by John Norman
"Perhaps," I said. I shrugged.
The whip dance continued before us.
"Fruit, Master?" asked a girl, softly, timidly, kneeling down lightly beside me. Her head was down. She was frightened. I turned, sitting, to face her. She trembled. She did not raise her head.
"She fears you," said Policrates, "for she knows you are the courier of Ragnar Voskjard. Too, she is perhaps intimidated by my presence, and that of Kliomenes, for we are highest in this holding."
I smiled. Such men, of course, held over her the total power of life or death.
I regarded the girl.
There were five, narrow, rounded loops of steel locked upon her fair body, one serving as collar, and the others for her wrists and ankles. In her hands she carried, held, ripe, rounded fruit. She wore, like the girl before her, tantalizing to the eye, what might constitute a master's conception of a garment suitable for a lovely female slave, a fragment of silk which made unmistakably clear that the beauty to which it clung, and which it made little pretense to conceal, lay fully at the disposition and mercy of lusty men. Yet it was, in its way, more demure than that which had been worn by the girl before her. In particular, as it was tied snugly, it gathered her breasts, holding them together and lifting them.
"She is a new slave," said Policrates, "and is not yet fully broken to her collar."
Her dark hair was coiffured loosely and high upon her head. It was bound with a braided yellow cord, strong enough to hold her wrists, should she be bound with it. If the cord were jerked loose the hair would fall, unbound, to the small of her back.
"She is exquisite, isn't she?" asked Policrates.
I put my thumb under her chin and lifted up her head. Her soft brown eyes, frightened, met mine. There was a look in them which I had seen before, I thought, in other girls, in the eyes of a slave girl as she looks into the eyes of a master. That interested me. Then she turned aside her head, though it was still held much in place by the obdurate pressure of my thumb. She did not recognize me. Her delicate lips wore lipstick, red. There was a subtle shading of blue on her upper eyelids.
"She fears that you will find her pleasing," said Policrates, "but yet, I think, desires that you will."
The girl trembled.
I removed my thumb from beneath her chin, and she put her head down.
Policrates regarded her.
"Little fool," he said, "for what purpose have you come to this table?"
The girl lifted her head then and, timidly, lifted the ripe, rounded fruit which she held in her hands, Gorean peaches and plums, to me. Her eyes met mine, and then she looked down, blushing. I then understood the purpose of the gathering of her brief yellow garment at her breasts, lifting them, sweet, rounded and swelling, for the inspection and delectation of masters. In her gesture, her offering of the fruit, it was clearly understood that she was offering to me as well the lovely fruits of her service and beauty.
I took one of the peaches and bit into it, watching her. She shuddered.
"You are dismissed," said Policrates.
"Yes, Master," she said, frightened, and rising quickly, lightly, hurried away, barefoot on the tiles, to serve others.
I thought Miss Beverly Henderson made a lovely slave girl.
The whip dance was now approaching its climax.
"She is a pretty little thing," I said, looking after Miss Henderson. "What do you call her?"
"Beverly," said Policrates.
"You are cruel," I said, smiling, "to give her an Earth-girl name."
"She is an Earth girl," he said, grinning.
"Oh," I said.
"Do you like Earth girls?" he asked.
"Yes," I said.
"That one is raw," he said, "but, in time, like the others, I think she will make an excellent slave."
"Do you think she is a natural slave?" I asked.
"Undoubtedly," he said. "I meant that she was not yet fully trained, not yet broken fully to the collar."
"I see," I said.
"Kliomenes fell in with her at the tavern of Hibron, the Pirate's Chain, in Victoria," he said. "He immediately sized her up as slave meat. Thinking herself in delightful converse with him she informed him that her name on Earth had been Beverly. Accordingly it seemed fitting that we should put that name again upon her, though now only as a slave name, by our whim."
"Of course," I said.
"She herself," said Policrates, "repudiated the assistance of a fellow desiring to extricate her from her peril, mocking and dismissing him, one called Jason, of Victoria, he to whom you bear some physical resemblance."
"I see," I said.
"Kliomenes did not even use Tassa powder on her," he said. "He simply bound her and carried her, struggling, to his ship." He indicated the girl, among the tables, moving about, kneeling and serving fruit. I thought her thighs and ankles, and her back, which was much exposed, were beautiful. "She now serves us well," he said.
