by John Norman
"So little?" she said.
"In my opinion it is more than you are worth," said Msaliti.
Then he waved his hand to the askaris, and they turned the slave about.
She looked back, wildly, over her right shoulder. "Masters! Masters!" she cried. "May I speak? May I speak?"
"Very well," said Msaliti.
"I do not understand!" she wept. "I do not understand! In the tavern I was protected! I was not allowed to the customers! I trust that that arrangement is to stand!"
"That is up to Pembe," said Msaliti.
"But I will belong to him!"
"You do belong to him," said Msaliti. "You are his to do with as he pleases."
"But I will be a white slave in a black tavern!" she cried.
"Try to do as well as the black slaves," said Msaliti, "lest you be slain."
"Master!" she protested.
"Indeed," said he, "as you are white, and thus inferior and despicable, you had best be a thousand times more submissively pleasing than your black betters in the collar."
"Master!" she cried.
"You will doubtless serve them, when not on duty, as a slave of slaves."
"Have mercy!" she begged.
"It is up to Pembe," said Msaliti. "You are his animal, his property, to be utilized, and applied, whenever and however he sees fit. Perhaps you should do your best to please him. It might afford you some protection from the straps and switches of the other girls."
"Please, have mercy, Master!" she wept.
At a word from Msaliti the askaris thrust the sobbing slave ahead of them, from our presence, out into the anteroom.
There, in the anteroom, one of them retrieved the tiny scrap of yellow pleasure silk the girl had brought with her, wadded in her hand, when she had come earlier to the building. He tied this, snugly, on her collar. She looked back at us, frightened. Then she was thrust stumbling though the outside door, and into the street.
I stood up, near the table. "I shall see you, then, tomorrow evening," I said.
"Bring with you," said Shaba, "the false ring and the notes."
"And you," I said, "do not neglect to bring the genuine ring with you."
"I shall have it with me," he averred. I did not doubt it.
Msaliti, to one side, had begun his transformation into the beggar, Kunguni. He had already slipped the padded hump beneath his tunic and adjusted the straps by which it was held in place. He was now, at a mirror, with paste and ocher, attending to the matter of the simulated scar.
"What of this slave?" I asked Msaliti, indicating the blond-haired barbarian.
Msaliti shrugged. "She is now worthless to us," he said.
"What did you pay Uchafu for her?" I asked.
"Five silver tarsks," he said.
"I will give you six," I said.
"She is hot," admitted Msaliti.
"Have you subjected her to rape test?" I asked.
"No," said he. "Only to the touch of the owner's hands."
"That is usually a reliable test," I said.
"I will take six tarsks for her," said he, "if you are serious in the matter."
I gave Msaliti six silver tarsks for the girl. She was then mine. In the situation, as I assessed it, either she should have been given to me, upon my expression of interest, or I should have paid something for her in increments of silver tarsks, something over the price Msaliti had paid. Things turned out much as I had expected. I did not think Msaliti, truly, whom I took to be a shrewd, clever fellow, and one concerned with matters of wealth and power, would wish to give a girl away. Too, since he had paid for her in silver tarsks he would wish to sell her in the same denomination and, presumably, at some profit. My offer of six seemed perfect. It permitted him to satisfy his sense of venality and yet not appear excessively mercenary. Had I tried to obtain her for less than six tarsks or he tried to obtain more for her I think the situation could have become unpleasant.
Msaliti, his scar now affixed, and his disguise intact, bent down and removed the shackles from the blond barbarian's ankles. He then removed the collar from her and, with it, the rope which had tethered her to the wall. He then jerked her to her feet and unbound her hands. He then thrust her stumbling, blindfolded and naked, but otherwise unbound, to me. She stood against me, clutching me, frightened.
"I now own you," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
She lifted her hands to remove the blindfold.
"Do not remove the blindfold," I told her.
"Yes, Master," she said, her lip trembling.
"You may have the blindfold," smiled Msaliti. "Keep her in it until she is well away from here."
"Very well," I said. He did not wish her, of course, to be able to find her way again to this place.
"You are not to touch the blindfold without permission," I told her.
"Yes, Master," she said, standing quietly beside me. So simply, she a slave had been placed in the shackles of my will.
"Until tomorrow night," said Msaliti, lifting his hand.
"Until tomorrow night," I said.
He then left.
"We are now alone," I said to Shaba. The presence of the girl, of course, did not count. She was a slave.
"Yes," said Shaba, rising from behind the table.
I measured the distance to him.
"Who are you truly?" he asked.
"I think," I said, "you have the ring upon you, and would not leave it elsewhere."
"You are a shrewd man," said Shaba. He lifted his left hand, on the first finger of which was a fang ring. He folded his left hand into a fist and, with his thumb, pressed a tiny switch on the ring. The fang, of hollow steel, springing up, was then exposed.
"It contains kanda?" I asked.
"Yes," said he.
"It will do you little good," I said, "if you cannot strike me with it."
"A scratch will be sufficient," he said.
"One must, upon occasion, take risks," I said.
