by John Norman
I stepped outside the tavern, to drink in the pure air of Gor. We were permitted outside the tavern.
I stood beneath the sign of the Belled Collar, which swung above me, a large collar, from which hung bells.
"Greetings, Teela," said a man, passing by.
"Greetings, Master," I said.
I was Teela, a paga slave of the Belled Collar. That could be read, I understood, on the close-fitting steel collar I wore, a ten-hort collar.
I looked out, over the bridge, to the towers and cylinders beyond, and to the sunset over the walls of Ar. I saw the tracery of the bridges against the sky, the people moving about on them. Far below, in the streets I could see carts and wagons, too, being drawn by tharlarion. I looked up. One or two tarnsmen, on patrol, I saw in the sky. I thought of Clitus Vitellius.
"Greetings, Teela," said the girl who now stood beside me, who had come, like myself, from the tavern. She, like I, wore slave bells on her left ankle, brief, parted yellow silk, the house collar. We stood barefoot on the bridge.
I did not speak to her, but looked away.
"I am sorry I fought you for the candy," she said.
"I won it," I said, angrily.
"Yes, Teela," she said. Then she said, angrily, "It fell closest to me. It should have been mine."
Busebius, our master, sometimes, before ordering us to bathe and prepare ourselves for the floor, scattered a handful of hard candies among us. They were very precious, and, on the tiles of the slave room, we fought for them.
I looked at Bina.
I had leaped for the candy. It had been snatched by her hand. I had torn open her hand and thrust it in my mouth. She had struck me and pulled my hair. Rolling, wildly, screaming, we had bitten, clawed and kicked at one another. Then Busebius had whipped us apart. We had shrunk back from one another, cringing, punished slave girls.
"How foolish you looked," laughed Busebius. We reddened. We were only girls. Did he expect us to fight like men? How small and weak we felt.
"Hurry now to the baths," he said, "and thence to the room of preparation, for you must be soon upon the floor."
"Yes, Master," we had said.
Standing outside the door to the Belled Collar, we stepped back, and knelt.
Bran Loort, who had once been of Tabuk's Ford, carrying a low table, entered the tavern. He performed odd jobs about the tavern in return for his keep and a tarsk a week. We had knelt because he was free. Yet I wondered if in his heart he was free. He seemed a downcast, defeated man. He carried the table past us, which he had taken to the shop of a carver and enameler, to be inlaid with a Kaissa board. He was now returning it to the tavern. He slept in the tavern overnight. He was entitled to the use of the girls of the tavern, as it was his place of employment. Yet he had never used one of us. I feared he could not do so. I recalled he had been defeated by Thurnus and then, stripped, thrust before a rape-rack in the village on which a girl, naked and helpless, awaited him. "I give you my permission," had said Thurnus. Bran Loort had looked down. "Go ahead," had urged Thurnus. "Take her!" "I cannot," had whispered Bran Loort. He had been a defeated man. He had turned away from the rack and bent down to pick up his tunic. He had gone to the gate and it had been opened for him. He had left the village of Tabuk's Ford. He had found his way to Ar. He did small work about the tavern.
Bina and I regained our feet.
"I am sorry I fought you for the candy," she said.
"I am stronger than you," I said. "You should have given it to me."
"No," she said.
I did not speak to her.
"But it is embarrassing to fight before the men as a slave," she said.
"The candy," I said, "belongs to the girl who is strong enough to take it."
"You are the only girl I know here," said Bina. "We were once both the slaves of Clitus Vitellius. We have shared a chain before. I want to be your friend."
"You, too," I said, looking at Bina, Slave Beads, "are the only old friend I have here."
"Let us be friends," she said.
"We are friends," I said.
"Good," she said, hugging me.
I hugged and kissed her.
"But the candy was mine," I said.
"Slave!" she hissed, her eyes flashing.
"Slave!" I cried.
"Hurry inside," said Busebius, standing at the door. "Do you think I bought you to stand outside like fine free ladies and sniff the air!"
"No, Master!" we cried, and hurried within.
"Paga!" called a man. I hurried to him.
* * * *
It was now the eighteenth hour. The tavern was more crowded. I knelt back against the low wall, my wrists braceleted over and behind my head to Ring 6. A customer had reserved me to himself. I waited while he addressed himself to a game of Kaissa.
I had been longer in the tavern than Bina. I had been twenty days slave here and she had been with us only six. There were twenty-two slaves in the tavern, not counting the dancers, of which there were five.
"Do not run away," had said the man, putting me on my knees and braceleting my hands above and behind my head to the ring.
"No, Master," I had said, through gritted teeth.
I watched him playing Kaissa, completely absorbed in the game. I waited. What was I to be, a dessert, a liqueur? I clenched my fists in the bracelets.
Then I saw that he had brought about capture of Home Stone. They put away the pieces, sliding them into the drawer in the Kaissa table. They then conversed a bit, discussing, it seemed, the game. Then one man left, and he who had reserved me for himself, as though recalling me, took the rental key from his pouch and approached me.
