'Yes,' I said. 'You once served Kurii, the Others, the foes of Priest-Kings.'
'I told all that I knew,' she exclaimed. 'I told all in the dungeons of Samos! Iwas terrified! I held back nothing! I was emptied of information!'
'You were then valueless,' I said.
'Except, perhaps, as I might please a man as a slave,' she said.
'Yes,' I smiled.
Samos himself had issued the order of enslavement on her. In Ar I had presentedthe document to her and shortly thereafter, as it pleased me, implemented itsprovisions. She had once been Miss Elicia Nevins, of Earth, an agent of Kurii onGor. Then, in Ar, a city from which once I had been banished, I had caught andenslaved her. In those compartments which had been her own in Ar she had becomemy capture, and had been stripped and placed in my bonds. In her owncompartments, then, at my leisure, I had branded her and locked on her fairthroat the gleaming, inflexible circlet of bondage. Before the fall of darkness,and my escape, I had had time, too, to pierce her ears, that the full degree ofher degradation and slavery, in the Gorean way of thinking, be made most clear.
To Gorean eyes the piercing of the ears, this visible set of wounds, inflictedto facilitate the mounting of sensual and barbaric ornamentations, iscustomarily regarded as being tantamount, for most practical purposes, to asentence of irrevocable bondage. Normally ear- piercing is done only to thelowest and most sensuous of slaves. It is regarded, by most Goreans, as beingfar more humiliating and degrading to a woman than the piercing of a girl'sseptum and the consequent fastening on her of a nose ring. Indeed, such anaperture does not even show. Some slave girls, of course, are fixed for both.
Their masters, thus, have the option of ornamenting their lovely properties asthey please. It might be mentioned that nose rings are favored in some areasmore than in others, and by some peoples more than others. On behalf of the nosering, too, it should be mentioned that among the Wagon Peoples, even free womenwear such rings. This, however, is unusual on Gor. The nose ring, most often, isworn by a slave.
These rings, incidentally, those for the ears and for the nose, do not servesimply to bedeck the female. They also have a role to play in her arousal. Thebrushing of the sides of the girl's neck by the dangling ornament is, in itself,a delicate stimulation of a sensitive area of her body, the sides of her neckbeneath the ears; this area is quite sensitive to light touches; if the earringis of more than one piece, the tiny sounds made by it, too, can also bestimulatory; accordingly, the earring's feel and movement, and caress, andsometimes sound, persistent, subtle and sensual, functioning on both a consciousand subliminate level, can often bring a female to, and often keep herindefinitely in, a state of incipient sexual readiness. It is easy to see whyfree women on Gor do not wear them, and why they are, commonly, only put on lowslaves. Similar remarks hold, too, of course, for the nose ring, which touches,lightly, the very sensitive area of a girl's upper lip. The nose ring, too, ofcourse, makes clear to the girl that she is a domestic animal. Many domesticanimals on Gor wear them.
The girl kneeling before me, once Elicia Nevins, once the lofty, beautiful andproud agent of Kurii, now only my lovely slave, reached for my sandals. Shepressed them to her lips, kissing them, and then, head down, began to tie themon my feet. She was quite beautiful, kneeling before me, performing this lowlytask, the heavy iron collar and chain on her neck.
I wondered what the emissary of Samos might wish.
'Your sandals are tied, Master,' said the girl, lifting her, head, kneelingback.
I regarded her. It is pleasant to own a woman.
'Of what are you thinking, Master?' she asked.
'I was thinking,' I said, 'of the first time that I put you to my pleasure. Doyou recall it?'
'Yes, Master,' she said. 'I have never forgotten. And it was not only the firsttime that you put me to your pleasure. It was the first time that any man hadput me to his pleasure.'
'As I recall,' I said, 'you yielded well, for a new slave.'
'Thank you, Master,' she said. 'And while you were waiting for darkness, toescape the city, whiling away the time, you made me yield again and again.'
'Yes,' I said. I had then, after the fall of darkness, deeming it thenreasonably safe, bound her naked, belly up, over the saddle of my tarn and,eluding patrols, escaped from the city. I had brought her back to Port Kar,where I had thrown her, a bound slave, to the feet of Samos. He had had her putin one of his girl dungeons, where we had interrogated her. We had learned much.
After she had been emptied of information she might then be bound naked andthrown to the urts in the canals, or, perhaps, if we wished, kept as a slave.
She was comely. I had had her hooded and brought to my house. When she wasunhooded she found herself at my feet.
'Are you grateful that you were spared?' I asked.
'Yes, Master,' she said, 'and particularly that you have seen fit to keep me, ifonly for a time, as your own slave.'
Nothing so fulfills a woman as her own slavery.
After I had used her, I had put her with my other women. Most of these areavailable to my men, as well as to myself.
'A girl is grateful,' she said, 'that this night you had her chained to yourslave ring.'
'Who is grateful?' I asked.
'Elicia is grateful,' she said.
'Who is Elicia?' I asked.
'I am Elicia,' she said. 'That is the name my Master has seen fit to give me.'
I smiled. Slaves, no more than other animals, do not have names in their ownright. They are named by the Master. She wore her former name, but now only as aslave name, and by my decision.
I stood up, and drew about me one of the furs from the couch. I went to the sideof the room and, with a belt, belted the fur about me. Also, from the wall, fromits peg, I took down the scabbard with its sheathed short sword. I removed theblade from the scabbard and wiped it on the fur I had belted about me. I thenreinserted the blade in the scabbard. The blade is wiped to remove moisture fromit. Most Gorean scabbards are not moisture proof, as this would entail eithertoo close a fit for the blade or an impeding flap. I slung the scabbard strapover my left shoulder, in the Gorean fashion. In this way the scabbard, theblade once drawn, may be discarded, with its strap, which accouterments,otherwise, might constitute an encumbrance in combat. On marches, incidentallyand in certain other contexts, the strap, which is adjustable, is usually putover the right shoulder. This minimizes slippage in common and recurrent motion.
In both cases, of course, for a right-handed individual, the scabbard is at theleft hip, facilitating the convenient and swift across-the-body draw.
I then went again to the side of the fur-strewn, great stone couch, at the sideof which, on the, tiles, chained by the neck, knelt the beautiful slave.
I stood before her.
She lowered herself to her belly and, holding my ankles gently with her hands,covered my feet with kisses. Her lips, and her tongue, were warm and wet.
'I love you, my Master,' she said, 'and I am yours.'
I stepped back from her. 'Go to the foot of the couch,' I told her, 'and curlthere.'
'Yes, Master,' she said. She then, on her hands and knees, crawled to the footof the couch and, drawing up her legs, curled there on the cold tiles.
When I went to the door, I stopped and looked back, once, at her. She, curledthere on the cold, damp tiles, at the foot of the couch, the chain on her neck,regarded me.
The only light in the room was from the tiny tharlarion-oil lamp which, earlier,Thurnock had placed on the shelf near the door.
'I love you, my Master,' she said, 'and I am yours.'
I then turned about and left the room. In a few Ahn, near dawn, men would cometo the room and free her, and then, later, put her to work with the other women.
'How many are there?' I asked Samos.
'Two,' he said.
'Are they alive?' I asked.
