Explorers Of Gor

48
We Acquire Three New Members For Our Party, Two Of Whom Are Slave Girls

I kicked her. "I will take this one," I said.

The leader of the small people then untied the ankles of the blond girl and unbound the fastening that held her, by her vine collar, to the loop tied about the log.

"Stand up," he told her. She stood up. She still wore her gag. It had been removed only to feed and water her.

The leader of the talunas stood before me, a vine collar on her throat, her hands tied behind her back.

"Put your head down," I told her. She lowered her head.

I then went to the white male, who had been the captive of the talunas, released by the small people from his prison hut before they burned the taluna village.

He knelt in the clearing, in the chain of the talunas, shackles on his ankles and wrists, connected to a common chain depending from a heavy iron collar.

"You were with Shaba," I said.

"Yes," he said, "an oarsman."

"Do I not know you?" I asked.

"Yes," said he. "I am Turgus, who was of Port Kar. It was because of you I was banished from the city."

"The fault," I smiled, "seems rather yours, for it seems it was your design to do robbery upon me."

It had been he, with his confederate, Sasi, who had attempted to attack me in Port Kar, along the side of the canal leading to the pier of the Red Urt.

He shrugged. "I did not know you were of the Warriors," he said.

"How came you upon the river?" I asked.

"When banished from Port Kar," he said, "I must leave the city before sundown. I took passage on a ship to Bazi, as an oarsman. From Bazi I went to Schendi. In Schendi I was contacted by an agent of Shaba, who was secretly recruiting oarsmen for a venture in the interior. The pay promised to be good. I joined his expedition."

"Where now is Shaba?" I asked.

"Doubtless, by now," said he, "he had been destroyed. Our ships were subjected to almost constant attack and ambush. There were accidents, a wreck, and several capsizings. We lost supplies. We were attacked from the jungles. There was sickness."

"Shaba did not turn back?" I asked.

"He is dauntless," said the man. "He is a great leader."

I nodded. It was a judgment in which it was necessary to concur.

"How came you to be separated from him? I asked.

"Shaba, lying ill in a camp," he said, "gave permission that all who wished to leave might be free to do so."

"You left?" I said.

"Of course," he said. "It was madness to continue further on the river. I, and others, making rafts, set out to return to Ngao and Ushindi."

"Yes?" I said.

"We were attacked the first night," he said. "All in my party were killed save myself, who escaped. I wandered westward, paralleling the river." He cast a glance at the talunas, trussed kneeling by the log, their heads down, fastened to it, their necks helpless to the blow of the panga, should it descend. "I fell to these women," he said. He lifted his chained wrists. "They made me their work slave," he said.

"Surely they forced you to serve their pleasure, as well," I said.

"Sometimes they would beat me and mount me," he said.

"Unchain him. He is a male," I said.

Ayari, with a key taken from a pouch found in the hut of the taluna leader, unlocked the chains of Turgus, who had been from Port Kar.

"You are freeing me?" he asked.

"Yes," I said, "you are free to go."

"I would choose to remain," he said.

"Fight," I told him.

"What?" he asked.

"Strike at me," I said.

"But you have freed me," he said.

"Strike," I told. him.

He struck out at me and I blocked the blow and, striking him in the stomach and then across the side of the face, sent him grunting and sprawling to the debris of the jungle floor.

He sprang to his feet, angrily, and I struck him down again. He was strong. Four more times he rose to do combat, but then he could not again climb to his feet. He tried to do so, but fell back.

I then pulled him to his feet. "It is our intention to go upriver," I told him.

"That is madness," he said.

"You are free to go," I told him.

"I choose to remain," he said.

"Kisu and I," I said, indicating the former Mfalme of Ukungu, "are before you. You will take your orders from us. You will do what we tell you, and well."

Kisu lifted a spear, and shook it.

Turgus rubbed his jaw, and grinned. "You are before me, both of you," he said. "Have no fear. I will take my orders. and well."

