by John Norman
Confined as she is, with her arms extended, a girl can exert almost no leverage to free herself. Smaller yokes, some two to two and a half feet in length, similarly constructed, can be used for other purposes, such as enjoying a girl in the furs. Afterwards she can always be kenneled or chained. A soft, braided leather rope, a trade rope, cored with wire, some fifteen or twenty feet in length, was looped some five times about the girl's left ankle, and tied, thence being run to the axle of the nearby wagon to which she was tethered. This is a useful sanitary provision as the girl, then, need not sit or lie too near to her own wastes. The wire coring in the rope, of course, tends to discourage the attempt to chew through the bond. Light chains, sheathed in silk, or satin or velvet, incidentally, have this utility as well, as well as their intrinsic strength, more than adequate for the securing of a female.
Three separate thongs, incidentally, two short and one long, are sometimes used for this type of securing of the female. In this way of doing things each wrist is tied in the center of one of the short thongs. The two free ends of the short thong are then taken back through the hole and, once through the hole, are simply knotted, heavily. This knot cannot, of course, be drawn back through the small drilled hole by the girl. Her wrists are thus held in place. One end of the longer thong is taken through the center aperture and that thong is then looped about the girl's throat, usually, again, some five times, and then returned through the center aperture. Once through the aperture it is knotted together, heavily, with the other end of the thong. Again, of course, this knot, a heavy one, prevents the thongs from slipping back through the narrow aperture. The girl's neck is thus held closely to the yoke. This, too, of course, is an effective way of securing a girl. Indeed, there is, in my opinion, normally little to choose from between these two yoke ties. Which is preferred may well depend on matters so trivial as the nature and lengths of the binding material available, for example, ropes, cordage, binding fiber, twisted silk, thongs or straps. If there is a preference, perhaps it would be for the single-bond tie. It is stout, and, in its unity, aesthetically attractive. Second only to the absolute helplessness of the female in her ties, in the Gorean mind, is the attractiveness of her bonds. They should be used to enhance her beauty as well as to imprison it with absolute perfection.
In passing, one might note a type of light neck yoke occasionally used in the march when more than one girl is involved, usually three to five. This consists of a long, peeled branch drilled at intervals, usually of about a yard or four feet. The girls are then placed along the branch and by means of one or more thongs tied at these intervals. They are then in single file and the branch is at the right side of their necks. This separates them, and they cannot get their mouth and teeth on the bond. Their hands are usually tied behind their backs. If several girls are to be yoked more than one branch is used and the branches are tied together. In this way a long column of slaves may be marched, usually by mounted masters. There are few metal collars and coffle chains in the Barrens. One supposes the red savages could trade for them, but this, and other simple arrangements, seem to be preferred, perhaps because of custom or tradition.
It is pleasant, incidentally, to see women marched in coffle, whether it be in some primitive arrangement or in the chains of a professional slaver. They are very beautiful in coffle. Too, it seems somehow significant and appropriate to see them so aligned, so displayed, so secured—numbers of them—in the plenitude and diversity of their beauties—all women, all helpless, and woman as the slave of man.
To return to the habits of the red savages, it might be noted that in moving small groups of women, usually twenty or less, it is common simply to herd them from one place to another, like verr. This is usually done by boys on kaiila, with whips.
Outside the camps, for example, in the girl herds, and in marches, the women are usually naked. Inside the camps, at least outside the lodges, they are normally clothed. I would suppose there are several reasons for this. Principally, I suppose, it comports with civility. To be sure, the average Gorean slave garment leaves little to the observer's imagination. But it leaves at least a little. And I suppose that little is important, at least to the girl, and doubtless to free women in her vicinity. Generally, incidentally, in Gorean cities, as well, the slaves are usually clothed, so to speak, at least publicly. In this respect, then, there is something in common between the cities of the "white world" and the scattered tribal villages of the "red world." If there is a difference, it is that in the Gorean cities, or at least the "high cities," it is unusual for a slave to be nude publicly, unless she is being exhibited or sold, whereas in the tribal villages it is not that unusual. This, too, doubtless has to do with what has been called the Memory.
