wood. The blackiron of her collar, and the chain, contrasted nicely with the lightness andtexture of her skin.
'Is she worth fifty tarsks to you?' asked the slavers 'Yes,' said the fellow, slowly.
Immediately the slaver's man removed a long piece of rawhide, about four feet inlength, from his belt. He took the girl's hands behind her, and, crossing themwith one end of the rawhide, fastened them tightly, together. He then looped therawhide about her belly, jerked it tight, and tied it to her bound wrists. Thegirl looked behind herself, frightened, her hands fastened closely at the smallof her back. With a key he opened the girl's collar and placed it, with itschain, on the block. He then seized the girl by the arms and slid her from theblock, into the waiting arms of an attendant. 'Fifty tarsks for this freckled,little she-tarsk,' he said. 'This will be the buyer,' he said, indicating thefellow who had expressed an interest in the girl. The attendant nodded and,throwing the girl over his shoulder, left.
'Pick her up in ten Elm, at the front entrance,' said the slaver's man to theprospective buyer. 'She will be branded.'
The man nodded, and turned away.
I smiled to myself at the artifice involved in this transaction. The sale,technically, would not take place until after the young woman was branded. Iwatched her being carried out through a side entrance. I wondered if she knewshe were being carried to the iron. This lot of barbarians, which I guessed asbeing in the neighborhood of seventy or eighty girls, had been, as nearly as Icould determine, delivered only last night or this morning. Even now themajority of them had not been marked. This was a function, of course, of thebrief amount of time they had been in the possession of Ram Seibar. It takestime to bring an iron to branding heat and the iron, of course, its head sinkingand searing, burning, into the girl's flesh, marking her, loses heat rapidly. Agiven iron, accordingly, must be reheated before being reapplied. This situationis further complicated by the fact that the iron, normally, is cleaned followingeach application, a procedure which further reduces its heat. The cleaning isimportant for the precision and clarity of the next marking. Thus, in effect,each girl is marked with a new, fresh iron.
The most common brand site in a Gorean slave girl is the outer side of the leftthigh, closely beneath the hip. In this brand site the identificatory mark isthus placed high enough to be covered by the brief cloth of a common slave tunicand is available for convenient and immediate inspection if the tunic is lifted.
The time it takes to brand several women can be reduced by the common expedientof heating several irons, but most iron masters will not work with more than twoor three irons at a given time. Similarly, in a given house, normally only onefellow, at a time, attends to the branding. The rapidity with which the girlswere being placed on sale, incidentally, is not unusual at the perimeter. Thisis, I think, in part a response to buyer pressure and, in part, the result of anunwillingness on the part of most perimeter slavers to devote time, or muchtime, to such niceties as diet, exercise and training. They reason, I suppose,that the master can manage, feed and train the girl, once he owns her, accordingto his own pleasures.
'I shall take this one,' said a short, stocky, broad-shouldered fellow, in awide-brimmed hat. 'She has strong legs. Have her branded and put with theothers.'
The slaver's man nodded. They did not even discuss price. I gathered that alimited-lot price must have been agreed upon earlier, perhaps with Ram Seibarhimself. The slaver's man did not seem hesitant to deal with him. I gathered hewas well known in the area. He had bought more than one girl. Though the girlshe purchased were comely, he did not seem, particularly, to be interested inthat. He seemed to be buying them for some other reason.
As one girl, a branded one, was sold from a block down the way another girl, ablonde, was brought forward and flung on her hands and knees on the vacatedblock. A slaver's man then locked the collar on her, with its chain, running tothe block ring. She looked about herself, frightened. A fellow reached forth totouch her thigh. She struck at his hand and scrambled back. 'Don't! Don't!' shecried, in English. Almost instantly a slaver's man, a whip raised, was upon her.
The men about the block stepped back, watching, as she, on her side, andtwisting, writhed under her lashing. The slaver's man then folded back theblades of the whip, under their clip, and hooked the whip, by its butt ring, onhis belt. He then knelt her on the block, posing her. When the fellow againreached forth to touch her she did not resist. She had learned that she was thesort of woman whom men might touch when and as they pleased.
