I looked down at the girl in my arms. I saw that what he said was true. Thispleased me. It was fitting that slave girls lived in terror of free men.
'They do not come that often to Kailiauk,' said a fellow, cheerfully.
'When they come,' said another, 'it is with a thirst for paga and the wenches ofthe taverns.'
'Who can blame them?' said another.
The kaiila ranches, I supposed, were remote, desolate places. Land, which issuitable for farming, and in proximity to towns, is seldom, along the perimeter,put to the uses of grazing.
'They are generally good fellows,' said another man.
'They spend their money freely,' added another.
'That is a point in their favor,' said another.
'A point in our favor,' said another.
'Some are dangerous and cruel.' said another man.
'Let us hope there will be no killings,' said another.
Killings among such men, hot-tempered and aflame with paga, I supposed mightoccur not infrequently. Too often, I suspected, a suspicion of cheating atstones or disks, or a dispute over a slave, might lead to the flash of steel,the sudden movement of a knife.
'You saved me, Master,' said the girl, holding to me.
'Perhaps to some extent,' I said, 'I have protected the investment of yourmaster.' It is well to help a slave keep clearly in mind that she is only anarticle of property.
'He had me cheaply,' she smiled.
'Perhaps I should not have bothered,' I said.
'But I am worth more now,' she said.
'Oh?' I said.
'Return with me to the tavern of Randolph,' said she. 'I will show you.' Shethen pressed her body against me, closely and lasciviously, and helplessly, inthe manner of the female slave, that of the woman who knows herself completelysubject to the will of men. She then put her arms about my neck and, standing onher toes, lifting her lips to mine, kissed me. I then, by the arms, held herfrom me. 'You kiss well, Slave,' I told her, 'Thank you, Master,' she said.
'Is it true that you are a barbarian?' I asked.
'Yes, Master,' she said. 'I was sold, even, from the house of Ram Seibar.'
'When?' I asked.
'Eighteen months ago,' she said.
'You are now no stranger to your collar,' I said. The kiss of a slave girl isunmistakable.
'No, Master,' she said.
'The central street seemed busy tonight,' I said. 'I find it hard to believethat you have been sent forth to solicit business, the evening being such as itis, for the tavern of Randolph.'
She looked at me, suddenly, frightened.
The fellow on the platform, at that time, began again to address the crowd.
'Barbarians! Barbarians for sale!' he called. 'Enter now. The sales begin in afew Ehn. Buy at the house of Ram Seibar! Barbarians for sale, cheap and pretty!'
'Solicit elsewhere,' I told her.
'Please, Master,' she said.
'If you do not wish to use her,' said a fellow standing nearby, 'do you mind mytaking her?'
'Of course not,' I said.
'Lead me to the tavern of Randolph,' said the man to the girl.
'Master!' said the girl to me.
'Do you dawdle to obey, Slave?' inquired the man.
'No, Master,' she cried, turning white, 'no!'
'Precede me,' he said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'As a slave girl,' he said.
'Yes, Master!' she said. With a sob she began to precede him, and as a slavegirl.
'Barbarians for sale! Barbarians for sale, cheap and pretty!' called the fellowon the platform.
I then went through the gate and entered the compound of Ram Seibar.
8 Grunt
I turned my attention from the apparently lovely young woman, though she wasfully clothed, who was strung up by the wrists near the central block. Herankles had also been crossed and bound, a slaver's trick to accentuate the sweetcurvatures of her hips and legs. A thong also ran from over the bonds on herankles to an iron ring a few inches below her feet. This tends to prevent unduemovement on the rope.
A distinction must be drawn between the side blocks and the central, or main,block, in a vending area. I shall describe the situation, specifically, as itexists in the sales barn of Ram Seibar. It is not untypical of the arrangementsin many such places, particularly in outlying areas. To be sure, there is, itseems, from market to market, and from city to city, an almost infinite varietyof ways in which women may be, and are, displayed and sold. This is notsurprising since the institution of female slavery, on Gor, is both extremelysuccessful and quite ancient.
In the central hall of the sales barn of Ram Seibar, which is open to thepublic, there are twenty-one blocks. Twenty of these are subsidiary blocks, orside blocks. These occur, aligned, ten to a side, along the walls, to the leftand right, as one enters. They are spaced rather evenly, in order not to suggestdistinctions among them. Too, they are placed a few feet out from the walls. Atone's convenience, then, one may walk entirely about them. They are about a yardhigh and five feet in diameter. In the center of each there is an iron ring. Thecentral block, which must be ascended by stairs, lies at the far end of the hallas one enters, opposite the door. It is about seven or eight feet in height andsome twenty feet in diameter. Girls are seldom auctioned from the side blocks.
Occasionally fixed prices are set on them. If this is the case the price isusually written on their body, either with a grease pencil or a lipstick.
Usually, however, of course, they find themselves being bargained for. The girlusually hopes that her master will pay enough for her to convince him that sheis of at least minimal value, and will not pay so much that he will be angrywith the merchant, for in such a case he is almost certain to take hisdissatisfaction out on her lovely hide. 'Side-block girl,' in the argot of theslave girl, like 'pot girl' and 'kettle-and-mat girl,' is a term ofdisparagement. It must be admitted there is more prestige in being auctionedfrom a major, or central, block than there is in being casually purchased from aside block. One might as well be sold off a slaver's public shelf, in a city, orout of a cage, or kneeling in the mud outside a village, from a 'slaver'snecklace.' To be sure, a girl who is once sold off a side block may, in time,her femininity blossoming under the discipline of the whip and the harshtutelage of masters, become a treasure, a slave so beautiful and desirable thatmen will pay fortunes to have her at their feet. I wandered over to the leftwall to look at some of the side blocks.
'I shall take this one,' I beard a fellow say, and so simply was the girl sold.
She was one of the few girls on whom Ram Seibar had set a fixed price. It waswritten on her back in lipstick, forty copper tarsks. She was one of the few whohad been freshly branded. Her wrists were crossed and bound before her, in cruelloops of rawhide, and, by a tight loop encircling her body, cutting into herflesh, held tightly before her. Ibis was to prevent her from tearing at thebrand. Hers were stained with tears. She, like the other girls on the sideblocks, was fastened on her block. Uniformly they wore collars and chains, thechains some five feet in length and attached to the block rings. She saw moneychange hands. She knew she had been sold. She looked at her master, andshuddered. She saw that he was handsome.
When one girl was sold from a block a new one was put in her place.
'How can you sell an unbranded woman?' asked a fellow of a slaver's man,indicating a freckled, fairly complexioned, red-haired barbarian kneelingfrightened on a nearby block, the palms of her hands down on the
