by Sharon Green
"I need to see if I can get something, and then I'll be taking you up on your offer," Ennie said as she paused and put a hand to Tain's arm. "Wait for me here, please."
Tain nodded to show that she'd wait, then watched Ennie disappear into the cooking alcove before she turned to the two men who had come to the doorway of their area.
"You can't give Ennie orders any longer, but I still don't want either of you to even try," Tain said to a curious Killen and a calm-faced Tandro. "She'll be back in a minute, and when she returns, Tandro, you'll obey everything she tells you to do. You, Killen, don't have to obey her, but you also aren't to interfere with her. You do, however, have to tell her what you didn't let me talk about. Do both of you understand?"
The two men nodded, but their expressions had changed to ones that were almost identical. Both men were suddenly … concerned about what would happen, but neither looked actually worried. After all, Tain could almost see them thinking, it was Ennie they were talking about. What could a silly little girl do that would cause more than mild disturbance? Killen didn't look happy about needing to tell Ennie something he hadn't wanted her to know, but aside from that…
It wasn't more than a couple of minutes before Ennie reappeared carrying a knife belt without the knife. It looked like she'd found the men's possessions where they'd been put in the cooking room and had … borrowed one of those possessions. Tain suddenly knew exactly what Ennie meant to do, and was glad that the girl had chosen as well as she had. The belt wasn't stiff or hard but it was leather, so it ought to do a fine job.
"Ennie, I do need to ask a favor before you get started," Tain said softly, stopping the girl just short of the doorway into the alcove - out of sight of the men. "I'm going to need Tandro later, when he and Killen and I go out after our targets, so I'm afraid you'll have to use a bit of restraint. Will you help me out with that?"
"Sure, Tain, glad to oblige," Ennie answered with an amused smile. "And don't worry about me asking to go out with you three. I know I'm not up to something like that yet, so I'll wait here with the others. And now I hope you'll excuse me. I have some getting-even to do."
Tain nodded and stepped back out of the way, making sure her surprise didn't show on her face. Ennie had said she wasn't up to rough stuff yet, a comment that was unexpected in two ways. The girl had admitted knowing she wasn't properly trained, something she hadn't done in the beginning, but apparently she meant to change that state of affairs. Later, she and Ennie would definitely have to sit down and talk.
But right now there was some getting-even to watch being done…
Chapter Fourteen
Jake watched Ennie walk into the alcove as he went back to his pallet, glad the girl no longer showed that deadly depression she'd been in before the slaver's attack. He hated that he had to go against his own best judgment simply because Tain didn't agree with him, but he had no choice at all about obeying her order. He parted his lips to say what he'd been told he had to, but Tain interrupted before he could get the first word out.
"Killen, save that explanation until after Ennie is done with what she has in mind," Tain said, and damned if the woman didn't look amused. Jake closed his mouth again and nodded to acknowledge this newest order, but the annoyance he felt disappeared when he finally noticed what Ennie carried. Unless he was mistaken, that was Tandro's knife belt she had…
"Tandro, that body cloth isn't appropriate right this moment," Ennie said as she walked toward the native where he'd backed up to his own pallet, her gaze directly on the man. "You can start by taking the cloth off."
Tandro's expression of calm control didn't really change as he reached to his covering, but Jake could see the sudden worry in the man's dark eyes. Not to mention the sudden desperation. It had been bad enough when another man was in charge of them; having a girl being in charge instead was ten times worse.
"Good boy," Ennie purred with an odd smile as soon as Tandro had put his body cloth to one side of the pallet. She also sat down on the pallet, which put a wary look on Tandro's face. "Now I'd like you to arrange yourself face down over my lap, taking the same position you put me in so often."
Tandro didn't actually pale as he moved as he'd been told to, but Jake saw that the wariness in the man's eyes had given way to total desperation. Tandro was probably remembering the same thing Jake was: that time in the hostel when Tandro spanked Ennie in front of Jake and Tain both. It was fairly obvious that the girl meant to return the compliment, but much more thoroughly than Jake had expected.
