master.'
'She may do so,' he informed me.
In a time, then, again, he aroused, he seized me and rose to his knees, and held me, he kneeling, I kneeling, and then he thrust me back, and my head was down, and he lifted me up, to him, he kneeling, and he then again, I so helpless, hanging back and down, put me impersonally to his pleasure.
'I did well to pick you out on Earth,' he cried.
'Yes, Master!' I wept, loving and ravished, helpless and yielding, a slave, in his hands.
He them put me gently to my back and I looked up at him, in awe and love. 'You are a treasure,' he said.
'A treasure,' I laughed, 'that may be purchased for something in the neighborhood of five silver tarsks!'
'Not from me,' he said. 'I would not sell you for a thousand.'
'Mirus thought that Tupita was a thousand times more beautiful than I,' I said. 'He was wrong,' said my master.
'Thank you, Master,' I said, pleased.
'She is no more than nine hundred times more beautiful that you,' he said. 'Master!' I said.
'To me,' he said, 'you are a thousand, thousand times more beautiful than she.' 'Thank you, Master!' I purred.
'Kneel,' he said.
I struggled to my knees.
'Do you know what time it is?' he asked.
'Late,' I said.
'Are you chained?' he asked.
'Of course, Master,' I said. I wore his love chains, and the chain on my neck fastening me to the nearby tree.
'Whose chains are they?' he asked.
'Yours, of course, Master,' I said.
'It is past midnight,' he said.
'Ah!' I said. When the recovery period pertinent to the collar of Ionicus had expired, I had been in the power of Teibar of Ar. Indeed, I had been literally wearing his chains. The legalities of simple slave claim, based on active proprietorship, had not superseded, with respect to that collar, the rights contestable by the sword under which I had hitherto been held, those of sword claim.
'Perhaps I will put love chains on you again,' he said. 'You serve well in them.'
'Thank you, Master,' I said. It was indeed my hope that he would do so again, and, indeed, put me in many different bonds, which, in their various ways, for various reasons, both physical and psychological, influence and condition the responses of the female.
He then removed the love chains from me, and tossed them to the side, among his things. He then, too, freed the neck chain from the tree, and then, in a moment, from my neck as well. He tossed the chain to the side, so that it lay with the love chains, among his things. He then lay back on the blankets, with his hands under his head. He looked up, at the moons. I knelt beside him. 'I am not chained,' I said.
He was silent.
'Are you not afraid I will escape?' I asked.
'No,' he said.
'Do you want me to promise that I will not run away?' I asked.
'No,' he said.
'A slave may not lie,' I said. 'She is not a free woman.' interestingly, on Gor, as on Earth, morality, for the most part, was not required of free women. They might do much what they pleased. On the other hand, slaves had no such liberties at their disposal. As they are owned, such things as honesty and truthfulness are required of them. Indeed, it is commonly expected of the Gorean master that he will take steps to significantly improve the moral character of his slave. 'Enter the blankets,' he said. 'Pull them up about us. The evening is cool.' 'Perhaps I will try to escape,' I said.
'Do you think it would be wise to attempt to escape from a Gorean master?' he asked.
'No, Master,' I said, frightened.
'And do you think it would be wise to attempt to escape from Teibar of Ar?' 'No, Master,' I said.
'Lie down, here,' he said.
'There?' I asked. 'Beside you?'
'Yes,' he said. 'Why?'
'I thought you might chain me at your feet, sleeping me there, like a sleen,' I said.
'Perhaps later,' he said.
I snuggled up, against him. how huge and mighty seemed his body, that of this magnificent, primitive male, on this barbaric, beautiful world, and how small and soft I seemed next to it.
'Master,' I said.
'Yes,' he said.
'You told me earlier, at the fire, that «he» was not coming,' I said. 'This relieved my anxieties. It assuaged my fear. I relaxed. I even bent forward.' 'Yes,' he said.
'You used me to lure the beast in, to the attack,' I said. 'You tricked me. You used me without my knowledge. You used me without taking me into your confidence. You used me as a slave!'
'Yes,' he said.
But, of course, I thought to myself, he had used me as a slave. I was a slave! 'Master,' I said.
'Yes,' I said.
'Tela would seek out Aulus, overseer of the work camp of Ionicus, near Venna. She is his love slave. Do you think she found him?'
'it is possible,' he said. 'I do not know.'
'But Ionicus owns her,' I said.
'If the fellow Aulus is the overseer,' said my master, 'he is doubtless empowered to buy and sell slaves from the chain. Thus, if he wants her, it would not be difficult for him to purchase her. Probably no more would be required than the transfer of a sum between accounts.
'But what if she did not come into his power?' I asked.
'Then,' he said,' she had presumably been transported elsewhere, carried away in the chains of another, to a different fate, presumably never to see him again. She is, after all, only a slave.'
'Yes, Master,' I said. I was frightened. How much we were at the mercy of our masters! We were only slaves!
'Master,' I said.
'Yes,' he said.
'I am your slave,' I said. 'I am owned by you. You have total power over me.' 'Yes?' he said.
'Will you be gentle with me, and kind with me?' I asked.
'You are a slave,' he said. 'You will be treated precisely as it pleases me to treat you.'
'Am I to be permitted clothing?' I asked.
'Only if it pleases me,' he said.
'Am I to be often whipped?' I asked.
'When may a slave be whipped?' he asked.
'Whenever a master pleases,' I said.
'That, then, he said, 'is when you will be whipped, whenever a master pleases.' 'Yes, Master,' I said. 'Forgive me, Master.'
'You are a cuddly slut,' he said.
'Thank you, Master,' I said.
'You are very female,' he said.
'Thank you, Master,' I said.
'Are there many women like you on Earth?' he asked.
'I suppose so, Master,' I said. 'I do not know.'
