by John Norman
"Slavery!" said several.
"She is already a slave," said the auctioneer, "though perhaps she does not yetknow it."
"Let the man who buys her then pay her back," said a man, "punishing her well,and lengthily, for her fraud."
"Is that agreeable?" asked the auctioneer.
"Yes, said several.
"I am better than she is," said a feminine voice beside me. I felt my arm beinggently taken. I looked down. I recalled her. I had encountered her outside thecompound of Ram Seibar, before the sale. She was a barbarian slave, and a taverngirl. Her name was Ginger. "I thought you were occupied," I said. She nibbled atmy sleeve. "He kept me for Ahn," she said, murmuringly, poutingly. "He made meserve him well."
"Excellent," I said.
"I am not now occupied, Master," she said.
"Do not listen to her, Master," purred a voice from my other side. "Come withme, rather, to Russell's tavern. I will make your night a delight." I looked tomy left. A dark-haired girl was there. She, too, obviously, was a tavern girl,but she was garbed quite differently from Ginger. The taste or business sense oftheir masters, I gathered, differed. Slaves, of course, are garbed precisely astheir masters please. "I, too, am a barbarian," she said. "I am Evelyn."
She wore a black, tight, off-the-shoulder bodice and a short, black, silk skirt,decorated with red thread and ruffles, and stiffened with crinoline. A blackribbon choker was placed behind the steel collar on her throat. A red ribbon,matching the decorations on her skirt, was in her hair. She had not beenpermitted stockings or footwear. Such things are normally denied the Goreanslave girl. Her costume, like that of Ginger, the short, fringed, beadedshirtdress of tanned skin, with the beaded anklet, intended to resemble the garbin which red masters sometimes saw fit to clothe their white female slaves, ifpermitting them clothing, suggested its heritage of other times and otherplaces. Most Gorean garments, of course, of the sorts worn by humans, trace backto terrestrial antecedents. I looked at the white bosom of Evelyn, lifted,shaped and confined in the tightness of the bodice, for the interest of masters.
What man, I wondered, would not wish to unlace or tear away that bodice, tosubject its treasures, like the woman herself, to the ravishments of his mouthand hands.
"Pay her no attention, Master," said Ginger. "Come with me to the tavern ofRandolph."
"No, with me, to the tavern of Russell," said Evelyn.
"Surely you two have sneaked in here," I said. I did not think Ram Seibar wouldwish girls soliciting in his hall, particularly during the course of a sale.
"The worst that would happen is that we would be whipped from the room," saidEvelyn.
"But across the calves," said Ginger. "That hurts."
"Yes," said Evelyn, shuddering. I gathered they had, more than once, been thuslyspeeded from the hall by wrathful attendants.
"Release me!" cried the suspended girl, hanging by her wrists, before the crowd.
"No," she said, "no!" The tie belt on her dress had then been jerked loose, itsends dangling, supported by their loops, beside her hips.
"No," she said, "no, no!" But one by one, slowly, the auctioneer's knife wascutting the buttons from the long, frontal closure of her dress. "What do youwant?" she cried. "What you doing?" Then the last button had been cut away.
"What do you think I am? What are you doing to me?" she said. The sides of thedress were then brushed back.
"I do not think she is pretty," said Ginger.
"No, I do not either," said Evelyn. "You may even be prettier than she."
"I am beautiful," said Ginger. "It is you who might even, be prettier than she,my man-hungry little slave."
"Man hungry?" said Evelyn. "I have heard how you bite your chains, how you whineto be released at night."
"It is no secret in Kailiauk," said Ginger, "the fingernail scratches in yourkennel!"
"I cannot help it if men have released my slavery," said Evelyn, tears in hereyes.
"They, too, have released my slavery," said Ginger, "and fully."
"I am more helplessly passionate than you" said Evelyn.
"No, you are not," said Ginger.
"It is well known in Kailiauk that I am a better slave than you," said Evelyn.
"I am a better slave than you," said Ginger, "Slave Slut!
"No, you are not, Slave Slut," hissed Evelyn.
"Be silent, Slave Sluts, ' I said.
"Yes, Master," said Ginger.
"Yes, Master," said Evelyn.
