"John Norman - Gor 09 - Marauders of Gor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman John)

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Marauders
of
GOR



Chapter 1 The Hall
I sat alone in the great hall, in the darkness, in the Captain's Chair.
The walls of stone, some five feet in thickness, formed of large blocks, loomed about me. Before
me, over the long, heavy table behind which I sat, I could see the large tiles of the hall floor.
The table was not dark, and bare. No longer was it set with festive yellow and scarlet cloths,
woven in distant Tor: no longer did it bear the freight of plates of silver from the mines of
Tharna, nor of cunningly wrought goblets of gold from the smithies of luxurious Turia, Ar of the
south. It was long since I had tasted the fiery paga of the Sa-Tarna fields north of the Vosk.
Now, even the wines from the vineyards of Ar seemed bitter to me.
I looked up, at the narrow apertures in the wall to my right. Through them I could see certain of
the stars of Gor, in the tarn-black sky.
The hall was dark. No longer did the several torches, bristling and tarred, burn in the iron rings
at the wall. The hall was silent. No musicians played; no cup companions laughed and drank,
lifting their goblets; on the broad, flat tiles before me, under the torches, barefoot, collared,
in scarlet silks, bells at their wrists and ankles, there danced no slave girls.
The hall was large, and empty and silent. I sat alone.
Seldom did I have my chair carried from the hall. I remained much in this place.
I heard footsteps approaching. I did not turn my head. It was caused me pain to do so.
"Captain," I heard.
It was Luma, the chief scribe of my house, in her blue robe and sandals. Her hair was blond and
straight, tied behind her head with a ribbon of blue wool, from the bounding Hurt, died in the
blood of the Vosk sorp. She was a scrawny girl, not attractive, but with deep eyes, blue; and she
was a superb scribe, in her accounting swift, incisive, accurate, brilliant; once she had been a
paga slave, though a poor one; I had slaved her from Surbus, a captain, who had purchased her to
slay her, she not having served him to his satisfaction in the alcoves of the tavern; he would
have cast her, bound, to the swift, silken urts in the canals. I had dealt Surbus his death blow,
but, before he had died I had, on the urging of the woman, she moved to pity, carried him to the
roof of the tavern, that he might, before his eyes closed, look once more upon the sea. He was a
pirate, and a cut-throat, but he was not unhappy in his death; he had died by the sword, which
would have been his choice, and before he had died he had looked again upon the gleaming Thassa;
it is called the death of blood and the sea; he died not unhappy; men of Port Kar do not care to
die in their beds, weak, lingering, at the mercy of tiny foes that cannot see; they live often by
violence and desire that they shall similarly perish; to die by the sword is regarded as the
right, and honour, of he who lives by it.
"Captain," said the woman, standing back, to one side of the chair.
After the death of Surbus, the woman had been mine. I had won her from him by sword right. I had,
of course, as she had expected, put her in my collar, and kept her slave. To my astonishment,
however, by the laws of Port Kar, the ships, properties and chattels of Surbus, he having been
vanquished in fair combat and permitted death of blood and sea, became mine; his men stood ready
to obey me; his ships became mine to command; his hall became my hall, his riches mine, his slaves
mine. It was thus that I had become a captain in Port Kar. Jewel of gleaming Thassa.
"I have the accounts for your inspection," said Luma.