'I the topaz should reach the stronghold of Policrates,' she said, 'the way would be clear for the uniting of the raider forces of both the east and wast.'
'It has perhaps already reached the stronghold of Policrates,' I said.
'Surely routes to such a citadel have been invested,' she said. 'They cannot be adequately invested without considerable forces. I do not think a careful courier would have difficulty reaching the citadel.'
'What hope, then, is to apprehend the courier before he can reach the citadel,' I said. 'A slim hope,' she said. 'I agree,' I said. 'I would not wish to be who caries the topaz,' she said. 'Nor I,' I said smiling.
'You kenneled me last night,' she said. 'That is not unknown to me,' I said. 'I will no longer try to keep a door locked between us,' she said. 'That is advisable, 'I said.
She came than and stood near me. I restrained myself from seizing her in my arms and throwing her to the floor of the hall. 'Jason,' she said. 'Yes,' I said. She drew her robe down, slighty from her shoulders. 'I am ready to earn my keep,' she said. 'You speak like a slave girl,' I scorned her. 'Slave girls do not earn their keep,' she said. 'They do what they are told.' 'If you were a slave girl, would you do what you were told?' I asked. 'Of course,' she said. 'I would have to.'
'I wonder if you would make a good slave,' I said. 'Enslave me,' she said, 'and see.' 'You are a woman of earth,' I said. 'On this world,' she said, 'many women of Earth are kept as the total slaves of their masters.' I looked at her. Suddenly she knelt before me. 'Enslave me,' she begged. 'I will make you a good slave.'
'Get onyour feet,' I said confused. 'You are a woman of Earth. Must I teach you of all people, a little feminist, how to be a true person? 'This is Gor,' she said, 'not Earth. Such things are behind me now. I have learned too much.'
'Get up,' I said. 'On Gor,' she said, 'I do not need to pretend any longer. Here I do not need to be a political pupper. Here I am free at last to be a woman. 'Get up!' I cried. 'Fulfill my needs, please!' she begged. 'No!' I cried. Then I said again, 'Get up quickly. You shame me.'
She rose to her feet, tears in her eyes. She drew her robe tightly about her. 'It is I who have been shamed,' she said. 'You have shamed yourself,' I said angrily. 'No,' she said, 'that is not true Jason. I have been honest to myself. It is you who have shamed me, punishing me for permitting myself this careless honesty. It is my fault, in a sense. You are a man of Earth, still. I should have known better.
'You should not have such needs,' I told her. 'I have them,' she said. 'Change them,' I said. 'I cannot,' she said. 'Surely you desire to do so,' I said. 'No,' she said, 'no longer, I love them. They are the deepest part of me.'
'You must then, at the least,' I said, 'pretend that you do not have them.' 'Why?' she asked. 'I do not know,' I said, 'perhaps because they do not conform to the values of the glandularly deficient and sexually inert.' 'This is not Earth,' she said, 'Why should I conform to such values?' I do not know, ' I said. 'I do not know!'
'Such men and women,' she said, 'must make virtures of their deficiencies. Otherwise to their humiliation, they would confess themselves less than others.' 'Perhaps,' I said. 'I do not know.
'why do you let others, the petty and resentful, the fearful and inadequate, legislate for you in this sphere?' 'I do not know,' I said. 'What are their credentials?' she asked. 'Where are their proofs?' 'I do not know,' I said. 'Heeding their advice produces misery and frustration, impairments, physical and mental, anxiety, pain, sickness and self-torture. It can even shorten lives. Do these sorts of things seem to you the manifestations of a correct moral position?'
'I do not know,' I said. 'It is only the stupid and the mutilated and cripples who are to be accounted healthy?' 'I do not know,' I said. 'I do not know!'
'I am sorry if I have embarassed you,' she said. 'Go to your room,' I said. 'You have refused me as a woman,' she said. 'Go to your room, Miss Henderson,' I said. 'Of course, Keeper,' she said. She turned away from me. She went toward the staris. At the foot of the stairs, she turned again to fact me. 'I am still prepared to earn my keep,' she said.
