by John Norman
Melpomene rose to her feet and stood by the ring, head down, while Pamela spread the love furs on the tiles between the tables. While she stood there Tenalion snapped an ankle ring on her left ankle. It had a chain loop. He then took the length of chain he had used before and snapped one end of it about the chain loop on her ankle ring. The other end of it he snapped about the slave ring set in the tiles. The lovely slave then stood there, shackled in place.
"You remember, Jason," said the Lady Florence, "when after your victory over Kaibar, of the stables of Shandu, I ordered that you not be given a woman."
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"But I told Kenneth," she said, "that I would later find a slut for you, and that I had a slut in mind."
"I remember, Mistress," I said.
"This is the slut," said the Lady Florence, indicating Melpomene.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
Melpomene stood at the edge of the love furs. She looked down at them.
"To the furs, Slave," I told her.
Melpomene looked up at me, frightened.
With the back of my hand I struck her to the furs.
She looked up at me from the furs where she half lay, half knelt. There was blood at her mouth.
"When you are ordered to the furs, move swiftly," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
The two women, the Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene, gasped with pleasure. I sensed that they wished that it had been they, and not Melpomene, who had been struck to the furs for their raping.
"I see that you well know how to handle a slave girl, Jason," she said.
I shrugged. I looked at the Mistress. I thought that she herself might make some man an excellent slave.
"Melpomene," said the Lady Florence to her new slave, who was now kneeling on the love furs, "when you were a free woman and dared to steal my silk slave for your pleasure, did you kiss him?"
"Of course not, Mistress," she said. "I was a free woman. I would not put my lips to the body of a slave."
"Recline on the love furs, Jason," said the Lady Florence. I did so, dropping aside the half tunic I wore. The Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene drew in their breath with pleasure.
"Melpomene," said the Lady Florence, "you understand that you are now no longer a free woman but only a slut of a slave."
"Yes, Mistress," said Melpomene, quickly.
"Furthermore, you understand that Jason is no longer a silk slave, but only a stable slave, a lowly stable slave."
"Yes, Mistress," said Melpomene.
"Kiss his body," said the Lady Florence, "every inch of it."
"Yes, Mistress," sobbed Melpomene.
"Begin at the extremities," said the Lady Florence.
"Yes, Mistress," said Melpomene.
The Mistress then clapped her hands. "Pamela, Bonnie," she said, "begin now to serve the eighth course of our supper."
"Yes, Mistress," they said.
In time my body had been covered with the kisses and tears of the new slave.
It was then that the Mistress, pausing in her meal, looked at me and said, "Congratulations on your victory over Kaibar, of the stables of Shandu."
"Thank you, Mistress," I said.
"You have had various other victories, too, I gather," she said.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"I have heard that, some two weeks ago, you became the local champion."
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"That was by defeating Gort, of the stables of Miles, was it not?" she asked.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"I heard of that," she said. "Miles is one of my rejected suitors," she said. "Your victory over his champion gave me great pleasure."
"Thank you, Mistress," I said.
"Enjoy her," said the Mistress, indicating Melpomene, the shackled slut at my side.
"Thank you, Mistress," I said. I took Melpomene and threw her to her back beneath me, on the furs. The Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene cried out with pleasure.
I looked down into the eyes of Melpomene. She looked up at me, and then she lifted her lips softly, delicately, to mine. "Enjoy me, Master," she whispered.
"The collar is becoming on you, Melpomene," I said to her.
"Thank you, Master," she whispered.
Many times, while the guests had supped and conversed, I had forced Melpomene to yield to me, and as a slave. Often, as I caressed the helpless, squirming slut, the guests paid us little attention. They continued to enjoy their supper, served by Pamela and Bonnie, and engaged one another in conversation. Often they discussed politics. The carryings on of slaves were of little interest to them. But sometimes the Lady Leta or the Lady Perimene would pause to observe the helpless passion of the slave girl and laugh at her, or insult her for her weakness. But she only kissed and clutched at me all the more.
