'The blood you smeared on my leg will see to that,' she smiled.
'Do you fear the criticism, the derision, or ridicule, of the other girls?' Iasked.
'I fear only,' she said, 'that I may not have sufficiently pleased my master.'
'Excellent,' I said.
'As they, too, soon shall fear,' she said.
'Yes,' I said. I wondered if she knew how truly she spoke. The girls on a chain,once opened and made to serve, usually begin to compete among themselves, andsoon, to see who can serve the masters best, and those who do not enterearnestly into this competition, it might be mentioned, are usually the first tobe fed to sleen.
'I was glana,' she smiled. 'Now I am falarina.'
I put my hand, forcibly, over her mouth. Then I removed it from her mouth. 'Suchexpressions,' I said, 'are commonly to be spoken of, and by, free persons. Theyare not to be applied to slaves, any more than to tarsk sows.'
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'You were white silk,' I said. 'Now you are red silk.'
'We are not even entitled to the same words as free persons in such matters?' she asked.
'No,' I told her.
'I understand, Master,' she said, tears in her eyes.
'Even here, however,' I said,' you will note that both words suggest a similarstatus. Both notions are equally positive, both properties are conceived of asbeing equally real.'
'That is true,' she said.
'To be sure,' I said, 'white in the context of 'white-silk girl' tends less tosuggest purity and innocence to the Gorean than ignorance and naivety, and alack of experience. 'Red, in the context of 'red-silk girl, on the other hand,connotes rather clearly, I think, experience. One expects a red-silk girl, forexample, not only to be able to find her way about the furs, but, subject to thewhip, owned and dominated, perhaps chained, to prove herself a sensuous treasurewithin them.'
'I am red-silk,' she said. 'Have me.'
'Perhaps,' I said. I began to touch her, gently.
'Ohhh,' she said, 'yes.'
'Do you like that?' I asked.
'Must I respond to such a question?' she asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said. 'I like it.' She closed her eyes. 'Oh, yes,' she said,'I like it.'
'Master,' she said, looking up at me.
'Yes,' I said.
'More than once tonight,' she said, 'you have mentioned binding, or chaining.'
'Yes,' I said.
'I would fear to be bound or chained,' she said.
'All the more reason to bind or chain you,' I said.
She shuddered.
'Master,' she said.
'Yes,' I said.
'Why would you bind a woman who is a slave?' she asked. 'She knows that there isno escape for her. She is not going to run away. She knows that you may do withher as you please.'
'It holds her in a given position,' I said, 'for your leisured work upon herbody.'
'That is true,' she said.
'But the primary reasons,' I said, 'are, as you might suspect, psychological,both from the point of view of the master and the slave. She, chained, or bound,is helpless. She knows that she might, at the master's whim, be slit like alarma. This increases her terror, her vulnerability, her desire to be foundpleasing. This makes her feel more slave like and, accordingly, more ready torespond to the touch of the master. From the master's point of view, of course,this is also stimulating. It is pleasant for a man to have absolute power over awoman, to have her bound or chained in a position of his choosing, and to knowthat she must submit to whatever be chooses to do to her. In this situation theequations of nature, those of dominance and submission, are intensified. This isfelt by both the master and the slave. Too, to be sure, there is, forphysiological reasons also, commonly, some boosting of the female's responses,as the result of the binding, the restraint. The orgasmic spasms, somewhatrestricted, or, perhaps better, channeled, regulated and controlled, confinedwithin the parameters set by the master, must then seem more intense, moreconcentrated.'
'I see,' she whispered.
'But the main thing, in my opinion,' I said, 'is the psychological effect on thewoman, the bringing home to her, I in clear, forcible and undeniable terms, thereality of her situation, that she is helpless, that she is at his mercy, thatshe, regardless of her will, is now his to do with as he pleases, that she isowned, that she is his slave, and that he is her master.'
'I would be terrified to be bound,' she said.
I saw that she wished to be bound.
I continued to caress her.
'Master,' she whispered.
'Yes,' I said.
'Bind me,' she whispered.
'Do you beg it?' I asked.
'Yes,' she whispered. 'I beg to be bound.'
'Kneel,' I told her, 'quickly.'
Swiftly then did she kneel, and looked at me, frightened.
'I have changed my mind,' she said.
'Do not break position,' I told her.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
I went to my saddlebags, with the kaiila saddle, and withdrew two fairly shortlengths of soft, pliant, braided black leather, each about twenty-five inches inlength.
I pulled back her right wrist a bit and tied it to her right ankle. I left herabout six or seven inches of slack between wrist and ankle. 'This is a commonopen-legged tie,' I said. 'It is not good for general security, but it is agood, and familiar, slave tie.' I then fastened her left wrist to her leftankle, as I had done with her right wrist and-ankle. 'When finished with you,' Isaid', 'I might simply bind your wrists behind you and tie your ankles together.
That is a familiar and effective security tie. If you had not been sufficientlypleasing I might pull up your bound ankles and tie them to your wrists. Yourneck, of course, might always be tied to a stake, or bound to a tree.'
I then stood up and stepped back, to observe my handiwork. 'An advantage of thistie,' I said, 'is that a girt may kneel in it comfortably for hours, perhapsbeside a master's chair, while he works, and is not yet ready for her.'
She pulled a little, almost surreptitiously, at the leather on her wrists,leading back to her ankles.
'Is this all?' she asked, timidly.
'I see that there are potentialities of this tie which, as yet, you have notdiscerned,' I said.
I then took her by the hair and threw her forward on the blankets, on her belly.
'Struggle,' I told her.
She did so, helplessly. Then she ceased her struggles.
'An interesting perspective on a woman,' I said. 'Too, bound in this positionshe is seldom in doubt as to the fact that she is a slave. Too, in time, it canbe quite painful.' She groaned, and I, mercifully, thrust her to her side. Shelooked up at me, frightened. 'Whereas this tie,' I said, 'is not good forgeneral security, it is quite adequate for specific security, namely, securityin a specific situation, in this case, in the presence of the master or akeeper. For example, under observation, you cannot very well employ your righthand in the attempt to undo the knot on your left ankle. If the tie, of course,is accomplished with chains, then it is also adequate for a general security,
