The Bondwomen – Voyagers
Part Two
By Tang.
In the cabin, Sophia was tempted to block the door, but realised that sailors might need to access the quivers stored in their cabin. She dropped down on her bed whilst Sabetha hurried to a porthole.
“What’s happening?” Constance asked sleepily.
“We’re being attacked by pirates!” Sabetha replied enthusiastically.
“Well, there’s been an unknown ship seen, it is oared, so it might be a pirate, it might be an escort ship for us.” Sophia explained. “The Lieutenant …”
“Denaran, Tyg Denaran.” Constance interjected.
“Well, Lieutenant Denaran was just being cautious; we’re to stay in our cabin until the matter is resolved.”
“No, it’s flying no banner; it’s a galley. It has to be a pirate.” Sabetha said pointing towards the approaching ship.
“How do you know all this, Sabetha?” Sophia asked as she tried to keep her balance against the rocking of the ship.
“Oh, Netali and Velnia told me earlier. They’ve both seen pirate ships, Velnia was even ransomed back by one gang when she was a girl. You know Netali comes from the plains of Voy, her family are part of a horse tribe; she could ride before she was five. Apparently a lot of bondwomen come from the tribes. I wish I could be a bondwoman.”
“Ha! You’d miss your warm baths and your rich clothing. I doubt Netali has five violet dresses, three in azure and a range of necklaces. I can’t see you walking around dressed in your one suit of armour all day long. You can’t even ride, let alone use a sword.” Sophia was scathing.
“I could learn, I’m tall. It’s just that since we left Kerans I’ve realised that there are many more things I could do than be a lady-in-waiting all my life.”
“You won’t be; I’m sure you’ll be a matron-of-ladies before you turn thirty.”
“I’d be careful of Netali, you know she has to find a slave before she is confirmed as a bondwoman.” Constance said quietly poking her head out from beneath her blanket.
“I think she’d prefer you; you’re the one who is always so polite and deferential. See how you behave around Matron Priscilla, ‘yes, Matron Priscilla’, ‘no Matron Priscilla’. I could easily see you bowing down before Netali. You keep your body so well hidden beneath your robes, but she’ll have noticed how full yet sleek it is. I can imagine her thinking of you in the skin-tight rubber at her feet ‘yes Mistress Netali’, ‘yes, yes, yes, Mistress Netali’.” Sabetha enjoyed her teasing and was rewarded by a deep blush from Constance.
Tiring of her joke, Sabetha looked back to the porthole. “It’s coming nearer so quickly.”
Sophia sat up and could see that the galley was indeed closing and seemed to be making no sign that it was friendly. Suddenly from above them was a sound like a series of whips being swept through the air.
“They’ve opened fire, well, I mean, we have.”
A rain of arrows came down on the galley at the limit of their range. From here it was not clear if they had inflicted any damage though some arrows were visibly lodged in the ship’s prow. Then there were two deeper sounds and objects that caught the light like glass and which trailed smoke behind them, were crossing the narrowing space to the other ship. They seemed to shatter on contact spraying fire along the galley’s gunwales.
“I guess that’s what the bondwomen are firing.” Sophia suggested.
“Well, they both hit. There’s already smoke.”
Sophia strained to see people, both men and it seemed women too, running around on the galley to try to extinguish the fire. Then another rain of arrows fell on the galley’s deck piercing some of the sailors. Moments later two more spheres were crashing down, slightly back from the prow so that the front of the galley was soon swathed in smoke. However, it gave no sign of abating its course.
“We’re going to collide!” Sabetha shouted and now even she jumped back from the porthole.
Sophia ran to close it as her friend finally sought refuge in her bed. Through the hole she could see the prow of the pirate ship closing quickly and before she could shut it the whole of the ship to judder and there were loud shouts and screams, the clash of metal and the pounding thud of missiles hitting the side of the ship nearest the pirate vessel.
“That’s the grapples.” Sabetha said breathlessly.
