"No, Mistress," said Susan, putting down her head.
"I can make it out quite clearly, from the window," I said, irritably.
"Forgive me, Mistress," said Susan.
"Speak," I said.
"They call for the blood of the Tatrix of Corcyrus," she said, "whom they call tyranness and villainess of Corcyrus."
"But, why?" I asked. "Why?"
"I do not know, Mistress," said Susan. "There are scarcities in the city. They may be angry about the progress of the war."
"But the war goes well," I said.
"Yes, Mistress," said Susan, putting her head down.
There was then a heavy knock at the door. "Ligurious, first minister of Corcyrus," announced a voice, that of a guard.
"Enter," I said.
The door opened and Ligurious, with his imposing stature, yet leonine grace, entered. He bowed to me, and I inclined my head to him.
At his entrance Susan put the palms of her hands on the floor and lowered her head to the tiles, assuming a position of slave obeisance common with her in the presence of her master. I wondered if Ligurious's slave master required this position of all of his women. I supposed so.
Ligurious looked down at her, irritably. It was clear what she had been doing.
"Was it she who spilled the wine?" he asked.
"Yes," I said.
"If you do not wish to exert yourself," he said, "I can have her whipped for you."
"It is all right," I said. "She is only a stupid, meaningless slave."
"Run along, Susan," I said. "You can finish later."
"Yes, Mistress," said Susan, leaping up, darting away.
"Tonight," said Ligurious, "I will give her to guardsmen. She will dance the whip dance, naked." There are many whip dances on Gor, of various sorts. In a context of this sort, presumably not in a tavern, and without music, the girl is expected to move, writhe and twist seductively before strong men. If she does not do well enough, if she is insufficiently maddeningly sensuous, the whips fall not about her, but on her. When one of the men can stand it no longer he orders her to his mat where, of course, she must be fully pleasing. If she is not, then she is whipped until she is. Then, when one man is satisfied, the dance begins again, and continues in this fashion until all are satisfied, or tire of the sport.
"How goes the war?" I said.
"I have come to report another glorious victory," said Ligurious. "This one has occurred on the Plains of Eteocles."
"The enemy, then," I said, "is east of the Hills of Eteocles, and is through the Pass of Theseus."
"You have been examining maps?" inquired Ligurious.
"I made inquiries," I said. He knew I could not read. I was illiterate in Gorean.
"I see," he said.
I heard men shouting, and the rattle of weaponry outside, down in the courtyard.
I hurried to the barred window.
"Those will be guardsmen," said Ligurious, "issuing forth to disperse the rabble."
"Yes," I said. I could see a double line of guardsmen, with shields and spears, exiting through the gates. In a moment, too, I could see men and woman fleeing across the square.
"Those are small groups of dissidents," said Ligurious. "Pay them no mind. You are loved in Corcyrus."
"Each of our victories," I said, "seems to occur closer to Corcyrus."
"Surely you saw the silver brought in from Argentum?" he asked.
"Yes," I said. "It was prominently displayed in the victory parade several weeks ago, that over which we presided."
"Over which you presided, my Tatrix," said he, modestly.
"Yes," I said.
I recalled this parade well. Ligurious had been in the palanquin with me. He had been, in his force and presence, both visible and prominent. I, as earlier, apparently in accord with the public customs of Corcyrus, had been unveiled. My features, it seemed, would be well known to thousands.
"It seems little more silver has been forthcoming," I said.
Ligurious was silent.
"Did your troops enter Argentum?" I asked.
"Our generals did not feel it was necessary," said Ligurious.
"It seems that our first victory, after the seizure of the mines, occurred on the Fields of Hesius," I said.
"Yes," said Ligurious.
"Our second occurred on the shores of Lake Ias," I said, "and our third east of the Issus." This was a northwestward-flowing river, tributary to the Vosk, far to the north.
"Yes, my Tatrix," said Ligurious.
"Now we have been victorious once more," I said, "this time on the Plains of Eteocles."