I put my head down.
He unlocked the bracelets.
I looked up at him.
"What is your name?" he asked.
"Teela," I said. I had told him before.
"Go to Alcove Six," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said. "Does Master desire special equipment, or harnesses?"
"Hook bracelets," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said, putting my head down to his feet. He then left me, to return the bracelets and keys to the counter. I rose to my feet and went to the slave room to fetch the hook bracelets, leather cuffs with locks on them, and snaps; they are soft and the snaps, as opposed to the cuffs, require no key; some men enjoy them on their slaves; by means of the snaps the girl may be variously secured by the locked cuffs, her hands being fastened behind her or before her, or perhaps to her collar. I then hurried to the alcove, climbing the ladder.
The master was awaiting me. He put forth his hand and I gave him the hook bracelets. The keys for the hook bracelets are kept at the counter, as are the keys to the steel slave bracelets.
"Remove your silk," he said.
I did so.
"Extend your wrists," he said.
I did so. He fastened the hook bracelets on me. He did not, however, fasten them together.
I knelt before him, on the scarlet furs in the small alcove, in the light of the tiny lamp. I knelt in the position of the pleasure slave, the cuffs locked on me.
"Address yourself to my pleasure," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said, crawling forward, head down, my hair upon his body, to kiss him.
* * * *
It was well after the nineteenth hour, and again I was upon the floor.
The tavern was crowded. The music swirled loudly. Our finest dancer, Helen, a slim, blond Earth girl, tantalized the customers of Busebius in her silver chains.
"Paga!" called a man. I hurried to him.
On Gor I had met four Earth girls; all were slaves. Too, I had met several who, though Gorean, bore the names of Earth girls; such names, on Gor, I knew, are regarded as excellent names for slaves.
I knelt and poured the man his paga.
"Paga!" called another. I leaped to my feet, to hurry to him and serve him. Never, it seemed, had we been so crowded. I had not even had time to go to Busebius, behind his counter, to have the h
ook bracelets removed from my wrists.
I brushed against Bina, she hurrying to serve another of our master's customers.
I heard Helen cry out as silk was torn from her thigh. Still she danced.
A man reached for my ankle. I fled past him.
I hurried to the counter and handed Busebius, who was beaming, the paga vessel and strap. Again it had been emptied.
He dipped the vessel into a great vat of paga and returned it, filled, wet and dripping, to me.
"Paga! Paga!" I heard. I did not even have time to slip the vessel on its strap over my shoulder. Holding its two handles with my hands, I fled back, with a jangle of slave bells, to the floor, to serve.
The door of the paga tavern flew open. The music, for a moment stopped. Helen froze in a motion. Eyes turned toward the door. My heart skipped a beat.
Impressive men stood there, warriors, though not in the garb of Ar.
Their leader, without helmet, but in cloak and medallion, indicated that the music should continue.
The musicians again played, and, again, Helen danced.
The leader of the newcomers removed his gloves, slowly, and thrust them in his belt.
His eyes viewed the slave body of Helen, as a master's eyes look upon the flesh of a property girl.
Busebius, bowing, rushed to him.
The stranger casually looked away from Helen, and she bit her lip, tears in her eyes, no longer under his scrutiny.
He looked upon me, and I straightened my body. He was incredibly strong and handsome. I hoped that I looked my most beautiful.
He turned his attention to Busebius, who was speaking to him.
"Who is it?" I heard a man ask.
Bina stood near to me. She shook. She read the medallion of the stranger.
"See the medallion," said a man.
Busebius conducted the visitors, his honored guests, to a private corner of the tavern from which, on the raised dais there, they might well view the room, the musicians, and the dancer.
"Do you not know them?" asked a man.
"No," said the other.
Beside me, Bina trembled.
"They are the delegation of the Salerian Confederation," said a man.
"Their leader?" asked the other.
"Thandar of Ti," said the first.
I now well understood the agitation of Bina. Thandar of Ti, of the Warriors, of the four cities of the Salerian Confederation, was the fifth son of Ebullius Gaius Cassius, of the Warriors, Administrator of Ti, high officer of the Confederation. At one time a girl, the Lady Sabina, the daughter of a merchant, Kleomenes of Fortress of Saphronicus, high merchant of that city, had been pledged in Companion Contract to this Thandar of Ti. Raiders had struck the companion caravan, acquiring its riches and carrying off the Lady Sabina, and others. To guarantee the frustration of the Companion Contract and to prevent the alliance of Fortress of Saphronicus with the Salerian Confederation, the Lady Sabina had been reduced to slavery. She had been made worthless in the affairs of state. The alliance of Fortress of Saphronicus and the Confederation of Saleria had never taken place. Bad blood now existed between them.
"How beautiful he is," breathed Bina. Never had Thandar of Ti and the Lady Sabina of Fortress of Saphronicus, as far as I knew, looked upon one another. Their companionship had been an intended match of state.
