by Faith Eden
To the two rings was attached the bit, a thick tube of leather wrapped around a metal bar, projecting on the inner side to cover the tongue, so that if the mere presence of the bar itself was not enough to prevent intelligible speech, the leather plate certainly was. The final touch, and in many ways the cruellest, was the collar, a high band of stiff leather that encircled the throat and, at the front, rose to a shallow point immediately beneath the chin.
'Now you really look like proud pony,' Attak'u said, as he finished adjusting the rear buckles and walked back around to view the finished effect. 'Keep head up at all times now.' Corinna eyed him through the slits in the mask, almost having to peer downwards, such was the effect of the collar in forcing her to keep her chin so high. However she was expected to walk, let alone see where she was going, she could not imagine.
'Bokina now comb out your mane and put colours in,' he said. 'Mane already good, but one day reach past rump, maybe even further. You make good pony girl, Flix. You filly now, but be mare soon, so we best start training straight away, before belly gets too big for harness.'
Savatch lowered the brass tube from his eye, slid the thinner section inside the thicker and passed it back to Jekka.
'Impressive little toy,' he said. 'Where did you find it?'
Jekka elongated the tube again and put it to her own eye. 'A Lostovian sailor,' she said. 'He challenged me to a shooting competition and that was his stake.'
'What was yours?'
Jekka put the telescope down again and grinned. 'Something I wasn't prepared to lose,' she said. 'But enough of that. What do you make of that column?' She nodded towards the far hillside, where the road meandered gently upwards before disappearing between a line of trees along the ridge.
'Well, they're definitely Vorsans,' Savatch confirmed. It was the first time he had sat a horse since the attempt on his life and, although his colour was much improved, he still moved stiffly. Alanna, her horse just behind the other two, was keeping a close watch on him.
'That wouldn't perhaps be Fulgrim's men?' she suggested, peering towards the distant cloud of dust.
'I don't think so,' Savatch replied. 'Moxie was quite clear that there were maybe thirty of them at Varragol, and that column numbers more than a hundred. Of course, Fulgrim's party may well have joined up with that lot, but even supposing they have come east, they would be many days ahead by now.'
'The goatherd yesterday,' Jekka mused, 'he told us of soldiers coming through the day before and the day before that, both times heading up from Karli.'
'Where they don't have an army as such,' Savatch said. 'So the likelihood is that they were also Vorsans. But why are they here in the Vaal? Unless they are swinging around and back to Varragol and Fulgrim is intending to try to hold the castle after all.'
'That would be too obvious a move for someone like him,' Alanna said. 'Besides, Vorsan strategy has never included fighting defensive actions. They are cavalry soldiers, mostly, and prefer to fight in the open and on the move.'
'I know,' Savatch said. 'So why is Fulgrim gathering soldiers together out here in this wilderness?'
'You think it's him behind it, then?' Alanna asked.
'It has to be,' he said. 'After all, apart from his authority in Ernsdt itself, he's number two in the Vorsan alliance and commander-in-chief of their military. No one could move hundreds of troops into a foreign state without his authority; no one would dare. No, this is his work. His orders must have gone out with the message that stupid lad was bribed to carry.'
'But why invade the Vaal?' Jekka retorted. 'There's nothing here worth fighting for, surely?'
Savatch eased his weight in the saddle and grimaced. 'I don't think it's the Vaal they're invading,' Savatch replied. 'That column is riding all wrong for that - no scouts, no rearguard - they're not expecting any trouble just yet, so whatever they're doing here, they're doing it with the full knowledge of whoever has the authority in this particular region.'
'Then if not the Vaal and not Varragol,' Alanna said, 'what is their objective?'
'Perhaps Garassotta,' Savatch suggested. 'Garassotta controls the entire north eastern sector of Illeum, including access to the great timber forests, most of the border with Sorabund and the most direct routes into the heart of the Snow Kingdoms.
