Renegades of Gor (49 page)

womanhood.”

“Lady Claudia,” I said, “had already begun to learn it.”

“Like those women on the landing,” said a fellow beside us.

“Yes,” I said.

The Cosians there must have taken at least four hundred women on the landing. At

least two hundred of these were still there. Many were pushed up against the

wall, in some groups facing it, in others with their backs to it. I had little

doubt that the delicious loot even now was learning masculine domination. On the

landing many were kneeling, or bellying. There was much licking and kissing.

More than one had been put in a display position, and forced to hold it. I saw

one girl cuffed, and another, one who had perhaps been slow to obey, lashed with

a strap. Swiftly then, and eagerly, did she begin to lick an kiss her captor

about the feet and ankles. Some were still being tied and tagged. Others were

being lined up, their hands tied behind their backs to form coffles, ropes being

put on their necks. Some, among these many others, were serving even now on the

landing, being put to use by impatient masters. We could see their squirming

bodies, their subdued, thrashing limbs, hear their cried, cries with which they

responded to, and registered and recorded, their ravishments, cries mostly, at

this point, of protest and lamentation, but, too, in instances, of astonishment

and wonder, and sometimes, even so soon, of sudden, frightened acquiescence,

(pg.326) of eager acceptance, of grateful yieldings, dreams coming true in

thongs.

“Yes, too,” he said, “many claim, interestingly, to have seen the same female,

she who was supposedly impaled, whoever she was, later on the wall’s walkway,

and later, too, with the women and children.”

“Surely that seems unlikely,” I said.

I noted one girl on the landing. From the way she held her hands behind her back

I could tell that she was in thumb cuffs. These are handy devices. They are

light and take up little space in a warrior’s pack. I myself, thinking sometimes

that thumb cuffs are perhaps a bit cruel, generally prefer, if slave bracelets

are not available, a simple thong or a short length of binding fiber. A woman,

of course, may be bound in a large variety of ways and with a large variety of

materials. For example, one might use strips, cut and rolled, from her own

clothing, particularly as one will probably be removing the garb from her

anyway. If she is naked, she might even be bound with short lengths of her own

hair. two or three horts of hair suffice to tie her thumbs behind her back, and

another two or three will suffice to tie he two large toes together.

I might mention two possible reservations pertaining to thumb cuffs. First, many

feel that they are must less secure than, say, slave bracelets, because of the

diverse ratios involved, of wrist to hand, and of upper thumb to the thumb

joint, at their location points. To compensate for this, of course, one can make

the thumb cuffs tighter, but this produces greater discomfit in the wearer. It

is harder for her to attend to her lessons, naturally, if she is in pain. I

generally feel that pain, at least generally, should not be inflicted on a slave

unless it is meaningful. There can, of course, be a point to generalized

discomforts, even of a rather trivial nature.

For example, when a woman has been slept naked on a hardwood floor without

covers, she is likely to come to a much better understanding of the value of a

slave blanket. Second, if the woman is in thumb cuffs, and she becomes

hysterical, it is much easier for her to hurt herself. Accordingly, just as one

would not wish to secure a sleen or a kaiila (pg.327) in a way in which it might

inadvertently hurt or injure itself, so, too, one might not wish to secure a

slave in such a manner. The slave, too, is a domestic animal, and like other

domestic animals, has a specific value. Accordingly, thumb cuffs, if used on a

slave, in my opinion at least, should be used only under close supervision. To

be sure, under such supervision, they might be helpful.

Certainly it is hard for a woman to wear thumb cuffs and not understand her

helplessness. Some masters favor them early in a girl’s training, thinking that

it hastens their progress. Whereas I have occasionally introduced a woman

somewhat rudely into the realities of bondage, I generally prefer to ease then

into it, giving them time to develop and gradually understand their new feelings

and sensations, giving them time to accommodate themselves to their new life and

destiny. Accordingly, thought I might put a girl into thumb cuffs for an Ahn or

so, perhaps early in her training, perhaps in the process of informing her as to

the nature of various bonds, their textures, and such, I generally do not use

them. I think of them, like close chains, more as a punishment than a restraint.

That she knows they exist, and could be put on her, by my will, like close

chains, in itself has its salutary effect on her. And what seems to me generally

sufficient.

The major point of the restraint is to restrain, not hurt. Indeed, pain can

interfere with many of the diverse subsidiary values of restraints, physical and

psychological. It can be distractive. Pain is a bit like the whip. The slave is

subject to the whip, and truly subject to it, but this does now mean that she is

necessarily whipped; that she could be whipped, and will be whipped, if she is

not pleasing, is what is important, not that she need be whipped. Why should one

beat a pleasing slave? To be sure, there are no bargains, contracts or

arrangements in these matters, and the slave may be beaten whenever the master

pleases, with or without a reason. She is, after all, a slave. Similarly, along

these lines, to be perfectly honest, I have upon occasion used thumb cuffs on

females, when it has seemed to me there was a point of doing so, or when it

pleased me to do so.

“She was naked, hooded, and thonged, and on a leash, in the keeping of one or

another free person,” he said.

(pg.328) “That sounds like a slave,” I said.

“Yes, it does,” he said.

We heard the small boats behind us, drawing up, near the pilings beneath the

walkway.

“It is my supposition,” he said, “that no female was impaled.”

“That is an interesting supposition,” I granted him.

“If it is true,” he said, “Lady Claudia, whom I suspect is somewhere about,

probably in the rags of Lady Publia, is still entitled to look forward to her

impalement.”

