'Get up!' he cried. Then he seized me by the upper arms and pulled me to my feet. He held me before him.
'Taste the slave in me,' I begged.
He looked down into my eyes, fiercely. His grip on- my arms, holding me absolutely helplessly, was like iron.
'Oh, would that you were a slave,' he whispered, intensely.
'Would that you were a slave!'
He then, lifting me from my feet as though I might have been no more than a doll, suddenly, violently, with a cry of rage, flung me from him, yards from him, to the surface of the bed. On the bed I scrambled to my knees. The wall was at my back.
There were sounds from outside the window, cries in the street.
Drusus Rencius went to the window, listening. 'Corcyrus,' he said, 'has seized the mines of Argentum. has begun.'
'What has begun?' I asked, frightened.
'War,' said Drusus Rencius.
'I will return you to the palace, immediately,' be said. He I looked at him, frightened. indicated that I should lie on my belly on the bed before him. I did so and, lying on the bed, my head turned to the side, sunk partly in its softness, felt the bracelets removed from me.
I rose from the bed, pulling down the edges of the brief, one-piece garment I wore. Drusus Rencius returned the slave bracelets to his pouch. 'My garments, please,' I said. I would have him serve me. He handed me my garments. I retired behind the screen and, in a few moments, re-emerged.
'Lady Sheila will require a new guard,' he said.
'No,' I said. 'I will not.'
He looked at me, surprised.
'You are not relieved of your duties,' I said. 'You are still my guard, and will continue to serve me as such.'
'Lady Sheila well knows how to torture a man,' he said.
'Yes,' I said. 'I do.'
He regarded me, bitterly.
'Return me now to the palace' I said.
'Yes, Tatrix,' he said.
9 I Determine to Take Cognizance in the City
I stood by the barred window in my quarters, looking out. I could see portions of the courtyard below, sections of the inner walls and the first of the two gates leading to the outside. I could also see, back from the walls, a portion of the square outside the gates. Most of the crowd outside the gates I could not see. I could see some men and women moving across the square, presumably to join it. It was the second rach crowd in the past week. I saw some men, across the square, perhaps seeing someone in my window, stop, and shake their fists. I moved away from the window.
'Mistress!' cried Susan, entering with a tray, stopping suddenly, spilling wine. She looked at me, with the sudden terror of a slave who had been clumsy. 'Forgive me, Mistressl' she cried. 'I will clean it up immediatelyt' I watched her while she put down the tray, picked up the goblet, and hurried to fetch cloths and water. In a moment she was on her hands and knees, frightened, cleaning the floor. I myself, of course, a woman of wealth and position, a Tatrix even, was above such tasks. They were properly to be performed by lesser women. Ideally, of course, they fell to those women for whoin they were perfectly suited, slaves.
'Susan,' I said.
'Yes, Mistress,' she said, looking up from her hands and knees, frightened. 'Why did you spill the wine?' I asked.
'I am sorry, Mistressl' she said.
'Why did you spill it?' I asked. She had seemed surprised.
'I was startled, Mistress,' she said. 'I had not expected to find you here. I had thought that I bad seen you in an anteroom off the great hall, only some Ehn earlier.'
'You were mistaken,' I said.
'Yes, Mistress,' she said.
'There is another crowd outside the gate this evening,' I said.
'Yes, Mistress,' said the girl.
'It is an angry crowd again, is it not?' I asked.
'I fear so, Mistress,' said the girl.
I went to the barred window, and looked out. I could hear the crowd but, because of the walls and gates, could see very little of it.
'I think guardsmen will soon issue forth to disperse it' said Susan. ''Can you make out what they are shouting, what they want?' I asked, lightly. 'No, Mistress,' said Susan, putting down her head.
'I can make it out quite clearly, from the window,' I said irritably. 'Forgive me, Mistress,' said Susan.
'Speak,' I said.
'They call for the blood of the Tatrix of Corcyrus,' she said, 'whom they call tyranness and villainess of Corcyrus.'
'But, why?' I asked. 'Why?'
'I do not know, Mistress,' said Susan. 'There are scarcities in the city. They may be angry about the progress of the War!
'But the war goes well,' I said.
'Yes, Mistress,' said Susan, putting her head down.
There was then a heavy knock at the door. 'Ligurious, first minister of Corcyrus,' announced a voice, that of a guard.
'Enter,' I said.
The door opened and Ligurious, with his imposing stature, yet leonine grace, entered. He bowed to me, and I inclined my bead to him.
At his entrance Susan put the palms of her hands on the floor and lowered her head to the tiles, assuming a position of slave obeisance common with her in the presence of her master. I wondered if Ligurious's slave master required this position of all of his women. I supposed so.
Ligurious looked down at her, irritably. It was clear what she had been doing. 'Was it she who spilled the wine?' he asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'If you do not wish to exert yourself,' he said, 'I can have her whipped for you.'
'It is all right,' I said. 'She is only a stupid, meaningless slave. 'Run along, Susan,' I said. 'You can finish later.'
'Yes, Mistress,' said Susan, leaping up, darting away.
'Tonight,' said Ligurious, 'I will give her to guardsmen. She will dance the whip dance, naked.' There are many whip dances on Gor, of various sorts. In a context of this sort, presumably not in a tavern, and without music, the girl is expected to move, writhe and twist seductively before strong men. If she does not do well enough, if she is insufficiently maddeningly sensuous, the whips fall not about her, but on her. When one of the men can stand it no longer be orders her to his mat where, of course, she must be fully pleasing. If he is not, then she is whipped until she is. Then, when one man is satisfied, the dance begins again, and continues in this fashion until all are satisfied, or tire of the sport.
'How goes the war?' I said.
