Blood Brothers of Gor (72 page)

"It is unlikely that one of them will reach the upper barricade," said Hci.

"What do you mean?" cried Iwoso. "What are you doing?" She struggled to see behind her but, because of the post and her neck bonds, could not do so but very imperfectly.

From the lodges near the edge of the escarpment men again drew forth travois. On these were great bundles of arrows, hundreds of arrows in a bundle. Many of these arrows were not fine arrows. Many lacked even points and were little more than featherless, sharpened sticks. Yet, impelled with force from the small,fierce bows of red savages at short range, they, too, would be dangerous. For days warriors, and women and children, had been making them.

"You must think not only in terms of numbers, Iwoso," I said, "but fire power, as well."

She looked, startled, at one of the huge sheafs of arrows being spilled near her.

"Sometimes," I said, "there is little to choose from between ten men, each with one arrow, and one man with ten arrows."

Hci and Cuwignaka fitted arrows to the strings of their bows.

"This strategy was once used," I said, "by a people named the Parhians, against a general named Crassus."

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Iwoso looked at me, puzzled.

"It was long ago," I said, "and it was not even in the Barrens."

"Fire!" called Mahpiyasapa.

Torrents of arrows sped from the height of the escarpment. In moments the shields of the Yellow Knives bristled with arrows. Return fire, in the face of such unrelenting sheets of flighted wood, was almost unthinkable. The small shields of the Yellow Knives, too, provided them with little protection. They were not the large, oval shields of Turia, or the large rounded shields common to Gorean infantry in the north, behind which a warrior might crouch, hoping for a swift surcease to the storm of missiles. It did not take long for the assalted Yellow Knives to realize tht they were exposed to no ordinary rain of arrows, a shower soon finished, but something unnatural to them, something unprecedented in their experience. By now, surely, ordinary quivers would ahve been emptied a dozen times. One broke and ran and, by intent, he, and the next two, were permitted to flee. Thus encouraged the Yellow-Knife lines suddenly broke and the trail seemed suddenly to erupt with men intent only on escape. They make easy targets.

"See the Yellow Knives?" Hci asked Iwoso. "They flee like urts."

She looked away from him.

He then began to look at her.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Looking at you, closely," he said.

"Please, don't," she said.

"You are rather pretty," he said, "for a Yellow Knife."

She tossed her head, angrily.

"I wonder if you would make a good slave," he mused.

"No!" she said.

"I wonder if I might find you of intrest," he said.

"Never," she said. "I would never be your slave! I would rather die!"

"There are the soldiers," said Cuwignaka, pointing out towards the prairie.

"Yes," I said. "Doubtless they delayed their arrival, assuming that, by now, the Yellow Knives would have completed their business here."

Hci joined us at the edge of the escarpment.

"You are hideous!" Iwoso called to Hci. "No woman could love you! I hate you! I hate you!"

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"What do you think the Yellow Knives will do?" asked Cuwignaka.

"I think they will make camp, investing our position," I said.

"I think so," said Hci.

"I would die before I would be your slave," called Iwoso, sobbing, to Hci. "I would die first!"

"There" I said, pointing, "is Alfred, and his officers. Doubtless they are receiving full reports."

"Do you see any sign of the beasts?" asked Cuwignaka.

"They are probably in the rear, with the column," I said. "Their effect on the Yellow Knives is likely to be te more significant the more unfamiliar they are to them."

"Their commander, too," said Hci, "may favor holding them in reserve."

"That is probably true," I said.

"Pehaps they are not with the column," said Cuwignaka.

"Perhaps," I said.

"I hate you!" cried Iwoso.

"Look," I said.

"I see," said Cuwignaka.

"I hate you!" cried Iwoso. "I hate you!"

"Be quiet woman," said Hci. "We do not have time for you now."

"They are going to reconnoiter," I said. "It should have been done long ago."

Alfred, with his officers, and several Yellow Knives, began then, slowly, to ride south.

"They will scout us well," said Cuwignaka.

I nodded. In a few moments the riders bent eastward and began to circle our position. Alfred, a fine captain, would study it with great care.

"They Yellow Knives have sustained great losses," said Hci. "I fear they will withdraw."

"I do not think so," I said. "The soldiers are here now. Too, we must not discount their faith in the beasts."

"I have had reservations from the beginning," said Hci. "Of what value is a trap from which what is trapped may withdraw?"

"Withot others," said Cuwignaka, "we cannot spring the trap."

"They may not come," said Hci.

"That is true," said Cuwignaka.

"What are you talking about?" asked Iwoso.

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I turned to face her. "We are not the trap," I said. "We are the bait."

"I do not understand," she said.

Hci walked over to stand near Iwoso. His arms were folded. She shrank back against the post.

"You are a Yellow Knife," said Hci. "Do you think the Yellow Knives will withdraw?"

"I do not know," she said.

"If they withdraw," said Hci, "you must abandon all hope of rescue."

She shuddered.

"It would then have to be decided what is to be done with you," he said.

"And what would be done with me?" she asked.

"You are rather pretty," he said.

"No," she said, "not that!"

