'It seems,' said he, 'a slut there betrayed their leader, Clitus Vitellius.' He laughed cruelly. 'I would not wish to be she,' he said.
'The vengeance of a girl,' I had said to Clitus Vitellius, 'is not a light thing.'
'Neither,' had said he, looking at me, 'is the vengeance of a warrior.'
I had shrunk back, frightened.
'Take him away,' had said Aurelion of Cos, my master. He had been conducted from the tavern.
'He is a warrior of Ar,' said the ship's officer, standing near me. 'I would not wish to be that slave girl.'
I looked at the wharf, which seemed to drift gently away from us.
'Did you know her?' he asked. He knew I had come from the Chatka and Curla.
'Yes, Master,' I said. 'But he will not find her at the Chatka and Curla. She was sent away.'
'Good fortune,' said he, 'for the treacherous slut.'
'Yes, Master,' I said.
The bow of the Jewel of Jad turned toward the gate of the harbor. There were eyes, two large eyes, one on each side of the bow. They were outlined in black; their interior was blue; their pupils were black. They looked toward the harbor gate. I heard the call of the oar master. 'Ready oars!' The oars slid through the thole ports 'Stroke!' he called. The oars, in unison, twenty on each side, dipped into the waters of the harbor, drew and lifted, the water falling from them in bright droplets, splashing back into the harbor.
I was indescribably happy, though, too, I was apprehensive. Clitus Vitellius was free, and had men.
The officer was looking at me. I was chained at his side. 'You are the only slave girl on board,' he said.
I looked at him, and laughed delightedly. He looked at me, puzzled.
'I will be a wonder to you, Master,' I laughed. 'I will be a wonder to you!'
He lifted the brief skirt of the yellow slave tunic to my left hip. 'You are a Dina,' he said.
'Yes, Master,' I said.
'I have heard Dinas are good,' he said.
'We are fabulous, Master!' I laughed. 'We are Slave Flowers.'
He laughed at the pun.
'We shall test your boasting later, little Dina,' he said.
I tried to press myself against him. I wanted to feel my body in his arms, his. Suddenly, Clitus Vitellius free, and with men, the world seemed open and glorious again. Again, suddenly, I rejoiced in the beauty of men and my slavery to them. Again, almost making me want to cry out with joy, I felt their attractiveness irresistibly and deeply. Again, suddenly, I felt myself helpless and owned by them, loving and helpless to their least touch and command.
I tried to lift my lips to the officer, but he held me from him. 'What a slave you are,' he laughed.
'Yes, Master,' I said.
Again I could not help my responsiveness to men, true men, Gorean men. To an Earth girl, accustomed to the hypocrisy and weakness of the men of Earth, their shame, their inhibitions and pretenses, the Gorean male, in his honesty, his power, his lust, his manhood, is a hurricane of joy. Clitus Vitellius, I knew, had been angry that I could not help but respond to men, scorning me for this rightly, perhaps, as the slave and slut I was, but I did not care. Though any Gorean male might make me, in spite of myself, a panting, orgasmic slave in his arms, I knew it had been only he, Clitus Vitellius, whom I had truly loved, and yet loved. In his arms I had always been the most helpless. He was my love master.
The officer gestured to the sailor who had first chained me, and he approached.
'Though you are the only girl on hoard,' said the officer, 'do not think that you will be treated easily.'
'No, Master,' I said. I knew I was a slave girl.
'Take her below decks,' he said, 'and chain her by the neck to a ring.'
The sailor threw me over his shoulder. I knew I would be kept below decks until late, chained, that my needs might grow even keener and more frustrated.
Then, when I was whimpering, I would be pulled to the deck.
22
What Occurred Southeast Of Cos
I walked about the deck of the Jewel of Jad. The deck was hot. The sun was bright. I brushed back my hair, which was now about an inch and a half in length, with my two hands and closed my eyes, stretching. I opened my eyes, and looked up at the sky. It was intensely blue, and the clouds were so white it almost hurt my eyes to look upon them. The single lateen sail, stretched from its yard, swelled with a clean, slow wind. I could see other ships to both the left and right, too, with lateen rigging, both ramships and round ships. There were some twenty vessels in the convoy. We were bound for Schendi.
We were two days out of Telnus, and it was the tenth hour. I loved to walk the deck, and feel the wind and the spray. The water was only a yard or so below the railing, as the ship, shallow drafted and freighted, plied the sea, sunlit and sparkling. I looked to the horizon, noting the other ships. They were beautiful with their masts and sails. I understood then how it could be that men might love the sea. Gorean sailors, as the sailors of Earth, speak of her as she.
I fingered the ship's collar on my throat, with its tag. It read, 'Send me to the Lady Elicia of Ar, of Six Towers.' At Schendi I would be bound and sent by tarn to Ar, there to be returned to the mercies of Elicia Nevins, a former beauty rival from Earth, who would then be again my mistress. I knew she would get much work from me as her serving slave. I touched the ship's collar. It is a hard thing for a girl to belong to a woman. Further, I knew she would wish me to be a demure girl, a fitting serving slave for a lady of wealth and rank, one whose status and image requires that her girls be paragons of shy, perfect obedience, humility and modesty, that they reflect not the least dishonor upon her. If I so much as looked at a man, even a slave, I had no doubt she would tear the Mesh from my bones with the delicately beaded, feminine slave whip which, by its slender leather loop, hung upon its peg in her bedroom, where I, her girl, might constantly see it. I had already felt it. It would be torture to belong to her, not only from the shame of being forced to serve her perfectly, but because she would expect me to adopt her values and conform absolutely to them, values which involved her proud, determined independence of men, and her contempt of them. The slave girl must be as the mistress wishes. I had felt the hands of Gorean men, tight and strong, on my slave body. I did not know if I could now live without them.
I resolved to put my mistress from my mind, and live for the moment, for the joy, the men, the ship and the sea.
Near the stern of the ship men who had been trolling a line now began, sweatily, bracing themselves, to draw it in. It pulled back, away from them, powerfully.
I ran to the stern that I might watch. Half out of the water, then returning to it, I saw a great speckled grunt, four-gilled. It dove, and swirled away. Another man came to help with the line. I observed the struggle. One often fishes from the ships on Thassa, and the diet of the sailors consists, in part, of the catch. Part of each catch is commonly saved, to serve as bait for the next.
I cried out with fear. One of the men shouted with anger. Rising from under the grunt swiftly was a long- bodied shark, white, nine-gilled. It tore the grunt from the line and bore it away. Other dorsal fins, of smaller sharks, trailed it, waiting. Sharks, and sometimes marine saurians, sometimes trail the ships, to secure discarded garbage and rob the lines of the fishermen. The convoy, by its size, had doubtless attracted many such monsters. I had seen, yesterday, the long neck of a marine saurian lift from the waters of gleaming Thassa, It had a small head, and rows of small teeth. Its appendages were like broad paddles. Then it had lowered its head and disappeared. Such beasts, in spite of their frightening appearance, are apparently harmless to men. They can take only bits of garbage and small fish. Certain related species thrive on crustaceans found among aquatic flora. Further, such beasts are rare. Some sailors, reportedly, have never seen one. Far more common, and dangerous, are certain fishlike marine saurians, with long, toothed snouts; they are silent and aggressive, and sailors fear them as they do the long-bodied sharks. The sea sleen, vicious, fanged aquatic mammals, apparently related to the land forms of sleen, are the swiftest predators to be found in Thassa; further, they are generally conceded to
