Blood Brothers of Gor

Chapter 39 THE FEATHER

"It is exhausted, but it is still dangerous!" I cried. I held one end of the rope about the flopping bird's neck, keeping it taut, and Hci, on the other side, held the other. "Be careful," I called to Cuwignaka.

Speaking soothingly, he approached the bird.

We were in the vicinity of the tarn pit. This was the second tarn we had caught. The first one we had caught yesterday.

Cuwignaka suddenly leaped forward and locked his arms about the bird's beak. He was almost thrown loose as the bird shook his head. Holding the beak with one arm, then, he whipped rope about it and, in moments, had tied it closed. In a few moments we had secured its wings and then, working together, Hci and I, bound its legs together.

I took the boggling rope from its right ankle, that which had fastened it to the hobbling log. It shuddered, lying on its side. "It is ready for the travois," I said.

I then turned about and went back to the tarn pit. Its roof was gone, torn away and scattered when the concealed hobbling log had been jerked upward though it.

I looked down into the pit. The girl lay on her stomach, her hands over her head, shuddering and sobbing below me.

"Are you all right?" I asked. I had not bothered, this time, to bind her.

"Did I not please you last night?" she sobbed.

"Yes," I said, puzzled.

"but you put me out on the tether," she said.

"Of course," I said.

Her body trembled, uncontrollably.

"It is over now," I told her. "We have it."

She sobbed, hysterically. I did not think she could control the movements of her body. "You did not do badly," I assured her.

She whimpered, shuddering.

"Why are you so upset?" I asked.

She sobbed, hysterically, shuddering. To be sure, it had been a close thing.

I slipped into the pit beside her and took her in my arms. "It is over now," I reassured her. "It is all right now."

She looked at me, her eyes wide, frightened. "What you can make us do," she gasped. I stroked her head, gently. I had once seen a similar hysteria in an urt hunter's girl, in Port Kar. She had barely missed being taken by a giant urt in the canals. But the spear thrust of the hunter had been unerring and turned the urt at the last instant and the second thrust had finished it off. Girls in Port Kar will do almost anything to keep the rope off their neck and keep out of the canals. To be sure it is normally only low girls or girls who may have displeased a master in some respect who are used for such work.

"Last night," she said, "did I not please you well?"

"Yes," I said, "you did, and tonight you will please us again, and in the same way."

She moaned.

"You did not do badly today," I reassured her, "truly. For example, tonight it will not be necesary to beat you again, with coiled ropes. That should please you."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Indeed," I said, "you did not do badly, at all. Perhaps I will ahve one, or both, of your ears notched, as our friends, the red savages do, with prize kaiila, trained for the hunt or war, that you may be recongnized as a valuable, trained tarn-bait girl."

She pressed herself against me, sobbing.

"It is a joke," I said.

"Yes, Master," she said.

I saw that she was not in a mood to appreciate such humor. I myself, however, for what it is worth, had not thought that it was bad at all.

"Do you, and the others, not care for me?" she asked.

"You are only a slave," I reminded her.

"Of course, Master!" she said. "How foolish of me, to think that one might care, in the least, for one who is only a slave!"

"You are only a property," I told her, "and worthless, except that you might have some small monetary value."

"Yes, Master," she said.

I did not see any reason to tell her that slaves are the most tresured, despised and loved of all women. Being Gorean she knew this.

"But cannot a master," she asked, "sometimes feel some small affetion for a property, even, say, for a pet sleen?"

"Perhaps," I said, "but that would not mean, then, that the sleen was other than a sleen."

"No, Master," she said.

"or the slave other than a slave," I said.

"No, Master," she said.

I kissed her, gently.

"You do feel some tenderness for me," she said. "I am a woman. I can tell!"

"Perhaps it will be necessary, after all, tonight, to whip you," I said.

"No, Master," she said. "Please, no!"

"Do not expect affection," I said. "Expect, rather, Slave, only to serve your master with total perfection."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"And even if a master, some master, sometime, should be moved to feel some tenderness, or a bit of affection, doubtlessly foolishly, toward you, remember that it changes nothing, that you remain only what you are, a slave."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Even the most loved slave," I said, "should a master be so foolish as to love a slave, remains, in the end, and do not forget it, radically, and only a slave."

