Kamchak
grinned. “She is only a little barbarian,” he said.
Then he looked at me.
“It
is Aphris of Turia I want,” he said.
I wondered
who she might be.
-- Nomads of Gor
, 8:92
The most beautiful woman
in all of Turia is the Lady Aphris. Her father, Tethrar, the richest
man in Turia, had been killed by the Wagon Peoples during a raid
on a caravan on its return to Turia, leaving Aphris to, upon reaching
her majority, inherit her father’s fortune, making her the
richest as well as the most beautiful woman in all of Turia and
perhaps upon the face of all Gor itself. Until she comes of age,
the castes of merchants appoint Saphrar of Turia as her guardian
and keeper of her fortune.
We initially meet Aphris
at the banquet tables of Saphrar during the feast given for the
visit of Kamchak and Tarl Cabot. She enters the hall long after
the feast is under way, fashionably late, making a grand entrance
from her upstairs apartments. Descending the stairs slowly, knowing
well that all eyes are upon her, she allows us a glimpse into the
vanity of this concealed beauty. A white silken veil edged with
gold stretches across the hood of the splendid robes of white also
trimmed in gold, giving evidence of her caste, that of the merchants.
Her sleek arms are covered with gloves of gold and her feet clad
in matching golden sandals. Her entrance clearly shows the vanity
and haughty demeanor of the free women of Gor.
I and all others turned our
eyes to a wide, swirling marble stairway in the back and to the
left of the lofty banquet hall in the house of Saphrar the merchant.
Down the stairway, slowly,
in trailing white silk bordered with gold, the colors of the Merchants,
there regally descended the girl who was Aphris of Turia.
Her sandals were of gold
and she wore matching gloves of gold. Her face could not be seen,
for it was veiled, a white silken veil trimmed with gold, nor even
her hair, for it was hidden in the folds of the free woman’s
Robes of Concealment, in her case, of course, done in the colors
of the Merchants.
Aphris of Turia, then, was
of the Caste of Merchants.
-- Nomads of Gor, 9:129-130
Aphris seats herself between
Kamchak and Saphrar, kneeling in the position of a free woman of
Gor, which differs from the tower position of a slave girl by the
positioning of the hands upon the female’s thighs. A slave
turns her palms upward showing complete submission to the man before
whom she kneels, while the free woman’s palms are turned down
to avoid showing the man any supplication. She shows us the arrogance
of a free woman by leaning over, sniffing the air and informing
Kamchak she can smell bosk. Kamchak is delighted with her attitude
as he had vowed to himself to make her his slave. We see further
evidence of the insolence of Aphris as she sprinkles perfume between
her and Kamchak to mask the odor of the bosk. Kamchak informs her
that when he does make her his slave she will, for the perfume,
spend her first night in a dung sack.
Aphris’ devious nature
becomes quite clear when she baits Kamchak by asking him if the
women of Turia were beautiful as she gestures to the women seated
around the banquet hall. When Kamchak answers that it is well known
that the women of Turia are shameless, we see the anger of Aphris
as she snaps her fingers and the slaves dressed as free women stand,
removing their pretend robes of concealment, being dressed as slaves
underneath. Aphris laughs loudly as her trick on Kamchak makes Him
very angry, and we see further evidence of her arrogance as she
informs him that strangers will never be allowed to look upon the
free women of Turia.
Not liking to be the butt
of Turian jokes, Kamchak bristles as the company of the banquet
enjoyed a long and loud laugh at his expense. Aphris pushes her
advantage even further, asking if the slaves of Turia were not beautiful.
Her anger slips out when Kamchak informs her there are many Turian
girls who live as slaves among the wagons, such as she will be when
she becomes his slave. Her contempt is further evidenced by her
angry retort that she, by a word, could have him killed. Her haughty
behavior is diminished by his reply that it is one thing to order
a Tuchuk’s death and quite another to bring it about.
At this point, Saphrar steps
in to alleviate the rising tensions. Aphris pays him no mind, calling
for the slaves to dance, knowing that the dancers were mostly women
of the Wagon Peoples who had fallen slave to Turia, hoping to goad
Kamchak even more by showing him the women of the wagon in Turian
pleasure silks. One of the girls, seeing the Ubar of the Tuchucks,
falls to her knees before him, begging his forgiveness. Aphris’
anger displays itself fully as she orders the feast steward to beat
the girl. The blow never falls, as Kamchak pulls a hidden quiva
and with a quick throw, embeds it in the steward’s arm. Saphrar
again moves to calm tensions and Kamchak orders the girls to dance.