"Yes, my Tatrix," said Ligurious.
"They lie within a hundred pasangs of Corcyrus," I said.
"It is part of a plan, my Tatrix," said Ligurious. "We are stretching their supply lines. Then, when we wish, soon, now, we will strike like a tarn, cutting them. We will then subject a starving, demoralized enemy to devastating attacks. Have no fear, Lady. They will soon be helpless. We will soon have them beneath our swords."
"Are there scarcities in the city?" I asked.
"There are none in the palace," said Ligurious. "Did Lady Sheila enjoy her spiced vulo this evening?"
"In the city?" I said.
"In a time of conflict," said Ligurious, "there are always some privations."
"Are they minor?" I asked.
"Yes," he said. "With your permission," he said. He then bowed, and withdrew.
I watched him withdraw. I wondered what it would be like to have to do obeisance to such a man, and what it would be like to be in his arms.
I then turned again to the barred window. From where I stood, sometimes, I could see tarn wire, as the light struck it, in its swaying movements. It was strung about, over the courtyard, between the palace and the walls. Too, it had been strung elsewhere, I had heard, in the city.
The door opened and Susan entered, and knelt down and lowered her head. It is common for slaves to kneel when entering the presence of free persons. It is common, too, of course, more generally, for them to kneel whenever they find themselves in the presence of a free person, for example, if they are in a room and a free person enters.
"You may finish your work," I informed the slave from Cincinnati, Ohio.
"Yes, Mistress. Thank you, Mistress," said the girl. In a moment, then, she was again, on her hands and knees, with water and cloths, her head down, rinsing and cleaning the tiles, thoroughly and carefully removing the residue of sticky, half-dried wine from them.
"Susan," I said.
"Mistress?" she asked, raising her head.
"Did Ligurious speak to you?" I asked.
"Yes, Mistress," she said.
"You know that tonight you are to—to dance?"
"Yes, Mistress," she said. "Before selected guardsmen. The whip dance."
"It was not my idea, Susan," I said. "I did not ask Ligurious to have you punished. It was his idea. I want you to know that. I am sorry."
"It had not even occurred to me that it might have been your idea, Mistress," smiled Susan. "You did not even want me punished. Mistress has always shown me incredible lenience. Mistress has always shown me incredible kindness. It is almost as if—"
"Yes?" I said.
"—almost as if Mistress has some idea of the helplessness and vulnerability of the slave."
"And how," I asked angrily, "would I, a free woman, have any idea of that?"
"Forgive me, Mistress," said Susan. "Of course you, as a free woman, could not!"
I was angry. I considered whipping the little, collared slut. She put her head down, quickly, and continued her work, menial work, work suitable for such as she, a slave.
"Susan," I said.
"Yes, Mistress?" she asked.
"Is it hard to learn the whip dance?" I asked.
"I am not a dancer, Mistress," said Susan, "nor are most who perform the dance. It is not even, really, a dance. One simply has one's clothes taken away, and then one moves before stron
g, powerful men as such men would have a woman move before them. Then when one is sufficiently pleased, he indicates this and you serve his pleasure."
"How do you know what to do?" I asked.
"Sometimes one tries different things," she said, "for example, about or on the furniture, on the floor, about their bodies, at their feet, on your back, on your belly, hoping to find something that they will respond to. Sometimes they give you explicit instructions or commands, as when a woman is put through slave paces. Sometimes they guide you, or help you, sometimes by the whip, sometimes by expressions or cries. At other times the girl listens, so to speak, to the slave fires in her belly, and seems to become one with them and the dance, and then, soon, must beg the brutes, in her dance, and by her piteous expressions and gestures, to relieve the merciless tensions in her body, allowing her to complete the cruel cycle of arousal, allowing her to receive them and submit to them, the masters, in the spasmodic surrender of the helpless slave."
"But the whip," I said. "Do you not fear it?"
"I fear it," she said. "But I do not think I will feel it."