These yoke ties, incidentally, are not to be confused with a stock tie, or a stock yoke. This is normally a pair of hinged planks, with matched, semicircular openings in the planks. The girl's wrists and neck are placed appropriately between the planks, aligned with the semicircular openings. The planks are then closed and tied or locked shut. Her neck and wrists, then, of course, helplessly, are fixed in place. They find themselves enclosed in effective and perfect constraints. This yoke is sometimes placed on a girl while she is on her back. If the planks are sufficiently wide the girl cannot see what the man is doing to her. She can only feel it. Similar sensations may be induced in a woman by putting her in a slave hood. She may then either be bound or not, as the master pleases.
"Nonetheless," she said, "I am free!"
"How do you know?" I asked.
"I am not branded," she said uncertainly.
"You do not need to be branded to be a slave," I said. "Surely you know that."
"Rescue me," she said. "Free me! I will pay you much!"
I smiled. Did this lovely agent of Kurii really think that I might even consider freeing her?
"Free me!" she said. "I will pay you much!"
"Did you enjoy being struck?" I asked.
"No!" she said.
"You will then answer my questions truthfully, directly and clearly," I told her.
"What do you wish to know?" she asked.
"You are beautiful in the yoke," I said.
"Thank you," she said, uncertainly.
"It becomes you," I said.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"You might have been born a slave," I said.
She looked at me. "Thank you," she said.
"Describe to me, in brief compass, the course of the battle," I said.
I turned about, for I had heard a small noise behind me. Several of the Waniyanpi had now come to the vicinity of the wagon.
"I see you have found her," said Pumpkin.
"Yes," I said. I noted that neither he, nor the other Waniyanpi, looked obviously and directly on the woman, though she was beautiful and bound. "Was it you," I asked, "who stripped this beauty?"
"No, no," said Pumpkin, hastily. "That was done by the red masters."
"It must have been you, then," I said, "who yoked her, and so prettily and well."
"No, no!" said Pumpkin, hastily. "That, too, was done by the red masters."
"I see," I said. I had surmised, of course, that it would not have been the Waniyanpi who had removed the woman's clothing, or who had secured her, so simply, yet so efficiently and brilliantly.
"We did, however," said Pumpkin, "tether her behind the wagon, looking away from her as much as possible, that we would not have to look at her."
"The red masters permitted this?" I asked.
"Yes," said Pumpkin. "In amusement, they acceded to our pleas."
"That was kind of them," I said.
"Yes," said Pumpkin.
"Describe to me the course of the battle, as you understand it," I said to the stripped, blond captive, giving her once again my attention.
"Please," she said, "who are these people? They do not even look at me. Am I so ugly or repulsive?"
"You are neither ugly nor repulsive," I said. "In a common Gorean market
you would bring a good price for a medium-grade slave girl. Accordingly, you are quite beautiful."
"Who are they?" she whispered. "Are they men?"
"They are called Waniyanpi," I said, "which in Dust Leg and Kaiila means 'tame cattle.'"
"Are they men?" she asked.
"That is an interesting question," I said. "I do not know."
The girl shuddered. Of Gorean birth, she was unfamiliar, in numbers, at least, with such organisms. Had she been of Earth origin, of course, she would have been far less startled, for then such creatures would have been much more familiar to her. In the polluted meadows of Earth graze numerous Waniyanpi.
"Begin," I told her.
"We feared nothing," she said. "Our forces, we believed, were invincible. We did not anticipate trouble. Surely it would be insanity to attack us. Insufficient pickets were put out. Watches were not well kept."
"Go on," I said.