'You are a woman of Earth,' I said. 'It is not necessary for a woman of Earth to earn her keep.' Take me to the market and sell me.' she said. 'Why?' I asked. 'Perhaps a man will buy me,' she said. 'I do not deny you your freedom,' I said. 'You are refusing me my slavery,' she said. 'You are displeasing me,' I said. 'Then beat me and rape me,' she said, 'and put me under discipline.' 'Go to your room Miss Henderson,' I warned her.
'And shall I strip and await your pleasure?' she asked. 'No,' I told her. 'Clearly,' she said, ' a girl is safe with you.' I said nothing.
'Do you behave in this fashion with the sluts in the paga taverns?' she asked. 'They are different,' I said. 'They are slaves.' And I added, not pleasantly, 'And only slaves.'I see,' she said. 'I envy the miserable creatures.'
'Do not,' I said. 'You donot know what it is to be slave.' 'I have been a slave,' she said. 'You were only a display slave,' I said. 'You were not a full slave. You do not have the least idea of what it would be to be a full slave.'
'Collar me, and teach me,' she said. 'You are a woman of Earth,' I said. 'I have no intention of abusing you.' 'I am grateful, Keeper,' she said acidly.
I bent, angry to my pouch. I would find some money which I would insert in the lining of my tunic, a common thing among manual laborers on Gor.'What is wrong,' she asked from the stairs. 'This was not here before,' I said. I drew the object from the pouch. 'What is it?' she asked.
I turned the object slowly in my hand. It was a fragment of polished stone, a fragment of what apeared to have once been a beveled, rectangular solid. It was about the size of a fist. It was a yellowish stone, with an intricate and unusual brownish discoloration at the point where it had apparently been broken from a larger stone. 'What is it?' she asked.'I am not sure,' I said. 'I think it is the topaz.'
14. Lola
I went back outside and brought in the other materials which I had purchased here and there in Victoria. I then closed and bolted the door. 'Who is there?' called down Miss Henderson, from upstairs. 'It is Jason,' I said. The slave did not count.'Who is she?' asked Miss Henderson from the head of the stairs. 'Is it not obvious?' I asked.
'It is a female slave. I am calling her Lola.' this seemed to me appropriate, as it was the name which she ahd worn in the House of Andronicus. 'Who is she?' asked Lola. I smiled to myself. She would not have draed to speak so peremptorily before another male on Gor.Miss Henderson stood aghast at the top of the stairs, that a slave should have spoken so.'She is pretty and in your house,' said Lola to me, 'and yet she is not in a collar. I see that you have not changed since the House of Andronicus, Jason.'Insolent slave!' cried Miss Henderson. She had not worn a house veil since the night I had kenneled her.I noted that Lola had used my name. That would cost her, I decided an additional five strokes.
'There is shopping to be done,' I told Miss Henderson. 'Attend to it,' 'I do not wish to,' she said. 'Attend to it,' I told her.
'Yes, Jason,' she said angrily. She descended the stairs, took some coins from the kitchen, unbolted the door, and left. I rebolted the door again after her.
Lola looked at me. 'At least I shall have an easy slavery,' she said.
I had found her this morning near noon when I had been on my luncheon break. At such times, for my amusement and interest, I occasionally frequented some of the dock markets, where though cheap girls tend to be sold there, one may occasionally see a real beauty being vended. It is pleasant of course to see women being sold, particularily if they are beautiful.
She was kneeling, back on her heels, naked, on the hot boards of a slaver's platform. The boards were rough and splintery and there were tiny droplets of tar on them. She was shackled by the wrists on a short chain to an iron ring, heavy, whose plate was bolted into the boards.
'Lola!' I had said, my mouth full, chewing on the meat I had bought on the wharves.She had jerked back, seeing me.The sales had not yet begun. 'What do you want for her?' I asked.'Ten copper tarsks,' he said. 'Done!' I said.
'No!' she cried. 'Be silent, Wench,' he ordered her. I removed a ten-tarsk piece from the lining of my tunic.
