Norman, John - Gor 23 - Renegades of Gor.txt

by Renegades of Gor [lit]

It was only fitting, after all, that she be punished, and well. She had

  attempted to take advantage of the fact that she had not yet been branded and

  collared. She had attempted to pass herself off as a free woman. In many cities,

  such a thing is a capital offense. Here, however, in accord with a fortune much

  greater than she would be likely to realize for a few days, she, a naïve young

  slave, and guilty of what, in effect, was a first offense, was only to be

  whipped. Still, even so, I did not think she would be likely to forget her

  little bout this evening with the leather. For one thing, few slave girls forget

  their first whipping. Too, if nothing else it would impress upon her that she

  was a slave and that masters would think nothing of punishing her if she was not

  pleasing. That is a good thing for a girl to learn. I supposed, too, that it

  might have an effect in discouraging her, should the opportunity arise, as I did

  not think it would, from seeking to implement another deceit with respect to her

  status in the immediate future. Later, of course, as she began to understand

  what it was to be a slave girl, as she began to grasp something of the nature of

  her condition, and its categoricality, she would hastily, and fearfully, on her

  own, reject such thoughts. She would not dare to countenance them. She might

  find herself trembling in terror if even the smallest and most casual of such

  thoughts chanced to enter her mind.

  I saw the fellow who had conducted the slaves to the hold emerge through the

  hatch and close it, after him. I supposed (pg.390) the slaves in their cages.

  Calliodorus, too, seemed to note the reappearance of the fellow.

  “The former Lady Claudia and I were cellmates,” I said to Calliodorus. “I

  determined at that time that she, though then free, would make an excellent

  slave.”

  “Good,” he said. Slaves, of course, are not only trained in a broad spectrum of

  sexual arts, such as how to kiss and caress, and such, but much attention is

  given, too, to their own responsiveness and pleasure. There is nothing

  surprising about this. Their responsiveness and pleasure puts them far more

  under the master’s power. Too, as might be imagined, it is very pleasant for a

  man to see the marvelous changes and effects which he can induce in a woman, for

  example, to have her thrashing helplessly at his touch, crying out her

  submission, begging for more. The slave, because of her training, her emotional

  freedom, thousands of times greater than that of a free woman, the discipline

  she is under, and such, can attain orgasm much more quickly than a free woman,

  sometimes, particularly if she has been deprived for a time, almost immediately.

  A response which might take a free woman a third to a half of an Ahn to attain a

  slave, and not an unusual slave, might attain in three or four Ehn. Beyond this

  the slave is often forced to endure lengthy, multiple orgasms, sometimes being

  carried by the will of the master for Ahn, whether she wills it or not, from one

  peak to another.

  “She served Cosians, and declared for them,” I said to Calliodorus. “Do you

  think that might put her in good stead with Cosians, should she come into their

  keeping, as that is what seems to be in store for her, at least in the near

  future?”

  “In what way?” asked Calliodorus.

  “That they might then see fit to reward her with her freedom,” I said.

  “No,” said Calliodorus. “She is now a slave. That changes everything. Even if

  she had once been a Cosian girl, even of Telnus, of good family and high caste,

  she would still, now, be a slave, and only a slave. Too, Cosians, I assure you,

  are not overly fond of traitresses. One who is willing to betray her own Home

  Stone would presumably not hesitate to betray someone else’s. indeed, I would

  not have been surprised, had she surrendered herself at Ar’s Station, claiming

  immunity, (pg.391) or such, that she would have quickly found herself, if,

  indeed, she were not slain, in the lowest of slaveries, as would seem fitting

  for her.”

  “I see,” I said. It was, of course, as I had supposed it would be.

  “Her slavery, thus,” he said, “will presumably be either simple, and

  uncompromised, or excessively cruel, an uncompromised.”

  I nodded.

  “But inasmuch as the crimes of the free woman are seldom held against the slave,

  for the slave has her own concerns, and fears, such as whether or not she is

  sufficiently pleasing, and so on, I would expect it to be simple, and

  uncompromised.”

  “I think you are probably right,” I said. Many theorists regard reduction to

  slavery as wiping the slate clean, so to speak. The woman is then thought, in

  effect, to be beginning lift anew, but now as a mere property, a mere animal. To

  be sure, her past status and deeds do remain a part of her history, even if she

  is now only an animal. Thus, at least for a time, a maser might relish the

  consideration that his abject slave was once perhaps a haughty free woman, or

  such. But, in time, it is likely that their relationship, mercifully, as such

  things fade into the past and tend to be forgotten, will become a simpler one,

  that merely of master and slave.

  “In my uses of the former Lady Claudia, in the cell,” I said, “I sometimes gave

  her the use name of ‘Chloe’.”

