rijn

 Am I that kind of cruel author, who after setting up a cliff-haner with the stealing (not kidnapping, that is for free people) of Patrck's slave Juli, would made the readers wait another week for the resolution. 
Yes, I am. Tale 18, A New Hope will be posted next week.

Bonus: The fate of Nicola Van Rijn

A blonde slave knelt in front of Atticus of Ar of the Caste of Slavers. Clearly she had not been long on Gor; her Gorean was broken and halting. Outside the streets of Glorious Ar were as quiet as ever they got. It was night, the three moons were the only light, as it was so late that the lamps which dimly lit the streets were low. They had been turned down to save the use of unnecessary fuel. It was the hour of thieves and knives in the night. Men rolling home late from the taverns would be lucky to lose only their coins and retain their lives. Marlenus might be Ubar in the daylight, but under the moons, the only law was a strong arm and a sharp blade.

The Slave knelt before him, her head to the floor, her arms outstretched. She was a Barbarian, new to Gor, she understood only a few words of the Gorean language. She had arrived at the gates of the House of Atticus of Ar, led on a chain attached to her collar. A poor member of the slaver caste, his robes dirty both from the long roads from the north and stained by food presented himself. He asked for a gold Tarn Disk for the slave. She was blonde and comely, but beauty, even great beauty was common in the markets of Gor. He pointed to a thin metal plate, about 4inches by six in the measure of the Slave World. At the top it had impressed into the Name and Sign of Scipio Metellus of Ko-ro-ba, who had vanished from the face of Gor months ago.

“This promises a Gold Tarn for delivering this damaged slave to Atticus of Ar, It bears the Name of Scipio Metellus. There are also signs in the secret writing of our Caste that inform the reader that the slave is wounded in her mind and that Atticus will know how to cure her. I want to claim my reward.”

The porter at Atticus’s Gate had examined the thin metal plate, and paid the man. He had taken charge of the slave, who indeed seemed listless and uninterested. She obeyed what commands she knew, but with little alacrity. But for the plate of tin attached to her collar she might have been slain. She had been fed in the pens; but had received no other attention: Gorean men prefer vitality in their kajirae. Now at the end of the day, Atticus had time to attend to her.

With a pair of shears, Atticus cut the wire twisted into her collar that had held the plate. Now she was kneeling in nadu, it was clear she was a damaged beauty. Being blonde counted in her favor of course, but her lack of vitality was worrying. Atticus read the words and signs that Scipio Metellus had punched with metal tools into the tin of the plate. It was Scipio’s name and his Caste sign. The words in Gorean were clear: the slave was hurt in the mind, and Atticus would pay a tarn disk of gold for her. Scipio had almost guaranteed that the Slave would be delivered to him. In a mixture of words and signs that were a mixture of shorthand and symbols meaning phrases, Scipio explained that when she was captured, she had seen her man brutally killed in front of her, her uncle also and her home burned. It added that Atticus and Scipio had seen such cases before, but she had not been taken in hand soon enough and would now require Atticus’s expertise.

Of course, even with treatment, it was unlikely that the slave, Niki by name, would ever be worth a gold tarn disk, hence it was more profitable for anyone buying her at an auction of barbarians to deliver her to Atticus. Of course the tin plate was of more valuable to Scipio and his friend Atticus than one blonde slave.

Atticus went to the side of the chamber where there were five embroidered bell pulls. He pulled a green one. Shortly thereafter a young apprentice, Myron, knocked at the door to Atticus’s chamber and entered. Like Atticus he was wearing the blue and yellow of his caste.

“This slave suffered a hurt in her mind when she was captured. Her man, whom apparently she loved, was killed by great violence in front of her; his head was smashed by an ax. Her uncle and protector was also killed, and her home burned. Many slaves put the day of the capture behind them, but she was greatly in love with her man, and she was not taken in hand. We need to take her out of herself. In addition, she has mourned long enough. It is time for her to take an interest in living. What might not have been effective a while ago, might work now.

“So, she is to be worked, hard physical work from first light to last light. In addition she needs pleasurable physical sensations. The gate between our section of Ar, the street of Brands, and the silk merchants section is being rebuilt. Our caste is financing it. Make sure she is well fed, extra rations, fruit and cheese and vulos as well as gruel. Delicious foods will tempt her to live as well. Put her work carrying tools and mortar up the scaffolding to where the work is taking place. She will be physically occupied. Her mind will address the problem of getting up and down with her burdens; if she is intelligent, she will be curious about our building techniques.

