'Greetings, Bran Loort,' said Thurnus.
Bran Loort's heavily sandaled foot struck into my belly. I cried out with pain.
'On your knees, Slave Girl,' said Bran Loort.
I struggled to my knees. He took up the slack in the neck rope, coiling it, holding my head a foot from his thigh. My vision blurred, and then cleared. I saw Thurnus looking down at me.
He regarded me.
Much and well had the young men of Tabuk's Ford pleasured themselves with the girl from Earth, the former Judy Thornton, now the helpless Gorean slave girl, Dina.
I put my head down, under the gaze of my master. But I was not to be permitted this courtesy. The rope, Bran Loort's fist in it, at my neck, the knot, under the left side of my jaw, pulled my head up.
I was to be displayed to Thurnus.
'I have something here of yours,' said Bran Loort.
'I see,' said Thurnus.
'She is a hot little slave,' he said, 'juicy and pretty.'
'That is known to me.' said Thurnus.
'She kneels now at my feet,' said Bran Loort.
'I see that, Bran Loort,' said Thumus.
Swiftly Bran Loort then discarded the rope and, with his foot, thrust me to one side. I fell sprawling in the dirt, and turned, lying on one side, to watch.
Bran Loort stood with both hands on his staff, one hand grasped in its center, the other hand, his left, some eighteen inches below the center of the staff. But Thurnus had not moved.
No one stirred in the crowd. I heard the crackle of the torches.
Bran Loort seemed for a moment unsteady. He looked from one of his cohorts to another.
Then he again turned to face Thurnus, who stood, not speaking, at the height of the stairs, some six or seven feet above the level of the ground, in the doorway to his hut.
'I have abused your slave,' said Bran Loort.
'That is what slaves are for,' said Thurnus.
'We took much pleasure in her!' said Bran Loort, angrily.
'Did you find her pleasing?' asked Thurnus.
'Yes,' said Bran Loort. He gripped the long, heavy staff more firmly, standing ready.
'Then,' said Thurnus, 'it will not be necessary for me to beat or slay her.'
Bran Loort looked puzzled.
'Surely you know, Bran Loort,' said Thurnus, 'it is the duty of a slave girl to be fully and completely pleasing to men. Were she not so she would be subject to severe punishment, including even torture and death, should it be the master's wish.'
'We took her without your permission,' said Bran Loort.
'In this,' said Thurnus, 'you have committed a breach of code.'
'It does not matter to me,' said Bran Loort.
'Neither a plow, nor a bosk, nor a girl may one man take from another, saving with the owner's saying of it,' quoted Thurnus.
'I do not care,' said Bran Loort.
'What is it, Bran Loort, that separates men from sleen and larls?' asked Thurnus.
'I do not know,' said Bran Loort.
'It is the codes,' said Thurnus.
'The codes are meaningless noises, taught to boys,' said Bran Loort.
'The codes are the wall,' said Thurnus.
'I do not understand,' said Bran Loort.
'It is the codes which separate men from sleen and larls,' said Thurnus. 'They are the difference. They are the wall.'
'I do not understand,' said Bran Loort.
'You have left the shelter of the wall, Bran Loort,' said Thurnus.
'Do you threaten me, Thurnus of Tabuk's Ford?' asked Bran Loort.
'You stand now outside the shelter of the wall,' said Thurnus.
'I do not fear you!' cried Bran Loort.
'Had you asked of me my permission, Bran Loort,' said 'Thurnus, indicating me with a gesture of his head, 'willingly and without thought, gladly, would I have given you temporary master rights over her.'
I lay in the dirt, my hands bound behind my back, the rope on my neck, watching. It was true what Thurnus had said. I could have been loaned to Bran Loort, and would have had to serve him as though he were my own master.
'But you did not ask my permission,' said Thurnus.
'No,' said Bran Loort, angrily, 'I did not.'
'Before, too, you have done such things, you, and these others, though not to the degree nor with the intent of this day.'
It was true. Sometimes the boys had caught us, Thurnus's girls, or those of others, too, and roped us together and raped us in the furrows of the fields, but it had been done in the bullying rowdyism of their youth, having slave girls at their mercy. There had been no intent of insult, or umbrage, in it. It had been the hot, fierce, innocent sport of strong young men, powerful and excited, who held brief-tunicked, branded girls, in rope collars, in their arms, nothing more. Does a slave girl not expect slave rape? Some masters enjoy having their girls raped occasionally; it serves to remind them that they are slaves. This sort of rape is not uncommon in a peasant village. It is usually taken for granted and ignored, save perhaps by the abused girls, but they are only slaves. Indeed, it is sometimes encouraged, to pacify young men whose natural aggressions otherwise might turn aside into destructive channels. It is also regarded, at times, as an aid in helping young males attain their manhood. 'If she pleases you, run her down, and take her, son,' is a not uncommon piece of paternal advice in a peasant village. I had heard this twice, though it had not been I on whom the young man had been set. Verr Tail had been caught and raped on her back, struggling, in the stream, once, and Radish had been caught and forced to give pleasure between the sleen cages. Each of these young men had walked differently following their conquest. I had shrunk back when they had approached. I knew they were now men, and I was only a slave. These two young men were not among the cohorts of Bran Loort. But what had been done today to me was clearly different in its intent and gravity from the casual, expected, fierce exhibitions of male aggression to which imbonded girls such as I must become accustomed.
'I have been patient with you, Bran Loort,' said Thurnus. 'We are grateful for your patience,' said Bran Loort. He looked about, at his cohorts, grinning. He set his staff, butt down, in the dirt.
I sensed that the codes were to be invoked. What Bran Loort and his fellows had done exceeded the normal rights of custom, the leniencies and tacit permissions of a peasant community; commonly the codes are invisible; they exist not to control human life, but to make it possible. The rapes of Verr Tail and Radish, interestingly, had not counted as code breaches, though in neither case had explicit permission for their conquest been granted by Thurnus; such permission, in such cases, was implicit in the customs of the community; it did not constitute a 'taking from' but a brief use of, an 'enjoyment of,' without the intent to do injury to the honor of the master; 'taking from,' in the sense of the code is not, strictly, theft, though theft would be 'taking from.' 'Taking from,' in the sense of the codes, implies the feature of being done against the presumed will of the master, of infringing his rights, more significantly, of offending his honor. In what Bran Loort had done, insult had been intended. The Gorean peasant, like Goreans in general, has a fierce sense of honor. Bran Loort had known exactly what he had been doing.
'I am disposed to be merciful, Bran Loort,' said Thumus, looking at me. 'You may now request my permission for what you have done to this slave.'
'But,' said Bran Loort, 'I do not request your permission.'
'I must then call the council,' said Thurnus, 'that we may consider what is to be done with you.'
Bran Loort, throwing his head back, laughed, as did his fellows.
'Why do you laugh, Bran Loort?' inquired Thurnus.