  “A Cosian name,” observed Calliodorus.

  “She had declared for Cos,” I reminded him.

  “Did the use name help her to dissociate herself from the proprieties which she

  might have thought appropriate to a Lady Claudia?’ he asked.

  “I think it helped,” I said. Certainly a woman’s sexual relationship to a man is

  often improved when she begins to think of herself as having a quite different

  relationship to him than the one in which she has been accustomed to think of

  herself. The change of name can help in this matter. No woman, of course, takes

  her former name into slavery. In her reduction to bondage she loses that name.

  Even if the same name, in one sense, should be put on her as a slave, it is not

  the same name in the crucial sense; it is not now a legal name to which one has

  title in one’s own right. It is a slave name. (pg.392) In this sense, the name

  ‘Claudia’ as the name of a free woman is a quite different name from the name

  ‘Claudia’ as the name of a slave. The slave name, for example, can be changed at

  a master’s whim. This loss of the old name, incidentally, and the susceptibility

  to being named, and the new name, if the master decides to give her a name, and

  such, although they are simple, legal consequences of the name of reduction to

  bondage, are also, I think, psychologically useful in helping her understand

  that she is now a slave, and that she is now radically and absolutely different

  from what she was. Too, I think that such things, a new name, for example,

  showing her that she is now in a new reality, and so on, can help her make the

  transition more smoothly into bondage.

  “â�
��™Chloe’ is an excellent name,” he said. “I have known several slaves with that

  name.”

  “Do you think,” asked Aemilianus of Calliodorus, “that ‘Claudia’ is too fine a

  name for a slave?”

  “I think it is an excellent name for a slave,” he smiled.

  “You would,” smiled Aemilianus. I supposed that Aemilianus might think that

  Cosian names might be better for slaves, whereas Calliodorus might tend to

  approve more of names more typical of the south, say, those of Venna or Ar. I

  myself thought there was much to be said for both, and, indeed, for many other

  sorts of names, as well. Many Goreans, incidentally, as is well known, regard

  Earth-girl names as slave names. Aemilianus’s slave, for example, who was

  Gorean, was named “Shirley.”

  “I think there is little difficulty in the matter, in any event,” said

  Calliodorus, “whether it is a fine name or not, as she now wears it as a slave

  name.”

  “I think you are right,” said Aemilianus. “What do you think?” he asked me.

  “I agree,” I said. “It is now a mere slave name.” Too, of course, it might

  easily be changed. In the odysseys of her bondage, her name would doubtless be

  changed many times.

  “I wonder what will become of her,” I said.

  “She is curvaceous,” said Calliodorus. “Perhaps she will be sold to a paga

  tavern.”

  That was a possibility. I hoped that eventually, however, she might come into

  the keeping of a single master, to whom (pg.393) she would be a love slave. I

  thought that there was something in the slave now called “Claudia” a precious,

  vulnerable, yearning love slave.

  “Aemilianus, my friend,” said Calliodorus.

  “Yes?” said he.

  “It will take us some days to reach Port Cos,” said Calliodorus. “Would you mind

  if, tomorrow morning, the two slaves, Claudia and Publia, were made available to

  the crew?”

  “Of course not,” said Aemilianus.

  “We will chain them by their necks to a ring in the deck, aft,” said

  Calliodorus. “That way, if they are too initially dismayed, they will not be

  able to throw themselves overboard.”

  “By nightfall,” said Aemilianus, “I do not think they would want to throw

  themselves overboard.”

  “I do not think so,” said Calliodorus. “Too, aft, they will be out of the sight

  of free women.”

  “Use them as you please,” said Aemilianus.

  “My lads left Port Cos in a hurry,” said Calliodorus, “and we did not know if

  there would be fighting, or not. Thus we did not include among our supplies any

  women for slave use.”

  “No explanations are necessary,” said Aemilianus. “Too, if their masters do not

  object, you may avail yourself of any of the other slaves, there are a few, I

  believe, whom you embarked at Ar’s Station, including, of course, my Shirley.”

  Shirley shrank back, a little. To be sure, even though she was the preferred

  slave of Aemilianus, her use could be handed about as easily as that of the

  lowest collar sluts on board, Claudia and Publia.

  “I thank you for your generosity,” said Calliodorus, “and I am sure that the

  other fellows of Ar’s Station would be every bit as generous, but I think that

  after what you have been through, we would prefer, in all gentleness and

  courtesy, to let such slaves, including your Shirley, recollect in detail the

  pleasing of their own masters, perhaps amidships.”

  Shirley cried out with joy, looking upon Aemilianus.

  “As you will,” he smiled.

  “And I think,” said Calliodorus, “that the more extensive services then to be

  rendered by Claudia and Publia will be (pg.394) useful in helping them to

  comprehend more quickly and clearly the nature of their new condition.”

