'It is incredible that there should be any,' he said, 'given the depth and extensiveness of the masculinist conditioning programs to which they are subjected, the values they are trained to accept, the seeking of which is reinforced, the models they are encouraged to emulate, the images which are held forth for them to fulfill, the manifold enticements and rewards offered for male surrogation, the contempt in which love and service, and biological womanhood, are held. It is as though all the forces of communication, education and law had gone insane, with no better objective than to bring the sexes to ruin, destroy the human gene pool and doom the species.
'Only there, Master,' I said. 'Not here.'
'How is it that a woman like you should have come from such a place?' he asked. 'I am sure there are thousands, perhaps millions, like me,' I said. I think it must be the case that all women, at lest when they are alone, know the truth, if only in their bellies.
'Perhaps,' he said.
'You have done slaving on Earth,' I said. 'Apparently you find us not unattractive.'
'True,' he said.
'Once collared, do we not prove satisfactory?' I asked.
'You would be well whipped, did you not?' he said.
'Even so?' I said.
'Yes,' he said. 'It is true.'
'Freed, we will destroy you, and then ourselves,' I said. 'Kept in collars, we will worship you, and serve you well.'
'Perhaps I will have you write your story, in English,' he said.
'But who could read it, here?' I asked.
'I have been to Earth,' he said. 'I have seen works there, dealing with my world.'
I looked at him, startled.
'Yes,' he said.
'But how could they know?' I asked. 'How could such things get to Earth?' 'I am not sure,' he said. 'I think perhaps they are put on the platforms outside the palisade of the Sardar Mountains, for Priest-Kings. Then perhaps the Priest-Kings see that they reach Earth.'
'I do not think there are such things as Priest-Kings,' I said. 'Some people,' he said, 'do not believe the beasts exist.'
'Do such exist on Earth?' I asked.
'I think some,' he said, 'probably exiles, and the offspring of exiles, marooned criminals, beached on a foreign world, degenerate scions of the People, and such.'
'Where?' I asked.
'In lonely areas,' he said, 'the mountains of Asia, the forests of the Pacific Northwest, and such.'
'If such works exist,' I said, 'then some women must know that there is such a world as Gor.'
'Or that there might be such a world,' he said. 'Did you know if it?' 'No!' I said. 'Do they know that such slaving occurs?'
'Some, perhaps,' he said. 'On the other hand, such books are generally regarded as fiction. It is better that way, don' t you think?'
'I don' t know,' I said, frightened. I touched my right hand to my breasts, so soft, and my left hand to my collar. I was now a Gorean slave. Would it have been better on Earth if I had known such things were possible, or had it been better if, as in my case, I had not even suspected their possibility? I did not know. But, in any event, I was now here, and in a collar.
'We will leave in the morning,' he said.
I wondered what sort of man he was, this magnificent, formidable brute to whom I now belonged.
He had not even given me clothing!
'Master keeps his girl naked,' I pouted.
'Sometimes a bit of clothing looks well on a female,' he said, 'if it is sufficiently revealing, and can be swiftly removed, or torn away.'
'Master?' I asked.
'For example,' he said, 'some of the lingerie, as you call it, with which you Earth females delight to secretly bedeck yourselves, concealing it beneath the camouflage of your prescribed habiliments.'
'I am no longer an Earth female,' I said, kissing him.
'Such garments,' he said, 'though perhaps too indecent for the streets or market place a Gorean master might require of his slave in the privacy of his own quarters.'
'Yes, Master,' I said.
'a€”if permitted her clothing, at all,' he added.
'You took away my slave strip, and my belt of rolled cloth,' I said. 'They were almost nothing, but they were all I had to cover myself.' 'That was in accord with my decision,' he said, 'that for the time being, at least, you will be kept naked.'
'I shall be proud to walk naked behind you, on the road,' I said.
'My pack is not heavy,' he said.
'I shall carry it?' I asked.
'Yes,' he said. 'Of course.'
'May I ask where we are going?' I asked.
'I am going to my small villa, deserted now, in the hills of northeast Ar,' he said. 'You will simply follow, as my draft animal.'
'Does master have other slaves?' I asked, apprehensively.
'You will learn,' he said.
I moaned.
'No,' he laughed.
I cried out with pleasure, and kissed him, happily, in relief. 'I will be a thousand slaves to you!' I said.
'Yes,' he said. 'You will. I will see to it.'
'Yes, Master,' I said, happily. I kissed him, again, delightedly.
'At my villa, too, ' he said, 'I will decide whether I will keep you or sell you.'
'Master?' I protested.
'Perhaps, you will endeavor to be such that I will decide to keep you,' he said. 'Master may be assured that I will do my best,' I said. 'I shall earnestly endeavor to be pleasing to him in all respects!'
'I think you will like the villa,' he said. 'It is not large, but it is, I think, quite lovely. It is white, with a small court, and stuccoed walls. There is a porch which overlooks a little valley. It is quiet and secluded. It has a lovely setting, hidden in the hills. I withdraw there, from time to time.' 'I shall endeavor to serve master well there,' I said.
'In such a place, too,' he said, 'it might not be inappropriate to have a slave write her story.'
'Do you wish to have me do so, Master?' I asked.
'I have not decided,' he said.
'In the first house of my slavery,' I said, 'I was given a series of injections. I am curious about them. Were they inoculations against diseases?'
'I know those you mean,' he said. 'No, they were the stabilization serums. We give them even to slaves.'
'What are they?' I asked.
'You do not know?' he asked.
'No,' I said.
'They are a discovery of the caste of physicians,' he said. 'They work their effects on the body.'
'What is their purpose?' I asked.
'Is there anything in particular which strikes you generally, statically, about the population of Gor?' he asked.
'Their vitality, their health, their youth,' I said.
'Those are consequences of the stabilization serums,' he said.
