with the work on the walls.â€
“I understand,†I said.
“That is a pretty slave,†he said.
“She belongs to my friend,†I said. Phoebe shrank back a bit, closer to Marcus.
Female slaves on Gor must grown used to being looked upon frankly by men, and
assessed as the properties they are. They know they can be acquired, and
disposed of, and bought and sold, and traded, and such, with ease, even at a
moment’s notice.
“Is she of Ar?†he asked.
“No,†said Marcus.
“Are you sure?†asked the guardsmen.
“Yes,†said Marcus.
“Many women of Ar look well in slave tunics, barefoot and collared,†he said.
“Undoubtedly,†I said.
“They should all be slaves,†he said.
“So should all women,†I said.
“True,†he said.
To be sure, it did amuse me to think of the proud women of Ar, of “Glorious Ar,â€
as slaves. Such a fare seemed to me fully appropriate for them, and in
particular for some of them.
“Let us return to our lodgings,†I said to Marcus.
“I wish you well,†said the guardsman.
“I, too, wish you well,†I said.
“I must now put these tame cattle of Ar back to work,†he said.
(pg. 133) “One man alone?†I asked.
“No more are needed,†he said.
Indeed, there were no guardsmen on the walls themselves. We had encountered one
on the way to the wall, on Harness Street, who had detained us briefly,
apparently primarily to determine whether or not we were of Ar.
“We shall leave now,†said Marcus.
“Yes, Master,†said Phoebe.
We then turned about, and left the vicinity of the Wall Road. Near the entrances
to Harness Street, off the Wall Road, I turned about.
“Continue your work for peace!†called the guardsmen to those on the wall.
The men on the wall then, and the youth, and women, returned to their labors.
“Incredible,†marveled Marcus.
“Master,†moaned Phoebe.
Things were then much as they had been before. Nothing had changed. To be sure,
the work was not now being performed to the music of flute girls. Tomorrow,
however, I did not doubt but what the flute girls would be back, and numerous
guards in attendance, at least on the street.
“Is your sword for hire?†I asked Marcus.
“It could be,†he said.
“Good,†I said.
“You have some plan?†he asked.
“Of course,†I said.
“Master,†whimpered Phoebe.
Marcus stopped and looked at her.
She, too, stopped, and looked up at him.
“Strip,†he said.
She looked at him, suddenly, wildly, and then about herself. “This is a public
street,†she said.
He did not speak.
She squirmed. “Is there no doorway? No sheltered place?†she asked.
He did not respond to her.
“I was a woman of Cos,†she said, tears springing to her eyes. “This is a public
street in Ar!â€
His expression remained impassive. He maintained his silence.
“Cos has defeated Ar!†she wept.
He did not speak.
“Am I to suffer because you are angry with the men of Ar?†she asked.
“Does the slave dally in her obedience?†he inquired.
(pg. 134)â€No, Master!†she said, frightened.
“Must a command be repeated?†he inquired.
“No, Master!†she cried. Her tiny fingers began to fumble with the knot of the
slave girdle, on her left. Then she had the knot loose and pulled away the
girdle. She then, hastily, struggling a little with it, pulled the tunic, a
light pullover tunic, off, over her head. “The slave obeys her master!†she
gasped, frightened, kneeling before him. He then tied her hands behind her back
with the slave girdle and thrust the tiny tunic, folded, crosswise, in her
mouth, so that she would bite on it. He then pushed her head down to the stones.
“Are you now less angry with the men of Ar?†I asked him, in an Ehn or two.
Marcus stood up, adjusting his tunic.
“Yes,†he said.
Phoebe turned about, from her knees, the tunic between her teeth, and looked
back at us.
“This had little to do with you,†I told her. “Too, it is immaterial that you
were once of Cos. A slave, you must understand, must sometimes serve such
purposed.†Her eyes were wide. But one of the utilities of a slave, of course,
is to occasionally serve as the helpless object upon which the master may vent
his dissatisfaction, his frustration or anger. Too, of course, they may serve
many other related purposes, such as the relief of tensions, to relax oneself
and even to calm oneself for clear thought.
“Do you understand?†I asked.
She nodded.
I regarded her.
She whimpered, once.
“Good,†I said.
One whimper signifies “Yes,†and two signifies “No.†This arrangement, at any
rate, was the one which Marcus had taught to Phoebe long ago, quite early in her
slavery to him, at a time when she had been much more often kept bound and
gagged then now.
Marcus then snapped his fingers that she should rise.
She leaped to her feet.