From just above them through the planks of the deck they could hear the battle rage. This was a new sound to all of them, the clash of metal, the shrieks and the sickening sounds of weapons going into flesh. Now Sophia and Sabetha pushed one of the chests against the door and closed up all of the portholes as if that could shut out the sounds. They all huddled together on Constance’s bed keenly aware that their futures now depended on how successfully the sailors of the ‘Tanith’ could fight. There was no sense of how long the fighting continued but increasingly it seemed to be moving away from the prow of the ship and that roused concern that their side was losing.
The only dead bodies Sophia had seen had been elderly ladies who had died in their sleep and she tried to blot out thoughts of seeing those she had come to know, Abtyr, Othal, the bondwomen, hacked to death. She prayed desperately that it would soon be over and then it was. A loud cheer went up signalling that the battle had finished. None of the three young women moved and they barely breathed. The pirate ship still hugged the ‘Tanith’, but that was no real indication if the pirates had been beaten or had won. Then there were hurried footsteps and the voices of both men and women running down the ship’s corridors. They heard the door of the bondwomen’s room kicked open and knew that the pirates were indeed victorious and it was only moments before they would be prisoners. Constance was in tears but Sabetha went to stand by the door picking up a heavy brush that she had left out. Sophia comforted Constance and tried to focus on remaining calm.
The door burst open. “In here, there might be more slaves.”
“Be careful, if they’re bondwoman’s property the captain will not want them harmed. She does not want to bring the might of Serafold down on us.” A woman’s voice explained.
Sophia could barely take in the features of the man and the woman who were now in the doorway, simply registering that they looked like scruffier versions of the ship’s crewmen. Sabetha had launched herself at them knocking them and the man following behind the pair sprawling in the corridor. She clubbed at the head of the lead man quickly bringing blood to his brow. However, in moments, his fallen comrades were up and dragging Sabetha away struggling and shrieking but unable to escape from their firm grip.
“You two: are you going to behave like your friend?” The female pirate asked.
This one was in her thirties and dressed like a man, just the hang of her shirt and elements of her face betrayed her gender. She wore a loose shirt that had once been white, and baggy, faded red trousers. Her feet were in soldier’s sandals and she carried a long-bladed knife that she pointed at the two ladies-in-waiting. Constance seemed to be hovering on the lip of unconsciousness so Sophia spoke as she propped her up.
“No, we’ll come quietly; my friend here is not well.”
The woman laughed loudly. “I’m not surprised. Still in her nightdress and captured by pirates.”
Clearly seeing no threat from her prisoners, she sheathed her knife and offered a kindly hand to Constance. Together the three of them shuffled sideways slowly down the narrow corridor. For the first time, with its door thrown wide open, Sophia could see into the bondwomen’s room. It was larger than her cabin and at one end stood the large wooden cage that she guessed had been Sharee’s quarters. In that moment she wondered if she was any more or less safe than the slave. Would Sharee benefit from the fact that she had a strong owner; was Anya in fact still alive? She guessed a slave could be booty like any cargo and in turn that led Sophia to think of more rumours she had heard before embarking on the voyage. So many of the rumours she had heard had now been proven true so it seemed possible that the ones about pirates selling off captives as slaves in the Zeyev islands or at somewhere like Anakuma could be accurate too.
As she saw Sharee, her leash held by one of the pirates, at the foot of the stairs to the deck, for the first time Sophia wondered if something like that could be her fate. She doubted it: she lacked the sophistication and the body for anyone to imagine she could become a human toy like that. It was more likely she would end as a cleaning maid or sold as an indentured worker to some textile factory boss. Then again, maybe that was what Lucinda would have once thought. Sophia shuddered as she realised that this woman had once been no different from herself and yet, now, no-one could really tell that she had ever been anything except a sex-slave. What was it like to have your identity so altered? Nothing in Sharee suggested that she did not enjoy what she now was.
