"Come with me," I said. "I will show you."
"Very well," he said.
"Bring a torch," I said.
"Very well," he said.
9 Two Women, One Free, One Bond; I Join the Company of Boots Tarsk-Bit
"Here," I said. "See?"
We were in a small clearing in the woods, not far from the road.
"Yes!" said Boots, appreciatively.
"Lower the torch," I said. "Look more closely."
The two women whimpered, looking up, blinking against the light. The torch, Boots crouching down, was passed slowly over their bodies. One were a long gown, sleeveless and white. It was all she wore, however, and it was thin. I did not think it was what she would have chosen to wear. It had apparently been picked out for her. The fullness of her beauty, at any rate, in its delicious amplitudes, was not difficult to conjecture beneath it. The other was excitingly curvaceous, too. About her beauty, however, there could be no possible mistake. She was absolutely naked. Both were bound tightly, helplessly, hand and foot.
"Pretty," said Boots.
"Yes," said Chino.
"Yes," said Lecchio.
Petrucchio and Publius Andronicus, too, voiced their assent. The surly, hooded player was not with us. After he had finished freeing himself from the ropes on his ankles, he had hurried to recover the cup which had been of such interest to the brigands. It seemed he did not wish others to see it, or understand its meaning. He had then, taking the cup, gone into his wagon. It seemed then that he had chosen, at least for the time, to remain there. He had not, at any rate, come with us. It seemed he was not particularly appreciative of what had been done for him. Perhaps he was too proud a man. Perhaps he resented fiercely the thought that he might owe anything to another. Perhaps, on the other hand, given his hatred, and the shame in which he seemed to live, he might not have found the cruelty of a brigand's knife that unwelcome.
I looked down at the woman in the long, thin white gown. "Have you been branded?" I asked.
"No!" she said, tensely. "I am free!" This seemed to me probably true, as she had been put in the gown, doubtless, at least for the time, to protect her modesty.
"You must understand," I said, "that we must make a determination on that matter."
"Of course," she said. The results of this determination could make an important difference in how she was treated and what might be, as a matter of course, expected of her. A free woman in one thing, and a female slave is quite another.
I put her on her side and thrust up her gown, and turned her about, from one side to the other. In a moment or two I had checked the normal brand sites for a Gorean female. The most typical brand site is high on the left thigh, high enough, under the hip, to be covered even by the brevity of a typical slave tunic. In this way one often does not know what brand the girl wears. IN this way a bit of mystery, I suppose, might be thought to be added to her.
The mystery in most cases, however, if one is truly interested, is usually no more than temporary. It is only necessary to lift her skirt. Sometimes bets are mad on this matter. In such bets, of course, the odds are with he who wagers on the graceful, cursive, Kef. This is the most common Kajira brand. «Kef» is the first letter in "Kajira," the most common expression in Gorean for a female slave. It is sometimes, too, spoken of as the "Staff and fronds." This is doubtless because of a fancied resemblance to such objects. Also, of course, this involves an allusion to beauty under discipline, indeed, to helpless beauty under absolutely uncompromising discipline. I also checked certain less common brand sites, such as the lower left abdomen, the interior of the left forearm and the high instep area of the left foot. If there is such a mark on a girl, it would not be well to miss it. Imagine the embarrassment of relating to a woman as though she were free and then discovering only later that she had been a legally imbonded slave all the time! Too, how dreadfully perilous would such a deception be for the female! I would surely not wish to be the female who might be found out in such a deception.
"Her body seems clear of brands," I said. "Apparently she is free."
"Yes," she said. "Yes!"
I pulled her gown down from where I had thrust it up, above her breasts, for my convenience in examining her body for brands, and then I worked it down, inching it, carefully, over her body and hips. It was thin and fit her closely. I did not wish to tear it. I then pulled its hem down to where it was supposed to be, at about her ankles. I then made my final adjustments of the gown, that her modesty might be as well protected, or about as well protected, as such a flimsy garment permitted. To be sure, I did, here and there, pull it a bit more snugly about her body than was perhaps necessary. This was excusable, of course. She was beautiful and bound.
I had made a stop at my own camp, incidentally, before coming to this place in the woods.
"As she seems to be free," I said, "I will claim her, she in the modality of the free captive."
"No!" she cried.
"Very well," said Boots.
"No, no!" she wept, struggling in the ropes.
I knew this female.
I pulled her to a seated position. I looked into her eyes. "You are my captive."
"Please, no!" she said.
"It is up to you, at least for the time," I said, "to decided what sort of captive you will be."
She looked at me, frightened.
I removed some metal from my pouch, that which I had brought from my camp, but moments ago, to this clearing in the woods. I dangled it, in its small, sturdy rings and four heavy, close-set links, before her eyes. "Do you desire it?" I asked.
"Yes," she whispered. "Close-chains."
I put the shackles on her ankles. Her ankles were now shackled only some four inches apart. She had decided that she wished to be kept in honor and modesty. To be sure, aside from the obvious consideration of the inflexible efficiency of the shackling itself, given the large number of ways in which a woman may be used for a man's pleasure, the matter was primarily symbolic. then ankle rings snug on her I removed the bonds of the brigands from her ankles. Her ankles parted, to the brief extent permitted by the chain linkage of my shackles. her wrists were still tied behind her. "How did you come to be captured by the brigands?" I asked.
"My superiors were dissatisfied with me," she said. "My lackeys were removed from me. I was put in a brief tunic, almost as though I might be a slave. I was forbidden even to wear a veil. I was given a small purse of coins, one sufficient for my projected expenses, and instructed to report back to my headquarters, alone and on foot."
"Alone, and on foot?" I asked.
"Yes," she said, bitterly.
"It is my conjecture," I said, "that they did not expect you to complete your journey successfully."
"It seems they were right," she said, bitterly.
I smiled. I did not think that her superiors were likely to be any more unaware of the dangers of Gorean highways than anyone else. A lovely woman, scantily clad, not even veiled, alone, on foot, did not seem a likely candidate to travel the Gorean wilderness with impunity. Their instructions, it seemed, had been, for most practical purposes, tantamount to an enslavement sentence. I did not think they expected to see her again, unless it might be in the rag of a slave and a collar.
"I was caught by the brigands last night," she said.
"You do not appear to be clad as might be a slave," I said.
"The garments in which my superiors had placed me," she said, "were removed by the brigands. They regarded them as inappropriate for a free woman. They put me, instead, in the gown in which you now see me."
"That was thoughtful of them," I said.
"But it is so thin and flimsy!" she protested.
"Of course," I said.
"I suppose it does mark me as a free woman," she said, "and in that sense might perhaps raise my price somewhat in case they were readying me for sale to a slave merchant."
"Too," I said, "with all due respect it is, in spite of its length and nature, rather flattering and revealing. Doubtless, too, it would give the merchant pleasure to remove it from you in your assessment, thereby revealing your beauty, that then of a potential slave."