by John Norman
"Kneel," had said Barus.
"Yes, Master," had said Taphris, and she had knelt, taking her place in the circle.
She had not been pleased, but she had obeyed.
The other girls, I had seen, had glanced at one another. The outburst of Taphris had not been punished. She had not been slapped until she cried out for mercy, or kicked, or disrobed or beaten. Obviously, in some way, she was special. Barus, I had seen, had been angry.
"Sew," he had said, irritably.
He threw the girls feed sacks. To Tuka he gave a pair of scissors. To all of them he gave a needle and thread. The sacks were to be used to make girth cloths for the expected hatchlings.
The incident had occurred in the sewing shed, which has a large window. The stitching on the sacks is opened, and then the sacks are cut into appropriately sized strips, which are then joined and hemmed. Commonly this is a pleasant time for the girls, kneeling on cloths on the wooden floor, sewing and chatting, but today they were quiet and, heads down, worked and did not speak. The finished girth cloth is about ten feet in length and a yard in width. Taphris, too, sewed. She had a slight smile about her lips. The cloth of feed sacks, incidentally, though it is a coarse cloth, is seldom used for slave garments. The wool of the hurt is usually used for male slave garments; it absorbs perspiration well; and rep-cloth is commonly used for female slave garments; it is quite thin and clings well to the curves of the female body.
"We are going to chain them, with the exception of Taphris, by the fifteenth Ahn today," Barus had told me.
"The guests of the mistress," I had said, "I have been told, would not begin to arrive until after dark."
"We think not," said Barus. "But some might arrive early. Some of these guests, at least, are apparently of refined sensibility. The Mistress does not wish to embarrass or offend them by the sight of stable sluts on the premises."
"If the guests are male I do not think they would be embarrassed or offended," I said.
"Perhaps not," smiled Barus.
"Why are the guests of the Mistress arriving after dark?" I asked. "It is unusual, is it not, to travel on Gorean roads at night?"
"Yes, it is unusual," said Barus, "particularly in times like these, what with the tense political situation existing between Ar and the Salerian Confederation. That is a situation in which many spears may mix the brew." It was a Gorean saying. The political situation was indeed complex, and might, by various parties, allies and enemies, and others, and even bystanders, be diversely influenced or exploited.
"I trust the guests will arrive safely," I said.
"I think they will," said Barus. "They are doubtless well fixed and can afford armed escorts."
"But why, in any case, should they choose to arrive after dark?" I asked.
"I do not know," had said Barus.
I had, in the afternoon, not speaking, watched the girls sew. They were lovely.
Barus, after the ringing of the bar for the fourteenth Ahn, had looked occasionally out the window, judging the position of the sun.
Early in the morning we had been in the southeast meadow, Barus, and I and others in a work crew of male slaves. Taphris, too, had been with us, ostensibly to carry water. We had been placing sharpened posts, leaning inward, braced with abutments, at the edge of the meadow. These serve to keep the ponderous tharlarion which graze in the meadow confined.
"Look!" had called Barus, pointing upward.
Overheard we had seen some one hundred and twenty-five tarnsmen. They were moving generally southward. We could see their spears, mounted at the right stirrup, like needles, at the distance, and the shields, seeming small and round. The pennon of the standard bearer, long and narrow, fluttering back some twenty feet from his spear, was that of Vonda. Yet Vonda, herself, I knew, did not have tarnsmen. The men were mercenaries.
"It is a patrol," said the man next to me.
"It is large for a patrol," I said.
"I have been working on the fencing for the last four days," said the man. "I have seen them four times before. They return usually before dark."
"Doubtless Ar, too, has mounted such patrols," said another man.
"Yesterday," said yet another, "I saw a single tarnsman, flying northeast. He might have been a scout of Ar."
"Do you think there will be trouble?" asked a man of Barus.
"There has already been trouble," said Barus, "skirmishes in border areas, in disputed territories."
"But such things have occurred before, have they not?" asked a man.
"Yes," said Barus.
"And nothing ever came of it," said a man.