Sophia’s thoughts were drawn to a halt as Sharee was led up on deck and the pirate helped Constance who now seemed a little more steady, to follow on afterwards. Sophia was the last to come on deck. It seemed that everyone had been brought there. She looked around the crewmen who were kneeling to one side, their heads bowed as pirates stood over them with swords, daggers and axes. Othal was there, but both lieutenants were missing and the crew seemed a lot smaller in number. She realised that they could have been killed in the melee and, most likely, the bodies simply weighted down and dumped over the side. As she was shuffled forward with Sabetha to where the Jenbors stood, seemingly stripped down to their underclothes, she looked around cautiously and briefly caught sight of the other end of the ship. There was a wooden cage on it, like the one she had just seen in the cabin. It now held both the bondwomen and Sabetha; all three seemed to have their hands tied behind their backs.
“So this is the last of them?”
Sophia’s attention was snapped back by a woman’s voice. Now she looked forward as best she could to the group of seemingly senior pirates who stood nearer the ship’s prow. The way the woman stepped forward with such an air of total confidence told Sophia that she was the captain. She was probably in her mid-thirties, tall and slender though with an clear strength. Her hair was a dark shade of red and tumbled to her shoulders. Her face had a serenity about it with gently arched eyebrows and a surprisingly delicate chin. With less weathering from the sun on the streets of Kerans she could easily have passed for a lady of a prosperous household. However, she was dressed precisely in a way that Sophia felt a pirate captain should be. All her clothes were of black leather, oiled, presumably against the wet. Her long coat reached to her calves and had two rows of large steel buttons reaching to her hips. The coat was open except at her waist where an ornate clip cinched it closed. Beneath she wore a laced bustiere that constrained full breasts and her tight trousers were of smooth shiny black leather. The lacing was repeated on her boots which stretched over her knee and on the bracers at each wrist. The outfit seemed to combine toughness and elegance. The purpose of its wearer was emphasised by the crossed belts at her waist, one of which carried the scabbard for her slender sword and the other the sheath for her dagger.
“And what do we have? No more slaves, no bondwomen either. This ship’s a bit lean on merchants and these two do not seem to have raised the tally. Ladies-in-waiting?”
Sophia realised it was a question. “Erm, yes, captain.” She said trying not to offend the woman.
“Bound for Jarator?”
“Yes, erm, captain, the house of the Marquis.”
“Oh, that is interesting. I wonder how much ransom he’d pay for you.”
Suddenly Sophia wondered that too and her dreams of the ‘Tanith’ being stripped of its valuables but she and the others allowed to continue on their way, evaporated.
“And this one, my flame-haired beauty.”
The captain focused on Constance who had not lifted her head and seemed to be crying silently. Receiving no response, the pirate stooped to bring her head within Constance’s scope of vision. She ran her hand along Constance’s arm still clad in only her night dress.
“There’s no need to cry.” The captain said softly. “I’m Lizzie, what is your name?”
Constance choked back the tears. “Constance.”
“Oh a good solid name that. And you’re going to be a lady-in-waiting are you? Isn’t that rather boring?”
Constance said nothing but coughed a little before speaking. “Erm, yes, ma’am, I suppose so.”
“You are a well-mannered young lady, what I like in my cabin-girls. Us redheads need to stick together, there’s real spirit in us if you know where to find it. I don’t think you’ve found yours yet. I think you’re worth a lot more to me as my cabin-girl than any ransom I might get in some months’ time, if ever. Don’t look so grim, the last one who had your position is now the lieutenant of a ship operating out of Anakuma.”
Sophia’s mind reeled with what she was witnessing. She wondered if Constance’s mind was so dulled by the shocks of this day as not to really take on board what was being said to her. Sophia wondered if this Lizzie was playing a game with her or whether she genuinely was attracted to poor Constance.
The captain stepped away from her prisoners. “Wen, Geri, we’ll ready this one, she’ll be my new Bella, my cabin-girl.”