"Yes, Master," she said.

I kissed her again, softly.

"You can do anything with us, can't you?" she asked. "It depends only on your will."

"Yes," I said.

"Do not put me out of the tether again, Master," she begged. "Keep me for only silken work. I will endeavor with all my heart to be a most perfect and pleasing slave."

"Is this she who was once the lofty Lady Mira who speaks," I asked, "she who was once the proud free woman of Venna?"

"Yes, Master," she said.

"And is now naught but an abject slave?"

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Your will is nothing," I said. "It will be done with you, totaly, as masters please."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Perhaps you understand now," I said, "a little better than before, what it is to be a slave."

"Yes, my master," she said. She laughed, ruefully.

"What is wrong?" I asked.

"I was thinking of when I was a free woman," she said. "How contemptuous I was of the slave girls in the cities, how I scorned them, and despised them, so helpless in their lowly, silken slaveries, and yet, now, how I envy them their slaveries!"

I smiled.

"What lucky, soft little thngs they are," she said, "being sold naked off sales blocks to the whips and chains of strong masters, with little more to worry about than the heat of the kitchens, the steaming water of the laudering tubs, the dangers, from young, prowling ruffians, of shopping in the evening! How warm and safe they are locked in their kennels at night or cuddling, in furs, chained at the foot of their masters' couches! What need have they to fear sleen and tarns! They need fear only thier masters!"

"The lot of a slave girl in the cities is not always easy," I said. "Most are owned by one master, alone, and must share his compartments with him, in complete privacy. There, as slave girls elsewhere, they are at the master's mercy, completely."

"It is not so different in the Barrens," she said, "when one is alone with the master, when the lodge flaps are tied shut, from the inside."

"Perhaps not," I smiled.

"And in the cities," she said, "it is so beautiful, the towers, the bridges and sunsets, the people, the flower stalls, the market places, the smells of cooking."

"Yes," I said, "the cities are beautiful." Some of the most beautiful cities I had seen were on Gor.

"I lived in Ar for a year," she said. "Not far from my apartments there was a pastry shop. Marvelous smells used to come from the shop. In the evening, when the shop was closing, slave girls, in their brief tunics and collars, would come and kneel down, near the hinged opening to the open-air counter. The baker, who was a kind-hearted man, would sometimes come out and, from a flat sheet, throw them unsold pastries.

I said nothing.

How amusing I found that at the time," she said. "But too, I sometimes wondered if the pastries I bought at that shop tasted so good to me as those the girls had begged did to them. They seemed so delighted to receive one. It was so precious to them."

I said nothing.

"If I were a slave in Ar," she said, "and I were permitted to do so, I think I shold go to that pastry shop and, in my tunic and collar, knel there with the other girls, hoping that I, too, might receive such a pastry."

I smiled. How beautiful she was, and how helpless, a slave.

"In street shopping," she said, "I was always heavily veiled. The backer would not recongnize me."

"Perhaps some of the other girls were former customers as well," I said.

"Perhaps," she smiled. "That is an interesting thought."

"The transition between a free woman and a slave girl can occur suddenly on Gor," I said.

"I am well aware of that, Master," she smiled. Somtimes a girl is captured in her own bed, raped and hooded, and carried to a market, all in the same night.

"But, on the whole," she said, "how I scorned slaves, how I hated them!"

"Oh?" I asked.

"Do you know the slaves I hated the most, those I most despised?" she asked.

"No," I said.

"The pleasure slaves!" she said. "How I hated them! They were so beautiful and desirable! Sometimes I would take a whip into the streets and deliberately jostle one, and then make her lie down and whip her across the legs!"

"The same thing, now, could be done to you," I said.

"I know," she said.

"Why did you hate them so?" I asked.

"They were lucky enough to be in a collar, and not me!" she said.

"It seems, then," I said, "that you hated them because you were jealous of them, that, in reality, you envied them."

"Yes," she said, "I was jealous of their beauty and desirablity. Ienvied them their happiness."

"Did you know this as a free woman?" I asked.

