Florence.
The bar for the tenth Ahn, the Gorean noon, had already been struck.
'I must escape,' wept Telitsia. I touched her brand, I fingered her collar, as she lay naked in the straw, looking up at me.
I shook my head. 'No, Telitsia,' I said. 'There is no escape for such as you, a Gorean slave girl.'
She turned her head to the side. 'I know.' she said.
'Telitsia!' said Kenneth, standing before the stall. We drew quickly, guiltily, apart. We both, immediately, knelt, heads down, before a free person.
'Where have you been?' said Kenneth.
'Here, Master,' she whimpered.
'Get your rag on,' said Kenneth. 'The wagon is ready.'
'Yes, Master,' she said, hurrying to pull her tiny, pathetic garment over her head.
'You, Jason,' said Kenneth, sternly. 'Were you given permission by some free person to engage in slut sport with this bond girl?'
'No, Master,' I said, head down.
'You understand that you could be slain for this?' he inquired.
'Yes, Master,' I admitted.
'How was she?' he asked.
'Lovely, and slave hot,' I said.
The girl blushed, all the exposed parts of her body turning red, even her legs.
I smiled. I did not think Kenneth truly objected to my rutting with the lovely, neck-ringed stable slut. Indeed, he had not kept her chained by the neck to her ring in the kennels for stable sluts this morning, a precaution which is not uncommon for a girl who is to be soon sold. Rather he had let her wander free. I think that he was not, in his way, unkind. He had doubtless suspected that she would seek me out, or another male slave of her choice. There had been no great search for her. Kenneth, it seemed, had come almost directly to the barn where I was training.
Kenneth threw me some binding fiber and a leash. 'Tie and leash her, and bring her to the wagon,' he said.
'Yes, Master,' I said. I went to Telitsia and bound her wrists behind her back with the binding fiber, and snapped the leash on her collar ring.
Too, however, it should be noted that Kenneth, permitting the bedding of the lovely slave girl at this time, had assured himself that she would be warmed for her sale. His motivations, thus, were doubtless not entirely altruistic. A vital, passionate woman, of course, displays herself very differently on the block than one who is inert, cold or frigid. There are degrees in these things, of course. For example, a truly frigid girl is almost certain to be a first-sale girl. Frigidity is a neurotic luxury which Goreans do not see fit to indulge in female slaves. It is permitted only to free women. The same girl who in her first sale was frigid is likely to be, by the time of her second sale, even should it be within the year, a wonder of lascivious appetition, needful of love and the touch of as uncompromising owner.
'Come along,' said Kenneth.
I followed him, leading Telitsia on her leash.
'Greetings, Kenneth,' said Borto, the driver of the low bedded tharlarion wagon. 'I see you have the slave.'
'Greetings, Borto,' said Kenneth. 'Yes, and I think she is now well ready for her sale.'
Borto laughed.
'I bring you another, a replacement,' he said, indicating a prone figure, in a slave sack.
'Good,' said Kenneth. 'We are short on stable sluts. They are useful in keeping the male slaves content, and may well be applied to lighter labors, on which a man's strength would be wasted.'
Borto smiled, and handed Kenneth a note, from inside his tunic.
Kenneth took the note and read it, frowning. 'I see,' he said.
'Put her in the wagon,' said Kenneth, 'kneeling position, leashed-legs tie.'
'Yes, Master,' I said.
Telitsia looked up at me. Her hands were bound behind her back. There were tears in her eyes. She lifted her lips to mine. I kissed her. I then lifted her into the wagon, kneeling her on the boards. Her breasts were loose and sweet within her small garment. It was high on her thighs. I then, using the leash, passing it before her body and between her legs, crossed and bound her ankles, thus fastening her in that same kneeling position in which I had originally placed her. She could not rise and the fastening on her collar kept her head down. It is a standard submission tie on Gor for a female slave.
The girl in the slave sack squirmed angrily, irritably.
Kenneth looked at the sack move, responding to the luscious girl curves within it.
'Does she not know she is not to squirm?' asked Kenneth.
Borto laughed. 'Apparently not,' he said.
'There is nothing in the note,' said Kenneth, 'to indicate that she is not to be a stable slut.'
'Doubtless she will have to be taught a few things,' said Borto.
'Bares!' called Kenneth.
'Yes,' answered Bares, who was nearby, tallying feed sacks.
'Bring a stable collar,' said Kenneth.
Bares put aside his tallying board and marking stick, and went into a nearby small building, an equipment shed.
'Hood her,' said Kenneth to me.
Telitsia sobbed. I took the slave hood from the wagon bed and drew it over her head, adjusting the straps and buckling them under her chin. I then descended from the bed.
Kenneth threw the key to Telitsia's collar to Borto, who caught it and placed it in his pouch. Her collar would be removed only when a new one was ready to replace it, probably the house collar of some slaver's emporium.
'Remove her from the sack,' said Kenneth. 'We will have a look at her.'
Borto untied the ropes at the foot of the sack.
Bares came to the wagon, handing Kenneth a stable collar, a light, hinged circle of iron, with an attached ring, that of the sort which is often used to loop the throats of stable sluts.
Borto lifted the sack somewhat, shaking and sliding the girl somewhat from it. Then she was on her knees, with the sack still covering the upper part of her body. I saw she had good legs. She also wore, I saw, a brown tunic, similar to those which are worn by stable sluts. It was, however, a little long.
Borto then drew away the sack.
'Ah!' said Kenneth.
I, too, was surprised. Kneeling before us, on the wagon bed, her hands braceleted behind her back, two small keys dangling from her enameled collar was Taphris, who was one of the personal serving slaves of the Lady Florence.
'It seems you have fallen from the Mistress' favor, Taphris,' said Kenneth.
'Perhaps,' she said.
He looked at her.
'Perhaps, Master,' she said.
'On your belly,' he said, 'head over the end of the wagon'
Angrily Taphris lowered herself to her shoulder, and then to her belly, and put her head over the end of the wagon.
Kenneth, removing one of the keys from the enameled collar she wore, removed it from her, putting it, and its key, back in the wagon, to one side. He then, she briefly shuddering, locked the stable collar on her throat.
He let her lie there for a moment. Then he said, 'Descend from the wagon bed, and stand here, before me'
She struggled up and then, carefully, that her tunic not be drawn upward, put her legs over the edge of the wagon bed and lowered herself to the ground.
