I beckoned to her, gently.
Timidly the girl, on her hands and knees, crawled to me through the grass. Ithen took her in my arms and, gently, put her to her back beside me. She wastense. She made as though to lift her lips to me, timidly, but I put my handover her mouth. She looked up at me, frightened. My band was tight over hermouth. She was held motionless. She could not begin to speak.
'I speak your language,' I said to her, very quietly. Her eyes widened. I hadspoken in English. I did not let her speak. 'This is not particularlyimportant,' I said, 'but you are not, without my permission, to speak of it toanyone. Do you understand?'
She nodded her head, as she could, my hand tight over her mouth. I then removedmy hand from her mouth.
'You speak English,' she said, wonderingly.
'Yes,' I said.
'Is it your intention to rescue me, and the other girls?' she whispered. 'Oh!' she said. Her head was forced back, my hand under her chin, my fingers tight atthe sides of her jaw.
'Where is your collar?' I asked.
'In the coffle,' she said. In the coffle, what?' I asked.
'In the coffle Master!' she said.
'What are you?' I asked.
'I am informed I am a slave,' she said, my hand tight under her chin. 'Oh!' shesaid, her head forced farther back, my grip tightened.
'What are you?' I asked.
'A slave!' she said, tensely. 'I am a slave, Master! ' 'Do you think, now,' I asked, 'that you are to be rescued?'
'No, Master,' she said. 'No, Master! ' 'There is no rescue for you,' I said, 'nor for the other on your chain.'
'No, Master,' she said. 'We are slaves.'
'Does it disturb you to speak of your slavery in your native language?' I asked.
'No, Master,' she said.
I looked down into her eyes. She averted her gaze. 'Why did you think I mightconsider rescuing you?' I asked.
'Were you not once of Earth?' she asked.
'Once,' I said.
'Surely then,' she said, 'You must be sensitive to our plight, imbonded women ofEarth.'
'Women of Earth have often been imbonded,' I said. 'Bondage is no novelty forthe Earth female. Her fittingness for the collar has long been recognized. OnEarth at this very moment many women are held in public bondage, and manyothers, it is difficult to conjecture their number, serve in secret bondages.
Too, throughout the course of human history, in the past, as well as today, manywomen have found themselves enslaved. Your predicament, or plight, if youplease, is thus far from unique. You, and those with you, are merely anotherhandful of slaves, imbonded females, merely new and fresh instances of ahistorically familiar commodity.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
I removed my hand from her throat and face. She gasped, fearfully, but did notstir from my side. Her breasts heaved, under the thin rep-cloth of the slavetunic.
'You may now begin again,' I said. 'Return to your original position. You mayspeak in English.'
'Yes, Master,' she whispered. Fearfully she then crept from my side. In a momentshe knelt as she had before, a few feet from me, in the grass' Master,' she said.
'Yes?' I said.
'I am a slave girl,' she said. 'I have been sent to your blankets.'
'Excellent,' I said. 'You are a pretty slave.
'Thank you, Master,' she said.
'Approach, Slave,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said, and, on her hands and knees, crawled to my side.
I then took her in my arms and, as I had before, put her to her back, beside me.
'I am a virgin,' she said.
'I know,' I said. 'The results of your body's testing, shortly after yourpurchase, were made known to me by Grunt, your master.'
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'Such information is public among Masters,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
I held the cloth of the slave tunic, moving it between my fingers. 'This isthin, flimsy cloth,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'It reveals you well,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'And you have pretty legs,' I said.
'Thank you, Master,' she said.
'You are tense,' I said.
'Forgive me, Master,' she said.
'Do you know what is to be done to you tonight?' I asked.
'I am to be deflowered,' she said.
'That is a ridiculous expression,' I said. 'It is absurd. Rather, you are to beopened, an act which, in the case of a slave, is in the interest of all men.'
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'This is unlikely to be painful,' I said, 'but, if it is, the pain will bebrief, and the soreness will be temporary.'
'I understand,' she said.
'If you should prove unusual in some respect, although this is extremely rare,'
I said, 'we can, tomorrow, grind one of Grunts trading knives into a lancet.'
'I understand,' she shuddered. This seemed to me better than leaving the matterto the red savages. They tend to be impatient in such respects, even with theirown women. A homemade lancet, sterilized in boiling water, seemed to mepreferable to a sharpened kailiauk bone or a whittled lodge peg.
'But your penetration is, obviously,' I said, 'only a mere technicality.'
'Obviously,' she said, I thought a bit ironically.
'But,' I said, 'beyond that incidental triviality, do you understand why youhave been sent to my blankets, what the purpose is from your point of view, whatis the purpose on which you are to be intent?'
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'What?' I asked.
'I am to please you with my body,' she said.
'You do not understand,' I said.
'Master?' she asked.
'That is far too limited,' I said. 'You are to please me with the wholeness ofyour womanhood, in the fullness of your slavery.'
'The Gorean master, then,' she said, 'would desire, and own, all of me.'
'Yes,' I said.
'I had hoped it might be so,' she whispered.
'What?' I asked.
'Nothing, Master,' she whispered.
'It is only on your former world, if anywhere,' I said, 'that a man isinterested only in a woman's body. 'Yes, Master,' she said.
'And I doubt that,' I said, 'even on that muchly perverted dismal orb.'
