shoulder.
'What are you going to do?' he asked.
'I have purchased some trade goods,' I said. 'It is my intention to enter theBarrens.'
'That is dangerous,' said he.
'That is what I have heard,' I said.
'Do you know any of the languages? Do you know even 'No,' I said.
'Avoid them, then,' he said.
I then added another girl to the coffle, a shorthaired, sturdy-legged brunet.
'I am determined,' I said.
The fellow lifted the girl's short, dark hair. 'It will be difficult to braidthis hair,' he said, 'but it will grow.'
I then, taking a collar and a length of chain from him, added the next girl tothe coffle. She was also a brunet.
'I am curious,' I said, 'as to the nature of the girls you have purchased. Theseseven, though surely outstandingly attractive, seem to me to have been ratherexceeded in beauty by several of the others, whom you did not choose to buy.'
'Perhaps,' he grinned. He handed me another collar, and length of chain,unloosing it from his shoulder.
'Please don't put me in a collar,' said the seventh girl, looking up, tears inher eyes. She had spoken in English. She had light-brown hair. I put the collaron her throat, and locked it. She was then naught but another lovely componentin the coffle. She put back her head, and choked back a sob.
'Are you truly determined to enter the Barrens?' asked the fellow.
'Yes,' I said.
'How many kaiila do you have? ' he asked.
'Two,' I said, 'one to ride, another for the trade goods.'
'That is fortunate,' said the fellow. 'No more than two kaiila are to be broughtby any single white man into the Barrens. Too, no party of white men in theBarrens is permitted to bring in more than ten kaiila.'
'These are rules in Kailiauk?' I asked.
'They are the rules of the red savages,' he said.
'Then,' said I, 'only small groups of white men enter the Barrens, or else theywould be on foot, at the mercy of the inhabitants of the area.'
'Precisely,' said the fellow.
Two slave girls, blindfolded, their hands tied behind them, were then thrustinto the room. An attendant, holding them by the arms, brought them forward, andthen, at the indication of the fellow in the broad-brimmed hat, knelt them downover the yellow line, in front of the hitherto first girl in the coffle. Bothwere frightened. They were Ginger and Evelyn. 'To whom have we been sold?' begged Ginger. 'Where are we being taken?' begged Evelyn. The attendant then,with his booted foot, kicked Ginger to her side on the floor. Then he tookEvelyn's hair in his left hand and with his right hand lashed her face twice,with the palm and then the back of his hand, snapping it from side to side. Hethen knelt them again, on the line. 'Forgive us, Masters,' begged Ginger.
'Forgive us, Masters,' begged Evelyn, blood at the side of her mouth.
I then, with materials supplied by the fellow in the broad brimmed hat, addedGinger and Evelyn to the coffle.
'The three of them, together,' said the attendant, 'come to ten nine. The otherwill be brought forward in a moment.'
I saw the coins change hands.
The small wrists of Ginger and Evelyn pulled futilely at their bonds.
In a moment, as the attendant had suggested, the red-haired girl was introducedinto the room.
'She is a beauty,' I said to the fellow in the broad brimmed hat.
'That she is,' he said, 'and, beyond that, it is the sort of girl she is. Shewill make a superb slave.'
The girl, then, half stumbling, was brought forward. Rudely she was thrust downto her knees, where the fellow in the broad-brimmed hat indicated, at the headof the coffle. To her horror her knees were kicked apart. Her chin was thenpushed up. In a moment she was fastened with the others.
I looked down at the red-haired girl. The man in the broad-brimmed hat liftedher hair, displaying it to me. 'It is long enough to braid,' he said.
'If one wished it,' I said. I myself tended to prefer, on the whole, long, loosehair on a slave, tied back, if at all, with a headband or, behind the head, witha cloth or string.
He let her hair fall back, down her back.
'She would bring a high price,' I said, 'in almost any market with which I amfamiliar.'
'I will be able to get five hides of the yellow kailiauk for her,' said the man,'Oh, no, Master!' cried Ginger, suddenly, dismally. 'No. Master! ' protestedEvelyn. 'Please, no! Please, no'
The man in the broad-brimmed hat bent down and, one after the other, untied thewrists of Evelyn, Ginger and the red-haired girl. Ginger and Evelyn weretrembling, half in hysteria. Yet they had presence of mind enough to place theirhands, palms down, on their thighs. The palms of the red-haired girl, forcibly,her wrists in his grasp, were placed on her thighs. When her left hand wished tostray to her brand he took it and placed it again, firmly, palm down, on herthigh.
'Yes, Master,' whispered the girl, in English. I was pleased to see that she wasintelligent. A fresh brand is not to be disturbed, of course.
The fellow in the broad-brimmed hat then removed the blindfolds from Ginger andEvelyn. 'Oh, no!' wept Ginger. 'No, no!' wept Evelyn. 'Not you, please!' Theyregarded who it was who owned them, in dismay, and with horror. Yet, I think,but moments before, surely they had sensed, and surely feared, who he might be.
Their worst fears had now seemed confirmed. I did not understand their terror.
He seemed to me a genial enough fellow. 'Sell us, beloved Master!' beggedGinger. 'Please, Master,' begged Evelyn, 'we are only poor slaves. Take pity onus! Sell us to another! ' 'Make us pot girls!' begged Ginger. 'Shackle us! Sendus to the farms!' 'We are only poor slaves,' wept Evelyn. 'Please, please,Master, sell us to another! We beg you, Beloved Master. Sell us to another!'
'The house of Ram Seibar,' said the fellow, amused, 'wishes you both taken fromKailiauk.'
Several of the other girls now, I noted, were frightened and apprehensive. Thered-haired girl, too, seemed frightened. They could not understand Gorean butthe terror of the other slaves was patent to them. None of them, I noted, to mysatisfaction, had dared to break position. Already, I conjectured, they hadbegun to suspect what might be the nature of Gorean discipline.
'Master!' wept Ginger.
'Please, Master!' wept Evelyn.
'Position,' snapped the man in the broad-brimmed hat.
Immediately the girls knelt back in the coffle, back on their heels, their kneeswide, their hands on their thighs, their backs straight and heads lifted. Seeingthis, the other girls, too, behind them, hurriedly sought to improve theirposture. The red-haired girl, who could not see behind her, from the sound ofthe command, and the movements in the chain, reaching her through the backcollar ring, fearfully sensing what was going on, straightened herself as well.
'These two girls, the second and third,' I said, indicating Ginger and Evelyn,'seem quite disturbed to discover that you are their master.'
'It surely seems so,' granted the fellow in the broad brimmed hat.
'Why should they regard you with such terror,' I asked, 'more than seemsnecessary on the part of a slave girl with respect to her master?' It is naturalfor a slave girl, of course, to regard her master with a certain trepidation.
She is, after all, an animal, who is owned by him, over whom he has total power.
The rational slave girl will almost never intentionally displease her master.
First, it is just too costly to do so. Secondly, for reasons that are sometimesobscure to men, these having to do with her being a female, she seldom desiresto do so.
'I do not think that it is I, personally, whom they regard with such terror,' hegrinned.
'What then could be the source of such terror?' I asked.
'Who knows what goes on in the heads of pretty little slaves,' he said.