"Insubordination," I said, "will be punished with death."

"I understand," said Turgus.

"We are not gentlemen like Shaba," I said.

Turgus smiled. "On the river," said he, "Shaba is not a gentleman either." On the river, he knew, and all knew, there must be strict discipline.

"We now well understand one another, do we not?" I asked.

"That we do," said he, "-Captain."

"Examine these women," I said, indicating the line of kneeling, trussed talunas. "Which among them pleases you most?"

'That one," said he, indicating the slender-legged, dark-haired girl who had been, as we had determined, second in command among the talunas. There was a menace in his voice.

"Perhaps you remember her well from your enslavement?" I asked.

"Yes," he said. "I do well remember her."

"She is yours," I said.

The girl began to involuntarily shudder. "No," she begged, "please, do not give me to him!"

"You are his," I told her.

"He will kill me," she cried.

"If he wishes," I said.

"Please do not kill me," she cried to Turgus. "I will try to please you totally, and in all ways!"

He did not speak.

"I will be the most loving and lowly slave a man could ask," she wept. "Please, let me try to earn my life!"

He untied her ankles and freed her vine collar from the loop on the trunk of the tree. He threw her to her feet and pushed her head down, submissively. She then stood, hands tied behind her, beside the blond girl, the leader of the talunas.

I took two pair of slave bracelets from the foot of the taluna camp. Girls such as talunas keep such things about in case slave girls should fall into their hands. They are extremely cruel to slave girls, whom they regard as having betrayed their sex by surrendering as slaves to men. Actually, of course, it seems likely that their hatred of slave girls, which tends to be unreasoning and vicious, is due less to lofty sentiments than to their own intense jealousy of the joy and fulfillment of their imbonded sisters. The joyful slave girl, obedient to her master's wishes, is an affront and, more frighteningly, an unanswerable and dreadful threat to their most cherished illusions. Perhaps they wish to be themselves slaves. Why else should they hate them so?

I slipped the straps on the wrists of the blond girl a bit higher on her wrists. I then, below the straps, snapped her wrists into one of the pairs of slave bracelets from the loot of the taluna camp. I then untied the straps which had, hitherto, confined her wrists. Her hands, then, were still fastened behind her, but now in slave bracelets.

I loosened the gag from the mouth of the blond girl and let it fall, its wadding looped about it, before her throat.

She threw up on the jungle floor. The wadding smelled. She threw back her head, gasping for air. I cleaned her mouth with a handful of leaves.

"Do you wish to be a slave girl?" I asked her.

"No," she said. "No!"

"Very well," I said. I threw the other pair of slave bracelets to Turgus. He snapped them on the dark-haired girl and then, as I had, freed her wrists of the earlier binding, which had been, in her case, a length of vine rope from the small people.

She looked at him, puzzled.

"Do you wish to be a slave girl?" he asked.

"No," she said, "no, no!"

"Very well," he said.

I grasped the hand of the leader of the small people in friendship. "I wish you well," I said. "I wish you well," he said.

Then I and Kisu, followed by Turgus, and by Janice, Alice and Tende, turned about to leave the clearing. We would return to our hidden canoe, beached near the river, near which we had concealed many of our supplies.

"What shall we do with these?" called the leader of the small people. We turned about He indicated the line of miserable, trussed talunas.

"Whatever you wish," I told him, "they are yours."

"What of those?" he asked. He indicated the blond girl who had been the leader of the talunas and the dark-haired girl, who had been her second in command. They stood, their hands braceleted behind them, confused, in the clearing.

"They were ours," I said. "We let them go. Let them go."

"Very well," he said.

Kisu and I, and Turgus, and our girls, Alice, Janice and Tende, then left the clearing.

"Unlock our bracelets," begged the blond girl. She and the dark-haired girl had followed us to the edge of the river.

