Savages of Gor (25 page)

"Yes," I said. Max and Kyle Hobart wore leg-spreaders. These are commonly reserved by the red savages for their white female slaves. They wore single-position leg-spreaders. One ankle, by thongs threaded through a pierced end, is fastened tightly to one end of the sturdy spreader. The other ankle is then pulled to a corresponding position at the other end of the pole where, by means of another thong passed through another hole, drilled at that point in the spreader, it is fastened securely in place. More sophisticated spreaders have several positions. In the simplest case a series of holes is drilled in the pole and the girl's ankles are merely fastened on the pole at whatever separation the master desires. In more sophisticated devices, two, or even three, poles or boards are used, which can slide apart, and are fastened at given points by pegs or thongs. In this latter sort of device the girl's ankles, fastened at the far ends of the pole or board, need not be untied and retied. One may then, in accordance with one's moods, and at one's convenience, regulate the distance between them.

These spreaders may be used in a variety of ways, of course. Sometimes they are used for the wrists, the pole or board then usually behind the girl's back. Too, they may be used in concert with other devices. In the lodges of Warrior Societies, for example, as a portion of the amusements accompanying a feast, a girl may be richly used in one, her hands tied behind the back of her neck, in the draw cords, looped once or twice about her neck, of the sack drawn over her head. In this way she fears all the men of the society for she does not know who it was who was the most cruel to her. Too, she regards all the men of the society with mixed feelings of sensual uneasiness, for she does not know which one among them it was who made her yield most ecstatically, most abjectly, as a slave. This is thought good by the men for the camaraderie of the society. To be sure, eventually she is usually awarded to one or another of the society members. This will usually be either to he who was most cruel to her or to he who made her yield most abjectly, most rapturously. She will learn which it is when she, in the privacy of his own

lodge, after her labors, is ordered to his furs. Not unoften, incidentally, it turns out that these two fellows are the same that he who most cruelly and effectively dominated her as a master is also he to whom she yielded most abjectly as a slave.

"Please," said the fellow called Max Hobart.

"Please," said he called Kyle Hobart

"You are stripped," said Grunt.

"They took our clothing," said Max Hobart.

"You wear leg-spreaders," laughed Grunt.

"'They put us in them!" said Kyle Hobart.

"As though you might be women," said Grunt.

"Yes," said Max Hobart, squirming. He tried to rise. He could not, of course, do so.

"Thus do the Dust Legs demean you ," said Grunt, "treating you as no more than women.''

"Please," moaned Max Hobart.

"Please," begged Kyle Hobart. "We are helpless!"

Grunt, moving the reins of the kaiila, pulled the beast's head away. I followed him. The kaiila in the area of the perimeter, those ridden by white men, are generally controlled by a headstall, bit and reins, in short, by a bridle, not by a nose rope, as is cultural in the Tahari. Different areas on Gor give witness to the heritage of differing traditions. The bridle used by the red savages, incidentally, usually differs from that used by the white men. The most common form is a strap, or braided leather tie, placed below the tongue and behind the which two reins, or a teeth, tied about the lower jaw, from single double rein, a single loop, comes back over the beast's neck. The jaw tie, serving as both bit and headstall, is usually formed of the same material as the reins, one long length of material being used for the entire bridle.

"Wait!" begged Max Hobart. "Wait!"

"Do not go!'' begged Kyle Hobart.

"We will die, if left here!" cried out Max Hobart. "We have been tied by red savages! We cannot free ourselves!''

Grunt stopped his kaiila. "Exposure on the prairie, to die of thirst, or hunger, or of the predations of animals, is what they deserve," be said.

I shrugged. The decision in this matter seemed to me his.

"Please!" cried out Max Hobart, plaintively.

"Yet, perhaps I could spare them this horror,'' mused Grunt. "It would inconvenience me little to do so."

"I do not suppose the Dust Legs would object," I said.

"They left them in my keeping," said Grunt.

"That is true," I said. "What are you going to do?"

"Cut their throats," said Grunt.

"I see," I said.

He brought his kaiila back to where the two men lay bound in the grass. I followed him. He tossed me the reins of his beast and, drawing his knife from a beaded sheath, slipped from the saddle to the ground. In an instant he crouched beside Max Hobart and, holding the fellow's hair in his left hand, had his blade across his throat.

"No!" whispered Max Hobart, hoarsely. "No! Don't kill me! Please, do not kill me!"

"Have mercy on us!" begged Kyle Hobart.

Grunt looked up at me.

"In this way, of course," said Grunt, "I get nothing from them."

"A poor bargain from the point of view of a merchant," I observed.

"Do you think they might have some worth?" asked Grunt.

"Perhaps to someone," I said.

"They seem two stalwart, handsome lads," said Grunt. "I might, from someone, be able to get something for them."

"That seems to be possible," I said.

Max Hobart lay back in the grass, gasping, the knife removed from his throat.

Grunt, from his saddlebags, removed two collars. He joined them, by means of snap locks, with a length of chain. He then put them on the necks of Max and Kyle Hobart

"Slave collars!'' gasped Max Hobart.

"Yes," said Grunt. Grant looked up at me. "Their wrists are adequately thonged for now," he said. "Later, in the camp, we shall provide them with proper manacles."

I nodded.

"Are you going to make us slaves?" asked Max Hobart.

"For the time you may account yourselves mere prisoners," said Grunt. '.'It is when you are purchased that you will be truly slaves."

"Do not put us in your coffle," begged Max.

"You will be put at the end of the coffle," said Grunt.

"You would chain us behind slave girls?" asked Max.

