Vagabonds of Gor

24 I Will Hunt

"Look," I said. "There!"

"Yes," she said.

No longer was she in the gag. Too, her hands were now bound before her, tied at her belly. As she improved in her services, and discipline, I accorded her more privileges. To be sure, the strap was still on her neck, keeping her in place as she waded behind the raft. Also, I had not yet seen fit to accord her the luxury of clothing, such as I might manage, even so much as a cord and slave strip. As a free women she might, unlike a slave, take such things for granted.

"Did you see it before?" I asked.

"Is it the same one?" she asked.

"Yes," I said, "I am sure of it."

"I heard of it in the reports," she said.

"But you have never been inside one?" I said.

"No," she said.

"Are you afraid to enter?" I asked.

"Of course not," she said.

I poled the raft to the side and put it in some rence, on a bar of sand.

"You are untethering me?" she asked.

"Yes," I said. I unbuckled the collar, putting it, with the strap, on the raft.

"You are untying me?" she said.

"Yes," I said. I unknotted the binding fiber behind the small of her back, and then, with the two ends free, untied her hands.

I then started for the abandoned barge. I did look back, in the moonlight, to see if she were following. She stood at the edge of the rence, within which we had concealed the raft.

"Are you coming?" I asked.

She did not respond. She was pale there, in the moonlight, by the rence.

"Are you afraid?" I asked.

"No!" she said, wading toward me.

In a moment I had climbed up, over the stern of the barge. I put my hand down to her, and helped her up.

"Wait here," I said.

I then, carefully, sword drawn, entered. It was dusty, as before, and I did not think anyone had been in it since the investigation of the men of Ar, when I had been in their power. One could see dimly within it, the moonlight, in some places, filtering in through the dilapidated shutters, in other places, streaming in, unimpeded, where the shutters had been broken or removed. I looked about. The benches, and the iron, were still there. I then sheathed the sword and went out onto the deck, where the girl waited.

"What sort of barge is this?" she asked.

"Was it not made clear to you in the reports?" I asked.

"It is a slave barge," she said.

"Yes," I said.

"I do not wish to enter it," she said, suddenly.

"But you are curious," I said.

"I do not wish to enter it," she said.

"Come around to the front," I said, taking her by the arm, "to the forward door."

"Why?" she asked.

"Because that is the usual way girls are entered into it," I said.

I conducted her to the forward door.

"And they are commonly removed from it by the, aft door."

She stopped at the threshold.

"Are you afraid?" I asked.

"Yes," she said.

"Many girls have entered this door," I said.

She stood on the threshold. "I am afraid!" she said.

"Enter," I said.

She entered, her own small bare feet making their way over the dusty threshold, my hand no longer on her arm.

Inside, she gasped.

I entered behind her. "It was this barge," I said, "which was sighted many days ago. It must have been followed for more than a hundred pasangs through the marsh."

She was silent.

"It may have been that Cosians conducted it," I said, "and then deserted it, but I think it more likely it was merely a derelict to begin with, perhaps abandoned months ago, drifting with the currents."

She walked a few feet forward, toward the aisle, with its benches on either side. I saw the print of her small feet in the dust of the floor. She had high arches. That might be helpful, if she were to be trained in dance.

"To be sure," I said, "some days having passed, it is presumably now pasangs from the point where the men of Ar caught up to it. On the other hand, it is hard to tell, and it may have been caught on one or more bars for any period from an Ahn to days."

She stopped, a few feet before the first bench, on the right. She stood there, very quietly.

"It is, at any rate," I said, "not at the same point in the delta where it was before. I would otherwise recognize the area, I am sure."

She turned about and looked at me.

"Yes," I said. "This barge was used in the transportation of owned women, female slaves."

She turned about again, to look at the interior of the cabin.

"The shutters," I said, "could be opened only from the outside."

She looked at the windows, to the right.

