by John Norman
Then I noted, uneasily, the Forkbeard moving his Jarl to the now freed Ax four.
The men with the net drew it up. In it, twisting and flopping, silverish, striped with brown, squirmed more than a stone of parsit fish. They threw the net to the planking and, with knives, began to slice the heads and tails from the fish.
"Gorm," said the Forkbeard. "Free the first bond-maid on the coffle. The lazy girl has rested too long, and send her to me with a bailing scoop."
Gorm was bare-chested and barefoot. He wore trousers of the fur of sea sleen. About his neck was a golden chain and pendant, doubtless taken once from a free woman of the south.
As he approached the bond-maids they shrank back from him, fearing him, as would any bond-maid one of the men of Torvaldsland. I looked upon the eyes of the first girl on the coffle, who was the slender, blondish girl, who had worn the red vest and jacket. I recalled how disappointed she had been in the men of Torvaldsland, when, heads hanging, they had accompanied the Forkbeard to the temple at Kassau. She had then, with amusement, regarded them with contempt. But it was neither amusement nor contempt which shone in her eyes now as she, shrinking back from him, looked upon Gorm. She now saw the men of Torvaldsland in their mightiness, in their freedom, and strength and power, and she, a stripped, fettered bond-maid, coffled, feared them. She knew that she belonged to them, such fierce and mighty beasts, and that she, and her beauty, lay at their mercy, that she, and her beauty, were theirs to do with as they pleased.
Roughly Gorm unknotted the coffle rope from her neck. He then gestured that she, kneeling, should lift her fettered wrists to him; she did so; he, with a key from his belt, opened the fetters which held her; he thrust them in his belt; he then pulled her by the arm roughly to her feet and thrust her toward the Forkbeard. She stumbled across the loose deck planking and stood, hair before her face, before us. She thrust her hair back with her right hand, and stood well. A bailing scoop was thrust into her hands. It has four sides. It is made of wood. It is about six inches in width. There is a diagonally set board in its bottom, and the back and two sides are straight. It has a straight, but rounded handle, carved smaller at the two ends, one where it adjoins the scoop, the other in back of the grip.
Gorm moved aside eight narrow planks from the loose decking. Below, some two inches deep, about a foot below the deck planking, about two inches over the keel beam, black and briny, shifted the bilge water. There was not much water in the bilge, and I was surprised. For a clinker built ship, the serpent of Ivar Forkbeard was extraordinarily tight. The ship, actually, had not needed to be bailed at all. Indeed, it had not been bailed since Kassau. The average ship of Torvaldsland is, by custom, bailed once a day, even if the bilge water does not necessitate it. A ship which must, of necessity, be bailed three times in two days is regarded as unseaworthy. Many such ships, however, are sailed by the men of Torvaldsland, particularly late in the season, when the ship is less tight from months of the sea's buffeting. In the spring, of course, before the ships are brought from the sheds on rollers to the sea, they are completely recaulked and tarred.
"Bail," said the Forkbeard.
The girl went to the opened planking and fell to her knees beside it, the wooden scoop in her hands.
"Return to me," said the Forkbeard, harshly.
Frightened the girl did so.
"Now turn about," said he, "and walk there as a bondmaid."
Her face went white.
Then she turned and walked to the opened planking as a bond-maid. The other bond-maids gasped. The men watching her hooted with pleasure. I grinned. I wanted her. "Bond-maid!" scorned Aelgifu, from where she was fettered and chained to the mast. I gathered that these two, in Kassau, had been rival beauties. Then, sobbing, the blondish girl, who had been forced to walk as a bond-maid, fell to her knees beside the opened planking. Once she vomited over the side. But, on the whole, she did well.
Once the Forkbeard went to her and taught her to check the scoop, with her left hand, for snails, that they not be thrown overboard. Returning to me he held one of the snails, whose shell he crushed between his fingers, and sucked out the animal, chewing and swallowing it. He then threw the shell fragments overboard.
"They are edible," he said. "And we use them for fish bait."
