Slave Girl Of Gor

14
Two Men

"Paga, Master?" I inquired.

He waved me away.

I turned from him with a rustle of bells, looking about me. The girl in the sand was quite good. It was still early in the evening, the sixteenth hour. She scarcely moved, swaying, ankles close, arms over her head, wrists back to back, palms turned out. Yet she subtly danced, controlled by the music of a single flute. Some men watched her. We had five dancers at the Belled Collar. I thought all were fine. The best would perform later in the evening. Four performed a day, and one would rest. I could not dance. There was only one musician at the side of the sand. Others would join him later. Their leader was Andronicus, who played the czethar.

"Paga," called a man.

I hurried to him, carrying the large bronze vessel of paga, on its strap about my shoulder.

I knelt and filled his cup. He did not order me to an alcove. I rose and, carrying the vessel of paga, went to the door of the tavern, to step outside, to taste the air. As a paga girl I came with the purchased cup of fluid, but, of course, I, like the others, was only a lovely option; whether I served in an alcove depended entirely on the whim and appetite of the customer. Many men, naturally, came to the tavern only to meet their friends, to talk and drink. Some nights I had not been used at all. I had been, of course, completely available. As paga girls went I was popular, and my master, Busebius, was not disappointed in me. He had made, I gather, a good buy on me. More than many of the girls had I squirmed in the alcoves, sometimes chained, writhing under the touch of masters, whimpering and crying out the submission I could not help but yield. I knew there were men who came back particularly for me. I had brought business to the tavern. The rules of the tavern with respect to the slave girls were simple. The customer could select any serving slave for his pleasure, providing he had paid the price of the paga; he could pick the girl of his interest, whether she had poured him the paga in question or not; to be sure, the customer usually commanded his paga from the wench who had caught his fancy, if he was planning on using her; if he was not interested in the having of a slave girl he would usually call his paga from the closest wench; each cup of paga entitled him to take one slave to the alcove; thus, theoretically, he might use several in one evening; these arrangements, however, terminated with the dawn, and the closing of the tavern; he might not, so to speak, save his cups for later. Dancers must be separately negotiated for.

I stepped outside the tavern, to drink in the pure air of Gor. We were permitted outside the tavern.

I stood beneath the sign of the Belled Collar, which swung above me, a large collar, from which hung bells.

"Greetings, Teela," said a man, passing by.

"Greetings, Master," I said.

I was Teela, a paga slave of the Belled Collar. That could be read, I understood, on the close-fitting steel collar I wore, a ten-hort collar.

I looked out, over the bridge, to the towers and cylinders beyond, and to the sunset over the walls of Ar. I saw the tracery of the bridges against the sky, the people moving about on them. Far below, in the streets I could see carts and wagons, too, being drawn by tharlarion. I looked up. One or two tarnsmen, on patrol, I saw in the sky. I thought of Clitus Vitellius.

"Greetings, Teela," said the girl who now stood beside me, who had come, like myself, from the tavern. She, like I, wore slave bells on her left ankle, brief, parted yellow silk, the house collar. We stood barefoot on the bridge.

I did not speak to her, but looked away.

"I am sorry I fought you for the candy," she said.

"I won it," I said, angrily.

"Yes, Teela," she said. Then she said, angrily, "It fell closest to me. It should have been mine."

Busebius, our master, sometimes, before ordering us to bathe and prepare ourselves for the floor, scattered a handful of hard candies among us. They were very precious, and, on the tiles of the slave room, we fought for them.

I looked at Bina.

I had leaped for the candy. It had been snatched by her hand. I had torn open her hand and thrust it in my mouth. She had struck me and pulled my hair. Rolling, wildly, screaming, we had bitten, clawed and kicked at one another. Then Busebius had whipped us apart. We had shrunk back from one another, cringing, punished slave girls.

"How foolish you looked," laughed Busebius. We reddened. We were only girls. Did he expect us to fight like men? How small and weak we felt.

"Hurry now to the baths," he said, "and thence to the room of preparation, for you must be soon upon the floor."

"Yes, Master," we had said.

