8.  FINALE AND CODA (first part)

   They brought Hikati back to the camp unconscious, lashed to the back of
her horse with her own lasso.  The older women came to her tent, and Ariti
and Silini joined them; the rest of the Sisterhood gathered outside,
whispering between them.  Ariti came out briefly and told them that the
chiefess had cried out suddenly during the hunt, clutched her chest and
fallen off her steed.  Clearly, the thread on her loom had run out, for
only rarely could an evil spirit touch a great sorceress such as Hikati. 
The horsewomen nodded agreement, and some of them began drifting away, but
a few remained sitting outside the tent until nightfall.  Nobody had any
time for the males.

   Both Atossa and Sarissa were very muted this evening, and Fallou deemed
it wise to keep completely silent.  Late in the night, Ariti entered, her
face rigid with emotion, took Atossa aside and spoke to her in such a low
voice that he could not hear what she was saying, but Atossa seemed to put
a question to Ariti, she received an affirmative nod and fell silent for a
while.  Then she spoke to Ariti again, they embraced and Hikati's elder
daughter left.

   Fallou woke up in the hour before first light, when the spirit of man
and woman is at low ebb, and the Nameless Ones walk the earth.  He imagined
at first that he had heard the scream of a distant bush-cat, then fear
struck him and he thought, banshi ...  until it was clear that the wailing
was human.  The death-song had begun, and the old gynarki was dead.  Fallou
did regret her passing, for she had once made the decision that he would
live, and not go to the killing-pole, and she had always treated him as
gently as could be expected of a horsewoman when she was using him; but
there was also a vague foreboding in his heart.  Death walked among them.
Would she be satisfied with Hikati's old hide and leave them alone?

   His two owners rose and went out; he followed them discreetly at a
distance.  Women were already gathering around the tent of the chiefess,
carrying torches, and Atossa and Sarissa bent down, smeared their faces
with dirt and joined in the chorus.  But when the sisters saw them, they
fell silent and looked at each other; and a voice was heard: Atossa! 
Atossa gynarki!  The other women raised their torches high and took up the
cry: Atossa gynarki!  Atossa shall be our woman-ruler!  And Atossa gestured
acceptance and embraced all the women as they thronged around her, old and
young, and more of them arriving every moment.  The grey streak at the
horizon that no one had noticed grew red and was seen by all.  A new day
was coming, and Atossa was chiefess of the Sisterhood, Sarissa was the
gynarki's companion and Fallou too had probably risen in rank---if any such
thing could be said to exist among beings as lowly as man-slaves.  Ariti
and Silini emerged from the tent and joined them, very solemn, and were
also embraced and kissed by Atossa.  She entered the tent and was gone;

Fallou suddenly felt the cold of the morning air and shivered, and Sarissa
took him by his arm and led him home.

   Hikati was decked out in her best finery and carried to the top of a
small hill, just a long arrow-shot away from the camp.  She was laid out on
a platform built out of sods and covered with furs and fine patterned
drapes, and the sisters gathered again in the cool of the evening to see
her off to the Ever-flowing Springs.  Fires were lit, torches were raised
on poles to light the ceremony.  The death-song was chanted again, rising
and falling under a sky bright with stars.

   Fallou sat with the other males outside the circle of women.  Old Kakou,
Hikati's own male, waited apart from the others, and close by him sat two
of the women, Timesse and Ipparki.  Fallou wondered what would become of
Kakou now.  A dead woman's companion usually inherited her slave or slaves,
while the rest of her belongings went to her daughters, but Hikati had no
widow.  Kakou looked queer; his eyes gazed blindly into space and he was
rocking slowly to and fro.  But now the singing ceased, and Silini
approached the platform, leading the gelding that had carried Hikati.  The
animal was uneasy, flicking his ears back and forth, and his eyes were red
with the light of the torches.  Ariti stood in front of the bier, a large
sledgehammer in her hands; she sang an incantation while the sisters rose
expectantly.  The hammer swung and struck, and the horse dropped like a
grotesque, articulated toy and the women screamed approval in unison. 
Blood was gathered in a bowl and brought to Atossa; she stood up, removed
boots, breech-clout and all and smeared herself with it, head to foot. 
Again, the crowd roared.  Two or three women started butchering the carcass
of the horse; it would follow its mistress and serve her, as it had in
life, but it would not need its body, only its spirit; anyway, horse-meat
was a delicacy which could be had only after great sacrifices to the gods,
and should not be left to rot.  When the choice cuts had been sent to the
communal pot, lower down on the hillside, the rest of the carcass was
arranged below the platform.  But the head was cut off and raised above it,
on Hikati's own lance.

