Blood Brothers of Gor (61 page)

"You are not pretty, and you are not ugly," he said. "You are a Same. Sames are not pretty and they are not ugly. They are all the same."

"Oh," she said.

Mira then returned from the porridge kettle and knelt near Cuwignaka. Head down, her arms extended, she porffered him porridge as she had me.

"Thank you," said Cuwignaka.

She then rose up and returned, again, to the line near the kettle.

"She serves well," said Pumpkin.

"Women learn quickly," I told him.

The dark-haired girl and the blond girl, who had shared in the stirring, who were sitting, cross-legged, near Carrot and Cabbage, rose to their feet, going again to the porridge line.

"I have thought about the things we discussed," said Pumpkin. "I have thought about them, many times."

"I had thought you might," I said. Indeed, that was why I had come to the lodge of the Waniyanpi.

Mira returned to our vicinity now and knelt near Hci, proffering him a bowl of porridge as she had to Cuwignaka and me. He took it with one hand. He spoke to her in Kaiila and snapped his fingers. She put her head down to the dirt before him. He spoke again. She kissed the dust before him, humbly. He spoke again and she straightened up and then again lowered her head to the dust before him. He spoke again and she withdrew to her former position where she knelt as before. Again he spoke, and she lowered her head, humbly.

"She obeys with perfection," said Pumpkin.

"How thrilling it would be to be so under the command of a man and obey him with such perfection," said a Waniyanpi woman, softly, almost to herself.

"Thank you, Hci," said I, in Kaiila.

"Thank you, Hci," said Cuwignaka.

"It is nothing," said Hci.

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Hci's lesson had not been lost upon us. Cuwignaka and I, perhaps inadvertently, had been too soft with Mira. The slave who is treated too leniently may begin to forget that she is a slave. It may be necessary, then, to remind her. Beatings can be useful for this purpose.

The two girls who had gone to the porridge line, the dark-haired girl and the blond girl, had returned a bit before, each with their bowl refilled with porridge. They had been in time, standing, watching, to see Mira put though her paces by Hci. There were almost trembling.

The dark-haired girl knelt down near Carrot. "I have brought you some more porridge," she said.

He looked at her, startled.

"Would you like some more?" she asked, timidly.

"Yes," he said, taking her bowl.

"here," said the blond girl, kneeling down near Cabbage, pressing her bowl of porridge towards him.

"Thank you," he said, startled.

"Each here," snapped Radish, "fetches his own porridge."

"No," said the dark-haired girl.

"No," said the blond girl.

"I think maybe, even though you are a Same that maybe you are pretty," said Carrot to the dark-haired girl.

"Could you command me," she asked, "as that other girl is commanded."

"No," he said, "of course not! You are a Same!"

"Oh," she said.

"Do you not have pressing business elsewhere?" Radish asked me.

"No," I said.

"I think it is time you left our domicile," she said.

"I have not yet finished my porridge," I said.

"Do not be rude, Radish," said Pumpkin. "These are our guests."

Radish tossed her head, which seemed in uncharacteristic, almost feminine gesture for her, and looked away.

I handed the residue of my porridge, in its wooden bowl, back to Mira. I left the spoon beside me. She would not be so stupid as to ask for it. Slaves commonly eat without utensils. The porridge, by now, of course, had cooled.

"If necessay," said Radish, "you can be put out by force."

"I do not think so." I said.

"What do you want here?" she asked. "Why have you come here?"

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"Surely the pleasure of sharing a kettle with friends is reason enough," I said.

She glared at me in fury.

Mira had fallen upon the porridge with gusto. She now, with her fingers and tongue, was wiping the bowl clean. She did not eat now as might a rich, free woman, from a golden service with Turian prongs, suptiously, in some fine house. She ate now as a slave, and was grateful for her feeding.

"I think it is time, now, for you to leave," said Radish, acidly.

I then rose from beside the fire and walked about it, taking a position among several of the Waniyanpi. They drew back, rather in a circle about me.

"To me, Mira," I snapped.

Swiftly she leapt to her feet and hurried about the fire, to stand before me.

She was very beautiful, in her strings and rags.

"Remove your clothing," I told her.

She reached behind her neck, to undo the halter, this action lifing the line of her breasts, beautifully.

A gasp of awe escaped the Waniyanpi.

She reached to the knot at her left hip. A cry of pleasure escaped from Waniyanpi.

The former Lady Mira of Venna now stood before me, a naked slave.

"To my lips, Slave," I said.

She melted into my arms, embracing and kissing me, as a slave into the arms of her master.

"Aiii!" cried several of the men, softly.

"Ohhh," breathed several of the women.

Deeply then did I kiss the slave.

She seemed lost in my touch. She whimpered. She abandoned herself in my arms, surrendering fully, as a slave must, or be beaten, to the master.

"Put them out!" I heard, a screaming as though from faraway. "Put them out!"

I became vaguely aware of the pounding of small fists on my back. Then whoever was doing this was pulled away.

I looked about. Pumpkin, forcibly, was restraining Radish.

"Put them out!" Radish was screaming hysterically. "Put them out!"

The dark-haired girl, then, she who had helped with the stirring of the porridge, slipped suddenly, defiantly, from her

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garment. The blond girl did so, too. These two, then, were as bared as Mira.