  “Undoubtedly,” smiled Aemilianus.

  “I wonder if I might ask an additional favor of you,” said Calliodorus.

  “Name it,” said Aemilianus.

  “When we enter Port Cos,” he said, “I would like to do so in such a way as to

  make clear from afar that there is cause for rejoicing, that our business has

  been successfully conducted and that festivities are in order.”

  “Do as you wish,” said Aemilianus.

  “I will, then,” he said, “with your permission, deck the ship with flags, and

  bunting and banners, and put prominently the flag of Ar’s Station on the port

  stem line, and fly that of Port Cos on the starboard stem line.”

  “How is it,” asked Aemilianus, “that you have a flag of Ar’s Station on a ship

  of Port Cos?”

  “One can never tell when such things might be useful,” smiled Calliodorus. “And

  do you noble fellows of Ar’s Station not carry flags of Port Cos, and perhaps of

  other towns, as well, in your vessels, perhaps in the chests in your stern

  castles?” That was a likely place to stow such paraphernalia. There it would

  both be out of the way, and yet handy.

  “Perhaps,” smiled Aemilianus.

  “Dear friend,” smiled Calliodorus.

  Calliodorus bent down and clasped the upraised hand of Aemilianus. I had

  gathered that, long ago, these men had seen action together, probably on the

  river.

  Calliodorus stood up.

  There was, incidentally, one flag of Ar’s Station on board, which had been

  brought from Ar’s Station itself, but that flag, large, rent, faded and

  tattered, was not the one, or ones, under discussion. It had been there, staunch

  and defiant, throughout the siege. It had been brought to the Tais by the young

  man to whom I had entrusted it, the friend of the young crossbowman. He had

  given it to Aemilianus, who had, in turn, given it into the keeping of Surilius,

  his aide. I had little doubt that that flag was very precious to those of

  (pg.395) Ar’s Station. They would be very careful as to what lines on which it

  might be affixed.

  “But, dear friend,” said Aemilianus, “is there not one touch else that might be

  in order, to indicate a successful voyage?”

  “I was thinking of asking about it,” smiled Calliodorus.

  “Hang then in chains, at the prow!” said Aemilianus.

  “Good,” grinned Calliodorus.

  The slave girl, as Claudia and Publia would come to learn, had thousands of

  uses. And one of them, surely, is that of a display object. It is common for

  masters to be very proud of their girls and to desire to show them off. indeed,

  one of the reasons for slave garb, aside from such things as its identificatory

  role, its stimulatory nature, both to the master and slave, its instructive

  role, and such, is its capacity to display the girl beautifully. Just as a man

  of Earth might be proud of his pictures, or his dogs or horses, so, too, a

  Gorean can be proud of his slave, or
slaves. Some men like to travel with a

  naked slave afoot beside them, chained by the neck to their stirrup. Some rich

  men enjoy having lovely slaves, sometimes strings of them, follow them, chained

  by the neck, the leads of the chains fastened to slave bars at the back of their

  palanquins. In this case, Calliodorus was apparently interested in displaying

  two beauties, a pair of exquisite slaves, at this prow. Certainly they,

  suspended naked in their chains would enhance his entry into the harbor at Port

  Cos.

  “I must be about my duties, my friend,” then said Calliodorus to Aemilianus.

  “Rest.”

  Most of the men about had, by now, drifted away.

  Calliodorus stopped for a moment, as though he wanted to say something more to

  Aemilianus, but he then seemed to think the better of it. He then climbed the

  steps behind Aemilianus, to the helm deck. I looked after him.

  “He wanted to issue warnings,” said Aemilianus, smiling.

  “Warnings?” I asked.

  “Yes,” said Aemilianus. “He is a good fellow.”

  I gathered that it would be inopportune to inquire further into this matter, at

  least at the moment. But surely there could be little, or nothing, to fear now,

  at least for free persons.

  “Commander,” said I.

  “Yes, Warrior,” he responded.

  (pg.396) “I thank you for your mercy in the case of the former Lady Claudia.”

  “Was it mercy?” he asked.

  “I think so,” I said.

  “Well,” he said, “her treacheries, however heinous and grievous, considered in

  the light of grander and more insidious designs, seemed paltry.”

  “And doubtless were,” I said. “Is that why you spared her?”

  “I spared her primarily,” he said, “because you wished it.”

  “I am grateful,” I said. “Too, I think she will make an excellent slave.”

  “I am sure of it,” he said.

  “Even Calliodorus thought she was born for the collar,” I said.

  “She and Publia,” said Aemilianus.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “I think he was right about both,” he said.

  “I think so, too,” I said.

  “My friend,” he said.