"Why?" I asked.
Susan suddenly looked me directly in the eye. "I dance well," she said.
I turned away from her. When I looked at her again, she had finished her work.
"Will Mistress be needing me further for this evening?" she asked.
I looked at Susan.
How chaste, how modest, how demure she seemed in her brief tunic, and collar, with her lovely face and beautiful little figure! How dainty, how exquisite! How deferential, how shy! Surely she was a woman's slave, and only that, attentive, knowledgeable, efficient, respectful and self-effacing.
But a man such as Ligurious had bought her naked off a slave block in Cos.
What a sweet, bashful girl she was.
But tonight she would dance naked for guardsmen.
"Mistress?" asked Susan.
"You do not seem distressed that tonight you will dance," I observed. Indeed, it seemed she might be looking forward to it.
"No, Mistress," she said.
"Why?" I asked.
"Must I speak?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"I love men, and wish to serve them, fully," she said.
"Lewd and shameless slut!" I cried.
"I am a slave," she said. "Forgive me, Mistress. Too, I have not been given to a man in eleven days. My fingernails are bloody from scratching at the tiles in my kennel."
I shuddered. I had not thought much about where slave girls might be kept at night. To be sure, I knew that they were not wandering freely about the palace. Now, it seemed, that some, at least, might be locked in kennels. This made sense, of course, considering that, like the shameless, little slut, Susan, they were animals.
"It does not seem that the whip dance, truly, would be much of a punishment for you," I said.
"Ligurious has several women," she said. "He does not know me that well. He has had me only a few times, and I have improved my skills, considerably, since then."
"He thinks, then, that it will be a terrible punishment for you?" I asked.
"I would suppose so," she said. "Doubtless he expects that I will be muchly lashed."
"What is it like to be in the arms of a man such as Ligurious?" I asked, as though not much interested, really.
"He devastates a woman," she said, "turning her into a tormented, whimpering animal, and then he makes her yield to him, fully, and as a slave."
"Did you spill the wine on purpose?" I asked.
"No, Mistress," she laughed. "I did not know that Ligurious was coming to your quarters. It occurred before his arrival. Too, I know you would not be so cruel as to assign a girl to the whip dance. Too, the common punishment for such a clumsiness is not the uncompromising, degrading severity of the whip dance but disciplines more prosaic in their nature, such as a restriction or change in rations, close chains or, most often, a switching or whipping."
"I see," I said.
I wondered what Susan would look like, her body glistening with a sheen of sweat, twisting and writhing before men, pleasing them as a naked slave, theirs then to be exploited and used however they might wish. She seemed such an ideal woman's slave, such an efficient, bashful, modest girl, it was hard to imagine her in such a context. But she had told me that her fingernails were bloody from scratching at the tiles in her kennel. It seemed then that quiet, sweet, withdrawn, retiring Susan actually had sexual needs and powerful ones. These needs, too, presumably, given her appearance and curvatures, bespeaking a richness in female hormones, would be deeply feminine ones. I wondered in how many girls like Susan there might lie a pleasure slave, waiting to be uncaged and commanded.
"I dance well," she had told me.
How startled I had been when she had said that. I had turned away. She had looked into my eyes, in that instant, not as a slave into the eyes of a free woman, but as one woman into the eyes of another. I had felt then, in that instant, that we were both, ultimately, only women, that we were identical in our femaleness, that we were united in the bonds of a common sisterhood and what, in relationship to men, it entailed. We were both, ultimately, only women; we were both, ultimately, though I was free and she was a slave, representatives of the slave sex.
I wondered if I, too, could dance well. I knew that if I did not, I would be lashed.
"I will have no further need for you tonight, Susan," I said. "I think that you should soon report to your masters of the evening."
"Yes, Mistress," she said. "Thank you, Mistress."
"Susan," I said.
"Yes, Mistress?" she said.
"Is there unrest in the city?"
"I do not know, Mistress," she said. "I am seldom outside the grounds of the palace."