"No!" screamed Radish, looking at them. "No!"

"Yes!" cried the dark-haired girl.

"Yes!" cried the blond girl.

"Put them out!" cried Radish, pointing to the two girls, and to Carrot and Cabbage. "Put them all out!"

"Yellow Knives!" cried a man near the door.

There was an instant silence in the Waniyanpi lodge. Radish turned pale.

"There are two of them," said the man. "They are at the entrance to the campground."

"What is going on?" Hci asked Cuwignaka.

Cuwignaka spoke briefly to him, and he nodded. Cuwignaka and Hci then stood up. I stepped away from Mira. Cuwignaka, Hci and I exchanged glances. We loosened our weapons. We had not counted on the appearance of Yellow Knives.

"I will see what they want," said Pumpkin. He turned about and left us.

"They will not go away," said Radish. "I know it!"

"What do you think they want?" I asked her.

"I do not know," she said. "Food? Shelter? They make demands on us as they please."

"They take what they want," said a man.

"Am I pretty?" asked the dark-haired girl of Carrot.

"YEs," he said, "oh, yes! You are pretty! You are beautiful!"

"Am I pretty?" asked the blond girl of Cabbage.

"Yes," he said. "You, too, are beautiful!"

"Take me in your arms and put your lips to mine," said the dark-haired girl to Carrot.

"But that would be to touch you!" he said.

"I am naked," she said. "Kiss me, I beg you."

"That is touching!" he whispered.

"I cannot be a woman if you will not be a man," she said.

He took her in his arms and they kissed. The blond girl, too, then, was in the arms of Cabbage.

"You are fools!" said Radish.

Carrot and Cabbage, then Carrot with his arm about the dark-haired girl and Cabbage with his arm about the blond girl, turned, with the rest of us, to regard the threshold.

It was quiet in the lodge of the waniyanpi.

I heard the fire crackle in the fire hole.

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I glanced at the two girls, one with Carrot, the other with Cabbage.

They had stripped themselves. They were clearly slaves. It was now only a question of who would be their masters. Normally red savages are not interested in Waniyanpi women but I had little doubt that in the case of these two weches the Yellow Knives would be prepared to make an exception. They were desireable and beautiful; this was not because of their mere nudity but rater, I think, because of something else, something which had taken place within them, something psychological; tis might perhaps best be characterized as a surrender to their womanhood; in any event they were now no longer were Waniyanpi females but prizes and treasures; they were now eminently worthy of having thier wirsts bound before their bodies and being led behind a master's kaiila. I did not think that the Yellow Knives would see fit to neglect them; only too obviously were they now ready to be put beneath the will of a man. I observed them, and Carrot and Cabbage. I wondered if Carrot and Cabbage would oject, if the Yellow Knives entered and, finding the girls of intrest, and deciding to take them, tied them and led them away. I supposed not, for they were Waniyanpi males. Then I looked at their eyes. Their eyes were stern. I smiled to myself. Perhaps, after all, they were men.

"They will enter," said Radish. "I know it!"

"You must hide," said a man.

"No," I said.

"If they find you here, they will kill you," said a man.

"No," I said, "if they find me here, it is they who will die."

"You must leave!" said Radish.

"No," I said.

"It is not just you who are in danger," said Radish. "Do you not understand? They will thnk that we have welcomed you!"

"You have," I said. "The meal was superb. Thank you."

"They may not just want to kill you," she said. "They may wish to kill us all!"

"Perhaps," I said.

"You must leave," she said. "Your presence here jeopardizes us all!"

"I do not think so," I said.

"Leave!" said Radish.

"You cannot expect them to just walk out," said a man. "What about the Yellow Knives?"

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"Perhaps they could escape out the back," said a man. "Digging out, under the logs."

"I do not think there is time for that," said another.

"Too," said another, "it might be difficult to conceal the signs of such an escape, so quickly.

"True," agreed another.

"You are right!" cried Radish. "If they are caught leaving, or if signs of their escape are found, it will be clear to the Yellow Knives, in either case, that they were here."

"That seems true," said a man.

"There is a chance!" said Radish.

The Waniyanpi regarded her, with intrest.

"There is only one thing to do!" she said. "I see it now, clearly!"

"What is that?" asked a man.

"Seize them," she cried wildly, pointing at us. "Seize them!"

No one moved.

"Seize them!" she cried. "Do you want to die? Do you want to be killed? Seize them!"

"Why?" asked a man.

"I do not want to die!" she cried. "I do not want to be killed by Yellow Knives!"

The Waniyanpi looked at one another.

"Seize them, bind them!" she cried.

"Why?" asked a man.

"That they may be turned over to Yellow Knives, you fool!" she cried. "We can pretend that we have captured them. We were only waiting for Yellow Knives to come to the compound, that we might deliver them to them!"

"The Yellow Knives would kill them," said a man.

"Yes," said Radish, "bu we would be spared! We would be alive! Do you not see? It is our only chance!"

"We will not do this," said a man.

"Carrot," said Radish, "seize them."

"No," said Carrot.

"Cabbage," said Radish, "seize them!"

"No," said Cabbage.

"I command it!" cried Radish.