She uttered a cry of misery and regarded me in disbelief. Then she leaped to her feet and hurried away. In a moment she had returned and knelt before me. She put down her head, as she had doubtless been taught, in submission. She then, lifting and extending her arms, her head still humbly down between them, lifted her hands to me. The backs of the wrists faced me. This was rather as in several common submission ceremonies. With the backs of the hands in this position it is easier to pull them together and tie them. Indeed, in most of these submission ceremonies the wrists are presented already crossed to the male, sot that he may the more conveniently lash them together. Every Gorean woman, incidentally, a slave or free, is taught by the age of puberty how to render submission. Her life may depend on it. Now however, held in these small, lovely hands, her hands about ten inches apart on it, lifted to me, there was an object.
'Yes,' I said.
'I bring you a slave whip, Master,' she said.
'Yes,' I said.
'Use it on me,' she said, 'if I do not please you.'
'Who are you?' I asked.
'Louise,' she said.
'Again,' I said.
'Louise brings you a slave whip, Master,' she said. 'Use it on Louise, if she does not please you.'
'I will,' I said.
She shuddered.
'And I might use it on you anyway,' I said.
'Of course, Master,' she said. One owns slaves and commands them. One does what one likes with them. One does not bargain with them.
'Go to the mat,' I said.
'I am of Earth!' she said.
I shook out the blades of the whip.
She hurried to the mat, to kneel upon it.
I regarded her.
She looked lovely, nude, deliciously curved, frightened, in the glinting collar, in the flickering reddish darkness.
I folded back the blades of the whip and inserted them in their clip, near the butt end of the staff. By means of the hook at the end of the butt, I attached the whip to my belt. This action seemed to be greeted with relief on her part. Perhaps she thought, being of Earth, she would get off easily. Did she not know that she was now on Gor, and that a whip so easily placed on a belt may be as easily, and indeed, even more easily, removed from it?
A girl cried out, nearby, moaning, sobbing, being well mastered.
I looked about, for a loose chain. In a moment or two I had found one, near another slave ring. I looped it in my hand, and carried it to the ring near my mat. The key, the same key fitting both the padlock-type terminations of the chain, was in one of the locks. I crouched down beside Louise and looped one end of the chain about her neck, where I locked it snugly into place with one of the padlock-type terminations. The chain depended from her neck, between her breasts. I then looped the other end of the chain about the slave ring and, with the termination at that end, locked it there. She had about five feet of play between her neck and the slave ring. That is more than sufficient to allow a female to perform. Many men give her even less chain, some only six inches or so, such adjustments being made with different length chains, and also, often with the same chain, by loopings, doublings and such, secured by fastening the padlocklike terminations through various links. She put her fingers on the chain. She surreptitiously pulled it a little. It was on her.
'Master?' she asked. I walked over to the wall and hung the key on a nail there, with other keys. That is where the key should have been in the first place. There it is out of the reach of all the slave rings. Too, in this way, it is easier to keep track of them, and a customer is less likely to inadvertently walk off with one. No chains hung there, incidentally. They were apparently, at least those usually there, in use, or like the one I had found, loose on the floor. I glanced around. The place seemed crowded. Ita and Tia were dancing, summoned forth by a hostess, before a customer. I recalled Louise dancing. She had done at least that very well, surely. I wondered if she, and Earth girl, going about her business on Earth, had ever suspected that she would one day be so dancing on Gor, as a nude, collared slave. I supposed not. I wondered what she would have thought if someone had suggested this to her. Doubtless she would of thought it absurd, or amusing. But then, a moment later, she might have felt the thick layers of the chemically treated cloth held firmly over her nose and mouth. Business seemed good this evening. Indeed, it seemed to be thriving. This Ludmilla, whoever she was, I conjectured, had something of a gold mine in this little establishment. Tonight's receipts, at any rate, would probably prove quite gratifying.
I returned to the slave mat.
'Master?' asked Louise.
She looked up at me, the chain on her neck.
I removed the whip from my belt, freeing the blades. I shook them loose.
'I am from Earth!' she said.
'Spread your knees,' I said.
Swiftly did the Earth girl comply.
I looked down at her. She was incredibly lovely.
'Surely you will treat me gently, and with respect,' she said.
'How do you lie on a mat, Earth girl?' I asked.
'However a master pleases,' she whispered.
I gestured to the mat with the whip. Immediately she lay upon it.
'Perhaps you can interest me,' I said.
'Please!' she said.
'Move,' I told her.
She moved then, and turned, upon the mat, sometimes on her belly, sometimes on her back, sometimes on her side, sometimes kneeling, sometimes sitting, sometimes curled up, sometimes bending backwards, pausing every moment or so, for a moment or so, stock-still, posing, that I might feast my eyes upon her loveliness, revealing thusly for me her imbonded beauty in numerous and various attitudes. There were tears in her eyes. I saw that she had had some training. She was then breathing heavily.
I let the loose whip blades brush her back. 'Master?' she asked.
'Is that all you show Gorean men?' I asked. 'If so, I am surprised you have not yet been fed to sleen.'
'You are from Earth,' she wept. 'And so you, a slave, think to cheat me, and give me less?' I asked. 'No,' she said.
'Do you dare, slave,' I asked, 'to think that you can behave toward me as a typical Earth female behaves toward a man of Earth?'
'No,' she said. 'No!'
'Do you think you can treat me as the typical females of Earth treat the men of Earth?' I asked.
'No,' she wept. 'No!'
'Have you ever felt the slave whip?' I asked.
'Yes, Master,' she said, terrified.
'Do you want to feel it again, now?' I asked.
'No! Master!' she said.
'Perform,' I said.
'Yes, Master!' she said.
'Better,' I said, 'better. Remember you are no longer a woman of Earth now. More leg extension. That is behind you. You are now only a Gorean slave. Good. You are not even a person any longer. You are now only a lascivious animal that exists only for the pleasure of men. Only an animal. Do not forget it. But an incredibly desirable animal. Lift your hand more piteously. Good. The most desirable form of animal in existence, the female slave. That expression, improve it. Let it show that you beg a man for his touch. Do you beg a man for his touch?'
