Vagabonds of Gor (41 page)

"The slave must submit, and with perfection, to any man,"

"Yes," she said, shuddering, "she must."

"And how do you feel now?" I asked.

"Feminine," she said. "Very very feminine."

"I think it is now time that we rested," I said. I then knelt across her thighs and pulled her hands together behind her back.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Tying you," I said.

The thongs were still about her wrists, with their dangling ends. I tied these dangling ends together, fastening her wrists, thusly, behind her back.

"What you did to me!" she said, suddenly, bitterly.

"Perhaps you learned something about yourself," I said.

"Do it to me again!" she begged.

"We must rest now," I said.

I crossed her ankles and encircled them tightly, fastening them together, with some binding fiber, taken from my nearby wallet, that on my belt.

"Oh!" she said, her ankles jerked upwards, and fastened to the thongs holding her wrists together.

I then lifted her by the arms to a kneeling position and put her a bit from me on the sand. I then reclined, on one elbow, some grass about, to rest. I regarded her. She struggled a little, then looked at me, angrily. "I am helpless," she said.

"We must rest now," I said.

"And where am I to rest?" she asked.

"Not in the open," I said.

"Where then!" she said.

"Over there!" I said, "in that grass."

"And have you not forgotten something?" she asked.

"Perhaps," I said. "What?"

"How am I to get there?" she asked, ironically.

"On your knees, inch by inch," I said.

"You are the sort of man who masters a woman, aren't you?" she said.

"Go rest now," I said. "We shall be leaving in a few Ahn."

I watched her make her way inch by inch to the destination I had set for her, and then, there in some grass, fall to her shoulder. I saw her, through the grass, lying tied in the sand, regarding me.

I then rested.

***

In a few Ahn I awakened.

Shortly thereafter I removed the raft from its hiding place, readied it, putting it half afloat, and made various preparations for departure. I then went to my fair captive and she awakened as I freed her ankles from her wrists. Aside from this, however, she was still bound hand and foot. I put her over my shoulder, her head to the rear, as a slave is commonly carried, and carried her to the raft.

I sat her down on the rear of the raft, its forward end half afloat. I then picked up a short, buckled strap, cut from the harness I had worn in drawing the raft through the marsh. I wrapped this twice about her neck, closely, and buckled it shut. I then lifted up one end, the loose end, of a long strap, also part of the harness I had worn in drawing the raft through the marsh, and tied it about both of the turns of the strap on her neck. In this way the interior strap, given the pull of the lead strap, could not close on her throat. Similarly, the pressure of the lead strap, if it were transmitted to the turns of the neck strap, as in a slave leash on a girl front-led, would be at the back of her neck, not at the throat. The other end of this strap I had already fastened securely to the rear of the raft. All these things I had done earlier, as part of my preparations for departure.

From the pack I had taken from the island which had been occupied by the men of Ar, in the time of the flies, I took a dry, flat biscuit. I began to feed.

"I am hungry," she said.

I gave her part of the biscuit. I put this in her mouth, bit by bit. In this fashion is a slave sometimes fed. I would hunt and fish when the opportunity presented itself. The delta is rich in resources.

"I am thirsty," she said.

"At this point in the delta," I said, "the water is drinkable."

"The rencers gave me water," she said. "They brought it to me in a dipper."

"And where do you think they obtained it?" I asked.

"Oh," she said.

I looked at her, in the light of the moons, sitting on the rough raft, her ankles crossed and bound, her hands tied behind her, in her improvised collar, on its strap.

"I think I shall rest, if I may," she said.

She then lay down, on her side, on the raft. She moved her body in such a way that there was little doubt of her femaleness, the lovely, cunning she-sleen.

I then thrust the raft fully into the marsh. She observed me, facing me, lying on her side, as I did this, I in the marsh. I then climbed aboard the raft. I bent to her ankles, freeing them of the binding fiber. "Thank you," she said. She stretched her lovely legs. "What are you doing!" she said, suddenly. I lifted her up and dropped her into the marsh, behind the raft. She went under the surface but, in a moment, got her feet under her and came to the surface, wading, sputtering. "What is the meaning of this!" she cried, angrily.