'If Fulgrim were to take Garassotta, he would find plenty of allies among the warlords there, and there would be plenty throughout the Vaal who would flock to his standard with the promise of booty. He can reinforce his own troops using the same route as now and effectively cut Illeum off from everything east of the mountain line.
'Vorsania is then well situated to blockade the southern sea routes, so Illeum would be virtually powerless to intervene if the Vorsans wanted to cross the Straits of Tolereum and invade the western continent. Dasnia and Maravania are always at each other's throats anyway, so a convenient alliance with either state would give Fulgrim total control in a matter of weeks.
'Then the balance of power would lie with Vorsania, rather than Illeum,' he concluded grimly. 'It's a clever plan, if that's what is in his mind. Taking the field against Illeum directly would tie down the majority of their forces, whereas this way they can split the Illean army in two and do it with only a relatively small force of their own.'
'Could there be other reasons for this incursion?' Alanna asked.
'Who knows? In truth, there could be a dozen, but I think it'll be Garassotta, which means that column must be close to whatever rendezvous point was agreed. Much further east would be pointless, so if I'm right, we're likely to find a Vorsan nest no more than a day from here, from where they have a straightforward ride north, across the open plains, far from any regular trading traffic that might raise the alarm.
'Besides,' he added, touching the dressing on his neck gingerly, 'the attempt to kill me stinks of Fulgrim's sort of treachery. He would definitely want me out of the way before attacking Garassotta.'
'And Corinna?'
'Exactly,' he said bitterly. 'If he takes Garassotta, he has Lundt's daughter as hostage, as he planned to do before. On the other hand, if he takes Corinna first, he uses her to force the castle garrison to surrender.'
'But whoever tried to kill you couldn't have known that was Corinna with you, not from what you say.'
'Perhaps not,' Savatch said, 'though I suspect they may have. I remember a rider, as I was trying to keep the horses on the road. He came alongside and was trying to grab the traces, but I think his mount stumbled.'
'So,' Alanna said carefully, 'the plan was to kill you and capture Corinna, but now, presumably, they must think her dead, yes?' Savatch nodded. 'Only, if they assume she died in the river with you and died dressed as a common slave girl, even if anyone found the bodies, they would not identify her for who she really was.'
'That's about it,' Savatch grunted. 'But, with both of us missing, when Fulgrim sends an emissary to say he is holding Lady Corinna, the garrison commander is going to believe him. The Vorsans probably select a female of the same height and build, colour her hair suitably and, from a distance, nobody would notice. By the time they did, it would be too late.'
'Except that Corinna isn't dead,' Jekka pointed out, 'and our friend with an eye for a bargain in slaves has brought her straight into just about the worst place in the world he could have chosen. If he were to see and recognise her...'
'I know,' Savatch said wearily, 'and I don't even want to think about it. I'm just praying that Fulgrim has too many other things on his mind to bother with trivialities such as slave girls.'
If Fulgrim ever considered slaves to be mere trivialities, the men who ran the human pony establishment certainly took their profession seriously, and none more so than Attak'u, as Corinna was quickly discovering.
No sooner had Bokina completed the task of plaiting coloured ribbons into what remained of her hair than the groom was clipping reins to the rings on either side of her bit and leading her outside, tugging urgently to encourage her to move quicker whene
ver she hesitated, and apparently unconcerned that she was finding it difficult to walk in the heavy hoof boots.
'You learn,' he rasped, jerking the rein fiercely. 'You fall, you get up. Fall too often, get whipped.' He brandished the vicious looking crop, a beast of a weapon that was at least five feet in length, and Corinna, grinding her teeth into the leather bit, staggered onwards.
He led her across the uneven ground, along the side of the stable building and around behind the cabin that apparently served as quarters for the grooms, and ahead of them Corinna saw the forge, three powerfully muscled, dark-skinned men, stripped to the waist, waiting outside. They greeted the sight of the new arrival with little real interest; fresh stock, male or female, was clearly just part of their daily routine.