I had resolved upon a bold plan.
"Before you report to your temporary masters," I said, "inform Drusus Rencius that I wish to see him. He is to report to my quarters within the Ahn."
"Yes, Mistress," she said.
"It will not be necessary to inform Ligurious of this action on your part," I said.
"As Mistress wishes," she said.
"It is my recommendation," I said, "that in reporting to your temporary masters you are a little late, but just late enough to increase their eagerness, not late enough that you are lashed for tardiness."
"Yes, Mistress," smiled Susan. "Thank you, Mistress!" She then sped from the room.
I then went again to the barred window, and looked out, over the city.
I myself had been outside of the palace grounds only infrequently in weeks, since my visit to the house of Kliomenes. I had been out, of course, in the grand victory parade, staged shortly after the seizure of the mines.
I then turned away from the window. I would now await the arrival of Drusus Rencius. I had seen him privately scarcely at all since the house of Kliomenes and the inn of Lysias. Our relationship was totally professional. Twice he had requested to be relieved of his duties, to be assigned to a new post, but I had refused to grant this request. That he might be restless, tortured or bitter in my presence meant nothing to me. I was a Tatrix. He was a soldier. He would obey me.
I considered his apparent discomfort in my presence. I smiled. It pleased me. Let him suffer.
10
I Have Taken Cognizance in Corcyrus;
We are Returning to the Palace
Through the darkened street, along the crooked way, Drusus Rencius and I were making our way back to the palace. He carried a torch. The smaller streets of Gorean cities are often dark at night. The pedestrians carry their own light.
"I would prefer," said Drusus Rencius, "that we had kept to the main thoroughfares."
"I wished to speak to citizens in lesser known districts, as well," I said.
"Is Lady Sheila satisfied?" he asked.
"Yes," I said, "on the whole, though the people often seemed reticent, or frightened."
"Times are troubled," said Drusus Rencius.
I
had stopped many passersby, particularly in the larger streets, making inquiries. I had even stopped in some of the more respectable taverns, those in which free women, without difficulty, might enter. The people seemed enthusiastically appreciative of the governance of the Tatrix and made light of shortages. They discounted and belittled rumors of discontentment or unrest in Corcyrus. Things in Corcyrus, it seemed, were much as Ligurious had assured me. The people were supportive of the policies of the palace, loyal to the state and personally devoted to their beloved Tatrix.
"Many of the shops," I said, "are boarded up."
"Many merchants have left the city," said Drusus Rencius, "taking their goods with them."
"Why?" I asked.
"They are afraid," he said. "The Street of Coins is almost closed." This was actually a set of streets, or district, where money changing and banking were done. There are other types of establishments in the area, too, of course. "Private citizens, too, many of them," said Drusus Rencius, "their goods on their back, have taken their leave of the city."
"Craven rabble," I said. "Why can they not be brave like the others?"
"Wait!" said Drusus Rencius, stopping. He lifted the torch, which he carried in his left hand, increasing the range of its illumination, and put out his right hand, holding me back, a barrier to my advance.
"What is it?" I asked.
"I heard something," he said. "Stay back."
I stepped back. The sword of Drusus Rencius left its sheath. I now understood why he, though right-handed, had been carrying the torch in his left hand. It facilitated an immediate draw.
"I do not hear anything," I said.
"Be quiet," he said.
I suddenly saw, emerging from the darkness, three shapes. "Tal, Soldier," said one of them.
"Tal," said Drusus Rencius. He backed against a wall. I stood very near him, frightened.
"We are lost," said one of the shapes, ingratiatingly. He drew a sheet of paper from within his tunic. "I have directions here, on a sheet of paper. You have a torch."
"Do not approach," said Drusus Rencius.
The fellow smiled and, slowly, in his fingers, wadded up the sheet of paper, and dropped it to the street.
Three swords then left their sheaths.
"Give us the woman," said the man.
Kajira of Gor Page 19