She contrasted interestingly with another girl, an auburn-haired girl, on thenext block. The auburn-haired girl, cooperating and without the leastresistance, assumed various postures and attitudes, following the indications ofthe various men about her block. She even permitted herself, without the leastresistance, to be posed, and by hand, for their interest. She knelt now on theblock, back on her heels, her knees spread, her back straight, her head back,her hands behind the back of her head. I had little doubt but what the situationof both of these girls would become even more clear to them once they werebranded.
'Noble Sirs!' called a voice, that of the fellow in the soiled blue-and-yellowshirt who had, earlier, been advertising the sale outside the compound. 'NobleSirs,' he called. 'We are ready for the final auction of the evening!'
This announcement was greeted with a murmur of interest and the men in the hallbegan to move toward the front of the room, to the vicinity of the centralblock. It was near the central block that the fully clothed, apparently lovelyyoung woman was strung up by the wrists. She, it seemed, had been saved forlast. During the course of the evening, from time to time, at irregularintervals, some fifteen or sixteen girls had been offered, in open bidding, tothe crowd. Some of these, at least initially, had been clothed, though often inlittle other than panties and a brassiere. I had stayed to see this woman soldfor I was curious to see if she was as beautiful as the delicate lineaments ofher face suggested. She was a fairskinned, slender, willowy girl. She appearedto be sweetly breasted, with a small waist and lovely, flaring hips, doubtlessnestling a luscious love cradle. She had, small wrists and ankles. They wouldlook well in shackles. I saw that her eyes, when she opened them, in pain andterror, to look out on the crowd, were blue. Her hair was red, and bound back,rather severely, with a ribbon. She squirmed a moment in the bonds, and thenhung still, near the central block. Her body, from what I could see of it, andjudge of it, showed promise. It might prove adequate, I speculated, even forthat of a pleasure slave.
I glanced back, and particularly to the left, at some of the side blocks. Theside blocks were now deserted, the men having drifted forward, except by theiroccupants, now forgotten, kneeling or crouching upon them, their necks in theircollars, fastened by their chains to the block rings. I smiled to myself. Someof the merchandise looked angry; no longer were they the centers of attention;they, though naked and chained, and on slave blocks, had been simply put frommind; they must remain behind, alone, precisely where they were, chained, whilemasters chose to ignore them, bestowing their attention on an item of at leasttemporarily greater interest. Already the merchandise was exhibiting the vanityof slaves. But let them rest content for, when the auction was done, mendoubtless would drift back to their perusal; they would then be again subjectedto the close scrutiny of masters; they would then be examined again, andclosely, to see if they might be of any interest.
'I believe we are ready to proceed,' called the gross, corpulent fellow in thesoiled blue-and-yellow shirt. With his kaiila quirt he indicated the suspendedgirl. 'We have here the last item to be put up for auction this evening, afairskinned, red-haired barbarian beauty.'
'We do not know if she is a beauty or not,' called a man. 'Strip her! ' 'But I hasten to assure you,' continued the slaver's man, giving no heed to thefellows enthusiastic contribution, 'that the market will remain open for yetanother Ahn following this auction. You are then invited to reconsider with aneye for prospective purchase the trinkets and baubles strewn forth for yourdelectation upon our side blocks.'
'On with it!' cried a man. 'Let us see her!'
'We have saved this barbarian beauty for last,' said the slaver's man. 'She willmake a fitting conclusion to the auctions of this evening, such a splendidevening at the house of Ram Seibar! Behold her! Is your interest not whetted?'
I could see, by glancing around, that the interest of several of the men wasindeed whetted.
'Even clothed,' laughed the auctioneer, 'is your interest not whetted?'
'That it is!' laughed more than one man.
'Let us see her!' called another.
That the woman was being sold last in the auctions does not indicate, per se,that she was the most beautiful. On the other hand, it was undeniable that shewas quite beautiful. Several of the girls I had seen auctioned off during thecourse of the evening, incidentally, had been quite extraordinary.
This woman, at any rate, was surely among the most beautiful. Some of the girlsauctioned earlier had also