"Perhaps," he said.

"Do not look at me like that!" she said. "I am a free woman!"

His eyes assessed her, speculatively, appraisingly. She squirmed in the ropes, helpless, unable to keep herself from being candidly viewed.

"Please," she said.

"Your body seems not unsuitable for that of a slave," said Hci.

"I will never be a slave!" she said. "I will never be a man's slave!"

"Surely such a woman should be a slave," said Hci.

"Perhaps," said Cuwignaka.

"Never!" cried Iwoso.

"She squirms nicely in the ropes," said Hci.

"Like a slave," said Cuwignaka.

"Perhaps she might be found of interest by some low man," said Hci.

"Perhaps," said Cuwignaka.

Iwoso regarded them with fury. Obviously they had overheard her conversation with Bloketu in the lodge.

"Don't you think you would make a good slave?" asked Hci.

"No, no!" said Iwoso.

"Perhaps you are right." said hci.

She looked at him, startled.

"You would probably make a poor slave," he said.

"Oh?" she said.

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"Yes," he said.

"If I wanted to," she said, "I could be a superb slave."

"I doubt it," he said.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because you are fridid, like a free woman," he said.

"if I were made a slave," she said, "i would not be frigid. I could not be frigid. I would not be permitted to be frigid."

"I doubt that any man would find you of intrest," said Hci.

"That is not true," she said. "Man men would find me of intrest. They would be eager to buy me. I would bring many kaiila."

"Oh?" he asked.

"You yourself, but moments ago," she said, triumphantly, "were wondering if you might not find me of intrest!"

"Was I?" he asked.

"Yes!" she said.

"I was only wondering," he said.

"Imagine me as your slave," challenged Iwoso. "Do you not find that of intrest?"

"Perhaps," said Hci.

"At your feet, begging to serve and be touched."

"An interesting picture," admitted Hci.

"See!" she said.

"Would you like to be my slave?" asked Hci.

"You have tricked me," she said, suddenly, "making me speak like this!"

"Would you like to be my slave?" asked Hci.

"You are hideous," she said. "No woman could love you."

"Would you like to be my slave?" he asked.

"No!" she said.

"Truly?" he asked.

"Never," she said, "I would never be your slave! I would rather die!"

He reached his hand toward the side of her face.

"Don't touch me!" she hissed, drawing back.

"Before," said Hci, "I di dnot have time for you. Perhaps, now, I have time for you."

"Don't touch me!" she cried.

His hand puased, but an inch from her face.

She was drawn back, her head turned to the side, her eyes closed, tensed.

Then he lightly touched her cheek.

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She shuddered, a movement that affected her entire body, moving suddenly within its ropes, from her head to her toes.

Outraged, she opened her eyes. She looked at Hci in fury. She then spat viciously into his face.

She then shrank back against the post, terrified, awed at the enormity of what she had done.

"Lick the spittle from my face, and swallow it," said Hci, quietly.

"Yes, my captor," she said, in a small voice.

She then, delicately and carefully, licked the spittle from Hci's face and, as she had been bidden, swallowed it.

"It is time to feed the women," said Hci.

Cuwignaka brought some pemmican and a small water bag from a nearby lodge.

"Do you beg food, Slave Girl?" he asked Bloketu.

She looked at him. If she did not beg, she would not be fed. "Yes, Master," she said.

He then thrust pieces of pemmican at once, her meal, into her mouth, to save time.

"Chew and swallow, Slave," he said.

Bloketu obeyed.

"Do you beg drink, Slave?" asked Cuwignaka.

"Yes, Master," she said.

He then gave her a draught from the water bag.

"Do you beg food, Free Woman," asked Hci.

"Yes, my captor," said Iwoso, humbly.

He then thrust pemmican into her mouth, as Cuwignaka had with Bloketu.

"Chew and swallow, Free Woman," he said.

Iwoso obeyed.

"Do you beg drink, Free Woman," asked Hci.

"Yes, my captor," whispered Iwoso.

In a moment, when Iwoso had finished, Hci stoppered the water bag. "You may now thank us for our food and drink," he said.

"Thank you for my food and drink, Master," said Bloketu to Cuwignaka.

"Thank you for my food and drink, my captor," said Iwoso to Hci. If a girl's thanks, in such circumstances, are not deemed sufficiently sincere, or profuse, it is not clear if, or when, she will again be fed.

Cuwignaka, Hci and I then sat cross-legged at the edge of the escarpment.

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We divided the balance of the pemmican and water between us.

"Do you think the Yellow Knives will attack again, today?" asked Cuwignaka.

"I do not think so," I said.

From time to time I glanced back at Iwoso. It seemed she could not take her eyes from Hci. I had seen how she had shuddered at his touch. Too, it was by him that she had found herself dominated, and so effectively and suitably, at the post. I saw that she was his slave. I wondered if she knew that yet.

"There is the white officer," said Cuwignaka. "He has apparently completed his circuit of our position."

Far below we saw Alfred, and his party, returning to the Yellow-Knife camp.

"Has he found weaknesses in our position?" asked Cuwignaka.