Norman, John - Gor 23 - Renegades of Gor.txt

Norman, John - Gor 23 - Renegades of Gor.txt Page 29

by Renegades of Gor [lit]

gentleman! You pretend not to be, but you are a true gentleman! Oh! No! What are

  you doing? I am on my belly! Only a slave is had in this position! No! Oh! Oh!”

  “Do you think I am a gentleman?” I inquired.

  “No,” she said.

  “What am I then?” I asked.

  “My master,” she said.

  “But you are a free woman,” I reminded her.

  “Yes,” she wept. “I am a free woman.”

  I continued then, for a time, to shelter her body. I was please that I was now

  more relaxed. I had enjoyed myself, but, too, my use of her, and as one might

  make use of a slave for such a purpose, had been a calculated one, to combat the

  waiting, the fear, the worry, the anticipation, the expectation, spread over

  Ahn. That sort of thing can gnaw at you. There is an optimum point for readiness

  and action. It was at that point that I wished to be when the door opened. We

  heard, more and more frequently, the impact of stones about us. Two assaults

  were forced back from the walls. When it grew lighter, and I feared they might

  soon come for her. I left her at the outside wall, and went to my former place

  in the straw, and lay there. The food pan I put back, a few feet before the

  door, where it could be seen through the observation panel. Its contents were

  now gone. I myself lay in the straw, perhaps too weak to move.

  15 We Leave the Cell

  (pg.229) “Come, come, little vulo,” said the man, “do not be shy.” He beckoned,

  coaxingly, to Lady Claudia, who was still near the outside wall, crouching there

  now, in the straw, numb with fear. I did not even know if she could stand. In

  his left hand he carried several coils of rope, and a leash and collar. She

  regarded him with horror. “Come, come,” he said, advancing past me, lying in the

  straw. There were two others, with set crossbows, in their hands, standing

  within the cell, rather to the right of the door, a one would face it from the

  inside. At the door stood our warder.

  I did not think the fellow with the rope really wanted to approach the far wall,

  the outside wall, or weather wall, too closely. From time to time we could hear,

  and sometimes feel, through the floor, the impact of the Cosian projectiles, the

  great stones, some of which would weigh a thousand pounds or more, flung by

  mighty catapults, some the size of houses. We could hear, too, as though far

  off, the rhythmical shock of the battering ram at the gate, where men toiled at

  the hundred ropes, beneath the long shedlike roof which protected them and the

  ram.

  “We do not want to stay here too long,” said the warder to the fellow with the

  rope. “It is dangerous on this side. Hurry!”

  “Come here,” said the fellow to Lady Claudia. “Kneel here, straightly, up, off

  your heels, yours arms at your sides.”

  (pg.230) “Please!” begged Lady Claudia.

  “Hurry!” snapped the warder.

  I think the fellow did not much care to be the object of adjurations by such as

  the warder. I think he would have preferred to have found her not in a position

  of authority, small though her authority might be, but rather in a position more

  fitting for her, one more appropriate, too, to her sex and nature, say, naked on

  her belly, at his feet, subject to his kicks and whips. He said nothing,

  however. Rather, angrily, summoning up his courage, he went quickly to the Lady

  Claudia, seized her by the scrub of her hair and drew here, she half crawling,

  half being dragged, to the center of the cell, and knelt her there, in the

  position he had specified.

  The warder laughed.

  Did the fellow not know the Lady Claudia was a free woman? It seemed to me he

  handled her rather roughly, given that she was free. She was not, after all, a

  slave girl.

  The rope, then, in coil after coil, was wrapped about the Lady Claudia. It was

  in this fashion, I had gathered, from her own account of her capture, that she

  had been bound on the wall, and brought before Aemilianus. This touch was

  doubtless to remind her of the events of that evening.

  “Make it tight!” said the warder.

  Lady Claudia winced as the ropes were drawn about her.

  “Now the leash and collar!” said the warder.

  In a moment, then, the leash and collar were fastened on her. She then knelt

  there, in the center of the cell, heavily bound, collared, the leash dangling

  down before the ropes bound about her.

  “Splendid!” said the warder.

  Tears ran down Lady Claudia’s cheeks. She looked at me, and smiled. She pursed

  her lips a little, kissing softly, almost imperceptibly, at me. I watched, lying

  in the straw, my eyes half closed. I did not respond to her tiny, pathetic

  gesture. It interested me, however, that she bore me no ill will. Had I not led

  her to believe that I might be of assistance to her? Had I not tried to keep up

  her courage? But I realized now she had never expected me, really, in the moment

  of truth, so to speak, to act. It would be pointless.

  “How touching!” said the warder.

  (pg.231) I made as though to try to rise, to my knees, my head down. It seemed I

  could not manage this.

  “Remain where you are,” said one of the fellows with a crossbow.