"Why should I pole your extra weight?" I asked, picking up the pole.

"But I am a female!" she said.

She stood there in the water to her waist, the strap going up to her collar.

"I told you," I said, "that you would follow, bound, on a strap."

"No!" she said. "You can't be serious!"

I thrust the pole down into the mud and propelled the raft forward, and about.

"You can't be serious!" she said. "Oh!" I looked back and saw her following, on her strap. "No, please!" she said.

I did not respond to her.

"There are dangers in the marsh!" she said. "Keep a sharp lookout," I advised her. "I do not weigh very much!" she wept.

"True," I said. To a man she was little more than a handful of slave.

"Permit me to ride," she begged.

I did not respond to her.

"Please, please!" she said.

I continued to pole the raft, silently.

"You are strong," she said. "It can make little or no difference to you!

I did not respond to her.

"It is not because of my weight, is it!" she cried.

"No," I said.

"Why, then?" she cried. "What do you want? What must I do? What must I be?"

I did not respond to her.

"Why?" she wept. "Why?"

"You will learn to be humble and obedient," I said.

"I am humble and obedient," she assured me. "I am humble and obedient!"

"We shall see," I said. She began to cry. We continued on.

After a few Ehn she suddenly said, "Wait!" I stopped the raft.

"We are not going north, are we?" she asked.

"No," I said. "We are going south." I had wondered when she would notice that.

"I thought you were going north," she said.

"I changed my mind," I said.

"But Ar is to the south!" she said.

"So, too," said I, "is Brundisium, and Torcadino, and a hundred other cities."

"You are not going to turn me over to the men of Ar!" she cried.

"Perhaps," I said.

"No!" she cried.

"But you are of Ar," I said.

"I betrayed Ar!" she said.

"But surely that would not be known to them," I said.

"I was on the staff of Saphronicus," she said. "I have been an observer for Talena, of Ar. Those who have been in the delta will now have no doubt of the treachery to which they have been subjected."

"Probably not," I said.

"And they know me!" she wept.

"I would suppose so," I said.

"Do not turn me over to men of Ar!" she said.

"Do you not think they would like to have a Cosian spy in their power?"

"Do not turn me over to them!" she begged.

"I think you will learn to be humble and obedient," I said.

"Yes," she said. "I will! I will!"

"But perhaps the men of Ar would not recognize you," I said.

"Captor?" she asked.

"As you are naked, and in bonds," I said, "you might even have difficulty proving your identity, even if you wished to do so, that you are the Lady Ina."

"But then they might see me only as a woman naked and in bonds," she cried, "and treat me accordingly!"

"Yes," I said.

She uttered a profound moan.

"I could, of course, turn you over to Cosians," I said.

"You would not dare!" she cried.

"Come along," I said, poling the raft forward.

"Oh," she said, in misery, wading, hurrying after me.

"That might be interesting," I said, "considering your accent."

"No!" she wept.

"You could always explain to them, in chains at their feet, how you were actually a Cosian spy."

"They would never believe me!" she said. "They would think me a liar, one trying to improve her condition or obtain favorable treatment."

"I would think so," I said.

"And I might be severely punished, or slain!" she said.

"To be sure," I said, "it would be a protestation which I do not think you would care to make twice to the same master, or even twice to any master."

She moaned.

"Too," I said, "even if they believed you, I think you might learn that the average Cosian is no more fond of spies, of whatever side, than the average fellow of Ar."

"What would they do to me?" she asked.

"I do not know," I said, "but I do not think that I, if I were you, would care to wear my collar in their domicile."

"My only hope," she said, "would be to fall into the hands of those who know of me and my work."

"I would think that extremely unlikely," I said.

"But it is possible!" she said.

"Even so I would not entertain too sanguine a hope for deliverance from such a quarter," I said, "as your usefulness to Cos is presumably now at an end, their objective accomplished in the delta."

"They would not free me?" she said.

"I would not think so," I said.

"But what then would they do with me?" she asked.

"I do not know," I said. "Perhaps keep you, perhaps give you to someone, perhaps sell you."