Two of the pirate women stepped forward, one took Constance’s hand and led her over to the gangplank that now ran to the pirate ship. Sophia watched as her friend was led away, seemingly in a daze, and certainly not appreciating what was going to happen to her. Sophia wanted to shout out, to run and snatch her back, but recognised that she was in no position to make any protest.
“Wait, we’ll do it on deck. I want these others to see. Wen, you fetch her clothes and my claw.”
The woman leading Constance obeyed and brought her back to Lizzie.
“Put the sailors in the hold; put the merchants and this other ‘lady’ in the cage with the others.”
The numerous pirates began moving, bundling the crew down the steps roughly though not cruelly. As Sophia was led by the female pirate who had brought her on deck over to the cage, she realised that, at least, her life was not at risk, it was clear that she was of more value to the pirates alive than dead. She worried for Constance though. Of the three of them she was the least worldly, and, as Sabetha had commented earlier, the most submissive even among ladies-in-waiting. Possibly that was what had attracted the pirate captain to her.
As the cage was opened Sabetha lunged forward despite her cumbersome clothing and charged at the pirates accompanying Sophia and the Jenbors. She managed to break free of the cage and butt against the pirates who, stunned by what had happened so suddenly, were slow to react. Eventually, though, as Sabetha ran along the deck shouting that the captain was to let Constance go, a large pirate coshed her across the side of the head with some tarred rope sending her spinning over the floor and against the hatch doors to the hold. Sophia and the merchants were bundled into the cage as a couple of pirates dragged the groaning Sabetha along the deck and almost carried her back into the cage. They threw her in to fall painfully against Sophia. Then the cage was locked.
The large pirate who had brought Sabetha down spat into the cage after her. “Next time you try that you’ll be straight overboard, no matter how much you’re worth. Understand?”
“She understands, she’ll be no trouble.” In a weak voice Sophia pleaded her friend’s case.
Grumbling, the pirate turned away. Sophia was pleased as it seemed at least for the moment, the prisoners could catch their breaths. The Jenbors huddled together in one corner talking inaudibly. The two bondwomen were lashed back-to-back and gagged. Sharee lay by the thigh of her mistress as if that was all she needed to sustain her. Sophia wondered at the utter devotion of the slave to her owner and realised that the slavery the bondwomen brought bound the mind as much as it did the body.
“Why did you do that?” Sophia asked Sabetha indignantly.
“Someone had to do something.”
“What did it achieve? If the aim was to get Constance back, then there was little chance of doing that and you could so easily have been killed. Think before you act again.”
Sabetha mumbled to herself and turned away from Sophia. So snubbed, Sophia focused on the bondwomen and saw Anya was signalling to her with her eyes. As Anya noticed Sophia looking she began gently flapping her arm out from her body as some kind of further signal and after a few moments Sophia guessed she was saying something was concealed there. She crossed to the woman and knelt beside her. She ran her hands over the rubber beneath her arm. Despite the gashes to the rubber that in some places had penetrated to the metal plates below, the glossy armour had a strange not unpleasant feel to it. Sophia wondered what it would be like to be dressed all over in this, or, even more extreme, with the rubber like a second skin without even the armour plates to lessen the effect.
Sophia cleared her thoughts, this was not the time to speculate any further on the bondwomen and their attire. Then her fingers touched something rounded and she realised that sheathed into the plates were a range of small tools. She pulled a couple out, keeping them concealed in her hands. Anya nodded as best she could that Sophia was doing the right thing. Sophia glanced around, but most of the pirates were either busy moving the last of the crew below or were in discussion with their captain. Taking one of the small blades, Sophia sawed through the rope filling Anya’s mouth. As it fell clear she breathed and spat.
“Thanks. Can you do the bonds?”
“What are you doing?” Rikard Jenbor asked abruptly.
“Freeing Anya and Netali.” Sophia responded briskly.