   A hush fell.  The waiting women glanced around expectantly.  Then,
Ipparki and Timesse appeared in the firelight, leading Kakou between them.

   Not until now did it dawn upon Fallou that the man was drugged.  He did
not seem to see where he was going; his will, what little of it that
remained after long years of slavery, had been taken away from him and his
eyes were wide open but unseeing.  The two women steered him to the foot
end of the platform; there they threw him to the ground.  Eager hands
grasped him, turned him on his back and held him, arms above his head. 
Suddenly, a completely naked woman stood by his feet, looking down on him.
It was Sarissa, looking like a painted demon in the firelight.  A murmur
was heard.  She knelt and sat down on Kakou's hips.

   She seemed to do something to him.  By raising himself a little, Fallou
managed to see what it was.  She was caressing him, stroking him, and
Fallou heard faintly above the sounds of the waiting crowd that she was
soothing him with words.  Kakou moved his head a little from side to side,
but made no sound.

   She was holding his member, working it, making it grow between her
palms. Now, Fallou saw more than heard Kakou groan.  Sarissa was in no
hurry, but worked up a good erection; the onlookers commented favourably on
it.  Hikati would be pleased.  Then Sarissa raised herself a little over
the helpless body below and, guiding the member with her hands, she took it
into herself and sat down on it, using him.

   She rode him slowly at first, leaning over him, supporting her hands on
his shoulders.  She praised him loudly: he gave pleasure, he was good.  He
had served his mistress well and she would be well served by him again. 
All the while, she observed him closely.  Kakou threw his head right and
left and his body began to heave.  Suddenly, Sarissa shifted her hands to
his throat.  Her fingers closed around it, she pressed and moved her hips
violently, and not until then did Fallou understand what he saw.  It was a
human sacrifice: Sarissa was strangling Kakou while she raped him.

   Kakou's eyes bulged, his face contorted, his tongue hung out of his
gaping mouth and his body rose in a great arch under his rider, and in the
moment of his death, he came inside her.

   Fallou fell to the ground while the women screamed insanely.  It had
happened again.  One of the women he belonged to had killed ritually.  The
night rocked and rotated around him and as from a great distance, he heard
the sisters raise the death chant again.  A hand touched him, and he
recoiled in terror.  But a voice spoke kindly to him, and it was Ginesse;
and she raised him to his feet and held him and reassured him.  Hikati and
old woman Death had got their due and were satisfied.  She led him slowly
down the hillside, both of them stumbling in the dark, following the
singing women down to the cooking-fire and the pot.  There she sat him down
and waited, her arm around his neck.  He could not keep himself from
shaking, and was ashamed.  His own people had after all done this sort of
thing not too many generations ago.  The custom had fallen into disuse, but
he suspected that peace and rising prices of slaves, not better manners,
had brought this about.

   Ginesse was still holding him when Sarissa appeared in front of them. 
He froze.  Sarissa knelt down in front of him, took his hands and spoke to
him.  Now Kakou had followed Hikati to the Springs, just as the horse had
done, to serve her until they both faded away and were carried along by the
night-wind.  Hikati would be pleased to have him; he would be much better
off with her than in the world above, worked by all and comforted by none,
living out his miserable years until his thread reached its end or until
somebody took pity on him and clubbed him---would he not?  He would be
young again, and Hikati would be young, and they would never know hunger or
thirst in the dry season, for surely the Springs flowed without end.  She
insisted until he calmed down and felt the tension and the fear gradually
leave him.

