by John Norman
“Accordingly,” he said, “given the information at our disposal, and your putative location, I have been sent to Ar to preclude that possibility.”
Then I rose, unsteadily, to my feet. I backed away from him.
“There is no escape fro you,” he said.
I felt the wall behind me.
“It was for this purpose,” I asked, “ that you had me at your feet, begging use?”
“I have wanted you there, begging use,” he said, “ for a long time.”
“I had thought,” I said, “that when you had come here, looking for me, that you might care for me.”
“I hate you,” he said.
“Or,” I said, “that even if you hated me, that you wanted me, that you desired me, that you would have me at your feet, helplessly subject in all things to your imperious will.”
“You may scream, if you wish,” he said, “but it will not be heard. You may run about, if you wish, but it will do you no good.”
I regarded him, in misery.
‘Kneel here,” he said, pointing to a place at his feet.
Obediently, helplessly, I approached him, and cold and numb, knelt before him.
“Put your head back,” he said.
I did so.
“Farther,” he said.
I complied.
I felt his head in my hair, holding my head back, painfully. I saw the movement of his arm. Then I saw the blade, removed from his sheath, held before my face. I recalled how easily it had parted the cords on my ankles.
“Do you wish to say anything?” he asked.
“You are my master,” I said. “I love you.”
“You lie to the end,” he said.
“I do not like to my master,” I said.
I felt his hand tighten in my hair. My head was pulled back, farther. I heard the blade touch the collar, beneath it. Then I felt its edge, like a fine, hard line, at my throat. I closed my eyes.
He suddenly cried out in rage and drew the knife away.
He leaped to his feet and, in fury, fled to the other side of the room. He threw down the knife. He struck the wall with his fists.
I collapsed to the stones, scarcely believing myself alive.
“How absurd,” he cried, in anger, “to love a slave!”
“Master?” I said.
He spun about. “Yes!” he cried. “I love you, you worthless slut, you meaningless thing! I have loved you, madly, insanely, uncontrollably, recklessly, violently, from the first moment I saw you!”
“Master,” I breathed, unable to believe my ears.
“Yes!” cried he. “Call me ‘Master’! It is fitting, for you are a slave, and will never be other than that!”
“Yes, Master!” I said.
“You are no more than a branded slut, no more than meaningless, worthless collar meat!” he cried.
“Yes, Master!” I cried.
“You are unworthy to be a free woman!”
“I hope so, Master,” I said.
“What?” he cried.
“-I hope so, Master,” I whispered.
“Slave!” he sneered.
“Yes, Master,” I said. “It is true. That is what I am.”
“Disgusting!” he said.
“No!” I cried. “No!”
“Do you dare speak back to me?” he cried.
“With master’s permission!” I cried.
“You will never be a free woman!” he said.
“Nor do I wish to be a free woman!” I said. “I have been free! I know what it is like! I am content to be a slave, and wish to be a slave! I am fulfilled in bondage, in ways that you, a man, or some men, may never understand! Oh, yes, you enslave us for your gratifications and pleasures, you monsters, you beasts! But what you do not know is that we love our bonds, and our belonging, and our being owned, and being helplessly subject to the magnificence, the glories, even to the whip, of your total, uncompromised mastery of us! Do you not know we want men to be strong, and our masters? Let the twisted and hormonally deficient conceal their seekings of power under the pratings of rhetorics. Let others of us who long to love and serve, and obey, and be desired, dream of masters! — yes, masters! — our masters!”
He looked down upon me, and I realized that these things to him, a man of Gor, were not that strange.
He was not a stranger to the nature of females.
“I am a slave,” I whispered.
“It is well known to me that you are a slave-legally,” he said. “I can see your collar, the brand.”
“It is more than that,” I wept. “I am a slave inwardly, in my need, and in my love, and in my nature! It is what I am! Despise me for it, if you wish! I am a natural slave, a rightful slave, and here, on this world, in my collar, I have found myself at last! Hate me! Hold me in contempt! But I am a slave, and I love being a slave! I love it! I love it! Do not try to force me to be what you want me to be! Rather accept me for what I want to be, and am! — one who knows she belongs at the feet of men! — and desires to be at the feet of men! — their slave! — their loving slave!”
“I do not understand myself,” he said.
“Master?”
“How could I care for you?”
“It is my hope that you do, at least a little my master.”
“You are no more than an Earth slut, a barbarian!”
“Yes, Master,” I said. “Forgive me, Master!”
“The lowest of the low,” said he.
“Yes, Master,” I said, “Forgive me, Master!”
“You are not even of Gor!” he cried.
“I have been brought to Gor,” I said. “I have been collared here, and made a salve here! Surely now I am of Gor! How could I be more of Gor, than as a Gorean slave girl, hoping like other Gorean slave girls to be found pleasing by her master?”
“You have a beautiful face,” he said, “perhaps the most beautiful I have ever seen, and you have a quick wit, and a luscious feminine mind, and superb slave curves, a body that drives me man with desire, and your responses would shame those of a she-sleen in heat.”