I turned my attention to the dancer on the floor. She lay now on her back, one knee lifted, her arms at her sides, palms down, before the brute with his whip, who towered over her. Her head, too, was turned to the side. Then she turned her head to face the brute who tyrannized her. She looked deeply into his eyes. Then, delicately, in a graceful gesture, she turned her hands, putting their backs to the floor, exposing her palms, and the soft flesh of her palms, to him, indicating her surrender, her submission, her vulnerability and her readiness.
There was applause, the striking of the left shoulder, from the tables.
The brute then crouched beside her and encircled her neck with the coils of his whip. He drew her to her knees then before him. She looked up at him, her neck in the whip coils, his.
There was more applause. Then the brute looked to Policrates, who indicated a table. He then pulled the girl to her feet and, running her over the tiles, and then releasing the coils from her neck, threw her stumbling into the arms of waiting pirates who, with a cry of pleasure, seized her and began to work their lusty wills upon her. There was more applause, and laughter.
I rose to my feet.
"The feast has but begun," laughed Policrates.
"I am weary," I said. "I think I shall retire to my chambers."
"Certainly!" he laughed. "Your journey has been long. I shall, of course, send a girl to wash your body, and content you."
"Policrates is generous," I said.
"It is nothing," he said.
This form of hospitality, of course, is common on Gor. It is common to provide a guest with a girl for the night, to see to his comfort. My compliment, nonetheless, was appropriate, as was his reply. Ritualistic amenities, and pleasantries, on such occasions are invariably observed.
He rose to stand beside me. Together we looked about the tables, at the various girls, slaves, nude and partially clothed, who served there.
"Take your pick of the wenches," he said.
I looked about, at the girls, attending dutifully to their serving, many of them not even conscious of my attention. One of them could discover later that she had been selected to be sent to my chambers for the evening.
"Tais is interesting," said Policrates. A dark-haired girl quickly averted her eyes from ours, putting down her head and hurrying to pour wine nearby. Two silver chains ran from a large loop on her collar to her wrists. The snug metal bracelets there were jeweled. "There is Relia there," he said. "Consider her." He indicated another dark-haired girl. She wore a long, lovely red gown, but it had been pulled down about her waist. She carried a tray of tiny cups, filled with liqueurs. She was willowy and sweetly-breasted. A silver collar graced her throat. "Tela, when captured," he said, indicating a blonde, "begged to be permitted to be kept in white silk." He laughed. "After throwing her to a crew, for their pleasure, we put her, as she had asked, in white silk." "Amusing," I said. "She now often begs for red silk," he said. "Perhaps we will one day permit it to her." "I see," I said. "She is now quick to lick a man's feet," he added. "Excellent," I said. "Bikkie,
" said he, indicating a short, dark-haired girl, "is good. Too, there are Mira and Tala, the matched blondes. They are sisters from Cos." He indicated two girls, one older than the other, one perhaps nineteen, the other seventeen. They were fastened together, by the neck, by a knotted red strap some four feet in length. They were slender, and nude. "You may have both," he said.
I continued to look about.
"I saw that you were interested in Lita," he said, referring to a girl in a diaphanous bit of swirling yellow silk. She was the woman who had been free, whom I had seen enslaved on the wharves of Victoria, only a few nights past. In her own hair she had tied the knot of bondage. "She is trying hard to improve her skills," he said. "I think she will be ready for sale in another month. Perhaps you could assist in her training."
"Perhaps some other time," I said.
"There are others, of course," said he, "below, in cages."
"I think I see one in which I might be interested," I said.
"Which?" asked he.
"That one," I said.
"Beverly," said he, "the Earth girl?"
"Yes," I said.
"Choose another," he said.
"Why?" I asked.
"She is raw, and untrained," he said. "She is a poor slave."
"I find her, nonetheless, not to be without interest," I said.
"Very well," he said. "I will have her sent to your chambers within the Ahn."
"My thanks, Policrates," I said. "Oh," I said. "I may wish, in the privacy of my chambers, to remove this mask."
"I understand," said he. "I will send her to you blindfolded."
"My thanks, Policrates," I said.