  “He is too weak to do anything,” said the warder. “He cannot even stand.” She

  then went to stand before Lady Claudia. “The spear, my dear Claudia,” she said,

  “is a single piece of solid, polished metal. It is very long, and less than a

  hort thick. It is tapered to a point. It fits in a mount.”

  Lady Claudia knelt there, with her eyes closed.

  I made as though, again, to try to rise. One of the guards looked at me, and

  then looked away.

  “Glory to Ar!” snarled the warder.

  “Glory to Ar,” wept Lady Claudia.

  “Do you know what we are waiting for?” asked the warder of Lady Claudia.

  “No,” whispered Lady Claudia.

  There was then a sudden impact somewhere on the wall, perhaps not seventy-five

  feet from where we were.

  “That was close,” said one of the guards, uneasily.

  As I had expected they would, they had more to worry about than what went on in

  the cell.

  Again I struggled to my knees. This time I remained there, head down, as though

  unable to move.

  “Stay where you are,” said one of the guards. I was about seven or eight feet

  from him.

  “We are waiting for the executioner to come for you,” said the warder,

  delightedly. “He will come to fetch you, and take you to the wall, to the

  spear.”

  Lady Claudia put down her head.

  “Glory to Ar!” cried the warder.

  “Glory to Ar,” said Lady Claudia. She had her eyes closed. That, I thought, was

  fortunate. The nearest guard looked at me, and then glanced back to the two

  women. The guards had been in the cell some time, at least a few Ehn. This, I

  had thought, would put them at their ease. The expectation of resistance, of
/>
  course, is at its height early. If it were to rise again, which I did not really

  expect, or not significantly, under the current circumstances, presumably that

  would be shortly before their departure from the cell. They were now awaiting

  the arrival of the executioner, who (pg.232) was to fetch Lady Claudia to the

  spear. Their expectation of resistance, now, I thought, might be at its low. To

  be sure, that is an excellent time to be particularly prepared. Yet it is

  impossible to maintain an attitude of full alertness for an extended period of

  time. It is psychologically impossible. This meant that the initiative, in this

  situation, was mine. If they had expected resistance, of course, they might have

  thought, appropriately enough, that I might choose to act before the arrival of

  the executioner, as that would mean an additional fellow to deal with.

  I had not, of course, realized that the executioner would come to the cell. If I

  had given the matter much thought, I would have supposed that he, or they, would

  wait on the wall. Such customs, I supposed, would differ from city to city. I

  was not pleased to hear about the pending arrival of the executioner, of course,

  as that might set me an additional problem, one I had not anticipated and one I

  certainly did not welcome.

  It was not a mistake that I had lain in the straw where I had. I had, the day

  before, found a ridge in the stones there which would give me leverage,

  something to push away from. Too, I was barefoot. I would not slip. I lifted my

  head, dully, as though groggily, to look at the guards. They were half starved.

  Their reflexes, I was sure, would be slow. They would not have their full

  strength. The nearest guard looked at me, again, and I returned his gaze, dully.

  He then glanced back at the women once more.

  “He is very skilled at his work,” said the warder to Lady Claudia. :He will put

  you on the spear so gently that you will last a long time.”

  Lady Claudia kept her eyes closed, and she shuddered.

  “But if her wants to hurry a little,” said the warder, “he will tie weights on

  your legs.”

  Lady Claudia sobbed.

  “How pretty you look, kneeling there, my dear, all tied up, and in your collar,”

  she said. “Do not fret. He will be here soon! You will then be taken to the

  spear! You do not have long to wait! You will look amusing, wriggling on it!

  Glory to Ar! Glory to Ar!”

  “Glory to Ar!” wept Lady Claudia.

  At that instant I lunged forward and the nearest guard had (pg.233) barely time

  to turn his head before I caught him, and his fellow, taking them together,

  striking them with great force, I sprinting, thrusting, they off balance, and

  blasted them back, one loosened, sprung quarrel skittering about the room like a

  frightened animal, the other smote from the guide into the straw, against the

  wall, and I snarled, the noise not in that moment seeming human, and it was the

  terribleness of the warrior’s exhilaration that was that instant in my heart,

  nostrils and mouth, and, one with each hand, struck back their heads against the

  stone. Had they not been helmeted their brains would have been on the stone.

  In the same moments I had freed the sword of one of them and I turned,

  crouching, snarling, to face the man near Lady Claudia. His face was white.

  Perhaps I seemed then to him more beast than man. I did not take my eyes from

  him and the door. The warder, cut off, too, from the door, had fled behind him.