Kisu and I, and Ayari, were sliding our canoe, from which we had removed its camouflage, toward the water. The girls, Janice, Alice and Tende, with the paddles and supplies, accompanied us.

Then we were at the edge of the water.

"Please," begged the blond girl. She turned, that her wrists, enclosed snugly in the linked, steel bracelets, might be exposed to me. "Please unlock our bracelets," she begged. "Please, please!" begged, too, the dark-haired girl.

Kisu and Ayari thrust the canoe into the water. Janice, Alice and Tende, wading, placed the paddles and supplies in the canoe, and then, entering the narrow vessel, assumed their places.

"Please free us," begged the blond girl.

"They are only slave bracelets," I said. "Free yourselves."

"We cannot do so," said the blond girl. "We are women, and have only women's strength."

I shrugged.

"Please," she begged again.

"Did you think, noble free women," I asked, "that you might do fully as you wished, that no penalties would be inflicted upon you?"

"You cannot leave us here!" she wept. She looked behind her, fearfully, at the jungle.

Turgus and I waded to the canoe, which Kisu and Ayari held steady in the water.

"Please," begged the blond girl. "You cannot leave us here!"

I turned to face her. "You have lost," I told her. I turned away.

'There is another penalty which may be inflicted upon free women," cried the blond.

I turned again to face her. "Do not even speak of it," I said. "It is too degrading and horrifying. Surely death is a thousand times more preferable."

"I beg that other penalty," said the blond, kneeling in the mud on the shore. "I, too," cried the dark-haired girl, kneeling. too, in the mud. "I, too!"

"Speak clearly," I said.

"We beg enslavement," said the blond, "Enslave us, we beg of you!"

"Enslave yourselves," I said.

"I declare myself a slave," said the blond, "and I submit myself to you as my master." She put her head down to the mud. "I declare myself a slave," said the dark-haired girl, and then she turned to face Turgus, "and I submit myself to you as my master." She then put her head down, like the blond, to the mud.

"Lift your head," I said to the blond. "Lift your head," said Turgus to the other girl. The two girls lifted their heads, anxiously.

"You are now only two slaves," I said.

"Yes, Master," mid the blond. "Yes. Master," said the dark-haired girl. They had declared themselves slaves. The slave herself, of course, once the declaration has been made, cannot revoke it. That would be impossible, for she is then only a slave. The slave can be freed only by one who owns her, only by one who is at the time her master or, if it should be the case, her mistress. The legal point, I think, is interesting. Sometimes, in the fall of a city, girls who have been enslaved, girls formerly of the now victorious city, will be freed. Technically, according to Merchant Law, which serves as the arbiter in such intermunicipal matters, the girls become briefly the property of their rescuers, else how could they be freed? Further, according to Merchant Law, the rescuer has no obligation to free the girl. In having been enslaved she has lost all claim to her former Home Stone. She has become an animal. If, too, she is sufficiently desirable, it is almost certain she will not be freed. As the Goreans have it, such women are too beautiful to be free. Too, as often as not, city pride enters into such matters. Such girls, with other slave girls, both of various cities and with the former free women of the conquered city, now collared slaves, too, will often be marched naked in chains in the loot processions of the conquering cities. It is claimed they have shamed their former city by having fallen slave, and if they were good enough to be only slaves in the conquered city then surely they should be no more within the walls of the victorious city. Such girls usually are marched in a special position in the loot processions, behind and before banners which proclaim their shame. The people much abuse them and lash them as they pass. Such girls usually beg piteously to be sold to transient slavers. It is hard for them to wear their collars in their own city.

Kisu and Ayari, and Turgus and I, entered the canoe. "Masters!" cried the blond, kneeling in the mud, her hands braceleted behind her. "Wait!" cried the dark-haired girl.

"You are slaves," I told them. "You may be left behind." The prow of the canoe swung slowly toward the center of the river.

"Do not leave us!" cried the blond. She struggled to her feet and, slipping, waded splashing to the side of the canoe. So, too, did the dark-haired girl.