Beneath the dress the girl was wearing a full, knee-length slip of white silk.
The dress, then, by cutting with the knife, and ripping, was removed from her.
It, too, was then thrown on the flames, following the dress sandals and pearls.
I saw, then, that the slip had small, over-the-shoulder straps. These weresevered and then, cutting and ripping from the back, the auctioneer loosened theslip. It could now, at his least convenience, be removed from the girl. At theleft knee it had a deep cocktail slit. This interested me, suggesting that thegirl might have good slave potential. This slit, affording an exciting glimpseof the girl's calf and lower thigh, was, of course, drawn to the attention ofthe audience by the auctioneer.
I wondered why the two tavern girls, Ginger and Evelyn, had sought me out.
Obviously there were many men in Kailiauk. Indeed, at this time of the evening,it seemed strange to me that they would even be absent from the tavern. Surelythis was the time of the evening when they might be expected to be applyingthemselves to the business of making a living for their masters, performingexquisitely, chained, in their alcoves. I dismissed the matter from my mind.
"No," begged the suspended girl, "please, don't!"
The slip was then lifted away from her body.
"A silver tarsk," said a man.
"Excellent" said the auctioneer.
This seemed to me an unusually high bid for a raw, untrained barbarian slave,particularly as an opening bid. On the other hand, I had noted that girls seemedto bring high prices in Kailiauk. Several of the girls had gone from the sideblocks, for example, for prices ranging between thirty and fifty copper tarsks.
In certain other markets these girls, in their current state of barbarity andignorance, might have brought as little as seven or eight tarsks apiece. Theseprices, of course, were a function of context and time. In Kailiauk there aremany affluent fellows, rich from the trade in hide and horn, and the traffic inkaiila. Furthermore, this close to the perimeter, only a few pasangs from theIhanke, far from the normal loci of slave raidings, and slave routes, femaleslaves, particularly beautiful ones, are not abundant. Accordingly men, comingin from surrounding areas, are willing to pay high to have one in theirblankets.
The girl now wore a brassiere, a garter belt and stockings. Too, beneath thenarrow garter belt, in what was perhaps an indication of charming reserve, Icould see silken panties.
"She is not really ugly," said Ginger.
"No," said Evelyn.
The girl watched in horror as the remains of her silken slip was cast upon theflames, causing them to spring up anew. Her Earth clothing, before her veryeyes, piece by piece, was being destroyed. It was thus being made clear to herthat she was making a transition to a new reality.
"No," she said, "Please, no."
The auctioneer freed her stockings from the hooks and buttons on the four garterstraps. In a moment the auctioneer had drawn the stockings from her legs,slipping them underneath the ropes on her ankles and discarding them in theflames. Then, after viewing her for a moment, he stepped behind her. He undidthe two-hook back closure on the garter belt. This article of clothing, too,then, in a moment, was cast into the flames. She then hung before us clad only,save for the ribbon binding back her hair, in her brassiere and panties.
"Undo her hair! ' called a man.
"Yes!" called another man.
I smiled to myself. Yes, it was the exact time for the woman's hair to beunbound. The hair of slave girls, incidentally, unless shaved
or shortened as apunishment, is usually worn long. There is more, cosmetically, which can be donewith long hair and such hair, too, is often useful in the performance ofintimate duties for her master. Too, of course, it can be balled and thrust inher mouth, for use as a gag, either, save when one does not wish to hear her fora time, or, perhaps, if one wishes, to silence her cries in the throes of hersubmission spasms. Too, of course, she may be bound with it.
"Of course." said the auctioneer. He then untied the hair ribbon, which hadbound her red hair back so primly. He threw it in the fire. He then fluffed herhair and brought it forward, over her shoulders. He then brushed it back, behindher back, and smoothed it. He turned her on the rope, to the left and right,that men might see the cut and fall of the hair against her back. It was pretty.
Then the auctioneer turned her so that she was, again, helplessly, exposedfrontally to the crowd.
"She is really quite pretty," said Ginger, irritatedly.
"Yes." agreed Evelyn.
"But not as pretty as I," said Ginger.
"At least not so pretty as I," said Evelyn.
I smiled. I had little doubt the suspended girl would bring a higher price thaneither of them, though they both were, admittedly, obviously full and desirablyluscious slaves.
