'Prepare,' said Boots.
'No! No!' she cried, springing to her feet, her bare feet raising dust, her bound wrists, of course, still tethered to the bar.
'Back on your knees, Lady Telitsia,' said Boots, sternly, 'or you will add blows to your beating.'
Lady Telitsia, in misery, moaning, trembling, sank back to her knees, her wrists again now over her head.
'Would you like me to cross and bind your ankles?' Boots asked, kindly.
'No,' she moaned.
I think she could see the shadow of Boots before her. Her back was illuminated by the morning sun.
'I do not want to be whipped!' she cried.
'It will be good for you to be whipped,' said Boots. 'It will be good for you to know what it is like. It will help you to understand that you are now truly a slave. Too, it will help to make you a more diligent slave, one more anxious to please.'
'Mercy!' she wept.
' 'Slaves, ' said Boots, ' 'are to be shown no mercy'. I heard someone say that, also, recently, at the Fair of En'Kara. Perhaps you recall it?'
She sobbed, helpless in the ropes, awaiting her beating.
'Slaves are to be shown no mercy,' she had said a few days ago at the fair. I recalled it. How uncompromisingly, how coldly, she had said it. Now she herself was a slave.
'Do you recall saying that?' asked Boots.
'Yes,' she sobbed.
'Is it true?' asked Boots.
'Yes,' she wept.
He then struck her, once, with the lash. She cried out, startled, in pain, in disbelief.
'Yes, what?' he asked.
'Yes, Master!' she cried.
he then struck her again. 'No, no!' she cried out. 'Please do not strike me again, Master!'
'It will be done with you as your Master pleases,' he said.
'Yes, Master!' she sobbed.
He then, with a few blows, concluded her beating. It was neither a long nor a severe beating. Still he had placed the blows diversely and had varied their timing. It was in its way a kindly beating, as Boots was a kindly fellow, but it was also, I think, an efficient beating.
When Boots had finished he untied the strap that had fastened her bound wrists to the wooden bar. She fell to her belly in the dust and reached out, her wrists still bound, to touch his ankles. She put down her head and, lying in the dust before him, pressed her lips, those of a slave, again and again, piteously, to his feet. Boots then turned away and went about this business. She then lay on her belly in the dust, collapsed, near the wooden bar to which she had been tied for her beating. I went to her and turned her over with my foot. She looked up at me. She was in misery and in pain.
'You are branded,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'You wear a collar,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'What are you?' I asked.
'I am a female slave,' she said, 'a slave girl.'
'Anything else?' I asked.
'No, Master,' she said. 'Only that.'
'It is true,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
I saw in her eyes that she now knew these things to be true, that she now truly knew that she was a slave girl, that and only that.
'What am I to do, Master?' she asked.
'Go to your Master,' I said, 'and beg him to forgive you for having been displeasing.'
'Yes, Master,' she said. She rose painful to her feet and went slowly, painfully, to where Boots was sitting cross-legged, near the small fire between the wagons. He was now in the midst of enjoying a second breakfast. Chino and Andronicus were with him. She knelt down near him, her bound wrists on her thighs. She dared not speak. After a time, Boots, sucking his fingers, removing the grease from fried tarsk strips from them, turned about. She quickly, under the eyes of her master, put her head down to the dirt. 'Did you wish something, girl?' asked Boots.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'You may speak,' said Boots.
'I beg your forgiveness, Master,' she said, her head still down, 'for having been displeasing.'
'Mend your way in the future,' cautioned Boots, sternly. 'Next time it may not go as easily with you.'
'Yes, Master,' she said, trembling.
Boots then helped himself to some more rolls and slices of fried tarsk.
Lady Telitsia, as it seemed she would be called now, at least for the time, then lifted her head and straightened her body. She remained kneeling, of course, in the immediate vicinity of her master.
'Good rolls,' said Boots to Chino.
'Yes,' agreed Chino, helping himself to another, as well.
'Excellent vulo eggs, excellent tarsk,' said Boots, his mouth full.
'Quite,' agreed Andronicus, wiping his fingers fastidiously on his tunic.
Lady Telitsia eyed the food, hungrily, pitiously. She squirmed. I heard her small, lovely, rounded belly growling.
'Did you say something, my dear?' asked Boots.
'No, Master,' she said, quickly.
Boots returned to his repast. I wondered how long it had been since Lady Telitsia had been fed.
More noises emanated from her pretty belly. She put down her head in embarrassment.
'Lady Telitsia,' said Boots. 'Clean my hands.'
She came forward and began to lick his cupped hands and then to suck his fingers, removing the grease from them. Meanwhile he continued to talk with Chino and andronicus.
'Slowly and more sensuously,' said Boots.
'Yes, Master,' she groaned. She looked up at him. Their eyes met. Their exchange of glances was quite meaningfull. Then she complied, as best she could, given that she had only recently been a free woman. She, apparently half starved, had been too eagerly licking and sucking at the grease on his hands and fingers.
'Better,' he said. 'Better.' Then he dried his hands, aprtly on her body, partly on her hair, and returned his attention to his companions. As he had touched her body I had noted that she had gasped and, ever so lsightly, had pressed against his hand. I do not think, however, this action had been lost on Boots, either. The slave, 'Lady Telitsia,' had in her, I suspected, superb slave potential. Up to now, of course, as a free woman, given her conditioning and what was expected of her in her cluture, she had undobtedly, possibly even agonizingly, resisted her sexuality, fighting to control and suppress her slave drives. Now, of course, now that she had been freed of the psychological chains, the confining restrictions, the imprisoning inhibitions of the free woman, I had little doubt that she, and perhaps even soon, would prove to be a helplessly arousable, helplessly yielding slave, a joy both to herself and her masters.
'That is enough,' said Boots.
'Master,' she said.
'Yes?' said Boots.
'May I have permission to speak, Master?' she asked.
'You need only ask-sometimes,' siad Boots.
'Thank you, Master,' she said, gratefully. 'Master-'
'Were you given permission to speak?' asked Boots.