The ringing process was painful, as bad as when Fulgrim had performed a similar series of operations on Corinna the year before, but made worse, if that was possible, by the sheer indifference with which the entire procedure was carried out. Where the Vorsan had taken great delight in the agonies he was inflicting, these men did not, even swabbing the piercings with cold water as soon as they had been made.
Fulgrim had originally pierced her septum for his nose ring, but the hole had partially closed in the months since and this was attended to first. The thick metal hoop inserted, slim chains were used to join it to the bit rings, so that any pressure on either side would be transferred to one of the most tender parts of Corinna's anatomy. The chances of a girl refusing to turn when thus bridled were quite remote, she thought bitterly.
Her earrings were replaced by much heavier models, to which were attached small brass bells, the slightest head movement setting them to a merry tinkling, and then finally they came to her labia. Five rings each side, Attak'u had promised, and that was precisely what Corinna was given, a total of ten brazed loops that could not be removed without the aid of a file or very strong cutting pliers.
When the men had finished, Attak'u held up a curiously curved metal rod. One end had been fashioned into a short T-piece, whilst the other ended in a narrow oval shape. He flexed it between his fingers and grinned his canine grin.
'This keep pony safe from stallion fucking, 'cept when Attak'u say,' he said, with an air of triumph. 'Attak'u have lock and key, see!' He held up the small padlock in his other hand and immediately Corinna began to understand. Willum had fashioned something similar for his wife, Benita, but this was obviously a mass-produced item, for Corinna had seen several other similar rods lying on the bench among the small piles of loose rings.
Whilst he had been happy to leave the actual task of ringing to the blacksmiths, Attak'u, it seemed, preferred to keep this final display of his power over his charges as his own province. Stooping down, he eased Corinna's thighs slightly wider and began.
The pressure on the rings made her already throbbing flesh hurt even more and only the bit between her teeth prevented Corinna from crying out loud. As it was, she bit down hard and managed to stifle all but a few gasps. She closed her eyes and prayed he would finish quickly, but although he worked with practised precision, it seemed to take forever.
Finally though, it was done, the curved rod passing through each opposite pair of rings in turn, the short T-bar preventing it from sliding all the way through and the lock through the oval loop, which itself was barely able to pass through the rings, prevented it from being withdrawn again. As Attak'u had said, it would keep any stallion at bay, sealing Corinna's sex until he decided otherwise.
'Good,' he said, standing erect again. 'Now you all ready to start training, so we take you to get cart. Not dark yet for two hours, so time to get plenty good sweat up.'
The coppice on the ridge of the low hill, one of the few pieces of high ground in this area of rolling plains, offered an excellent vantage point and Jekka's brass telescope helped counter the disadvantage of distance. The red-haired Yslander sat astride her horse dressed from head to toe in black leather: breeches, boots, shirt, and a close-fitting cowl, so that only her face was left uncovered and, in the darkness of night, she could melt into the surroundings, a skill that had been the downfall of many in her brief past.
'See the woodlands away to the right there?' she said, extending her arm towards the rising sun. 'Beyond that is their main encampment. They must number more than a thousand already, and another company came in while I was looking around.'
'We heard them on the road,' Savatch said. 'Didn't want to get too close, but it sounded like a sizeable column.'
'More than a hundred,' Jekka confirmed. 'From what I managed to overhear of a few conversations, they're still building up strength. I saw one group putting up billet tents and erecting fencing, presumably making another paddock for horses.'
'Working through the night, eh?' Savatch said. 'Fulgrim must be keen. But what about the slave area?'
'Well, it seems to be completely separate, apart from a few mounted patrols riding through every now and then,' Jekka said. 'The men I saw there, those who seem to be in charge of it, they're certainly not Vorsans. A few Karlieans, who sound as if they're the real bosses, plus more than a score of others, mostly from Colrasia, judging by their skins.
