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From: mandil_k@hotmail.com (mandil)
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NNTP-Posting-Date: 16 Feb 2002 15:57:31 GMT
Subject: {ASSM} Masters of the Arches  chapter 8
Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2002 19:10:03 -0500
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Masters of the Arches
by Mandil



                                Chapter 8  





One morning Nika left to hunt for fresh meat like she often did. But
by mid-afternoon she hadn't returned.

Even though Vincent was worried, he knew that lately she had had to
walk farther than usual to find meat. Her constant hunting had already
killed much of the small game around their camp. But when dusk arrived
and she was not back, he really became worried. There was nothing to
do now but to wait and hope that she was not hurt and that she had
found a safe place to spend the night.

As soon as it was light enough the following morning, he took a few
provisions and his rifle and he set out after her. His leg was almost
completely healed by now and he was angry with himself for not having
gone with her.

Walking was still a little painful but it was the lack of exercise in
his leg that was causing most of the pain, and of course he didn't let
that stop him.

He followed the small stream in the direction she always took when she
went hunting. She always went the same way since most of the game she
killed were small animals that usually went to drink from the clear
water of the stream.

He walked upstream for a couple of hours until he found himself in a
small clearing. There was a single large tree in its centre so he
stopped there to rest a little and also to eat. He was getting ready
to leave fifteen minutes later when he heard voices not far from where
he was. It then occurred to him that he had made a mistake in choosing
this place to rest and eat. There was nowhere for him to run now
except to hide where he was.

The sound of the voices got louder and it became evident to him that
whoever was coming his way was going to pass very close to him. He had
no choice but to remain still and wait since running away would
definitely attract attention.

A few minutes later, half a dozen men, completely naked with fluffy
feathers tied to their manhood and with animals figures drawn on their
chest, appeared in the samll clearing.

They hadn't seen him yet as they walked toward the lone tree and thus
straight toward him.

Then the one ahead, probably the leader, saw him and he froze in his
track. Without saying a word, he pointed in Vincent's direction to the
others.

What followed next happened so fast that Vincent could only remembered
it vaguely afterward.

They all rushed on him before he had time to greet them or ask a
question. He knew that he could easily have killed half of them before
the rest got to him but he had no way to predict if they would be
friendly or not.

One of them hit him on the head with the wooden end of his spear and
while he was half-unconscious, they bound his hands behind his back
and tied a fibrous rope around his neck.

To reanimate him, they simply threw him in the cold water of the creek
nearby and they took fun in watching him trying to keep his head out
of the water. Once they were tired of this fun, the leader pulled him
out of the water by mean of the rope around his neck.

When Vincent tried to talk to them, he was hit in the face. It became
painfully evident to him that these people didn't want him to address
them in any way.

They seemed very interested in his rifle, but when they removed his
knife from around his waist, all of their interest switched to the
knife and they became still more agitated.

The leader and two others began to talk very fast in a language that
was very similar to that of Nika. Vincent could understand much of
what they were saying. It seemed to him that they were debating what
to do with him. The leader, the one with the most intricate drawing on
his chest, wanted him kill immediately. Finally, they were able to
reach an arrangement. The leader of the small group was going to keep
the knife and they would not reveal its existence to Haski. But
Vincent and all the rest of his things were going to be brought back
to their village and given to Haski.

As soon as this was settled, they began to walk back the way they had
come with Vincent walking in the centre of the file while the warrior
immediately behind him was holding the rope tied around his neck.

They were walking very fast and the fact that his hands were bounded
behind his back put extra strain on his healing leg and soon he was
experiencing much pain. He fell to the ground a couple of times, but
each time they would kick him in the side and force him back on his
feet by mean of the rope.

While walking to their village, he had a chance to observe them. 

Their skin, at least that part that was not covered with paint, was
more of a pale brown colour than it was black and their bodies were
slim and tall. Their faces were handsome enough but they had so much
paint on it that it was difficult to judge. As for their hair, they
all had a single shoulder length tresse of dark black hair tied at the
back with a short leather rope and decorated with a few feathers. They
seemed to take great care of their hair and every time that mud or
dust would get into it, they would immediately wipe it off very
carefully.

After a couple of hours of fast walking, they stopped to rest and they
ate fruits that they had been carrying in a bag of animal skin.

They rested for only a short while and they soon resumed their fast
walking back to their village. It was almost dark when they arrived
there. Judging by the number of huts that could be seen, Vincent
figured that there must have been five or six hundred people living
there.

The place seemed to be clean enough and there was a definite order in
the way the huts were arranged in concentric circles around a number
of larger dwellings in the middle of the village.