Standing outside the door to the Belled Collar, we stepped back, and knelt.

Bran Loort, who had once been of Tabuk's Ford, carrying a low table, entered the tavern. He performed odd jobs about the tavern in return for his keep and a tarsk a week. We had knelt because he was free. Yet I wondered if in his heart he was free. He seemed a downcast, defeated man. He carried the table past us, which he had taken to the shop of a carver and enameler, to be inlaid with a Kaissa board. He was now returning it to the tavern. He slept in the tavern overnight. He was entitled to the use of the girls of the tavern, as it was his place of employment. Yet he had never used one of us. I feared he could not do so. I recalled he had been defeated by Thurnus and then, stripped, thrust before a rape-rack in the village on which a girl, naked and helpless, awaited him. "I give you my permission," had said Thurnus. Bran Loort had looked down. "Go ahead," had urged Thurnus. "Take her!" "I cannot," had whispered Bran Loort. He had been a defeated man. He had turned away from the rack and bent down to pick up his tunic. He had gone to the gate and it had been opened for him. He had left the village of Tabuk's Ford. He had found his way to Ar. He did small work about the tavern.

Bina and I regained our feet.

"I am sorry I fought you for the candy," she said.

"I am stronger than you," I said. "You should have given it to me."

"No," she said.

I did not speak to her.

"But it is embarrassing to fight before the men as a slave," she said.

"The candy," I said, "belongs to the girl who is strong enough to take it."

"You are the only girl I know here," said Bina. "We were once both the slaves of Clitus Vitellius. We have shared a chain before. I want to be your friend."

"You, too," I said, looking at Bina, Slave Beads, "are the only old friend I have here."

"Let us be friends," she said.

"We are friends," I said.

"Good," she said, hugging me.

I hugged and kissed her.

"But the candy was mine," I said.

"Slave!" she hissed, her eyes flashing.

"Slave!" I cried.

"Hurry inside," said Busebius, standing at the door. "Do you think I bought you to stand outside like free ladies and sniff the air!"

"No, Master!" we cried, and hurried within.

"Paga!" called a man. I hurried to him.

It was now the eighteenth hour. The tavern was more crowded. I knelt back against the low wall, my wrists braceleted over and behind my head to Ring 6. A customer had reserved me to himself. I waited while he addressed himself to a game of Kaissa.

I had been longer in the tavern than Bina. I had been twenty days slave here and she had been with us only six. There were twenty-two slaves in the tavern, not counting the dancers, of which there were five.

"Do not run away," had said the man, putting me on my knees and braceleting my hands above and behind my head to the ring.

"No, Master," I had said, through gritted teeth.

I watched him playing Kaissa, completely absorbed in the game. I clenched my fists in the bracelets.

Then I saw that he had brought about capture of Home Stone. They put away the pieces, sliding them into the drawer in the Kaissa table. They then conversed a bit, discussing, it seemed, the game. Then one man left, and he who had reserved me for himself, as though recalling me, took the rental key from his pouch and approached me.

I put my head down.

He unlocked the bracelets. I looked up at him.

"What is your name?" he asked.

"Teela," I said. I had told him before.

"Go to Alcove Six," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said. "Does Master desire special equipment, or harnesses?"

"Hook bracelets," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said, putting my head down to his feet. He then left me, to return the bracelets and keys to the counter. I rose to my feet and went to the slave room to fetch the hook bracelets, leather cuffs with locks on them, and snaps; they are soft and the snaps, as opposed to the cuffs, require no key; some men enjoy them on their slaves; by means of the snaps the girl may be variously secured by the locked cuffs, her hands being fastened behind her or before her, or perhaps to her collar. I then hurried to the alcove, climbing the ladder.

The master was awaiting me. He put forth his hand and I gave him the hook bracelets. The keys for the hook bracelets are kept at the counter, as are the keys to the steel slave bracelets.

"Remove your silk," he said.

I did so.

"Extend your wrists," he said.

I did so. He fastened the hook bracelets on me. He did not, however, fasten them together.

I knelt before him, on the scarlet furs in the small alcove, in the light of the tiny lamp. I knelt in the position of the pleasure slave, the cuffs locked on me.

