'It is our common victory,' said Thurnus.
'Yes, my love,' said Melina.
'Drink first, Companion,' said Thurnus.
Melina seemed startled. Then she said, 'It is first your victory, then mine, my love.'
Thurnus smiled.
'Drink you first, my love,' she urged.
'My love,' smiled Thurnus, 'drink you first.'
'First, you,' said she.
'Drink,' said Thurnus. His voice was not pleasant.
Melina's face went white.
'Drink,' said Thurnus.
She reached forth, hands shaking, to take the cup.
'I shall hold the cup,' said Thurnus. 'Drink.'
'No,' said she. She put her head down. 'It is poison.'
Thurnus smiled. Then he put his head back, and drained the cup.
Melina looked at him, startled.
'Greetings, Lady,' said Tup Ladletender. He had emerged from between the huts.
Thurnus threw away the emptied goblet, into the dirt. 'It is a harmless draught,' he said. 'Tup Ladletender and I, as young men,' he said, 'have fished and hunted sleen. Once I saved his life. We are brothers by the rite of the claws of sleen.' Thurnus lifted his forearm where one might see a jagged scar. Ladletender, too, raised his arm, his sleeve falling back. On his forearm, too, there was such a scar. It had been torn by the claw of a sleen, in the hand of Thurnus; the same claw, in the hand of Ladletender, had marked the arm of Thurnus; their bloods had mingled, though they were of the peasants and merchants. 'He now, has, too saved my life,' said Thurnus. 'I am pleased to have had the opportunity,' said Ladletender.
'You tricked me,' said Melina to Ladletender.
He did not respond to her.
Melina looked at Thurnus. She shrank back.
'Better,' said Thurnus, 'that the draught had been poison, and you had drunk first.'
'Oh, no, Thurnus,' she whispered. 'Please, no!'
'Bring a cage,' said Thurnus.
'No!' she cried.
'And a sleen collar,' he said.
'No, no!' she cried.
Two men left the group.
'Let me be beaten with flails,' she begged. 'Set the sleen upon me!'
'Come here, female,' said Thurnus.
She stood before him.
'Shave my head and return me in dishonor to my father's village,' she begged.
His hands were at the shoulders of her robe. He tore it down, exposing her shoulders. The shoulders of a female are apparently exciting to a man. This fact is recognized in off-the-shoulder formal evening gowns on Earth. The existence of such gowns, if Goreans were familiar with them, except on slaves, would be taken as more evidence of the fittingness and naturalness of enslavement for Earth females. She who wears such a gown begs in her heart to be owned.
'Thurnus,' protested Melina.
He held her by the arms, her shoulders bared. He shook her slightly. Her head went back. Her shoulders were wide, and strong, and beautiful. They would take a plow strap well.
Yet every part of a female body is beautiful to a Gorean, a hand, a wrist, an ankle, the back of a knee, the turn of a thigh, the sweet, soft hair, almost invisible and delicate, below and behind the ear. Each part bespeaks the glory and wonder and promise of the whole. I have heard Gorean men cry out with joy at the sight of a woman. There is little on Earth to prepare the poor Earth girl for the lust and desire with which she will find herself viewed on Gor. Initially she is bewildered, stunned and shocked. Then she is thrown on her back. She makes swift adjustment. She must. It is the Gorean world, a truly man's world, in which she is a woman. The lust of Gorean males has much to do, doubtless, with the robes of concealment worn in most cities by Gorean free women. They would not wish the casual, inadvertent flirtation of an accidentally exposed ankle to lead to their hunt, capture and enslavement. Slave girls on Gor, on the other hand, when permitted clothing, are usually dressed briefly and lightly, that their charms be muchly revealed. Gorean men wish it this way. That, accordingly, is the way it is.
Thurnus's hands were on Melina's upper arms, now bared, her robes pulled down from her shoulders. He looked at her arms. Then he looked at her face.
The cage was brought, a small, sturdy cage, tiny and tight, and a sleen collar.
'Let me be killed, Thurnus,' she begged.
Thurnus lifted the sleen collar before her. With her hand she held it from her. 'Kill me instead, Thurnus,' she begged. 'Please.'
'Put your hands to your side, woman,' said Thurnus.
She did so.
Thurnus then looped the sturdy, leather, metal-embossed sleen collar about her throat. With an awl, brought by a man, he punched two holes, vertically, in the leather strap, and thrust the twin buckle-claws through the holes; he then took the long, loose end of the strap, for the sleen has a large neck, thrust it through the four strap loops, thick and broad, and then, with a knife, cut off the portion of the strap which protruded beyond the last strap loop.
Melina, her shoulders bared, stood before him, wearing a sleen collar. It had, sewn in its side, a heavy ring, to which a sleen leash might be attached.
Instantly she was stripped and thrown to the ground. She looked up in fear at Thurnus.
'Into the cage, Slave,' said Thurnus.
'Thurnus!' she cried.
He crouched down and, with the back of his hand, struck her across the mouth, leaving blood across the side of her face.
'Into the cage, Slave,' he said.
'Yes-Master,' whispered Melina. She crawled into the cage. At a gesture from Thurnus, Sandal Thong, surrendering the sleen leashes to a man, who took the animals from the clearing, came to the cage and, with two hands, flung down the metal gate to the cage, locking her former mistress within. There was a cheer from those about.
'Let there be a feast!' called Thurnus, caste leader of Tabuk's Ford. 'And in the feast fires let an iron be heated for slave branding!'
There was another cheer.
In the tiny cage she who had been Melina crouched down, sleen-collared, her face miserable behind the bars, clutching them with her fists.
She would soon wear the mark of a slave in her flesh.
Men and women hurried about, to prepare the feast. At a gesture from Thurnus Radish, Turnip and Verr Tail ungagged me and freed me from the heavy stock. They helped me from the stock and I, by its head, sank down to the dirt. I could scarcely move. I could still taste the heavy, coarse, sour wadding of the gag in my mouth. I would not have believed so effective a gag was possible. At that time, however, I had not worn the Gorean slave hood with gag-attachment.
Verr was roasted, and puddings made. Sa-Tarna bread was brought forth and heated. Sul paga poured freely.
At the height of the festivities the cage was opened and its occupant, a former free woman, whose name had been Melina, now a naked slave in sleen collar, was ordered forth on her hands and knees. A sleen leash was attached to her collar and she was marched, as a she-sleen, crawling, abused, to the rape-rack in which I had been earlier confined. Therein she was fastened, the beams locking her ankles and neck, and wrists, in place, and,
