night under Gorean slave discipline.
I would doubtless be richly whipped.
'On your belly, little Dina,' he said. 'Let us interest the buyers.'
'Yes, Master,' I said.
I fell upon my belly at his feet, awaiting his commands. I looked up, terrified, afraid that he might strike me with the whip. I lay there for a long moment. He did not strike me. The crowd was amused at my terror. 'You will be prompt, obedient and beautiful, 128,' said the auctioneer to me, softly. 'Yes, Master,' I said. Then, suddenly, snapping the whip, he said, harshly, 'On your back, one knee lifted, the other leg extended, hands over your head, wrists close, as though confined in slave bracelets.' I complied. Then he began to put me rapidly through the paces of the exhibited female slave; he held me in each position for the sweet instant that well revealed me, tantalizingly, in that attitude or posture, and then barked forth a new command, to a new position or attitude; the sequence of these moves was not an accident; each move followed easily, sometimes by a roll or turn, from the preceding position; shrewd rhythm and flow, calculated and sensual, physically melodious, characterized the performance humiliatingly inflicted upon me; I must submit to the choreography of slave display; I, who had been Judy Thornton, a girl of Earth, was put through Gorean slave paces; then I lay on my belly at his feet, as I had begun; I was trembling; I was covered with sweat; my hair was loose about my head and eyes; I felt the auctioneer's foot upon my body; I put my head to the block.
'What am I bid?' he called.
'Eighteen tarsks,' called a man.
'Eighteen,' said the auctioneer. 'Nineteen? Do I hear nineteen?'
'Nineteen,' called a man.
My tears stained the block. I felt its sawdust with my finger tips. Its sawdust, too, adhered to my body, held by the sweat.
The leather of the auctioneer's whip, loosely coiled, was near my back.
I looked up. There were women in the crowd. Why did they not rise up and cry out in protest at the indignity inflicted upon their sister?
But they looked upon me impassively. I was only a slave.
'Twenty,' called a man.
'Twenty,' said the auctioneer. He removed his foot from my body and tapped me on the back with the whip. 'Kneel,' he said.
I knelt on the block, near its front, miserable, in the position of the pleasure slave, the light chain and sales disk on my throat.
'I have a bid of twenty copper tarsks for this lovely little beauty,' said the auctioneer. 'Do I hear a bid of more?' He looked out, over the crowd.
I knelt very still. I knew the house had paid twenty tarsks for me.
'Twenty-one,' called a man.
'Twenty-one,' said the auctioneer.
I breathed more easily. The profit was small, but it had been turned upon me.
I was very conscious of the sales disk at my throat; it was on a looped, close-fitting chain; I could not remove the chain; it was locked.
Twenty-one tarsks had been bid upon me.
I would not be a loss to the house of Publius.
It costs only a pittance to maintain and train a girl in the barred, straw-strewn pens of a slaver's house. What is the cost of gruel and a whip?
'I have heard a bid of twenty-one tarsks,' called the auctioneer. 'Do I hear a bid for more?'
The crowd was silent.
I was suddenly frightened. What if the house were not satisfied with the profit they had turned? Surely it was not much. I hoped they would be satisfied. I had done my best to obey the auctioneer. I did not wish to be whipped.
Gorean males tend not to be lenient with girls who have displeased them.
'Stand, Collar Meat,' said the auctioneer, I stood.
'It seems,' said the auctioneer, 'that we must let this little beauty go for a mere twenty-one copper tarsks.'
'Please do not be angry with me, Master,' I begged. 'It is all right, little Dina,' he said, with surprising pleasantness, considering how harshly he had managed me upon the block.
I swiftly knelt before him, holding his knees, looking up. 'Is Master pleased?' I asked.
'Yes,' he said.
'Then Dina will not be whipped?' I asked.
'Of course not,' he said. He looked down, pleasantly. 'It is not your fault,' he said, 'that the market is slow.'
'Thank you, Master,' I said.
'Now, on your feet, little beauty,' he said, 'and hurry from the block, for we have more animals to sell.'
'Yes, Master,' I said, swiftly rising to my feet. I turned to descend the block, on the stairs on the opposite side from that from which I had ascended the block.
'One moment, little Dina,' he said. 'Come here.'
'Yes, Master,' I said, running lightly to him.
'Place your hands in your hair,' he said, 'and do not remove them until you are given permission.'
'Master?' I asked.
I placed my hands in my hair. He took me by the back of the neck with his left hand and turned me to the crowd.
'Behold, Noble Sirs and Ladies,' he said.
Suddenly I screamed fighting the looped, heavy coil of the whip.
'Stop! Please stop, Master!' I cried in misery. I dared not remove my hands from my hair. I feared I would, in my helplessness, tear out my own hair. 'Please, stop, Master!' I cried out, twisting and squirming, held in place by his hand on my neck. I tried to fight the sensation of the whip.
'Writhe, little Dina,' he said, 'writhe.'
I cried out, begging him to stop.
'Did you truly think,' he hissed, 'we would take a profit of only a copper tarsk on you? Do you think us fools to buy a girl for twenty and sell her for twenty-one? Do you not think we know our trade, little slut?'
I screamed for mercy.
Then, his demonstration finished, he released my neck. I fell to my knees before him on the block. My head was down. My hands were still in my hair. 'You may remove your hands from your hair,' he said. I took my hands from my hair and put them over my face, weeping. I shut my knees tightly, trembling, sobbing.
'Forty copper tarsks,' I heard call from the floor, 'from the Tavern of Two Chains.'
'The Pleasure Silk bids fifty tarsks,' I heard.
I had been tricked. The auctioneer had caught me by surprise. Without warning I had been forced to reveal myself as a true slave girl, openly, inadvertently, spontaneously, incontrovertibly, helplessly.
'The Jeweled Ankle Ring bids seventy,' I heard.
He had handled his work well. He had exacted from the crowd the highest possible price in the given market before he revealed, unexpectedly and to her dismay, the delicious richness and vulnerability of the girl's exploitable latencies, they as much a part of her as her block measurements, and as much for sale. My responsiveness, like my intelligence, my service and my skills, such as they were, came with my price. The Gorean is satisfied only with the whole girl; it is the whole girl that he buys.
'The Perfumed Rope bids eighty copper tarsks,' I heard.
I could not believe the bids.
'She is Paga hot,' laughed a man.
'True,' said another. 'I wish I had her in my collar.'
On the block I sobbed, kneeling. I could not help that I had responded as I had to the touch of the whip. I could not help it! 'The Silver Cage bids eighty-five,' I heard. I wept, shuddering. I had been exhibited naked. I was
