'Such hair,' I said, 'is very unusual.'
'I am fond of my hair,' she said.
'You might well be,' I said. 'Such hair would be the envy of many slave girls.'
'You need not speak of it that way,' she said.
'Did you know that auburn hair is highly prized in the slave markets?' I asked.
'I have heard that,' she said. 'Oh!' she said. I had jerked a strand of hair from her head.
I walked about, before her, and held before her a strand of hair. 'Why did you do that?' she asked.
'Is this your hair?' I asked.
'Of course,' she said. 'Why did you take it from me?' she asked.
'To identify you by it later,' I said.
'I do not understand,' she said.
'Why did you lie to me?' I asked.
'About what?' she asked.
'About the hair color of the new slave,' I said.
'I did not lie,' she said.
'Does this appear blond to you?' I asked. I showed her the strand of auburn hair, which she had just identified as her own.
'No,' she said, 'of course not.'
'This is yours, is it not?' I asked.
'Of course,' she said.
'Interesting,' I said.
'Why?' she asked.
'This hair, which you have identified as your own,' I said, 'I took a few days ago, in the darkness, from the head of the `new slave.''
'No,' she said, 'you just took it from me, now!'
'No,' I said, opening my left hand, 'this is the strand of hair which I just took from you. The other I have carried for some days, concealed in my tunic. I removed it from my tunic when I was behind you.' I held both strands in my right hand, before her. 'Note,' I said, 'how both strands are identical.'
She looked sick.
'Greetings, New Slave,' I said.
'Greetings,' she said, looking at me, frightened.
'Greetings, what?' I asked.
'Greetings- Master,' she said.
I thrust her back to the grass. It was high about us.
'What are you going to do with me?' she asked.
'You lied to me,' I said.
'What are you going to do with me?' she begged.
'Rape you as a slave,' I said.
'I only pretended to be a slave,' she wept.
'That pretense will be abruptly terminated in the camp of Tenalion,' I said, 'when the iron is pressed into your thigh, when the collar is closed about your throat.'
'Oh!' she said. 'What are you doing, your hands!'
'I am preparing you for slavery,' I said.
'Free me,' she begged.
I placed my mouth over hers. I felt her lips, full and liquid and wet, beneath mine. 'No,' I told her.
30 WE RESUME OUR JOURNEY
In a few moments she knelt before me, in the grass, shuddering, her head to my feet.
'You treated me as a slave, truly,' she said.
'You are a slave,' I told her, 'except for certain legalities, which will soon be satisfied.'
'No,' she wept, 'no!'
'Between now and our arrival at the camp of Tenalion,' I said, 'you will be and act in all respects as though you might be a full and legal slave. This will help you to accomodate yourself to your future condition. Indeed, it may save your life.'
'Take pity on me, Jason,' she said, head down.
I pulled up her head by the hair and crouched beside her. 'Oh!' she said. I slapped her twice.
'Does a slave dare to address her master by his name?'
'No!' she said, tears in her eyes.
'No, what?' I asked.
'No, Master!' she said. I released her hair. I stood up.
'I fear,' she said, 'that I will never be able to make the transition between a free woman and a slave.'
I laughed at her, and she looked up, angrily.
'There is in actuality no transition for you to make,' I told her.
'Why?' she asked.
'Because you are a woman,' I told her. 'On your feet, female.'
She stood up, enraged, her hands bound behind her. 'Turn about,' I told her.
She did so.
'Do you not feel the leash will be necessary?' she asked. 'Am I not to be led to the market on a strap, like a tethered she-tarsk?'
'I shall use the leash after dark,' I told her. The use of leashes differs among masters. Some masters use leashes for little more than tethering a girl. Others, of course, use them liberally as leading devices. They are often used with a proud, rebellious or recalcitrant girl, sometimes to publicly humiliate her. After being led on a leash it is not unusual for a girl to beg her master to be permitted to heel him, following him deferentially in her proper place. Leashes are generally used in cities, or in crowds. A loose slave can be a nuisance. They may be useful, too, of course, in broken or wooded areas, where a fleeing girl might attempt to find cover, or in dangerous places, where she might be stolen. A leash, it might be mentioned, aside from its convenience in controlling a slave, particularly the choke leash, is an extremely useful training device. Many trainers, the leash loop about their left wrist, hold the leash in their left hand and their training whip in their right. Girls, too, can be taught to use the leash to enhance their seductiveness, appearing to draw away, then approaching, using it about their body, kissing it, taking it in their mouth, fingering it, and so on. A test for slave potential used by some slavers is to leash a new girl and see if she, in her apparent rebellion and defiance, actually, subtly, perhaps in the beginning unconsciously, uses the leash to enhance her desirability and beauty. This indicates that she, in her heart, is not displeased to wear the leash of the master. Indeed, the leash, not uncommonly, can cause a woman to sexually blossom. This is presumably a function of such things as its actual restraint, which is quite real; its message to her that she is an animal, a slave; and its making clear to her, by a device, such as a bracelet, a brand or collar, what is the order of nature, who it is who controls her and who it is whom she must obey, who is the slave and who the master. A leash, even apart from questions of training, of course, can have a powerful emotional impact on a girl. It is a very useful way of convincing a girl that she is a slave; similarly it can always serve as an effective reminder. Some girls do not seem to believe they are slaves until they have been leashed. But after that, and after having been put through 'leash paces,' there is seldom any doubt in their mind. Some girls beg to be leashed, sometimes crawling to their masters, their leash held between their small, fine teeth. Most masters use the leash at one time or another. A Gorean saying has it that a leashed slave is a hot slave.
'So you will use the leash after dark,' she said.
'Yes,' I said. 'Apparently you have no intention of permitting me to escape from you,' she said.