"Two silver tarsks," said a man.
"Excellent," said the auctioneer.
The girl looked out on the crowd with fear and misery. Doubtless she hoped,against hope, that she had now been adequately dismayed to the crowd. Surely thebrutes would not dare go further. That she had been brought clothed into thehall surely argued that her dignity and pride would continue to be respected, atleast to the degree that she was now concealed. Too, had the fellow attending toher not now paused in his abusive, insolent labors? But then she glanced to theside blocks. There there were women, much like herself; they, fixed in place,wearing collars and chains, she could not help but note, were absolutely naked.
But she, surely, was different from them! She was finer, and more delicate.
Anyone could see that! Then she hung, relieved, in the ropes. The auctioneer wasconferring with an attendant, to the side. Her ordeal, as she conceived it, wasnow concluded. The exposure and disgrace which had been visited upon the othergirls was not to be her lot. She was better. She was different.
The attendant, to whom the auctioneer had been addressing himself, took hisexit.
But did the girl not know that she was not different? Did she not know that she,too, was only a slave?
"I wonder if she is beautiful," said Ginger.
"As she is now clad, it is not difficult to speculate on the matter," saidEvelyn.
"Why don't they take off her clothes, so we can see, said Ginger.
"Yes," said Evelyn.
I smiled to myself. These girls, at any rate, understood something of the natureof a Gorean market.
"Were you a side-block girl?" asked Ginger.
"No," said Evelyn. "I was auctioned."
"I, too," said Ginger.
"Were you brought in naked?" asked Evelyn.
"Yes," said Ginger.
"I was, too," said Evelyn.
"Do you think that they think she is better than us?" asked Ginger.
"Perhaps," said Evelyn. "Men are fools."
"No!" cried the suspended girl, suddenly. "Don't! Please!" The auctioneer wasbehind her.
"No" she cried. "I am a virgin I have never been seen by men!" "No!" she cried.
Her breasts were lovely. Would the last vestige of her modesty not be permittedher?
"No," she pleaded. "Please, no! ' "No!" she cried, and then hung, helpless and sobbing in the ropes.
I saw that the stripped slave was beautiful.
"Three tarsks," said a man.
"Three five," said another. This was a bid of three silver tarsks and fiftycopper tarsks. There are one hundred copper tarsks to one silver tarsk inKailiauk. The ratio is ten to one in certain other cities and towns. Thesmallest Gorean coin is usually a tarsk bit, usually valued from a quarter to atenth of a tarsk. Gorean coinage tends to vary from community to community.
Certain coins, such as the silver tarsk of Tharna and the golden tarn of Ar,tend, to some extent, to standardize what otherwise might be a mercantile chaos.
This same standardization, in the region of the Tamber Gulf and south, along theshore of Thassa, tends to be effected by the golden tam of Port Kar. Coinmerchants often have recourse to scales. This is sensible considering suchthings as the occasional debasings of coinages, usually unannounced by thecommunities in question, and the frequent practice of splitting and shavingcoins. It is, for example, not unusual for a Gorean coin pouch to contain partsof coins as well as whole coins. Business is often conducted by notes andletters of credit. Paper currency, however, in itself, is unknown.
"Four!" called out another man.
"Five!" cried out another.
"But, Gentlemen," called the auctioneer, turning the girl on the rope, turningher left thigh to the crowd, "restrain your bids! Can you not see that she hasnot yet even been branded?"
"Mark her! Mark her!" called more than one man.
On the height of the central block I saw two attendants sliding out a brandingrack. Another, its handles wrapped in heavy cloth, carried out a cylindrical,glowing brazier, from which protruded the handles of two irons. He placed thisnear the branding rack. At the same time the auctioneer freed the ankles of thegirl from the ropes. He then freed the end of her wrist rope from its ring andthe rope, sliding through the overhead ring, loosened. As it did so theattendant to whom the auctioneer had earlier addressed himself, now returned,supported the girl. I did not think she could stand. When the rope permitted itbe lifted her in his arms. Her weight was nothing for him. The auctioneer thenjerked the remainder of the rope through the overhead ring. The attendant thencarried the girl, the rope trailing beside him, to the height of the centralblock. There, with the help of another fellow, he lowered her into the heavyrack, and spun shut the sturdy vises on her left and right thighs. She had beencarried to the rack naked, her wrists bound before her. She winced, unable tomove her thighs, dismayed doubtless at the perfect tightness with, which theywere held. Her wrists were then freed of the rope and taken behind her wherethey were fastened to a sturdy metal pole, a portion of the rack, by danglingslave bracelets.