There were many cooking fires burning everywhere and the smell of food
cooking reminded Vincent how hungry he was. They tied him to one of
the several posts not far from the centre of the village. Then without
any further concern for him, they went to a central fire where half a
dozen females, who must have been waiting for them, served them food.

For the rest of the evening and for the whole night, Vincent remained
tied to the post and not once did they come to give him food or
something to drink. In the morning, he could hardly feel his arms
since the tight rope prevented much of the blood from circulating and
it was only because of constant moving of his wrists behind his back
that both of his arms were not completely paralysed.

As soon as the sun was up, a woman accompanied by two guards came to
feed him. He was then brought to a hole near the edge of the village
where he was allowed to relieve himself. Once again, he was taken to
the same post and tied up.

The guards went away but the woman remained near a fire close by and
she got busy cooking a stew in a big clay caldron. She had been kind
to him when she had feed him and she had even smiled at him once, so
Vincent make up his mind to try to engage into a conversation with
her.

"Are you the wife of a man from the village?" 

When she heard him speaking to her, she stopped what she had been
doing and she came closer to the post but not near enough to attract
attention. She began to pick up pieces of wood from a pile near
Vincent.

"Be quiet." She whispered in an evidently nervous tone of voice.
"Slaves must not talk to each other, if you are caught you will be
beaten."

In a much lower voice, Victor then added. 

"So you are a slave also here, are there many other slaves?" 

He was not expecting an answer but she did answer his question. 

"Yes, as many as there are huts. Sometimes ago there were many more,
but they did kill many of us who tried to escape."

"Tell me, is there a woman here by the name of Nika?" 

"Yes she is here, they brought her here two days ago." 

Upon hearing that Nika was still alive, Vincent's heart began to beat
faster. He wanted to know more about her condition. But the woman
moved away closer to the fire with the armful of wood. Two warriors
were now approaching them.

They didn't say a word and they untied Vincent's hands and they pulled
him by the neck rope. He was thus forced to follow them as they
crossed toward the centre of the village where he had seen the half
dozen large dwellings the previous day.

As he walked with the two guards, he was able to distinguish the
slaves from the citizens of the village.

The slaves were not permitted to wear any kind of ornament and their
bodies were not painted. Whereas the females of the village - those
that were not slave - were painted with intricate designs while the
men had animals painted over their body. But all of them had either
feather or decoration in their long hair.

Except for the feathers that the warriors wore, everyone in the
village was completely naked. Even the women went around as naked as
the day they were born.

Then something suddently struck Vincent. He noticed that there were no
old people in the village and only a few children could be seen. But
on the other hand everyone looked healthy and in the prime of life.

The men would have been considered handsome if they had been on his
world. And as for the women, slaves or citizens of the village, they
were all stunningly pretty. They were rather tall and slim with dark
black shoulder length hair that was tied at the back, much like the
hair of the men, and all of the women had splendid breasts that
bounced about as they moved around.

They walked between huts and mud houses. Then Vincent was a witness to
a strange sight when they came upon a scenes where he saw men having
sex with women here and there. He even saw one male actually leave one
woman and immediately go down on another who was waiting her turn. Of
course, both women were slaves and Vincent tried not to think about
what could have happened to Nika.

He was brought in front of a high wall made of long poles placed close
to one another and tied together with ropes. The wall completely
enclosed a very large house made of similar poles while the roof was
like all the others, which consisted of large leaves set one over
another on a rack of sticks.

Most of the people of the village had been following them and this
made him nervous since they were probably expecting a show of some
kind he told himself. A show with him as the main participant.

When a man with many feathers sticking out of his hair and with many
decorations painted all over his body, came walking out of the
dwelling, Vincent was forced to get on his knees. His leg was still
painful and he cried with pain as he fell on his knees. He was slapped
on the mouth immediately by one of the guards standing next to him.

It was quite evident that the man that had just come out of the large
house was the chief. Cruelty could be read all over his face and he
smiled as soon as he realised that Vincent was in pain. His body was
covered with beautiful drawings of animals and he had a tress of
feather hanging from his head.

He began to slowly walk toward Vincent with a cruel smile on his lips.
In his hand, he was holding Vincent's rifle. Pointing to it with one
hand as he held it in the other, he addressed himself to Vincent in a
low-pitched voice.

"Where did you get this?" 

Vincent was not certain as to whether he would be permitted to answer.
Would he be slapped again if he did? He decided to take a chance and
he answered the chief.

"It is a magic instrument. I use it to keep away the bad spirits." 