During the rest periods of the workers, she is to be put to use. Make sure the work gangs know she is available. If at a rest period, none of the workers are interested, she is to be offered for a tarsk bit to passersby. The money can go to the workers paga fund.

I expect it will take four hands to bring her to herself, at least twenty days. Do you understand”

The apprentice nodded. Atticus continued:

“After a full days hard labor, she will sleep well at night, she will sleep soundly with no disturbing dreams.

“She should be kept naked all the time she is working on the scaffolding.” Added Atticus.

“I know she has been naked in transport and in the pens, but for barbarians from the Slave World, being naked in the streets is different. Although on their world they display themselves shamelessly in some situations and eschew the wearing of veils, being displayed naked on the streets strikes them differently. It makes a difference to them if they display themselves or if they are displayed at the whim of others. So keep her working naked and let her be used openly. It will remind her she is only a slave and the embarrassment it will cause her will help drive from the mind of the slave what troubled her as a free woman.

“What is the slave’s name?” asked Myron.

“Her captors called her Niki, apparently a diminutive of her name when she was free.”

“I shall call her sun-crotch while she is working on the scaffolding and while she is training as a pleasure slave. Let her earn her name.”

Atticus was pleased.

“You will make a fine Slaver.”

**

Once Myron left leading Niki, Atticus turned to the tin plate. Now it was time to find out what message Scipio had sent from his exile on the Slave World. He pried the front of the plate from the back. Sandwiched between the two halves was a thin piece of paper. There was a message written entirely in a private code.

Arrived safely on Slave World with companion. The place is stranger than reports make it.

Companion? What companion? Scipio never had dealings with Free Women, not of that sort anyway. Maybe a travelling companion? Scipio had many strange friends, but as far as Atticus knew, none had travelled with him.

Met Oudroe of Ko-ro-ba upon arrival. He remembered me and arranged for me to go to San Francisco-without prompting which was fortuitous.

Trust Scipio to have friends everywhere! But this Oudroe was rumored to have been from Earth, and his family were believed to be agents of the Steel Worlds. Scipio was playing a dangerous game, but of course, he wanted his exile commuted. If Oudroe had been from Earth, he must have had friends to provide training in language, weapons, and customs, for no way else could a man from Earth survive on Gor.

I found it hard to adapt to living on the Slave World, but the man to whom Oudroe sent me was kind and gave me tasks to perform that helped me. He is what we would consider a Scribe. His decency to me and my companion makes it hard to reconcile with the man who used such brutality when capturing Niki, smashing her man’s head into powder with his ax.

Atticus had no difficulty believing that a Barbarian man, even a scribe would use an ax in that way. Civilized Goreans left the use of the ax in battle to Kurii, the Others from the Steel Worlds, and to Barbarians like those of Thorvaldsland.

I have not had time to begin seeking out the Old Goreans of San Francisco, we have been very busy, as the Steel Worlds are demanding large numbers of kajirae be harvested for some purpose. There is a rift between the Steel Worlds agents here and in an island across the waters (like Cos perhaps) I need to learn more of the geography of this planet.

Your friend Scipio.

PS. Please get me home as soon as possible.

The last bits, about the Steel Worlds mounting a new plot, and a rift between various agents of theirs was useful information.

Atticus rummaged in a chest at the side of his chamber. It contained clothing of barbarians who had arrived clothed or with their clothing in a bag. It sometimes amused buyers at an auction to see them stripped of their foolish clothes on the auction platform. All slave houses kept some for that purpose.

Atticus removed a shirt. A tag in Gorean said that the picture of an improbable steel bridge and some writing came from the Earth city of San Francisco. He took a small piece, a spearsman, from an incomplete set of Kaissa pieces and wrapped it in the garment. In the morning, he would dispatch the garment with some kajirae he was sending to Port Kar for Samos, First Slaver of the pirate city.

Samos would understand the message: a new piece had been placed on the board of the Game of Worlds.

Atticus burned the message. In the morning he would reveal its essence to a man in a paga tavern, who would, by various means, have the news conveyed to the Sardar.