Another facet of Aphris’
character becomes clear when the banquet ends and Kamchak prepares
to leave, lifting a small box he had brought with him. Remembering
the necklace with five strings of diamonds that Kamchak had given
her the last time he had attended a banquet, Aphris’ curiosity
and avarice get the better of her as she demands to know what is
in the box. Kamchak replies that she wouldn’t like it but
she greedily states that she wants the present. Her egotistical
nature compels her to permit Kamchak to place the present around
her neck and to her complete and utter surprise finds her neck encircled
with a collar of slavery. Her shame is compounded when Kamchak rips
off her veil and claims her lips in a masterful kiss.
“What is in the box?”
asked Aphris of Turia, as she saw Kamchak pick up the small black
box which, throughout the banquet, he had kept at his right knee.
The girl was clearly curious, female.
Kamchak shrugged.
I remembered that two years
before, as I had learned, he had brought Aphris of Turia a five-string
diamond necklace, which she had scorned, and had, according to her
report at least, given to a slave. It had been at that time that
she had called him a Tuchuk sleen, presumably because he had dared
present her with a gift.
But, I could see, she was
interested in the box. Indeed, at certain times during the evening,
I had seen her casting furtive glances at it.
“It is nothing,”
said Kamchak, “only a trinket.”’
“But is it for someone?”
she asked.
“I had thought,”
said Kamchak, “that I might give it to you.”
“Oh?” asked Aphris,
clearly intrigued.
“But you would not
like it,” he said.
“How do you know,”
she said, rather airily, “I have not seen it.”
“I will take it home with me,” said Kamchak.
“If you wish,”
she said.
“But you may have it
if you wish,” he said.
“Is it other,”
she asked, “than a mere necklace of diamonds?” Aphris
of Turia was no fool. She knew that the Wagon Peoples, plunderers
of hundreds of caravans, occasionally possessed objects and riches
as costly as any on Gor.
“Yes,” said Kamchak,
“it is other than a necklace of diamonds.”
“Ah!” she said. I then suspected that she had not actually
given the five-string diamond necklace to a slave. Undoubtedly it
still reposed in one of her several chests of jewelry.
“But you would not
like it,” said Kamchak, diffidently.
“Perhaps I might,”
she said.”
‘“No,”
said Kamchak, “you would not like it.”
“You brought it for
me, did you not?” she said.
Kamchak shrugged and looked
down at the box in his hand. “Yes,” he said, “I
brought it for you.”
The box was about the size
in which a necklace, perhaps on black velvet, might be displayed.
“I want it,”
said Aphris of Turia.
“Truly?” asked
Kamchak. “Do you want it?”
“Yes,” said Aphris.
“Give it to me!”
“Very well,”
said Kamchak, “but I must ask to place it on you myself.”
Kamras, the Champion of Turia,
half rose from his position. “Bold Tuchuk sleen!” he
hissed.
“Very well,”
said Aphris of Turia. “You may place it on me yourself.”
So then Kamchak bent down
to where Aphris of Turia knelt, her back straight, her head very
high, before the low table. He stepped behind her and she lifted
her chin delicately. Her eyes were shining with curiosity. I could
see the quickness of her breath marked in the soft silk of her white
and gold veil.
“Now,” said Aphris.
Kamchak then opened the box.
When Aphris heard the delicate
click of the box lid it was all she could do not to turn and regard
the prize that was to be hers, but she did not do so. She remained
looking away, only lifting her chin a bit more.
“Now!” said Aphris
of Turia, trembling with anticipation.
What happened then was done
very swiftly. Kamchak lifted from the box an object indeed intended
to grace the throat of a girl. But it was a round metal ring, a
Turian collar, the collar of a slave. There was a firm snap of the
heavy lock in the back of the collar and the throat of Aphris of
Turia had been encircled with slave steel! At the same instant Kamchak
lifted her startled to her feet and turned her to face him, with
both hands tearing the veil from her face! Then, before any of the
startled Turians could stop him, he had purchased by his audacity
a bold kiss from the lips of the astounded Aphris of Turia! Then
he hurled her from him across and over the low table until she fell
to the floor where Tuchuk slaves had danced for her pleasure. The
quiva, appearing as if by magic in his hand, warned back those who
would press in upon him to avenge the daughter of their city. I
stood beside Kamchak, ready to defend him with my life, yet as startled
as any in the room at what had been done.
The girl now had struggled
to her knees tearing at the collar. Her tiny gloved fingers were
locked in it, pulling at it, as though by brute force she would
tear it from her throat.
Kamchak was looking at her.
“Beneath your robes of white and gold,” he said, “I
smelled the body of a slave girl.”
-- Nomads of Go, 9:140-143
Shamed beyond endurance,
Aphris’ pride forces her to demand that her guardian Saphrar
allow her to stand at the stake in the games of Love War and that
her honor be defended by Kamras, the champion of Turia. After much
debate Saphrar grants the demand of Aphris, whose pride and arrogance
place her in jeopardy of becoming a slave should a warrior of the
wagons defeat Kamras in the games of Love War.
