A Barbarian Girl on Gor Ch. 10

"Do you have anything to say before you are taken from this Court and taken to the salt mines to begin your punishment?" he asked me.

There was so much that I wanted to say; I was grateful of course that I was not to be killed, but being sent to the salt mines did not sound like a particularly pleasant fate. I began to speak, desperately.

"I am innocent, " I said, "Innocent of all charges. Please tell him that I am extremely sorry for what happened to his daughter, and that I hope she be found soon. Please don't send me to the salt mines, I will serve him in any way that he wishes, there is no need to send me there."

Professor Jones smirked unpleasantly. He said something to the Ruler. Of course, I could not know whether he had translated my words faithfully, or even to anything approaching their meaning.

Whatever he might have said, it did not seem to particularly affect the ruler, who nonchalantly dismissed me with a wave of his hand, as if he now had more important business to attend to. I was conducted again by the guards from the room, Professor Jones walking alongside us. My mind was in a whirl, it seemed that I was to be sent to the salt mines.

I spoke to Professor Jones, desperately trying to think of ways out of this unpleasant sounding fate. "Please tell him that I am not strong enough to mine much salt for him. It doesn't sound like a good place to send a girl like me."

"Indeed it is not," he said, "But I think the miners and guards will enjoy having you there."

"There are men and women there?" I gasped. It had not really occurred to me that I might be expected to do more than simply mine salt.

He laughed heartily "There will be once you get there. As far as I am aware, no other female has ever been sent there; it is normally reserved for the worst amongst the felons of the City."

I swallowed hard, "And the guards?" I asked.

"The guards are mostly the felons that have behaved well," he said, "I suspect you will have your work cut out to please them, so that they do not distribute you amongst the miners."

I whimpered.

"I would have thought the Ruler would have ordered you killed," he said, "but, in any case I doubt that you will last long in the mines."

I gasped.

"I think you wanted me killed," I said, accusingly "You did not seem happy when I was sentenced only to hard labour."

I heard him chuckle.

*I have told you before," he said, "I am involved in matters that are, and will remain, far beyond the comprehension of a worthless little earth slut such as yourself. I abandon you to your fate in the penal mines. I trust that our paths will not cross again."

So saying, he slapped me on my bottom, and turned back along the corridor. The guards continued to drag me along towards my new destination, which I had been informed would be the penal salt mines, and that, as far as was known, I was the only girl that had ever been sent to that fearful sounding destination.

I realised that my previous inconveniences would be of the nature of a summer picnic compared to what awaited me.

I wept as I was dragged along by the guards.

Translators note:

At this point the manuscript comes to an end. I hope that I have been faithful in translating it into the barbarian's original language. It is perhaps most likely, considering the prospective fate of the barbarian, that there was no opportunity for her to continue her testimony, before her presumed demise in the penal salt mines. However, the very existence of this manuscript in the City archives seems to suggest that at some subsequent point, some occasion presented itself for the details that have been elucidated herewith to have been recorded, and apparently in the first person. Furthermore it must have at one time been considered important enough to have been placed in the archives, albeit in a dusty corner thereof. However, unless further manuscripts on this matter are discovered in the City vaults, the subsequent fate of the barbarian, and indeed, whether she had any part to play in the events that deposed the Ruler, in the well-known events of several decades ago, will have to remain, for now at least, a mystery.