"Address yourself to my pleasure," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said, crawling forward, head down, my hair upon his body, to kiss him.

It was well after the nineteenth hour, and again I was upon the floor.

The tavern was crowded. The music swirled loudly. Our finest dancer, Helen, a slim, blond Earth girl, tantalized the customers of Busebius in her silver chains. She wore the same collar as I. There was no escape for her, or for me. Our brands, our collars, the society, guaranteed it. If we escaped one master we would but fall to another. We were slaves.

"Paga!" called a man. I hurried to him.

On Gor I had met four Earth girls; all were slaves. Too, I had met several who, though Gorean, bore the names of Earth girls; such names, on Gor, I knew, are regarded as excellent names for slaves.

I knelt and poured the man his paga.

"Paga!" called another. I leaped to my feet, to hurry to him and serve him. Never, it seemed, had we been so crowded. I had not even had time to go to Busebius, behind his counter, to have the hook bracelets removed from my wrists.

I brushed against Bina, she hurrying to serve another of our master's customers.

I heard Helen cry out as silk was torn from her thigh. Still she danced.

A man reached for my ankle. I fled past him.

I hurried to the counter and handed Busebius, who was beaming, the paga vessel and strap. Again it had been emptied.

He dipped the vessel into a great vat of paga and returned it to me.

"Paga! Paga!" I heard. I did not even have time to slip the vessel on its strap over my shoulder. Holding its two handles with my hands, I fled back, with a jangle of slave bells, to the floor, to serve.

The door of the paga tavern flew open. The music, for a moment stopped. Helen froze in a motion. Eyes turned toward the door. My heart skipped a beat.

Impressive men stood there, warriors, though not in the garb of Ar.

Their leader, without helmet, but in cloak and medallion, indicated that the music should continue.

The musicians again played, and, again, Helen danced.

The leader of the newcomers removed his gloves, slowly, and thrust them in his belt.

His eyes viewed the slave body of Helen, as a master's eyes look upon the flesh of a property girl.

Busebius, bowing, rushed to him.

The stranger casually looked away from Helen, and she bit her lip, tears in her eyes, no longer under his scrutiny.

He looked upon me, and I straightened my body. He was incredibly strong and handsome. I hoped that I looked my most beautiful.

He turned his attention to Busebius, who was speaking to him.

"Who is it?" I heard a man ask.

Bina stood near to me. She shook. She read the medallion of the stranger.

"See the medallion," said a man.

Busebius conducted the visitors, his honored guests, to a private corner of the tavern from which, on the raised dais there, they might well view the room, the musicians, and the dancer.

"Do you not know them?" asked a man.

"No," said the other.

Beside me, Bina trembled.

"They are the delegation of the Salerian Confederation," said the first.

"Their leader?" asked the other.

"Thandar of Ti," said the first.

I now well understood the agitation of Bina. Thandar of Ti, of the Warriors, of the four cities of the Salerian Confederation, was the fifth son of Ebullius Gaius Cassius, of the Warriors, Administrator of Ti, high officer of the Confederation. At one time a girl, the Lady Sabina, the daughter of a merchant, Kleomenes of Fortress of Saphronicus, high merchant of that city, had been pledged in Companion Contract to this Thandar of Ti. Raiders had struck the companion caravan, acquiring its riches and carrying off the Lady Sabina, and others. To guarantee the frustration of the Companion Contract and to prevent the alliance of Fortress of Saphronicus with the Salerian Confederation, the Lady Sabina had been reduced to slavery. She had been made worthless in the affairs of state. The alliance of Fortress of Saphronicus and the Confederation of Saleria had never taken place. Bad blood now existed between them.

"How beautiful he is," breathed Bina. Never had Thandar of Ti and the Lady Sabina of Fortress of Saphronicus, as far as I knew, looked upon one another. Their companionship had been an intended match of state.

Bina, Slave Beads, gazed upon the powerful, wondrous Thandar of Ti.

"He is handsome," I said.

"My ears are pierced," wept Bina. "My ears are pierced." Never, now, if ever, could she have hoped to be companion to such a man.

