Kajira of Gor

13 The Golden Cage; Miles of Argentum Speaks With Me

I clutched the arms of the throne in terror.

Before this I had heard the screams of the crowd outside the doors, their shouting and pounding, then the striking of a heavy beam against the door. Men and women, many in rags, brandishing knives and implements, mixed with soldiers, poured into the great ball. The doors were open, and one bung awry on its hinges. The mob, with the soldiers, swirling about the heavy beam, now dropped, which had been used to breach the doors, flooded toward the dais. At the foot of the dais, shaking fists, shouting angrily, some restrained by soldiers, the crowd stopped.

"Cut her to piecesl" I heard. "Tear her to piecesl"

"She is "Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrust" cried men in the crowd. "It is Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrusl" "It is shel" "It is Sheilal" "It is Sheila, the Tatrix of Corcyrusl"

I moaned. I was terrified that they should know that.

Miles of Argentum sheathed his sword. He handed his helmet to one of the men with him.

He approached the throne.

"Please, don't," I said.

Then he jerked away the veil of state from my features. I, though a free woman, had been face-stripped before free men. My face was as bare to them as though I might be a slave. Face-stripping a free woman, against her will, can be a serious crime on Gor. On the other hand, Corcyrus had now fallen. Her women, thusly, now at the feet of her conquerors, would be little better than slaves. Any fate could now be inflicted on them that the conquerors might wish, including making them actual slaves. The hand of Miles of Argentum then brushed back my robes, that my whole head and features, to the throat, might be revealed to the crowd.

"This is the way in which I am more accustomed to seeing you," he said. "Greetings, Lady Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrus." if "I am Tiffany Collins," I said, weakly. "I am from Earth."

"Your features," said Miles of Argenturn, "are surely well known to hundreds, if not thousands."

"Cut her to piecesl" cried men in the crowd. "Tear her to piecesl" cried women in the crowd.

"I am from Earthl" I cried. "I am Tiffany Collinsl"

"Bring forth the palace slave called Susan," said Miles of Argentum. Susan, from somewhere in the back, was thrust forward. I gasped.

She was absolutely naked, save that she still wore the collar of Ligurious. Her hands were bound behind her back.

In her nose there was a small, circular, wire apparatus which P;j had apparently been held open, thrust through her septum, and then permitted to spring shut. Attached to this apparatus, tied through it, dangling, was a looped thong, about two feet in length. It was clearly a device by means of which a slave, or perhaps any female, might be led.

"You are Susan, are you not," inquired Miles of Argentum, "who was as personal serving slave to Sheila, the Tatrix of Corcyrus?"

"Yes, Master," she said.

He indicated that she might kneel before the throne.

"Is this she who was to you as Mistress?" inquired Miles of Argenturn, addressing himself to the terrified slave from Cincinnati at his feet.

"Tell them I am Tiffany Collins, from Earth I" I told Susan.

"'She is truly from Earth, I think, Master," wept Susan, and that is what, I recall, she told me her name was."

I almost cried out with relief.

"And putting aside such former names and worlds," said Miles, "as whom do you know her here?"

Susan began to tremble.

"You know the penalties for a slave who lies," said Miles. "Think carefully and well, my small, nose-ringed beauty."

"She is she who was to me as Mistress," said Susan, sobbing, "she whom I served, Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrus."

There was a cry of elation from the crowd.

"Forgive me, Mistressl" cried Susan. She then, at a sign from Miles, led by the thong, in the grip of a soldier, hurrying, almost running, that she did not place the least stress on the device in her nose, was being conducted rapidly from the room. I supposed she would be placed with other women, perhaps wearing similar devices. They can be tied about slave ring% fastened to other such thongs, and so on. Just before the soldier had grasped the thong I had seen her wildly look at Miles of Argentum. Doubtless she remembered him well from the audience, so long ago. Too, I thought it quite likely that be remembered her. In that audience he had looked upon her as though she might not be likely to quickly slip his mind. Too, he had had her summoned to the dais by her palace name. She had tried to read in his countenance, in that brief, wild instant, before she was removed from the dais, her fate, but she had been unable to do so. He was not, perhaps by intention, even looking at her. She did not know then if, when the collar of Ligurious was removed from her, she would be sent to his headquarters or not. There, of course, if she were found sufficiently pleasing, after perhaps a closer examination and trial, another collar might be put on her. She would, in any case, wear one collar or another, somewhere. She was a slave.