   She leaned closer: what had been done was done only when a great
sorceress died.  He would not be required to follow Atossa on her last
ride, unless he asked for it; Sarissa would be his sole owner then, if she
lived, or else she would have committed him to some other woman who would
care for him.  Ariti would be pleased to take him on, that she knew for
certain.  She knew that he liked Ariti---no, she was not displeased, she
loved Ariti herself, but not as much as Atossa, of course.  Ariti was very
popular among the sisters.

   Sarissa's presence would be required during the ceremonial feasting, and
Atossa's, too.  And Ariti and Silini would have to be there, as next of
kin. But would Ginesse take Fallou down to Atossa's tent and comfort him?
They would save some nice pieces of boiled meat for her return, the
feasting would continue until daybreak anyway.

   And Ginesse undertook this mission of mercy and led Fallou away to the
camp, with a torch to light them.  Inside the tent, she put the torch
carefully away in the fire basket and put Fallou on the bed.  She held him.
She spoke to him; she insisted that he must agree that what Sarissa had
said was true, and that the right thing had been done; and he was too
exhausted and emotionally spent to gainsay her.  Yes, the customs of the
Sisterhood and of the Grasslands had been honoured.  Ginesse kissed him and
rolled him over on his back.  For a fleeting moment, the image of Kakou
flitted through his mind, but he banished it.  She came down on top of him,
held his wrists and pushed his legs apart with her knees, so that he would
lie under her the way the unfree women, the horse-less and weapon-less
women did when men used them; she raised her hips a little and moved his
member with one hand so that she would not hurt it.  It came to lie between
her thighs.  Then she rested, silently, while he savoured the warmth and
the heaviness of her body.  She was not fully grown, of course, and he
found himself wishing that she would have been heavier, robbing him of more
of his will and stilling his disquiet better by pinning him down more
decisively.  But Ginesse was good; and soon he caught himself thinking of
the grassy little hollow near where the horses grazed.

   Ginesse let go of his wrists and suffered him to put his arms around her
neck.  She rubbed her face against his.  The memory of what he and Ginesse
and Silini had done worked its magic on him, and he was calm.  But Ginesse
felt his member stiffen and rise before he did, and she must have recalled
their game too; for she parted her thighs a little, permitting his penis to
come up and be held in her crotch, caught in the little space between it
and the smooth insides of her thighs.  She made a reassuring sound and
squirmed on top of him; she too was pleased with the memory.

   After a while, she broke her silence.  He had been a good and obedient
slave that time, when Silini had helped her.  The thought of it made her
horny.  Would he be capable of serving her tonight?

   Yes, he thought so; and stammering, he tried to convey to her his
feelings toward her and Silini, and what a pleasant memory they had given
him.  Aha, said Ginesse, which had he liked best, the fucking or the
whipping?  Boldly he said, both.  She laughed at him.  All right, he would
have both again.  She wanted him to lie on top of her and use her (these
were her actual words) the way he had done with Silini.  No one was
looking, so she would not lose standing among women, and he would keep
silent about it.  He assured her of his loyalty.  But first the whipping.
It was a pity that he could not be whipped while he was using her, the way
she herself had done that time, but never mind.  She would do it before the
copulation.

