said the third.
I smiled. The larma is luscious. It has a rather hard shell but the shell is brittle and easily broken.
Within, the fleshy endocarp, the fruit, is delicious, and very juicy. Sometimes, when a woman is referred to as a 'larma,' it is suggested that her hard or frigid exterior conceals a rather different sort of interior, one likely to be quite delicious. Once the shell has been broken through or removed, irrevocably, there is, you see, exposed, soft, vulnerable, juicy and helpless, the interior, in the fruit, the fleshy endocarp, in the woman, the slave.
'Are all the paga taverns in Port Cos named for flowers or fruits? I asked. 'No!' laughed the first.
'Surely there is a connection,' I said, 'through ownership or tradition?' 'Many towns have a tavern of dinas, Master,' said the first.
'That is true,' I granted her.
''Veminium' is a pretty name,' said the second.
'True,' I said. 'Incidentally, what is the point of the name? Is it to suggest that the girls there, like the veminia, are cheap and pretty?'
The second girl, she from the Veminium, gasped, suddenly, laughing, putting her hand before her Mouth. 'I do not know!' she said, looking at the others, scandalized, laughing. 'I never thought of it! Perhaps, Master!'
'And are all the girls there cheap and pretty?' I asked.
'I think we are pretty,' she laughed. 'I do not know if we are so cheap.' I smiled. I had wondered if perhaps the name had not been chosen more to lure fellows inward, than to supply an objective assessment of the commercial competitiveness of the contained services and merchandise.
'There are many paga taverns in Port Cos, Master,' said the first. 'Not all are named for flowers or fruits. There is the Cage, the Jewels of Telnus, Artemidorus' Cargo, the Secret Basement, the Hold, the Scarlet Whip, the Tavern of the Collar of the Two Chains, and many others.'
'I am pleased to hear it,' I said. 'I take it that you are all friends.' 'Yes, Master,' said the first. 'The Veminium and the Larma are owned by brothers,' said the first. 'They are near one another,' said the second.
I was pleased to hear these things. The girls were friends, which suggested they might be from similar style and level institutions. Certainly girls from high taverns and from low taverns seldom consort with one another. And two of the places were owned by brothers and were near one another. These were connections, at least of some sort.
'And what of the girls at the Larma?' I asked. 'Are they expensive?' 'We, like those at the Dina and Veminium, are affordable,' she said. 'Our uses go much for the standard prices.'
'Were the girls at the Larma all once larmas?' I asked.
'I suppose some, Master,' laughed the third girl.
'Were you a larma?' I asked her.
'No, Master,' she laughed. 'I have known that I was a slave since puberty, and I never pretended to be otherwise, perhaps because I feared someone might see through me and beat me.'
'Of what caste were you? I asked.
'Of the Peasants,' she said. 'We had too many daughters, too few sons. Two of my older brothers had already been sold into slavery before I was fifteen. One autumn my father's fields again failed. We were starving. I begged him to sell me. He then beat me, and bound me, and sold me.'
'You are happy as a slave?' I asked.
'Yes, Master,' she said. 'It is what I am, and want to be. I hope only that someday I may have a private master, a love master, to whom I may be his devoted and obedient love slave.'
'You long,' I asked, 'for a master who is strong, and love?'
'Yes, Master,' she said.
She was a pretty young thing. She had very dark hair and very light skin, and, for a girl who had once been of the Peasants, was surprisingly slim. She reminded me a little of Phoebe, from Telnus, whom I had left on the coffle with the remainder of the debtor sluts I had redeemed, and obtained, at the Crooked Tarn, Temione, Amina, Rimice and Liomache.
'Master!' she said. I had put down the sea bag and, crouching before her, lifted back the beads about her body.
'Are you typical of the girls at the Larma?' I asked her.
'I think so, Master,' she said.
'You are, of course, soliciting for your master's tavern,' I said. 'Yes, Master,' she said.
'But are you, yourself, rentable?' I asked.
'Of course, Master,' she said.
'And what of you others?' I asked.
'Yes, Master,' said the dina.
'Of course, Master, said the girl from the Veminium.
'Ho, Warrior,' I said, getting up, addressing the young fellow, Marcus, who had only now descended the gangplank and was going to make his way up the pier, toward the warehouses, the shops, the town.
He turned to regard us, and I beckoned that he should join us.
'Line up,' I said to the kneeling slaves. 'Straighten your backs, get your knees wider.'
Then they were indeed presented as an excellent display of slaves.
The young warrior looked upon them.
'What do you think of them?' I asked. I thought they would make a nice set.' 'They are appealing,' he said.
His interest encouraged me. He needed a woman, and the best of such are slaves. 'Who are you?' I asked the slaves.
'Roxanne, of the Dina, slave of Simonides, taverner of Port Cos,' said the first.
'Korinne, of the Veninium, slave of Agathocles, taverner of Port Cos,' said the second.
Yakube, of the Larma, slave of Panicrates, taverner of Port Cos,' said the third.
'That is a Tahari name,' said Marcus, looking at her closely. Indeed, of the three women it was she, the young slave from the Larma, to whom he seemed most drawn, in whom he seemed most interested. She was, I gathered, as I presumed they did not know one another, a type of woman whom he found extremely and excitingly attractive, a sort toward whom he seemed powerfully, perhaps almost irresistibly drawn. I was pleased to see his interest in her, as I hoped that she, or she and another, or she and the others, might distract him from his moody reflections. Slaves are excellent at relaxing a man, and giving him happiness. But something in his tone of voice had been menacing, and chilling. 'Yes, Master,' said the girl, hesitantly. She was clearly aware of the implicit menace in his tone. Slave girls are extremely sensitive to such things. I could see that she was frightened.
'But you are not of the Tahari, are you? he asked.
'No, Master,' she said. Her coloring, of course, did not suggest that of a woman native to the Tahari region. Many males of the Tahari, of course, are fond of fair-skinned slaves, and such, shipped south and east, bring excellent prices in their markets. Thereafter they learn to serve their dark masters well, within the recesses of the cool, white buildings of the oases and cities, and out on the desert, in the tents. In such places they learn the wearing of the garments of the Tahari, and, if the master pleases, the stride-measuring ankle chains of the area, worn even by many free women. It is expected, too, that they will quickly become adept in the manifold labors of the Tahari woman, and, in particular, in their cases, those of the Tahari slave woman. In the latter respect, swiftly are the many meanings of the submission mat taught to them, where their slavery in their master's house or tent begins, but is not likely to end. To it they may be from time to time returned.
'Why do you have a Tahari name?' he asked.
'It was given to me, Master,' she said.
This sort of thing is not all that unusual. For example, last fall, after accepting her as a slave, I had named the former Lady Charlotte of Samnium 'Feiqa.' Which is a Tahari name. The name, which I had soon determined, had done wonders for new understanding of herself, and for her sexuality. To be sure, much depends on the woman. certain names on Gor tend to be used almost exclusively as slave names, such as Dina, Lita, Lana, Tafa, Tela, Tula, and so on. Perhaps because of the commonness and simplicity of such names, as well as their exciting beauty, many girls respond quite well to them. Many masters, in acquiring a slave, will change her name that she may understand that she is now, in effect, beginning her life anew. Indeed, some masters, even with the same girl, and not simply as a matter of discipline or reward, may change her name, to startle her, to impress their will
