'What will I do?' she asked.
'You will sit there,' I said, 'and think.'
'Come back!' she cried.
I turned, by the door. 'Release me!' she cried. 'You are quite pretty,' I told her.
'You can do this to me?' she asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'Release me!' she cried. 'No,' I said.
'I shall scream!' she said.
'I could always gag you,' I reminded her.
She made an angry noise.
'On the other hand,' I said, 'you are an intelligent woman. I will thus leave the matter to your common sense. In the first place there is probably no one around to hear you. At least I hope not. In the second place, if there is anyone around to hear you, it would almost certainly be rencers, and then, I suspect, it would be back to the pole with you.'
I thought that she might, even in the moonlight, have turned a shade paler.
'Accordingly,' I said, 'I would not make too much of a fuss, if I were you.'
She moaned.
'You cannot be too downcast,' I said, 'for I note that your chin is high. If it were any higher you could probably not see me leave at all. You could presumably note only the nature of the ceiling.'
'Are you truly going to leave me here, like this?' she wept.
'Yes,' I said.
25 Ina Begs to be First My Feast
'I did not know that it was you,' she whispered.
'It is,' I said.
It was now daylight.
She was beautiful in the stocks, though she must have suffered discomfort.
'I have brought down two small gants,' I said, 'with stones.'
I had, as I had intended, in addition to bringing down the gants, reconnoitered the neighborhood. As I had thought I might, I had found, here and there, evidence of the retreat of the men of Ar, the remains of campfires, discarded gear, and such.
I put down the gants on the bench, near her, in one of the other places. There are five places on each bench. There is a center aisle. There are five benches on each side. There are, about the sides of the cabin, various rings. By means of such rings, and chains, of course, an indefinite number of girls, well beyond those in the fifty places on the benches, could be transported. Though it is not practical in the delta, such barges, too, could be tied together, and towed. Many slave barges, of course, carry no more than fifteen or twenty girls.
I looked at her. How well she was held in the stocks.
Conscious of my eyes upon her she sucked in her belly and straightened her body, as she could.
Yes, she was quite beautiful.
'I hope my captor finds me pleasing,' she whispered.
'Perhaps, for a free woman,' I said.
She did not ask me where I had been, or why I had taken so long. She knew enough not to do so. Such impertinence can be a cause for discipline.
'I think we can have a small fire for the gants,' I said. 'I think we can set it in here, on a plate. There will be little smoke, and what there is will be randomly distributed, escaping various windows. I do not think it will be detectable.'
She did not ask to be released from the stocks. I took it that in the several Ahn I had been gone various things, as I had expected, even though she was a free woman, had become clear to her.
She made a small noise, of need.
That interested me. I had left her in the stocks primarily for her instruction, and not for her arousal.
She looked up at me. I saw in her eyes that she now indeed understood some things which might not have been clear to her before, primarily that her subjection to my will was uncompromising and absolute.
'You sit where doubtless many slaves have sat,' I said.
She made another small noise, of need.
'You do not sound like a free woman,' I said. 'You sound like an amorous slave.'
'In the first Ahn,' she said, 'I was angry. I even struggled a little, but please do not beat me for it!'
'Not this time,' I said.
'Then later, as I realized I must await you here, where you had put me, and as you had put me, and for as long as you wished, I began to have strange feelings.'
'Yes?' I said.
'I began to long for you, to yearn for you,' she said.
'That is understandable,' I said, 'as you wished to be released.'
'No,' she said. 'It is not that simple.'
'Oh?' I asked.
'Helpless here,' she said, 'I began to have strange feelings in my belly, and whole body, for you.'
'It is the constraints,' I said. She looked at me, piteously.
'Oh!' she said.
'I see that you speak the truth,' I said.
'Yes!' she said.
'Interesting, the effects of such devices upon a woman,' I mused.
'It is not just the constraints,' she said, 'I assure you.'
I looked at her.
'It is also the meaningfulness of it, and the wholeness of the thing.'
I nodded.
'You have subjected me to your will,' she said, 'and I am helpless!'
'As much so as a slave?' I asked.
'Yes!' she said.
'No,' I said, 'not nearly so, not even remotely so, for you are not owned.'
'Touch me!' she begged.
These things had to do, I think, with male dominance, and its effects upon a woman, the finding of herself helplessly where she belongs, and her understanding this, in her true place in nature. In the female, sexuality, it seems, is a matter of the totality of her being. It is a wondrous, glorious thing involving, and transforming, the beautiful wholeness of her. The female slave, for example, in her excitement and beauty, is an embodiment of sensuality, love and service.
'Touch me!' she begged.
'Shall I release you?' I asked.
'Release me or not, as you please,' she wept, 'but touch me!'
I regarded her.
'I am absolutely helpless,' she wept. 'I beg it!'
'You desire sexual relief?' I asked.
'I am a free woman,' she said. 'Please do not have me speak so!'
I looked at her.
'Yes,' she wept, 'I desire sexual relief!'
'A bold admission,' I said.
'Please!' she said.
'But if you obtain such relief,' I said, 'your needs, in time, will reassert themselves, perhaps even more