"When they were new," I said, "not split, not warped and cracked, as now, their closure, I surmise, could plunge the interior into darkness."

She looked back to the benches.

"There are chains about," I said, "but the usual security was in virtue of girl stocks. You can see there, where there are arm rests, and below, for the ankles."

She went slowly toward the bench, almost as though mesmerized. She put out her hand, timidly, to touch the wood.

"Oh!" she said, suddenly becoming aware of my proximity. I had come up behind her.

She jerked her hand back.

"Poor women," I said, "to be the prisoners of such devices."

"No," she said. "They are slaves. It means nothing."

"Sit," I said, "there, between those armrests."

Almost as though in a trance, she turned about and sat on the bench.

"Put your hands on the armrests," I said, "but back, behind the slot in the armrests. I will tell you when to bring them forward. I then slid the lower board of a hinged pair of boards, with matching semicircular openings, into position, in the slots in the armrests. The height of this bottom board came about a hurt above the level of the armrests. "You will now bring your hands forward, placing your wrists in these semicircular openings," I told her. She did so, in an almost unreal, trancelike fashion. I then swung the upper board up, on its hinge, and then down and over the lower board. I then, with the attached clip, using the hasp and staple, locked the two boards together. "You are now in wrist stocks," I told her. I then thrust two clips through matching rings, one set on the stock and armrest to my left, the other on the stock and armrest to my right, securing the stocks in the armrests. "You are now in wrist stocks, held on the bench," I said. "Although the prisoner is unable to reach any of the devices of closure another might be able to do so. Thus, if one wished, these devices could be locked in place."

She tried to withdraw her hands, but could not do so.

"Put your ankles back," I said.

I guided them into their places. The ankle stock is a simpler device, as the rear board is part of the bench. I then found the front board and fixed it in place. I then stepped back to regard her.

"Either the wrist or the ankle stocks would serve to keep you in place," I said. However, the wrist stocks may be removed from the bench and serve as its own bond, if one wishes. Similarly it might be opened, if one wished, say, to free the prisoner's hands for feeding or, if she is a free female, perhaps for the signing of papers." A slave, of course, being a domestic animal, cannot sign papers, not in a legal sense, no more than a tarsk or sleen. Her name, if she has one, is only a slave name, put on her for the convenience of a master. As she does not have a name in her own right, so, too, accordingly, she has no signature in her own right. "To be sure," I said. "It is highly unlikely that a free female would be on this barge."

She squirmed a little, uneasily, on the smooth wood. She tried again to withdraw her hands, futilely. She moved her ankles a little in the ankle stocks.

"Don't you think so?" I asked.

"Of course," she said.

"You will probably agree that you are helpless," I said.

"Yes," she said.

"And yet," I said, "there is yet another device, a similar device, not chains and such, which is often utilized in the keeping of women on a barge such as this. It provides additional security. Also it helps them to keep clearly in mind that they are, if they are, slaves."

She looked at me, puzzled.

Then I looked about and found one of the pairs of long boards, each board with its matching semicircular openings long enough to cover the five positions on one of the benches. I then inserted the rear board in the iron framework above the bench. "Put your head back," I said, "so that your neck, resting back, is half encircled in the semicircular opening." She did so. I then slid the matching board in place, frontally, in the framework, until its back flat edge was flush against the flat front edge of the rear board. In this fashion, by means of the matching semicircular openings in the two boards, her neck was fully, and closely, encircled. I then, by means of metal pins, passing through holes, and clips fastening together matching rings, secured the apparatus in place. As the boards were thick, her chin was forced up.

"How does it feel, Ina?" I asked.

"I am a free woman," she said. "I am a free woman!"

"Would you care to be transported over long distances in this fashion," I asked, "perhaps often in darkness?"

She regarded me.

"Doubtless it might be uncomfortable in such a barge, if the shutters were closed," I said.

She moved her head a little, and her hands.

