Free Marauders of Gor by John Norman Page A

oils against the walls behind the sanctuary. Then he took a rack of candles and hurled it against the wall. Fire soon bit into the timbers behind the sanctuary.
                The Forkbeard then leaped over the rail of the sanctuary and strode among the people lying on their stomachs, the wall facing the Sardar being eaten by fire, illuminating the interior of the temple.
                He reached down, here and there, to rip a purse from one of the richer townsfolk. He took the purse of the burgher in black satin, and took, too, from his neck, the silver chain of his office, which he slung about his own neck.
                He then drew with the handle of his ax a circle, some twenty feet in diameter, in the dirt   floor of the circle.
                It was a bond-maid circle.
                "Females," he cried, gesturing with the great ax toward the wall opposite the doors, "swiftly! To the wall! Stand with your backs against it!"
                Terrified, weeping, the men groaning, the females fled to the wall. I saw, standing there, terrified, their backs against it, the blond girl in the scarlet vest and skirt, her hair in the snood of scarlet yarn, tied with filaments of golden wire; and the large statuesque girl, in black velvet, with the silver straps over her breasts, and tied about her waist, with the purse. Ivar Forkbeard, in the light of the burning wall of the temple, quickly examined the line of women. From some he took jewellery, bracelets, necklaces and rings. From others her took purses, hanging at their belts. He tore away the purse from the large blonde girl, and the silver straps, too, which had decorated the black velvet of her gown. She shrank back against the wall.   She was large breasted. The men of Torvaldsland are fond of such women. The jewellery and coins which he took he hurled into a golden sacrificial bowl, which one of his men carried at his side. As he went down the line, he freed certain women of the wall, telling them to swiftly return   to their place, and lie beneath the ax. Gratefully, they fled to their former places.  
                This left nineteen girls at the wall. I admired the taste of Forkbeard. They were beauties. My choices would have been the same.
                Among them, of course, were the slender blond girl in the red vest and skirt, and the larger one, now in black velvet, torn, stripped of its silver straps, its brooches, the purse.
                He ripped the snood of scarlet yarn from the slender blond girls hair. Her hair, now loose, fell behind her to the small of her back. He then tore away the ribbons and comb of bone and leather that had so intricately held the hair of the larger blond girl, she in black velvet. Her hair was even longer than that of the more slender girl.
                The nineteen girls regarded him, terrified, eyes wide, their faces lit in the left side by the flames of the burning wall.
                "Go to the bond-maid circle," said Ivar Forkbeard, indicating the circle he had drawn in the dirt.
                The women cried out in misery. To enter   the circle, if one is a female, is, by the laws of Torvaldsland, to declare oneself a bond-maid.   A woman, of course, need   not to enter the circle of her own free will.   She may, for example, be thrown within it, naked and bound.   Howsoever she enters the circle, voluntarily, or by force, free or secured, she emerges from it, by the laws of Torvaldsland, as a bond-maid.
                Seventeen of the girls, weeping, fled to the circle, and huddled within it.    
                Two did not, the slender blond girl and the larger one, in black velvet.
                "I am Aelgifu," said the large girl.   "I am the daughter of Gurt of Kassau.   He is administrator.   There will be ransom money for me."
                "It is true!"