Masters.'
'No, I said, 'No!' I turned away from her, again to open the curtain.'Did my dance interest Master?' she asked.
I turned again to look upon her. She knelt close to the wall, fastened by the neck and wrists tightly to the ring. I heard the small movement of the bells upon her. I saw the barbaric armlets and the tiny chain that held the small peral drop at her forehead.'Yes,' I said. My fists clenched.
'I beg to be fulfilled,' she said. 'and as the salve I am. I know I have no right to beg this, for a slave is without rights. I do, however, beg it, placing myself vulnerable and fully at your mercy. You may, of course, deny me this fulfillment for I am a slave. I hope, however, that you will not do so. I hope rather, that you will see fit to show kindness to a miserable girl in bondage.' I said nothing. 'I will strive to be worthy of my fulfillment,' she said.I crouched down behind her and put my hands on her waist. She shuddered, pressing herself against the wall. 'In what way?' I asked. 'By serving you completely and intimately, and as a abject and total slave,' she said. I did not speak.
'You will not regret it Master,' she said. I freed her wrists and neck of the rope, leaving it fallen by the ring. I then had her in my arms, she on her knees, by the ring. 'Alison will strive to please Master well,' she whispered. She then kissed me softly. Then softly, she whispered in my ear, 'The women of Earth are natural slaves.'
'No!' I said. 'Judge by me,' she said. I lowered her to the furs. I began to kiss at her body.'Nok' I said. Soon she began to gasp and sob in my arms. Then she began to writhe.Then she screamed in the alcove and then shuddering, shaking, was held in my arms. 'Am I not a natural slave?' She asked. 'Yes,' I said, 'you are.' There had been no mistaking the nature of her movements, her reflexes. They were clearly those of a natural slave. These things troubled me. She lay back. 'And I am a woman of Earth' she said. I looked down at her. 'What are you thinking?' she asked.'I was thinking,' I said, regarding the girl, 'that the men of Earth if they could but see an Earth woman as you are now would scream with pleasure.'We are waiting for our Masters,' she smiled.
I listened to the musicians outside of the alcove, the sounds of the tavern.
When one brings a girl to an alcove one may keep her there for most practical purposes as long as he wishes. She isyours, for most practical purposes, until one chooses to re-open the curtains. After the tavern is closed and attendant will let you out and, taking charge of the girl, see that she is properly chained at her ring by the girl-wall or kenneled.
'Do you now think it is so terrible a thing to fulfill the needs of a slave?' she asked. 'No,' I said. 'And if one is a natural slave,' shes aid, 'surely it is accepgtable for her to seek, even desperately the fulfillment of her deepest needs.'
'Yes,' I said.'And surely,' she said, 'it is permissible for the Master, though he is under no obligation to do so for she is only a slave, to deign in his kindness, it it be his whim or pleasure, to fulfill the needs of the slave.'
'It is totally up to him,' I said.
'Yes Master,' she said. 'She is only a slave.' 'That you are a natural slave, Alison,' I said, 'does not prove that all women of Earth are natural slaves.' My entire chain in training' she said, 'learned that they were.'
'That proves nothing,' I said.
'Do you think we were all so rare and different?' she asked. I shrugged, 'I do not know,' I said.
'We were not,' she said.'Perhaps, perhaps not,' I said. She smiled.'How long have you known you were a slave?' I asked. 'Since I was a young girl,' said said. 'I first discovered it in my thoughts, and dreams, and feelings, and fantasies. But I thought I could never be more than a secret slave at the mercy of a secret master. Then I was brought to Gor. Here I wear my collar openly and kneel before my masters for all the world to see. 'It is true,' I said.
'Do you object that I have slave needs, Master?' she asked.
'I do not object that you, personally, have slave needs,' I said.
'Indeed, I rejoice that you have slave needs for they make you a perfection and a dream of pleasure.'
'But you would not want all women to be like me?' she asked.
'No,' I said.
'But what if they were?' she asked. I looked at her angrily.'Or is it onlyo ne woman you would not want to be like me?' she asked.
'No!' I said.
'But what if she is?' asked the girl.
I closed my eyes. The thought of Miss Beverly Henderson as a female slave was almost overpoweringly erotic. With difficulty, I controlled myself. I thrust the thought from my minds. I must not even permit myself to think such things. I opened my eyes.
'Do not deny her nature to her,' said the girl. 'Kneel to the whip!' I cried. Terrified the girl scambled to her knees and knelt down, making herself small, her head to the furs. Her wrists crossed under her as though bound.She rembled. I now stood over her, the slave whip in my hand. I drew it back, then I threw it aside angrily. I crouched down. Then I jerked her head up, by the hair. 'Permission to placate,' she begged, reaching for me with her lips and mouth. But I held her by the hair from me. She whimpered, denied. Then I released her hair and permitted her to touch me.
'Thank you Master,' she whispered. She was a slave. I would permite her to attempt to placate me, in one of the ancient fastions of the female slave.
'I must soon be on my way,' I said. 'Master searches for a slave, does he not?' she asked. 'Perhaps,' I said. 'Do not ever let her forget that she is a slave,' said the girl. 'I must be on my way,' I said. 'Have me, but once again,' she begged.
I did so, and then, later, I rose to my feet. I unbuckled the leather curtains and threw them back. The tevern was not emnpty and closed. I turned about and again regarded the girl.
She had replaced the loops of her jewelry and knelt before me, in the position of the pleasure slave.
'It is hard for me to think of you as a girl from Earth,' I said. 'I am now only a Gorean slave girl,' she said. 'You danced well,' I said.
An attendant approached from a side door. 'I will put her in her kennel,' he said. He anpped his fingers at her, 'come, Girl,' he said.
'Yes Master,' she said. She rose quickly to her hfeet and ran softly to him. He took her by the arm. 'She whom you seek is a slave, is she not?' she asked. 'She is a legal slave,' I said, 'she is not a true slave.'
She was then conducted to the small side door, thougt which the attendant had emerged. Beyond it, I gathered would lie such things as the kitchens, the offices, the cellars and pantries, the storaqge rooms, the dressing rooms, the discipline chamber and the kennels. At the door the attendant let her paus and she turned to me. 'Good hunting, Master,' she called to me, 'Show her no mercy,' she said. Then she brushed a kiss with the tips of her fingers in the Gorean fashion. I returned this gesture. She was then conducted through the door. In a short time I heard the sliding downward and locking in place of a kennel gate. Shortly afterward the attendant returned to the floor and let me out, thought the main entrance. I heard it being bolted shut behind me. I stood then in the streets of Ar. I looked up at the moons and stars, beyond the cylinders and bridges. I then turned my steps toward the Street of Tarns, that somewehere among its many shops and cots, I might arrange transportation northward, toward the Salerian city of Lara.
2. The Victory Camp
'Greetings, Lady Tima,' I said.
'Jason!' she said, struggling in the straps. 'Do not hurt me!'
The night sky was red with the glare of the burning city.
'It will be a tarsk bit, said the fellow walking down the long line of pleasure racks. I placed a tarsk bit in the small leather sack nailed to the frame of the rack.She pulled back in the straps.
'I will take you no closer to Lara than this,' had said the fellow who had flown the tarn which had brought me to this place. 'Tarnsmen of Ar,' had said he, 'patrol the corridor between Vonda and Ar, but are insufficient in numbers to guard the sky beyond the corridor.Too tomorrow, as the cavalries mass for attack, the guard on the corridor itself will be abandoned.'I had nodded and paid him, crawling from the heavy basket.On his return trip he