This seemed to satisfy the chief who then added. 

"Where did a low worm such as you get that stick of magic?" 

" It was given to me by a spirit, the man that will be responsible for
my death will be haunted by this spirit until he kills himself."

It was a long shot but Vincent knew that his chances of staying alive
were very slim if he didn't play on these people's superstitions. The
chief, whose name he had previously learned from the warrior who had
captured him the previous day, was Haski, seemed to think about this
for a few seconds. He then added.

"Prove to me that it can do magic or I will kill you myself here." 

"I must hold it in my hand to let the magic out of it." 

He could see Haski debating in his mind as to whether he should let
Vincent take the magic stick or not. Of course Vincent knew by then
that the chief knew nothing of the deadly power of the rifle,
otherwise he would have used it himself to kill him.

Finally, Haski, the chief, extended his arm and he presented the rifle
to Vincent. Of course, Vincent had no intention of shooting his way
out of the village. For one thing, he wouldn't have succeeded, even
though he could have killed the chief and a few warriors. His main aim
was to get Nika out of this place. No, he just wanted to scare the
chief enough so that he would not kill him immediately.

Once the rifle was in his hands, he pulled the bolt in one swift
motion thus feeding a cartridge into the chamber. He did this in such
a way that the chief and the guards near him heard the noise but
didn't see exactly what he had done.

The metallic noise was new to them and it did surprise all of those
that heard it. Even the large crowd outside the wall of poles that was
watching through the wide opened gates had heard it. There was a low
mumbling into the crowd and many hands were now pointing at him.

Victor looked toward the crowd. Then among them he saw the warrior
that had been at the head of the small group that had captured him. It
was the same one that had insisted on killing him instead of bringing
him alive in the village.

He was standing just outside the wall and watching everything. He had
been cruel to Vincent; he had even refused to give him water or food
on the way back. It was that same man also that had kicked him the
most often whenever he fell to the ground.

"This magic stick has the power to tell me if there is a liar among
your people. If I point it at a liar it will make a loud noise and
thus indicate who he is."

Now Haski seemed very interested, he even took a step closer toward
Vincent the better to see.

Adjusting the scope of the rifle for the fifty yard distance to the
leader of the group of six that had captured him, he aimed at the
single feather in his hair. When he saw that the bullet would not hit
anyone standing behind him, he pulled the trigger.

Before the loud noise had died down, the feather as well as half of
the braid of hair where it had been tied, felt to the ground.

The crowd, Haski, as well as his guards, reacted instantly with shouts
of surprise and fear. Some people in the crown nearby actually ran
away.

"The magic stick has spoken, it has pointed to a liar among your
warriors. To know who he is, all you have to do is to seek the one
with the missing feather."

Of course, everyone had seen what had happen and there was no doubt in
anyone’s mind as to which one among them the magic stick had
indicated. But still the chief slowly walked into the crowd and he
pretended to inspect the men there.

Then he came in front of 'broken feather'. He was still holding part
of the braid and the feather in his hand. Of course, it was a great
dishonour to him and only the instant killing of the offender would
satisfy him now.

But before he could react, Haski told two of his guards to seize him
and he was brought inside the fence to stand in front of Vincent.

"Yes he is the one." Said Vincent. 

"What lie has he told?" 

The warrior looked at Vincent with much hatred written all over his
face, but he didn't say a word.

"It is not what he said that makes him a liar but what he did not
say."

"Then tell me what he did not say which make him a liar." 

"He did not tell his chief that when I was captured he took from me a
magic knife and he still has it hidden."

The warrior's eyes began to show fear and his body started to shake
when the chief looked at him. He then threw himself at Haski's feet
and he began to talk very fast begging for his forgiveness and
promising to give back the knife, which was now in his hut.

But Haski gave a signal to one of his guards and a spear was thrown
through the warrior's chest killing him on the spot.

Haski quickly removed the rifle from Vincent's hands and without
saying another word he turned around and left. Vincent was then taken
to a small hut where he was given food and water by a couple of slave
women.

As soon as he was finished eating, the same two guards who had been
waiting in front of the hut took him to the field and he was made to
work with other slaves. There were a few men in the group but by far
there were many more women than men working there. All of them were
busy tiling the soil with pointed sticks; it was hard work especially
under the hot sun.

Vincent spent that night and many other nights that followed into the
male slaves quarters. It consisted of a fence of circular poles very
similar to the one around the chief's place, and inside of which was a
low roof which stood on many poles stuck into the ground. It was
simple but adequate since the weather was very warm and the roof kept
them dry on rainy nights. There were eight other males sleeping there
with him.