"Yes," she said, "but I do not think that I would have freely admitted it."

"Deceit is freedom of free women," I said.

"But it is not a freedom permitted to slave girls, is it, Master?" she asked.

"No," I said.

"Every woman, in her heart," she said, "longs to kneel before a stong man, to be subject to his whip, to be owned, to be mastered, to know that she has no chice but to give him total love and service."

"The master will not permit the girl to give him less than everytihng."

"And the slave desires to give the master everything," she said, "and more."

"Are you happy," I asked, "being a slave?"

"Yes, Master," she said. "I have never been so happy before in my life."

"You are now in your place in nature," I said.

"Yes, my Master," she said. She kissed me.

"No longer, now," I said, "do you need to envy slave girls."

"No longer do I envy them their slavery," she said, "for now I, too, and a slave. In my bondage I am rich and favored as they."

"But surely," I said, "you are aware of the miseries and terrors which may occasionally characterize the lot of female slaves."

"Of course," she said, "for we are at the mercy of our Masters, in all things."

"Yet you are not displeased to be a slave?" I asked.

"No," she said.

"Why?" I asked.

"That we may, at our master's whim, be subjected to miseries or terrors, even to torture and death, if he wishes, makes clear to us that we are truly slaves, that we are truly owned, that the domination to which we are subject is truly total and absolute."

"I see," I said.

"We would not have it any other way," she said.

"I see," I said.

"but we know," she said, "that though we are in one sense fully without power, that in another sense we may do much to control the happiness and quality of our lives. We need, generally, only be absolutely obedient and fully pleasing."

"That is generally true," I admitted.

"Too," she said, "in bondage we find that we live our truth. How else could we be happy and fulfilled?"

"I do not know," I said.

"And I think it is obviously true," she said, "that men desire us, treasure us, and love us, as well as command us, in ways that a free woman can never understand or know."

"That is a secret between masters and slaves," I smiled.

"Perhaps," she laughed. "But I doubt that it is a well-kept secret or free women would not hate us so!"

"Perhaps," I smiled.

"There are risks in all comditions," she said. "Free persons, men at least, for example, if need be, are expected to accept great hazards on behalf of their cities. That is not expected of slaves."

"That is true," I said. Slaves, like kaiila and furniture, being properties, were not expected to participate in municipal defense. To be sure, they might be ordered to strenghten walls and reinforce gates, and such.

She put her arms about my neck, and kissed me. "Suppose you were a conqueror and found me in a burning city," she whispered. "You would not be likely to slay me, would you?"

"No," I said.

"You would make me yours," she said. "You would tie me to the stirrup of your kaiila. You would make me march in your plunder column."

"You might be harnessed to a wagon, to help draw loot," I said.

"Yes, master," she whispered. "But I would be alive."

"Slavery is sometimes accorded to free prisoners," I said. "This is particularly the case with free women who, when stripped, are found desireable enough for the collar," This may be done in various ways. Normally, a free woman, unceremoniously, is simply enslaved. She deserves no consideration, whatsoever. She is a femal of an enemy city. Accordingly, she belongs at the feet of the conquerer, with other spoils. A warrior may secure such women with devices so simple as thumb-cuffs, like tiny, jointed rings, and snap-lock, or pronged, tension-closed, nose-rings, with strands of wire, to fasten them togeter.

The material for securing ten women, in such cases, fits into a corner of the warrior's pack and weighs no more than a few ounces. If the cities are long-time hereditary enemies snap-lock, or pronged, tension-closed, earrings might be used instead of nose-rings, as a gesture of contempt, a pierced ear, or ears, on Gor, culturally, commonly, being regarded as the mark of the lowest, the most sensous and the most despicable of slaves. To be perfectly honest, however, ear piercing for Gorean slaves is now much more common than it was a few years ago. Perhaps the time will come when the slave will be a rarity who has not felt the two thrusts of the leather-worker's needle. The growing prevelance of ear piercing probably has to do, at least singificantly, with its tendency to stimulate the sexual aggression of the Gorean male. Accordingly, girls with pierced ears, "pierced-ear girls," tend to bring higher prices in the markets. Slavers, thus, prior to putting their properties on the block, are more and more inclined to have this done to them.

