'Look at me,' he said.
I did so, terrified.
'I, like many others,' he said, 'can recognize slaves, and, have no fear, I have recognized you as one.'
'No, I whimpered, not wanting to look at him.
'Look at me,' he said.
Again I looked at him, terrified.
'It is in your eyes,' he said.
'No,' I wept.
'Even months ago,' he said, 'when I looked into your eyes, when you sat in those silly garments, behind that foolish desk, I saw that you, beneath all that cotton and wool, were a naked slave.'
'No,' I wept.
'And I look into them now,' he said, 'and see that it is true.' 'No, no, no!' I wept, turning my head away. I dared not meet those fierce eyes which so frightened me, which seemed somehow to look through me, burning through me like fire, bringing unwelcome, frightening torches to my secret darkness, penetrating to my deepest and most closely guarded secrets, to what lay in the most secret belly and heart of me.
'Shall I have you dance again, before men?' he asked.
'No,' I said. 'No!'
'Do not fear,' he said, 'you will dance again before them, and dance as you have never dreamed a woman could dance before men!'
'No!' I wept. 'No, no!'
He released me, and I subsided weakly to my knees before him. It seems that one could do little but kneel before such a man. Then, angrily, he thrust silk in my mouth, my own, that which he had made me take off earlier. I was silenced. 'On all fours,' he said.
I went to all fours before him. A loop of the chain leash hung down by my neck, to the right, a foot or so, and then lopped up to its attachment. I could feel its weight. It turned the collar a little to the right.
The men then spoke for a few moments among themselves. I could not understand the language. It seemed expressive, and highly inflected.
The leader turned to me. I saw him remove the whip from his belt. I put my head down. I bit into the silk, holding it in my mouth. I knew I could not remove it without their permission. He had put it in there. I saw the blade of the whip shake free. I began to tremble. I whimpered, the silk in my mouth. I whimpered that I not be beaten.
'You understand the whip, don' t you slut?' he asked.
I whimpered, plaintively, pleadingly.
'That is one of the few things a little animal like you clearly understands,' he mused.
I whimpered.
'Look at her,' said Teibar, my captor, to his man, Taurog, he holding my leash, 'she has never felt it, but she senses what it might be like to feel it, what it could do to her.'
'Yes,' said Taurog.
'But then,' said Teibar, 'I suppose that all females understand the whip, or if they are stupid, and do not, they may be brought swiftly enough to its proper understanding.'
'Yes,' said Taurog.
I then felt the blade of the whip move lightly upon my back. I shuddered. I wanted to scream, but I could only whimper, plaintively. The whip, it seemed to me, strangely enough, somehow, was not a stranger to me. I seemed to know it. I wondered, wildly, if I had felt it in former lives. Something about it seemed almost a terrifying memory. Could I be remembering it, I wondered, from a sunlit shelf in Memphis, from a patio in Athens, from a post in Rome or a ring, cords on my wrists, in a women' s quarters in Bokara, Basra, Samarkand or Bagdad? Had I felt it before, somewhere, or in many places, and never, even through a succession of lives, forgotten it? No, I told myself, that would be quite unlikely. On the other hand, I had little doubt that many women in the past, in such places, and in thousands of others, had had their behavior corrected with perfection by just such instruments and their kin, such as the switch, the strap, the bastinado. There was something in me, however, which seemed to know the whip, and terribly feared it. I suppose that this might have been an effect only of the startling alarms of my imagination, they informing me with some vividness as to what it might be to feel its stroke, but I suspect, really, that there was more involved. I suspect that there was a kinship of sorts between myself and the whip, that we were perhaps, in some sense, made for one another, that even if I never felt it I recognized it as having something authoritative, and intimate and important, to do with me, and what, in my heart, I secretly was.
I felt the lash brushing my back, twice more. It seemed to do so thoughtfully, meditatively. I whimpered, biting on the wet silk. Tears fell from my eyes to the carpet. I whimpered, tiny, begging sounds, pleading for mercy. It did not matter to him. I was sure, that I was a modern woman in the Twentieth Century. I might as well have been, as far as he cared, only a curvaceous, beautiful barbarian servant in Epidaurus, or, in the keeping of Crusaders, or in the tents of Mongols, a Persian dancing girl. He was literally considering beating me. What we all had in common was that we were women. Similarly I had not the least doubt that if he wished to beat me, he would do so. He was fully capable, I sensed, of doing whatever he might wish to me, and with perfection.
'No, little slut,' he said, removing the whip and replacing it on his belt, 'it will be better later.'
I shook with relief. I sobbed with relief. I was not to be beaten! I was not to be beaten! Then suddenly I shuddered. I wondered what he might possibly have meant, 'that it would be better later.'
I looked up at him.
'You delicious, meaningless, sly, viscous, hateful thing,' he snarled. I could not understand his animosity, his seeming hatred of me.
'Take her out of my sight,' he said to Taurog, 'lest I be tempted to kill her.'
'Come, little slut,' said Taurog. He moved beside me, and then ahead of me, and I felt the pressure of the interior of the collar at the back of my neck, on the left, and the tug of the chain. The collar had now, in response to his movements, shifted on my neck. It was apparently not a ring where the chain was attached but, it now seemed, some sort of fixed-position, heavy, welded-in metal staple. This device, to which the chain was attached, where it now exerted its force, was now under my jaw, to my right. I followed Taurog now, on all fours, the silk stuffed in my mouth. He pulled me back behind the xerox machines, where the sight of me would not offend Teibar. There, with his foot, first against my arms and hands, then against my knees and thighs, brushing them outward, toward the extremities in both cases, he let me know his will with respect to my limbs. I went first to my elbows, and then to my belly. I do not think Taurog spoke much English. He had, however, conveyed his intent to me. I realized, lying there on the cool surface, it is a composition surface in that area, on my belly, naked, among the machines, that it is not always necessary to understand a man' s language to obey him, or for him to command you. I heard Teibar speaking to Hercon, and then Hercon left for somewhere, as I later found out to gather up my things from the ladies' room. Teibar himself whim I thought of as my personal, and most meaningful, captor, stayed in the vicinity of the table, that on which the attachA© case rested. I thought I heard him moving some things about there.
In a short while Hercon returned to the vicinity of the table. A moment later, Teibar said something, apparently to Taurog.
Taurog jerked the chain upward, twice, gently. It was little more than a sound of links, and only the slightest pressures, twice, on the attachment. It was a signal to me.
Taurog made a sound of approval as I rose immediately to all fours. He then led me back tot he table on which the attachA© case rested, where Teibar, whom I feared mostly, my chief captor, waited.
I saw a pile of my things there on the carpet, the dancer' s costume, my purse, my clothes, those I had worn to the library, and such, near the table. That had been I supposed a result of Hercon' s brief absence. He was now back. Taurog said something to Teibar.
'Taurog,' said Teibar, looking down at me, 'is pleased with you. He thinks you may have an instinctive understanding of chain signals.'
I could not speak, the wet silk in my mouth. I could only look up at him. 'It is possible,' he said, 'You are a woman.'
I looked up at him, angrily.
He then removed a small object from his pocket. I think I had seen it before, near the front doors of the