“It seems the slavers knew their business, Master,” I smiled.
“We do,” he said, “slave.”
“Do not treat me as might a man of Earth a woman of Earth,” I begged. “Treat me rather as a man of Gor a woman whom he owns-one whom he will well master.”
He glared down at me.
“Please take me not as you would have me, but as I am.”
“You are a slave,” he said.
“And I rejoice that I am, Master.”
“Slut,” he said.
“forgive me my slavery,” I said. “I am a woman!”
“How I have fought my weakness, my loving you!” he exclaimed. “I put you from me. I avoided you. I held you in contempt. I abused you. I kept you at a distance. I treated you with coldness and cruelty! But each instant I was fighting myself, wanting to seize you, to sweep you into my arms, to crush you to me!”
The room seemed to rush about me. It grew dark for a moment. I gasped for breath. I feared I might lose consciousness.
“Yes,” he cried. “I love you!”
I fought to remain conscious. Then, again, I was fully conscious. I regarded him, he in such misery, such torment, across the room.
“I must not love you!” he cried. “I must not permit myself to do so!”
I struggled to my knees.
I was in the presence of a free man, indeed, of my master.
He looked at me, wildly.
“But I cannot help myself,” he said. “I love you!”
“You gave no sign of this, Master,” I said.
“I do not know whether I hate myself or you,” he said, “or both, I for my weakness, you for having done this to me, and for being the most exciting and desirable female in all the world!”
“Master finds me of interest?” I asked.
“To see you is to want you!” he said, in fury.
He turned about, again, and aga
in struck the wall. “I must not love you,” he cried.
“Surely some men, Master,” I said, “love their slaves!”
“You are a mere collared barbarian!” he said.
“Yes Master,” I said.
He spun about, in fury. “And in hating you, and loving you,” he said, “I sensed the role you had to play, and the dangers which might attend upon it. I knew that those in the house, of those of Cos, might be among the very few who could recognize you again. I therefore guarded my feelings, confessing to no one the torment in my heart, occasioned by a mere branded slip of a slave. Thus it was that in recruiting one to seek you out and cut your throat it was I who came first, and naturally, to the attention of my superiors, they aware of my hatred for you, my loathing for you, but not of my lust for you, my unquenchable desire for you. Indeed, other guards declined the office, unwilling to hunt you down and cut your throat, which says much for your popularity, you rampant, exquisite, arrant little charmer.”
“I am grateful for your deception, Master,” I said. “I owe my lift to you.”
“I did not know how I would behave until the moment I had the knife at your throat,” he said, “but then I knew I could not, at least at that moment, end your life, even though you were the most unworthy of slaves.”
“At least at that moment?” I asked, uncertainly.
“You are a slave,” he said.
“Yes, Master,” I said.
We are subject to the masters in all things.
“I have dreamed of owning you,” he said.
“I am yours,” I said.
He retrieved the knife and replaced it in its sheath. I was pleased to see it disappear therein. He reached down and recovered the whip. He coiled it. He then came to where I knelt and put the coils under my chin, lifting it up.
“Yes,” he mused. “I think anyone would find you quite pretty.”
I did not speak.
“Those from whom I purchased you said you begged for sue, and had to be cuffed.”
“I begged for use,” I said. “It is not my belief that I had to be cuffed.”
“You should be whipped,” he said.
“As master wishes,” I said.
But he turned about, and put the whip, coiled, on the small table in the room.
Then he returned to stand before me, musingly.
“You would crawl, begging, to the feet of any man,” he said.
“Yes, Master,” I said.
“You would have begged use from me, even without the threat of the whip, even before you knew who I was,” he said.
“Yes, Master,” I said.
He then struck me, lashing my head to the side, with the back of his hand. I lost my balance, and fell to my side, to the stones. I lay there, a chastised slave.
“Forgive me, Master,” I said. “Recall that I am only a slave.”
“On your knees,” he said.
I struggled, again, to my knees. How could he blame me for crawling to men, for begging use? Did he not understand that I was a slave, truly! Did he have some unreasonable concept of what I should be, something in his mind, something with little, if any, relation to my realities? Could he not accept me as I was, truly, a helpless female, a slave? Other men had not been critical of this!
“I am appetitious, Master,” I said. “I am the prisoner of my needs. I am subject to the forces within me. I cannot help myself. I am what I am, nothing else. Please do not expect me to be other than I am.
He regarded me.
“It is my hope,” I said, “that you will permit me to be what I am. Please do not ask me to pretend to be other than I am.”
“How strange that I should care for you,” he said, “for that is what you are, truly, a mere slave.”
“That I am a slave,” I said, “I trust does not make me less attractive.”
“No,” he said. “It makes you a thousand times more attractive.”
I smiled, shyly.
“Why do you smile?” he asked.
“Perhaps master’s anger with me, with my needs, my appetites, and such, has less to do with his criticality of such things in a slave, for he surely realizes that they are expected, and even required in her, as it has to do with other matters.”
