'Nothing,' he said.
'Are you disturbed by the proximity of the Waiting Hand?' I asked.
This is a frightening and difficult time for many Goreans.
'No,' he said.
'Let us stop playing and adjudicate the game as a draw,' I suggested.
'No,' he said. 'It is all right.'
I moved my Ubara's Builder to threaten his Ubar. This movement of the builder produced a discovered attack on his Home Stone by my Ubara's Initiate. He interposed his own Ubar's Builder, which I then took with the Initiate, a less valued piece. The Initiate's attack, of course, continued the threat on the Home Stone. he then took the Initiate with his Ubara's Builder, and I, of course, removed his Ubar from the board with my Ubara's Builder.
Samos turned to Linda. 'Dance,' he said. She leaped to her feet and hurried to the center of the tiles. Susan, then, was pulled by the hair to the place of a keleustes, on who marks time, usually on a pounding block or a ship's drum, for oarsmen. In some navies, and on ships of some registry, the office of the keleustes is referred to as that of the horator. He reports directly to the oar-master. The oar-master, like the helmsman, of which two are generally on duty at any one time, most Gorean ships being double ruddered, reports to the captain.
We watched Linda dance. It seemed she had eyes only for Samos. Her fingers played teasingly with the disrobing loop at her left shoulder.
'Strip, slave,' said Samos.
She drew the disrobing loop. There was Gorean applause. She danced well. There was little left in her now of the Earth female. How happy and fulfilled she was on Gor. To be sure, she was only a slave.
I returned my attention to the board, as did Samos.
'It is capture of Home Stone in four,' I said.
He nodded. He removed his Home Stone from the board, resigning.
He lifted his head, regarding Linda. 'She is pretty,' he said.
'Yes,' I said.
'Do you trust me?' he asked.
'Yes,' I said.
She writhed well, the Gorean slave.
'Why did you invite me this night to your holding?' I asked. 'Surely not to play Kaissa?'
He was now resetting the pieces. He would take Yellow this time.
'Ubar's Spearman to Ubar Five,' he said.
This move attacks the center and opens a diagonal for the Ubara. It also makes possible a positioning move, matching him positionally in the center, stopping an advance on that file and securing the same advantages for the Ubara and Ubar's Tarnsman. This is one of the most common opening moves in kaissa.
We played twice more that night. I won both games easily, the first with a battering ram of Spearmen and Riders of the High Tharlarion on the Ubar's side, and the second with a middle-game combination of Ubara's Scribe, Ubara and Ubar's Tarnsman. It was now late. Linda lay curled on the tiles near Samos. She was naked, save for her collar. She was beautiful and curvaceous. She was his.
'Captain,' said one of the two guardsmen standing before our table. They were the fellows in whose custody the free woman, the Lady Rowena of Lydius, had earlier been drawn to our attention The woman who had been the Lady Rowena of Lydius was now again in their custody. She was now on her knees between them, facing us, her arms held high and to either side of her, each of her wrists in the grasp of a guard. She was now a slave.
'Is it the sleen for her, Captain?' asked he who was first of the two guardsmen, he who had just spoken.
'Dorto, Krenbar,' said Samos.
'Yes, Captain,' said the men. Dorto was the oarsman who had opened the former Lady Rowena of Lydius for the uses of men. Krenbar was another oarsman. He had used her twice in the evening, after putting her through intricate slave paces each time.
'Does this slave,' asked Samos, 'give some indication that she might eventually prove to be at least somewhat adequate in a collar?'
'Yes, Captain,' said Dorto. 'Yes, Captain,' said Krenbar.
'Tonight, as you know, my dear,' said Samos, 'you danced and performed for your life.'
'I beg to have been found pleasing,' she said.
'Based on the evidences submitted by Dorto and Krenbar, and my own judgment in the matter, your performances, at least for a new slave, have been found acceptable.'
I thought she might almost faint with relief.
'Accordingly, at least for the moment, you will not be thrown to sleen.'
'Thank you, Master!' she said.
'You are Rowena,' he said.
'Thank you, Master,' she said, named. There is some security in a slave having a name. Most masters will not name a slave whom they are planning on having immediately destroyed. It would be a waste of name. To be sure, names may be put on slaves and taken off them on a master's whim.
'Though you have been spared, at least for now, do not grow complacent,' said Samos.
'No, Master!' she said.
'You are now, like any other slave, you must understand, under standard, unconditional slave discipline.'
'Yes, Master!' she said. She was now a slave like any other, neither more nor less.
'Take her below,' said Samos to he who was first of the two guardsmen. 'Mark her, left thigh, common Kajira mark. Collar her, common house collar.'
'Yes, Captain,' he said. In the case of the girl, Rowena, of course, as she was already a self-pronounced slave, the brand and collar were little more than identificatory formalities. Nonetheless she would wear them. They would be fixed visibly and clearly upon her. This is in accord with the prescriptions of merchant law. Too, for all practical purposes, they make escape impossible for the Gorean slave girl.
'Then bring her to my chambers,' said Samos.
'Yes, Captain,' said he who was first of the two guardsmen.
'Master!' protested Linda.
Samos looked at her, and she lowered her head. 'Forgive me, Master,' she said.
'I shall try to be pleasing, Master!' Rowena avowed, frightened.
Then the two guardsmen pulled her about and conducted her from our presence.
'She is fat,' said Linda. I did not think this remark was fair on Linda's part. The slave, Rowena, was not fat. She was sweetly shapely. To be sure, by a strict regimen of diet and exercise, she would soon be brought, in a manner congenial to her basic structure, within indisputable latitudes of slave perfection.
The Gorean slave girl is not a free woman. Accordingly she must keep herself beautiful.
'Do you not like Linda any more?' she pouted.
'Yes, I like you,' he said.
'Linda can please you more than Rowena,' she said.
'Perhaps,' said Samos.
'I can, I will!' she said.
'Who?' asked Samos.
'Linda can, Linda will!' she said.
'To your kennel,' said Samos.
'Yes, Master,' she said, taking up her tunic, rising to her feet, tears in her eyes.
'Do not fret,' he said. 'Tomorrow night it will be you who will be chained at my slave ring.'
'Thank you, Master!' she said.
'And tonight, for you have not been fully pleasing,' he said, 'tell the kennel master to put you in close chains.'
'Yes, Master!' she laughed and, happily, dismissed, clutching her tunic, rose to her feet and scurried away.
