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were in uniform. One of the guards held some loops of rope. They both carried
stun sticks. He was now familiar with such things. It was by means of them
that he had been taken into custody. Such weapons, and others, others still
more dangerous, were scarce on this world. They were almost entirely in the
hands of authorities, but, of course, not altogether. The population then was
largely at the mercy of two groups, not always unallied, authorities and
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ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
criminals. This was common on many worlds within the empire. Indeed, the
manufacture of weaponry, at least legal weaponry, was on many worlds a
monopoly of the state. Weapon makers, on many worlds, those who had possessed
such skills, had been among the first bound. He had watched the three of them
approaching. The sand was deep. It came well over the ankles of their boots.
She, too, wore boots. This suggested to him that she had planned to cross the
sand, before dressing for the day. Her presence here then was not an unplanned
one, resulting merely from detecting some unexpected oversight. She had wanted
to appear on the sand, before the assembled crowds, doubtless. He could see
the prints behind them, where they had disturbed the sand, raked after the
prisoners had been knelt. The attendants might not be pleased with that. They
took their work seriously. The sand would be disturbed soon enough, though,
given the beginning of the first amusements. Then the guards, and the officer
of the court, the daughter of the judge, had stopped before him. He had looked
up at them, from his knees. She pointed at him, grandly, rather for the crowd,
he supposed. "He cannot be trusted," she said. "Rope him, rope him well." He
did not doubt but what the men would obey her. Indeed, what power had she, if
the men did not obey her? They would obey her, of course. They had been
trained to adhere to the rules, not question how the rules had come about, or
the utility of the rules, their ultimate consequences. Her face wore a haughty
expression. She was fairly complexioned. Her body seemed cold, and tight. Her
dark hair was tied back, behind her head, severely. Yet for all the neurotic
coldness, and tightness, about her, he did not think she was utterly
unattractive. He had even looked upon her, and watched her, and considered
her, when he was sitting in the prisoner's dock, guarded by men with stun
sticks, in her court garb. He now again considered her, in the white
clingabout. To be sure, it muchly covered her. He wondered what she looked
like, naked. One of the guards laughed. "Be silent!" she chided the guard.
Doubtless the pupils of his eyes had dilated, as he had looked upon her. They
had performed such a test on him before the hearing, when he was being held. A
female prisoner had been brought in.
His reactions had been noted. They had also been referred to, explicitly, in
the hearing. "Rope him!" she said. The guards looked at one another. Then one
lifted his stun stuck and pulled the trigger once, and then, as he had not
fallen, twice more.
As he lay in the sand, his body ringing with shock, muchly paralyzed, he felt
the ropes being put about him, tying his arms to his sides, his hands behind
him.
"Make them tight!" she said.
The ropes were drawn tight. They were knotted.
He was then put again to his knees.
She slapped him twice, angrily. She could not hurt him. She did not have the
strength. But the blows stung, and they were humiliating. He did not care to
be struck, particularly by a woman.
One could kill a man. It did not seem right to kill a woman. If he struck her
he might have broken her neck. She glared down at him. There was laughter in
the stands. She was furious. She stepped back from him. In the stands there
must have been many who realized that she, an officer of the court, the
daughter of the high judge herself, had been viewed with dilated pupils. But
what did she expect, going down on the sand, clad as she was, standing before
one who had chosen death to "true manhood," as it was defined on this world,
to the improvement, the smoothing? He had struck a woman only once before,
Tessa, who had first slapped him. He had slapped her back. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]