by John Norman
"Head down,” said Cabot to the slave, and she lowered her head.
"How scrawny she is,” said Lady Bina.
"Scarcely,” said Cabot.
"I wonder what men see in such things,” said the Lady Bina.
"They have their purposes,” said Cabot.
"What a skimpy garment,” said the Lady Bina. “How bared she is! She might as well be naked!"
"It is a slave tunic,” said Cabot.
"And there is something on her neck, is there not?” said the Lady Bina. Then she said to the slave, “Lift your head, girl!"
The slave lifted her head, quickly, frightened, looking straight ahead.
"Why it is a metal collar,” exclaimed the Lady Bina, as though astonished. “And how closely it encircles her neck!” she said. She then walked about the slave, and parted the hair at the back of the slave's neck, for one may handle slaves so, and the slave, frightened, remained unmoving, absolutely so. “And there is a lock here!” she said. She then put her hands on the collar, and tried to open it. “Why it is locked on the poor thing!” she said, as though amazed. She then came about the slave, before her, and stood next to Cabot. The slave did not dare to meet her eyes. “Surely she can take it off,” said the Lady Bina, as though concerned.
"No,” said Cabot.
"How is that?” she asked, as though puzzled.
"It is a slave collar,” said Cabot.
"Then she is a slave?"
"Yes,” said Cabot.
"But would she not then be marked?” asked the Lady Bina.
"Brand!” snapped Cabot, and the slave, as she had been trained, shifted her weight, kneeling, to her right knee, extended her left leg, and drew the hem of the tunic to her hip.
"What a lovely mark!” said the Lady Bina.
A tear ran down the cheek of the slave.
"You may return to position,” said Cabot, and the slave, again, knelt, and gratefully, her head down.
"Perhaps you would like one like it yourself?” asked Cabot.
Grendel growled.
The Lady Bina, it seems, did not hear his remark.
"There is a legend on the collar,” she said.
"It says,” said Cabot, “'I am the property of Tarl Cabot'."
"Yes,” said the Lady Bina, “it was hard to read, in the light."
"What did she cost you?” asked the Lady Bina.
"In a way,” said Cabot, “I owe her to your cohort and champion, Lord Grendel, for I won her, in effect, on a bet, wagering that he would be successful in the arena. I won coins in this matter from Lord Peisistratus, and he generously threw her in, with the coins."
"Then she cost you nothing?"
"True,” said Cabot.
"That is what she is worth,” said the Lady Bina.
"I think,” said Cabot, “she might, exhibited naked on a Gorean slave block, in an open market, bring as much as two tarsks."
"And what would I bring?” inquired the Lady Bina.
"Free women,” said Cabot, “are priceless."
"Girl!” snapped the Lady Bina.
The slave looked at her, wildly, frightened.
"'Mistress',” coached Cabot.
"Mistress!” said the slave.
"You are worthless,” said the Lady Bina. “You are no more than an animal, a branded animal."
"Yes, Mistress,” said the girl, putting her head down.
"As you are an animal,” said the Lady Bina, “why are you clothed?"
"Master has permitted his animal a tunic,” she said.
"Remove it,” said the Lady Bina.
The slave looked to Cabot, questioningly, and he nodded, affirmatively. The desires of free women are seldom questioned.
"That is better,” said the Lady Bina, with satisfaction.
Tears sparkled in the slave's eyes, visible in the light of the small fire. One could note the path of tears on her cheeks.
"On your belly, before me,” snapped the Lady Bina, “and lick and kiss my feet!"
"Excellent,” laughed the Lady Bina.
"Lady Bina,” said Cabot, “is well learning to be a free woman."
