Chapter Two

Sonji walked down a dirt road toward the district capitol, Brombeg.  It was mid-morning on a bright, pleasant day and the road was empty of other travelers.  The weather reminded her of early summer on her home planet, but here some of the fields had crops ready to harvest, while in others the plants were just beginning to sprout. It had been cool earlier and she wore her shawl over her shoulders, but now it was so warm that she took it off and wrapped it around her waist.

Some of the fields she passed were planted in grain, others in root crops or vegetables, and about a third were fallow and covered with grass and clover.  Mixed in with the fields were woodlands of various sizes, from less than a hectare to almost a square kilometer.  Sonji always grew tense as she neared the woodlands, expecting bandits to appear from behind the trees.

Sonji was just leaving a dense patch of woods when she saw something that made her stop and gasp.  Ahead of her the fields on both sides of the road were fallow, and it was about 50 meters to the next patch of woods.  On the right, close to the woods and about 20 meters from the road, an ox hitched to an empty wagon grazed on the grass.

Sonji was shocked by what she saw on the other side of the road.  A rope was tied chest-high between two trees.  Two women were standing with their backs to the rope, facing away from her.  And she could see that the women's hands were tied behind their backs!

Sonji's first thought was of bandits, and she ran towards the women without hesitating.  Helping them to escape was her only concern.  The women heard her running and turned toward her.  Sonji asked the nearest woman, a blonde in a light blue dress, "Where are the bandits?"

"Bandits? What ban... Oh, yeah, the bandits!  They're close. Get me loose, quick!"

Sonji examined the woman's bonds.  Her right arm had been put though a loose loop in the rope tied between the trees, and a wide leather strap around her wrists held her hands palm-to-palm.  The strap was fastened by a brass clamp instead of a buckle.  Sonji asked, "How do I get this clamp open?"

"Look at the clamp end closest to the free end of the strap.  See those two tabs coming up from the base?  Pins in the clamp handle spring into holes in those tabs.  You have to push both pins in."

Sonji located the pins.  She looked on the ground and found two sharp twigs, and after some fumbling she was able to push in the pins and lift the clamp handle.  As soon as the strap was loose the blonde pulled her arm out of the loop and ran into the woods.

Sonji heard heavy footsteps coming from the direction of the road and turned to see a heavy-set man running towards her.  He was shirtless and his left hand was holding up his trousers.  He had a wooden cudgel in his right hand and he raised it overhead as he got close to Sonji.  She used a move she had mastered in her self-defense classes and kicked him in the groin.  He fell to the ground, emitting loud groans.

Sonji turned back to the other woman and said, "Now I'll get you loose."

The woman backed away and exclaimed, "Not me!"

Sonji was surprised.  "But you're a prisoner!  Why don't you want me to free you?"

"Of course I'm a prisoner, I'm on my way to jail.  But I only have to serve 50 days, and I don't want an escape charge added on to that."

"You mean that man isn't a bandit?"

"No, that's the jailor, Hodg.  He's a piece of shit.  The other jailor over there in the wagon is Madii. They tied us here while they took a fuck break."

Sonji looked over at the wagon.  A naked woman stood up in it and dropped a dress over her head.  Sonji asked, "Why did that blonde run away?"

"Oh, that's Flixee.  She was sentenced to three years I.S. for fraud.  I guess she figured she didn't have much to lose.  My name is Jonii, by the way."

"What's I.S.?"

"Involuntary servitude.  You're a peasant girl, aren't you?"

Sonji walked over to Hodg, who had recovered enough to get to his knees, and said, "I'm sorry, I seem to have made a mistake...Oooff."

Hodg punched her in the solar plexus.  She fell down and he turned her on her stomach, pulled her hands behind her, and strapped them palm-to-palm.  Then he pulled a piece of thin rope from his pocket and made a harness by running each end of the rope forward over a shoulder, back through an armpit, and tying the ends together in the middle of Sonji's back.  He took out a wide belt, looped it around her arms just above the elbows, and pulled until her elbows almost touched. He used more rope to cinch the center of the belt to the harness.  Then he tied her ankles together, ran a rope from them to the cinch on her elbows, pulled until her feet touched her hands, and tied off the rope.

He stood up, kicked Sonji, and shouted, "Madii! Bring the wagon over here."

Hodg walked, bent over, to the trees and untied the rope holding Jonii.  When the wagon arrived he helped her get into it and she sat on the floor.  Madii tied one end of the rope holding Jonii's arm to a ring at the front of the wagon.

Hodg picked up Sonji and tossed her into the wagon.  She landed heavily on her side and screamed in pain.  Hodg climbed into the wagon, jammed a wooden bit gag into her mouth, and fastened the straps behind her head.

"That'll keep you quiet.  You can think about your future.  Let's see, assaulting a judicial officer, ten years.  Aiding an escape, three years plus the escapee's time.  You've got sixteen years of I.S. ahead of you, slut."