"No," said Barus.
"You do not think there will be serious trouble, do you?" pressed one of the men.
"No," said Barus, "I do not think so." He looked after the disappearing tarnsmen. "There is a party in Vonda which wishes war," said Barus, "but, as I understand it, there is little sympathy elsewhere in the confederation for conflict with Ar."
"But what of Marlenus of Ar, her Ubar?" asked one of the men.
"He does not need trouble with the confederation," said Barus. "He has his hands full these days with Cos and his troubles in the valley of the Vosk." There was a reference to the rivalry of Ar and Cos for the markets and resources of the broad regions drained by the Vosk. Both states desired to extend their hegemony into these areas. Small cities and towns, usually ruggedly independent, even belligerently so, along the river, such as Ven and Turmus, found themselves, to their discomfort, half coerced by armed might, half enticed with alliances and treaties, embroiled in the struggles of major powers.
"Hah!" laughed Barus. "How clever you scoundrels are! You engage me in conversation, and then, you shirkers, you dally in the performance of your fitting and lowly labors! Do you think you are free persons who may stop to pass the time of day? No, you are collared brutes! Now work, you neck-ringed sleen, if you would live to see the sunset, work! Work!"
Laughing, with a will, we turned again to our labors.
"Away!" cried Barus, waving his cloak at a tharlarion, browsing near the posts. It blinked, and turned away, its huge tail twitching.
Later in the morning, on the dusty road outside the posts, a two-wheeled cart passed, drawn by a small tharlarion, driven by a single driver. Behind it, her neck tied by a rope to the back of it, in a brief slave tunic, her hands braceleted behind her back, walked a slave girl. She turned, as she walked, to regard me. Our eyes met. She smiled, shyly. I grinned. She was a slave. Suddenly she hurried two or three steps forward and then, with the slack in her rope which she had gained, she turned suddenly to face me. She strained at the bracelets, twisting her body. Then, suddenly, flexing her legs, she thrust her lower abdomen toward me and kissed at me with her lips. I grinned. She quickly turned then and hurried that she might not be pulled from her feet by the rope. It had been a slave girl's gesture. I tossed a kiss after her. Too, she did not wish to alert her master to her action. He, however, stopped the tharlarion wagon and looked around. But he saw her only docilely behind his wagon, his rope on her neck, her wrists fastened behind her back in his bracelets, her head down. He looked at me, and I bent to my work. In a moment the wagon was moving forward again. I lifted my head. I saw the girl looking back. She pursed her lips and kissed to me. I brushed her a kiss in the Gorean fashion. She then turned about and followed her master's wagon.
"She wanted to be had by you," said Barus.
I said nothing.
"She presented her body to you as though to that of a rape master," he said. "Interesting," he said, "for you are only a collared slave."
I said nothing, but bent to my work. I did consider, however, the power which a free man might have over a slave girl.
I saw Taphris glaring at me. She was angry. I did not doubt but what the mistress would hear of my interlude with the passing slave.
Barus was relieved at the edge of the southeast meadow at noon, and he, wanting help later in the incubation shed, returning to the stables, to
ok me with him. Taphris, leaving the waterskin with the work crew, followed us.
"Who is the captain of the mercenaries who fly for Vonda?" I asked. "Is it such men as Terence of Treve or Ha-Keel, once of Ar?" These were two well-known mercenary captains. Others were Oleg of Skjern, Leander of Farnacium and William of Thentis.
"Vonda does not pay so high," he had smiled. "It is one called Artemidorus."
"Artemidorus of Cos?" I asked.
"Yes," had said Barus.
"Vonda plays with fire," I remarked.
"Perhaps," said Barus. Though such a captain as Artemidorus was a free captain, certainly the sympathies of Cos would ride with him. Too, if there were trouble it would not go unnoticed by those of Ar that they were dealing with Cosians.
"It seems a potentially dangerous choice," I said.
