'Yes,' she said, 'it is true. I see in your eyes that it is true.'
He said nothing.
'And you will own me?' she asked.
'Yes,' he said.
'It is a strange feeling, being owned,' she said. Imnak shrugged.
'I have loved you since we were children, Imnak,' she whispered. 'I have thought for years that I would someday be your woman. But I did not think, ever, that I would be your beast.' She looked at him. 'Will you truly make me obey you, Imnak?' she asked.
'Yes,' he said.
She smiled. 'Your beast is not discontent,' she said.
He touched her softly with his nose about the cheek and throat. It is a thing red hunters do. It is a very gentle thing, like smelling and nuzzling.
Then his hands were hard on her waist.
She looked up at him. 'The lamp must be lit,' she said, 'and the water heated, that I may boil meat for supper.'
'Supper may wait,' he said.
He began to caress her, with tender, powerful caresses, gentle yet strong, possessive, commanding, as one may touch something which one owns and loves.
She began to breathe more swiftly. 'Imnak,' she whispered, 'you may do what you want with a beast, and a beast must do, fully, what you want.'
'That is known to me,' he said.
'Oh, Imnak!' she cried. 'Please! Please!'
Then her hands were untied from the pole, and freed, and she knelt at his feet. At his gesture, she, frightened, pressed her lips to his boots, and then looked up at him, waiting to be commanded.
He indicated that she should crawl to the tent. She did so, and he walked behind her, the whip now loose in his hand. I saw him thrust it, crossways, between her teeth and throw her back to the furs. She looked up at him, the whip clenched, in her teeth. This is a device which helps to keep a slave girl quiet in her ecstasies. She can then do little more than gasp and squirm.
Imnak looked about, and drew shut the flaps of the tent.
I gather that, later, he had, mercifully, removed the whip from her mouth, for I heard from the tent's interior the delicious ear-shattering scream of a slave girl yielding to her master.
Thimble and Thistle looked at one another. I saw in their eyes, though doubtless neither would have confessed it to the other, that they wished, each of them, that it was they, and not the new girl, in the arms of the male.
Arlene timidly reached forth to touch me. 'Master,' she said.
'Do you beg it?' I asked.
'Yes, Master,' she said, 'Arlene begs it. Arlene, who is your slave, begs it with all her heart.'
'Very well,' I said.
I took the slave girl in my arms. How delicious it is to do such a thing. How pleased I was to own her!
Thimble looked away. I saw Thistle, who had been the rich girl, Audrey Brewster, lips parted, look at me. Then she bit her lip and, too, looked away. I smiled to myself. Thistle, I thought, or Audrey, as I sometimes thought of her to myself, using that name now as a slave name, would probably be the first of the three girls to come to a full slavery. I recalled when she had, once, almost inadvertently, when wearing the yoke Thimble had put on her, when they had been going out to gather moss and grass, knelt to me. She, I had conjectured, would be the first of the three girls to come to a full slavery, or, as the Goreans sometimes put it, she would probably be the first to lick her chains.
'Master,' whispered Arlene.
I began to kiss her about the face and throat and shoulders.
She clutched me. It was good to own her. She was beautiful, and intelligent, and hot, and mine. I suppose those who have not owned a woman cannot understand what a pleasure it is.
'Oh, Master, Master!' she whispered.
'Be quiet, Slave,' I whispered, to her.
'Yes, Master,' she whispered.
15
Audrey
There is something nice about having a girl lying naked in your arms, who wears bondage strings on her throat.
'I have waited long for your touch, Master,' whispered Thistle, who had once been the rich Audrey Brewster. I caressed the side of her face. She looked up at me. She was worth having.
I had won her use in the bone gambling, her use as complete slave, until I chose to leave the tent.
The hunt had gone well. Imnak and I had brought down four tabuk. Poalu, whom Imnak, with my consent, had made first girl, and the other girls, had followed us. Poalu had showed them how to cut the meat and lay it out on stones to dry.
All now slept in the tent, save Thistle and myself. 'You were once Audrey Brewster,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'For purposes of my use of you,' I said, 'for I have full rights over you, I shall name you, for the tenure of my ownership of you, Audrey.'
'Thank you, Master,' she said.
'But you wear the name now,' I said, 'not as a free name, but as a slave name I choose to put on you.'
'Oh,' she said.
'Do you object?' I asked.
'No, Master,' she said. 'I am Audrey, your slave.' She clutched me. 'Why have you made me wait so long?' she asked.
'It pleased me,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
I had wanted her to be well ready.
Two sleeps ago I had had to whip Arlene and Audrey apart. 'Stay away from him!' had cried Arlene.
'I do not know what you are talking about,' had protested Audrey.
'Do you think I cannot see you putting yourself before him, smiling, brushing his arm!' cried Arlene.
'Liar!' had cried Audrey.
'Do you deny it?' exclaimed Arlene.
'Of course!' cried Audrey.
Arlene had leapt upon her and, in an instant, both girls, scratching and tearing, biting, rolled on the tundra.
'He is my master, Slave!' screamed Arlene. She knelt over Audrey.
'If Imnak gives my use to him I must serve him!' cried Audrey.
'He has not given your use to him!' said Arlene. 'Stay away from him!'
'Do not strike me!' cried Audrey.
'He is my master, not yours,' said Arlene, her small fist raised. 'Stay away from him!'
'I am a slave girl,' said Audrey. 'I must be pleasing to all free men!'
Arlene struck down at her and, suddenly, they again were locked together, tearing and scratching at one another on the trodden turf.
'Do not hurt me!' suddenly cried Arlene, she now on the bottom, Audrey kneeling over her.
'I am a slave. I will be pleasing to any free man I want,' said Audrey.
