obediently, to him. Slave girls are not permitted to be fastidious. We must take what comes. What matters is that these fellows have paid their fees to out masters. Accordingly we must serve them with enthusiasm, skill and passion. They have paid their money. We must thus see to tit that we are marvels to them, that we serve them with eagerness and perfection. This is not a matter, incidentally, of serving regardless of our will and possible desires, or in spite of them, but of actually adjusting our will and desires, in such service. To be sure, some men enjoy taking a woman who hates them, and whom they hate, and reducing her to a panting, pleading slave, begging for a continuation of their touch, which they may then either grant or deny her, as it pleases them.
He crawled toward me, and then crouched, unsteadily, before me. I quickly took him in my arms, pressing myself gratefully against him. I hoped, even in this time, even in these circumstances, that I might gain from him a moment or two of relief. Perhaps my master' s men would not soon enter the alcove. Perhaps, best, they could decide they did not want this man. He was too heavy to hold. I lowered him to the furs. He was asleep. The two panels slid noiselessly open. 'Back, slut,' said the first of my master' s men.
I crept back against the wall.
I watched the other of my master' s men drag the fellow from the alcove by an arm.
'I see that your hands will have to be fastened behind you again tonight,' said the first of my master' s men.
I put down my head.
'Turn about, kneeling,' he said.
I did so. I expected him to put a belly chain on me, padlocked in front, with slave bracelets attached in the back. I had worn it the last eleven nights. But he did not do so. Instead I felt binding fiber cinched about my waist, and then my hands, wrists crossed, were, to this same fiber, tied behind my back. I did not understand this. He open the heavy collar, attached to the wall chain, which had been closed about my neck. He then drew me to my feet by an arm. 'The Master wants to see you,' he said.
'Master?' I asked.
'Be silent,' he said.
'Yes, Master,' I said.
22 Inquiries; Gagged, Hooded and Collared
'Spread your knees more widely, Tuka,' said my master, Tyrrhenius of Argentum. I obeyed.
He regarded me, not speaking.
I knelt before him on a circular scarlet rug, he in a curule chair looking down at me. My hands were tied behind my back, to a length of binding fiber cinched snugly about my waist. His men were near him, the two who had been as my masters in my work.
'You are an Earth slut, are you not?' he asked.
'Yes. Master,' I said. 'That is, I am a woman from Earth, who was brought here and enslaved.'
'A slut,' he said.
'Yes, Master,' I said. 'I am a slut from Earth, who was brought here and enslaved.' I supposed, in a sense, I had been a slut on Earth. Certainly I had been interested in men, and in sexual experience, even then, though I had been shy, and afraid of both. Here, of course, on Gor, there was no question about the matter. I had learned that here I was a slave slut, and an exciting and attractive one.
'What is the history of your bondage?' he asked.
I did not understand his interest in this matter. On the other hand, I supposed he had his reasons. He did not seem idly curious. Besides, he was a free man, and I, a female slave, had been asked a question.
'I was captured on Earth,' I said, 'and brought to your beautiful world, where I was imbonded. I do not know the place to which I was brought, where I was branded and collared. It was, it seems, across a sea.'
'Cos, probably,' said one of my master' s men.
'Perhaps,' he said.
'I was sold outside Brundisium, in a sales camp,' I said.
'Brundisium,' said one of my master' s men. 'It would doubtless, then, have been Cos.'
'Perhaps,' said my master.
'My first public sale took place in Market of Semris,' I said, 'at the sales barn of Teibar, of that town. I was purchased there by Hendow, a taverner of Brundisium. I was stolen from Brundisium, and sold in Samnium. There I was purchased by Gordon, an itinerant musician. It was from him, in Market of Semris, that I was purchased by you, my master.'
'What did you do in the tavern of Hendow,' asked my master.
'I worked in the kitchen,' I said.
'Surely one with your beauty served also in the alcoves,' he said.
'Yes, Master,' I said.
'Did you also dance?' he asked.
'Yes, Master,' I said.
The men exchanged glances. I pulled at the binding fiber a little, confining my wrists. I was well tied. It had been done by a Gorean master.
I looked at the men. I did not understand their interest in these things. 'Would you care to be fed to sleen?' he asked.
'No, Master!' I cried. Quickly I put my head down to the floor.
'It is my understanding that six days ago, on the streets,' he said, 'you exhibited a momentary hesitancy in carrying out a capture.'
I flung myself to my belly, my hands tied behind me, before his chair. I was terrified. 'Forgive me, Master!' I cried. 'Forgive me!'
'Did you know the individual?' he asked.
'Yes, Master!' I cried. I had known him. he had been kind to me!' 'To whom does a girl own absolute and perfect obedience?' he asked. 'To her master! To her master!' I wept.
'Kick her, and beat her,' he said, dispassionately.
I was then spurned and abused with the feet of his men, and I was then pulled up to my knees and cuffed several times before my master. Then they stepped back. I was then again on my knees, my lips now bleeding, before my master. I tasted blood.
'You are contrite now, are you not, Tuka?' he asked.
'Yes, Master,' I said, frightened. I knew I should not have hesitated. I was a slave.
'But you have been on the whole an excellent lure girl,' he said, 'one of he best I have ever had.'
'Thank you, Master,' I whispered.
'You are extremely intelligent,' he said, 'as well as extremely beautiful.' 'Thank you, Master,' I whispered. I felt that my intelligence was small compared to that of most Gorean males, but I did not fell intelligently inferior, at least generally, to the women I had met on Gor, either girls from Earth, such as Gloria and Clarissa, who had been with me at Market of Semris, or those native to Gor, women such as Tula and Ina, and Sita and Aynur, whom I had known at the tavern of Hendow, on Dock Street, in Brundisium. I did not know if the high intelligence of Gorean men was a function of those men who had been brought to Gor in the distant past, perhaps chosen for intelligence, as well as other qualities, or if it had to do rather, for the most part, with the exhilarating, liberating Gorean cultural milieu, one alien to negativity, inhibition and frustration, one perhaps, in virtue of permitting an open, honest and freed manhood, more conducive to emotional and mental growth.
'Doubtless these qualities have contributed to your effectiveness as a lure girl,' he said.
'Perhaps, Master,' I said, uneasily.
'But even so,' he said, 'the effectiveness of a lure girl is usually limited.' 'Master?' I asked, apprehensively.
'So, too,' he said, 'I think that your utility as such, even with your intelligence and beauty, at least in this area, may be coming to an end.' I did not say anything. I was helpless.
'Too,' he said, 'there is a question as to how much risk it is rational to take.'
