By the ropes I was dragged into the midst of tenacious, barbed brush, that thicket of such. I screamed with misery. I begged mercy. I was shown none. The brush tore at my clothing and body. Rudely I was drawn through it. I cried out, throwing my head from side to side. I kept my eyes closed, that I be not blinded. "Please, Masters!" I cried. They did not see fit to show a girl mercy. Bloodied, my body a welter of scratches and linear wounds, I was pulled from the brush. The Earth-girl slave was now naked.
They hit me with the ropes and again we continued our journey. They sang as they conducted me to the place of their feast, on the grass by the stream.
There they held my wrists about a tree and, striking many times, put me under rope-discipline. Held against the tree, feeling its bark with the side of my cheek, weeping, shuddering under the blows of the coiled rope, I wondered what I had done to them that they should be so cruel to me.
They then took me and threw me to the grass on my back. My ankles, by the rope leashes tied on them, held by two boys, were pulled widely apart. Bran Loort looked down upon me.
I realized then that I, a slave girl, had, days ago, eluded them in the game of girl catch. I had, in that game, by my cleverness, bested them. I did not now feel clever. I would now pay for my cleverness. How foolish of a slave girl to attempt to best a free man. Does she not know she may someday come into his ownership!
I cried out. Bran Loort was the first to have me.
"Come out, Thurnus!" called Bran Loort. "See what I have for you."
I lay at the feet of Bran Loort, my knees drawn up, on my side in the dirt. My hands were tied behind my back. I was naked, and my body was covered with dried blood and dirt. A rope, knotted, ran from my neck to his hand. My cheek was in the dust. I was cold, and my body ached, from the rope beatings and abuse to which it had been subjected. I think I was partly in shock. I could no longer cry. The only flicker of feeling left in me was a fear of free men. I, a slave girl, had once bested free men in the game of girl catch. I had learned my lesson well. Never again would I try to best free men. They were master. I was slave.
"Come out, Thurnus!" called Bran Loort. "See what I have for you!"
My head jerked as Bran Loort, emphasizing his words, drew on the rope tied on my neck. I put my head down, shoulders trembling.
"Thurnus! Come out!" cried Bran Loort.
I shuddered.
I lay in the dirt before the hut of Thurnus.
It was night now, and men stood about, with torches. There were the eight young men of Bran Loort, and others, too, gathered from the village. The free men and women were there, and some slaves, not yet caged for the night. Sandal Thong was there, and Turnip, and Verr Tail and Radish. Melina had wanted them to see what was to occur. There were no children present. Bran Loort stood forward, his staff in his left hand, my neck rope in his right. His eight young men stood near to him, each with his staff. Ringing us were villagers and slaves. All eyes turned to the doorway of Thurnus's hut. Melina emerged from the hut and descended the stairs to the ground. Thurnus's hut was near to the center of the village, near its clearing. I could smell the sleen in the cool, night air. It was chilly.
My back and legs were covered with welts from the rope lashings I had been given. My thighs were sore.
Melina stood at the bottom of the stairs. She, too, turned to face the opening.
I looked at Bran Loort. He looked very splendid, proud and strong, a girl's neck rope in his hand, she, proof of his manhood, at his feet. The staff he held was over six feet in length and some two to three inches in width. "I am going to be first in Tabuk's Ford," had Bran Loort once said to me. I recalled, too, something else he had said. "When I am first," he had said, "Melina will give you to me."
"Come out, Thurnus," called Melina, from the foot of the stairs below the hut.
I looked to the doorway of the hut. It was dark, empty.
The eyes of all looked at the opening to the hut.
Thurnus did not appear.
Men stood about, with torches. It was silent, save for the crackle of the torches. I lay bound. The ropes on my wrists, holding them closely behind my back, were very tight.
I heard a sleen squeal from some eighty yards away, behind the huts, in the cage areas.
There was a change in the breathing of the crowd. Thurnus stood now in the entrance to his hut.
"Geetings, Thurnus," called Bran Loort.
"Greetings, Bran Loort," said Thurnus.
Bran Loort's heavily sandaled foot struck into my belly. I cried out with pain.
"On your knees, Slave Girl," said Bran Loort.
I struggled to my knees. He took up the slack in the neck rope, coiling it, holding my head a foot from his thigh. My vision blurred, and then cleared. I saw Thurnus looking down at me.
He regarded me.
Much and well had the young men of Tabuk's Ford pleasured themselves with the girl from Earth, the former Judy Thornton, now the helpless Gorean slave girl, Dina.
I put my head down, under the gaze of my master. But I was not to be permitted this courtesy. The rope, Bran Loort's fist in it, at my neck, the knot, under the left side of my jaw, pulled my head up.
I was to be displayed to Thurnus.
"I have something here of yours," said Bran Loort.
"I see," said Thurnus.
"She is a hot little slave," he said, "juicy and pretty."
"That is known to me." said Thurnus.
"She kneels now at my feet," said Bran Loort.
"I see that, Bran Loort," said Thumus.
Swiftly Bran Loort then discarded the rope and, with his foot, thrust me to one side. I fell sprawling in the dirt, and turned, lying on one side, to watch.
Bran Loort stood with both hands on his staff, one hand grasped in its center, the other hand, his left, some eighteen inches below the center of the staff. But Thurnus had not moved.
No one stirred in the crowd. I heard the crackle of the torches.
Bran Loort seemed for a moment unsteady. He looked from one of his cohorts to another.
Then he again turned to face Thurnus, who stood, not speaking, at the height of the stairs, some six or seven feet above the level of the ground, in the doorway to his hut.
"I have abused your slave," said Bran Loort.
"That is what slaves are for," said Thurnus.
"We took much pleasure in her!" said Bran Loort, angrily.
"Did you find her pleasing?" asked Thurnus.
"Yes," said Bran Loort. He gripped the long, heavy staff more firmly, standing ready.
"Then," said Thurnus, "it will not be necessary for me to beat or slay her."
Bran Loort looked puzzled.
"Surely you know, Bran Loort," said Thurnus, "it is the duty of a slave girl to be fully and completely pleasing to men. Were she not so she would be subject to severe punishment, including even torture and death, should it be the master's wish."
"We took her without your permission," said Bran Loort.
"In this," said Thurnus, "you have committed a breach of code."
"It does not matter to me," said Bran Loort.
"Neither a plow, nor a bosk, nor a girl may one man take from another, saving with the owner's saying of it," quoted Thurnus.
"I do not care," said Bran Loort.
"What is it, Bran Loort, that separates men from sleen and larls?" asked Thurnus.
"I do not know," said Bran Loort.
"It is the codes," said Thurnus.
"The codes are meaningless noises, taught to boys," said Bran Loort.
"The codes are the wall," said Thurnus.
"I do not understand," said Bran Loort.
"It is the codes which separate men from sleen and larls," said Thurnus. "They are the difference. They are the wall."
"I do not understand," said Bran Loort.
"You have left the shelter of the wall, Bran Loort," said Thurnus.
"Do you threaten me, Thurnus of Tabuk's Ford?" asked Bran Loort.
"You stand now outside the shelter of the wall," said Thurnus.
"I do not fear you!" cried Bran Loort.
"Had you asked of me my permission, Bran Loort," said 'Thurnus, indicating me with a gesture of his head, "willingly and without thought, gladly, would I have given you temporary master rights over her."