Archiwum
- Index
- John DeChancie Castle 02 Castle for Rent
- Alan Burt Akers [Dray Prescot 07] Arena of Antares (pdf)
- Barb & J C Hendee Noble Dead 07 In Shade and Shadow (v5.0)
- James Alan Gardner [League Of Peoples 07] Radiant
- Ewa wzywa 07 124 Szymusiak Marianna Milionerka
- Godeng Gert Krew i Wino 07 Wilk z głową człowieka
- John D MacDonald Travis McGee 13 A Tan and Sandy Silence
- Linda Farstein AC 07 Entombed
- Charmed 07 Zirkuszauber Frauke Meier
- swietna gramtyka
- zanotowane.pl
- doc.pisz.pl
- pdf.pisz.pl
- epicusfuror.xlx.pl
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meet her eyes.
"You may lower your head, Girl," she said, not unkindly.
Gratefully I put my head again, swiftly, to the grass.
I was furious with how I acted, how I felt, but I could not help myself.
She was so magnificent. I was nothing. The other girls, too, had their heads
to the grass, kneeling before the free woman. They, like I, were only slaves,
stripped, their ankles chained, their throats in leather coffle, branded
girls, nothing before one who was free.
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I wept. I was a slave girl.
There was a rustle of bosk bells and a creak of wheels. Targo moved back,
bowing deeply, and the wagon slowly moved past us. The feet of the flanking
guards passed within a yard or two of us.
When the wagon, and the retinue, had passed us, Targo straightened up. He had
a strange expression on his face.
He was pleased about something.
"Into the wagons," said Targo.
"Into the wagons!" called the guards.
"Who was she?" asked the grizzled, one-eyed guard.
"The Lady Rena of Lydius," said Targo, "of the Builders."
Once again I found myself, with the other girls, chained in our wagon, moving
slowly across the Gorean fields toward Laura.
That night, at a stream, we stopped early to camp. In the evening, the girls,
under guard, attend to various tasks. They tend the bosk, clean the wagons,
draw water and gather firewood. Sometimes they are permitted to cook. Ute and
I, tied together by the throat, but otherwise unimpeded, wearing our camisks,
like the other girls, under a guard, went off with two buckets to gather
berries. There were not many berries, and it was not easy to fill our buckets.
I stole berries from Ute's bucket, and had mine filled first. We were not
supposed to eat the berries, and I do not think Ute did, but I would slip them
inside my mouth when the guard was not looking. If one was careful to keep the
juices inside there was no telltale sign on the lips and chin. Ute was such a
sweet, precious little fool.
When we returned to the camp it was near dark. I was surprised to see, glowing
near our wagon, a small, hot fire banked with stones. From the fire there
protruded the handles of two irons.
When we had been fed, we were allowed to sit near the wagons. We wore our
camisks. Our only fetter was a length of binding fiber, fastening us together,
at intervals of about a yard. It was tied about the left ankle of each girl.
For some reason the girls did not talk much.
Suddenly the guards leaped to their feet, seizing their spears.
Out of the darkness came two men, warriors. Between them, face-stripped, was a
woman, stumbling. Her arms, over her resplendent robes, were bound to her
sides with a broad leather strap. She was thrown to the feet of Targo. I, and
the other girls, crowded about, but the guards pushed us back with their
spears. The woman struggled to her knees, but was not permitted to rise. Her
eyes were wild.
She shook her head, no. Targo then, piece by piece, from the leather pouch at
his belt, handed forty-five pieces of gold to the chief of the two men. The
girls cried out in amazement. It was a fantastic price. And he had not even
assessed her! We realized then that she had been contracted for in advance.
The two men took Targo's gold and withdrew into the darkness.
"You were foolish to hire mercenaries to guard you," said Targo.
"Please!" she cried.
I recognized her then. She was the woman with the retinue.
I felt pleasure.
"Please!" wept the woman. I admitted to myself that she was beautiful.
"You have an admirer," Targo told her, "a Captain of Tyros, who glimpsed you
in
Lydius last fall. He has contracted to buy you privately in Ar, to be taken to
his pleasure gardens on Tyros. He will pay one hundred pieces of gold."
Several of the girls gasped.
"Who?" asked the captive, plaintively.
"You will learn when you are sold to him," said Targo. "Curiosity is not
becoming in a Kajira," said Targo. "You might be beaten for it."
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I remembered that the large man, on the planet Earth, had said to me this
thing.
I gathered that it was a Gorean saying.
The woman, distraught, shook her head.
"Think!" urged Targo. "Were you cruel to someone? Did you slight someone? Did
you not grant someone the courtesy that was his due?"
The woman looked terrified.
"Strip her," said Targo.
"No! No!" she wept.
The strap was removed from her body, and her clothing cut from her.
She was bound tightly over the large rear wheel of our wagon. Her right thigh,
particularly, was lashed tightly to it, with several straps of binding fiber.
I
myself wore my brand on the left thigh.
I watched her being branded.
She screamed terribly, her head back. Then she was sobbing, her cheek pressed
against the rim.
We girls crowded about her.
Her head was down on the rim.
"Lift your head, Child," I told her.
She lifted her head and gazed at me, her eyes glazed. She was naked. I wore a
camisk! In fury, I struck her face. "Slave!" I screamed. "Slave!" I struck her
again. A guard pulled me away. Ute went to the girl and put her arms about her
shoulders. Comforting her. I was furious.
"Into the wagons," called Targo.
"Into the wagons!" repeated the guards.
The binding fiber was removed from our ankles and soon we were chained again
in the wagons.
The new girl was placed in our wagon, near the front. She was bound hand and
foot and tied on her side, that she might not tear at her brand. A slave hood,
with gag, was placed on her, that her weeping and cried might not disturb our
rest.
Soon, to my interest, the guards had hitched up the bosk, and, by the light of
the three moons, we were moving slowly again over the fields.
Targo did not wish to remain too long in this place.
"Tomorrow," I heard him say, "we reach Laura."
8 - WHAT OCCURRED NORTH OF LAURA
We reached the banks of the Laurius shortly after dawn the following morning.
It was foggy, and cold. I and the other girls, with the exception of the new
girl, freshly branded, hooded and gagged, bound on her side, had crawled
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