"You will surely admit that you are the least desirable of the elements in the coffle. Accordingly, you will be chained in the position of 'last girls."'

Max moaned, lying in the grass.

"I assure you," said Grunt, "our friends, the red savages, both men and women, will find that quite amusing."

"Please," begged Max.

"But do not fear," said Grunt, "you will not be expected to bear burdens."

Max regarded him, miserably.

"It is the women who are the pack beasts, who will bear the burdens," said Grunt.

Max nodded, numbly.

"You will discover that there are some advantages to bringing up the rear of the coffle," said Grunt. "You may then, for example, observe the women before you, bearing their burdens. You are not, however, to so much as touch them, even though they are slaves. Do you understand?"

"We understand," said Max, miserably.

"Yes," said Kyle.

Grunt looked about and found some shreds of shirts, which, cut to pieces, lay about in the grass. He tied some of these pieces together and bound them about the hips of the Hobarts. They regarded their new garments, decided for them by Grunt, with dismay.

"We are not slave girls," protested Max.

"The red savages, as you may not know," said Grant to me, though doubtless he was speaking primarily for the benefit of the Hobarts, "are rather strict about the privilege of wearing the breechclout."

"Oh?" I said.

"Yes," said Grunt. "It is not permitted to women, even to their own women, nor, of course, is it permitted to slaves.

"I understand," I said. The breechclout of the Barrens, incidentally, consists of a single piece of narrow material. This may be of tanned skin but, not unoften, is of soft cloth. It is held in place by a belt or cord. It commonly goes over the belt or cord in the back, and down and between the legs, and then comes up, drawn snugly tight, over the belt or cord in the front. In cooler weather it is often worn with leggings and a shirt. In warmer weather, in camp, it is usually the only thing that a male will wear.

"For a slave, or a prisoner, to wear a breechclout might be regarded as pretentious or offensive," said Grunt, "an oversight or indiscretion calling for torture or, say, for being set upon by boys on kaiila, with war clubs."

"I understand," I said.

The Hobarts looked at one another. Their garments, like those of female slaves, would not be permitted a nether closure.

Grunt cut the thongs binding the ankles of the Hobarts to the leg-spreaders. "On your feet," he said.

They struggled to their feet, chained together by the neck.

Grunt mounted to the high saddle of his kaiila. He looked down on them. "You are my prisoners," he said, "totally, and when sold will be slaves. You will be perfectly docile and totally obedient. At the least sign of refractoriness or insubordination on the part of either one of you, both will be slain. Is that clear?"

"Yes," said Max, miserably.

"Yes," said Kyle.

"That way lies our camp," said Grant, pointing. ''Move!''

The two Hobarts, stumbling, the chain on their necks, proceeded in the direction indicated.

I turned about in the saddle to view once more the torn, bloodied grass, the motionless figures, the insects and birds, where, yesterday, in brief compass, carnage had touched the prairie.

"Come along," said Grunt.

"I am coming," I said.

He rode after the Hobarts.

In a moment I had urged my kaiila after him.

When he reached the Hobarts he unhooked his whip from its saddle ring and, throwing it out behind him, and then bringing it forward, he lashed them. "Hurry!" he called. "Har-ta! Faster! Faster! Har-ta! Har-ta!"

They hurried on before him, stumbling and gasping, helplessly herded, driven, responding to his will and the imperious strokes of his whip, neck-chained and bound, his enemies. I smiled. It is pleasant to have one's enemies in one's power.

I did not look back.

13
   
Blankets and Bonds; I Do a Favor for Grunt

I lay on one elbow.

When she reached my vicinity she knelt down, in the brief brown slave tunic.

She trembled. She did not speak.

I regarded her for a time. Her head was down.

I then lay back on my blankets, on the grass. I put my hands under the back of my head, on the folded saddle blanket beneath my head. The kaiila saddle and the kaiila quirt lay to one side. I looked up at the stars, and the three moons of Gor. It is difficult to convey the majesty of a Gorean night in the Barrens, because of the vastness of the sky and the depth of the blackness, and the contrasting brightness of the stars. The large extents of wilderness on the surface of Gor and the absence of large-scale artificial illuminations, of course, permit starlit nights, almost anywhere, to manifest themselves with a splendor that would be almost breath-taking to one accustomed to the drab, half-gray, polluted, semi -illuminated, dim, nocturnal atmospheres of Earth. In the Barrens, however, and in places such as the Tahari, probably because of the relative levelness of the terrain, horizon-to-horizon, these effects seem even more accentuated, even more stupendous, more spectacular, more unbelievable and astounding.

I did not speak to the girl. I did not wish to hurry her. I let her continue to kneel there in the grass, a few feet from me.

I heard one of the kaiila moving about on its tether, biting at the grass, pawing the turf.

I continued to regard the stars.

"Master," she said.

"Yes," I said. She had spoken in Gorean.

"I have been sent to your blankets," she said.

I rose on one elbow, to regard her. Her lower lip trembled. She looked very lovely, in the brief brown slave tunic. Her throat was bare, having been released from the collar in the come.

"I have been sent to your blankets," she whispered.

"I understand," I said.

She tried, with her small fists, to pull together the sides of the tunic, to protect, as she could, the rounded, interior contours of her softness from the garment's apparently thoughtless disclosure. I smiled. Did she not know it was a slave's garment? Did she not understand the statement that was made by that deep, V-shaped, plunging division in the tunic, terminating only at her belly, that the woman who ware it was owned by men, that she was a slave?

At a gesture from me she removed her hands from the sides of the garment and placed them on her thighs.

She then knelt there in the grass, and I looked at her.