We then returned to our game.
Once the blond girl cried out, the scoop in her hand. "Look!" she cried, pointing over the port gunwale. A hundred yards away, rolling and sporting, were a family of whales, a male, two females, and four calves. Then she returned to her bailing.
"Your hall is taken," said the Forkbeard. His Jarl had moved decisively. The taking of the hall, in the Kaissa of the North, is equivalent to the capture of the Home Stone in the south.
"You should not have surrendered your Ax," said the Forkbeard.
"It seems not," I said. The end game had not even been reached. The hall had been taken in the middle game. I would think more carefully before I would surrender the Ax in the future.
"I am finished," said the slender girl, returning to where we sat, and kneeling on the deck.
She had performed her first task for her master, the Forkbeard, drying, as it is said, the belly of his serpent. It had been the first of her labors, set to her by her master in her bondage.
"Give Gorm back the scoop," said the Forkbeard, "and then carry water to my men."
"Yes," she said.
The Forkbeard looked at her.
"Yes," she said "my Jarl." To the bond-maid the meanest of the free men of the North is her jarl. We heard Aelgifu laugh from the mast. The bond-haired girl rose to her feet and surrendered the scoop to Gorm, who put it away, and then closed the deck planking. She then went to one of the large, wooden, covered water buckets, roped to the deck, and in it submerged a water-skin. I heard the bubbling as the skin filled.
The men of Torvaldsland had not sought the whales. They had meat enough. They had barely taken notice of them. It was now late in the afternoon.
I noted the blondish girl, the water bag now, wet and heavy, over her shoulder, going to the men of the Forkbeard, to offer them drink.
She was quite beautiful.
The men who had fished with the net had now cleaned the catch of parsit fish, and chopped the cleaned, boned, silverish bodies into pieces, a quarter inch in width. Another of the bond-maids was then freed to mix the bond-maid gruel, mixing fresh water with Sa-Tarna meal, and then stirring in the raw fish.
"Let us have another game," said the Forkbeard.
I set up the pieces.
He went to Aelgifu, who sat before the mast, her wrists fettered before her, her neck chained to the mast. He lifted her black, velvet dress up a little, revealing her ankle. She shrank back against the mast.
"Tomorrow night," he said, "I will have your ransom money."
"Yes," she said.
With his two large hands, he held her right ankle. She could not draw it away.
"I am free," she whispered.
Holding her ankle with his left hand, he, with the fingers of his right hand, caressed, gently, her instep. She shuddered.
"I am free," she said. "Free!"
"Would you not, my large breasted beauty," said he, "like to spend the night with me in my bag of the skin of the sea sleen?"
"No!" she cried. "No!" Then she said, "If I am violated he will not pay the ransom! Too he will bring with him a woman, that determination on this matter be made! Surely you wish my ransom!"
"Yes," said the Forkbeard, putting down her ankle, "I do indeed want your ransom, and I shall have it."
"Then, Beast," said she, "do not touch me!"
"I am not touching you," said he, and got to his feet.
She turned away, and would not look at him. But she said to him, "Give me a covering for the night, that I may not be wet and cold."
"Go lie with the bond-maids," said he.
"Never!" she said.
"Then stay where you are," said the Forkbeard.
She looked up
at him, her hair bedraggled, her eyes flashing. "Very well," said she, "I shall endure the night cheerfully. It will be my last in your bondage!"
The girl who had prepared the bond-maid gruel, had now been refettered and placed again in the coffle. The slender blond girl, who had been giving the men water from the skin bag, was now given the work of filling small bowls from the large wooden bowl, for the bond-maids. She used a bronze ladle, the handle of which was curved like the neck and head of a lovely bird. About the handle was a closed bronze ring, loose. It formed a collar for the bird's neck. The bond-maids did not much care for their gruel, unsweetened, mud-like Sa-Tarna meal, with raw fish. They fed, however. One girl who did not care to feed was struck twice across her back by a knotted rope in the hand of Gorm. Quickly then, and well, she fed. The girls, including the slender blondish girl, emptied their bowls, even to licking them, and rubbing them with their saliva-dampened fingers, that no grain be left, lest Gorm, their keeper in the ship, should not be pleased. They looked to one another in fear, and put down their bowls, as they finished, fed bond-wenches.
