'You called him 'Master',' I said, 'because, in your heart, you knew that he was your Master.'
'Yes, Master,' she said. 'That is it. I suppose I had known from the first instant I had seen him that he was my Master, and I was his Slave, but how could I, an Earth woman, have admitted that, even to myself, let alone to the superb, red brute.'
'What occurred then in the dream?' I asked.
'He lifted his hand and spoke out to the priest and the men about the altar.
'I lay there, helpless. He pointed to me and said something in his own tongue. I could tell that it was scornful.
'The priest, angrily, returned the knife of blue stone to the golden dish. Others, too, were angry. The thongs at my ankles were cut free. My wrist leashes were untied from the iron rings. The crowd began to become ugly. By a hand on my arm I was thrust from the altar. It seemed now they did not want me on the altar. I was struck by a man. I cowered. My wrist leashes were seized by two men and I was dragged before the pillar of oblong stone on which sat he to whom I had called out 'Master'. The anger of the men, and the crowd, I suddenly realized, was not directed at the red brute sitting upon the stone, but, startingly, frighteningly, at mc. They were not angry with him for interfering with their ceremony but somehow, for no reason I understood, with me. I shuddered, held naked by the wrist leashes before the stone, the object of the contempt and wrath, the scorn and fury, of the multitude. I, terrified, felt their hatred directed upon me, almost as though it came in waves. 'Why did you not tell us you were a slave? he asked of me. He spoke in English. 'Forgive me, Master, I begged. 'To our gods, he said, 'the offer of a contemptible slave would be an insulting sacrifice. 'Yes, Master, I said. The first time I saw you, he said, 'I thought you were a slave. Yet when I ordered you not to replace your sunglasses, you did so. 'Forgive me, Master, I said. 'Surely you know that any free man has authority over a slave girl? he asked. 'Yes, Master, I said. 'When you did not obey, he said, 'I then thought perhaps that I had been mistaken about you, that perhaps you were not a slave, but a free woman, and thus might serve as a suitable sacrifice to our gods. 'Yes, Master, I said, my head lowered. 'But, as I had originally thought, he said, 'you were only a slave. 'Yes, Master, I said. I did not raise my head. 'When I ordered you not to replace your sunglasses, you did so, he said. 'Yes, Master, I said. 'Why? he asked. 'Forgive me, Master, I said. 'You were disobedient, he said. 'Yes, Master, I said. 'Whip her, he said.'
The blond-haired barbarian looked at me.
'Continue,' I said.
'There were two rings before the stone, about five feet apart,' she said. 'They knelt me down.'
'Kneel down,' I said, 'precisely as in your dream.'
'Yes, Master,' she said. She knelt down. 'My wrist leashes,' she said, 'were then slipped through the rings, the free ends of each in the hands of a standing man.'
'It is interesting that that should be in your dream,' I said. 'It is a device for maintaining a differential tension in the body of a beaten girl.'.
'It seemed natural,' she said.
'It is natural,' I said. 'Now place your wrists exactly as they were at the beginning of your beating.'
'Yes, Master,' she said. She extended her wrists downward and to the sides.
'What then occurred?' I asked.
'I was beaten,' she said.
'How many strokes?' I asked.
'Eleven,' she said. 'Ten for disobedience, and one, to remind me that I was a slave.'
'Interesting,' I said. 'That, too, is sometimes done.'
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'You will now,' I said, 'count the strokes, and, after each count, react as you did in your dream.'
'Yes, Master,' she said.
I observed her. The beating, in her dream, had apparently been quite efficient I studied her facial expressions, the movements of her body. Sometimes under the blows or in fearful anticipation of them she twisted or changed position, once sitting, sometimes crouching, once on her stomach; most of the blows were across her back, but two had been delivered frontally, and two to her left side, and one to her right side. In all this I was conscious, in her movements, of how the two men with the wrist leashes, tightening or slackening them, toyed and played with her, as one sometimes does with a slave, skillfully managing her in her beating.
