Both girls had been speedily vanquished, and both now, helpless, laytrussed, their legs symbolically spread, at the feet of their conquerors.
'Eca!' said the men. 'Eca!' commended Grunt. 'Eca!'
'Remember,' said Grunt to the helpless Ulla and Lenna, 'you are to be totallypleasing to masters. You are never, unless commanded to do so, to resist oroppose them in any way. Your hands could be cut off or you could be tortured andkilled.'
'Yes, Master,' said the girls, fearfully, in Gorean, following Ginger'stranslation.
Ulla looked at the man who had vanquished and bound her. Lenna regarded the manwho had served her similarly, and with such dispatch. Neither of them, I think,had expected to be made so helpless so quickly, and with such strength. Lennaand Ulla exchanged glances and then looked away from one another, reddening,shamed. They had been well bound, as women, and as slaves. Doubtless they werewondering what it would be like to be owned by such men.
Grunt then sat down and began to talk with the other men, not the two stillstanding, as though nothing had happened, as though it had been only a bit ofsport with two imbonded sluts, only an amusement for the entertainment of hisguests.
One of the standing men pointed to Ulla, and said something. The other pointedto Lenna, and, too, said something.
'Oh?' asked Grunt, innocently.
I smiled to myself. It is hard for a man to subdue and bind a naked womanwithout wanting her. I thought Grunt would get an excellent price for the twobeauties.
The red-haired girl, whimpering, was still lying beneath the red youth, clutchedin his arms. She looked at me, frightened. He was again, eagerly, at her body.
She had well succeeded, it seemed, as her master had desired, in arousing hisinterest. He had turned her about, roughly, curiously, this way and that, fromtime to time, caressing her and examining her, and making her please him. Therewas some blood at her mouth, where, once or twice, he had cuffed her. I saw herhands, half wanting to grasp him, half wanting to thrust him back. He wasspeaking to her in Dust Leg, slowly and clearly. 'Yes, Master,' she whimpered,in Gorean. 'Yes, Master.' It amused me that the youth, like so many individualsto whom only one language is familiar, so familiar that it seems that all humansmust, in one way or another, be conversant with it, seemed to think that thegirl must surely understand him if only he would speak slowly enough and withsufficient distinctness. Grunt, of course, might have helped her, but he wasengaged in business. I, myself, though I had acquired a few words of Dust Leg,had little more idea, specifically, of what the youth was saying than the girldid. His tone of voice suggested that he was not commending her on her beauty, apastime on which the masters are inclined to waste little time with their whiteslaves, but ordering her to do something. 'Relax,' I told the girl. 'Let looseof yourself. Feel. Yield.'
She looked at me, frightened.
'You are a slave,' I told her. 'Yield, and yield fully-and as a slave.'
She then, gratefully, clutched the youth, and put her head back, rapturouslysobbing and shuddering.
I then saw that my presence, interestingly, had had an inhibiting influence onher. She bad been on the brink of yielding, a nerve's width away, but had beenfighting her feelings and herself, apparently shamed to yield as a slave toanother man in my presence.
She cried out with pleasure, clutching the red youth.
'Winyela,' said the Dust-Leg woman, scornfully.
Slave girls must yield, and fully, to any man. Their entire mental set, so tospeak, in the furs, is oriented toward providing the master with marvelouspleasures, and, in their own case, to feel as richly and deeply as possible,and, in the end, in an uncompromised and delicious capitulation, submittingfully to their master, to obtain the surrender spasms of one who is merely avanquished woman, naught but an owned and degraded slave. This is quitedifferent from the mental set taken by the free woman to the furs, of course,with attendant deleterious consequences for the free woman, in so far as anywoman could be called free who is not surrendered and owned. The free woman isexpected to pervert her nature in the furs, behaving as a cultural identicalrather than as what she is by nature, the servant and slave of her master. It islittle wonder that the free woman, concerned with her putative identically, herstatus, her image, her dignity and pride, is often inhibited and sexually inertin the furs. The Goreans say that if one has never had a slave one has never hada woman. Similarly there is a secret saying, among Gorean men, that no female isa woman, who has not been made a slave. The free woman, often, fears to feel.
The slave, on the other hand, fears not to feel, for she may then, in alllikelihood, be punished. The same frigidity which may be accounted a virtueamong free women, figuring in their vanity competitions, how well they canresist men, is commonly among slaves an occasion for the imposition of severediscipline; it can even constitute a capital offense. The degraded slave haslittle choice but to yield, and yield well. An interesting question arises as towhether a woman, permitted her own will in the matter, as a slave is not, can beforced to yield. There are two answers to this question, and the divisionbetween the answers is primarily a function of the time involved. Within a givenamount of time, say, half of an Ahn, some women can resist some men. On theother hand, there will be some men whom they cannot resist and to whom, despitetheir will in the matter, they will find themselves uncontrollably yielding.
Given a longer amount of time, however, any woman may be made to yield, whethershe wishes to or not, by any man. Sometimes, after such a yielding, she is thencollared. 'Resistance is now no longer permitted,' he tells her. 'Yes, Master,' she says. She now knows that she, as a slave, must open herself to feeling, andeven seek it avidly, even knowing whence it leads, to the acknowledgment of themale as her master, and of her as his slave.
Behind me the red-haired girl was whimpering with pleasure in the arms of thered youth.
'Winyela,' snorted the Dust-Leg woman, contemptuously.
'Four,' I said, recalling her attention to our bargaining.
'Two,' she said, eyeing the mirror.
'Four,' I said.
'Three,' she said, suddenly, beaming, the fine, strong teeth bright in herbroad, reddish-brown face.
'Three,' I agreed. I saw she wanted the mirror.
I gave her the mirror and she gave me the three beaded rectangles. She then roseup, well pleased, and took her leave. I folded up the blanket with the goods,and the beaded rectangles, within it. I had certainly not driven a difficultbargain. Grunt, two days ago, had received five such articles for a similarmirror. I should, I supposed, have set my original price higher.
I looked to my right and I saw the two red warriors tying beaded collars on thenecks of Ulla and Lenna. Kailiauk robes lay on the grass. Earlier today Grunthad fashioned a travels for his pack kaiila. Such a device, the poles crossingover the withers of the kaiila, reduces the animal's speed but makes it possiblefor it to transport a heavier weight. Travels are common, particularly in themovements of camps, among he red savages. Travois, I suspected, would be heavilyladen by the time Grunt was ready to return to Kailiauk.
I glanced to where the kaiila of the Dust Legs were located. The girl there, thedark-haired girl in the beaded collar, still knelt as she had been placed, atthe paws of her master's kaiila. Her head was still down. She did not look up.
She was under excellent discipline.
Between where the men sat and the coffle, a bit to the right, was the spread-outkailiauk robe under which Grunt had put Margaret, naked, her legs drawn up. Shehad been under the robe for hours. It would be hot under the robe, in the sun,and there would be insects in the grass. I grinned. I think she was learning herslavery. It was a clever trick on Grunt's part. Certainly the Dust- Legs who,like most red savages, are an inquisitive, observant folk, would be curious asto the precise nature of the goods which lay beneath that robe. Clearly it was awoman. Was Grunt trying to hide her?
I saw leather thongs put on the necks of Ulla and Lenna, the beaded collarsthrust up to admit them. These thongs were then tied to the high pommels of thekaiila saddles. Such saddles are not uncommon among the red savages, though theyare commonly used for visiting, trading and ceremonial journeys. The hunting andwar the red savage commonly rides bareback. The thongs were some seven or eightfeet in length and the red savages knelt Ulla and Lenna down, their bands stilltied behind them by the forepaws of their kaiila.