"Come here, Wench," called the Forkbeard.
The slender blondish girl quickly approached him, and knelt before him on the deck.
"Feed her," said the Forkbeard, gesturing over his shoulder.
The girl rose, and went to fill one of the small bowls for Aelgifu. Soon, she brought it to her.
As she approached Aelgifu, Aelgifu called out to her, "You walk well, Thyri. You walk as a bond-maid."
The slender, blondish girl, called Thyri, though now, actually, she had no name, not having been given one by the Forkbeard, did not respond to Aelgifu's taunt.
"Kneel," said Aelgifu.
The girl knelt.
"What have you there?" asked Aelgifu.
"Gruel," said the girl.
"Taste it," said Aelgifu.
Obediently, angrily, the girl did so.
"It is bond-maid gruel, is it not?" asked Aelgifu.
"Yes," said the girl.
"Why then," asked Aelgifu, "have you brought it to me?"
The girl put her head down.
"I am free," said Aelgifu. "Take it away. It is for such as you."
The girl did not respond.
"When my ransom is paid, and I return," said Aelgifu, "there will no longer be dispute as to who is the most beautiful in Kassau."
"No," said the girl.
"But I was always the most beautiful," said Aelgifu.
The blond girl's eyes flashed.
"Take this gruel away," said Aelgifu. "It is for bond-maids such as you."
The blond girl rose to her feet and left Aelgifu. The Forkbeard looked up from his game. He reached out and took the bowl from the blond girl. He said to Gorm, "Return her to the coffle." He took the blond girl back to the coffle. He made her kneel and again snapped on her wrists the iron, single-linked fetters of the north, and then he tied her by the neck at the end of the coffle.
The Forkbeard was using the Jarl's Ax's gambit, a powerful opening. I studied the board with care.
Ivar Forkbeard approached Aelgifu with the small bowl of gruel. He crouched down beside her.
"When your father sees you tomorrow night," said he, "you must not be weak, but rosy-cheeked and bright-eyed. What otherwise would he think of the hospitality I extend to my prisoners?"
"I will not eat the gruel of bond-maids," said Aelgifu.
"You will eat it," said the Forkbeard, "or you will be stripped and put to the oar."
She looked at him with horror.
"That will not violate you, my pretty," said the Forkbeard.
In this punishment, the girl, clothed or unclothed, is bound tightly on an oar, hands behind her, her head down, toward the blade. When the oar lifts from the water she gasps for breath, only in another moment to be submerged again. A recalcitrant girl may be kept on the oar for hours. There is also, however, some danger in this, for sea sleen and the white sharks of the north occasionally attempt to tear such a girl from the oar. When food is low it is not unknown for the men of Torvaldsland to use a bond-maid, if one is available on the ship, for bait in such a manner. The least pleasing girl is always used. This practice, of course, encourages bond-maids to vie vigorously to please their masters. An Ahn on the oar is usually more than sufficient to make the coldest and proudest of females an obedient, eager-to-please bondmaid. It is regarded as second only to the five-lash Gorean slave whip, used also in the south, and what among the men of Torvaldsland is called the whip of the furs, in which the master, with his body, incontrovertibly teaches the girl her slavery.
"Open your mouth, my large-breasted beauty," said the Forkbeard.
Eyes wide, she did so. He thrust the contents of the small bowl into her mouth. Choking, the proud Aelgifu swallowed the thick gruel, that of dampened Sa-Tarna meal and raw fish, the gruel of bond-maids.
"Tomorrow night I shall have your ransom," he said.
"Tomorrow night," she cried, "I shall be free of you!"
He threw the cup back to the stern of the ship, and returned to sit down with me.