Lady Bina did not respond to Cabot, but stepped back, a pace from the prone slave. “Stay on your belly,” she snapped. And the slave remained before her. “It gives me much pleasure to see you so,” said the Lady Bina to the prostrate slave, “for in the container, on the Prison Moon, it seemed to me that you dared to compare yourself with me, and might even have dared to regard yourself as my superior.” She then kicked some sand against the prostrate slave, who winced, but stayed as she was. “You were a naked slave then, as you are now,” said the Lady Bina. “I saw how you attempted to display yourself to this fellow in the container, how you turned, seemingly so innocently, to exhibit your figure, how you held your head, at this attitude or another, how you extended your legs, and held your arms, how you pointed your toes to curve your calves in that delicious manner which is calculated to so stimulate the interest of men, many things. You were no more than a slave, competing pathetically, and unsuccessfully, for the attention of a free male! Speak, slut, quickly, or be beaten!"
"Forgive me, Mistress,” begged the slave.
"How stupidly bold you were, how presumptuous, how insolent!” said the Lady Bina.
"And now you are as you should be, a collared slave!” said the Lady Bina.
"Yes, Mistress!” wept the slave.
"Did you, truly, in the container,” asked the Lady Bina, “think to compete with me?"
"Yes, Mistress,” she said. “Forgive me, Mistress! But I then thought myself a free woman!"
"And thought yourself my equal, or better?” scoffed the Lady Bina.
"Yes, Mistress. Forgive me, Mistress!"
"How foolish you were!” said the Lady Bina.
"Yes, Mistress,” wept the slave.
"Rise, back away, and kneel,” said the Lady Bina. “Too, don again your tiny, meaningless rag, for it goes nicely with your collar, brand, and slave's body."
"Thank you, Mistress,” whispered the slave.
"She is plain, and stupid,” said the Lady Bina to Cabot. “What do you want her for?"
"She can gather berries, wood for the fire, and such,” said Cabot.
The Lady Bina laughed.
"Lord Grendel,” said Cabot.
"Grendel,” said he. “I am not of station in the world."
"Have you and Lady Bina,” inquired Cabot, “entered into the Companionship?"
"No,” said Grendel.
Lady Bina laughed, scornfully, at the preposterous nature of so untoward a supposition.
"But yet you protect her, and permit her to accompany you,” said Cabot.
Grendel did not respond.
"Why do you not put her in a collar?” asked Cabot. “We could then have a brunette and a blonde, a nice pair, which we might then, throat-linked by a chain, sell for a handsome profit."
The Lady Bina regarded Cabot uneasily, angrily.
The slave looked up at him, frightened.
She well knew she could be sold, at a master's whim.
"I trust that you jest,” said Grendel. “The Lady Bina is a free woman."
"That is true,” said Cabot, “but she would look well, branded."
"Do not jest,” said Grendel.
"It is true that I am beautiful,” said the Lady Bina.
"If she were a slave,” said Cabot, “it would be easier to assure ourselves that she would not contact Kurii and implicate Lord Arcesilaus and Peisistratus in the matter of treasonous plotting."
"I would not speak!” she said.
"You would speak instantly, and abundantly, if you thought it in your best interests,” said Cabot.
"No,” she averred.
"I watch her,” said Grendel. “Too, there is the raft, from which she dares not escape while it is on the lake, and when we come to shore, it is a simple matter to put her on a rope, and, at night, I chain her to a tree."
"She bears no impedime
nts now,” observed Cabot.
"I am watching her,” said Grendel.
"You do not trust me,” said Lady Bina, reproachfully, to Grendel.
Grendel looked down, confused, hurt.
"If you loved me, as you have claimed,” she said, “you would keep me free, and trust me."
Grendel seemed torn, agonized.
"And, too, how dare one such as you, a monster, aspire to the love of a free woman!"
"Forgive me,” said Grendel, his head down.
"Do you think yourself worthy of such a thing?” she asked.
"No,” said Grendel.
"And so much the more so of a free woman such as I?"
"No,” said Grendel. “No."
"If you like,” said Cabot, “I will take her into custody, binding her, leashing her, and such."
"No,” said Grendel.
"I am a free woman!” said the Lady Bina.
"Even a free woman,” said Cabot, “may be subjected to controls of various sorts, a limitation to specified locales, imprisonment, leashings, the restrictions of light chains, and such, if the interests of states are at stake. There is much precedent for that sort of thing."
