Chapter 6

In some ways I was right, and in other ways wrong about what would happen—-and the latter troubled me a lot.

I had told Akrith, my rider, that she could get a new sword (and with it surely exact some sort of revenge on Kemmor for causing her expulsion from the gathering) if she allowed me and my fellow humanhorse Cerys to perform lesbian acts in public for money. That and having the young Sevir man Corth show off his monstrous cock as part of the show. After all, I was brought up to be an actress and the show must go on, I said. In that I was right: we made money and amazed villagers up and down the Egri lands. The money rolled in and I could see Akrith was happy, not only because we could buy food for four hungry mouths but also that she was gaining enough for a good sword to replace her mother’s weapon, sadly broken in the battle where she claimed the Tankic humanhorse Cerys.

Where I was wrong was that there was no freedom for me, and indeed a lot more anguish than I might expect.

My plan, unspoken to anyone but Cerys when we were bound together and not gagged, was that I would persuade Akrith to free us from our belts and wrist chains. My idea was that a lesbian show—-and I would have been ready to be on show even if I wasn’t lesbian—-would be better if we could embrace fully and finger each other more easily. Cerys, who was lesbian like me, thought this a splendid idea and couldn’t wait for us to bring each other off, even if she was reluctant about the idea of doing it before dozens of staring Egri eyes. She was gradually convinced that such a pleasure was worth it.

As I may have explained before, all humanhorses on Sevir (and there were plenty of us snatched from Earth to provide the functions of a horse on this planet) wear a locked belt at the waist with short chains attached at either side and fastened to a cuff round each wrist. We therefore all have arms akimbo, as it is called. Humanhorses if chosen as a warhorse wear a saddle high up on their backs and are mounted by the small Sevir warrior females (standing no taller than three feet on average) and ridden to battle if needed, and the rider threads her legs through our secured arms so her spurs can prick the front of our thighs. But even humanhorses who are fit only for farmwork or even toiling in the mines have to wear the same arrangement. Most obviously it makes us helpless but subtly it stops us touching ourselves between our legs. The Sevir view, whether Egri or Tankic, is that humanhorses waste energy when they play with their slits. Frankly, I can appreciate some of that: the life of a humanhorse has little relief other than what one could gain by one’s own hand. When I was working on a farm I could have frigged myself to delightful unconsciousness had I not been so well secured. There would be little else to relieve the monotony.

Of course human females would try to pleasure each other, though if one humanhorse was caught fingering another humanhorse or even using her mouth on another female’s slit then the whippings were brutal. For that reason a lot of humanhorses were kept gagged to prevent such an event. For me, it was bad enough either hauling a plough or being ridden to battle without being denied a little relief along the way.

So my plan was I would persuade Akrith to find a blacksmith to strike our short wrist chains off, though I said we would of course still wear our belts and have our wrist cuffs. Indeed I had no objection to a chain and hook arrangement so we could be fastened quickly in the standard way when not performing.

Akrith listened to me carefully when I eventually explained all this, and then said, “No.”

I tried to persuade her to think again but she grew angry. “You are both horses. Your are not fit to be free! Humanhorses like you deserve no release. I am an Egri warrior even if I do not have a sword of my own just yet, for my calling is I uphold the laws and ways of my kind. It is unthinkable that even doing this performance as you call it should warrant not one but two horses being released from their proper and gods-sanctioned restraints. A hook arrangement sounds clever but I fear you and the Tankic beast would unhook your wrists between you. I cannot sleep with my eyes open, watching you.”

“But Inria,” I pleaded, “you could chain our necks to something at night, and hood us as normal, so you can rest easily. Our hands would not be free to waste our energy. I give you my word.”

Akrith again said no. Cerys and I would remain cuffed and belted and for my trouble in raising this both Cerys and I received a flogging with a thin branch carefully selected by young Corth for the purpose. I swear too Corth’s cock stiffened as he watched Akrith lash our backs and across our naked breasts, but then what male failed to be excited when seeing a female punished?

So Cerys and I remained restrained as we always were and had to accept Akrith as our owner and rider should have the last word. We could perform our act, she said, but would do so as humanhorses. It would frighten the watchers to see humanhorses unfettered, she added. Her phrase was “in the wild.” The purpose of this show was to make money, she told us, not to terrify the population.

In a way, the whipping we humanhorses had was a reminder that though I might think my loyalty and devotion to Akrith warranted some reward, she was always in charge. She may have been grateful we two humans were on her side (I believe Cerys was grateful enough to be rescued by Akrith in the battle as the terrible Uymals appeared, to remain loyal to Akrith) but there was no doubt we were lower than she was and as beasts of burden should stay that way.