"You might also note that even if the windows were unshuttered," I said, "they are set well above the eye level of an occupant of one of these benches. On the other hand, from the deck, which is on a higher level, one can easily look down, and within."

She squirmed, helplessly.

"Do you think the slaves kept in such devices can escape?" I asked.

"No," she said.

"And do you think you might escape?"

"No," she said.

"Do not hurt yourself on the wood," I said.

She looked at me.

"To struggle in such devices, if you were a slave," I said, "might earn you a lashing."

Tears came to her eyes.

"Presumably your master would not wish you to risk marking yourself, as that might lower your value."

"I see," she said, bitterly.

"Too," I said, "if you were a slave, presumably you would not wish to mark yourself either, for various reasons."

She looked at me.

"Such might mar your beauty," I said, "and slaves, like other women, are vain of their beauty."

"Some are so proud of it," I said, "that perhaps they should be lashed for it."

She shuddered.

"Also," I said, "if a slave mars her beauty, she may then be less likely to be purchased by an affluent master."

"I understand," she said.

"Many women," I said, "prefer light duties in a rich man's house to heavy labors in a low-caste hovel."

"I suppose so," she said.

"Too," I said, "many would rather be a handsome master's perfumed pleasure slave, his treasure, than a drunken brute's kettle-and-mat girl."

"Yes," she said.

"A strange response from a free woman," I observed. She looked to the side, her chin held high by the boards. "You are probably one of the very few free women," I said, "who have ever sat upon such a bench."

"You put me here!" she said.

"You were curious to know what it would be like," I said. "Why?"

"Nothing," she said.

"Many free women are curious about such things," I said, "what it would be like to wear chains, to be subject to a whip, to have a master, such things."

She did not meet my eyes.

"That is because they are slaves," I said.

"I am a free woman!" she said. "I am a free woman!"

"Do you regard your present restraints as improper?" I asked.

"Yes," she said, "as I am a free woman!"

"But yet you find them exciting," I said.

She looked at me, startled.

"It is an easy enough matter to determine," I said.

She shrank back, as she could.

"But for slaves," I said, "I suppose you would regard them as proper enough."

"Yes," she said, uncertainly.

"As I recall, you have little sympathy for slaves."

"None, of course," she said.

"Because they are slaves?"

"Yes," she said, "of course."

"And they are totally other than you?" I asked.

"Yes," she said.

"But if you were a slave," I said, "such things would be quite fitting for you?"

"I am not a slave!" she said.

"But if you were," I said, "you would regard your susceptibility to such things, your subjection to such things, as quite suitable, as quite desirable, perhaps even proper and imperative?"

"Yes!" she said.

"Where are you going?" she cried.

"Hunting," I said.

"You cannot leave me here, like this!" she cried. I smiled.

"Do not go!" she said. "I beg you not to go!"

"I shall be back," I said, "probably in a few Ahn."

"What of me?" she said.

"You will remain where you are," I said.

"What will I do?" she asked.

"You will sit there," I said, "and think."

"Come back!" she cried.

I turned, by the door. "Release me!" she cried. "You are quite pretty," I told her.

"You can do this to me?" she asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Release me!" she cried. "No," I said.

"I shall scream!" she said.

"I could always gag you," I reminded her.

She made an angry noise.

"On the other hand," I said, "you are an intelligent woman. I will thus leave the matter to your common sense. In the first place there is probably no one around to hear you. At least I hope not. In the second place, if there is anyone around to hear you, it would almost certainly be rencers, and then, I suspect, it would be back to the pole with you."

I thought that she might, even in the moonlight, have turned a shade paler.

"Accordingly," I said, "I would not make too much of a fuss, if I were you."

She moaned.

"You cannot be too downcast," I said, "for I note that your chin is high. If it were any higher you could probably not see me leave at all. You could presumably note only the nature of the ceiling."

"Are you truly going to leave me here, like this?" she wept.

"Yes," I said.