The male stood and gazed upon me, his eyes hard upon the sword at my hip, his skin touched with pallor, his tongue seeking to wet the dryness of his lips. I had recognized the insult for the attempted ruse it was, and now the male stood stripped of it—and dignity as well. His dark eyes, filled with a mixture of fear and fury, rose again to my face as his head shook in negation.
“No, curse you, such an arrangement would not be to my liking,” he rasped, torn from the need to speak such words. “I have seen the manner in which these others fight, and know you stand above them. I have no wish to die.”
“You would prefer to live as a slave then,” said I, showing all of the contempt I felt at such a notion. At his curt, wordless nod I, too, nodded. “May you never forget that the choice was given you. As you have now become a slave, you may reap the fruits of a slave. Immediately. ”
Curtly did I command my warriors to take the male to a wall, remove his covering, and close his wrists in the cuffs upon the wall. His struggles were great, for well did he know what lay in store for him, yet his struggles, like mine when I had been done so, were useless. His wrists were closed in unyielding metal, his bare body pressed hard against the cool of the wall stone, and then was a large warrior behind him, a lash in her hands. As the lash was shaken out in preparation for use, I turned my attention to the female Karil.
“And you?” I inquired, pulling the female’s eyes from the struggling form of Bariose. “Do you also feel you would be wrongly done should you take sword in hand and face me?”
“Face you?” the female snorted, tossing her head in disdain. “I am not such a fool as Bariose. I am a lady, and unconcerned with swords and suchlike nonsense. You will not do me as you do Bariose, for any will tell you I am cousin to the High Seat, much like a sister to him. When he returns with fighting men at his back, he will pay well for my immediate release—unharmed, of course. Should I be harmed, my value will prove much less. That should be clear enough even to savages such as you. Should you wish my value to remain intact, I must not be harmed.”
The female stood with a smirk well upon her, her dark hair somewhat disarranged, her long, city-female covering dirtied and worn, yet her self-concept of value entirely intact. Strange were these city folk and their concepts of value, for what may be of greater value than a truly made sword in one’s fist and a clan-sister to guard one’s back? Of what value may be a useless, smirking female who delights in the debasement and insult of others?
“You speak of the return of the High Seat,” said I, again folding my arms. “You believe he has escaped to gather males to him so that he might return?”
“Certainly,” said she, again tossing her head. “He would not have fallen to a female rabble with the best swordsmen in the Guard to protect him. It would be wisest if you were gone upon his return, for his temper is such that he may have all of you slain rather than taken as slave. He is a man of great—”
The words of the female ended abruptly, for I had turned to gaze upon the enclosure which held the High Seat, drawing her gaze with mine. It was clear the female Karil had not seen our arrival, she having been placed upon the stones of the floor at the far wall of the chamber, yet now was she completely aware of the true state of affairs. Her head shook slowly in distant negation as she looked upon the bedraggled figure of the once-mighty High Seat, and her voice, so confident a moment earlier, was no longer filled with scorn.
“No,” she whispered, her head still ashake, and then did she jump and shudder when a scream of pain was forced from the male Bariose, he who was now under the lash he had so often wielded. “No, it cannot be,” said this Karil, turning wide-eyed to stare upon me. “You cannot have taken him! You are savages! Savages!”
“We are warriors of the Midanna,” I informed her, feeling something of anger beginning within me. “Savage” had I been called by the slave-guards of that city, “savage” was I to each of these useless, honorless folk of cities and villages. I had long since wearied of the term, yet this Karil saw naught of my anger.
“Warrior!” she spat, beside herself with fury. “Savages have your actions shown you to be, and savages will you remain! I am a high lady, far beyond the comprehension of such as you, far beyond your ability to degrade me! Slay me if you will, yet I refuse to declare myself slave!”
“Excellent,” said I, anod in seeming approval of her words. “It is true, I am told, that males much prefer to teach a female her slavery themselves. That you refuse to declare yourself slave should make you of greater interest to males. Remove her covering. ”
Two of my warriors, widely agrin, caught the female as she attempted to flee, removed the leather from her wrists, and then began the removal of the city slave-woman covering. The female Karil howled and fought, rendering the removal of her covering difficult, therefore did one of the warriors, a Hulna by the gold of her clan colors, produce her dagger from its bands and deftly slit the covering from neck to waist. A deeper howl came from the female as the balance of the covering was torn from her, and then she stood, bare to the eyes of all, in the midst of cloth puddled at her feet. The females this Karil had done in a like manner were undoubtedly numberless, and yet her attempts to keep herself from the eyes of others, and the frenzied weeping and howling, seemed to indicate she felt herself unjustly done. With arms held before her and body bent forward, her head swung this way and that, her eyes searching for an avenue of escape, they finding no more than the laughter of warriors, the appraisal of males. I examined the female in silence a moment, then frowned in mock disapproval.
“The presentation seems amiss,” I mused, considering the woman with head to one side. “There is that lacking which I cannot— Ah, now do I have it! The heat. One cannot see her heat. ”
“No!” whispered the female in horror, her widened eyes immediately coming to me upon hearing my words. “You cannot— It would be bestial—I am not—I cannot be done so! I am a high lady, not for the likes of slave handlers and positionless men! There are none about here worthy of me, not to speak of slaves!”
“She undoubtedly means she is a virgin and cold,” called one of the male slaves, causing the others to laugh coarsely and raucously, bringing a deep stain of red to the female’s body. “Put her in this cage with me, wench, and I will soon have her hot and hopping—and opened to her teeth.”
Again the male slaves laughed, as much at the words of the large, well-made male as at the appalled, disbelieving expression upon the face of the female. She called Karil stared upon the heavily chained male who wished her use, seeing the broadness of his chest, the strength in his arms, the desire of his body, and quickly did she attempt to back from him. She, however, had forgotten the puddle about her feet, and took no more than two steps before stumbling upon the cloth, her arms flailing for balance, a muffled shriek of dismay torn from her lips. The Hulna warrior shot out a hand and caught the female’s arm, keeping her from sprawling upon the stone of the floor, yet had the males been well-pleased by the motions of the female’s body. Nearly as well-endowed as a warrior was she, soft and rounded and overripe for giving service.
“We must see what heat there is to be found in that one,” said I to the two warriors beside the female, speaking so that the slaves might hear me. “Stand her before each of the enclosures of the males, near enough so that they might touch her easily, allowing them all the opportunity of raising her heat. Should Mida intervene and allow so low a thing to be brought about, do not allow her relief till she kneels before the male who asked her use and begs to serve him. Should she do this, you may then throw her to him.”