I had made a stop at my own camp, incidentally, before coming to this place in the woods.
'As she seems to be free,' I said, 'I will claim her, she in the modality of the free captive.'
'No!' she cried.
'Very well,' said Boots.
'No, no!' she wept, struggling in the ropes.
I knew this female.
I pulled her to a seated position. I looked into her eyes. 'You are my captive.'
'Please, no!' she said.
'It is up to you, at least for the time,' I said, 'to decided what sort of captive you will be.'
She looked at me, frightened.
I removed some metal from my pouch, that which I had brought from my camp, but moments ago, to this clearing in the woods. I dangled it, in its small, sturdy rings and four heavy, close-set links, before her eyes. 'Do you desire it?' I asked.
'Yes,' she whispered. 'Close-chains.'
I put the shackles on her ankles. Her ankles were now shackled only some four inches apart. She had decided that she wished to be kept in honor and modesty. To be sure, aside from the obvious consideration of the inflexible efficiency of the shackling itself, given the large number of ways in which a woman may be used for a man's pleasure, the matter was primarily symbolic. then ankle rings snug on her I removed the bonds of the brigands from her ankles. Her ankles parted, to the brief extent permitted by the chain linkage of my shackles. her wrists were still tied behind her. 'How did you come to be captured by the brigands?' I asked.
'My superiors were dissatisfied with me,' she said. 'My lackeys were removed from me. I was put in a brief tunic, almost as though I might be a slave. I was forbidden even to wear a veil. I was given a small purse of coins, one sufficient for my projected expenses, and instructed to report back to my headquarters, alone and on foot.'
'Alone, and on foot?' I asked.
'Yes,' she said, bitterly.
'It is my conjecture,' I said, 'that they did not expect you to complete your journey successfully.'
'It seems they were right,' she said, bitterly.
I smiled. I did not think that her superiors were likely to be any more unaware of the dangers of Gorean highways than anyone else. A lovely woman, scantily clad, not even veiled, alone, on foot, did not seem a likely candidate to travel the Gorean wilderness with impunity. Their instructions, it seemed, had been, for most practical purposes, tantamount to an enslavement sentence. I did not think they expected to see her again, unless it might be in the rag of a slave and a collar.
'I was caught by the brigands last night,' she said.
'You do not appear to be clad as might be a slave,' I said.
'The garments in which my superiors had placed me,' she said, 'were removed by the brigands. They regarded them as inappropriate for a free woman. They put me, instead, in the gown in which you now see me.'
'That was thoughtful of them,' I said.
'But it is so thin and flimsy!' she protested.
'Of course,' I said.
'I suppose it does mark me as a free woman,' she said, 'and in that sense might perhaps raise my price somewhat in case they were readying me for sale to a slave merchant.'
'Too,' I said, 'with all due respect it is, in spite of its length and nature, rather flattering and revealing. Doubtless, too, it would give the merchant pleasure to remove it from you in your assessment, thereby revealing your beauty, that then of a potential slave.'
'Yes,' she said, bitterly.
'Have no fear,' I said. 'I will find you something else to wear.'
'Thank you,' she said.
'Is there another camp about, or somewhere,' I asked, 'used by the brigands?'
'No,' she said. 'There was one, but they broke it this morning. This afternoon they surreptitiously met a fellow in the woods. He had a wagon. They sold most of their loot to him.'
'Apparently they did not sell all of it to him,' I said, regarding her, glancing, too, at the other bound woman, she naked in the dirt.
'No,' she said. 'He was not a slaver. Too, I do not think he wanted any obvious connection to be noted between himself and the brigands, such as might be furnished by handling their slaves.'
'Where were you enroute?' I asked.
'I do not know,' she said. 'I was told only that we were being taken somewhere where we could be sold to a proper slaver.'
'Besnit, Esalinus or Harfax,' suggested Boots.
I shrugged. 'Perhaps,' I said. These towns were all within a hundred pasangs of our present location. Such women could be disposed of almost anywhere, of course. Slave markets, like slaves, are common on Gor. Given the large number of slaves on Gore it is only natural that there should be an abundance of outlets for their handling and processing.
'You apparently made camp here,' I said, 'several Ahn ago.'
'We stopped early, I think,' she said. 'I think they had discovered another camp, one on which they intended to perpetrate a raid.'
'That is correct,' I said.
'We were left here, helplessly trussed, females, to await their return,' she said.
'They will not be coming back,' I said.
'I see,' she said, shuddering.
'Where are the other valuables, the moneys, in the camp,' I asked, 'their accruals from the fellow with the wagon, or otherwise?'
'It is all there,' she said, indicating it with her head, 'in those packs. The gold is in a small coffer, one bound with bands of iron, one studded with silver, that closed with a heavy golden-plated lock, in the first pack.'
'It is all yours,' I told Boots.
'All of it?' asked Boots, incredulously.
'All of it,' I said.
'Thank you!' said Boots, fervently. 'It will be put to good use.'
'Perhaps you could use it in support of the arts,' I suggested.
'My intention exactly,' admitted Boots.
'It might be used, for example,' I suggested, 'in support of some worthy but struggling theatrical company.'
'That is a sound and brilliant suggestion,' Boots congratulated me.
'Perhaps you have some company in mind,' I said.
'I have just the company in mind,' he said.
'Us,' said Lecchio.
'A bit abruptly and crassly put,' said Boots, reprovingly, to Lecchio, 'but that would indeed seem to capture the gist of the matter.'
'Are you grateful,' I asked.
'yes,' said Boots.
'Eternally, undyingly?' I asked.
'Surely,' said Boots.
'There is something you can do for me,' I said.
'Name it, brother,' said Boots.
'I am still interested in joining your company,' I said.
'Out of the question,' said Boots. 'Impossible.'
'Come now,' I said.
'Come now,' said Chino.