Some girls, knowing how desirable this can make them, beg their master to have their ears pierced. The piercing of the ears is not only symbolic and aesthetic to the master and the slave but it can be tactually arousing, as well, playing with the earring, the girl feeling it brush the inside of her cheek or neck, and so on. Sometimes, however, the free woman in a captured city is not, say, simply stripped, thrown down and tied, later to be turned over to an iron master for the searing kiss of his white-hot metal. Sometimes, rather, she, stripped, and presented before officers, is offered the choice between sift, honorable decapitation and slavery. If she chooses slavery, she may be expected to step onto a submission mat, and kneel there, head down, enter a slave pen of her own accord, or, say, fully acknowledging herself a slave, belly to an officer, kissing his feet.

The question is sometimes put to her in somewhat the following fashion. "If you are a free woman, speak your freedom and advance, now, to the headsman's block, or, if you are truly a slave, and have only been masquerading until now as a free woman, step now, if you wish, upon the mat of submission and kneel there, in this act becomming at last, explicitly, a legal slave." She is the expected, sometimes, kneeling, to like the feet of a soldier, who then rapes her on the mat. It is commonly regarded as an acceptable introduction for a woman to her explicit and legal slavery.

"But what does such a woman know?" laughed Mira. "They are ignorant."

"Perhpas on such as yourself might be set to their training," I said.

"I would make them learn quickly," she laughed.

"Your mood now," I said, "seems lighter."

"Yes," she said. "Thank you, Master."

I kissed her.

"It is so ironical," she laughed.

"What?" I asked.

"How I at one time so hated slaves and now have never been so happy as when I am a slave myself!"

"No longer do you hate them," I said.

"No," she said, "for now I am, too, a slave."

"And no longer do you envy them either," I said.

"It is not necessary for me to envy them any longer that they are slaves," she said, "for that is a condition which I, too, now, helplessly share."

"Then you no longer envy them?" I asked.

"But I do," she laughed," and since I so despised them and held thim in such contempt before, this seems now doubly amusing!"

"I do not understand," I said.

"How laughable and delicious would the little collared chits find it that I, who so scorned them, am not only now,too, a slave, but a low slave, one with only a leather collar, one not even permitted clothing, a cheap, inexpensive slave, thousands of pasangs from civilization, a meaningless slave in the wild grasslands east of the Thentis mountains, one of so little worth that she may even serve as naked bait for tarns!"

"In silk, and a golden collar, and taught the lascivious, movements of pleasure slaves, you might bring a good price, even in the cities," I said.

"Thank you, Master," she said.

"It is the girls in the cities, I take it," I said, "those of the sorts with whom you were familiar as a free woman, that you envy."

"Yes," she said.

"Those girls whom you so scorned before?" I asked.

"Yes," she said. "Now, laughably, I must look up to them, for they are higher than I."

"It is amusing, I suppose," I said.

"As a free woman," she said, "never did I suspect that one day I might actually aspire, from a far lower slavery, to wear such a tunic and collar and, like them, so helpless and subservient, serve in a city."

"These things are relative," I said.

"Now such a thing is beyond my reach," she said, "unless a master should grant it to me."

"Yes," I said, "for now you are a slave."

"You see now," she smiled, "why it is that I envy such slaves."

"Yes," I said. "You wish now that only such a slavery was yours."

"Yes," she said.

"But it is not," I said. "You are a slave in the Barrens."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Tatankasa!" cried Cuwignaka. "Come quickly!"

I leaped out of the pit.

"There!" cried Cuwignaka, pointing upward. "One of the Kinyanpi!"

I shaded my eyes.

"It is not a wild tarn," said Cuwignaka. "There is something on its back."

"Yes," I said.

"It must be a man, bent over," said Cuwignaka.

"But, why?" I asked.

"He is perhaps trying to conceal that the tarn is not wild," said Cuwignaka.

"Perhaps he is wounded," said Hci, fitting an arrow to a bow.

"You are sure you have been seen?" I asked.