Thandar of Ti, and his fellows, some five of them, ordered from Busebius, who stood eagerly about them. They would have more than paga. They would be fed, and have wines.

The presence of the august visitors, except perhaps by the slaves, was forgotten.

Thandar of Ti looked in our direction. We knelt, two beautiful slave girls, lowly pierced-ear girls, paga slaves. It was a great honor for girls such as we that a man such as Thandar of Ti would even deign to cast a glance upon us.

Thandar of Ti looked away.

I smiled to myself at the irony of the situation.

In looking upon one of us, upon one of two lowly, exquisite slaves, he had been looking upon she who had once been the Lady Sabina, of Fortress of Saphronicus, once intended to sit regally at his side, gloriously robed, his free companion.

There were tears in the eyes of Bina.

Thandar of Ti, I noted, was very handsome.

"You have little paga left," I said. "My flask is full. I will serve them."

"More than one must serve them," said Bina. "Please, Teela."

"He is quite handsome," I said. "I will be enough."

"I wish to serve him," said Bina simply.

"I will serve him," I said.

"Do you think he will buy you?" asked Bina.

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

I rose lightly to my feet. Bina quickly followed my example.

Busebius hurried toward us. He gestured to us, and to four of the other girls. He gathered us about him. We were excited. "You six will serve," he said, indicating the men on the dais. Two of the girls cried out with pleasure, to be selected. "Go swiftly to the room of preparation," he said. "Garb yourselves as the hunter's catch." I was startled. The guests must be important indeed. We hurried to the room of preparation. Busebius went to give orders to the men in the kitchens.

We must serve the initial wines swiftly, with the matched breads and cheeses.

We tore aside our silks in the room of preparation. We freshened our perfumes and adjusted our make-up. We must be soft, and perfumed and luscious.

Busebius thrust his head into the room of preparation. "Earrings," he said, "jewelry!" Then he disappeared again.

"I do not want to wear earrings," wept one girl.

"Put them on, Slave," I snapped. I did not want to be beaten for one of us who was not pleasing.

I fastened golden loops in my ears, and slung necklaces about my throat. I slipped on an armlet.

Beside me, Bina placed earrings, unprotestingly, on her ears.

"Do you, too, not weep to put on earrings?" I asked her.

"No," she said, "I am a pierced-ear girl." The earrings, I noted, jeweled droplets, were very beautiful upon her.

I reached into a chest for hunters' netting. It is a stout cording, used to net medium-sized game. Its mesh was spaced at some two horts, about two and a half inches.

Cunningly we twisted netting about us, from our throats to our brands, high upon our thighs. We garbed ourselves as "the hunter's catch."

We looked in the mirror. Several of us gasped. Seldom had we seen such exciting girls.

"Hurry!" said Busebius, again appearing at the entry to the room of preparation. We knew then the wines, and the matched breads and cheeses, were ready.

"Teela, wait," said Bina.

The other girls left the room of preparation. "We must hurry," I said.

"I know what you intend, Teela," said Bina. "And it is not proper."

"I do not understand," I said. How could she know what I had in mind.

Bina stood between myself and the door.

"Get out of my way," I said. "Do you want us to be beaten?" I looked at her, angrily. "Do you fear," I asked, "that your Thandar of Ti will find me more pleasing than you?"

"No," she said, "Teela, I do not. I am not a free woman. I do not fear your slave competition. I know that I am beautiful and I can compete with you as a slave girl for any man."

I sniffed.

"But you have more in mind, Teela. I know you. You are not Gorean. You do not understand these things."

I looked at her, in fury.

"Failing to please him more than I, failing to interest him in your purchase," she said, "it is your intention to tell him who I was."

I looked at her, startled. How could she have known my plan.

"You think then he will free me, and free you, for having told him this truth."

I did not speak to her.

She turned her head from side to side. "My ears are pierced, Teela," she said. "You will only do him dishonor if you show him my present state."

"Don't you want to slip your collar?" I asked. I seized the close-circling steel on my throat. "Do you want to wear this?" I cried. "Do you want to be a slave, at the complete mercy of men!"