I the captain from Ar," said Miles of Argentum. lean figure entered the hall, and approached now "long aisle.

"Drusus Rencius, Captain of Ar, on detached service to the forces of Argentum," said Miles of Argentum. "I believe you two have met."

I shook my bead, disbelievingly. I had been told he was a renegade from Ar. Twice, I knew, suddenly realizing it now, he could have me from Corcyrus, delivering me to Argenturn, once when we were on the walls near the tarn perches and once, later, when, my whereabouts unknown to Ligurious and others, I had been in the house of Kliomenes, braceleted, half naked and helpless. But he had not abducted me, nor attempted to do so. It seemed rather he had, for whatever reason or reasons, preferred, as he had once remarked on the walls of Corcyrus, to let the game take its course.

"Do you know this woman, Captain?" asked Miles, general of Argentum. Drusus Rencius handed his helmet to a soldier and climbed then to the height of the throne.

He put out his hands and lifted me to my feet before the throne. He then held me by the upper arms and looked down, deeply, into my eyes.

I shuddered. This was not a matter in which he wished to risk any mistake. "Yes," be said.

"How do you know her?" asked Miles of Argenturn.

"I was, for several weeks," he said, "her personal body-guard."

"You know her then quite well?" asked Miles.

"Yes," said Drusus Rencius.

"Can you identify her?" asked Miles.

"Yes," said Drusus Rencius.

"Who is she?" asked Miles of Argentum.

"She is Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrus," said Drusus Rencius.

There was a sudden cry of pleasure and victory from the crowd. Drusus Rencius released me, and turned about, and, descending ffom the dais and making his way through the crowd, left.

I watched him leave.

"Strip her," said Miles of Argentum, "and put her in golden chains, and put her in the golden cage."

I felt the hands of soldiers at my clothing. It was torn from me, before the very throne. Then, when I was absolutely naked, a golden collar, to which a chain was attached, with Jk~ wrist rings and ankle rings, was brought. It was a chaining system of that sort called a sirik. M? chh, was thrust up and I felt the golden collar locked on my throat. Almost at the same time my wrists, field closely together before me, were locked helplessly in the wrist rings. In another instant my ankles, held, were helpless in the ankle rings. A chain then ran from my collar to the chain on my wrist rings and from thence, the same chain, to tile chain on my ankle rings. My ankle-ring chain was about twelve inches in length, and my wrist-ring chain was about six inches in length. The central chain, where it dangled down from the wrist rings, Jay on the floor before the throne, before it looped up to where it was closed about a central link of the ankle-ring chain. This permits; the prisoner, usually a slave, to lift her arms. She is thus in a position to feed herself or better exhibit tier beauty to masters in a wider variety of postures and attitudes than would otherwise be the case. The point of the sirik is not merely to confine a woman, but to confine her beautifully.

Two guards then held me, one by each arm, before the throne. I was naked. I was chained. I wore the sirik.

They lifted me up, then, at a sign from Miles of Argenturn. I was absolutely helpless. My feet must have been some six or seven inches from the floor before the throne. Even by pointing my toes I could not couch the carpeting. I was held there, being exhibited to the crowd, chained in the sirik.

"Behold the Tatrix of Corcyrus," called Miles of Argentum, indicating me with a sweeping gesture, "helpless, and in chainsl"

There was a wild cheer from the crowd, almost a shriek, as though for blood. "Will you come back for me?" I had asked Ligurious.