The canoe was now in waist-deep water.

The blond, wading beside it, crying, thrust her body against its side. "Please," she begged, "please!" Both the girls still wore the vine collars on their throats, which the small people had affixed on them, that they might be fastened more easily at the fallen tree. The blond, too, still had looped about her neck her gag lashing with its unrolled, dependent wadding looped about it.

"Let us serve you as work slaves!" cried the blond. "Yes, Master, please!" cried the dark-haired girl. The canoe continued to move, and the two girls waded, weeping, beside it. "Let us serve you as work and pleasure slaves!" cried the blond. "Yes, Masters," cried the dark-haired girl. "Please, please!"

"Do you have the makings of a pleasure slave?" I asked the blond. I held her by the vine collar at the side of the canoe.

"Yes, Master," she wept. "Yes, Master!" "I, too," cried the dark-haired girl.

I pulled the blond into the canoe, kneeling before me, her back to me. She was shuddering. Turgus drew the weeping trembling dark-haired girl, too, into the canoe. She fainted, overcome, and he placed her on her side, knees drawn up, before him.

"Where are you from?" I asked the blond girl.

"I, and Fina," she said, indicating with her head the dark-haired girl, "are from Turia. The other girls are from various cities in the south."

"Did you spy upon us once," I asked, "further down the river?"

"Yes," she said. "It was I. We then determined to try and trap you, for slaves." Ayari, then, long ago, had, as I had suspected, seen a taluna in the forest. He had thought it might have been Janice, gathering wood.

"How came you to the rain forests?" I asked.

"I, and Fina, and the others," she said, "fled undesired companionships."

"But now you have fallen slave," I said.

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Your entire band," I said, "will doubtless know no nobler fate."

"Yes, Master," she said. She shuddered. "We now, all of us, belong to men."

"Yes," I said.

"You left our vine collars on," she said. "You knew, did you not, that we would beg slavery?

"Yes," I said.

"But how could you know?" she asked.

"Though you and the others have fought your femininity," I said, "yet you and they are both beautiful and feminine."

"You knew that we were natural slaves?" she said.

"Of course," I said.

"I will no longer be permitted to fight my femininity, will I?" she asked.

"No," I said. "You are now a slave girl. You will yield to it, and fully."

"I'm frightened," she said.

'That is natural," I said.

"It will make me so loving and helpless," she said.

"Yes," I said.

"Can I dare, too, now," she asked, "to be sensuous?"

"If you are not fully pleasing in all the modalities of the slave girl, sensuous and otherwise," I said, "you will be severely punished."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Or slain," I said.

"Yes, Master," she whispered.

The canoe moved into the center of the river. "I do not know how to be a slave girl," she suddenly wept. I thrust her head down, "You will begin," I said, "by learning to be docile and submissive." I then rewound the wadding and, dragging her head up briefly, by the hair, from behind, pushed it into — her mouth and lashed, it in place. I then again thrust her head down. "Also," I said, "you will consider whether or not, at a given time, your master wishes to hear you speak. If you are in doubt, you may ask his permission to speak, which may then be granted or denied, as he pleases."

She nodded, piteously signifying her slave's assent.

We then continued our journey eastward.

In a few moments she began to tremble. Tears fell from her eyes, staining her thighs and the wood of the canoe bottom. I put her then gently on her stomach, her head turned to the left. She shuddered and then, exhausted by her ordeal, fell asleep.

We paddled on.

We would let the new slaves sleep for a time. Then, in an Ahn or so, we would put our hands upon them and, holding them by the hair and the braceleted wrists, thrust them half over the side, immersing their heads and torsos in the river, that they might be awakened. We would then pull them back into the canoe, tie their ankles to a thwart and remove their slave bracelets. Paddles would be thrust into their hands. Janice, Alice and Tende might then rest, and the new girls, fresh, raw slaves, but now more cognizant than before of their condition, might contribute to our progress on the river.