"I will not do dishonor to Thandar of Ti," she said. "I will serve him, not known to him, lovingly, as only what I am, a lowly paga slave."

"You are mad," I said.

"I am Gorean," she said.

"This decision," I smiled, "we will let Thandar of Ti make. We will let him decide."

"No, Teela," she said. "I have decided it."

"Get out of my way," I said.

"No," she said.

"Look," I said. "Even if he likes me, and buys me, I will tell him who you are, a little sooner or a little later, if only to gain our freedoms."

"I know you would, Teela," said Bina.

"I have your interest, too, at heart," I said.

"I am sure you do," she said. "But you do not understand us. You do not understand Goreans."

"I want to be free," I snapped.

"Look at yourself in the long mirror, Teela," said Bina.

I did so, and saw there a marvelous girl, soft and perfumed, branded; she wore a bit of netting, and jewelry; she wore earrings; she was collared.

"What do you see there?" asked Bina.

"A slave girl," I said.

"Do you think a girl such as you, so soft and beautiful, with your slave reflexes, can ever be anything but a slave on this world."

"No," I said, bitterly.

"And your ears are pierced," she said.

I tossed my head. "I know," I said. That in itself I knew would be enough to keep me a slave on Gor.

I would always be a slave on Gor.

"Abandon then your mad plan to reveal my former identity to Thandar of Ti," said Bina.

"No," I said.

She looked at me, angrily.

"I could win for myself, and you," I said, "if nothing better, an easier slavery."

"No," she said.

"Do you think I want to be only a paga girl?" I asked. "Do you think being a paga girl is an easy slavery for a girl of Earth? I am not as you. I am more sensitive. Do you think I like being at the bidding and mercy of any male who can afford a cup of paga?"

"If you spoke to Thandar of Ti," said Bina, "you would win for us both only a whipping."

"I shall take that chance," I said.

"I am sorry," said Bina. "You shall not."

"Out of my way," I said.

"This is a matter between slaves," she said, "and I have decided it."

"You may think to serve him like a little fool, he not knowing who you are," I said, "but I shall not permit that."

"Hurry! Hurry!" called one of the other girls.

"We must hurry," I cried, miserably.

"It is your intention then," said Bina, "to inform Thandar of Ti of my former identity."

"Yes," I said, "I shall. I will gamble anything for an easier slavery. Now get out of my way."

She did not move, but looked at me, angrily.

"I am stronger than you," I said. "Get out of my way." Surely she remembered how easily I had robbed her of the candy earlier in the afternoon. She was no match for me.

Suddenly I cried out, as she leaped upon me, tearing and scratching. I could scarcely defend myself. She seized me by the hair and threw me headlong across one of the vanity tables before the long mirror. I slid on the table scattering combs and perfume. She was on my back, tearing down the netting, fouling my legs in it. I still wore the hook bracelets. She pulled my wrists behind my back and, swiftly, snapped together the leather cuffs; I twisted on the vanity table, and fell to the floor, my wrists confined by the linked snaps behind my back. "I shall scream!" I cried. Swiftly Bina thrust a scarf in my mouth, wadding it tightly, and fastened it in place with another scarf, pulling the second scarf tight behind my neck, and deeply between my teeth. She then, with the netting, tied together my ankles. She then found another hunter's net, but one which had not been cut. She threw the net over me and, drawing tight its strings, confined me helplessly in it. She then pulled me by the cords to the side of the room. She sat me against the wall and, using the four cords of the net, tying them through a slave ring at the foot of the wall, fastened me, netted, to the wall.

I squirmed in the netting, but could not free myself. I looked at her in fury.

"You are the catch of the huntress," said Bina.

"Bina!" I heard. "Teela!"

"I am coming," cried Bina. "Teela is ill!" She then blew me a kiss, and hurried out of the room.

I struggled, helplessly.

It was the first hour in the morning, of the same night, when Bina returned.

She was radiant.

She removed the netting from me, and the gag from my mouth.

"Thandar of Ti?" I asked.

"He is gone now," she said. She happily undid the netting which confined my ankles.

"You did not tell him?" I asked.