"The captured tarn was seen," said Cuwignaka. "I am sure of it. The bird changed its direction. Too, by now, doubtless we have been seen."

"It is circling," said Hci.

"We cannot hide the caputred tarn," said Cuwignaka.

"Our plans are foiled. Our hopes are dashed," said Hci.

"One of the Kinyanpi, having made this determination, having detected our presence in the tarn country," I said, "would presumably return to his camp, later to return with others."

"Why is he still circlin?" asked Cuwignaka.

"I do not know," I said.

"What is it, Master?" asked Mira. She had emerged, frightened, from the pit. She stood a little behind me, and to my left. I did not strike her. I had not ordered her to remain in the pit.

"We are not sure," I said.

"I think the bird intends to land," said Cuwignaka.

"That is incredible," I said. "Surely one warrior of the Kinyanpi would not wish to challenge three armed men."

"It is going to land," said Cuwignaka. "I am sure of it."

"You are right," I said.

"Why does the warrior not show himself?" asked Hci.

"I can see legs," said Mira.

"I will go a bit behind the path of the bird's approach," said Hci, exercising the tension in the small bow he had armed. "Then when the warrior dismounts he may, if we wish, be easily slain."

I nodded. A man's shield can protect him in only one plane of attack.

"Why would he land?" asked Cuwignaka.

"I do not know," I said.

The bird soared towrds us and then, several yards away, turned its wings, braking, and hovered for a moment in the air, its clawd dropping, and then landed.

We closed our eyes, briefly, against the storm of wind and dust which temporarily assulted us.

Mira threw her hand before her mouth and screamed. "Withdraw," I told her.

I went forward and seized the guide-ropes, or reins, of the tarn, as the Kinyanpi fashion them, seen clearly to be based on the jaw ropes used generally in the Barrens by the red savages to control kaiila. This suggests that the Kinyanpi had probably domesticated kaiila before tarns and that their domestication of the tarn was achieved independently of white practice, as exemplified, say, by the tarnsmen of such cities as Thentis. The common guidance apparatus for tarns in most cities is an arrangement involving two major rings and six sraps. The one-strap is drawn for ascent, and the four-strap for descent, for example.

"What could have done this?" asked Cuwignaka, in awe.

I heard Mira, a few yards behind us, throwing up in the grass.

"I am not sure," I said.

Hci came up to join ys, from where he had been crouching down in the grass.

"Aiii," he muttered.

"What do you think?" asked Cuwignaka.

"Never have I seen anything like this," said Hci. To be sure it was awesome to contemplate the forces and pressures that could have done it.

The tarn, besides its rude bridle, wore a girth strap.

I glanced back at Mira. She was on her hands and knees in the grass, sick.

She was correct that she had seen legs. The knees were thrust under the girth strap. There were also thighs and a lower abdomen. There was no upper body.

"I do not understand this," said Cuwignaka, in a whisper.

"Only something from the medicine world could have done this," said Hci.

I looked up, scanning the sky. Whatever had done this must still be about, somewhere.

"Why has the bird landed?" asked Cuwignaka.

"It is a domestic tarn," I said. "Probably it wishes to be freed of the remains of the rider. It saw men."

"I am uneasy," said Cuwignaka.

"I, too," said Hci.

"This is great boon for us," I said. "Remove the legs from the girth strap."

"How is that?" asked Cuwignaka. He and Hci removed the legs from the girth strap and discarded them in the grass. Sleen could find them later.

I patted the tarn on the neck. "This is a domestic tarn," I said. "It is trained. Not only will it be unneccessary to break it but it will be of great use, in a brace harness, in training the two tarns we have already caught." This is a common method of training new tarns.

"Mira!" I called, sharply.

She ran to me and knelt before me, putting her head to my feet.

"You may be pleased to learn," I told her, "that for our purposes we now have tarns enough. It will no longer be necessary, at least at this time, to put you out again on the tether."

"Thank you, Master!" she cried and, almost uncontrollably, half sobbing, kissed my feet in gratitude.

"Destroy the tarn pit," I said, "and address yourself to the task of concealing all signs of our activities here."

"Yes, Master," she sad, leaping to her feet.