We turned our steps once more toward our lodging. Phoebe hurried behind. Once
she tried, whimpering, to press herself against her master. She looked up at
him, tears in her eyes, her hands tied behind her, the tunic between her teeth.
She feared that she might have now, because of her earlier behavior, lapsed in
his favor. Too, compounding her misery, was doubtless the fact that Marcus, in
his casual usage of her, had done (pg. 135) little more than intensify her
needs, the helpless prisoner of which, as a slave girl, she was. He thrust her
back. we then continued on our way, Phoebe heeling her master. I heard her gasp
once or twice, and sob. She was now, I was sure, much more aware, in her own
mind, of what it was to be a slave. I do not think, then, she thought of herself
any longer, really, as a woman of Cos, or even one who had once been of Cos, but
rather now as merely a slave, only that, and one who had perhaps, frighteningly,
to her trepidation and misery, failed to be fully pleasing. I did not doubt that
later, when we had reached the room, and she was unbound and freed of the gag,
that she would crawl to Marcus on all fours, the whip between her teeth,
begging. Too, though he loved her muchly, I did not doubt but what he would use
it on her. She was, after all, his slave, and he, after all, was her master.
9 The Plaza of Tarns
“She,†said Talena, Ubara of Ar, “she is chosenâ€
The woman uttered a cry of anguish.
There were cheers, and applause, the striking of the left shoulder, from the
crowd standing
about the edges of the huge, temporary platform, the same which
had earlier served near the Central Cylinder for the welcoming of Myron, in his
entrance into the city.
The woman, held now by the upper left arm, by a guardsman, was conducted to a
point on the platform, erected now in the Plaza of Tarns, a few feet from a
rather narrow, added side ramp, where she was knelt, to be manacled. This
smaller, added ramp would be on the left side of the platform, as one would face
it. My own position was near to, and rather at the foot of this ramp, such that
I would be on the right of a person descending the ramp. Talena, with certain
aides and counselors, and guardsmen and scribes, was on a dais, it mounted on
the surface of the platform, a few feet away, rather to its left, as one would
face it. There was a similar added ramp on the other side, by means of which the
women, barefoot, and clad at that point in the robe of the penitent, would
ascend to its surface.
The manacles were closed about the wrists of the kneeling woman, one could
clearly hear the decisive closure of the (pg. 136) devices, first the one, then
the other. She lifted them, regarding them, disbelievingly.
“Have you never worn chains?†asked a man.
First with one hand and then the other, suddenly, frenziedly, first from one
wrist, and then from the other, sobbing, she tried to force the obdurate iron
from her wrist.
Then, again, she lifted the manacles, regarding them, disbelievingly.
“Yes, they are on you,†laughed a fellow.
“You cannot slip them,†said a man.
“They were not made to be slipped by such as you,†said another.
There was much laughter.
The woman sobbed.
“Do not blubber, female,†said a man. “Rejoice, rather, that you have been found
suitable, that you have been honored by having been chosen!â€
the woman, then, conducted by another fellow, with an armband, signifying the
auxiliary guardsmen, the first fellow, a uniformed guardsman, returning to the
group on the platform, was conducted down the ramp. She was knelt before me.
“Wrists,†I said. She lifted her chained wrists. I then, by means of the chain,
pulled her wrists toward me. I inserted the bolt of a small, sturdy, padlocklike
joining ring through a link in the coffle chain. This would hold it in a
specific place on the chain, preventing slippage. I then snapped the ring shut
about her wrist chain. She looked up at me, coffled.
“On your feet, move,†said another auxiliary guardsman.
She rose to her feet and moved ahead, to the first line scratched in the tiles
of the plaza. There were some one hundred such lines, each about four or five
feet apart, marking places for women to stand. As she moved ahead, so, too, did
others. Beyond these hundred spaces the chain moved to the side, and was
doubled, and folded back upon itself, again and again, in this fashion keeping
its prisoners massed., different lines facing different directions, and all in
the vicinity of the platform.
“It angers me,†said a fellow nearby, “that these women should complain. It is
as simple enough duty to perform, and a worthy enough act, as female citizens,
given the guilt of Ar, her complicity in the wicked schemes of Gnieus Lelius, to
offer themselves for reparation considerations.
“Few enough are chosen anyway,†said a fellow.
“Yes,†said another, angrily.
“Are all burdens to be borne only by men?†asked a man.
(pg. 137) “What of the work levies and such?†said another.
“Yes,†said another.
“And the taxed and special assessments,†said another.
“True,†said a fellow.
“They are citizens of Ar,†said another. “It is only right that they, too, pay
the price for our misdeeds.â€
“And theirs,†said another.