  He weakly half drew his sword but before it could clear the sheath I was upon

  him, within his guard. He released the hilt. The blade fell back, into the

  sheath. I turned and kicked back and he grunted, collapsing. The warder bolted

  for the door but I caught her at the portal by the back of the neck and lifted

  her up and turned, and then flung her stumbling back toward the far wall. I then

  returned to the fallen warrior, and bent over him. He was gasping. His eyes were

  wild. Not taking my eyes from the warder, who now crouched down, against the

  outside wall, her eyes wide with terror over the veil, I seized him by the back

  of the neck, below the helmet, and lifted his head a few inches from the floor.

  He could offer no resistance. I then struck his head, back, in the helmet, on

  the stones.

  “You have killed them, you have killed them all!” said the warder.

  “No,” I said. The first two had been in the greatest danger, but their helmets

  had saved them. It was not that I had lost control of myself in the rush of that

  first moment. I had not. It was rather that, in the exigencies of the situation,

  it had not been my intention to take any chances with them. But their helmets

  had saved them.

  “Lie down,” I said to the warder, “on your belly, in the (pg.234) straw, your

  head to the wall. Spread your legs as widely as you can. Cover your head with

  your hands and arms.”

  She sobbed, but did so. In this fashion she could not see what might transpire

  behind her, she could not easily rise, and she would have some protection from

  debris, if the outside of the cell wall should be struck.

  I then stripped the clothing and accouterments from the fellow I had just

  struck, and donned them. I did, however, exchange swords, removing his from its

  scabbard and placing therein the one I had taken from the other guard. It was a

  looser fit, which pleased me.

  There was an impacting on the side of the citadel, some hundred or so feet away.

  I could feel the jar, however, through the floor. The warder, over by the wall,

  moaned, her hands and arms over her head. I then put the three guards together,

  in a corner of the cell, and heaped straw over them. They could not be seen from

  the observation panel.

  I then turned to the Lady Claudia who still knelt as she had been placed. Her

  eyes were wide. There must have been fifty coils of rope wound tightly about her

  fair person. On her neck was the collar; from it dangled the leash.

  “Greetings,” I said.

  “You must flee!” she whispered. “Save yourself! I am known! Do not concern

  yourself for me!”

  I removed the leash and collar from her.

  “Do not stop for me!” she begged. “Flee!”

  I began to remove the rope from her.

  “The executioner may arrive at any moment,” she said, miserably.

  “He is more likely to think I am binding you, then unbinding you,” I said.

  She moaned.

  Then she was free of the rope. I looked at her, closely, as a master at a slave,

  and she shrank back. I saw that, indeed, she would bring a high price in a slave

  market.

  “You must leave me behind!” she said.

  “You are too pretty to leave behind,” I said.

  She looked at me, wildly, elatedly.

  “Yes,” I said.

  She laughed, and smiled at me, through tears. “I am pleased if master finds me

  pleasing,” she whispered.

  (pg.235) “Where did you ever hear talk like that?” I asked.

  “I once heard a slave girl speak so to her master,” she
said.

  “And what did you do then?” I asked.

  “I ran home to my bed,” she said, “to strike it with my fists, and to weep and

  squirm in frustration.”

  “Such words are appropriate for you, too, to say,” I said.

  “I know!” she said. “I know!”

  I looked in the fellow’s wallet, which I now wore at my belt. There was, as I

  had hoped, a crust of bread in it. Such things, in Ar’s Station, in these days,

  might be kept in such places. It might be his secret horde, or day’s ration. It

  was probably worth more to him than gold. I gave it to Lady Claudia and she,

  with two hands, gratefully, thrust it in her mouth, crumbs at the side of her

  mouth. “Look in the pouches of those other fellows, too,” I said. “They might

  have some food. If so, eat it. Then come join me.”

  Quickly she did as she was told. It amused me to see with what alacrity she

  sprang up to do my bidding. It was as though, suddenly, she was a new person.

  I then went to stand near our warder, lying on her stomach in the straw, her

  head to the wall, her legs spread, her head covered with her hands and arms.

  Aware of my approach she widened her legs further. This pulled her artfully

  contrived rage, with their points, higher on her legs. I noted that she had

  excellent calves and ankles.

  “There is food here,” called Lady Claudia, softly, elatedly, from where she

  crouched, near the guards.

  “Good,” I said. “Eat it.”

  She thrust the bit of food into her mouth, feeding on it like a voracious little

  animal. She fed with the eagerness of a half-starved slave girl.

  I looked down at the warder. “Put your legs together,” I said, “and your arms at

  your sides, palms up.”

  She obeyed.

  I then crouched down, beside her.

  She moved, uneasily, but kept position.

  “These rags,’ I said, ‘are doubtless contrived in such a way that they may

  easily be removed.”

  She squirmed in anger.

  I did not touch them, however.

  (pg.236) I pulled back the warder’s scarflike turban which, I had assumed, was

  worn to cover and hide a closely cropped head.

  “OH!” she said. To my surprise, however, her hair, loosened from under the

 

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