"I think I may easily multiply the risks," said he. He reached into his robes with his right hand. In a moment he had seemed to swirl and then, the light-diversion field activated, had vanished from my view.
"Tomorrow," I said, "I shall bring the false ring and the notes."
"Excellent," said Shaba. "I think that we now understand one another quite well."
"Yes," I said.
"It is a pleasure to do business with such an honest fellow," he said.
"I entertain a similar sentiment toward yourself," I said.
I then turned about and, taking the slave girl by the arm, left the room.
Soon I was in the street, outside.
13
I Return to the Golden Kailiauk
"Do not fear," I said to Pembe. "It was only a passing indisposition."
His hands shook.
"Look," I said. "See. I do not have the plague."
"Your skin," said he, "is truly clear, and, too, your eyes."
"Of course," I said.
"You are well?" he asked, uncertainly.
"Of course," I said.
"Welcome to the Golden Kailiauk," he said, relieved.
"I shall return to the counter in a moment," I said. I went to the wall against which I had stood the blond-haired, blindfolded barbarian. I had told her to put her belly and the palms of her hands, lifted, against the wall. She remained, of course, as I had placed her. Normally when one leaves a girl one kneels her, but I had not been sure of the welcome I might receive here. It is easier, of course, to make away with a slave more quickly when she is standing, rather than kneeling or, as is sometimes required, lying supine or prone. Another advantage of this position is that it makes the slave decidedly uneasy, for she knows it is more appropriate for her to be kneeling or lying in the presence of free men, unless she is engaged in serving them. She must then fear that a passing free person might strike her for insolence. Still, her posture at the wall, her belly and the palms of her hands pressed closely against it, s
hould make it clear enough to any passer-by that she is under discipline, that she was put there by a master's will. He might question the option selected by the master, as a woman is more lovely, say, on her knees, or supine, or prone, but he would be unlikely, without some provocation, to lash the slave. I did not leave her outside, of course, for fear that she might be stolen. Even if one were not interested in her personally, given the color of her skin, one could always sell her.
"Kneel here," I now said to her. "Back on your heels," I said to her.
She did so, by the wall.
"Now grip your ankles in your hands," I said, "and put your head down."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"And do not break that position," I said, "until given permission."
"Yes, Master," she said. "Master!" she said.
"Yes," I said.
She spoke with her head down, her ankles gripped.
"Who are you?" she said. "Who owns me!"
I observed her, not speaking.
"Master?"
How helpless and lovely was the slave, kneeling, naked, head down, grasping her ankles, frightened, blindfolded.
"Master, please," she said. "Master?"
"Be silent," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
I then returned to the counter. "Do you have a white-skinned paga slave here," I asked, "a barbarian girl?"
"Yes," he said. "I obtained one only tonight, for four tarsks. I have not yet even put her on the floor."
I threw him a copper tarsk. "Paga," I said, "and the slave."
"You must know the askaris of Msaliti," he said.
"I have made their acquaintance," I said.
He turned to one of the paga attendants. "Bring the new paga slave to the floor," he said. "Excellent," he said, to himself, "already there is a call for her."
I saw the girl, naked, in her collar, even the bit of yellow slave silk which had been tied to her collar gone, thrust through the beaded curtain by the paga attendant.
"Ah," I said. She had not yet seen me. "I think," I said, "you will soon make back your four tarsks on her."
"But one must figure in, too," said he, "the cost of the paga."
"That is true," I said.
"She is a new girl," he said. "If she is not entirely satisfactory, let me know, and I will have her whipped and have your money refunded."
"Very well," I said. "I will be at that table," I said, indicating a table in the rear of the tavern, not far from a red-curtained alcove.
"Yes, Master," said Pembe.
I went and sat down, cross-legged, behind the table. I had thought it wise not to go directly back to my room. If someone were to follow me, he would have quite a wait. My stop at the paga tavern, I thought, would make it easier to elude pursuit. I had stopped at this tavern, of course, because of Pembe's new paga slave. When she thought she had been pretending to serve us in the headquarters of Shaba and Msaliti she had, of course, whether she intended it or not, much aroused me. I desired her. So I would now have her. Too, I thought that it might be to the girl's advantage to be broken in by me, one more aware than would be most Goreans of the limitations of Earth girls. Usually it is the first two or three nights which are the most difficult for a girl to survive in a Gorean paga tavern. After the first two or three nights she has usually learned, and well, what she is, a paga slave. If she has not learned it in that time it is likely that her throat will have been cut by some customer, her sales price being then paid to her owner, plus a token tarsk or two, of copper, for good will.
The girl was thrust, her arm in the grip of the paga attendant, on the far side of the room, to the counter. He released her before the counter. Pembe placed a goblet of paga in her hands. He then pointed in my direction.
She turned about. She nearly spilled the paga, trembling. It was well for her that she did not spill it.
Slowly, alone, a paga slave, naked and collared, she approached my table.
She then knelt there, before me.
She lifted her eyes to me.
"You!" she whispered.
"Of course," I said.
"Why are you here?" she asked.
"Why do you think?" I asked.
"What do you want of me?" she asked.
"What do you think?" I asked.
