Alice In Chains by Adriana Arden Read Free Book Online Page A

that was not surprising.
    A voice calling out ‘Get along, there,’ caused her to shrink back into the shelter of the nearest bush. Slowly coming into view along the edge of the unturned earth was a ploughman urging his team on.
    As he got closer Alice saw he was a bulky figure, quite short but with broad shoulders. Long bristling ears pricked up on either side of his flat cap, while from below it protruded a blunt snout. Evidently he was a hog or boar. He walked upright and his feet were porcine trotters but, as with most of the animals she had met during her previous adventure, his hands were human. His only clothing was a sleeveless jerkin.
    As he grasped the handles of the old-fashioned single furrow plough, he also held a long carriage whip. As she watched he lifted it to flick across the bare bent backs of his ploughing team. The sight of them in Alice’s world would have raised disbelieving cries of shock and outrage, but in Underland it was quite unremarkable.
    They were eight naked young women, harnessed in pairs on either side of a long shaft running from the plough head. They wore what looked like small versions of padded horse collars about their necks and larger ones tight about their waists so they rested on their hips. It was to these that their arms, crooked round into the small of their backs, were cuffed. Pairs of chain traces ran either side of their bodies through rings in both sets of collars, presumably so as to spread the load between shoulders and hips. The traces were linked to poles pinned transversely across the central shaft. The ploughman’s whip was presumably sufficient to control them as they wore no bits or reins, but each girl did have a wire mesh muzzle strapped across her nose and mouth.
    Alice watched as, with their strong thighs swelling with effort and their sweat-sheened pendant breasts swaying, they drew the plough blade through the soil. It was hot work but she did not feel sorry for them. Satisfying hard labour under the command of a firm but fair master or mistress, the company of their sister slaves, the raw excitement of uninhibited sex and the absence of those petty concerns and foolish aspirations that seemed to fill more and more of life back home, had a strange allure. Was that what had drawn them to Underland and the life of girling slaves? Was that why she was here? But where was her place in it all? In the service of the Red Queen? Thoughts of her masterful power made her feel weak at the knees.
    Alice shook her head to clear her mind. All that must wait. She must concentrate on her mission.
    As the plough girls passed on she considered the landscape before her. How best was she to traverse it to reach her goal?
    If she tried to remain unseen all the time she was travelling her journey might take weeks. And if she were spotted despite her best efforts, such suspicious behaviour would be bound to attract attention. She could travel more quickly if she proceeded boldly in plain sight and made no attempt at concealment. Well, she certainly had nothing to hide, she thought with an inward giggle. Alice Brown – The Naked Spy! Hopefully she would simply be taken for a girling doing a chore for her mistress, which was more or less the truth.
    The plough girls were evidence that girlings were used here as beasts of burden in a similar way to the rest of Underland. If she could pass herself off as one of them then nobody would take any notice of her. But if she was supposed to be doing a chore or running an errand, what was it? She didn’t want to keep having to explain herself to people. What she needed was a prop, something that would make her purpose self-explanatory.
    Wary of the ploughing team, she began searching along the field edge, hoping for inspiration. After ten minutes all she found were a couple of discarded lengths of heavy string of the sort that might be used to tie straw into bales. At first she could think of no use for them, then inspiration