myself in those terms made me feel weak, vulnerable and excited.
'Your master is not contenting you, is he?' asked Tina.
'No,' I said.
'Have you displeased him?' she asked.
'I have tried not to,' I said.
'Have you begged?' she asked.
'Yes,' I said. Surely, in licking at him, as I had, I had begged for his touch. 'But he has scorned me.'
'Interesting,' said Tina. 'Are you so unskilled, so inert, so like a free woman that you are not even worth having?'
'I do not think so,' I said.
'I do not understand it,' she said. 'Surely he wants you to become more of a slave and not less of a slave.'
'That is perhaps it,' I said, frightened. I recalled his words to me at supper yesterday evening. 'Remember that you are the Tatrix of Corcyrus, and not a slave,' he had said.
'What?' she asked.
'He may want to keep me more like a free woman,' I said.
'Why would he want to do that?' she asked. 'That would be stupid, since you are a slave.'
'He has not branded me, or collared me,' I pointed out.
That he had not done these things I had hitherto supposed was merely in accord with his avowed purposes of shaming and humiliating me, making me serve as a slave in spite of the fact that I was free. But now, I feared, these omissions might have a more complex motivation.
'If he does not want you,' she said, 'why does he not simply sell you?' 'He may want me,' I whispered, 'at least for a time.'
'He does not seem eager to part with you,' she said. 'He even has your ankles chained.'
'Yes,' I said. I was being kept, I now realized, under an unusual security. During the day my wrists were usually chained, often even to the wagon. In the evening, at campsites, as I did now, I wore ankle chains. At night, my tunic removed, he would lock me in what served as my kennel, the trunk.
'Does he rent you out?' asked Tina. 'Sometimes a man can get an offer on a girl that way.'
'No,' I whispered.
'The whole matter seems very puzzling,' said Tina.
'Yes,' I said.
I was suddenly becoming terrified. Speusippus, I feared, however absurdly, sensed that I might be a slave. He seemed concerned, then, apparently, that I not be permitted to enter too deeply into my slavery.
But, why not? Most men certainly do not interfere with the natural growth, the progress and development of a woman in her bondage.
Most men, at least of Gor, permit her to achieve this self-fulfillment; some of them, within certain latitudes of discipline, even permit her to proceed largely at her own pace, gradually coming to understand, incontrovertibly, that she, loving and obedient, has always been a slave to the core.
I was not a slave, of coursel But, if I happened to be, why was Speusippus acting as he was? I doubted that he would deny me the collar out of spite. More likely he would put it on me and then try to make me regret I wore it. Too, if I were not a natural slave, was it not now time that he put me in a collar? I, a free woman, had been forced, to my humiliation and shame, to serve as though I might be a slave.
Surely the next natural step in his vengeance would be to make me a legal slave and own me. Would it not be a splendid jest, now, to take Sheila, the Tatrix of Corcyrus, to the shop of a metal worker, to see her writhe and scream under the iron, to have her fitted with a collar and then lock it on her throat, to make her an actual slave? But he did not seem to have any intention of doing so. What fate, then, I wondered, might Speusippus of Turia have in mind for me? I wrung out the last tunic, and rolled it up, and put it with the others. They could be unrolled and laid out to dry on the wagons.
'What is the news, Tina?' I asked.
'About what?' she asked.
'About anything,' I said.
'There is not much,' she said. 'There is some fear for the Sa-Tarna crop, because of the great deal of rain. There is going to be a celebration in Ar because of the birthday of Marlenus, the Ubar there. Lactantius thinks that is important.'
'Is there any news from the west?' I asked.
'The usual,' she said.
'What is that?' I asked.
'You have heard about the escape of the Tatrix of Corcyrus?' she asked. 'No,' I said.
'That is strange,' she said. 'It happened some days ago. There is a great search on, for her.'
'I did not know that,' I said. 'Where do they think she went?
'No one knows,' said Tina.
'Oh,' I said.
'There is now a reward of a thousand gold pieces for her,' she said. 'That is a great deal of money,' I said. I felt sick.
'Tina,' I said.
'Yes?' she said.
'Lactantius, your master, is from Ar's Station. What is he doing on this road?' 'He picked up freight in Ar,' she said. 'He is taking it west.'
'Where?' I asked.
'To Argentum,' she said. 'What is wrong?'
'Nothing,' I said. 'What is he doing on this road?' I asked.
'What do you mean?' she asked. 'He is doing exactly what he is supposed to be doing.'
'What road is this?' I asked.
'It is the road to Argentum,' she said.
I pretended to be dissatisfied with one or two of the tunics I had washed. I dallied by the stream until Tina had finished her work and returned to the vicinity of her master's wagon. Then, when no one was looking, I bent down and picked up a small, sharp stone from the edge of the stream. This I inserted in the hem of my slave tunic. Later I would hold it in my mouth, for the tunic would be taken from me before I was put in the trunk. The trunk, though sturdy, was not an iron or steel slave box. It was a trunk, made of wood, banded with iron.
21 The Road
I fled along the stone road, eastward, back toward the Viktel Aria.
The road was wet. The night was cloudy.
It had taken me two nights, with the sharp stone, to cut through the wood, under the blanket, in the trunk. I had begun by drawing deep, even scratches. The scratches had then, repeatedly, been deepened, slowly and carefully. I had worked only with great caution, and very silently, and even then only when I was assured that Speusippus was asleep. By day I hid the stone in the blanket, and the blanket itself covered the traces of my work. I rejoiced that Speusippus was not more fastidious about the conditions of my confinement. Yesterday morning, before dawn, the bottom of the trunk bail been loosened and, rolling to one side, I could get my fingers beneath it. Tonight, a few Ahn ago, I had lifted it, inside the trunk. I had then, tipping and lifting the trunk, been able to slip between the two iron bands which reinforced its strength, bands which joined with the hardware of the two locks, making it impossible to cut or saw around the locks. I had then eased the trunk back into place, slipped from the wagon, sneaked from the camp, and run.
I was naked again, as I bad been, in the camp of Miles of Argenturn. I did not know where my slave tunic