"True,” said Grendel.
"You do not truly love me,” said the Lady Bina.
"I do love you,” protested Grendel.
"If you truly loved me,” she said, “you would trust me, and leave me to be as I wish, to do as I wish, and go where I wish."
"Please!” he begged.
She turned away from him, coldly. “Thus,” she said to Cabot, “you see he does not truly love me."
"I think he loves you muchly,” said Cabot, “and foolishly."
"I am beautiful,” she said. “No man can love a beautiful woman foolishly."
"Those are perhaps the easiest to love foolishly,” said Cabot, “and that is an excellent reason why one should not trouble oneself with them, but rather put them in collars, and own them."
"Beast!” she said.
"Do you have meat?” Cabot asked Grendel.
"Some pieces torn from tharlarion,” said he.
"Excellent,” said Cabot. “Let us eat, and then you can kill me afterward."
"The fire has served its purpose,” said Grendel, looking about.
"Very well,” said Cabot.
With the butt of his improvised spear he scattered the embers of the fire. In a moment the tiny points of light had faded into darkness.
"I do not much care for raw tharlarion,” said Cabot.
"Nor Kurii for raw human,” said Grendel.
"But it is meat,” said Cabot.
"So, too, is human,” said Grendel.
"Your mother was human,” said Cabot.
"I do not eat human,” said Grendel.
"That is good news for the Lady Bina,” said Cabot.
"For all of you,” said Grendel.
"True,” said Cabot.
"Do you eat Kur?"
"No,” said Cabot.
"Why?” asked Grendel.
"—I do not care for it,” smiled Cabot.
"Perhaps we should withdraw into the trees,” said Grendel. “The beach is muchly open."
"Let us do so,” said Cabot.
"I will not eat raw tharlarion,” said the Lady Bina. “We are now on land. You must find me something better."
"In the trees,” said Cabot, “we have a small camp, and there are edible leaves there, some gathered roots, and berries."
"It must do,” said the Lady Bina.
"I will get some tharlarion from the raft,” said Grendel.
"Lita,” said Cabot, “hurry to our camp, set out provisions for our guests, and later arrange bowers for them, sheltered beds of moss, grass and leaves, that they may sleep softly."
"Yes, Master,” she said, and hurried toward the trees.
"See her run,” said the Lady Bina, amused.
"Dalliance is not permitted to her,” said Cabot. “She is a slave."
"She should be a slave,” said the Lady Bina, sneeringly.
"Yes,” said Cabot, “and that is what she is, and what many other women should be, as well."
"It was clever of you to send her away, while my gross cohort fetches tharlarion from the raft,” said the Lady Bina. “In that way we can speak privately."
"I do not understand,” said Cabot.
"I must speak to you,” she said.
"You may do so in the presence of Lord Grendel,” said Cabot.
"No,” she said.
Shortly thereafter Grendel joined them on the beach, some blankets over his shoulder, a long ax in his right hand, and some strips of tharlarion dangling from his left hand.
The three of them then proceeded toward the trees.
At the nineteenth Ahn the cylinder was illuminated with artificial moonlight, simulating that of Gor's major moon.
"There are berries there,” said the Lady Bina to Grendel. “Bring them to me."
"Yes, Lady,” said he.
The slave Lita, shortly thereafter, knelt before Cabot, offering him berries, cupped in her two hands.
"How pretty!” sneered the Lady Bina.
The Gorean male, if not seated on a chair, or bench, or reclining on a supper couch, commonly sits cross-legged. The Gorean free woman may sit upon a chair or bench, or recline on a supper couch. If she kneels, she kneels demurely, with her knees closed. The female slave, commonly, is not permitted to sit on a chair or bench, and is certainly not permitted on the surface of a supper couch. Indeed, often she is not permitted even on the surface of her master's couch, for that is understood as showing her great favor. Envied is the girl so honored! Commonly the slave is used on furs spread at the foot of the master's couch, to which she is often chained, by the neck or an ankle. If she is permitted on the surface of the couch, there is often a ritual involved, in which she kneels at the foot of the couch, or toward its foot, on the side, and lifts the coverings, and kisses them humbly, and then, when permitted, crawls to the couch's surface, from the bottom, or near the bottom. In this way she acknowledges the privilege being accorded to her. The female “tower slave,” though slave clad, may kneel with her knees closed, as the free woman. The female “pleasure slave” will commonly kneel with her knees open, this betokening the sort of slave she is.