"And take that tether from your ankle," I said.

"Yes, Master," she said, and knelt down on one knee, her hands at the knot.

"We will fetch the kaiila and attach them to the travois," I said. "We will take this tarn to our temporary camp."

"Yes, Tatankasa," said Cuwignaka.

"We do not wish to remain in the open longer than necessary," I said.

"No, Tatankasa," said Hci.

I glanced down at Mira. She was now sitting in the grass, her fingers fighting the knot.

"If you have not finished with your work here before we leave," I told her, "follow the travois tracks in the grass back to our temporary camp."

"Yes, Master," she sobbed.

"Tonight," I said, "after food and woman, losing not time, we shall proceed toward Two Feathers."

"Good," said Cuwignaka.

"Our plans proceed," I said to Hci, "expeditiously and apace."

"Splendid," said he.

"Master!" sobbed the girl.

"What?" I asked.

"I cannot undo the knot," she said, tears in her eyes. "You have tied it too tightly!"

I handed the reins of the tarn to Cuwignaka. I crouched down beside the girl.

"I have tried," she said. "I have tried! Please, don't whip me!"

I unfastened the knot.

"Thank you, Master!" she said.

"Quickly now, to your work," I said.

"Yes, Master!" she said. "Oh!" she cried, in surprise and pain. I had sped her on her way with a proprietary slap.

I turned, grinning, to face Cuwignaka and Hci. Cuwignaka, not unwillingly, returned the reins of the tarn to me.

"Can you ride such a beast as this, truly, Tatankasa?" asked Hci.

"Yes," I said.

"It amazes me that such a thing can be done," he said.

"It can be done," I assured him.

"Perhaps the Kinyanpi have some special medicine, some special powers," he said.

"No," I said. "They are men, such as you and me."

"The back of the bird, the feathers, are drenched with blood," he said.

"It is dried now," I said.

"It is not yet that dry," he said, pinching some between his fingers. There was a reddish smudge there, not a brownish-red poweder.

"You are right," I granted him.

"This was done, then, not so long ago," he said.

"That is true," I said. I had not seen any reason, earlier, to point this out.

"The rider," he said, "surely only something from the medicine world could have done that to him. It is like finding only a foot in a moccasin."

"Are you afraid?" I asked.

"Yes," said Hci.

"I find that hard to believe," I said.

"You know what it is that I fear, do you not, Cuwignaka, Mitokola?" asked Hci.

"Yes," said Cuwignaka.

"What?" I asked Cuwignaka.

"It is nothing," said Cuwignaka. "It is only a matter of myth."

"What?" I asked.

"He fears that it could only have been the work of Wakanglisapa," said Cuwignaka.

"Wakanglisapa?" I asked.

"Yes, Wakanglisapa, 'Black Lightning, the Medicine Tar," said Cuwignaka.

"That is foolish, Hci, my friend," I said.

"I do not think so," he said. "While I crouched in the grass, awaiting the landing of the tarn, I found something. I would like to show it to you."

Neither Cuwignaka nor myself spoke. We watched Hci return to the place in the grass where he had waited, bow ready, for the landing of the tarn. In a moment or two he had returned to where we stood.

In his hands he carried a large feather.

"It is black," said Cuwignaka.

"There are many black tarns," I said.

"Consider its size, Tatnkasa, Mitakola," said Cuwignaka, in awe.

"It is large," I granted him. It was some five feet in length. It could only have come from a very large tarn.

"It is the feather of Wakanglisapa, the Medicine Tarn," said Hci.

"There is no such beast," I said.

"This is his feather," said Hci.

I said nothing.

Hci examined the skies. "Even now," he said, "Wakanglishapa may be watching us."

I, too, scanned the skies. "The skies seem clear," I said.

"The beasts of the medicine world," said Hci, "may appear, or not, as they please."

"Do not be foolish my friend," I said.

Hci thrust the feather down, like a lance, in the dirt. I looked at it. Its barbs moved in the wind.

"Let us draw the travois ourselves," said Hci. "It will save time."

"Cuwignaka and I will draw it, after we have tied the reins of this tarn to one of the poles," I said. "You go ahead, to fetch the kaiila, and then meet us."