"Even if Vonda were willing to afford such men as Terence or Ha-Keel," said Barus, "it is unlikely they would be willing to take saddle in her behalf. Terence, being of Treve, would not be eager to ride against Ar. Such an action could precipitate a new expedition into the Voltai by the tarnsmen of Ar." Several years ago I knew there had been war between Ar and Treve. The tarnsmen of Treve, over the snow-capped crags of the scarlet Voltai range, had turned back the squadrons of Ar. It had been one of the fiercest, bloodiest tarn battles ever fought in the history of the planet. Ar had never forgotten that she had been checked in the Voltai, nor had Treve forgotten the cost of having done so. Terence, I conjectured, would not be willing to ride against Ar unless he had removed the insignia from his helmet and shield. It did not seem likely he would do so. Men of Treve commonly disdain to conceal their identity. "And Ha-Keel," said Barus, "though he was banished from Ar, would not, I think, care to ride against her."
Ha-Keel had been banished from Ar. It had been a matter of murder. A woman had been involved. He had subsequently captured, raped and enslaved her, and then sold her. "Be sold as the slave you are," he had said to her. It was said, however, in the long years since his banishment, that Ha-Keel had never forgotten Ar, or the woman. He had never found her again, of course. It is difficult to trace a female slave. They often change names and masters.
"I understand," I said.
"What I fear," said Barus, "is that it is no accident that Artemidorus was given fee in this matter."
"You see in that a desire on the part of those in Vonda who favor war with Ar an artifice to provoke a full-scale conflict between Cos and Ar, a conflict in which Cos and the Salerian Confederation would then find themselves natural allies?"
Barus looked at me, soberly. "Of course," he said. "Yet I think neither Cos nor Ar, nor the confederation, truly desires a full-scale war."
"They could be maneuvered into it, perhaps," I said, "by those who do."
"It is possible," said Barus. "Matters are delicate." He looked south. "Kaissa," he mused, "is sometimes played for high stakes." Kaissa is an intricate board game popular on Gor.
Barus then regarded Taphris. "The pretty spy accompanies us," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said.
Taphris looked down, reddening.
"After you and Jason have been swilled and watered," he said, "we are going to the sewing shed."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Can you sew, Taphris?" he asked.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"I am glad there is something you can do," he said, "which is appropriate for a female slave."
"Yes, Master," she said, angrily.
* * * *
"Chain them," said Barus.
"Yes, Master," I said.
I had, in the afternoon, not speaking, watched the girls, including Taphris, sew. They were lovely.
Barus, after the ringing of the bar for the fourteenth Ahn, had looked occasionally out the window, judging the position of the sun.
How skilled, too, were the girls, even though they had worked only on common girth cloths. How swift and nimble were their fingers, how fine and exact their work. How rude and clumsy would have been the large hands of a man for such work, and how delicate and perfect for it were the small, lovely hands of females.
I had seen Barus again look through the window. It had then been shortly before the fifteenth Ahn.
I had looked again at the girls, their scanty garments and collars, with the dependent chain loops.
How marvelous it is to be on a world where such lovely, delicious creatures may be owned.
"Chain them," had said Barus.
"Yes, Master," I had said.
The girls looked up at me, Tuka, Claudia, Peliope, Leah and Taphris.
"Tuka," I said, "open the sewing cabinet and replace the scissors on their peg; Claudia, replace the needles in the pin cushion in the cabinet; Peliope, replace the thread spools on the spool spindles in the cabinet; Leah, fold the girth cloths; Taphris, place the girth cloths on the table near the window. When you have finished your tasks, kneel by the door, in the order of descending height."
"Yes, Master," they said, for I, even though only a slave, had been placed in authority over them.
In a few moments I went to the sewing cabinet. The scissors were on their peg. I counted the needles. Five had been returned to the pin cushion. And the five spools of thread, I counted them, were residing on their spool spindles. I shut the sewing cabinet. Barus locked it. He picked up the folded girth cloths from the table near the window. "I shall meet you in the incubation shed," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said.
"On your feet," I said to the girls.
Taphris looked over her shoulder to Barus. "Surely," she said, "I am not to be chained."
