"John Norman - Gor 25 - Magicians of Gor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman John)

The hood itself was then drawn over her head, covering it completely. It was then fixed on her, buckled shut,
beneath her chin.

тАЬWhat have you seen?тАЭ said Marcus.

I stepped back from the crack in the shutters, through which I had observed the preceding scene.

тАЬNothing,тАЭ I said.

We were in a street of Ar, a narrow, crowded street, in which we were much jostled. It was in the Metellan
district, south and east of the district of the Central Cylinder. It is a shabby, but not squalid district. There are
various tenements, or insulae, there. It is the sort of place, far enough from broad avenues of central Ar, where
assignations, or triflings, might take place.

тАЬIs Ar this crowded always?тАЭ asked Marcus, irritably.

тАЬThis street, at this time of day,тАЭ I said.

My companion was Marcus Marcellus, of the Marcelliani, formerly of ArтАЩs Station, on the Vosk. We had come
to Ar from the vicinity of Brundisium. He, like myself, was of the caste of warriors. With him, clinging closely,
about him, as though she might fear losing him in the crowd, and attempting also, it seemed, not unoften, to
make herself small and conceal herself behind him, was his slave, Phoebe, this name having been put on her, a
slender exquisite, very lightly complexioned, very dark-haired girl. She had come into his keeping in the
vicinity of Brundisium, some months ago.

тАЬAs we do have the yellow ostraka and our permits do not permit us to remain in the city after dark,тАЭ said
Marcus, тАЬI think we should venture now to the sun gate.тАЭ

Marcus was the sort of fellow who was concerned about such things, being arrested, impaled, and such.

тАЬThere is plenty of time,тАЭ I assured him. Most cities have a sun gate, sometimes several. They are called such
because they are commonly opened at dawn and closed at dusk, thus the hours of their ingress and regress being
determined by the diurnial cycle. Ar is the largest city of known Gor, larger even, I am sure, than Turia, in the
far south. She has some forty public gates, and, I suppose, some number of restricted smaller gates, secret gates,
posterns, and such. Long ago, I had once entered (pg. 10) the city through such a passage, its exterior access
point reached by means of a putative Dar-Kosis pit, which passage, I had recently determined, descending into
the pit on ropes, was now closed. I supposed that this might be the case with various such entrances, if they
existed, given ArтАЩs alarm at the announced approach of Cos. In a sense I regretted this loss, for it had
constituted a secret way in and out of the city. Perhaps other such passages existed. I did not know.

тАЬLet us go,тАЭ suggested Marcus.
 Magicians of Gor
I saw a slave girl pass, in a brief, brown tunic, her back straight, her beauty protestingly full within her tiny,
tight garment, balancing a jar on her head with one hand. The bottom of the jar rested in a sort of improvished
shallow stand or mount, formed of a dampened, wrapped towel. In Schendi the white slave girls of black
masters are sometimes taught to carry such vessels on their heads without the use of their hands or such devices
as the towel. And woe to the girl who drops it. Such exercises are good for a girlтАЩs posture. To be sure, the
lower caste black women of Schendi and the interior do such things commonly. I looked at the girl. Yes, I
thought, she could be similarly trained, without doubt. If I owned her, I thought, I might so train her. If she
proved clumsy or slow to learn she could be whipped. I did not think she would prove slow to learn. Our eyes