by John Norman
"He says true," growled a fellow, drawing back.
"Forward!" cried the officer. "Forward!"
"Get them while you can!" I cried. "Some are still clothed, others have not yet been seized! They cower with their sisters by the wall, half hidden, waiting for you!"
"Do not listen to him!" called the officer.
"Some are doubtless quite attractive. They have not yet been marked or tagged!" "Do not heed him!" said the officer.
"Woe!" I said. "The fellows who have not fought are advancing on them even now!" The Cosians wavered.
Few quarrels fell now at the entrance to the walkway, for those upon the wall must now fear the striking of their own men.
There were more screams of women from the wall.
"Forward!" urged the officer.
Now clearly came to the walkway the moans, the weeping protests, the wailing lamentations of beauties finding tight bonds being placed on their bodies. "Back, back!" I said, softly, to the men about me. "Behind me! Back!" "There are less then two hundred left there now, lads," I called to the Cosians. I had the men of Ar's Station then, to my elation, on the walkway, drawing back on either side of me. I spoke softly. Those who had much fought withdrew up the walkway, between those who had shielded the women. These other men then, fresh, came forward, flanking me.
I saw a brunet, out from the wall, her wrists thonged behind her, weeping copiously, uncontrollably, as the spread prong of a nose ring was pressed through her septum, the ring then springing back into shape. She, nose-ringed, looked up at her captor, its cord looping up then to his hand. At the slightest of tugs she leapt to her feet, weeping, to follow him with perfection. I saw her being led away. Others, too, I saw being pulled to their feet, doubtless to be taken to improvised holding areas.
"Even now they are being led away, fellows!" I said.
"Draw back," said the officer, angrily.
He had seen the vacillation of his men, that we had gained the walkway, that fresh troops now flanked me.
Cosians, mercenaries mostly, broke free from their rearward ranks and ran to the wall, to claim females. So, too, the, backing away, then turning, did several in the forward ranks. The officer rallied enough regulars about himself to assure that we would not attempt to press forward.
"You use our own women as a diversion," growled a fellow near me, "as though they might be slaves!"
"Look at them," I said. "Aii!" he said.
"Draw back with me," I said, softly, backing away. The Cosians, regulars and mercenaries, responsive to the orders of their officer, advanced some yards onto the walkway. They did not follow us closely, however.
We saw a shark reach up to the landing, near the walkway, and drag a body, by the leg, back into the water.
"Go back, and tell Aemilianus that the evacuation is complete. He will know what to do.
The man beside me shuddered. It was no accident I had stopped where I had. From this point effective quarrel fire could not be directed to the piers.
"We will stay with you," said the young man with the crossbow, now beside me. His fellow, the other young fellow from the wall, the one with the shield, who had protected him in the fighting, was at his side.
"No," I said.
"Is that an order, Captain?" he asked.
"Yes," I said. "Obey it."
He and his fellows hesitated a moment, then turned, and went toward the piers. "The rest of you," I said, "withdraw now."
"You cannot hold the walkway alone," said a grizzled fellow.
"Go," I said. I would not order, nor did I think Aemilianus would either, any to stand here beside me, not given what must be done.
"You will need skilled swordsmen," said the grizzled fellow, "preferably those of the scarlet tunic."
"Go," I said.
"Four or five will do," he said.
"I have four here, including myself," said a voice behind me.
"And I am the fifth," said the grizzled fellow.
Men were hurrying back down the walkway, toward the piers.
I turned about, startled.
"It would be an honor to die in the company of Marsias," said a tall fellow. "I am not Marsias," I said to him.
"That is a relief," he said, grimly, "for I was growing confused about the matter. You see, I had thought that I was Marsias."
"I recognize you now," I said.
"That is flattering," he said.
"How is your head?" I asked.
"Considering that it was struck with a large piece of building stone with great force at close range, splendid," he said.
I looked at one of the other fellows. There were three behind him. "I see that you have managed to find a tunic," I said to one of them.
"Yes," he said, "mine was stolen, in a cell."
"That is where I found mine," I admitted.
"We were roused by a guard," said Marsias, "who was checking the walls for ruptures which might allow access to Cosians. He found an excellent example of such a breach in a certain cell, as you might perhaps remember."
"Yes," I said.
"It was our intention to come looking for you immediately, as you might well suppose," said Marsias, "to settle accounts, so to speak, but Cosians, as seems their wont these days, interfered. We had to defend that break in the wall for Ahn. When the recall was sounded, we learned, somewhat to our surprise, as you might suppose, that I was a hero on the wall, at least according to some, and later, too, at the gate. These fellows, and I, decided to look into this, and now have done so."
"You have found me now," I said.
"And will fight beside you," said Marsias.
"I am grateful," I said.
"The small boats are coming," said one of the fellows.
"The Cosians, too, have seem them," I said. There was considerable excitement on the walkway near, and at, its end, and on the landing. I could now see, again, too, the standards over the wall of the citadel. The camp commander, he in charge of the Cosian forces at Ar's Station, had resumed his coign of vantage. In the boats, approaching from the piers, the same boats which had come earlier to help evacuate the landing, there were men with torches and axes. There were some small boats, too, at the landing, some perhaps captured, others which may have been there earlier, or perhaps within the citadel walls somewhere.
"I gather, from reports of those who were on the wall," said Marsias, "that you impaled the traitress, Lady Claudia."
"Perhaps," I said.
"Or was it our pretentious, nasty little warder, Lady Publia?" he inquired. "Do not concern yourself with the matter," I advised.
"That would have been an irony," he remarked.
"Doubtless," I said.
"And a waste," he said.
"Doubtless," I said.
"Many think that both Lady Claudia and Lady Publia needed to learn their 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 ravishme
nts, 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, 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 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. "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, 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
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. 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 noth
ing 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.