A gasp was forced out of Tandro's throat when Ennie reached to the man's backside with both hands. The girl had put the belt down for the purpose, and now that the belt was out of the way Jake could see that Ennie had carried something besides the leather in her hand. Jake got a glimpse of the insertion just before Ennie put the thing in Tandro, and then she was picking up the belt again.
"You're a good boy now, but you haven't always been a good boy, have you?" Ennie asked as she stroked Tandro's hair slowly and gently. "I'd say that this is going to hurt me more than it does you, but I think we both know that that would be a lie. You've earned punishing, boy, and it's become my place to see that you get it."
Jake thought Tandro was about to say something, but the first stroke of the leather belt on his backside turned the words into a garbled sound. The stroke couldn't have hurt all that much, not when Ennie was far from being well-muscled, but the touch hadn't been a gentle gesture either. And it was probable that Tandro had automatically tightened his muscles in anticipation of the stroke, an action that would have brought the insertion into play.
"When you did this to me you ordered me to say something that you wanted to hear," Ennie murmured as her arm brought the leather down on Tandro's rear a second time. "I, on the other hand, don't want to hear any kind of words from you. All you have to do is take your licking like a man."
Tandro groaned as he began to writhe a little, giving Jake the impression that the man wasn't quite as over the switching from yesterday as they'd both thought they were. Not to mention the fact that Jake had gotten bodily relief the night before but Tandro hadn't. The insertion was obviously bringing back the arousal Tandro hadn't had satisfied, but there was nothing either of them could do to stop what was happening. They'd been given orders they weren't allowed to refuse…
Jake watched his friend get half a dozen strokes of that leather belt before it came to him that this time he hadn't been ordered to watch the punishment. Jake's embarrassment on Tandro's behalf was intense, so he quickly turned away - only to see that the audience was larger than just himself and Tain. All the women who had passed by earlier were now standing in the open doorway, and most of them wore expressions of such grim satisfaction that their presence was more disturbing than embarrassing.
The spanking went on for what was actually only a short time, but every time Jake heard another stroke of the belt land he had to keep himself from flinching. The women in the doorway watched avidly but silently, and Jake could only hope that Tandro didn't know they were there. Tain stood at the back of the small crowd, her face expressionless as she made no effort to stop what was going on, and that was what got to Jake the most. Tain knew exactly what Tandro was being put through, just the way all the women did, but even she wasn't prepared to stop the punishment. So much for compassion on behalf of the helpless…
"All right, boy, you can straighten up to kneel on your pallet until I'm out of the way," Ennie finally said, showing that the spanking was over. "You seem to need something rather badly, but I'm afraid your need is going to be with you for a while. I may get around to doing something about it later, or I may not. We'll just have to wait and see what my mood is like."
Jake heard sounds of movement, and then he realized that Ennie was now standing next to his own pallet. He'd been busy studying his hands, and when he looked up he not only saw Ennie but that the other women were no longer in the doorway.
"I think you have something to tell me,
Killen," Ennie said, using his name for what was probably the first time. "Let's hear it."
"I … didn't know how you would take the news, Ennie, and that's why I kept it from you," Jake said, hating himself for making excuses. "The truth is, Tain and I work for the same people, and Tandro and I meant to take you two back home as soon as we saw to our assignment. If you'd had more experience in the field I would have been able to trust you with knowing everything, but you had no experience and also almost nothing in the way of training. I couldn't take the chance that you would screw everything up if you knew what was really going on."
Adding that last made Jake feel a bit better, but the words still made his insides turn over. He'd been told that he didn't have to obey Ennie, but the possibility existed that Ennie would talk Tain into changing that freedom to something he would sincerely regret. He didn't quite hold his breath while Ennie simply stared at him with no expression on her face, and then she nodded.