Cabot was chewing on a strip of tharlarion, to soften it, before tearing it into small bits, these then to be better chewed and swallowed.
Grendel ate more in the fashion of the Kur, ripping large pieces of tharlarion apart with his hands and teeth, and then cutting them into ribbons with his fangs, and then, with movements of his head and long, dark tongue, forcing them downward into his cavernous gorge.
Lady Bina looked away from him, in disgust.
"Would you like some tharlarion?” Cabot asked the slave.
She shuddered. “Your slave,” she said, “would prefer leafage, or berries."
"You gathered more berries this afternoon,” said Cabot.
"Yes, Master,” she said, lifting the berries to him.
"Did you eat any?” asked Cabot.
"No, Master,” she said.
"We shall see,” he said, and took her by the hair, and pulled her to a place where the artificial moonlight streamed down amidst the branches.
"Open your mouth, widely, more widely,” he said, holding her head back, “and protrude your tongue, as far as possible."
"Good,” said Cabot. “Good."
"I did not eat any berries, Master,” she said, when released.
"Yes, so I determined,” he said.
"Had I eaten berries, what would have been done to me?"
"If you had eaten them without permission?"
"Yes, Master."
"You would have been tied and lashed,” he said.
"Could you do that to me?” she asked.
"Certainly,” he said.
"And would you do that to me?” she asked.
"Certainly,” he said. “You are a slave."
"Yes, Mas
ter,” she whispered.
"One cannot have that sort of thing in a slave,” said Cabot.
"I understand, Master."
"Though they are often sly little beasts,” he said.
The slave was silent.
"But the behavior of even such a slave,” said Cabot, “one who thinks she is so clever, is soon corrected, as the whip swiftly counsels against such indiscretions."
"I will endeavor to serve my master as well as I can, according to his wishes,” she said, frightened.
"See that you do."
"Yes, Master,” she said.
"I wish she had eaten some,” said the Lady Bina. “I would have liked to have seen her tied and lashed."
"You may feed,” said Cabot to his slave.
"Thank you, Master,” said the slave, and bent to the berries in her hands.
"Slut!” snapped the Lady Bina.
"Mistress?” said the slave, looking up, the smears of berries about her mouth and lips.
I am told, incidentally, that Masters enjoy licking such residues from the lips and mouth of a slave, and, as it seems, one thing then not unoften leads to another.
"Your knees!” said the Lady Bina.
"Mistress?” said the slave.
"Should they not be spread?"
"She is in the presence of a free woman,” said Cabot. “It is thus appropriate that she kneels in the Tower position."
"Have her split her knees,” said the Lady Bina.
"Do not shame her,” said Grendel.
"Be silent,” she said.
"You would have her kneel in full nadu before me, with a free woman present?"
"She may, of course, continue to feed,” said the Lady Bina.
"Nadu,” said Cabot to his slave.
She spread her knees before her master, and, head down, fed.
"How pretty!” sneered the Lady Bina.
"Do not shame her,” said Grendel.
"May I speak, Master?” asked the slave, looking up, to Grendel.
"Yes,” he said.
"I am not shamed, Master,” she said.
"Shame, shame, shame!” shrieked the Lady Bina, and leapt up, and would have struck the slave, but was prevented from doing so by Cabot who, himself leaping up, seized her wrists, held them, and by means of them returned her to her place, kneeling, to the side of Grendel.
"Whip her, whip her, mercilessly!” demanded the Lady Bina.
"It was you,” said Cabot, “who desired to have her placed in nadu."