“Stop, you’ll anger the guards.” He betrayed his fear.
“Don’t be foolish. If they wanted us all bound and gagged they would have tied me and Sabetha and you two as well. They’ve got no firm policy on anything, they just want us out of the way for now. I know bondwomen are tough warriors but I can hardly see a pirate crew who just defeated a ship of sailors, worrying over two lone warriors. These women are bonded to me, they are my guardians and in return I feel an obligation to ensure they can operate to their best ability. I am sure you would behave the same if you had employed them.”
Sophia marvelled at her speech, but realised it was partly a justification to herself for what she was doing. Jenbor was right, but so was she and she doubted that as long as she was free, at least in the cage, she could hardly have stomached sitting there with the two women bound, especially as there were the means to free them. She quickly cut the thinner cord in Netali’s mouth and then turned her attention to the thicker rope which bound the two together. The women sat passively, not hindering Sophia’s work by trying to struggle free.
Just as the rope gave, Sophia’s attention was taken by a voice booming out across the ship.
“And now, our newest crew member will be welcomed to ‘The Vixen’.” Lizzie announced as if promoting a show at a fair.
All eyes focused to where the pirate captain strode along the deck. A slender woman walked beside her, looking a little apprehensive. The last of the rope holding the bondwomen was shaken free; Anya mouthed thanks and took back her tools. With her task finished, Sophia focused on the event the pirate captain was planning. As she did, she gasped as she realised the woman beside her was Constance, though as she had never seen her. The loose robes had gone, to expose her pale skin. The hat had been discarded too leaving her long red hair to stream down her shoulders. More than this, though, it was the clothes she now wore, the uniform, Sophia guessed, of Lizzie’s cabin girls. It was of two pieces and like the captain’s clothes, of black leather. A bandeau a couple of hands wide, held Constance’s surprisingly full breasts in check. Her arms and her midriff were bare. Below she wore tight leather breeches stretching to mid-calf where they were laced tight, chiming with the laced boots that the captain wore. Constance’s feet, however, were unshod.
Though astounded by the outfit Constance had been put into, Sophia was able to look at her friend’s eyes and sought to read how she felt. Much of the stunned appearance had gone and surprisingly there was a degree of mischievousness in her look. Sophia guessed it must be quite thrilling to be turned out like this and to be the centre of attention. Sophia guessed that Constance was probably reassured too that her safety seemed guaranteed. Maybe she had recognised that, though the garb might be different, serving the captain would probably be little different to serving a noblewoman, well, perhaps during daylight hours.
“Wen, my claw.”
Sophia remembered this phrase from before and had worried what it meant. Seeing that the treatment of Constance so far even if it was unusual had not been cruel, she began thinking this ‘claw’ was something symbolic to induct Constance into the pirate crew. In moments, her questions were answered. The captain took a curved silver sheath from Wen and slipped it on to her right index finger. Then Sophia saw the pirate she had heard called Geri, grasp Constance’s arms as if to stop her from fleeing. Quickly the captain dipped the sharp end of her claw into a small bottle of liquid that Wen held.
“Become my devoted Bella.” Lizzie intoned as if a high priestess conducting an initiation ceremony.
The captain jabbed the claw into the side of Constance’s temple drawing a thin line of blood which ran down her face. Constance winced and gasped and turned from the discomfort. However, in moments, Sophia could see a change coming over her face and she wondered at what potion was in the bottle that the captain had now introduced into Constance’s body to bring about this change. Constance smiled then chuckled impishly as if being taken over by the wickedness of all that Lizzie offered. She looked down at herself as if discovering her body anew and seemed to take a delight in the smooth leather clothes that she wore and the soft skin on show between them.
Lizzie had removed her claw and now grasped Constance’s head between her hands pressing her own face in close; whispering words into her new cabin girl’s ear. Sophia imagined that Lizzie was fixing her personality on the newly forming Constance and she remembered what Anya had said about a bondwoman, carrying out an enslaving, making herself the bright light in the eyes of the woman she was taking; bleaching out any other concerns. Lizzie seemed to be doing the same to Constance.