"I'd love to say your opinion of me was wrong, but lying doesn't solve anything," the girl said, not very happy with him but far from the rage he'd half expected. "I'll have to think about what you just told me for a while before I can really react to the news, but I can give you a hint about the way I'll feel. I think it's highly unlikely that you and I will ever be friends."
And with that the girl turned and left the alcove, going left toward where the other women had probably gone. Jake had expected to feel a lot of relief once he and Tandro were no longer the objects of such close attention, but suddenly he heard the almost-silent moaning Tandro was doing behind Jake. There wasn't a single doubt in Jake's mind that the moaning came from Tandro's urgent need for Ennie's return, a return that hadn't quite been promised to the man.
Jake lay down on his own pallet without turning to look at Tandro, trying to give his friend as much privacy as the cramped quarters allowed. He also suddenly found himself in a brooding mood, and there was no time like the present to indulge.
* * *
Tain had followed the other women back to the cooking alcove, and by the time Ennie showed up Tain had gotten a fresh cup of coffee. Ennie returned the belt from where she'd gotten it, poured a cup of coffee of her own, then came to sit down near Tain.
"Why are some of the women looking like they just inherited a fortune while a couple of the others look like they were written out of the will?" Ennie asked softly with her back to the others once she was seated. "Char, especially, looks like she's floating on air, but Risdin seems to want to cry."
"Seeing a man being treated the way you treated Tandro has apparently made Char's day," Tain answered just as softly. "The utter delight she got chased away enough of her fear to let her relax a little, so it looks like I'll be able to let her stay. Risdin, on the other hand, isn't happy with what you did, because she said the men were hurt by the slaver for being against slavery. Taking advantage of their helplessness strikes Risdin as being wrong, but possibly that's because she wasn't Tandro's slave before he became a slave himself."
"What do you mean, they were hurt by the slaver?" Ennie asked, the look in her eyes suddenly sharpening. "No one told me anything had been done to them, and I assumed they were just locked up until you broke them loose. How were they hurt?"
"The slaver did to both of them what you did to Tandro, but his men weren't quite as gentle as you were," Tain said, now watching the girl's reactions carefully. "By the time I got them out they were having a lot of trouble walking, and not just from the switchings they were given. But I have to tell you… One of the first things Tandro said when he was allowed to speak again was to ask if you were all right. He kept saying during the trip that he didn't want to be blamed by our people if anything really horrible happened to you, so maybe that's why he asked."
"After going through all that himself he took the trouble to ask about me?" Ennie said, staring into space instead of meeting Tain's gaze. "After talking to the women I went with, it suddenly came to me that they were in a worse position than I ever was. I might not have had anyone who really cared about me, but I still wasn't enslaved and beaten and raped and hurt all the way down to my soul. I felt like an ungrateful idiot for complaining about my life when theirs were so much worse, and now you tell me that Tandro asked about me? But what I did to him…"
Ennie put her coffee cup down before closing her eyes for a moment, then she scrambled to her feet and hurried out of the alcove. Since the girl turned right, Tain didn't have to wonder where Ennie was going. The only thing left to wonder about was whether Tandro would be able to forgive Ennie for doing to him what he'd done to her. If he couldn't, then Ennie would be much better off without him.
After a while Risdin made lunch for everyone with Areen helping her, and Tain ate slowly to fill in as much of the waiting time as possible. After lunch she spoke to the women and told them most of her plan, and then they wasted a bit more time discussing what they'd heard. Most of the women liked Tain's idea, but they were also more than a little afraid. The fear didn't cause them to refuse to help out, though; it just made them wish they could refuse.
Once the meeting was over, Tain took a walk to see how Ennie, Tandro, and Killen were doing. Peeking inside the men's alcove showed Ennie and Tandro asleep in each other's arms on Tandro's pallet, and even Killen had managed to fall asleep. Getting some rest seemed like a really good idea, so Tain went to her own pallet and forced herself to sleep. The automatic alarm clock in her head would help to wake her up, she knew, and if the trick somehow missed then it would be Risdin who woke her. Before leaving the cooking alcove Tain had spoken to Risdin, who now knew that Tain wanted to leave right after she and the men had something to eat.