"No!" she whispered. "No!"
"Press the cup to your belly," I told her.
She did so. She then held it there, in both hands. "Paga, Master?" she whispered.
"Yes," I said.
She sobbed.
"Kiss the cup," I told her.
She lifted the metal cup from her belly and, turning her head to the side, pressed her lips against it. She then kissed it. She then, her knees wide, her arms extended to me, her head down, between her arms, proffered the paga to me. "Your paga, Master," she whispered.
I did not yet take the paga. "Has Pembe given you a name yet?" I asked.
"No, Master," she said.
"For purposes of your service to me tonight," I said, "I name you Evelyn."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Use now to me," I said, "the second of the two formulas, personalized, which you earlier used to me, when you had so foolishly thought yourself a free woman."
"I am Evelyn," she said. "I serve you, naked and collared. Take me later to the alcove. I beg to be taught my slavery."
"Very well," I said.
She knelt back, about a yard from the table. I looked at her.
Her shoulders shook. She sobbed.
I sipped the paga.
"You are a pretty slave, Evelyn," I said.
"Thank you, Master," she said.
I saw that she had learned from the whip, and from her service at the feet of Msaliti. Such things are good for a woman. They help her to understand what she is, and help her to understand more quickly the sort of things which are required of her, such as instant and absolute obedience, and unquestioning, complete, and rightless submission.
How stupid were so many of the men of Earth, I thought, not to require such things of the females of their world.
"Are you white silk?" I asked.
"I am a virgin," she said.
"Then you are white silk," I said.
"Yes," she whispered.
"Yes?"
"Yes—Master," she said.
"It would not be well for you to be careless," I said.
"No, Master," she said. "Forgive me, Master."
"Have you ever been curious," I asked, "about what it would be to be a slave?"
She looked at me.
"Beware," I said. "You are naked and kneeling. You wear a slave collar. It will not be easy to lie."
"Yes," she said, putting her head down, "I have been curious to know what it would be to be a slave."
"You will learn," I told her.
"Yes, Master," she said.
I then gave my attention to the paga, and to my thoughts. In time I sent her back for another cup. The price for the second cup, in the tavern of Pembe, was only a tarsk bit. I paid it to the paga attendant, who collected it at the table. The girls in Pembe's tavern, as in many taverns, are not permitted to touch coins. Evelyn, of course, who had come with the higher price of the first cup, was mine until I chose to leave the tavern or in some other way release her.
I took my time with the paga.
She knelt to the side, near me. Occupied with my thoughts I forgot about her for a time.
She remained then in position, unnoticed.
Another girl, with a rustle of slave bells, swayed near me.
I gathered that she thought my choice of girls was unusual.
Of course then I recalled Evelyn.
I looked at her.
"Master," she said.
"Yes?" I said.
"May I have permission to speak, Master?" she asked.
It pleased me that she had been alert to the propriety of this courtesy. It indicated that she was beginning to have some sense of her condition.
Few things so impress their slavery on a woman as the necessity to request permission to speak.
How women love to speak! But now they may not do so without the permission of the master.
"Yes," I said.
"May I leave?" she asked.
"No," I said.
"I do not understand," she said.
"I think you do," I said.
"I am a slave," she said. "Master may do with me as he wishes."
"It is well for you to understand that," I said.
"There are many girls here," she said, "and all come with the price of the cup."
"True," I said.
"But Master has chosen me to bring him paga."
"Yes," I said, "and to kiss the goblet."
"Is it Master's intention to have his will with me?"
I regarded her.
"Is it his intention to put me to his purposes?"
"Surely you can speak more clearly," I said.
"Is it Master's intention to make use of me—to use me?"
"For what?" I asked.
"To—to use me—to use me for his pleasure?"
"Perhaps," I said, "and perhaps not. I will do what I please."
"Yes, Master," she said.
I nursed the second cup of paga. Then, after a time, I thrust it from me.
"Is Master going to leave?" she asked.
"Go to the alcove," I said.
She looked at me, agonized. She rose to her feet and, scarcely able to move, numbly, went to the alcove. She could not bring herself to enter, through the red curtains.
I took her by the left arm and thrust her within, onto the furs at my feet. I then turned about and drew shut the curtains, hooking them shut.
I then turned about, again, to face her.
She sat, numbly, on the furs, her knees drawn up. I took the ankle ring and chain which lay at the right corner of the alcove, as you enter. The chain is about a yard long and runs to a ring bolted in the floor. There are similar chains in the four corners of the room, and in the center of the wall, near the floor, opposite the red curtains. In the left-hand corner of the room, as you enter, of course, on its chain, is another ankle ring. At the far corners of the room, of course, the chains terminate with wrist rings. In the center of the wall, near the floor, opposite the curtains, the chain terminates with a collar. There are provisions for lengthening and shortening the chains. All these devices work from locks, answering to a common key, which hangs high on the wall, toward the back and left, as you enter. Needless to say that key cannot be reached by the prisoner if even one of the chains is fastened upon her. Near that common key, which hangs on a peg, there is a second peg. From the second peg hangs a slave whip.