'The beating was then finished?' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'Apparently you were well beaten,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said, 'I was well beaten.'
'At the end of the beating you well knew that you were a slave,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said, 'I well knew then that I was a slave.'
'What occurred then?' I asked.
'I cowered kneeling, sobbing, before my master,' she said. 'The men then thrust my wrist leashes back through the rings and, by means of them, dragged me to my feet. I looked up at my master, piteously, searching his face for the least sign of kindness. But there was none. I was a woman of a foreign and hated race, and a slave. 'You are a worthless slave, he said. 'Yes, Master, I wept. He gestured to his right. I was dragged to the side by the wrist leashes. Stumbling I saw before me a circular opening in the stone, like a sunken, sheer-sided pool some eight feet in diameter. The men went to either side of the pool, dragging me by the wrist leashes toward it. I heard grunting and movement, and stirred water, in the pool. In the light of lifted torches I saw its contents. I screamed. In the pool, clambering over one another, lifting their jaws upward were crocodiles, beasts like river tharlarion but differently hided and plated.'
I nodded. The marsh tharlarion, and river tharlarion, of Gor are, I suspect, genetically different from the alligators, caymens and crocodiles of Earth. I suspect this to be the case because these Earth reptiles are so well adapted to their environments that they have changed very little in tens of millions of years. The marsh and river tharlarion, accordingly, if descended from such beasts, brought long ago to Gor on Voyages of Acquisition by Priest-Kings, would presumably resemble them more closely. On the other hand, of course, I may be mistaken in this matter. It remains my speculation, however, that the resemblance between these forms of beasts, which are considerable, particularly in bodily configuration and disposition, may be accounted for by convergent evolution; this process, alert to the exigencies of survival, has, I suspect, in the context of similar environments, similarly shaped these oviparous predators of two worlds. Certain other forms of Gorean beast, however, I suspect do have an Earth origin. This seems to be the case with certain birds and rodents and, possibly, even with an animal as important to the Gorean economy as the bosk.
'Struggling, trying to pull back, fighting the wrist leashes, screaming, inch by inch,' she said, 'I was drawn toward the pool. 'Master! Master! I screamed. Then I was drawn to the very edge of the pool. I looked back wildly over my shoulder, sobbing. 'Please, Master! I wept. 'Have mercy on me, Master! Mercy, Master, mercy! Take pity on a worthless slave! The wrist leashes then tightened, to plunge me forward into the lifted, waiting, lunging jaws. I threw my head back. I do not know from where within me came then that piteous wild cry that I then uttered. 'Let me please you! I cried. He must have given a sign, perhaps raising his hand, for the wrist leashes, tight on my small wrists, no longer pulled me forward, but neither did they let me move an inch back. 'Let your girl try to please you, Master! I cried. 'The girl begs to please her master! I could scarcely believe that I had uttered those words. I was horrified that I had said them. They were the words, surely, of a slave. Yet how naturally and spontaneously they had come from me! What could it mean? I was dragged back before the oblong stone. There my wrist leashes were removed. I ran, terrified, to the stone, and pressed myself against it. I scratched at it with my fingernails, and looked up at him. 'Do you desire to please your master? he asked. 'Yes, Master, I said. 'As a slave? he asked. 'Yes, Master, I said, 'as a slave. I looked at him. I now knew what the words I had uttered had meant, those words which had so horrified me, and which, yet, had come so naturally and spontaneously from me. They had meant that I was truly a slave, and truly desired to please my master. Then, in my own heart, my slavery was well confirmed in me. 'Do so, he said. 'Yes, Master, I said, and stepped back from the stone.'
I listened to the noises of the jungle night. I threw some more twigs on the fire.
''You understand clearly, do you not, he asked, 'that if you are not sufficiently pleasing, you will be thrown to the crocodiles? 'Yes, Master, I said.'
'Continue,' I told her.
