'I did not think I would be so successful in deceiving you,' she said.
'Why?' I asked. 'Did you fear the inadequacy of your English?'
'My English is excellent,' she said.
'That is true,' I said. Her English was indeed excellent. It was perhaps a bit formal and precise for a native speaker, a little too correct, perhaps, and it had been occasionally infected with certain oddities of expression and construction which had been surprising, but I had not weighed these factors heavily. I had discounted such matters in virtue of what I had conjectured were consequences of Gorean influence and a lack of practice, over years, in the language. 'Why then,' I asked, 'did you fear you might not be able to deceive me?'
'Is it not obvious?' she asked.
'No,' I said.
'Do you think that any real slave girl would even have dared to think of acting as I did?'
I said nothing.
'Do you know the penalties for such a thing?' she asked. 'The little sluts know well the meaning of their collars.'
'I understand,' I said. I shuddered. From her few simple words I now understood more than I had before of the depth and significance of Gorean slavery.
She went behind me and removed my shirt, which she threw in the fire.
She then strode to the front of the platform. 'We have a bid of a silver tarsk on this slave,' she said. 'Do I hear a higher bid?'
The crowd was silent.
'Come now, Ladies,' said the Lady Tendite. 'This is a superb silk slave. It is true he is somewhat untrained, but which of you is not capable of training a silk slave? He is from the planet Earth. He is fully tame.'
But no bids were forthcoming from the crowd.
The Lady Tendite turned to me. 'Remove your upper garment,' she said, 'that which conceals your chest.'
I looked at her.
'Quickly,' she snapped.
I pulled the garment, short-sleeved, of white cotton, a common T-shirt, over my head, and then held it. There is no specific Gorean word for this type of garment. The English expression for the garment was presumably unknown to the Lady Tendite.
Some of the women in the tiers had laughed, seeing my quickness in obeying the Lady Tendite.
Too, I was conscious of the women in the tiers regarding me with renewed interest, though caution. I stood very straight. I was not displeased to be regarded with interest. Too, I was not displeased to sense that certain of the women regarded me with considerable circumspection. I am large and strong. They were not certain, I conjecture, that I was fully tame. The feelings of a woman toward a man who may not be fully tame tend to be ambiguous. They are afraid of him, and yet they find him intriguing. They wonder what it would be to lie at his mercy, in his arms. What if, truly, he should not be tame? Then how would they be treated? What would be done to them? Would they not, in effect, be made his slaves, in the way of nature? But, too, I was apprehensive, for, in looking out on the tiers, I realized that one of these women could buy me, and that I would then have to obey her, and would be hers, fully, to do with as she pleased. I noted, too, that I was looked upon with a frankness, an openness of curiosity and sensual speculation, which I would not have expected from the women of Earth. I was being looked upon candidly as an erotic brute, a possible complement to their own urges and needs. Gorean women, not trained to be ashamed of their instincts, not tutored in the betrayal and suppression of their nature, tend to look upon males whom they find attractive with both honesty and pleasure. The concealment of feelings, particularly where male slaves are concerned, is a deceit not often practiced by Gorean women. Such a deceit tends not only to be rather beneath them, but, beyond this, would be almost meaningless to them. The male slave, you see, is an animal. Accordingly, he should be assessed as such.
The Lady Tendite approached me and held out her hand. I placed the T-shirt I had removed from my body in her hand and she went to the shallow bowl of burning cubes of wood and discarded it. I saw it burn.
She returned to me, speaking to the crowd. 'Note,' she said, 'the breadth of the chest, the width of the shoulders, the narrowness of the waist, the flatness of the belly.'
'One five!' called a woman. 'I can use him in the stable bouts.' I did not understand the reference to stable bouts. The bid, however, I gathered, was one silver tarsk, five copper tarsks.
'Stable bouts?' laughed the Lady Tendite. 'Surely you jest?'
'Are you sure he is tame?' asked another woman.
'You saw with what alacrity he removed his garment at my command,' said the Ladv Tendite. 'You see how he stands unheld on the sales platform'
'Lower your head,' whispered the Lady Tima tome.
I did so.
'Regard him,' said the Lady Tendite, 'a fearful slave, awaiting your command.'
'One six,' called another woman.
The Lady Tendite turned angrily to me. 'Take off your shoes and stockings,' she said. 'Leave them on the platform. Then kneel.'
'Yes, Mistress,' I said. I knelt down on one knee. I began to unlace my right shoe.
The Lady Tima, with her whip, stood near me.
'His is not a common work slave,' said the Lady Tendite to the crowd, 'a simple brute, an insensitive lout for your fields or stables. This is a valuable and highly intelligent silk slave. Furthermore, he is a male from Earth. From birth he has been taught to be deferential to the wishes of women, to adopt whatever values they have told him to adopt, and to believe whatever propositions they have told him to believe. Buy him. He has been trained since birth to be the slave of women. Have no fear. He will be sweet, tender, solicitous, understanding, sympathetic and obedient. You need not fear lust and power from him. You need not fear to be alone with him. He is a male of Earth. Bid for him. He will always be to you a lovely and complete slave.'
I now knelt on my right knee and unlaced my left shoe.
'Tendite,' said the Lady Tima to me, 'is not skilled in conducting a sale. I am training her.'
I did not respond.
'Is her skill in your language good?' she asked me.
'Yes, Mistress,' I said.
The bids, slowly, without enthusiasm, increased to one eight.
'How is it,' I asked, 'that the Lady Tendite knows English?'
'She learned the language in connection with training Earth-girl slaves,' she said, 'in the House of Andronicus. At one time, two or three years ago, English was one of the Earth languages used in that occupation. Now, as you may know, Earth girls are trained substantially in, or entirely in, Gorean.'
'Yes, Mistress,' I said. I recalled that the Ladv Gina had once told me something along these lines. The collared Earth girl would now learn her Gorean, or most of it, as a child learns it, or an animal, not through the medium of another language. According to the Lady Gina the method was efficient. I did not doubt it. Indeed, my own Gorean was largely a function of exactly this approach. The Lady Gina, who knew English, had, however, I must admit, given me occasional assistance. Although she had been strict with me, she had not, on the whole, treated me badly. I was sorry that I had disappointed her, in not becoming a man. But I was only a male of Earth, and a slave.
'Even after this change, of course,' said the Lady Tima, 'she continued in her employment in the House of Andronicus, continuing to be used particularly in her specialty, that of the training, though now generally brief, of naked, collared Earth sluts.'
I swallowed, hard.
'The little Earth beauties learned to fear her whip well,' said the Lady Tima.
I imagined it was true.
'I lured her to the House of Tima for higher wages,' she said.
'But you are not satisfied with her performance?' I asked.
'Is she not beautiful?' asked the Lady Tima.
'Yes,' I said.