"Ten days ago, today, as I have counted this," she said, "the attack took place. It began near the eighth Ahn. The wagons had been aligned. The tharlarion were harnessed. A small group of red savages, mounted, was seen to the southeast. Alfred, captain of Port Olni, commanding two hundred riders, for sport as much as anything, rode forth to frighten them away. We climbed on the wagons to watch."
Alfred, of course, should not have personally commanded the excursion. That expedition, if it had been mounted at all, should have been led by a junior officer.
"In a moment, then, behind us, suddenly, rising from the grass, on foot, screaming, brandishing weapons, there arose, it seemed, hundreds of savages. They had crawled to these positions through the grass. The grass seemed alive with them. They swept through the wagons. The most fearful things, I think, happened with the larger wagons, those with the families, to the west. They were almost defenseless. My own wagon was with the soldiers. In the southeast, then, rising from the gullies and draws, there suddenly seemed hundreds of riders. Alfred had been lured into a trap. He, suddenly finding himself disastrously outnumbered, wheeled about and, pursued, fled back to the wagons. I think he lost many men. When he reached our camp the wagons to the west were already aflame. He would not rush to their relief. He rallied his men and ordered a retreat to the north. It had been from this direction that the savages had attacked on foot."
"What of the infantry?" I asked.
"It must fend for itself," she said.
I nodded. It was not difficult to follow Alfred's thinking. The savages on foot would not be able to stop the cavalry, and the pursuers from the south or southeast might be detained at the wagons. It was there, of course, that they would encounter the unsupported infantry.
"Drivers leaped from the wagon boxes, fleeing for their lives," she said. "I cried out. My own driver was nowhere to be seen. The tharlarion, frightened in the turmoil, hitched up, moved this way and that with the wagons, mostly toward the east, away from the smoke and noise. I lost my footing. I regained it, in the wagon. I could not stop the tharlarion. The reins were not in my grasp. I was dragged a quarter of a pasang before the wagon stopped, through soldiers, through wagons and other men. I saw one of the infantrymen kill a cavalryman, striking him from behind with his pike, and take his kaiila. Alfred turned his mounted forces to the north, but, to his dismay, he saw that his plan had been anticipated. From the north, now, and the west, came new swarms of mounted red savages."
I nodded. Certainly the savages would have anticipated an attempted escape in the sector where they had appeared to position what, in effect, was their temporary infantry. The planning that had gone into the attack revealed intelligent and careful thought. In particular the placement and timing of the attacks showed a fine sense for what might be the likely directions and phases of a battle's development. Tactical instructions in a melee, incidentally, are normally administered to the red savages, in their units, commonly warrior societies, or divisions of such societies, by blasts on a whistle, formed from the wing bone of the taloned Herlit, or movements of a long, feathered battle staff.
"Confused men swept about my wagon. I saw Alfred, turning about, wheeling this way and that, on his kaiila. I put out my hand to him. I cried out to him. He looked at me, but then paid me no attention. Infantrymen, here and there, were fighting cavalrymen for their mounts. The cavalrymen, cursing, slashed down at them. The savages from the south and southeast had struck against the lines of infantrymen with their lances. The lines had held."
I nodded, encouraging her to speak. Gorean infantry, with staggered lines and fixed pikes, their butts anchored in the earth, could usually turn an attack of light cavalry.
"I cried out again to Alfred, but he paid me no attention," she said.
The red savages, I speculated, would have been surprised that they had been unable to force their way through the infantry lines. Such lines, of course, can usually be outflanked.
"Men seemed everywhere," she said. "There was the clash of arms, the squealing of kaiila. The savages now from the north and west swept through the wagons. Some passed within feet of me. Some were naked, none seemed to wear more than the breechclout. They screamed hideously. They were covered with paint, and their mounts, too. Feathers were in their hair, and tied, too, in the silken hair of their beasts. I saw a man's brains struck out not more than a few feet from me."
"What of the beasts from your own wagons," I asked, "those who can bear arms, who can go on two feet when they choose?"