Lizzie let Constance’s head go, the blood was wiped clear and the former lady-in-waiting stepped back with a kind of relaxed, almost feline movement that seemed so different to what Sophia had known of her.
“What is your name?” Lizzie asked aloud.
Constance seemed to hesitate, struggling to recapture thoughts that were fleeing her so rapidly. “I, I am, I am Bella.” She smiled as if pleased that she had given the right answer.
“And whose are you?”
“I am yours; I am your cabin girl, Bella.”
“Yes you are, that and nothing else.”
Bella pushed herself forward brushing her breasts against her mistress wantonly and Sophia realised that she had lost her friend. All she could see now was a pirate captain and the woman who belonged to her. Yet, Sophia could not turn away from watching as Bella locked in a kiss with Lizzie and, as they parted, simpered in clear delight. Now Sophia could see devotion in Bella’s eyes of the kind she could see in Sharee’s. She imagined that Bella was no longer that different from the slave. With her arm carelessly around her cabin girl’s waist, Lizzie turned to her assembled crew.
“I’ll take a couple of hours to get my Bella acquainted with all her new duties.” She chuckled saucily to the cheers of her crew. “There’s going to be no wind today, so enjoy what you can find aboard this ship; make sure we have all the movables and enough of the cargo as we can squeeze into ‘The Vixen’. I do believe the captain had some fine wines and brandy on board, and I know you’re the best crew to find it. The prisoners should be treated well, and Wen, don’t forget to assign someone to feed them.”
The captain’s speech was a signal for mayhem as pirates began scrambling over the ‘Tanith’. The deck was soon almost deserted, bar a couple of pirates who stayed behind to watch over the prisoners and whose friends had promised a share of whatever they recovered. Sophia watched Bella and Lizzie crossing the gangplank back to ‘The Vixen’ and she wondered at the new experiences her former friend was about to encounter as the pet of this pirate baroness.
Sophia moved back from the bars of the cage and went to see how Sabetha was. There was a rich bruise on the side of her head and she seemed dazed but Sophia managed to get her to sit up. She said nothing but gazed out of the bars at her pirate guards. Sophia knew it was not the time for talking with her and instead turned to the bondwomen who, now they were released, were stretching out their tired limbs. Sophia found the scent of their rubber clothes in such close proximity rather heady and she sat back a little from them.
“Captain Tricorus, what happens now?” Sophia asked.
“We wait. I imagine they’ll cut the ‘Tanith’ free in a day or two. Their ship’s too small to carry off more than a portion of the cargo. No-one here is really that worthwhile ransoming though they may pass you and the Jenbors on to someone else who deals with that kind of thing.”
“What about Constance, aren’t you bonded to protect her?”
“Yes, but not through suicidal actions. We are heavily outnumbered here. If the pirates get drunk enough then we might be able to get away, but just two of us would not be able to penetrate ‘The Vixen’ itself and it could be difficult especially if your friend does not want to come with us. When I reach one of my order’s houses I will inform them, they’ll send out someone better equipped to retrieve her, but they cannot force her to come back, their function would not be to kidnap her. Bondwomen could enslave her to bring her away, but I guess that’s not what the outcome you would be seeking.”
Sophia was about to challenge the suggestion of Constance’s reluctance to return, but remembering how she had seen her, or the woman who Constance had been turned into, behave, she realised she now shared Anya’s suspicions.
“Unless our lives are in direct danger through staying, it would be more hazardous for us to try to escape. In a small boat we would have the risk of starving to death before we reached land. Many of the Rees islands are uninhabited. However, I doubt the pirates will neglect us too much, they certainly do not want to anger my order and some merchant houses have been known to hunt down pirate ships in revenge. It can be quite easy: every pirate has rivals willing to sell them out and the merchants can afford to pay. This raid has been about the ready cash, the movables, that will do them well enough. If the winds were not so weak they would probably be leaving by nightfall.”