"I think it will be better if we all remain together," said Hci.

"You feel there is danger?" I asked.

"Great danger," said Hci.

"We shall wait then, too, for the slave," I said.

"It is well, unless we wish to risk losing her," said Hci.

"Let us not risk losing her," I said. "She may be worth as much as a kaiila."

"Yes," said Hci. It seemed not improbable that the former Lady Mira of Venna might bright that much in a bartering.

In a few moments the slave had joined us. She had worked swiftly. She had not needed to be hastened with blows.

"It is not necessary to tie me by the neck to a travois pole, Master," she said.

I slapped her, snapping her head to the side.

"Forgive me, Master," she said.

"It seems you still have much to learn about being a slave," I said.

"I am eager to learn," she said, her head down.

"I will help," said Hci.

"No," I said. "Your wound might open."

"I will keep watch on the skies then," said Hci.

"Good," I said.

"What are you doing?" asked Hci.

I had uprooted the feather and placed it on the travois, with the bound tarn.

"I am taking the feather," I said. "It may prove useful."

"I do not know if that is wise, Tatankasa," said Hci. He shuddered.

"It is all right," I said. "I have an idea." If Hci were convinced that such a feather was that of the fabled medicine tarn, Wakanglisapa, perhaps others, too, might so regard it.

I checked that the reins of the unbound tarn were bound securely to the right travois pole, looking forward. I then checked the slave's rope, that it was securely bound on the left travois pole, looking forward, and that a smiliar, uncompromising security was manifested in the neck-knot, at the other end of the rope, under the girl's chin.

"The knots are tight. I am well tethered, Master," she said. When my hands were at the knot she suddenly, desperately, licked and kissed at my wrists. Her eyes looked at me, eseechingly. She lifted her lips to mine. I took her nude, tethered body in my arms. It is glorious to kiss a slave, a woman one owns.

"Let us be on our way, Tatankasa," said Cuwignaka.

"Yes," I said. I disengaged myself from the slave, and slipped into the harness beside Cuwignaka. We would draw the travois tegether. We did not enter the girl inot the harness. We did not wish to be slowed by her shorter steps and lesser strength. I did not doubt, however, that the girl, not having to pull, would be ale to keep up with us. If nothing else the neck tether and blows from Hci would see to it.

"Do you see anything Hci?" asked Cuwignaka.

"No," said Hci.

"You do not believe in Wakanglisapa, do you?" I asked Cuwignaka.

"Sometimes," said Cuwignaka, uneasily, "I do not know what to believe."

"I see," I said.

"There is the feather," said Cuwignaka.

"It is only the feather of a large tarn," I said.

"Something did what it did to the rider, to he of the Kinyanpi," said Cuwignaka.

"That is true," I granted him.

"And it is still out there," said Cuwignaka.

"Somewhere, doubtless," I said.

"It was Wakanglisapa," said Hci.

"Do you see anything?" I asked.

"No," said Hci.

"Then do not worry," I said.

"Tatankasa," said Hci.

"Yes?" I said.

"Leave the feather," said Hci.

"No," I said. I then, followed by Cuwignaka, threw my weight against the harness. The travois moved forward easily. The tarn, even an adult one, is a bird and is light for its bulk.

"One thing puzzles me in this," I said, after a time, to Cuwignaka. "Why would a tarn, if it was a tarn, have attaked a rider in flight. That is extremely unusual."

"It is explained in the legend of Wakanglisapa," said Cuwignaka.

"Tell me," I said.

"It is said that Wakanglisapa prizes his feathers and is jealous of them, for they contain powerful medicine."

"So?" I said.

"Perhaps the rider had found the feather and was carrying it, when Wakanglisapa came to reclaim it."

"I see," I said.

"We did find the feather in the vicinity," said Cuwignaka. "Perhaps it had been dropped by the rider."

"That is possible," I said.

"That is why Hci wanted the feather left behind," said Cuwignaka.

"I see," I said.

"He is afraid that Wakanglisapa may come searching for his feather."

I shivered. "Do you see anything, Hci?" I asked.

"No," he said.