"It is nothing," he said.
I then bowed graciously to my host, Policrates, and to Kliomenes, his lieutenant and confederate, and then turned about, and made my way to my chambers.
24
What Occurred in my Chambers, When Miss Henderson Thought me to Be the Courier of Ragnar Voskjard
"Master?" she asked.
She stood within the door to my chambers. The door had been shut behind her. A guard had conducted her to my chambers. He had opened the door. Timidly, blindfolded, conducted by his hand on her arm, she had entered. The door had then shut behind her. She stood now within my chambers. We were absolutely alone.
"Master?" she asked. "I have come to serve you," she said.
I did not respond to her, but observed her. She stood timidly, blindfolded, near the door. She wore a tiny, diaphanous bit of brown silk about her body. It was high on her thighs. It was off her right shoulder and held loosely on her by a casually knotted, narrow disrobing loop, fastened over her left shoulder. A single tug would open the garment, dropping it to her ankles. She carried, folded, several large, colored, soft towels, with two sponges, and oils, for the bath. On the towels, too, were certain other articles. Among them was, opened, the rounded steel loop she had worn about her neck, earlier. It, with its key, lay on the top towel. It had been removed from her for she was to assist me in the bath. It accompanied her, that it might be again, when she had bathed me, replaced on her. Similarly the steel loops from her wrists and ankles had been removed. They, however, had been kept elsewhere. They did not accompany her. On the towels, however, coiled, there was a whip, and slave cuffs, and anklets, of leather, with snaps. Too, it might be mentioned, there were, as is usual, chains at the foot of the great couch, which might be lengthened or shortened. One chain terminated in a collar, which might be locked about a girl's neck. The other chain terminated in a smaller loop of steel, an ankle ring, suitable for a girl's ankle.
I regarded her.
Her hair was still coiffured high upon her head, and held, as before, with the braided yellow cord, stout enough to bind her with. She was barefoot, as is common with slaves.
"Master?" she asked. "Are you in the room?"
I moved, that she might know my presence.
"Forgive me, Master," she said, "if I have awakened you, or disturbed you."
I pulled away the mask I wore and discarded it, to one side on the great couch.
I snapped my fingers.
"Yes, Master," she said. She approached the sound, and knelt before me.
"I am Beverly," she said. "I have been sent to serve you."
I did not speak.
"It is a great honor for me, Master," she said, "that one such as you should select Beverly to serve you."
I did not respond to her.
"The water will have been readied," she said. Near the couch was a large, round, sunken tub, with some six inches of water in it. Too, to one side, there were rinsing jars.
She put the objects she carried on the floor, to her right.
"Here, Master," she said, feeling for it, "is a slave collar. You may place it on me when you wish." She put it, with its key, at my feet. "Here, too," she said, putting the objects near the collar, "are slave cuffs, and anklets." I regarded the objects, with their tiny belts and buckles, with their attached, sewn in, metal snap rings. "And here, Master," she said, "is your whip." She kissed it and put it, too, at my feet.
"Beverly is now ready to serve her Master," she said.
I again snapped my fingers, and the girl stood.
She stood lovely, and straight, her hands now empty, the towels and oils, and other articles on the floor near us.
"Am I to bathe you now, Master?" she asked.
I regarded her blindfold. It was efficient, and Gorean. Most blindfolds, of a sort used on Earth, are inefficient, for one may see under them. This is not the case with the common Gorean blindfold. It consists, commonly, of three pieces, usually two rounded pieces of soft felt, three to four inches in diameter, and the binding, which usually consists of two or more turns of a dark, thick, folded cloth, or scarf, knotted behind the head. The pieces of rounded, face-hugging felt, the eye coverings, in the girl's blindfold were about three and a half inches in diameter. They were yellow. The binding, some three turns of folded, opaque, thick black cloth, knotted tightly behind her head, held the eye coverings securely in place. The blindfold, of course, is seldom used in the transportation of a slave. Slave hoods are much more common in such a role. Some of these are fitted with gags. Also, they may be, or some of them, locked upon the girl. The blindfold, of course, as will be recalled by those who have seen a girl in one, has its own advantages. It permits, for example, something of the beauty of her face, such as her trembling lips, to be seen. Also it permits you to place your teeth upon hers, to test her tongue for responsiveness with yours and, if one wishes, to run the tip of one's finger lightly inside her mouth, between her teeth and the interior of her cheek.