Sleeping in the middle of the day did manage to throw off Tain's inner clock. She opened her eyes to Risdin's hand on her shoulder, then had to get back into the costume before following the other woman to the cooking alcove. And the mood Tain woke with wasn't even as good as the one she'd gone to sleep with; she'd been dreaming about taking a long, delicious bath, and waking up to reality hadn't been pleasant.
Risdin had made a plain vegetable stew for everyone, and after the food had been put into bowls with wooden spoons added she helped Tain carry the four bowls to the men's alcove. Areen and the woman whose name Tain didn't know followed with two cups of coffee each, and once all the food and drink had been distributed the three native women left the alcove. Since Killen, Tandro, and Ennie were awake and sitting up on their respective pallets, Areen and the other coffee carrier left a good deal faster than Risdin.
"We'll be leaving here as soon as we finish eating, so if you have any questions on what I'm about to tell you don't hold back," Tain said to the two men after sitting down on the stone floor. "Ennie already knows she won't be going with us, so the outing will just be a threesome."
"Where will we be going?" Killen asked at once while Tandro looked deeply relieved. "Since Ennie will be staying behind, it's fairly obvious we aren't going to be heading home."
"Tonight we'll be going out to do some kidnapping," Tain said, noticing that Killen wasn't diving into the food any faster than she herself. "We're going to start with Gordi, and once we have him we'll move on to the names he gives us. I intend to get Gordi himself, the two next most powerful leaders who support him, and his most powerful … opponent tonight. Once we have them we'll get them to understand just how bad slavery is, and once that's done we'll then head home."
"You expect us to convince Gordi and the others just like that in one night?" Killen said, the words not quite mocking. "I consider myself a fairly good talker, Tain, but unless you're better than fairly good you might want to try another plan."
"I said we'll be getting the men tonight, not that we'll convince them that quickly," Tain corrected mildly. "It will probably take the entire following day or even a bit longer before they really get the message, but this is important work. Heading home will have to wait until the work is done, so I need to ask: are you two in good enough shape to help, or will i
t be smarter to leave you behind along with Ennie?"
Tain had actually addressed her question to Tandro, and the native smiled in that calm way he had.
"I'm perfectly fine, so staying behind won't be necessary," Tandro stated, speaking just as mildly as Tain had. "Killen, I think, is doing even better than I am."
"Yeah, I'm definitely doing better than fine," Killen agreed, but not with anything like enthusiasm. "And is that all we'll be doing tonight? Kidnapping men and then sitting down to talk to them?"
"Actually, the talking won't take place until those women in the next alcove show the men just what it's like to be a slave," Tain answered, ignoring the urge to tell Killen that the rest of the plan was none of his business. "We happen to have some doses of the slave drug at our disposal, which make my plan more than just wishful thinking. Risdin found a package with a dozen doses that some slaver lost, and I mean to double up on each of the men."
"To compensate for their greater size and body weight," Killen said with a startled nod, his distant stare saying he was thinking about what he'd been told. "That's probably what was done with us… And you believe that Gordi and the others will be convinced by being enslaved themselves? What if they react the other way after being treated badly by women and decide to hold their slaves even tighter than before?"
"I'll know if that happens because I mean to ask before letting the men go again," Tain said, making no effort to avoid Killen's gaze. "If any of those men react like fools instead of rational beings, I'm going to cut their throats instead of turning them loose. I won't give people like Himlin any more supporters than they already have."
Killen's expression didn't change, but the look in his eyes almost made Tain want to flinch. Mention of the slaver Himlin had made Killen show a hint of how he felt about that slaver, a reaction that had nothing in the way of fear about it. Dismemberment and bloody murder, yes; fear, no.