The paga slaves, in the skins of panther girls, in the darkness, would approach one of the guards.
They would be halted.
“We are returning,” they would say.
Then, quietly, from the rear, my hand would close over the mouth of the guard. She would be thrown down, gagged, and bound hand and foot. I would then locate another guard, and repeat the same stategem. Interestingly, only two of the guards were immediately suspicious. The initial response of the other four girls, until they had seem the approaching women were not of their band, was on of intense relief. They almost ran to their arms. It had not occurred to them that these women might not be of their own band. To the best of their knowledge they were the only panther girls in the area. Indeed, their information was not incorrect. It was only that, in the darkness, they mistook paga slaves in the skins of panthers for their sisters of the forest, at least returning to the band. Their mistake, natural though it was, was a costly one. In my camp, bound in my coffle, they could contemplate it at their leisure. The two girls who were more suspicious fared no better. They, too, were distracted by the approaching women. They, too, were unaware of my presence, completely unaware, until my hand closed over their mouth and they felt themselves, helplessly, being dragged backward into the brush.
When we were finished we collected the guards. We unbound their ankles and tied them together by the neck. We then herded them to our camp. Before I retired I saw them stripped and added to the coffle.
There were now twenty-one prisoners, each of them a beauty. I was weary. “See that they rest well,” I said. “Do not permit them to struggle.” “I will,” said the red-haired girl, with her switch. She strode among the panther girls. They lay very still, not daring to move a muscle, fearing her. I looked up at the moons, and fell asleep.
The next morning, early, the camp of the men of Tyros had been broken. They were gone.
But, with the long slave chain they held, they would move with great slowness. I returned to my camp. It, too, had now served its purpose.
The men of Tyros, in their flight, had abandoned much baggage, their own, and baggage taken from the camp of Marlenus. They were interested in moving as swiftly as they might. It would not, however, be swiftly enough.
Some of what they had abandoned I thought I might be able to use.
In my camp I had the dark-haired girl and the blond unbind the ankles of the panther girls.
I then had the red-haired girl with the switch, order them to their feet. I would take my prisoners first to the site of the old camp, and then, by a parallel route, we would follow my enemies.
“Coffle them by the left ankle,” I told the dark-haired girl and the blond. They did so. The panther girls were now tied together by the neck and by the left ankle. Their hands were still bound behind their back.
“You many remove their gags,” I told the dark-haired girl. She did so, one by one. The girls threw back their heads, some with their eyes closed and drank the air.
I had seen, among the baggage abandoned at the old camp, a sack of slave hoods. I would use them, if necessary, on the prisoners. Normally, however, I did not expect to be within earshot of the enemy. Many slave hoods, and those at the site of the old camp were among these, combine the advantages of the blindfold and gag. They fit entirely over the girl’s head and buckle under the chin, about the neck. Some are of leather, others of canvas. Some lock.
We took the prisoners to a nearby stream and watered them. We then let them, with their teeth, pick fruit from low-hanging branches.
We then marched them to the site of the old camp. They would be my porters. I had Ilene gather fruit and nuts for me as we made our way through the forest. About the neck of the last panther gild in the coffle were slung seven quivers of arrows, which I had taken from various prisoners.
At the site of the old camp I had the red-haired girl order the panther girls to their backs.
From one of the abandoned crates, discarded now because of its weight and its putative lack of utility, I spilled a quantity of chains to the grass. They were Harl rings, named for the slaver Harl of Turia, who is reported to have first used them. They consist, I effect, of four portions. First, there is a metal ankle ring, which snaps about the girl’s ankle. Second, to the back of the ring, there is welded a closed loop. Third, to the front of the ring, fastened through another closed loop, is about a yard of chain. Fourth, this chain terminates in a locking device, which may then be snapped shut, if one wishes, through the welded, closed loop on the back of a second ankle ring. The Harl ring is a versatile piece of custodial hardware. It may be used to chain a girl to anything, the ankle ring closed on her ankle, and the locking device at say, about a tree, or stanchion, or the ankle of another girl, and then locked about its own chain, or through one of the links of its own chain. The chain, of course, may also be looped about, say, a tree, or a piller in a public building, and the locking device snapped into the welded ring on the back of the girl’s own ankle ring. This is called a closed Harl Loop. One of the most frequent uses of the Harl ring, of course, is to form a segment in a slave chain, which may then be of any length, adding or removing girls, as short or as long as the slaver wishes.
I looked at the panther girls lying on their backs, at the site of the old camp. “Remove the binding fiber from their left ankles,” I told the dark-haired girl. She did so.
“Extend your left legs,” I told the panther girls, “and bend and lift your right knee, heel to the ground.” They did so.
I went to the last girl. I closed the heavy metal ankle ring about her ankle, snapping it shut, and extended its chain, with its locking device, to her right. I then took the second Harl ring and closed it about the ankle of the next girl. I then took the locking device at the termination of the first girl’s ankle ring and snapper it shut, through the closed, welded loop on the back of the second girl’s ankle ring. The two were now chained together. I then extended the chain on the second girl’s ankle ring to her right. I then locked the third girl’s ankle ring to her, and then snapped the locking device on the chain of the second through the welded, closed loop of the third girl’s ring on her. Three were now fastened together. “Please do not chain me,” begged the fourth girl. She knew the dangers, the helplessness, of wearing chains in the forest. I did not speak to her. I chained her. I proceeded, thus, girl to girl, through the fair prisoners. When I finished, I stood up. I looked at the girls, lying on their backs. They were now a slave chain.
“Stand,” I said.
With a rattle of chain, they stood. There were tears on the cheeks of several. “Remove the binder fiber from their throats,” I told the dark-haired girl, “and untie their hands.” She did so.
I went to her who was now the first girl in the chain, she who had been last to be chained. There was, seemingly left over, the yard of chain, coiled on the grass, attached to the front of her ankle ring. It may be used, of course, to fasten the entire chain about, or to, some suitable object, a pillar, a stanchion, a wagon wheel, a tree, a column in a market colonnade, a post in a bazaar, one of the heavy slave rings, set in the ground, usually found at the edges of a square in a Gorean city. But, that it not impeded the girl, I picked it up and, with the locking device through one of the links in the chain, fastened it about her left wrist. She could carry it that way until it was needed.
One key, incidentally, serves for an entire set of ankle rings and locking devices. The key had been in the crate with its set of Harl rings. I dropped the key in my pouch.
“You have chained us,” said one of the girls, a blond one, standing proud in her ankle ring, her feet widely apart. “Our safety is entirely in your hands.” “A single panther,” wept another, cringing, the ankle ring fastened to her left ankle, “could kill us all.” I did not respond to them. I walked about the chain.