Rogue of Gor

3. The Food Tent

"Over here," I told the Lady Gina, "Kneel down," I indicated a place on the straw, at the wall of the food tent, a clear place, between other couples.She knelt before me, looking up at me, "You are the first man who has ordered me to the straw," she said."Do you think you are unattractive?" I asked."I know I am unattractive," she said."To many men," I said, "you would be very attractive."

"I am a naked and shackled prisoner," she said, "soon perhaps, if it should please the men of Ar, to be branded a slave. I have waited upon your table and brought you food and drink. Beyond these things, I beg you not to insult and torture me."

"You performed your duties as a naked waitress well," I said, "expertly and deferentially." "I do not wish to be killed," she said.

"You were a fine trainer," I said. "You taught me much."And now, " she smiled, "is it your intention to give your training a little training?" Perhaps," I said."I have never had the feelings of a normal woman," she said.

"Lie down," I told her. "I obey," she said. She looked up at me. "You do not seem angry with me," she said.

I sat beside her. "I am not," I said. "Keeper!" I called, "Give me the key to the shackles of this one."

He came to me and gave me a key, with which I removed the shakle from her right ankle. I returned the key to him. I did not unlock the shackle on her left ankle. She continued to wear it, with the short chain and the opened right shackle.

"He did not seem surprised or started," I said, "that I should open your shackle." "No," she said, bewildered. "He did not."Is it not thus so unthinkable," I said, "that a man might desire to free your legs." She looked at me, frightened.

"Remember," I said, "you are not now carrying a whip and keys, clad in black leather in a position of power, men at your mercy." "No," she whispers.

"And even in that guise," I said, "it is not so improbably but what men might wish to take your whip from you and throw you down and teach you what it is to be a women."

"I wanted them to do so," she said. "I wanted them to make me a woman." "You are a women," I told her. "Dare to be it."No!" she said. "It means surrender to men!" "Of course," I told her.

"I do not have the feelings of normal women" she said. "perhaps it is only that you are afraid to have them," I said. "No no!" she said."Then have them," I said.

"No!" she said. "The Lady Gina will never be a submitted slave!" "You are too proud to be a woman?" I asked. "Yes," she said. "Even though you are in truth, a woman?"

"Yes," she said. "It is wrong to be a woman! It is wrong to be a woman!" "You could always pretend that to be a woman is to be like a man," I said.

"I am not a fool," she said. "Do you reallly think it is wrong for a woman to be a true woman?" "Yes," she said, "for it is to be a woman and not a man!" "But you are not in fact a man," I said."I know," she said.

"Be a woman then," I said. "I dare not," she said. "Why?" I asked. "I do not know," she said.

"Is it such a terrible thing to be a woman?" I asked. "Yes, yes!" she said."No," I said, "it is not terrible. It is deeply and profoundling marvelous. She trembled.

"Take your place in the order of nature," I said. "At the feet of men!" she said."It is where you belong," I said.

She began to shudder at my side. "I begin to feel such emotions, such feelings," she said. "They frighten me. They threaten to overwhelm me."It is uncontrollable. It is like a storm," I said. "Yes," she said. "Yield to them," I said. "I do not want to be a women!" she wept. "I do not want to be a woman!"

"How fared the House of Andronicus?" I asked her.She looked at me, startled."The goods and the slaves fled or were taken," she said. "The House itself was destroyed."And Andronicus?" I asked."He fled," she said with the others.

"How did Lola fare?" I asked. "She fled," she said. "I do not know if she was taken by the looters or not."Do you think she managed to escape?" I asked."The looters, perhaps," she said. "But she wears a collar."

I nodded. Lola was attractive. By now she was doubtless on someone's chain. Lovely female slaves do not remain long at large.

"Did you now she sometimes cried your name aloud in her sleep?" asked the Lady Gina."No," I said."It was long ago," she said."True," I said.

"You seem different now," she said. I shrugged. "Perhaps," I said.

"Jason," she whispered. "Yes," I said. "You freed my legs," she said. "Yes," I said, "but it was a mistake." "Why?" she asked. "You do not have the feelings of a normal woman," I said. "It is doubtless nothing that you can help." I then bent to reshackle her. Quickly she drew her legs back. "What is wrong?" I asked."Please do not reshackle me, just yet," she said. "Why?" I asked.