"Have no fear, Lady Sheila," he had said. "You will be come for." "Soon?" I had asked.

"Yes," he had said. Then he had bade me farewell, and left.

I looked down on the crowd, into the wild eyes, the upraised fists. I saw, too, the soldiers. I moved helplessly in the chains, held before the crowd. Ligurious and the woman, and the others, had doubtless, by now, on tams, made good their escape. The uniforms the men had worn were not unlike that in which I had just seen Drusus Rencius, and not unlike those of certain others about the dais, soldiers. They were, I took it, babilifnents of Ar. The woman in the slave collar and on the leash, covered by the sheet, her bare feet and ankles visible beneath it, would presumably be assumed to be merely a naked captive.

I struggled in the chains. The words of Ligurious, that I would be come for, now took on a new and frightful meaning for me.

I looked down into the crowd.

Now it seemed, truly, I had been come for.

"Make wayl Clear the way!" called Miles of Argentum. Soldiers began to clear the aisle of men and women, that we might have a clear exit from the great hall. I was lowered to my feet.

"What are you going to do with me?" I asked Miles of Argentum.

"We are going to take you into the courtyard," he said, and put you in the golden cage. You may recall that I told you once that you belonged in a cage, a golden cage."

Tears sprang into my eyes. I did not want to be put into a cage. I was not a slave, or another type of animal. Too, I did not understand the meaning of a golden cage.

At a sign from Miles of Argentum a soldier picked me up, lightly, in his arms. He held me as easily as though I might have been a child.

Then, in his arms, I was carried rapidly down the steps of the dais and down the aisle, between the halves of the parted crowd.

In a matter of but moments I was blinking against the sunlight in the courtyard. Too, I felt the heat and the sun on my bared skin. I was put on my feet near a tall, narrow, cylindrical cage with a conical top. The height of this cage was about seven feet; its rounded floor was perhaps a yard in diameter. In the top of the cage, at the top of the cone, on the outside, there was a heavy ring. I was thrust into the cage and the door was locked shut behind me.

It had two locks, one about a third up from the door and the other about a third down from the top.

"In this cage, Lady Sheila," said Miles of Argentum, "you will be paraded through the streets of Corcyrus, exhibited in Our triumph. Doubtless you will enjoy receiving the love and devotion of your people. You will, thereafter, be transported n this same cage to Argentum. I might mention to you that he bars of this cage, like the chains you wear, are not of pure gold, but of a sturdy golden alloy. Similarly, portions of the cage, like the floor and the interior of the top, and the gilded cone ring, are of iron. You will find that the holding power of these various devices is more than adequate, by several factors, to hold ten strong men. Incidentally, allow me to commend you on how well you look in chains. You wear them beautifully enough to be a slave." I clutched the golden bars, in order not to fall.

"Your body, also," he said, "is beautiful enough to be that of a slave." I moaned. I could see men approaching, with rope. Too, behind them, drawn by two tharlarion, came a flat-topped wagon. At the back of this wagon was an arrangement of beams, with a projecting, supported, perpendicularly mounted beam that extended forward, some fifteen feet in the air, toward the front of the wagon. At the forward portion of this projecting beam there was a ring, not unlike the one on the top of the cage.

Miles of Argentum surveyed me, and the chains, and the cage.

"Yes," he said, "these arrangements all seem suitable and efficient. I think we may count on your arriving in Argentum in good order."

A rope was being passed through the ring at the top of my cage.

The flat-topped wagon was being drawn near. I gathered that the cage would be suspended from the ring on the projecting beam on the wagon, that it would hang suspended over the surface of the wagon, some feet from the flat bed of the wagon. From within the cage, it suspended thusly, I would not even be able to touch anything outside of the cage.

I was totally in their power.

I was inutterably helpless.

"What are you taking me to Argentum for?" I asked.

"For impalement," he said.