Sharon Green - Chains Released

“Gordi, listen to me,” Tain said softly right next to the big man. “In a moment you’re going to wake up, but when you do you won’t remember what was done to you in your house before you were taken out of it. You won’t have any idea how you got here, but you’ll be able to see and hear and smell things again. You just won’t be able to leave without permission or try to hurt the people around you. All right, you can wake up now.”

The big man Tain had been speaking to began to stir, and then he sat up slowly on the blanket as he looked around. Gordi used one hand to rub at his shoulder as his gaze took in the other men who were still sleeping, and then suddenly his attention was completely on Jake.

“What the hell is this?” Gordi asked in a deep voice that suggested the man was very used to giving orders. “Why are we all here and who the hell are you?”

“I’m one of the men you’d agreed to meet with the day before yesterday,” Jake answered mildly as he moved a step closer to where Gordi sat. “When my friend made the appointment he asked you and your people to keep the subject of our visit private, but one of you dropped a word in the wrong ear. My friend and I were attacked twice by assassins, once before we reached town, once in our hostel. And then yesterday morning, when we were on our way to your house, my friend and I were knocked unconscious by men with clubs and he and I were taken captive.”

“I thought my people could be trusted, but it looks like I was wrong,” Gordi answered after a very brief hesitation, a touch of guilt showing in the blue of his eyes. “When you and your friend didn’t show up I thought you might have changed your minds… But that still doesn’t explain what I and those others are doing here. And if you were taken captive, how come you’re free now instead of being dead?”

“I’m free because an associate helped out, and I’m not dead because dead wasn’t the way Himlin wanted me to be,” Jake said, watching Gordi carefully. “One of his assassins named Himlin, and Tandro and I lodged formal complaints against him. Himlin wanted Tandro and me to withdraw those complaints.”

“Hearing that slaver’s name doesn’t surprise me one bit,” Gordi said, his face twisted in a grimace that showed his opinion of Himlin. “And if that’s who one of my people talked to, I’m definitely going to find out who the big-mouth is.”

“That’s fine for later, but right now we have another point to talk about,” Jake said, crouching down in front of Gordi. “There are a lot of people who listen to what you have to say, Gordi, and that’s why I wanted to talk to you. I was told that you aren’t all that fond of slavery, and that you might even listen when I proved that slavery needs to be abolished. Are you willing to listen?” “I listen to what everyone has to say,” Gordi returned with a much more neutral expression. “If you don’t listen to both sides of an argument you can’t decide which side to support with any hope of being right.”

“I admire that intelligent an outlook, and now I’m going to take advantage of it,” Jake said, and then he explained how enslaving women was keeping society on this world from advancing. Gordi developed a frown as he listened, and then he shook his head.

“I knew I didn’t much like slavery, but I had no idea that it was actually hurting us,” he said, his expression sober. “What impresses me most is that you people are trying to talk us into changing things, not strolling onto our world and telling us what to do. But there are those who won’t be impressed by any of it, and even more they’ll claim that you’re lying.

People like Flam over there, and that brings us back to a point you haven’t explained yet. How did we all get here?“

“You can thank that slaver Himlin for your being here,” Tain said while

Jake searched for the proper words to answer Gordi’s question.

“Himlin decided to make use of a new idea, so we did the same.”

“She means that Himlin didn’t just kidnap Tandro and me and try to talk us into withdrawing our complaints,” Jake said hurriedly while Gordi frowned at Tain as if a piece of furniture had suddenly spoken to him.

“Himlin used the slave drug on my friend and me, then gave us a taste of what women go through with him. Needless to say, Tandro and I now hate slavery even more than we did.”

“But that’s not possible,” Gordi protested, still giving Tain an occasional disapproving glance. “That drug doesn’t work on men, only on women.”

“Guess again,” Tain said, sitting straighter on her pallet. It was fairly clear that Tain had noticed Gordi’s attitude toward her and wasn’t happy about it. “There are only a very small number of drugs that don’t work on both men and women, and you people aren’t sophisticated enough to have any of those. If you thought you were safe from being put through what’s only been done to women until now, you were wrong.”

“I don’t like your attitude,” Gordi stated, having done his own straightening where he sat. “You’re dressed like a slave and even have the proper armbands, so you have no right talking to a free man like that. I want an immediate and proper apology from you, slave, and then I want that pallet you’re sitting on.”

“I really am so sorry, sir, but I’m not allowed to take the orders of anyone but my owner,” Tain answered at once with a very … feral kind of smile. “You claim you don’t like slavery, but you still don’t hesitate to give orders to someone you consider a slave and you even resent being talked to by that someone. With those facts clear before us, I’m sure you won’t mind if I do the same as you.”

“Tain, please don’t,” Jake said, the order he’d meant to give coming out in the only way it was possible for him to speak to her. “I thought we agreed—”

“I agreed to give you a chance,” Tain interrupted to point out, the look in her own blue eyes a good deal calmer than Jake had thought it would be.

“He thinks it’s a shame that slavery seems to have been holding his people back, but he still doesn’t consider slavery wrong. If you want people to see things your way, you have to make the matter more personal for them.”

Jake really did want to argue the point, but this time it was reason that held the words back. It so happened that he agreed with Tain, but pushing the matter to the limit could make the whole interview blow up in their faces.

“I think people ought to be what they are,” Gordi said, taking advantage of Jake’s silence. “It isn’t hard to make a woman a slave, but the same can’t be said of men. If it’s truth you’re looking for, you now have it.”

“Truth isn’t truth when you’re only looking at one side of the coin,” Tain countered, seeing the challenge in Gordi’s attitude just as Jake did.

“It’s now become time to flip that coin, so why don’t you get to your knees, put your head to the floor, apologize to me for speaking out of turn, and then sit down again.”

Gordi didn’t hesitate to do as he’d been told, of course, and once he was back sitting as he’d been the look in his eyes was pure pole-axed.

“Now you know how we got you here, and you also know that making a man a slave isn’t hard at all,” Tain said to a Gordi who looked like he might pass out. “Not to add insult to injury, but you have to obey everyone, not just me. How did you like the experience of being what you are?”

“I never thought -! This can’t be possible, but I know I didn’t imagine it!” Gordi sounded almost wild, and then he looked at Tain again. “I don’t want to tell you that I hated what you just did, but I can’t stop myself. You have to get this drug out of me, you have to!”