'Consider yourself,' I said.
'Yes?' she said.
'As a free captive,' I said, 'you are subject to rescue. On the other hand, for most practical purposes, there is no rescue for a female slave, only a change of masters.'
'True,' she said.
'Suppose it were a kaiila,' I said. 'If a fellow goes to considerable risk to steal a kaiila, and is successful in doing so, he is not going to turn it loose.'
'Of course not,' she said.
'On the other hand,' I said, 'similarly, I can think of an obvious advantage which the female slave has over the free woman.'
'What is that?' she asked.
'In many critical situations,' I said, 'such as the burning and sacking of cities, raids on caravans, and such, she, as she is a domestic animal, like the sleen and tarsk, is much more likely to survive, to be permitted to live, to be spared, than the free female. She is property, obvious loot, obvious booty. Indeed, her acquisition, like that of other wealth, gold, and such, may be one of the primary objects of such sackings or raids.'
'Men find slaves of interest, do they not?' she asked.
'Yes,' I said. 'Indeed, wars have been fought to obtain the beautiful slaves of a given city.'
'The Slave Wars!' she said.
She was referring to a series of wars, loosely referred to as the Slave Wars, which occurred among various cities in the middle latitudes of Gor, off and on, over a period of approximately a generation. They had occurred long before my coming to Gor. Although large-scale slaving was involved in these wars, and was doubtless a sufficient condition for them, hence the name, other considerations, as would be expected, were often involved, as well, such as the levying of tribute and the control of trade routes. Out of the Slave Wars grew much of the merchant law pertaining to slaves. Too, out of them grew some of the criteria for the standardization of the female slave as a commodity, for example, how, in virtue of her scarcity, her training, and such, she is to be figured as an item of tribute, for example, in terms of other domestic animals, given their current market values in the area, and so on, such as verr and tarsks. For example, she might, at a given time, be worth five verr or three tarsks, but she might be worth only a fifth of a sleen or a tenth of a tarn. Obtaining women is one of the major reasons Goreans fight. Another is sport. The Slave Wars, incidentally, might be compared with the Kaiila Wars of the southern hemisphere. In the latter wars, fought among factions of the Wagon Peoples, the object, or principal object, was apparently the acquisition of the lofty, silken kaiila, the common mount of the Wagon Peoples. In those wars, as I understand it, the acquisition of female slaves was almost an afterthought, ropes being put on the necks of captured women, who were then, stripped, herded back with the captured kaiila to the wagons of the victors. To be sure, it did not take the Wagon Peoples long to learn the many exquisite pleasures attendant upon owning beautiful slaves. With the unification of the Wagon Peoples under a Ubar San, Kamchak, of the Tuchuks, it is my impression that the riders of the swift kaiila now seldom ply their depredations against their own kind. Rather do they roam afield, it is said not a woman is safe within a thousand pasangs of the wagons. I would think that a very conservative estimate. Raiding parties of the Wagon Peoples have been reported as far north as Venna. Some claim to have seen them even in the vicinity of the Sardar. The Wagon Peoples themselves are not likely to confuse their own slaves, as the different peoples have different brands, the Tuchuks the brand of the four bosk horns, the Kassars the brand of the three-weighted bola, the Kataii the brand of a bow, facing left, and the Paravaci the brand of the inverted isosceles triangle surmounted by a semicircle, a symbolic representation of the head of a bosk. I knew a girl who wore the brand of the four bosk horns, and, above it, the cursive Kef, the common Kajira mark, for she was a common girl, put there when I had branded her in a kasbah in the Tahari. Her name was Vella. She had once been a secretary, on Earth.
'I was thinking, rather,' I said, 'of various other wars, or conflicts, such as the second war between Harfax and Besnit, and the war, some years ago; between Port Olni and Ti, before the Salerian Confederation.'
'Yes!' she said.
'There,' I said, 'I think the motivations were solely, or almost solely, the acquisition of slaves.'
'Yes!' she said.
The war between Port Olni and Ti had ended in a truce. That between Harfax and Besnit had concluded, however, with a practical victory for Harfax. Besnit, her walls breached, had been forced to surrender her slaves, and a selection of her high-caste daughters, to be made slaves, and trained under the women who had formerly been slaves in their own houses. Besnit and Harfax, now, interestingly enough, years later, were allies. Harfax had desperately needed the assistance of such an ally, but Besnit, understandably, despite the advantages which she stood to reap from such a relationship, given the past, was reluctant to form an alliance. At this point the young high-caste women of Harfax had approached the high council of the city with a bold plan. It had been to permit the men of Besnit to make a selection from among them, in the number of a hundred, the same number which had been that of the high-caste daughters earlier taken by the men of Harfax, this hundred then to be impressed into slavery, trained by slaves in the houses of Besnit, and then to be kept, or sold, or distributed, as their masters chose. Although opposition to this plan was at first fierce the high council agreed at last. Accordingly, the high- caste young women of Harfax were privately stripped and examined. Those deemed the most beautiful were then entered on records and given a locked bracelet to wear. A month later they were taken to Besnit and reduced to bondage. After this they were trained in Besnit by the slaves of men of Besnit. After their training they were sold, some from the city, some within it, these decisions made by lottery. Besnit and Harfax, since that time, have been staunch allies. The proceeds from the first sales of the girls, when they were first put up for auction, whether out of the city or within it, went to the public treasury of Besnit.
She trembled with pleasure.
'We should camp soon,' I said.
I saw the fin of a shark several feet to the left, gliding through a stand of rence.
'Look to the left,' I said.
'Yes,' she said.
'Keep on the raft,' I said.
'Yes, my captor,' she said. She coiled the strap running to her collar once or twice, shortening her own tether. Then she knelt and came forward a little, near me.
I looked down at her, and she looked up at me, happily.
'Am I pretty on my knees?' she asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'What are you going to do with me?' she asked.
'You are still interested in that?' I asked.
'Of course,' she said.
'We shall see,' I said.
'I am totally at your mercy, you know,' she said.
'Yes,' I said.
'And you will do with me what you please, will you not?' she asked.
'Of course,' I said.
'Good,' she said.
'What?' I asked.
'Nothing,' she said.
I poled the raft to the right. There was, to the right, about a hundred yards away, a likely looking island on which to make a camp.
'You could even sell me, couldn't you?' she asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'Is that your intention,' she asked, 'to sell me?'
'Perhaps,' I said.
She looked up at me.
'The thought interests you, doesn't it?' I asked.
'Yes,' she whispered.
'And you are curious, are you not,' I asked, 'as to what it would be to be the most sexual, exciting and
