supposed that a free woman who enters such a place courts the collar, and wants her bare feet in the yellow- dampened sawdust of the slave block. Sometimes a free woman, as an adventure, will disguise herself as a slave, even to the collar, and enter such an establishment.” “How bold they are,” I said. “And sometimes,” he said, “they end up in a different collar, one to which they have no key.” “I understand,” I said. “It is easy,” he said, “to transport a woman from a city, nude, bound, gagged, in a slave sack.” “Doubtless,” I said.
It was after dark when I approached the slave post.
“Who is there?” whispered Jane.
“It is I, Allison,” I whispered. “I have brought you something to eat.”
I could not well see the slaves, but, when they moved, I could hear the linkages which secured them to the post. Each was on a chain which led to a collar. Further, the left ankle of each was chained to the post, as well. Accordingly, they were twice secured. Beyond that, each was ankle shackled and wrist shackled. The Lady Bina, it seemed, had taken the warning of the slaver seriously.
“We have taken our gruel, face down, from the pans,” said Eve, bitterly.
“I have brought you some tiny honey cakes,” I whispered, “from the food cart of the masters.”
“You will be beaten,” said Jane.
“No,” I said. “It is with the permission of the Lady Bina.”
“The Mistress?” said Jane.
How easily, I thought, that word now comes to us!
“Yes,” I said. “Do not be concerned. They were left over. No one wanted them.”
“Garbage,” said Jane.
“I suppose so,” I said, “in a way.”
“Then when crumbs are found on our mouth, we will be whipped!” said Jane.
“I will take them away,” I said.
“No!” said Jane. “Please, no!”
“We have not had a sweet in weeks,” said Eve.
“Perhaps you remember how, on Earth,” I said, “we might indulge ourselves as we pleased.”
Small hands, shackled, reached toward me. “Please, Allison,” said Jane. “Please, please, Allison,” begged Eve.
I had brought four of the small honey cakes, and I gave two to each of the slaves.
They thrust them into their mouths, with soft cries of gratitude, and pleasure.
“Thank you, oh, thank you!” they breathed.
Simple things, a sweet, a kind word, a comb, a scrap of cloth, can mean much to a slave.
Then they shrank back, with a rustle of chain, frightened, for the light of a lantern had fallen upon us.
“What is going on here?” asked a voice, that of a camp guard, on his rounds.
“I am bringing food to the slaves, Master,” I said.
He held the lantern high, regarding us.
“Food is included in the post fee,” he said.
“This is extra, Master,” I said. “Tomorrow they are to be taken into the Voltai.”
“And what is in the Voltai, for pretty slaves?” he said.
“I do not know, Master,” I said.
Eve and Jane knelt by the post to which they were fastened, their heads down. I, too, remained kneeling, as I had been, as I was in the presence of a free man, though I lifted my head to the lantern. I could not well see the guard’s face.
He did not lower the lantern.
“Get your heads up,” said the guard to the chained slaves.
Instantly they complied.
At the post slaves are chained nude. A nude slave is quickly noticed. It is another way in which escape is made more difficult.
I remembered Eve and Jane from Earth, from the college, from the house. Here they were Gorean slave girls, naked, chained to a post.
“The Voltai,” said the guard. “Too bad.”
He then left.
“Tomorrow,” I said to the slaves, “you will receive new tunics, and collars. We are to be identically tunicked and collared.”
“You are well exhibited,” said Jane.
“As will be you,” I said.
“Mrs. Rawlinson arranged things well, did she not?” said Jane, shaking her chains.
“Yes,” I said.
“Do not let us be taken into the Voltai,” begged Eve.
“As I understand it,” I said, “we are to be back-braceleted and chained by the neck to the back of a wagon. At night, we will probably be shackled to the central bar, in a slave wagon. After a day or two, you will be released, to accompany the wagons.”
“We might then run,” said Eve.
“To be taken by bandits, or eaten alive by beasts,” said Jane.
“Stay near the wagons,” I said.
“There is no escape for us,” moaned Jane.
“No,” I said, “we are kajirae.”
I then prepared to withdraw.
“Thank you for the cakes,” said Jane.
“Yes,” said Eve, “so much!”
“You might remember,” I said, “that at the party we had been refused permission to feed, and had been denied lunch that day.”
“We were so hungry,” said Eve.
“Nora cast you some scraps to the floor,” said Eve, “on which you must feed, as a slave.”
“Yes,” I said.
“And she placed a pan of water on the floor from which you, head down, not using your hands, on all fours, were to drink, as a she-beast,” said Jane.
“I recall,” I said.
“Which water she spilled,” said Eve, “for which you were punished.”
I shuddered, and put my arms about me. How I had been punished, so mercilessly, so richly, switched! I had then, groveling and weeping under the blows, sensed that I was a slave, and should be a slave. I still feared Nora, terribly. I still thought of her as Mistress and myself as slave.
“Tonight,” I said, “I am to be taken to a paga tavern.”
“To be sold?” said Jane.
“I do not think so,” I said.
It could, of course, be done to me. It would have to be at the instructions of the Lady Bina, of course, my Mistress.
“I must let you rest,” I said.
“Here in the dirt, nude, in our chains,” said Jane.
“Do you not feel,” I whispered, “that they are right on you?”
There was a pause, in the darkness.
“Yes,” Jane whispered.
“Yes,” Eve whispered.
I then withdrew.
“Now those are slaves,” said Master Desmond, with an expansive gesture about the room, he in whose keeping I was.
“Yes, Master,” I said.
