'Yes, Master,' she said.
'Why are Thimble and Thistle,' I asked Imnak, 'in with the flesh loot?' The two Earth girls, Audrey and Barbara, knelt near Arlene.
'I have Poalu,' said Imnak.
The girl Belinda, whom I had used on the steel plates of the corridor, while she wore her long neck chain, fastened in the overhead track system, knelt a few girls away, in the second row. She lifted her body to me, her eyes pleading, but did not break position.
Constance, the lovely blond-haired slave from Kassau, whom I had imbonded in the fields south of the Laurius, knelt in the fourth row.
She was very beautiful.
Chains were brought, sirik chains, with their collars, and wrist and ankle loops, all attached, strung on an individual hold chain.
I threw six sink chains over my left shoulder.
'Let us begin,' said Imnak.
I threw two of the sirik chains to the tiles, one after the other.
Arlene and Audrey, swiftly, rose to their feet and ran lightly to kneel before me.
They looked up at me.
'I am a slave. I beg your chains,' said Arlene.
'Pick them up,' I said, indicating a sirik to her. She lifted up the chains.
'I am a slave. I beg your chains,' said Audrey.
'Pick them up,' I said, indicating the other sirik. She picked up the chain, with its collar, and wrist and ankle rings. I saw her lift it, tears in her eyes. Gently, head down, she licked and kissed the metal. I smiled. As I had thought, tho former rich girl was the first to lick and kiss her chaim.
Arlene, angry, lifted the chains to her lips. She, looking at me, pressed the chains to her lips and kissed them. Then, delicately, touching the chain with her small, soft tongue she licked the metal. Then she kissed it again. Then she held the chain diagonally in her mouth, her small, fine white teeth gently closed upon it. She then removed it from her mouth. 'You see, I can lick and kiss my chains even better than she, Master,' said Arlene.
'Oh, oh,' said Audrey, softly. Her body trembled. She looked up from the chain. She was almost in orgasm.
'But do you understand the meaning of it?' I asked Arlene.
Suddenly Arlene shuddered, and looked at the chain. She held it in her small hands. It, locked on her body, would confine her obdurately, making her helplessly the rightless slave of a master. Every organism has its place in nature. That of woman is at the foot of man.
'I love being a woman, Master,' she said. She held the chain against her bared beauty.
'Now lick and kiss the chain, Slave,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she whispered.
She bent her head to the chain and, delicately, sobbing with emotion, licked and kissed at the metal. Her tears fell among the links.
I locked the sirik on Audrey. She looked at me, desperately.
'Later,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'Go to the sled, Slave,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
They, still in sirik, would be fastened in fur sacks and tied on sleds. Later, after the first ice camp had been constructed, they would be freed from sirik, and used in the huts. Later, given garments, they would trek, In neck coffle, beside the sleds.
I took the chains from Arlene, pulling them from her, and, with five snaps, locked them roughly on her body.
I smelled the womanhood of her. She looked at me. 'Later,' I said. 'Go to the sled, Slave.'
'Yes, Master,' she mid, moaning.
Men about me were enacting similar ceremonies of enslavement with other imbonded wenches. Ram, I saw, took none. He was satisfied with lovely Tina, who had been the Lady Tina of Lydius. Drusus, I saw, had put a pair of beauties in sirik. He sent them to the sled on which he had been alotted space for his belongings, including two slave girls.
I threw another sirik to the floor before me.
Barbara, the blond Earth girl, knelt before me. 'I am a slave,' she said. 'I beg your chains.'
'Pick them up,' I said.
She did so, and kissed them. I locked them on her.
'Goto the sled,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
I threw another sirik to the floor before me.
Constance, the Gorean slave, blond and lovely, knelt before me. 'I am a slave,' she said. 'I beg your chaim.'
'Pick them up,' I said.
She did so, and kissed them.
I locked them on her.
'Go to the sled,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
I threw the fifth of the six sets of chains which I held on my shoulder to the floor.
Belinda, whom I had used in the corridor, hurried to me, kneeling before me.
She was joyful. I would permit her, at least for the time, at my feet.
Soon, in sirik, she made her way toward my sled.
I threw the last sirik to the tiles before me.
The graceful and aristocratic girl, she who had been the Lady Rosa, came and knelt before me. 'I am a slave,' she said. 'I beg your chains.'
'Pick them up,' I said.
She did so, and, looking at me, pressed them to her lips, Then she put her head down and, delicately, licked and kissed them.
I locked the collar on her neck, and the two wrist rings, one after the other, on her small wrists. I then took the chain between her legs and, crouching behind her, snapped the two ankle rings shut on her fair ankles. I then stood up and stood before her. I looked down at her, my hands on my hips. 'Whose slave are you?' I asked. 'Yours, Master,' she said. 'Go to the sled. Slave,' I said. 'Yes, Master,' she said.
'We must hurry,' said Imnak. 'In two Ahn this place will be no more.'
Outside the room which had been used for slave selection by the victors, I took a dart-firing weapon from one of the red hunters.
'Where are you going?' asked Imnak.
'To the chamber of Zarendargar,' I said. I slipped one of the darts into the weapon's breech, and let the bolt spring shut.
'Why?' he asked.
I shrugged. 'In the disruption consequent upon this place's destruction,' I said, 'his death would be hideous.'
I went to the chamber of Zarendargar, the weapon in hand. Imnak followed.
At the chamber of Zarendargar I pressed open the portal with my foot and lifted the weapon, to fire at the figure which would be recumbent upon the blood-soaked, furred dais.
I was startled. I leaped into the room. Weapon in hand I scanned the room, the walls, the high poles threaded over my head.
I shook.
Zarendargar was gone.
'I will have the rooms and halls searched!' cried Imnak. He hurried away, out of the room.