'So, considering what I counted were counted in the middle of the night, there could easily be three times as many more sleeping in those cabins over there.' She pointed directly at the main cluster of buildings and then swept her arm away to the left.
'They appear to be organised into a series of separate enclaves,' Alanna observed. 'See how there are four long buildings in parallel rows and then a squarer building at right angles to one end. Then there are what look like workshops, or forges, but not at every enclave.'
'No,' Jekka said, 'from what I could see those forges each serve four or five groups of buildings. The long buildings are set out as stables and the square structures are quarters for the handlers.'
'You call them stables?' Savatch said. 'So what we saw just before dusk last evening was not just an isolated case?'
'No,' Jekka replied. 'And I imagine we shall see a lot more of that very shortly. The story we heard in Erisroth was certainly not exaggerated. This place is a pony farm, with human ponies, at least twenty in each of those blocks.'
'And even from here,' Alanna said soberly, 'I can see thirteen, fourteen enclaves, each with four blocks. That's more than a thousand of these poor creatures. What on earth can they want with that many?'
'They send most of them east again, once they're trained,' Savatch said. 'I've only ever heard the stories, mind, as I've never wanted to journey that far east. Never needed to, in fact.'
'And all these human pony creatures, they'll be sent there?' Jekka asked.
'Probably,' Savatch nodded. 'Most of them, anyway. It's a vast land to the east, maybe five or six times larger than Illeum and all the Vorsan states put together.' He paused, considering for a moment. 'I wonder,' he said at length, 'if maybe the Vorsan presence here is more than just a convenient arrangement.'
'You mean he might be intending to use these slaves himself, to trade with these eastern barbarians?' Alanna said.
'Oh, they're no barbarians,' Savatch assured her. 'The fine silks and most of the spices we enjoy come originally from them.'
'Fulgrim wouldn't be interested in trading for delicacies,' Jekka said.
'No, though it would be a profitable trade to control,' Savatch replied, 'and he'd be doing that, once he sealed off the borders. But I think there is more to it than silks. I think he is looking for further allies. If he offers a few hundred human pony slaves to one of these eastern princes, or warlords, or whatever they call themselves, perhaps they will send men to fight with him.'
'A dangerous game,' Alanna muttered. 'From what I've heard, the less we have to do with those people, the better. If Fulgrim goes inviting them to send forces west, where will it all end?'
'Only time will answer that question,' Savatch said. 'But meantime, I'm more interested in Corinna. I don't suppose you saw any sign of her down there?'
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br /> 'You suppose right,' Jekka snorted. 'It was hell black down there, don't forget, and most of them were in their stalls for the night. The one or two I did see out in the open, well, you saw last evening. Their faces are painted as well as their bodies, and the tops of their faces are masked behind a sort of band, with holes in to allow them to see forward. I could fall over Corinna and not know her, and that's going to be our biggest problem. Bad enough having to sift through a haystack, but when all the needles look like the same straws...'
'You have nearly a thousand girls here,' Fulgrim said, 'so there is a good chance that you can find one suitable for my purposes, I think.' Gorvan Sul studied the miniature portrait and grunted, noncommittally.
'It is possible, my lord,' he said, 'but she is fair and most of my stock comes from the south and east. The women there are much darker.'
'I've seen as much for myself,' Fulgrim retorted, turning his back on the slaver. 'However, I'm not asking you to find an identical twin, just a girl with the basic physical characteristics. If she happens to be darker, then one of your women can paint her face and the fair hair can be faked similarly. She won't have to stand up to close scrutiny, in any case.'
'I understood that you intended to use the woman herself,' Gorvan said. He lowered himself carefully onto the padded couch, which groaned beneath his great bulk. 'Has something gone wrong with your plan?'
'A slight hitch,' Fulgrim snapped. 'Nothing for you to worry about. One of my agents was supposed to attend to the matter, but the men he employed did not carry out their instructions as they were supposed to. Instead of capturing the girl, they sent her and her damned lover hurtling into a ravine.