I looked upon her. Her eyes were onmine, frightened.Her body, small, white, curved, luscious, contrasted with the shadowed redness and blackness o~ the soft, deep furs on which she lay. She trembled.
“Ankle,” I told her.
She extended her shapely limb.
I took her ankle and, about it, closed the fetter of black iron. I then joined her upon the furs.
Chapter 7 The Kur
The next five days were pleasant ones for me.
In the mornings, under the eye of Ottar, keeper of Forkbeard’s farm, I learned the ax.
The blade bit deep into the post.
“More back,” laughed Ottar. “Put more back into it!”
The men cried out with pleasure as the blade then, with a single stroke, split through the post.
Thyri, and other bond-maids, leaped and clapped their hands.
How alive and vital they seemed! Their hair was loose, in the fashion of bond-maids. Their eyes shone; their cheeks were flushed; each inch of them, eachmarvelous imbonded inch of them, was incredibly alive and beautiful. How incredibly feminine they were, so living and uninhlbited and delightful, so utterly fresh, so free, so spontaneous, so open in their emotions and the movements of their bodies; they now moved and laughed and walked, and stood, as women, pride was not permitted them; joy was. Only a kirtle of thin, white wool, split to the belly, stood between their beauty and the leather of their masters.
“Again! Again! Please, my Jarl!” cried Thyri.
Once more the great ax struck the post. It jerked in the earth, and another foot of it, splintering, flew from the ax.
“Well done!” said Ottar.
Then suddenly he struck at me with his own ax. I caught the blow on its handle, with the handle of my ax, and, lifting my left fist, not releasing my ax, hurled him from his feet to his left. He sprawled on the turf and I leaped over him, my ax raised.
“Splendid!” he cried.
The bond-maids cried out with pleasure, Gunnhild, Pouting Lips, Olga, Thyri and others.
Ottar leaped up, laughing, and raised his ax against the delighted girls.
They fled back from him, squealing and laughing.
“Olga,” he said, “there is butter to be churning in the churning shed.”
“Yes, my Jarl,” said she, holding her skirt up, running from the place of our exercises.
“Gunnhild, Pouting Lips,” said he, “to the looms.”
“Yes, Jarl,” said they, turning, and hurrying toward the hall. Their looms lay against its west wall.
“You, little wench,” said Ottar to Thyri.
She stepped back. “Yes, Jarl,” she said.
“You,” he said, “gather verr dung in your kirtle and carry * to the sul patch!”
“Yes,Jarl,” she laughed, and turned away. I watched her, as she ran, barefoot, to do his bidding. She was exquisite.
“You other lazy girls,” cried Ottar, addressing the remaining bond-maids, “is it your wish to be cut into strips and fed to parsit fish?”
“No, my Jarl!” they cried.
“To your labors!” cried he.
Shrieking they turned about and fled away.
“Now, twice more,” said Ottar to me, his hand on his broad black belt inlaid with gold. “Then we will find another post!”
There are many tricks in the use of the ax;feints are often used, and short strokes; and the handle, jabbing and punching; a full swing, of course, should it miss, exposes the warrior; certain elementary stratagems might be mentioned; the following are typicaclass="underline" it is pretended to have taken a full swing, even to the cry of the kill, but the swing is held short and not followed through; the antagonist then, if unwary, may rush forward, and be taken, the ax turned, offguard, by the back cut, from the left to right; sometimes it is possible, too, lf the opponent carries his shield too high, to step to the left, and, with a looping stroke, cut off the shield arm; a low stroke, too, can be dangerous, for the human foot, as swift as a sapling, may be struck away; defensively, of course, if one can lure the full stroke and yet escape it, one has an instant to press the advantage; this is sometimes done by seeming to expose more of the body than one wary to the ax might, that to tempt the antagonist, he thinking he is dealing with an unskilled foe, to prematurely commit the weight of his body to a full blow. The ax of Torvaldsland is one of the most fearful of the weapons on Gor. If one can get behind the ax, of course, one can meet it; but it is not easy to get behind the ax of one who knows its use, he need only strike one blow; he is not likely to launch it until it is assured of its target.
An Ahn later the Forkbeard, accompanied by Ottar, keeper of his farm, and Tarl Red Hair, now of Forkbeard’s Landfall, inspected his fields.
The northern Sa-Tarna, in its rows, yellow and sprouting, was about ten inches high. The growing season at this latitude, mitigated by the Torvaldstream, was about one hundred and twenty days. This crop had actually been sown the preceding fall, a month following the harvest festival. It is sown early enough, however, that, before the deep frosts temporarily stop growth, a good root system can develop.Then, in the warmth of the spring, in the softening soil, the plants, hardy and rugged, again assert themselves. The yield of the fall-sown Sa-Tarna is, statistically, larger than that of the spring-sown varieties.
“Good,” said the Forkbeard. He climbed to his feet. He knocked the dirt from the knees of his leather trousers. “Good,” he said.
Sa-Tarna is the major crop of the Forkbeard’s lands, but, too, there are many gardens, and, as I have noted, bosk and verr, too, are raised. Ottar dug for the Forkbeard and myself two radishes and we, wiping the dirt from them, ate them. The tospits, in the Forkbeard’s orchard, which can grow at this latitude, as the larma cannot, were too green to eat. I smiled, recalling that tospits almost invariably have an odd number of seeds, saving the rarer, long-stemmed variety. I do not care too much for tospits, as they are quite bitter. Some men like them. They are commonly used, sliced and sweetened with honey, and in syrups, and to flavor, with their juices, a variety of dishes. They are also excellent in the prevention of nutritional deficiencies at sea, in long voyages, containing, I expect, a greatdeal of vitamin C. They are sometimes called the seaman’s larma. They are a fairly hardfleshed fruit, and are not difficult to dry and store. On the serpents they are carried in small barrels, usually kept, with vegetables, under the overturned keel of the longboat. We stopped by the churning shed, where Olga, sweating, had finished making a keg of butter. We dipped our fingers into the keg.It was quite good.
“Take it to the kitchen,” said the Forkbeard.
“Yes, my Jarl,” she said.
“Hurry, lazy girl,” said he. “Yes, my Jarl,” she said, seizing the rope handle of the keg and, leaning to the right to balance it, hurried from the churning shed. Earlier, before he had begun his tour of inspection, Pudding had come to him, and knelt before him, holding a plate of Sa-Tarna loaves. The daughter of Gurt, the Administrator of Kassau, was being taught to bake. She watched fearfully as the Forkbeard bit into one.
“It needs more salt,” he had said to her.
She shuddered.
“Do you think you are a bond-maid of the south?” he asked.
“No, my Jarl,” she had said.
“Do you think it is enough for you to be pleasant in the furs?” he asked.
“Oh, no, my Jarl!” she cried.
“Bond-maids of the north must know how to do useful things,” he told her.
“Yes, my Jarl!” she cried.
“Take these,” said he, “to the stink pen and, with them, swill the tarsks!”
“Yes, my Jarl,” she wept, leaping to her feet, and fleeing away.
“Bond-maid!” called he.
She stopped, and turned.
“Do you wish to go to the whipping post?” he asked. This is a stout post, outside the hall, of peeled wood, with an iron ring near the top, to which the wrists of a bond-maid, crossed, are lashed over her head. Near the bosk shed there is a similar post, with a higher ring, used for thralls.
“No, my Jarl!” cried Pudding.
“See then,” said he, “that your baking improves!”