“So we sit here…”
“Yes.”
“You’ve made that decision?”
“That’s what I’m paid for.”
Sophia could not contest that and shuffled rather grumpily against the bars and stared into the blankness of the sky. The next few hours dragged, broken only by the delivery of some food and water by their captors. Sophia watched in fascination how Sharee ate. Her water was poured into a shallow dish and her food broken up into small pieces. She brought her head down to the bowl and took the food up with her mouth as if she was a cat. Sophia wondered if it was to spare her hands coated in rubber from getting greasy or to emphasise that Sharee was indeed a human pet; she guessed a mixture of both.
When she had calmed down, Sabetha’s asked a whole questions first of Netali and then of Anya about their backgrounds and adventures. Sophia sat listening, partly because there was nothing else to do, partly because she was interested in all that the two women had witnessed. Sophia joked to herself that, in exchange she could detail the arrangements the duchess insisted on for dinners or the balls that Sophia had attended but at which she had not been asked to dance.
“Sharee,” Sabetha asked once a lull had been reached in the conversation, “tell us about your life.”
Sophia glanced towards Anya feeling that Sabetha should have asked her first before questioning the slave, but the bondwoman seemed content.
“I am a slave, a sex-slave, Anya is my owner.”
“Where are you from?”
“I was enslaved in Kerans, three months ago.”
“And before that?”
“It’s not important.” Sharee smiled, as if it was a slightly silly question.
“Alright.” Sabetha said, seemingly feeling a little stumped. “What does it feel like to wear those clothes?”
“So good, the rubber clinging so tight to my body, making it so shiny, showing everyone that I am nothing but a sex-slave. It is the best sensation, you should try it, I’m sure you’d like it, maybe you could become a sex-slave too.”
“Erm no thanks, that’s alright. I hardly think it would be advisable for us to be swapping clothes.”
“There’s no need for that, my mistress can show you what it feels like. That was how she found me, I enjoyed the images, the feelings she put into my mind of what it would be like to be her slave, so when she came for me, there was no way I was going to refuse.” Sharee said proudly, stroking her gloss-bound breasts for a moment.
Sabetha was disbelieving. “She’s not right about that is she? You couldn’t put images into someone’s mind?” She asked Anya directly.
“Bondwomen have many talents.” Anya responded with a gentle smile.
Sophia watched as Sabetha fell silent then looked down at herself, gently running her fingers over her body. Slowly she seemed to move and then to sigh as if she was being massaged. Her manner seemed to different from the brash Sabetha that Sophia knew so well and she realised that the languid way she was moving, and how now she seemed to be fondling her breasts was so like Sharee’s motions.”
“Wow.” Sabetha said suddenly, the spark returning to her eyes. “That was amazing.” She turned excitedly to Sophia. “I cannot believe it, it felt so real, it was as if, as if I was wearing the rubber clothes, and those long boots, so tight against my body, it was like I was being touched all over.”
“You’re not going to enslave her?” Sophia asked.
“No, it’s against the Order’s code to take one you have been bonded to protect. Anyway, she would be a frustrated slave, the only catsuits and collars we have are probably being stolen by pirates at the moment.” Anya explained.
“Can you do that Netali? Put images into people’s minds?” Sabetha asked enthusiastically.
“I’ve been trained to do it when I was a novice. I’ve not had much need to use it since.”
“Do it, do it now. Make Sophia feel she’s dressed like your slave.” Sabetha urged.
“Don’t I get any say in this?” Sophia asked though she remained sceptical of what Netali was about to attempt anyway.
“It’ll do you no harm. If you don’t like it, just say.” Anya stated.