The fellow who had carried in the brazier now drew forth, holding it with twogloves, an iron. It was white hot.
The girl regarded it, wild-eyed.
"No!" she cried. "Are you beasts and barbarians? What do you think I am? Do youthink I am an animal! Do you think I am a slave!
The iron was leveled. It approached the circular aperture in the vise, throughwhich, deeply into her fair thigh, it would be thrust, and held, burning andhissing, until its work was done, until the girl was marked, and well, as slavemeat.
"You are bluffing!" she cried. "You cannot be serious!
She then learned that the intention of the iron with respect to her body wasquite real.
The vises were spun loose. Her hands were freed of the restraining slavebracelets, only then to be tied with a cord behind her. Dismayed and sobbing shewas freed of the rack and put on her knees, head down, at the auctioneer's feet.
The rack and the brazier, the iron returned to it, were removed from the centralblock. The girl then, naked and kneeling, her hands bound behind her, at theauctioneer's feet, lifted her head and looked wildly out at the crowd. She hadbeen branded.
"She does not know what has happened to her," said Ginger.
"She knows," said Evelyn.
"But she does not yet fully understand it," said Ginger.
"No," said Evelyn.
"But she will soon understand it, and fully," said Ginger, "even so stupid aslave."
"Yes," said Evelyn.
The auctioneer then removed the long, supple kaiila quirt from his belt. Twicehe struck the girl across the back. She cried out in pain. Her education had nowcommenced. No time, now, would be lost in
teaching her her condition. He draggedher to her feet by the hair and bent her backwards, displaying the bow of herbeauty to the crowd.
"I have a bid of five tarsks on this slut," he called. "Do I bear more? Do Ihear more?"
"Is she trained?" called a man.
"Train her yourself," called the auctioneer, "to your own pleasures." It wasunderstood, of course, that these barbarians were not trained. They had not yetbeen taught, as far as I could tell, even the proper modes of kneeling before amaster.
"Five five!" called a man.
"Good! Good!" called the auctioneer, displaying the slave. "Do I hear more?"
"Can she speak Gorean?" called a man. I smiled. It was clearly understood thatthese barbarian slaves could not speak Gorean.
"Train her like a sleen or a kaiila, on her hands and knees," said theauctioneer. "She will soon learn what is required of her."
"Pose her!" called a man.
"In what way, Noble Sir?" inquired the auctioneer, obligingly. He then,following the instructions of the fellow, sat the girl down, near the front ofthe central block, her left leg under her, her right leg extended and flexed,her right side facing the fellow, her shoulders back, her head turned sharply tolook at him. In this way the curves of her right leg, and the lines of herfigure, are pleasantly displayed.
"Imagine her in your collar!" challenged the auctioneer.
"Kneel her!" called a man.
The auctioneer then knelt the girl near the front of the central block. Sheknelt back on her heels. Her knees were widely spread. Her back was straight,her head high.
"Five seven!" called a man.
"Five seven!" repeated the auctioneer.
"Get her on her feet, so we can see her legs!" called a man.
"Belly her!" called another.
"Make her walk!" called a man.
"Kneel her, with her head to the ground!" called another.
"Put her through slave paces!" called another.
I looked to the, side. One of the fellows there was the short, muscular fellowwho wore the low, broad-brimmed hat. I recalled he had purchased at least fouror five of the girls from the side blocks. They had been excellent females, inmy opinion, but they had not seemed to be, at least on the whole, the choicestmerchandise available to him, and for similar costs. It was almost as though hewere purchasing them for some purpose other than that for which slave girls arecommonly purchased. I did not, now, understand his apparent interest in thered-haired slave now being vended. She, surely, was the sort of woman that wouldbe purchased, at least usually, to fulfill one of the more common purposes ofslave girls.