Hodg pinched Sonji's nipples and she squealed from the pain.  Madii turned around and shouted, "Hodg, you piece of shit! Get your hands off her and get up here!"  Hodg climbed onto the seat and Madii urged the ox forward.

The wagon had traveled no more than half a kilometer when Madii was stopped by a farmer standing besides the road.  The farmer's left hand was tangled in Flixee's blonde hair and he held her bent over with her head at waist height.  Her wrists were crossed and tied behind her back with thin rope.  He said, "I think I got something you folks lost."

"Yeah, she's ours.  Where did you find her?"  Madii asked.

"She came to my house and asked me to loan her some money so she could get to town.  She said she was a kidnapped heiress and her father would give me a big reward.  But I was in my field and saw you tie her to the trees while you ah, rested."  He leered at Madii, who blushed.  "Blondes are so much smarter than most folks that they sometimes think everyone else is stupid."

"Good job.  Getting her back now will save a lot of trouble.  You can apply for a reward."

The farmer smiled.  "Oh, I've had a reward already.  She did everything she could to persuade me not to turn her in."

He handed Flixee up to Hodg, who sat her on the floor next to Jonii and strapped her right ankle to the rope holding Jonii's arm.  Hodg got back on the seat and the wagon moved on.

Several hours later the wagon was still moving.  Sonji's arms and shoulders hurt so much that she was sobbing into her gag.  Flixee said, "The girl is really hurting.  Can't you loosen the ropes a little?"

Hodg replied, "I'm hurting, too.  We'll be at the jail in less than an hour.  Shut up or I'll gag you."

Flixee muttered to herself, "Hodg, you're a piece of shit."

The wagon entered Brombeg and traveled along the city streets until it stopped in front of a wooden gate in a high stone wall.  Hodg got down and pounded on the gate until it was opened from the inside, and Madii drove the wagon into a large courtyard and stopped the ox.  She got into the back of the wagon, unstrapped Jonii's wrists, took the loop off of her arm, and refastened her hands behind her back.  She unstrapped Flixee's ankle, helped both women out of the wagon, and led them towards the jail.

Sonji screamed as Hodg picked her up by the rope attached to her ankles and elbows and carried her into the guardroom.  He dropped her on the floor and said to the duty Civil Guard sergeant, "I want this slut arrested for assaulting a judicial officer and aiding an escape."

The sergeant asked, "Are you the one she assaulted?"  He looked at Sonji, who was lying on her stomach.  "She really looks dangerous.  You were lucky to escape with your life.  How long have you had her trussed up like that?"

"Couple of hours."

"I'll bet.  Hodg, you are a piece of shit."

Hodg flushed.  "I don't care what you say.  If a judicial officer makes a complaint the law says you have to make an arrest."

"Yeah, yeah.  The complaint book is on that table.  Fill in your part and then get out of my sight.  I'll get information from the girl once she's able to talk."

He walked over to Sonji, took out a knife, and cut the ropes off of her ankles.  He cut the shoulder ropes and the cinch at her elbows and took off the belt.  He took out a clamp tool, a U-shaped piece of wire with the ends bent in, and used it to release the clamp on the strap that held her wrists.  Sonji's arms were purple and dangled limply at her sides as the sergeant picked her up and put her into a chair.

Sonji moaned as the sergeant took out her gag. She croaked, "Water, please, water."

The sergeant took her limp arms, crossed her wrists in front of her, and loosely fastened them with the strap.  He got a jug of water and a pottery mug from his desk, poured water into the mug, and held it to Sonji's lips.  She drank some and said, "Oh, thank you.  My mouth was so dry."

"I need some information from you and then I'll put you in a detention cell and you can rest.  First, what's your name?"

"Sonji".

"How do you spell that?"

Sonji realized that she didn't even know the alphabet of the local language.  On Gamma she was completely illiterate.  She whispered, "I don't know."

The sergeant wrote ZONGEE on the form.  "How old are you?"  Sonji paused to calculate the difference between a Gamma year and her home planet's year.  The sergeant looked at her innocent face and wrote down '18'. He put down BROMBEG as the place of residence.

The sergeant picked up Sonji and carried her to a door in the back of the room.  He kicked on the door and a sturdy woman opened it.

He said, "Pre-trial detention." and followed the woman into the cellblock.  The woman opened an iron-bound wooden door with a key from the ring attached to her belt.  The sergeant carried Sonji into the cell and put her down on a wooden bench attached to the back wall.  There was an iron collar connected to a ring in the wall over the bench by almost three meters of heavy chain.  The woman closed the collar around Sonji's neck and fastened it with a large padlock, and the sergeant removed the strap from Sonji's wrists.

The sergeant ordered, "She's had some rough treatment.  The doctor should look at her."

"The doctor is here now; I'll bring her over.  I can search the girl at the same time.  What happened to her?"

"Hodg brought her in."

"Hodg is a piece of shit."

By the time the doctor arrived Sonji was in a lot of pain from the returning circulation.  The doctor had her drink a cup of bitter liquid and she was soon asleep.

End of Chapter Two

To Be Continued...

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