Netali fell quiet and deep concentration seemed to come to the young bondwoman’s face. Then Sophia gasped. Ladies-in-waiting habitually wore soft leather shoes bound with ribbon and exceptionally, as now, when travelling, boots of thicker leather and with more substantial soles. However, they never extended beyond the ankle, yet in that moment Sophia would have sworn that her legs had eased into slippery boots that clung so tightly from the point of her toe to far up her thigh. As she looked down at her legs could almost see the boots, their black shine catching the light as she moved. Sophia was speechless with the sensation which was both alarming and pleasurable. Yet, it did not cease and Sophia felt now as if her breathing, her whole body, was constricted by a tight catsuit and she realised that Netali was more than competent, and had filled her mind with the sensation of how it would feel to be dressed just like Sharee. She knew now that Anya had been right to not expect her to protest. The sensation was like her entire body being caressed and kissed. Every slight movement Sophia made was reflected in a new sensation and light glinting from her slippery ebony second skin.
Then it was gone and suddenly Sophia felt bereft. She took moments to adjust to the loose, matt clothes she wore and the short travelling boots that did nothing to make her feel at all appealing, instead totally unexcited.
“Well, Captain, I think you can be sure your ensign has passed the test.” Sophia said at length.
“I am glad to hear it. I was sure that was the case. And you, how do you feel?”
“Well, it was so outside my experience, it is difficult to comment.”
“But, you were not afraid, concerned at having your mind filled by the thoughts of another?”
“No, I can see why you ask that, but my mind, my body, was simply coping with the sensation.”
“And you did not find it enclosing, suffocating?”
“No, it is hard to describe, it was not unpleasant. I could imagine how for some it could be come addictive. And erm…”
“What? Tell us.” Sabetha prompted as she hung on Sophia’s every word.
“Well, I confess I can certainly understand why Sharee seems so contented if that is how she feels all the time. It is almost like a narcotic. More than that, you feel as if you are some kind of different creature and the rules are different for you. I imagine that is why such slaves are dressed so distinctively.”
“Yes, it both makes and indicates what they are at the same time.” Anya concurred.
“So you would take Sharee’s place if the opportunity was offered?” Netali asked.
Sophia laughed a little nervously. “Of course not. I accept that it could feel pleasant, but to give up one’s freedom, one’s training and identity, the exchange is not worthwhile. I am happy being a person rather than a possession.”
“The wind’s lifting.” Anya noted abruptly as if to draw the previous phase of the conversation to a close.
The bondwoman’s observation was right. The sails were still unfurled from when the ‘Tanith’ had been trying to catch any passing breeze and they now billowed gently but in a sustained way. The change in the weather altered the behaviour of the pirates on board. Within the next twenty minutes scores of them were crossing with items to take to their ship’s hold, while a few moved to take command on the ‘Tanith’ itself.
“I have changed my mind: I think they’re going to take the ship wholesale. It’ll slow them down, but it looks like they’re in no danger at the moment.” Anya observed.
“Time for you to go below.” One of the pirates who had been guarding them said.
Now Sophia saw how the cage was brought on deck. Close to it was a small capstan that two of the pirates turned quickly, lowering the cage below decks until two shutters came down closing them off from the deck above. The room they were now in was like the one that the bondwomen had had.
“It’s easier to bring slaves on board this way, it can be tricky getting twenty of them below in a line.” Anya said in response to Sophia’s clear interest in how they had been brought down to the cabin. “I doubt they’ll do anything with us for now, rest as best you can, you might need it later.”
“Yes, yes I will.”
Sophia rested her head on her arm, thankful that there were not more of them in the cage so that there was at least sufficient room for her to stretch out. The two bondwomen tucked down too and Sophia watched curiously as Sharee snuggled up against her mistress. The memory of what it had felt like when Netali had projected those sights and feelings into her mind, lingered strongly in Sophia. She tried to get Sabetha to rest too, but, like the merchants, she seemed determined to sit there sullenly and silently protesting at what had happened. Dreams quickly took Sophia and filled her mind with visions of women of all kinds in shiny black.