"Slave!" once chided the Mistress. "Yes, Slave, Mistress!" cried Melpomene, joyfully. "Slave!"
"Scandalous!" once said the Lady Leta. "She has no choice," said the Lady Perimene. "She must obey, and yield like that. She is a slave girl."
"Look at her," said the Lady Leta. "Do you think she wants a choice?"
"No," said the Lady Perimene, "she does not want a choice. Choiceless, she wishes to yield fully and totally."
"That would be her choice," said the Lady Leta, "to have no choice."
"Would it not, too, be your choice?" asked the Lady Perimene. The Lady Leta was silent. "How else could one yield totally to a male?" asked the Lady Perimene.
Later in the evening, however, the moans and cries of the helpless slave must have become somewhat obtrusive. "Must we gag the little slut to keep her quiet?" demanded the Lady Florence, angrily. I then, from time to time, placed my hand over the mouth of the slave, that her whimperings, her moans and cries not disturb the free persons. The last time, however, I let her scream the submission of her slavery to me. "I am your slave, Master," she screamed. "I am your slave, Master!"
The guests then rose to their feet. I crouched beside Melpomene. She lay on her back, on the love furs. She was panting; her nipples were delicately rigid; her skin, from the dilation of capillaries, was a patchwork of red and white. The collar was obdurate on her throat. She reached to touch my hand. I permitted it, though she was a slave.
The Lady Florence came about the small tables to stand near the love furs, over her new slave girl.
"You are a slave, Melpomene," she said.
"I am not discontent, Mistress," said Melpomene.
The Mistress suddenly, viciously, with her small, slippered foot, kicked the supine girl. Melpomene cried out with pain.
"Kneel," I told Melpomene.
Swiftly then she knelt before the Mistress, head down. I saw then that the Mistress was mollified. I did not think then she would order Melpomene slain within the Ehn.
"Your vengeance on the slut was exquisite," said the Lady Leta.
"It was perfect," said the Lady Perimene.
"Thank you," said the Lady Florence, regarding her former enemy, now her naked slave, at her feet.
"Will you keep her as a personal serving slave?" asked the Lady Leta. "That might be amusing."
"She is too sexual to be a serving slave," said the Lady Florence.
Melpomene, head down, smiled.
"Will you keep her as one of your collared stable sluts?" asked the Lady Perimene.
The Lady Florence glanced at me. I had donned again my half tunic.
"No," she said. "I will not send her to the stables." I found that disappointing. Melpomene, I thought, would make a superb stable slut. Just the sight of her about the stables would drive the male slaves wild with desire, let alone the occasional opportunity to get their hands on her.
"No," said the Lady Florence. "I will have her sold in Ar. That is why I have invited Tenalion to my house this evening. He has a cage for her waiting in his wagon." She looked to Tenalion. "You may take her, Tenalion," she said.
Tenalion rose to his feet and went to t
he girl. "On your hands and knees, head down, Slave," he said.
Immediately the girl assumed this posture.
He removed his chain from the slave ring and also from the chain loop on her ankle ring. He then attached that end of the chain which had been attached to the chain loop on the ankle ring to the chain loop on her collar, that it might serve, if he wished, as a leash for her. He then threw the chain back between her legs. He then removed the ankle ring from her and threw it to Ronald, his man, who placed it in the box which resided near what had been Tenalion's place, behind his small table.
"Do you think she is good slave meat?" asked the Lady Florence.
"She is raw, and untrained, and needs diet and exercise, and discipline," he said, "but I think that, in time, she will prove superb slave meat." He then looked evenly at the Lady Florence. I conjectured that Tenalion thought it likely that the Lady Florence, too, under similar circumstances and conditions, might prove superb slave meat. I supposed that the cage on his wagon was large enough for two.
"I thank you for your supper and for the evening," said Brandon, a prefect of Vonda. "I must now rejoin my men and return to the city."