He thought for a moment. He shrugged. He nodded at me. "Do not chain her," he said, "at least for the time." If she were chained, held by her collar in the kennel, confined by a linkage of steel, how could she keep her eye on me?
She tossed her head. "I am an exception," she said.
"Perhaps," I said.
"The rest of you," I said, "to your kennels, hurry!" I clapped my hands.
"Yes, Master," said the girls, with the exception of Taphris, scurrying from the sewing shed.
I glanced at the sun. They would be in the kennels well before the fifteenth Ahn.
* * * *
I snapped the heavy lock, on its chain, on the collar loop of Tuka.
The girls had hurried to their kennels before me. When I arrived there I found them waiting, kneeling on the boards of their kennels, before their chain rings, in the position of pleasure slaves, back on heels, heads up, hands on thighs, backs straight, knees wide.
"Take your hands off her," said Taphris. My left hand had strayed to her right thigh, and my right hand to her left hip. It is hard to keep one's hands off a female slave. They have been made to be handled, and mastered.
"That slave," snapped Taphris to Tuka, referring to me, "is not to be pleasured. It is the will of the Mistress."
"But what of my pleasure, my needs?" asked Tuka.
"Be silent, slave," snapped Taphris.
"Yes, Mistress," said Tuka, for she sensed that Taphris had power with the mistress. Taphris was not even being chained.
"Scream, squirm, sob, bite at your chain, tear with your fingernails at the floor of your kennel, if you wish," advised Taphris, smiling. "I am sure the mistress will not object to that."
"Yes, Mistress," moaned Tuka.
Angry, I went then to Claudia and locked her chain on her collar.
"You have chained me," she whispered.
I grinned at her. "Yes," I said. Her breasts heaved. On Gor it is generally understood that a man who chains a woman has full rights over her.
"Master," she whispered to me.
"Slave," I said to her.
"Yes, Master," she whispered.
"Do not fraternize with the sluts," ordered Taphris.
I then, in turn, secured Peliope and Leah in their kennels. Both drew in their breath briefly, briefly, too, closing their eyes, when the heavy lock was closed about their collar loop
s. They then looked at me, the weight of the chain dragging down their collars. I saw that either, at a snap of my fingers, would have thrown themselves on their backs on the boards before me.
"Do not dally," said Taphris, "or I shall make a report of it to the mistress."
I rose to my feet.
"Surely you have tasks to perform," she said.
"I must go to the incubation shed," I said. "I think it will be quite warm there, perhaps even uncomfortable. You need not accompany me there."
"I will come with you," she said.
I looked at her. "Very well," I said. "Doubtless something can be found for you to do there."
"I am not to be used for the pleasure of men," she said.
I turned about and left the kennel shed. I heard the bare feet of Taphris pattering after me. I heard, too, Tuka cry out with misery, jerking at her chain. I heard the other girls, too, moan. Then I had left the shed, Taphris with me. I paused only long enough to bar the door, from the outside.
On the way to the incubation shed, I heard the ringing of the bar which signified the arrival of the fifteenth Ahn. The stable sluts, with the exception of Taphris, were now shut away from the sight of the mistress' guests, should they arrive early. They would not now be seen during the visit of the guests unless the guests should request to look upon them.
* * * *
In the incubation shed, Barus, looking down at Taphris, held the half-gourd cup. "Are you under perfect discipline, Taphris?" he had asked.
"Yes, Master," she had said, trembling.
"It did not seem so this afternoon," he had said.
"Forgive me, Master," she had said, trembling. "Please do not have me slain." Taphris, a Gorean slave girl, knew that she was at the complete mercy of free persons. Barus, as one of the Mistress' slave keepers, could kill her, or have her killed, at a whim. The mistress, she knew, could always send another spy to the tables, perhaps Pamela or Bonnie, other house slaves. Neither Pamela nor Bonnie, as I have mentioned, were Earth girls, though they both wore Earth-girl names. Such names, as I have mentioned, are often used as slave names on Gor.