I saw that the woman in thumb cuffs was now on her knees on the landing, and

that her head was pushed down to the stone. The cord from her nose ring was

lying beside her head on the stone. She was then put to use. I saw her wrists

lifting, her fingers, beside her confined thumbs, jerking, opening and closing.

Then she was pulled to her feet by the cord on the nose ring and hurrying after

her master.

“Do you not think so?” he asked.

“They are marshaling at the end of the walkway,” I said.

I heard axes behind us, attacking the pilings of the walkway.

“Do you not think so?” he asked.

“You are certainly a zealous fellow,” I said. “I have seldom encountered so

single-minded a devotion to duty.”

“Obviously, if you did not impale her,” he said, “you did not wish her impaled,

and you have done service to Ar’s Station, whatever may be your own Home Stone.

That is one reason I am beside you now, that I may guiltlessly evade, if

possible, my very unpleasant duty, but clear duty, in that matter.”

“I do not understand,” I said. “I am sorry.”

“But if we should survive,” he said, “you understand that we must attempt to

apprehend the prisoner and see that the sentence is carried out upon her, even

if it means only weights on her ankles and a sharpened pole on a pier.”

“The Cosians!” I cried.

Then, with shield and sword, with the ringing of metal, (pg. 329) with shouts,

with cries of war, the six of us, I, Marsias, the grizzled fellow, and the three

who had come originally to the cell, struck by charging Cosians, almost swept

back, struggled to hold the walkway.

19
   
The Walkway

(pg.330) It was on the long walkway leading out to the piers that we fought.

Behind us, some fifteen yards back, the walkway was afire.

Portions of it, hewn and chopped from the small boats, sank into the water. Most

of these boats were of Ar’s Station, those which had been out at the piers.

Other boats trying to flank our position, for using their crossbows, were met

and turned back by those of Ar’s Station. Indeed, the walkway for a dozen yards,

closer to the landing, was covered by these boars, until the camp commander sent

his own crossbowmen out on the walkway, to keep them their distance. Fourteen

times did the Cosians assault us. In the fifth assault Marsias was grievously

wounded, and one other, one who had come originally to the cell. At that time

the walkway was still intact, though flaming, behind us, and they could be

withdrawn through the fire and smoke to the piers. Their places were taken, to

my amazement, by other stout fellows of Ar’s Station. Behind us it seemed men

vied to join us. Then, in the seventh assault, two others of our original band,

the other two who had come originally to the cell, were forced back, bleeding,

unable to stand. They were lowered by fishermen into waiting small boats. From

these two others climbed to the walkway, to take their place. Of the original

band this left only myself and the grizzled fellow.

(pg.331) Fins slid through the water circling the boats, and back and forth

beneath the walkway, among the pilings. Sometimes, converging, they suddenly

knifed toward a splash in the water, as one fellow or another lost his footing,

or fell, bloodied, from the walkway. There were screams from the water and

extended hands, and wild eyes. Then there would be churning froths, and blood

swirling up, and reachings out, graspings with nothing to grasp, and then we

would see bodies drawn under the water. Sometimes we could see them being drawn

under the walkway, being taken into its shadows. Sometimes we could see, too,

less easily, the long dark shapes, a yard or so beneath the water, conducting

them, and the movements of the powerful, vertical tails. Often the fish fought

for their prey, sometimes under the walkway itself. We could sometimes feel the

movements of their bodies against the pilings beneath us. I saw one fellow of

Ar’s Station, standing in a small boat, scream with hatred and strike down at

one of the shapes with a pike. I think he cut its back. I saw another fellow, a

fellow of Cos, spend a quarrel on a fish that was scouting his boat. It

descended rapidly, as though stung, the metal fins of the quarrel disappearing

under the water with the dorsal fin.

In between the assaults we gasped for breath and crouched behind our shields,

resting their rims on the walkway. To lift such a device for Ehn at a time, and

receive blow after blow upon it, bearing up under them, in time makes the arm

desperately tired and sore. It is little wonder warriors often train with

weighted shields. In the early Ahn of battle a common cause of causalities,

particularly with young warriors, is recklessness, and the failure to use the

shield properly to protect oneself. In the late Ahn of a battle, however, an

even more common cause of causalities, interestingly enough, is the simple

inability to lift, control and maneuver the shield. There is a great temptation

to lower it, to ease the pain of the screaming muscles. This compounds, of

course, with arm weariness, the result of wielding the sword, and the slowing of

reflexes and reaction time, resulting from general fatigue.

The same problems, of course, normally afflict one’s enemy. When one understands

these factors, and that battles often last several hours, and are sometimes

renewed for two or three days, it is easier to understand certain things which

(pg.332) might otherwise seem anomalous in this form of warfare, for example,

the respites between assaults, the fluctuations of lines, the occasional,

apparently incredible truces which can occur by mutual consent here and there in

the pockets of a battle, men standing about, looking at one another, sometimes

even conversing, and the great importance of the judicious distribution of, and

application of, reserves.

For those who are interested in such matters, it might be pointed out that

factors such as these seem to be playing their part in the gradual replacement

of the phalanx with the square in Gorean warfare. It is not simply that the

squares are more tactically flexible, being capable of functioning on broken

terrain, and such, but also that they facilitate substitutions in the front

lines, permitting the swift injection of fresh troops at crucial points. The

success of many generals, in my opinion, is largely a function of their

intelligent use of reserves.

Deitrich of Tarnburg, for example, though one often thinks of him in terms of

innovations such as the oblique advance and the use of siege equipment in the

field, is also, in my opinion, based on my studies of his campaigns, for