“Yes?” he said.
“Perhaps master is jealous, perhaps he is angry that I might be found pleasing by others.”
“Beware,” he said.
“Perhaps he is possessive,” I said, “perhaps he wants me, somehow, all to himself.”
“Be silent,” he said, angrily.
“Yes, Master,” I said, falling silent.
How attractive he was!
I spread my knees before him, scarcely aware of my action.
“There!” he said, suddenly, pointing. “See! There! That is what I mean, you little barbarian slut!”
“Forgive me, Master!” I said. “Shall I close my knees?”
“Close your knees?” he said.
“Yes, Master,” I said.
“Do not dare to close your knees,” he snarled, “slave! You are before your master!”
“Yes, Master,” I said, happily. I saw that he would be strict with me, that he would truly own me, that he would get much from me.
How pleased I was to belong to him!
He was such as knew the handling of a slave.
I would be helpless in his hands.
“I own you,” he said.
“Yes, Master,” I said. “I am yours, totally yours!”
“Do you wish to be totally mine?” he asked.
“Yes, Master!” I said.
“Liar!” he said.
“No, Master!” I said.
“But whether you wish it or not,” he said, angrily, “it is true!”
“I know, Master!” I cried, delightedly.
“Seeing you I become enflamed,” he cried. “I cannot help myself! No longer can I resist!”
“Take me!” I wept.
“Slut, slut!” he murmured, lifting me by the arms half from my knees.
“Yes, Mater,” I begged him. “Own me! Own me!”
In his heat, his frenzy, he pressed me back to the stones, making use of the slave.
“You are my master!” I cried.
“You are my slave!” he cried.
“Yes, my master!” I wept.
He then confirmed upon me, in merciless rapture, his ownership.
I was in no doubt of it.
I had felt the first time I had seen him, the first time I had knelt before him, looking up at him, the first time I had kissed his whip, that I was somehow his, that it was to him that I belonged. And I am sure I would have felt this way even had I not been in chains, even had I not been within the institution of bondage, where such as I was subject to explicit legal ownership. But more astonishingly rewarding to me was the now-present suspicion, if not revelation, that the chemistries involved, the fitting together of parts, must have been mutual. As I had looked up and seen my master, so, too, he must have looked down and, at his feet, seen his slave.
Again I squirmed. Again I writhed, in his arms.
Again, to my joy, he showed me no mercy.
I screamed out, in the dark basement, my love for him, and again, and again, my submission.
Later he thrust me to his feet, and I lay there, in my collar, like a dog.
I was enraptured, that he permitted me to remain near him, he finished with me, I, only a slave.
“How is it that I could care for a slave?” he asked, lying on his back, staring at the ceiling.
I did not respond.
“I love you,” he said.
“When you tire of me,” I said, “you may sell me.”
“I will never tire of you,” he said.
I kissed at his ankles.
I whimpered.
“You are insatiable,” he said.
“I beg that my hands might be freed, that I might caress you,” I said.
“Ah,” he said, absently, “I did for
get to free your hands, did I not?”
“Yes, my master,” I smiled.
“Since when does a slave require her hands to be freed, that she may caress her master?” he asked.
“True, Master,” I laughed.
I rose to my knees beside him, and put my head down, to his body.
“You learned the lessons of the pens well,” he said.
“Thank you, Master,” I said.
Slaves must be superb lovers. If they are not, they may be whipped.
There are a thousand ways to please a man, eve when one is bound.
In scarcely moments, however, he had again seized me. I looked up into his eyes, those of my master.
I was then put again to his purposes.
I later lay at his side, at his thigh, docile and grateful. “I love you, I love you, my master,” I murmured.
“We shall see,” he said.
“Master?” I asked.
He rolled over, and reached to one side, drawing to him his belt, with the sheathed knife upon it.
He then extracted the knife from the sheath.
I regarded this action with apprehension. Had he now recalled, in some fearful sense, I wondered, the putative object of his venture to this city?
Had he tired of me so soon?
Surely it was not necessary to kill me. Surely he could simply give me away or sell me!
Had he dealt with me as he had, merely for his amusement, only as one might toy with a meaningless slave?
Did he hate me so?
Had he now determined to comply with the wishes of his superiors, those who had dispatched him to this city, now that he had made me squirm, and cry myself his? Had such compliance been within his intent from the beginning?
“Kneel,” he said. I faced him, frightened.
“Turn about,” he said. Apprehensively I did so.
Then I cried out with relief, as I felt the knife part the cords on my wrists. My hands came forward, weak, freed, and I was on all fours, beside him, shaken.
“What is wrong,” asked he, “slave?”
“Nothing, Master,” I sobbed, in relief.
“Ah!” he said.
“Yes, Master,” I said.
“Turn about,” he said.
I was then, again, kneeling, facing him, I rubbed my wrists.
Suddenly I was startled, for, on the stones, the knife lay before me. He was lying on his back, looking up, at the ceiling. His hands were behind his head, pillowing it, his elbows to the side.