Fighting Slave of Gor

9 I AM GOODS BOUND FOR THE MARKET OF TIMA

"Smell a slave girl, Master!" taunted the slave. The slave box in which I was being transported to the market of Tima had been placed on the stones near a trough at which the carrying slaves, now chained, were, being watered. We were at the edge of what appeared to be a square in a city. I drew back from the perforations in the iron wall of my container as the. brown rep-cloth, a thin, single layer of cloth, covering the sweetly rounded, lower belly of a female slave, thrust suddenly against the perforations. She rubbed herself insolently, closely, across the perforations. I could smell her indeed, dirt and sweat, and the hot, moist female of her.

"Smell me, too, Master," said another slave. She, too, in brown rep-cloth, rubbed against the perforations.

"Get your filthy, stinking little bodies away from there!" called Prodicus.

The, two girls laughed and, turning about, ran swiftly, lightly, away.

Both were exciting, briefly tunicked, collared. One's tunic had been torn to the waist on her left side.

They did not stay to feel the whip of Prodicus.

"Slave! Slave!" called a small child, beating on the metal of the slave box. "Slave! Slave!" called his companion. They struck repeatedly on the box. Inside the noise was painful. Then they ran to play elsewhere.

"Master!" I called to a man who was passing by. I pressed my face against the perforations. "Please, Master," I called, "in what city am I?"

He spit against the perforations. I swiftly drew back my face. I wiped my cheek.

He was kind, I now realize, not to have had me beaten.

How insolent I had been, to have dared to speak to him. Some slaves have been slain for such acts.

"Are you a pretty one?" I heard. A woman's voice had spoken. I looked up, through the perforations.

"I can see very little of him," said another voice, also that of a woman. Two free women, veiled and in robes, stood near the slave box. They had market baskets on their arms.

"Are you pretty?" I heard.

"I do not know, Mistress," I said.

She laughed.

"For what market are you bound?" asked the other woman.

"The market of Tima," I said.

They looked at one another and laughed. "I'll bet you are a pretty one!" said one of the women.

"My companion would not even let me have a pet like you," said the other.

"Are you quite tame?" asked the first woman.

"Yes, Mistress," I said.

"He probably is," said the second woman. "The market of Tima is famous for her tamed slaves."

I did not tell them that I came from a world in which almost all the males were perfectly tamed, indeed, a world in which males were supposed to pride themselves on their inoffensiveness and agreeability.

"I do not trust Kajiri," said the first woman. "They can revert. Can you imagine how fearful that might be, if one turned on you?"

The second one shuddered, but I thought with pleasure. "Yes," she said.

"Consider your danger, and what they might make you do," said the first.

"Yes," said the second.

"They might treat you as though you were little better than a slave."

"Or perhaps as only a slave," said the second.

"How horrifying that would be," said the first.

"Yes," said the second, but it seemed to me that she, beneath her robes and veil, shuddered again with pleasure.

"But if the Mistress is strong," said the first, "what has she to fear?"

"One who is stronger than she," said the second.

"I am stronger than any man," said the first.

"But what if you should meet your Master?" asked the second.

The first one was silent then for a moment. Then she spoke. "I would love him and serve him, helplessly," she said.

"Beautiful Mistresses," I said, "can you tell me in what city I am?"

"Be silent, Slave," said the first woman.

"Yes, Mistress," I said.

"Curiosity is not becoming in a Kajirus," said the second.

"Yes, Mistress," I said. "Forgive me, Mistresses."

They turned away, their market baskets on their arms. The butt of the whip of Prodicus suddenly struck twice at the side of the box, sharply. I jerked away from the sound, crying out, startled, frightened. "Be silent in there, Slave," he said, "or you will be well beaten."

"Yes, Master," I said. "Forgive me, Master."

I then felt the slave box, on the rings and poles, again being lifted. I pressed my face again to the perforations. I saw the brightly colored robes and tunics of the people. The square was crowded. I saw market stalls and heard the cries of vendors hawking their goods. I smelled fresh vegetables and roasting meat. The day was bright. The air was clear. On a cement dais, at one side of the square, I saw a man selling naked, chained slave girls. They were very beautiful, and piteous, in their collars and chains. I thought of Miss Beverly Henderson. How lovely she had been. I scarcely dared to conjecture what tragic fate might have befallen her on this rude world.

"Make way," called Prodicus. "Make way for goods bound for the market of Tima!"