The day of the games of Love
War arrived and Aphris’ arrogance is in full display as she
stands before the first stake of the field and offers a gold piece
for every cut given to Kamchak by Kamras. Aphris’ disdain
and pompous nature are shown clearly after Kamchak defeated Kamras
and strips Aphris of her robes. So confident is she of Kamras’
abilities, she has not even donned the shameful camisk to hide her
naked body in the event that she should fall slave. Her pride receives
two great shocks as first, Kamchak strips her completely naked before
the assembled multitude and then Saphrar, her guardian, refuses
to buy her out of Kamchak’s collar, telling her with great
pleasure that once she became a slave her vast fortune fell to him,
as by Gorean law, no slave can own anything.
Deflated, Aphris submits
to Kamchak. He binds her hands, leading her over to his kailla and
ties her to its saddle. During the ride back to the wagons, Aphris
is forced to run alongside the kaiila, as any slave would. Exhausted,
Aphris falls to her knees but Kamchak quickly pulls her to her feet
and explains the duties of a slave. The still-arrogant Aphris, later
in the evening of her first day of slavery, informs Kamchak that
she calls no man master. Kamchak, delighted with her resistance,
lifts her to his shoulder and fulfills his promise to her. For her
sprinkling of the perfume at the banquet she will spend her first
night in a dung sack. Kamchak laughingly reminds her that she calls
no man master as she begs her master not to put her in the dung
sack. Aphris learns her first lesson: that a slave is subject to
the whim of her master.
The lesson learned well,
Aphris becomes a lovely and adoring slave, her feelings changing
from pure hatred to those of love and caring for the tall, muscular
and charismatic Ubar of the Tuchuks. Although Kamchak laughs at
Tarl Cabot over his feelings for Vella, we see that even the stern
Kamchak falls in love with the beautiful prize he won at the games
of Love War.
During the siege of Turia,
the Paravaci attack the Tuchuk wagons and Aphris is taken captive.
With the alliance of the Kassar and Kataii, the Tuchuks defeat the
Paravaci, and Aphris is rescued by Albrecht of the Kassar and sold
back to Kamchak for the unheard of price of ten thousands bars of
gold.
It is during the Tuchuks’
exit of Turia that we truly see the love shared by Kamchak and Aphris.
After dispensing with all the business of leaving the city, Kamchak
frees Aphris, giving her sufficient gold, plundered from the vaults
of Saphrar, to make her once again the richest woman in Turia. He
leaves Aphris in the throne room of the Ubar of Turia. As Kamchak
mounts his kailla and prepares to leave Turia, Aphris, still clad
kajir, runs out of the palace and lays her head to Kamchak’s
boot. Kamchak looks down and asks her what this means, for she is
now free. Aphris looks up into his eyes and tells him no, she belongs
to him. In his surprise, Kamchak asks her why. Aphris informs him
it is because she has grown fond of the smell of bosk.
“Wait!” we heard.
We turned our mounts and
saw Aphris of Turia, barefoot, clad Kajir, running after us.
She stopped beside Kamchak’s
stirrup, standing there, her head down.
“What means this?”
demanded Kamchak sternly.
The girl did not respond,
nor did she raise her head.
Kamchak turned his kaiila
and began to ride toward the main gate, the rest of us following.
Aphris, as Hereena and Elizabeth, ran by the stirrup.
Kamchak reined in, and we
all stopped. Aphris stood there, her head down.
“You are free,”
said Kamchak.
Without raising her head,
she shook it negatively. “No,” she said, “I am
Kamchak of the Tuchuks’.”
She put her head timidly
to Kamchak’s fur boot in the stirrup.
“I do not understand,”
said Kamchak.
She lifted her head and there
were tears in her eyes. “Please,” she said, “Master.”
“Why?” asked
Kamchak.
She smiled. “I have
grown fond of the smell of bosk,” said she.
Kamchak smiled. He held his hand to the girl. “Ride with me,
Aphris of Turia,” said Kamchak of the Tuchuks.
She took his hand and he
drew her to the saddle before him, where she turned, sitting across
the saddle, and placed her head against his right shoulder, weeping.
“This woman,”
said Kamchak of the Tuchuks, brusquely, his voice stern
but almost breaking, “is called Aphris—know her—she
is Ubara of the
Tuchuks, she is Ubara Sana, of my heart Ubara Sana!”
--Nomads of Gor, 17:475-476
Delighted, Kamchak pulls
her into the saddle with him and declares her Ubara of the Tuchuks,
Ubara Sana of his heart. Together as Free Companions, Kamchak and
Aphris ride from the City of Turia and out onto the plains of Turia,
in the land of the Wagon Peoples.