'The collar is becoming on you, Melpomene,' I said to her.
'Thank you, Master,' she whispered.,
Many times, while the guests had supped and conversed, I had forced Melpomene to yield to me, and as a slave. Often, as I caressed the helpless, squirming slut, the guests paid us little attention. They continued to enjoy their supper, served by Pamela and Bonnie, and engaged one another in conversation. Often they discussed politics. The carryings on of slaves were of little interest to them. But sometimes the Lady Lets or the Lady Perimene would pause to observe the helpless passion of the slave girl and laugh at her, or insult her for her weakness. But she only kissed and clutched at me all the more. 'Slave!' once chided the Mistress. 'Yes, Slave, Mistress!' cried Melpomene, joyfully. 'Slave!' 'Scandalous!' once said the Lady Leta. 'She has no choice,' said the Lady Perimene. 'She must obey, and yield like that. She is a slave girl.' 'Look at her,' said the Lady Leta. 'Do you think she wants a choice?' 'No,' said the Lady Perimene, 'she does not want a choice. Choiceless, she wishes to yield fully and totally.' 'That would be her choice,' said the Lady Leta, 'to have no choice.' 'Would it not, too, be your choice?' asked the Lady Perimene. The Lady Leta was silent. 'How else could one yield totally to a male?' asked the Lady Perimene. Later in the evening, however, the moans and cries of the helpless slave must have become somewhat obtrusive. 'Must we gag the little slut to keep her quiet?' demanded the Lady Florence, angrily. I then, from time to time, placed my hand over the mouth of the slave, that her whimperings, her moans and cries not disturb the free persons. The last time, however, I let her scream the submission of her slavery to me. 'I am your slave, Master,' she screamed. 'I am your slave, Master!'
The guests then rose to their feet. I crouched beside Melpomene. She lay on her back, on the love furs. She was panting; her nipples were delicately rigid; her skin, from the dilation of capillaries, was a patchwork of red and white. The collar was obdurate on her throat. She reached to touch my hand. I permitted it, though she was a slave.
The Lady Florence came about the small tables to stand near the love furs, over her new slave girl.
'You are a slave, Melpomene,' she said.
'I am not discontent, Mistress,' said Melpomene.
The Mistress suddenly, viciously, with her small, slippered foot, kicked the supine girl. Melpomene cried out with pain.
'Kneel,' I told Melpomene.
Swiftly then she knelt before the Mistress, head dawn. I saw then that the Mistress was mollified. I did not think then she would order Melpomene slain within the Ehn.
'Your vengeance on the slut was exquisite,' said the Lady Leta.
'It was perfect,' said the Lady Perimene.
'Thank you,' said the Lady Florence, regarding her former enemy, now her naked slave, at her feet.
'Will you keep her as a personal serving slave?' asked the Lady Leta. 'That might be amusing.'
'She is too sexual to be a serving slave,' said the Lady Florence.
Melpomene, head down, smiled.
'Will you keep her as one of your collared stable sluts?' asked the Lady Perimene.
The Lady Florence glanced at me. I had donned again my half tunic.
'No,' she said. 'I will not send her to the stables.' I found that disappointing. Melpomene, I thought, would make a superb stable slut. Just the sight of her about the stables would drive the male slaves wild with desire, let alone the occasional opportunity to get their hands on her.
'No,' said the Lady Florence. 'I will have her sold in Ar. That is why I have invited Tenalion to my house this evening. He has a cage for her waiting in his wagon.' She looked to Tenalion. 'You may take her, Tenalion,' she said.
Tanalion rose to his feet and went to the girl. 'On your hands and knees, head down, Slave,' he said.
Immediately the girl assumed this posture.
He removed his chain from the slave ring and also from the chain loop on her ankle ring. He then attached that end of the chain which had been attached to the chain loop on. the ankle ring to the chain loop on her collar, that it mght serve, if he wished, as a leash for her. He then threw the chain back between her legs. He then removed the ankle ring from her and threw it to Ronald, his man, who placed it in the box which resided near what had been Tenalion's place, behind his small table.
'Do you think she is good slave meat?' asked the Lady Florence.
'She is raw, and untrained, and needs diet and exercise, and discipline,' he said, 'but I think that, in time, she will prove superb slave meat.' He then looked evenly at the Lady Florence. I conjectured that Tenalion thought it likely that the Lady Florence, too, under similar circumstances and conditions, might prove superb slave meat. I supposed that the cage on his wagon was large enough for two.
'I thank you for your supper and for the evening,' said Brandon, a prefect of Vonda. 'I must now rejoin my men and return to the city.'
'I, too, extend my thanks to you for our business, and for the supper and evening,' said Philebus, bounty creditor of Venna. He looked down at the naked slave, on her hands and knees, the chain depending from her collar, trailing back between her legs. 'I had not thought to collect so readily or in so full an amount my bills.'
The two men, then, with felicitations and pleasantries exchanged with the Mistress, withdrew from the room. The door to the anteroom, I noted, was no longer barred. No longer was there a need that it be shut.
The Lady Florence looked down at the stripped, humbled Melpomene. 'Get this slut from my sight,' she said. 'Put her in a cage. Take her to Ar. Sell her. Auction her naked from a block.'
Tenalion smiled. 'She is a piece of property,' he said, 'an item of merchandise. I am not a raiding slaver. I am a business slaver. I cannot simply remove her from your premises.'
'She is worthless,' said the Lady Florence. 'I give her to you.'
'She is not worthless,' said Tenalion, appraising the lines of the slave.
'Give me then,' said she, 'a tarsk bit, the tenth of a copper tarsk. It is more than she is worth.'
'I am an honest man,' said Tenalion. 'Permit me to give you a competitive price for her, compatible with the month's markets.'
'What is she worth?' asked the Lady Florence, curious.
Tenalion placed in her hand a silver tarsk.
'So much?' asked the Lady Florence.
'Yes,' said Tenalion. 'She is beautiful, and in her belly is slave fire. Men will pay high for such a slut.'
The hand of the Lady Florence closed on the silver tarsk. Melpomene now belonged to Tenalion of Ar.
'I have sold you, Melpomene,' said the Lady Florence to the girl. 'You are a sold slave!'
'Yes, Mistress,' said Melpomene. 'Master,' she said.
'Yes,' said Tenalion.
'May I speak?' she asked.
'Yes,' said Tenalion.
'For what was I sold?' she asked, head down.
'A silver tarsk,' said Tenalion.
'Ah,' breathed Melpomene.
'See that you prove worthy of having been sold for a silver tarsk.' said Tenalion.
'Yes, Master,' said Melpomene.
'Doubtless, Tenalion,' said the Lady Florence, 'you will soon have her branded.' She spoke lightly, but I could see that she was interested in the question.
The eyes of the Lady Leta and of the Lady Perimene shone above their veils.
'I will have her branded in my camp before sundown of the day after tomorrow,' said Tenalion.
'I see,' said the Lady Florence.
'Have no fear, Lady Florence,' he said, 'her thigh will soon know, and well and deeply, the kiss of the burning iron. Soon she will be a properly and fully marked slave.'
'Good,' said the Lady Florence. Then she added, 'Do not permit her to escape.'
'Slaves do not escape from Tenalion of Ar,' be said. He looked at her evenly.
She shuddered. 'I see,' she said.
I smiled to myself. Even if the security of Tenalion were not perfect, as is that of most slavers, making escape impossible, where would a naked woman in a collar go. If she should escape one master, surely she would