"I think I may have devised a plan," I said, "to break the Jarl's Ax's gambit."
"Good," said the Forkbeard, studying the board.
We heard sobbing from the bond-maids. We looked and saw the slender, blondish girl weeping, her body shaken by sobs, head down.
"Be silent!" said one of the other girls. "They will beat us!"
Gorm was then at her, and struck her five times with his knotted rope.
The slender blond girl stifled her sobs. "Yes, my Jarl!" she wept.
Then she put her head down, and was silent, though her body still shook.
The Forkbeard and I returned to our game.
Chapter 5 - FEED HER ON THE GRUEL OF BOND-MAIDS
It was at noon of the following day that the lookout cried out, "Serpent to starboard!"
The Forkbeard looked up from the board, swiftly. The men of Ivar Forkbeard, too, suddenly came alive. They rushed to the starboard gunwales. Still they could see nothing. "Benches!" called the Forkbeard. Swiftly his men took their places; I heard the oars slide half outboard.
"Do not disturb the arrangement of the pieces," said Ivar Forkbeard, leaving the board. He climbed halfway up the knotted rope, halfway up the mast. I stood up. The day was cloudy. The awning had not been stretched this day. It lay rolled between the benches. I could see nothing.
The bond-maids looked about themselves, frightened. Gorm was suddenly among them. He began, one by one, fettering their hands behind their backs. When he had done this, he knelt among them, crossing their ankles, tying them, too, tightly. If there was to be battle, they would be utterly helpless, completely unable to interfere in the least way. They would await the battle's result, and their disposition; they were females. At the mast, Aelgifu stood, still chained to it by the neck, her wrists still fettered before her.
"It is the serpent of Thorgard of Scagnar," cried out Forkbeard, much pleased.
"Is he an ally?" I asked.
"No," laughed the Forkbeard, delighted, "an enemy!"
I saw the men of the Forkbeard grinning, one to the other. The huge fellow, with grayish face, who seemed generally much in lethargy, who had slaughtered with such frenzy in the temple of Kassau, slowly lifted his head. I thought I saw his nostrils flare. His mouth opened slightly, and I saw his teeth.
The Forkbeard then ordered the sail high reefed, set even to the spar.
"Keep her stern to the wind," he said. The oars slid outboard. Let free, the ship will swing prow to the wind.
"We have time," said Ivar Forkbeard, "for another move or two."
"I am still attempting to break the Jarl's Ax's gambit," I said.
"Singer to Ax two is not a strong move," said the Forkbeard.
Twice yesterday, in long games, until the Torvaldsland gulls had left the sea and returned inland, I had failed to meet the gambit.
"You intend to follow it, of course," said the Forkbeard, "wi
th Jarl to your Ax four."
"Yes," I admitted.
"Interesting," said the Forkbeard. "Let us play that variation."
It was a popular variation in the south. It is seen less frequently in the north. In the south, of course, the response is to the Ubar's Tarnsman's gambit. I could see that the Forkbeard, though expecting the variation, given the preceding four moves, was delighted when it had materialized. He had, perhaps, seldom played it.
"The serpent of Thorgard has seen us!" called the lookout, not at all dismayed.
"Excellent," said Ivar Forkbeard. "Now we will not be forced to wind the signal horns across the water."
I grinned. "Tell me about Thorgard of Scagnar," I said.
"He is an enemy," said Ivar Forkbeard, simply.
"The ships of this Thorgard," I said, "have often preyed on the shipping of Port Kar."
"The shipping of Port Kar," smiled Ivar Forkbeard, "is not uniquely distinguished in this respect."
"He is, therefore," said I, "my enemy as well as yours."
"What is your name?" had asked the Forkbeard.
"Call me Tarl," I said.
"It is a name of Torvaldsland," he said. "Are you not of Torvaldsland?"
"No," I had told him.
"Tarl what?" he had asked.
"It is enough that you call me Tarl," I said, smiling.
"Very well," said he, "but here, to distinguish you from others in the north, we must do better than that."