“Yes,†said a fellow.
“They supported members of councils, and members to elect members of councils,â€
said a man.
“Yes!†said another.
“Look at noble Talena,†said a man. “How bravely she performs this duty.â€
“How onerous it must be for her,†said a man.
“Poor Talena,†said a fellow.
“She, too, it might be recalled,†said a man, “appeared in public barefoot, in
the garb of a penitent, prepare to offer herself to save Ar.â€
“Of course,†said a man.
“Noble woman,†breathed a man.
Auxiliary guardsmen do not wear helmets. I had, accordingly, covered my head
and, loosely, the lower portion of my face with a scarf, rather in the manner of
the fellows in the Tahari. This fitted in well with the motley garbs of
auxiliary guardsmen who, on the whole, had little in common except that they
were not of Ar. Regular guardsmen of Ar were, as I have suggested, fellows of Ar
under Cosian command, or, often, Cosians, in the uniform of Ar. Too, as
mentioned, there were regulars of Cos in the city, and, at any given time,
various mercenaries, usually on passes. Some mercenaries, it might be mentioned,
had been transferred into the auxiliary guardsmen. Some others, discharged, had
enlisted in these units. A good deal of the sensitive work in Ar, work which
might possibly produce resentment, or even enflame resistance, was accorded to
auxiliary guardsmen. Their actions, if necessary, could always be deplored or
disavowed. If necessary, some units might even be disbanded, as a token of
conciliation. Such units are, after all, difficult to control. In this I saw
further evidence of attention on the part of Myron, or his advisors, to the
principles and practices of Dietrich of Tarnburg. A similar device,
incidentally, though not one employed by Dietrich of Tarnburg, at least to my
knowledge, is to recruit such forces from the dregs of a city itself, utilizing
their resentment of, and their hatred for, their more successful fellow citizens
to constitute a vain, suspicious and merciless force. This force then may later
be (pg. 138) disbanded, or even destroyed, to the delight of the other citizens,
who then will see their conqueror as their protector, not even understanding his
use of, and sacrifice of, such instrumentalities as the duped dregs of their own
community, first making use of them, then disposing of them.
“No,†said Talena, “not her.â€
A guardsman, on the surface of the platform, before the dais, draped the robe of
the penitent about the shoulders of the woman before Talena. He did this
deferentially. She was shuddering. Another guardsman quickly ushered her to the
rear and down the large ramp at the rear of the platform. She would now return
home.
“No, Talena!†called a fellow from the crowd, a few feet away.
Talena regally turned her head in his direction.
“Be silent!†said a man to he who had called out.
“Hail, Talena!†called a man from the vicinity of the fellow who had called out
before.
“Glory to Talena!†called another.
“Glory to Talena!†cried others.
She then returned her attention to her duties on the platform.
“How merciful is Talena,†said a fellow.
“Yes,†said another.
At a gesture from one of the guardsmen on the platform, another woman in a white
robe came forward, leaving the long line behind her, one extending across the
platform to the small ramp on the other side, down the ramp, across the far side
of the Plaza of Tarns, and thence down Gate Street, where I could not see its
end.
“Lady Tuta Thassolonia,†read a scribe.
Lady Tuta then, unaided, removed her robe and stood before her Ubara. Then she
knelt before her.
Men gasped.
She knelt back on her heels, her knees spread, her back straight, her head up,
the palms of her hands on her thighs.
“It seems you are a slave,†said Talena.
“I have always been a slave, Mistress,†said Lady Tuta.
Talena turned to one of her counselors, and they conferred.
“Are you a legal slave, my child?†asked one of the counselors, a scribe of the
law.
“No, Master,†said the woman.
“You are then a legally free female?†asked the scribe.
“Yes, Master,†she said.
“It is then sufficient,†said the scribe to Talena.
“You are chosen,†said Talena, graciously.
(pg. 139) “Thank you, Mistress!†said the woman.
Cheers commended the decision of the Ubara.
Another of Talena’s aides, or counselors, one in the garb of Cos, then spoke to
Talena, shielding his mouth with his hand.
Talena nodded, and he then addressed himself to the kneeling woman.
“Rise up,†said he, in a kindly fashion, “and do not address us as Master and
Mistress.â€
She rose up.
“Do you wish, as a free female, before you join your sisters to our right, to
say anything?â€
“Hail, Talena!†she cried. “Glory to Talena!â€
This cry was taken up by hundreds about. Then she was conducted to the side, to
be manacled.
“It will be a lucky fellow who will get her,†said a man.
“She is already a slave,†said another.
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