She looked up at me.
"I know of them," I said. "Speak." I slapped the quirt solidly into my palm. I would not have had the least compunction in laying it liberally to the beauty of my fair interlocutress.
She seemed frightened.
"How many of them were there?" I asked.
"Seventeen," she said.
"What became of them?" I asked.
"When the battle began they emerged from their wagons," she said. "Some killed some of the men about, even our own soldiers, who did not know what they were. Some fought savages. Some were slain by savages. Some, in a small group, together, made their way northward, through the fighting. The savages seemed, on the whole, reluctant to attack them."
"How many escaped?" I asked.
"I do not know," she said. "Perhaps seven, perhaps eight."
This report seemed congruent with what I had learned from Pumpkin and the other Waniyanpi, and with my own conjectures.
"Continue," I said to the girl.
"Taking advantage of the confusion, momentary, among the red savages, following their failure to break the line of the infantry, Alfred ordered his men through his own infantry lines, and led them again to the southeast. His action disrupted the infantry, trampling soldiers, buffeting them aside. The red savages then poured through the breached line. Some perhaps pursued the escaping column but most, I think, remained to finish their battle with the infantry, with which they were then, following the escape of Alfred, much embroiled."
"Too," I said, "they would presumably not wish to give the infantry a chance to reform, to close its lines again and set up a solid perimeter."
She shrugged. "Perhaps not," she whispered. "Then it seemed, again, that all about me were hurtling kaiila and screaming savages, and paint and feathers."
"These were doubtless the concerted forces of the red savages," I said, "being applied to the destruction of the infantry."
"I think so," she said.
"Were there any survivors?" I asked.
"I do not think so," she said.
"Alfred made good his escape?" I asked.
"I think so," she said.
"How many men did he have with him?" I asked.
"I do not know," she said. "Perhaps three hundred, perhaps four hundred."
"What did you do?" I asked.
"I lay down in the wagon, and hid," she said. "They found me later, in the afternoon, after the battle. Two men pulled me forth from the wagon bed. They thrust back my veils and hood. I was thrown to my knees on the grass and one of the men held my wrists, crosse
d, before my body. The other drew back a heavy club, the termination of which contained a heavy, wooden, ball-like knob. They were preparing, apparently, to dash out my brains. A word was spoken. The men stepped back. I looked up to see a tall savage, mounted astride a kaiila. It was he who had spoken. He motioned for me to rise and, unsteadily, terrified, I did so. These men were all hideous, and fearful, in their paint and feathers. He said another word and, in a moment, I had been stripped before him, absolutely naked. He then leaned down from the back of the beast and pointed to its forepaws. I shrank back, frightened. What did he want? What could he want? I could scarcely dare conjecture what he might wish to exact of me. The paws of the beast were filthy; what had they to do with me; the long hair was coarse and matted; the paws, with their nails, were covered with dust and dirt, and were crusted over with mud. There was even grass, and seed, and tiny pebbles in the matting. Too, from the staining on the hair it seemed clear the beast had trodden through dung. Other stainings, pale and yellowish, mixed in the matting, were doubtless the dried residues of urine, doubtless from the close herding, or the hobbling and tethering, of numerous kaiila. What could he want of me? I was a free woman! Could he expect of me some ignoble act of submission, some gross token on my part of my acceptance of a new reality in my life. Better death! I refused. I was a free woman! Never would I perform so hideous an act! Never would I be so debased, so humiliated! I was a free woman! He said another word and again, suddenly, I was much as I had been before, only now stripped, kneeling on the grass, my hands crossed and held before me by one man, the other readying his club to strike out my brains. 'No, no,' I cried, 'please, no!' The man on the kaiila again spoke, and again I was released. Once more he pointed to the forepaws of his kaiila." She shuddered. She stopped speaking. There were tears in her eyes. I saw that it would be difficult for her to continue.