leaving. I was helpless in the alcove. 'Master!' I called after him. 'Master!' I tried to rise but, by the chains, was prevented from doing so. I sand back, miserable, on the furs. He had been kind to me, and the first thing I had tried to do was to take advantage of him, to bend him to my will. I had then been cuffed. Then he had chained me. Too, he had thrown the whip against me, and had kicked me, showing his contempt for me, a caught, would-be manipulative slave. Then he had left. I moaned. What a fool I had been! he was Gorean! Had I not understood that it was I who was the slave, and he the master? Perhaps the whip had been flung against me to remind me of my subjectability to it. Or perhaps he had flung it there that my master, or his man, might understand, when he came to unchain me, that at the least failure in my pleasingness I was due for a whipping. Yet he himself had not used it on me. That was perhaps yet another evidence of his kindness, or of his understanding and patience with me, his recognition that I was still naught but an ignorant and naA?ve novice with respect to the rigors of my bondage. Had I irritated him further, however, I do not doubt but what he himself would have used it on me. As it was, he had not been pleased when he had left me. If he were to use me again, in the future, I feared he would be merciless with me, treating me as the foolish, and errant Earth woman I had been.
'Master?' I asked. I had heard the curtain being parted. 'Master!' I said, elatedly. 'Master?'
but then I felt my ankles flung apart.
'Oh!' I said, suddenly and smoothly penetrated, deeply.
I lay there, absolutely still.
This was not the same man!
I did not dare to move, so penetrated.
He made an animal noise.
'Master?' I asked.
I was very alive to him, so much so that I was unwilling to move.
'Dance,' said Tupita, apparently from the opening of the alcove. There was laughter there, too, mostly that of men. The curtain I realized had not been drawn!
'He wants you to dance, slave,' laughed Tupita. 'You are a dancer. Go ahead, dance.'
I moaned.
'Did you see the «Kef» on her belly?' asked Tupita.
'Yes,' said a man.
'It belongs there,' she said.
'Yes,' agreed another fellow.
'There is now a red-silk ribbon on your collar, Doreen,' said Tupita. 'What is the meaning of that?'
'That I have been red-silked, Mistress,' I said.
'Yes,' said Tupita.
'Close the curtain, Mistress!' I begged.
'Why?' asked Tupita. 'Are you modest?'
'No, Mistress,' I sobbed. Slaves are not permitted modesty.
'You are now only a red-silk slut, Doreen,' she said, 'no different from the rest of us!'
'No, Mistress,' I said.
'And do not forget it,' she said.
'No, Mistress,' I said.
There was laughter.
'Do you hear pounding?' asked Tupita.
'She has already been pounded,' said a man.
There was laughter.
'Listen,' said Tupita.
I could then hear pounding. It was far off, somewhere perhaps in the front of the tavern.
'So you hear it?' she asked.
'Yes, Mistress,' I said.
'Do you know what it is?' she asked.
'No, Mistress,' I said.
'It is your attestation paper, together with your white ribbon, being nailed to the wall in the vestibule of the tavern,' she said. 'It is there now with mine, and Sita' s, and those of some of the other girls.'
I did not respond.
'But not with Inger' s,' said a fellow.
'No,' laughed Tupita.
Several of the fellows laughed. Inger, from distant Skjern, had been taken by Torvaldslanders. She was voluptuous. Too, Torvaldslanders seldom deliver virgins to the slave markets.
'You are fortunate that I am not a man?' laughed Tupita.
'Mistress?' I asked, puzzled.
'In the case of a man, the repetition of a command is commonly a cause for discipline.'
'A command, Mistress?' I asked, frightened.
'Yes,' she said.
I knew that Tupita was having her sport with me, but, too, I knew that she might beat me tomorrow, in the slave area. As first girl she had that privilege. I did not want her to whip me, or switch me, or have the other girls put my ankles over the low bar and tie them there, and then have her spank the soles of my bare feet with the springy, flat board. It is very painful, and it is hard to walk after it.
'What command?' I asked, frightened.
'Dance,' laughed Tupita.
'Mistress, I am chained!' I said. 'I am held!'
'Dance,' said a man, from the entryway, and a grunt of pleasure from him in whose arms I lay slave captive.
I had been commanded by a man. I obeyed immediately, or did my best to obey. If a command needs to be repeated, as the saying goes, the girl needs to be punished. If the girl thinks, however, that the command may have been, say, an inadvertence, or mistake, or that the master might relent, or something along these lines, she might, say, beg or inquire. She is reassured of the intent and seriousness of the command if, for example, she is asked if the command need be repeated, which eventuality she will presumably be anxious to avoid. If she has, sincerely, and not as a girl' s trick, not understood the command, or has not heard it, or fears she may not have heard it correctly, she may also inquire into the matter, of course, and normally without penalty. In such cases the repetition of a command is not regarded as cause for discipline. A girl is seldom punished for trying to be pleasing, at least at first. If her efforts continue to fail, however, that is a different matter. The whip is an absolutely marvelous instructional device for improving female conduct.
I had not even wanted to move, him so within me!
But I was a slave. I must obey.
'You wriggle well, Doreen,' called Tupita.
I cried out with misery.
'Come, see the slave dance!' called a man from the entryway.
'Do not stop, slut,' warned Tupita.
I moaned.
I had not wanted to move, him so within me! But now, choicelessly, I moved. He was mostly quiet within me. It was I, the slave, who must move! I twisted and writhed. I then became aware, to my horror, that I was being forced to arouse myself upon him.
I whimpered in protest.
'Come, look,' called a fellow. 'She is getting hot!'
I sensed men crowding about the entryway.
'No!' I sobbed. I was a woman of Earth. I must remain frigid! I must not be 'hot!' But then I realized I was no longer a woman of Earth. I was now only a Gorean slave.
'Please him,' said Tupita.
'Yes, Mistress!' I sobbed. 'Yes, Mistress!'
'Ai!' growled the brute who held me like chains.