"I, too, extend my thanks to you for our business, and for the supper and evening," said Philebus, bounty creditor of Venna. He looked down at the naked slave, on her hands and knees, the chain depending from her collar, trailing back between her legs. "I had not thought to collect so readily or in so full an amount my bills."
The two men, then, with felicitations and pleasantries exchanged with the Mistress, withdrew from the room. The door to the anteroom, I noted, was no longer barred. No longer was there a need that it be shut.
The Lady Florence looked down at the stripped, humbled Melpomene. "Get this slut from my sight," she said. "Put her in a cage. Take her to Ar. Sell her. Auction her naked from a block."
Tenalion smiled. "She is a piece of property," he said, "an item of merchandise. I am not a raiding slaver. I am a business slaver. I cannot simply remove her from your premises."
"She is worthless," said the Lady Florence. "I give her to you."
"She is not worthless," said Tenalion, appraising the lines of the slave.
"Give me then," said she, "a tarsk bit, the tenth of a copper tarsk. It is more than she is worth."
"I am an honest man," said Tenalion. "Permit me to give you a competitive price for her, compatible with the month's markets."
"What is she worth?" asked the Lady Florence, curious.
Tenalion placed in her hand a silver tarsk.
"So much?" asked the Lady Florence.
"Yes," said Tenalion. "She is beautiful, and in her belly is slave fire. Men will pay high for such a slut."
The hand of the Lady Florence closed on the silver tarsk. Melpomene now belonged to Tenalion of Ar.
"I have sold you, Melpomene," said the Lady Florence to the girl. "You are a sold slave!"
"Yes, Mistress," said Melpomene. "Master," she said.
"Yes," said Tenalion.
"May I speak?" she asked.
"Yes," said Tenalion.
"For what was I sold?" she asked, head down.
"A silver tarsk," said Tenalion.
"Ah," breathed Melpomene.
"See that you prove worthy of having been sold for a silver tarsk." said Tenalion.
"Yes, Master," said Melpomene.
"Doubtless, Tenalion," said the Lady Florence, "you will soon have her branded." She spoke lightly, but I could see that she was interested in the question.
The eyes of the Lady Leta and of the Lady Perimene shone above their veils.
"I will have her branded in my camp before sundown of the day after tomorrow," said Tenalion.
"I see," said the Lady Florence.
"Have no fear, Lady Florence," he said, "her thigh will soon know, and well and deeply, the kiss of the burning iron. Soon she will be a properly and fully marked slave."
"Good," said the Lady Florence. Then she added, "Do not permit her to escape."
"Slaves do not escape from Tenalion of Ar," be said. He looked at her evenly.
She shuddered. "I see," she said.
I smiled to myself. Even if the security of Tenalion were not perfect, as is that of most slavers, making escape impossible, where would a naked woman in a collar go? If she should escape one master, surely she would soon fall to another. They have been made slaves, and they will remain slaves.
"Your vengeance on your enemy, Lady Florence," said the Lady Leta, looking down at Melpomene, "is surely now complete and perfect."
"Yes," said the Lady Perimene, regarding the collared slave, "you have reduced her to slavery, you have shamed and humiliated her, you have made her entertain your guests, you have made her dance for a stable slave, and then lie for him, and have now sold her."
"Yes," said the Lady Florence, "surely now my vengeance is complete and perfect, but if this is so, then why do I feel somehow dissatisfied?"
"I can explain that to you, Lady Florence," said Tenalion, "if you wish to listen."
She regarded him, puzzled.
"Girl," he said to the slave.
"Yes, Master," she said, quickly, frightened that she had been abruptly spoken to. Had she not been fully pleasing?
"Are you pleased that you are a slave?" he asked her.
There was a silence. Then the girl whispered, "Yes, Master, I am pleased that I am a slave."
The women, the Lady Leta, the Lady Perimene, the Lady Florence, gasped in astonishment.
"That is why you are dissatisfied, my dear Lady Florence," said Tenalion.
"I do not understand," said the Lady Florence.