Bina, Slave Beads, gazed upon the powerful, wondrous Thandar of Ti.
"He is handsome," I said.
"My ears are pierced," wept Bina. "My ears are pierced." Never, now, if ever, could she have hoped to be companion to such a man.
Thandar of Ti, and his fellows, some five of them, ordered from Busebius, who stood eagerly about them. They would have more than paga. They would be fed, and have wines.
The presence of the august visitors, except perhaps by the slaves, was forgotten.
Thandar of Ti looked in our direction. We knelt, two beautiful slave girls, lowly pierced-ear girls, paga slaves. It was a great honor for girls such as we that a man such as Thandar of Ti would even deign to cast a glance upon us.
Thandar of Ti looked away.
I smiled to myself at the irony of the situation.
In looking upon one of us, upon one of two lowly, exquisite slaves, he had been looking upon she who had once been the Lady Sabina, of Fortress of Saphronicus, once intended to sit regally at his side, gloriously robed, his free companion.
There were tears in the eyes of Bina.
Thandar of Ti, I noted, was very handsome.
"You have little paga left," I said. "My flask is full. I will serve them."
"More than one must serve them," said Bina. "Please, Teela."
"He is quite handsome," I said. "I will be enough."
"I wish to serve him," said Bina simply.
"I will serve him," I said.
"Do you think he will buy you?" asked Bina.
"I do not know," I said, "perhaps."
I rose lightly to my feet. Bina quickly followed my example.
Busebius hurried toward us. He gestured to us, and to four of the other girls. He gathered us about him. We were excited. "You six will serve," he said, indicating the men on the dais. Two of the girls cried out with pleasure, to be selected. "Go swiftly to the room of preparation," he said. "Garb yourselves as the hunter's catch." I was startled. The guests must be important indeed. We hurried to the room of preparation. Busebius went to give orders to the men in the kitchens.
We must serve the initial wines swiftly, with the matched breads and cheeses.
We tore aside our silks in the room of preparation. We freshened our perfumes and adjusted our make-up. We must be soft, and perfumed and luscious.
Busebius thrust his head into the room of preparation. "Earrings," he said, "jewelry!" Then he disappeared again.
"I do not want to wear earrings," wept one girl.
"Put them on, Slave," I snapped. I did not want to be beaten for one of us who was not pleasing.
I fastened golden loops in my ears, and slung necklaces about my throat. I slipped on an armlet.
Beside me, Bina placed earrings, unprotestingly, on her ears.
"Do you, too, not weep to put on earrings?" I asked her.
"No," she said, "I am a pierced-ear girl." The earrings, I noted, jeweled droplets, were very beautiful upon her.
I reached into a chest for hunters' netting. It is a stout cording, used to net medium-sized game. Its mesh was spaced at some two horts, about two and a half inches.
Cunningly we twisted netting about us, from our throats to our brands, high upon our thighs. We garbed ourselves as "the hunter's catch."
We looked in the mirror. Several of us gasped. Seldom had we seen such exciting girls.
"Hurry!" said Busebius, again appearing at the entry to the room of preparation. We knew then the wines, and the matched breads and cheeses, were ready.
"Teela, wait," said Bina.
The other girls left the room of preparation. "We must hurry," I said.
"I know what you intend, Teela," said Bina. "And it is not proper."
"I do not understand," I said. How could she know what I had in mind.
Bina stood between myself and the door.
"Get out of my way," I said. "Do you want us to be beaten?" I looked at her, angrily. "Do you fear," I asked, "that your Thandar of Ti will find me more pleasing than you?"
"No," she said, "Teela, I do not. I am not a free woman. I do not fear your slave competition. I know that I am beautiful and I can compete with you as a slave girl for any man."
I sniffed.
"But you have more in mind, Teela. I know you. You are not Gorean. You do not understand these things."
I looked at her, in fury.
"Failing to please him more than I, failing to interest him in your purchase," she said, "it is your intention to tell him who I was."
I looked at her, startled. How could she have known my plan?
"You think then he will free me, and free you, for hav
ing told him this truth."
I did not speak to her.
She turned her head from side to side. "My ears are pierced, Teela," she said. "You will only do him dishonor if you show him my present state."
"Don't you want to slip your collar?" I asked. I seized the close-circling steel on my throat. "Do you want to wear this?" I cried. "Do you want to be a slave, at the complete mercy of men!"
"I will not do dishonor to Thandar of Ti," she said. "I will serve him, not known to him, lovingly, as only what I am, a lowly paga slave."
"You are mad," I said.
"I am Gorean," she said.
"This decision," I smiled, "we will let Thandar of Ti make. We will let him decide."
"No, Teela," she said. "I have decided it."
"Get out of my way," I said.
"No," she said.
"Look," I said. "Even if he likes me, and buys me, I will tell him who you are, a little sooner or a little later, if only to gain our freedoms."