Their food was mostly fruits and some of the tasty white roots that
they were cultivating in the fields. It seemed that the villagers were
very found of these roots. Once boiled, Vincent had to admit that they
indeed had a pleasant taste. Once in a while, they were given some
half-rotten meat but Vincent always threw it away. It was very evident
to him that the natives considered meat a luxury and they fed the
slaves only that part of the meat which they themselves didn't want to
eat.

Vincent did try to get information about Nika, but nobody seemed to
know where she was. But on the tenth day after his arrival there,
while he was picking roots in the field, he saw the same woman that he
had met when he had been tied to the post on the day of his arrival in
the village.

He recognised her the instant he saw her. She was very beautiful and
her naked breasts seemed very firm and inviting to the touch. She
began to work next to him in the field and it was evident to him that
she wanted to tell him something. At last, when they were close enough
she whispered to him.

"I know where the woman Nika is?" 

"Tell me then, where is she? Is she well? Please tell me." 

He stopped working as soon as she began whispering to him; he looked
straight at her. Then he noticed one of the guards looking in their
direction and he quickly resumed working. Without lifting his head, he
asked the slave woman to tell him more about Nika.

"She is here in the village. Haski has made her one of his women." 

Vincent felt his anger and rage rising and on that instant he made up
his mind that he was going to kill Haski before leaving this place.

"Tell me when I can see her?" 

"Not now, it is impossible, but in two days there will be the ceremony
of manhood in the village, then you will be able to talk to her."

"How is it that you know where she is while nobody else seemed to know
her whereabouts?"

He didn't think that the woman was lying but it did seemed strange
that she should be the only one to know. She didn't answer immediately
since one of the guards was walking slowly toward them. Had he noticed
that they were talking? Vincent didn't care for himself since he felt
relatively sure that he could kill him and run away, but he didn't
want to leave without Nika.

At last, the guard walked toward the end of the field where he emptied
his bladder without the least concern as to weather he was being
observed or not.

"My name is Verla," said the woman. "I know about her because I have
to supply the chief's house with all the water they use. Every morning
I make many trips to the river and I have to fill all the pots with
water. Sometimes he is not around and it gives me a chance to talk to
her."

"Is she well?" 

"As well as could be expected under the circumstance, but when he get
tired of her, he will send her with the other slaves and once there,
she will have to obey any male in the village."

"You mean that she will have to submit to their sexual abuse?" 

At this moment, he did recall some of the scenes he would see every
evening as he and the other slaves would go through the village on
their way to their sleeping quarters. Sometimes he would see two or
even three men copulating with the same woman, and once he even saw a
boy not more than twelve trying his luck with a very heavy breasted
slave while a male adult stood over them watching and making jokes.

"I will kill Haski soon, I can promise you this." 

"Do not do anything before the feast since all the hunters are in the
village now. You could try to escape during the feast when most of
them will be drunk or wait after the feast. Once the feast is over,
they will have to go back into the wood to hunt for meat since the
supply of meat will be depleted. Then you might find a way to escape
with her since there will be much fewer warriors around."

It did make sense to Vincent but he only hoped that Haski would not
tired of Nika too soon and get rid of her before they could escape.

Verla then added. "You must promise to take me and Lomac with you when
you escape."

"Who is Lomac?" Asked Vincent. 

"He is my man and you will not be able to escape without his help." 

She seemed categorical on this and he became eager to know why she was
so sure of herself on that matter. In a half mocking stare, he asked
her why her man was so indispensable to his being able to escape from
the village.

"He is a tool maker and as such, he has access to the storage of the
tools and weapons. He can get us all the weapons we will need for our
escape."

Vincent also learned from her that the chief kept a reserve of weapons
in one of the huts close to the walls of his quarter and Lomac was the
only slave ever to go inside that hut.

"I will think about it and let you know soon." 

He then remembered something he wanted to ask her, something that had
been bothering him. He asked her why Nika hadn't shown up outside when
she heard the noise from his rifle on the day that he explained to the
chief that the rifle was a magic stick. She certainly did know that he
had been the one that had fired the rifle when she heard the loud
noise.

"She did try to run outside but Haski's two other wives prevented her
from leaving the house. We will have to be careful about them since
they know that the chief will never throw them out since they each
gave him a son and he does treat them well."

This last remark of her gave Vincent something to worry about. Suppose
Nika got pregnant from Haski? But then, another question popped up in
his mind, suppose she was already pregnant from him?



                                 ( end of chapter 8 )

                              <http://www.asstr-mirror.org/files/Authors/mandil/www>

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