   So she rose and rolled him over on his face and uncoiled the whip she
wore around her waist.  The remains of the torch were still giving off a
little light.  She stood above him, with one foot on the small of his back,
and then she gave him six lashes, but they were not as hard as she could
have made them.  And then she threw herself at him and he mounted her and
was a man again, and he entered her and possessed her, working steadily in
and out while she writhed under him and made curious little sounds that he
had never heard a horsewoman make before.  Briefly, he wondered if she was
a pervert, and then he asked himself what that word meant, here among these
women.  He held himself back until he heard and felt her let go.  After the
orgasm, he remained as he was for quite some time, and Ginesse did not seem
to object.  The memory of the pleasure and the aching of his rump filled
him.  Then he rolled away, and Ginesse remained with him until he went to
sleep.  Later that night, he woke up and she was gone, but now he was calm.
He listened for a while to the distant sounds of the carousing women, and
then he slept again.  When morning came, it was Sarissa who was sleeping by
him, her arm across him.  He did not move for fear of disturbing her.  Only
briefly did he feel queasy when, close to his face, he saw her right hand.
Finally, a full bladder and an aching member forced him to disengage
himself and rise, but Sarissa did not move.  He found Atossa on Sarissa's
other side.  Both of them slept the whole morning away.

   But on the crest of the hill, Hikati and Kakou and the horse waited for
the carrion birds to pick their bones clean and release their spirits for
the ride to the Springs, and he could already see the first of the black
dots circling high above when he returned to the tent.

   Being a chiefess made no great difference to Atossa.  She had always
been a very respected member of the Sisterhood, not least after her ordeal
in the Passage-place, and of course a chiefess had no power to command and
coerce other women.  Her new role meant simply that her advice was asked
more often, and that common decisions were referred to her when there was
no general agreement.

   She led the communal hunts, of course, but hunting was done in small
groups of two or three at this time of the year.  Everybody knew when it
was time to move camp, and where it would be moved.

   Fallou did his chores as usual, and had not expected otherwise.  Ginesse
came by now and then, smiled and patted him, but did never comment on that
night in Atossa's tent.  But Silini and Ariti went about smeared all over
with ashes, looking like ghosts, and no sexual intercourse with them was
permitted.  This taboo would be in force for three cycles of the moon. 
Gradually, his relations with Sarissa returned to what they had been: he
honoured, feared and obeyed her, but no horror surrounded her anymore.  She
was a normal horsewoman, just like any other, except that she owned him. 
The women were savage, but fully human, dangerous, but not completely
unpredictable.  He understood them.

   Having no witch was a problem, of course.  Silini had been apprenticed
to her mother, but was not fully qualified yet.  There were still things to
learn and ceremonies to observe.  It was agreed that this autumn, Silini
would ride to the camp of a great sorceress further east and ask to be
accepted as her pupil for the winter; that would probably be enough, and
next summer, she would be able to preside, with Atossa, over Niki's rites
of passage.  Ginesse was devastated: could she not accompany her lover? 
But this idea was not received favourably by the women, and Atossa vetoed
it.  They would be three women short that way, and that was too much. 
Aryana spoke up.  Ginesse could move in with her, share her tent until they
went into winter quarters, and share her furs and Ippou then.  Silini would
not mind, would she?  Silini looked long at Ginesse, sighed and accepted
the arrangement.  She must do her duty to the sisters, as the mores of the
horsewomen demanded, and it would be very exciting to meet the famous old
witch, of course.

   So the life of the Sisterhood resumed its normal course.

   The daily work was done, the territory was scoured for game, the
time-honoured trails were followed.  What else could a horsewoman do, or
the horsewoman's slave?  Fallou did his chores, served his two owners and
their friends and trudged across the plains, towed by his balls by Atossa
or Sarissa.  One day, when they wanted to hunt together on the march, they
handed him over to Ariti for safekeeping.  And Ariti accepted the job
merrily, and while she was putting him on his leash, she told him that she
had rescued and saved the arse-bracket and the neck-band, and she had
plenty of nails, too!  When they were in winter camp, she would bring out
the hardware and hook and nail him to a log and ride and use him, and then
leave him as he was, impaled and helpless, perhaps for a day and a night
and another day, and use him again, and again.  Would not that be terrible?
Yes it would, said he, and he feared her and he longed to be used by her,
and it showed.  She kissed him and then she paid out the rope and mounted
her pony.
