'I am fourth girl,' she said.
'No,' I said, 'you are not.'
She looked at me with irritation. 'You are going to Port Kar, are you not?' she asked.
'Yes, ' I said.
'That is interesting,' she said, 'I, too, am going to Port Kar.'
'No, you are not,' I said.
'Add me to the coffle,' she said, 'I am fourth girl.'
'No,' I said, 'you are not.'
Again she regarded me with irritation. 'Very well,' she said. And then, angrily, loftily, she walked to the deck before me and then, movment by movement, to my fury, knelt before me, back on her heels, head down, arms extended, wrists crossed, as though for binding.
'You are a fool!' I told her.
She lifted her head, and smiled. 'You may simply leave me here if you wish,' she said.
'It is not in the codes,' I said.
'I thought,' said she, 'you no longer kept the codes.'
'Perhaps I should slay you!' I hissed.
'One of Port Kar might do such.' she said.
'Or,' I said, 'take you and show you well the meaning of a collar!' 'Yes,' she smiled, 'or that.'
'I do not want you!' I said.
'Then slay me,' she said.
I seized her by the arms, lifting her up. 'I should take you, ' I said, ' and break your spirit!'
'Yes,' she said, 'I expect you could do that, if you wished.'
I threw her down, away from me.
She looked up at me, angrily, tears in her eyes. 'I am fourth girl,' she hissed. 'Go to the coffle,' said I, 'Slave.'
'Yes,' said she, '-Master.'
She stood there proudly, straightly, behind the short rence girl, Ula, and, wrists bound, and tethered by the neck, was added to the salve coffle, as fourth girl.
I looked upon my former Mistress, nude, bound in my coffle.
I found myself not displeased to own her. There were sweet vengeances which were mine to exact, and hers to pay. I had not asked for her as slave. But she had, for some unaccountable reason, submitted herself. All my former hatreds of her began to rear within me, the wrongs which she had done me, and the degradation and humiliation to which she had submitted me. I would see that she abided well by her decison of submission. I was angry only that I myself had not stripped her and beaten her, and made her a miserable slave as soon as we had come to the barges.
She did seem particularly disturbed at the plight in which she found herself. 'Why do you not leave her here?' demanded Midice.
'Be silent, Slave,' said Telima, to her.
'You, too, are a Slave!' cried Midice. Then, Midice looked at me. She drew a deep breath, there were tears in her eyes. 'Leave her here,' she begged. 'I–I will serve you better.'
Thurnock gave a great laugh. The large, blond girl, Thura, gray-eyed, and the shorter rence girl, Ula, gasped.
'We shall see,' remarked Telima.
'What do you want her for?' asked Midice, of me.
'You are stupid, aren't you?' asked Telima, of the girl.
Midice cried out with rage. 'I,' she cried, '-I will serve him better!' Telima shrugged. 'We shall see,' she said.
'We will need one,' said Clitus, 'to cook, and clean, and run errands.' Telima cast him a dark look.
'Yes,' I said, 'that is true.'
'Telima,' said Telima, 'is not a serving slave.'
'Kettle Girl,' I said.
She sniffed.
'I would say,' laughed Thurnock, grinning, 'kettle and mat!' He had one tooth missing on the upper right.
I held Telima by the chin, regarding her. 'Yes,' I said, 'doubtless both kettle and mat.'
'As Master wishes,' said the girl, smiling.
'I think I will call you — ' I said, '- Pretty Slave.'
She did not seem, to my amazement, much distressed nor displeased.
'Beautiful Slave would be mor appropriate,' she said.
'You are a strange woman,' said I, 'Telima.'
She shrugged.
'Do you think your life with me will be easy?' I asked.
She looked at me, frankly. 'No,' she said, ' I do not.'
'I thought you would never wish to go again to Port Kar,' I said.
'I would follow you,' she said, '-even to Port Kar.'
I did not understand this.
'Fear me,' I said.
She looked up at me but did not seem afraid.
'I am of Port Kar,' I told her.
She looked at me. 'Are we not both,' she asked, 'of Port Kar?'
I remembered her cruelties, her treatment of me. 'yes,' I said, 'I suppose we are.'
'Then, Master,' said she, 'let us go to our city.'
9 Port Kar
I watched the dancing girl of Port Kar writhing on the square of sand between the tables, under the whips of masters, in a Paga tavern of Port Kar. 'Your paga,' said the nude slave girl, who served me, her wrists chained. 'It is warmed as you wished.'
I took it from her, not even glancing upon her, and drained the goblet. She knelt beside the low table, at which I sat cross-legged.
'More,' I said, handing her back the goblet, again not deigning to even glance upon her.
'Yes, Master,' she said, rising, taking the goblet.
I liked paga warm. One felt it so much the sooner.
It is called the Whip Dance, the dance the girl upon the sand danced. She wore a delicate vest and belt of chains and jewels, with shimmering metal droplets attached. And she wore ankle rings, and linked slave bracelets, again with shimmering droplets pendant upon them; and a locked collar, matching. She danced under ships' lanterns, hanging from the ceiling of the paga tavern, it located near the wharves bounding the great arsenal.
I heard the snapping of the whip, her cries.
The dancing girls of Port Kar are said to be the best of all Gor. They are sought eagerly in the many cities of the planet. They are slave to the core, vicious, treacherous, cunning, seductive, sensuous, dangerous, desirable, excruciatingly desireable.
'Your paga,' said the girl, who served me.
I took it from her, again not seeing her. 'Go, Slave,' said I.
'Yes, Master,' she said and, with a rustle of the chain, left my side. I drank more paga.
So I had come to Port Kar.
Four days ago, in the afternoon, after two days in the marshes, my party had reached the canals of the city.
We had come to one of the canals bordering on the delta.
We had seen that the canal was guarded by heavy metal gates, of strong bars, half submerged in the water.
Telima had looked at the gates, frightened. 'When I escapted from Port Kar,' she said, 'there were no such gates.'
'Could you have escaped then,' asked I, 'as you did, had there been such gates?' 'No,' she whispered, frightened, 'I could not have.'
The gates had closed behind us.
Our girls, our slaves, wept at the poles, guiding the raft into the canal. As we passed beneath windows lining the canals men had, upon occasion, leaned out, calling us prices for them.
I did not blame them. They were beautiful. And each poled well, as could only one from the marshes themselves. We might well have congratulated ourselves on our catch of rence girls.
Midice, Thura, Ula, Telima.
We no longer kept them in a throat coffle. But we had, about the throat of each, wrapped, five times, a length of binding fiber, and knotted it, that this, serving as collar, might mark them as slave. Aside from this they were not, at the time we had entered the city, secured, save that a long length of binding fiber, knotted about the right ankle of each, tied them together. Telima had been branded long ago, but the thighs of Midice, Thura and Ula had never yet felt the iron.
I watched the girl from Port Kar dance.