"No," she said. "Of course not."

"You are a fool," I said.

"It was I," she said, "of the six girls whom he chose to pour his paga."

"Six?" I asked.

"When you were taken ill," she laughed, "Busebius sent Helen to serve with us."

"I see," I said. "Would you please unsnap the hook bracelets?"

In an instant, with infuriating ease, she had opened the snaps, freeing my wrists, one from the other. I was furious. It was so simple. She who wears the bracelets, of course, cannot reach the snaps.

"It was I, too," said Bina, dreamily, "whom he took to serve him in the alcove." She closed her eyes, holding herself with her arms. "Oh, how beautiful he is," she said, "and. how well I served him." She opened her eyes. "The pleasure he gave me!" she moaned. "I could not believe the pleasure." She looked at me, directly. "How fortunate it is," she said, "that I did not become his companion."

"I do not understand," I said.

"For then, this night, I could not have been his slave," she whispered.

"Oh," I said.

"I shall remember all my life," she said, "the night I was slave to Thandar of Ti."

I looked down. I remembered the joy of once having been the slave of Clitus Vitellius, of having been his to dominate and command.

Then I remembered that I hated him.

"Teela," said a voice, a man's voice, that of Busebius.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"Are you feeling better now?" he asked.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"Why then," he asked, "are you not in your silk and pouring paga?"

I looked at his whip.

"I hurry, Master!" I said, quickly.

"Paga!" called a man, and I, in bells and silk, hurried to him, to pour him drink.

I was barefoot on the tiles. The slave bells, thonged, were tied about my left ankle.

There were fewer now in the tavern, and in another Ahn or two we would close the doors.

Some of the girls, already, had been permitted to retire. I knelt before the man and poured him paga, head down.

The hook bracelets had been removed from my wrists by Busebius, who held their key.

I wore only bells and silk. It was late. The earrings, the necklace, the armlet, I had left in the room of preparation. I was now only a simple paga slave.

Only one other girl was on the floor.

"Paga," said a man's voice. I turned toward him. I saw he sat with a second man.

I knelt before them, head down, and poured the paga into his cup.

"Serve me the paga," said the man.

I put down the paga flask which I carried that I might, unencumbered, assume the position of serving paga, or wine, to a Gorean male.

"First remove the silk," he said.

I did so. He was a customer. I was his to command. Then I knelt naked before him, head down.

"You may now serve the paga," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said.

I reached to take the cup, in both hands. One kneels, one proffers the cup, head down, with both hands, to the male.

I reached to take the cup.

Suddenly, on my closely placed wrists, ns I went to lift the cup, with a startling flash of metal and two swift snaps, slave bracelets locked.

I looked up, startled.

"No!" I cried.

"We have you," he said. I tried to jerk back but his hand, on the chain between the bracelets, held me, my hands confined in his bracelets.

"You have been the object of an intensive and difficult search," said the second voice.

I regarded them, terrified.

"I have sold you for two tarsks to these gentlemen," said Busebius. I felt him remove the thonged slave bells from my left ankle. He placed them on the table. I felt him thrust a key into the small, heavy lock at the back of my collar. He opened it, and placed it, too, on the table. "She is yours, Masters," be said.

"Oh, no, no!" I begged.

Busebius turned and left the table.

"We have paid two silver tarsks for you," said one of the men. I knelt naked before them, horrified, wearing their bracelets.

"You are now ours," said the other man.

"Do not kill me," I begged.

"Serve us paga," said the first man.

Trembling I, nude, braceleted, proffered paga first to one, and then the other. They drank slowly, enjoying their triumph and my misery.

"We must now be on our way," said the first man.

Each took one of my arms, and between them, half thrust, half dragged, they forced me from the paga tavern.

"Please do not kill me," I begged.

They were the two men whom I had first encountered on Gor, when I had awakened, nude, chained by the neck in the wilderness. They had, at one point, prepared to cut my throat.

"Please do not kill me!" I begged. "Please, Masters, do not kill me!"

Between them, held, braceleted, I was forced from the tavern, and out onto the long bridge, into the Gorean night.