"I want to be a woman," she whispered. "Truly?" I asked. "yes, truly," she sobbed. "Then," I said, "you must be prepared, holding nothing back, to yield to your deepest and most profound feelings." "But then," she said, "I would be only a submitted slave, overwhelmed and mastered."

I took her in my arms. She ws tense and frightened. "You're trembling" I said."I am only a woman and a prisoner," she said. "Do not forget it," I told her."No, Jason," she said. "you do not seem large and strong." I said. "I am not large and strong," she said."

"Your body is soft," I said, "and feels good in my hands," I jerked her by the arms to a sitting position and looked at her.

"Could a man find me desirable?" she asked. "Yes," I said, "Escape me!" She struggled, fuutiely. "I cannot escape you," she siad. "You know that!"

I thew her then down to her back in the straw. "Do not be rough with me, Jason," she said. "you will not be treated as men please," I told her. "Yes, Jason," she said. "Will it be necessary to whip you?" I asked. "No, Jason," she said. "Prepare now to yield to your deepest and most profound feeings, " I said.

"I will try," she said. "Oh!" she cried, my hands in her hair. "You will not merely try," I told her. "You will yield to them."Yes," she said. "Yes what?" I asked."Yes, Master," she said.

"You yielded well, Lady Gina," I said. "I would never have believed I could have such feelings," she said. "I did not know such feelings could exist."

"Surely you have seen writhing, screaming slave girls?" I asked. "Yes," she said, "but not until moments ago did I have more than an inkling of what they might be feeling." She smiles. "It is no wonder the luscious little sluts are so fond of their collars."

"There can be progress in such matters," I said. "Perhaps no woman has yet truly sounded the depths of slave joy," "Yes," she said, "the joy of being owned by a man of being in his power, completely, of being fully his, and of totally loveing and serving him." "Perhaps," I said.

She kissed me. "You handle women well, Jason," she said. "you put me through my paces well." "Any captor or Master," I said, "can put you through your paces." "It is true," she said and kissed me. She put her head on my belly. "I have seen women such as myself on the block," she said. "We do not bring high prices."

"Perhaps," I said. "If I were sent to the kitchens or the mills or laundries," she said, I would be under the will of my task master would I not?"

"Yes," I said.

"Perhaps I might, under the whip, pulling his plow, please a peasant," she said, "or perhaps I might keep the hut of a dock worker, preparing his food and when he wished, warming his mat. "Perhaps," I said. "Did I please you?" she asked. "Yes," I said.

"Do you think I could please other men?" she asked. "Yes," I said. "I know that I am not as desirable as most women," she said. "You are desirable," I said. "And to some men you will be inutterable desirable."

"How kind you are to a helpless female prisoner," she said. "I speak the truth," I said. "You are kind," she said. I said nothing.

"I will try to please my masters well," she said. "I would recommend it," I said. She shuddered against me."The men of Ar," said said, "took my freedom from me, when they made me prisoner. You hae taken my freedom from me, when you forced me to yield as a female slave."

"Your yielding," I said, "was not that of a female slave, for you are not yet, truly, a female slave. Yet is was doubtless the fullest yielding of which you were at this time capable."Can there be more?" she asked.

"You can not at this time," I said, even begin to suspect the depths, the dimensions, the wonders and marvels of slave submission."What you have done to me is irreversible." she said, "I can never go back now knowing what I do, to being a proud free woman."

I shrugged. It was nothing to me.

"And yet," she said, sobbing, "I am too plain to be a slave."You are a women," I told her. "Yes," she said, "I am a woman. I did not know it before, truly, what it was to be a woman."

"It is not being a kind of man," I told her. "No, she said, "it is being a full female in the order of nature."Yes, I said. She sobbed.

"What is wrong?" I asked. "I want a master," she said. "I want to be everything, and do everything for him. I want to give him all of me, holding nothing back. I want to be nothing to him, onl his owned slave, totally loving and seving him."And so?" I said. "But I am plain," she said. "No man will want me."

"Are you done with her yet?" asked a rough voice. We were startled and looked up. There at the edge of the stara standing, was a large uncouth fellow in the garments of the Tarn Keepers. "Yes," I said.I smiled. I sat up and took the Lady Gina's free shackle and jerked her ankels closely together. I preapred to close the openshackle about her right ankle. Her ankles would then be chained together, as before, with about eight inches of chain separating them. The shackles were large and of heavy iron.