"You have liberated the slave in her," said Tenalion. "She is now free to be the slave that she is, fully."
"I do not understand," said the Lady Florence.
"She will come to know emotions, and degradations and joys of which you, a free woman, cannot even dream. You have returned her birthright to her."
"Her birthright?" asked the Lady Florence.
"Woman is born to the collar, and love," said Tenalion. "You have put her in a collar. And she must now, helplessly, seek the other."
"Good night, Tenalion," she said, angrily. "I wish you well."
"And good night, too, to you, Lady Florence," he said. "And I, too, wish you well."
Then he spoke to the slave. His voice was quite different when he spoke to the slave from what it had been when he had spoken to the free woman. After all, he was then addressing himself to one who was only a bond girl. "Go to the back entrance, Melpomene," he said. "My wagon is there. Beg the driver to lock you in the slave cage."
"Yes, Master," she said. Suddenly she put her lips, and then the side of her head to the side of my knee. I felt her kiss, and then her tears.
"Slave!" cried the Lady Florence.
"Yes, Slave, Mistress," said Melpomene. Then, head down, she crawled from the hall on her hands and knees. She had not been given permission to rise. The chain, fastened to her collar, dragged behind her.
"I wish to thank you for a lovely evening," said the Lady Leta.
"It was marvelous, simply exquisite," said the Lady Perimene.
Tenalion and Ronald, his man, took their leave. Ronald, in one hand, carried the slaver's case, with its chains, and rings, and bracelets and collars, with him.
The two women, the Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene, too, took their leave.
As they left, I heard the Lady Perimene say to the Lady Leta, "But who would not be a slave in the arms of such a brute?"
The Lady Florence signaled that the musicians might leave. Pamela and Bonnie knelt at one side of the room, waiting for permission to clear.
"I should get the slave back to the stables," said Kenneth. "It is late."
"Of course," said the Lady Florence.
I turned away.
"Oh, Jason," she said.
I turned about.
"You did well tonight," she said. "I am very pleased."
"Thank y
ou, Mistress," I said. Again I turned away.
"Oh, Jason," she said.
"Yes, Mistress," I said, turning again to face her.
"It is nothing," she said. "Nothing." She looked at me. She seemed angry. "Go," she said. "Get out!"
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"You may clear," I heard her tell Pamela and Bonnie.
I glanced about once before leaving the room. I saw Pamela and Bonnie attending to the tables. The Mistress stood alone in the room. Suddenly, angrily, she picked up a plate and flung it across the room. Pamela and Bonnie kept their heads down, pretending not to notice. Angrily the Mistress left the room.
"Come along, Jason," said Kenneth. "Yes, Master," I said.
Chapter 23 - A GIRL IN THE TUNNEL
I stood in the absolute darkness of the tunnel. It was the central tunnel of that network of tunnels under the lands of the Mistress, by means of which various buildings, such as storage sheds, the incubation shed, certain of the stables, and the nursery, are connected.
My back was sore. Twice this week had I been beaten, and well.
Last night, while chained by the neck in my stall, I had received two visits, one from Taphris and one from Kenneth.
"Do you see now the power I have over you?" had asked Taphris.
"Yes," I had said, miserable in the straw, lying on my stomach, sick.
"I have the favor of the Mistress," said Taphris. "I can have you beaten when and as I wish."
"It is true," I admitted.
"Will you meet me now in the tunnel?" she had asked.
"No," I told her.
She stood at the open end of the stall, beyond my reach. She was angry. "I see that tomorrow," she said, "you will seize Claudia in your arms, crush her to you and rape her lips with the kiss of the Master."
I looked at her.
"It will be only my inadvertent discovery of your indiscretion," she said, "and my crying out that forces the separation of you guilty, discovered slaves."
"And I will be beaten again," I said.
"Of course," she said.
"I see," I said.
"Will you meet me now in the tunnel?" she asked.
"No," I said.
"Very well," she said.
I was silent.
"Are you not curious as to my designs on you?" she asked.