"May I bathe Master now?" she asked.
I jerked loose the disrobing loop at her left shoulder. Beverly Henderson was stripped before me.
I walked around, behind her. She lifted up her chin. She trembled, slightly. She was extremely aware of my presence. I bent forward, slightly. She had been subtly perfumed. She shuddered. She had felt my breath at the left side of her neck, and on her left shoulder.
I then walked about her and stood before her.
"Yes, Master," she said. She reached out and, gently, first touching my chest, her hands lingering there for a moment, found the knot in the belt of soft cloth with which I had closed the casual tunic I had donned. She undid the knot and parted the tunic, kissing me at the belly. She then went behind me and, gently, removed the tunic, kissing me beneath the left shoulder blade. She then stood again before me. She folded the tunic and belt, kissing them, and then knelt down, placing them to one side. She then stood again, before me, her head down.
I smiled. The girl had been taught how to disrobe a master for the bath.
I then placed the articles for the bath in her hands, and conducted her to the side of the tub. She placed the articles where she might find them. She then took a vial of oil and one of the sponges in her hands. I then helped her step within the tub.
I looked at her.
She stood in the water,
blindfolded, waiting for me. Miss Beverly Henderson, once a proud girl of Earth, now only a Gorean slave girl, waited to bathe a free male, one whom she must address as master and serve as he pleased.
I stepped down within the tub.
Then, kneeling or standing, as was fit, humbly, Miss Beverly Henderson, with the oils and sponges, and rinsing waters, bathed me.
Then, after a few Ehn, she toweled my body dry and then knelt before me, head down.
I snapped my fingers, and she stood.
I then looked at her, carefully. I assessed the nature of her breathing. I touched my fingers to her side, and noted her sudden, involuntary movement. I smiled. The Gorean bath, of such a sort, has many purposes. The cleansing of the body, of course, is only one such purpose. It has two major purposes with respect to its effect on the girl. The first is that she is performing a lowly and humble task for a man. This helps to remind her that she is a slave. Also, of course, serving a man, particularly in small and humble ways, probably for biological reasons, tends to be sexually arousing for a woman. Many men, I think, fail to understand that. When a girl brings a man his sandals and ties them on his feet she is having a sexual experience. Many men, I think, fail to understand the pervasiveness and radiance, the depth, and contextual richness, of female sexuality. It is such a wondrous, deep and marvelous thing. He who denies a woman her right to serve man, and particularly in such small ways, denies to her a portion of herself; that man is not only a fool, for he is the natural recipient of such attentions, but he is cruel; such a denial, too, can make a woman ashamed to seek sexual gratification for such small services, usually unbeknownst to the boorish male, are intimately connected with such gratification; this is one reason, incidentally, that those who secretly fear sexuality, and would repudiate it, will be among the first to denounce such homely services of love. In the case of the slave girl, of course, such services are commanded of her. She must perform them. This tells her then, on some deep level, that it is all right, truly, to be a woman. Indeed, she is given no choice but to be a woman. Thusly is her love unqualifiedly liberated. This type of thing, I think, accounts for something of the joy which is experienced by many slave girls, a joy which, otherwise, would seem inexplicable. The second major purpose with respect to the effect on the girl, of course, is that she is touching and, in effect, in the bathing, caressing a man's body. She is intimately close to the male, even to the extent of sensual tactuality. Being alive and hormonally active, of course, this is arousing to her. And it is, of course, particularly arousing to a slave female, for she knows she is fit meat for the lust of men. Does her very condition not tell her that? Too, of course, she herself, though touching, is not touched. This is frustrating to her, naturally, and intensifies her desire, usually near the surface in a slave, to be taken in the arms of the master. From the point of the man, too, of course, there are several purposes of the bath. Some of these are related to those pertinent to the girl. First, he is served, as the master. He is master. Second, it is not unpleasant to be washed humbly by a beautiful woman. Third, such service tends to arouse the girl. It is not uncommon, when such a bath has been finished, and he has been toweled by the beauty, that she kneels before him and begs to be raped.