"Do not reshackle her," he said."Very well," I said and got up."You look like a tasty pudding," he said to the Lady Gina. She looked up at him from the straw. "Are you branded yet, Female?" he asked her. Her hand went inadvertently to her left thigh. "No," she said, "no."Is she any good?" he asked me. "Yes," I said, "she is pretty good. And thereis no telling how good she will be when she is properly enslaved and finds herself in the possession of the right master." "Of course," he said. He again looked down at her.There was a startled, soft light in the eyes of the Lady Gina as she looked up at the fellow. Suddenly, to me, she seem very soft and very vulnerable in the straw. It was as though a transformation somehow had come over her.

"She is beautiful," He said. "Yes," I said, for somehow, suddenly, perhaps with the sudden understanding and acceptance of her nauture and condition, it had become true.

She gasped and looked up at him, spoken of as beautiful.She trembled.He then kicked her and she cried out in pain."Split your legs Woman of Vonda," he said. "You are to be had."Yes, Master!" she cried out.

I watched for a moment as she writhed in his arms. "You will look well on the block," he told her.

"Yes, Master," she whispered. "Perhaps I will buy you," he said. "Yes Master," she whispered, "Yes, Master!"

I left the two together, and began to thread my way through the tables, between the soldiers and merchants, and others, and the stripped, shackled women of Vonda, serving as waitressed, toward the opening of the food tent. "Our forces have already moved north," one man was saying. "The troops from Lara will not be here for two dsays," said another. "By that time they will find here only the ashes of Vonda," laughed another. As I accidentally brushed against a woman of Vonda she trembled and put down her head and knelt swiftly. I continued past her. "It is dangerous for merchant caravans," a man was saying. "Many have been attacked," said another. "It is rumored the river pirates are the worst," said another. "They grow bold with the withdrawal of troops from Lara. They have struck even into Lara herself, then withdrawing to their galleys." "Perhaps this will cause the troops of Lara to return," said another, "to protect their own holdings."No," said another,"they are committed." "They are to be sold in the river markets" said somone, as I went past.I did not understand the meaning of his remark. It did not, I gathered, pertain to the women of Vonda. It would be difficult to get them to the river markes, which lay beyond Lara, down teh Vosk, and higher prices, presumable, could be obtained for them in the markets of the south. Most of them, I assumed, women of the enemy, would be sold from the slave blocks of Ar herself.

As I went through the opening of the tent, I was jostled by a large man. He wore a mask. "Watch where you are going," he said angrily. I stepped back, but did not respond to him. I was angry. It had been he, it seemed to me, who had struck against me. Suddenly for a moment he stopped and looked at me closely. It seemed as though he might have thought he knew me. Too, it seemed to me that I might in spite of the mask somehow have found him familiar. Then saying nothing more, he brushed past me and entered the tent. He was alone. I could not place him. Then I left the food tent and went to the tarn cots. I hoped to be able to arrange for transportation to the vicinity of Lara. I retained five silver tarsks.

This is a considerable sum. I felt reasonably certain I could find some tarnsman, perhaps from a neutral city, who might, by a suitably circuitous route, get me into the neighborhood of Lara.

Some tarns had apparently recently arrived from the west. Some of them had apparently been carrying refugees. I saw some wounded men. Here and there small groups of men huddled about, dismally. I saw no women in theses groups, even slaves.Some of these wore the white and gold of the merchansts. Some of them even wore masks.They crouched about fires.

"Who are these people," I asked one of the fellows near the cots. "Mostly merchants," said he. "There are the victims of the predations of river pirates in Lara."Some wear masks," I said. "Yet most are know to us," said the man. "Even masked. There, not masked if Splenius and Zarto. You know Zarto, the iron merchant? "No," I said. "He lost his wagons of igots," said the man. "Beside him, masked is Horemius. Eight stone of perfumes were taken from him. There, farther to the left, in the brown mask is Zadron, the dealer in silver. He lost almost everything. In the red mask is Publius, also of thesilver merchants, He retains only the belt of silver on his shoulder."

"I see no woman with them, no slaves," I said. "They were embattled," said the man. "For their lives they bartered their goods and slaves."

"They were all from Lara or her vicinity?" I asked. "Yes," said he. "They had not realized that the troops of Lara would be moving east or that hte brigands and pirates would move so boldly."

"Are these all of them?" I asked apprehensively. "No," said the fellow. "Some of them have gone to the food tents."Was one of them Oneander, a salt and leather merchant?" I asked. "Yes," said the fellow.