by John Norman
"Bring her forth! Bring her forth!" they cried.
"Are you ready?" asked Hendow.
"Yes, Master," I said.
I felt his massive hand moving the sheet as it closed itself, like a vise, about my upper left arm. I was almost lifted from my feet. It was like being a doll in his grasp. I looked up at him. I was absolutely helpless. My fists still clutched the sheet high about my neck. The leashes on the cuffs went behind me, slack, on each side, and then looped up to the keeping of Tupita and Sita, Tupita on my right, Sita on the left. Hendow drew me beside him through the beaded curtain. Tupita and Sita followed, and, too, small Ina. These, slaves themselves, would present me, a new slave, to the men. But it was in the grip of my master, this perhaps symbolizing his ownership of me, and his authority over me, that I would be brought to the floor.
"Aii!" said a man.
"Ah!" said a man. "Superb!" said another. I heard the intake of breaths.
"What did I tell you?" asked Mirus.
I heard sounds of relish, and anticipation. I began to tremble. I looked up at my master. He was proud of me! Too, there were conventionalized sounds, indicative of interest and approval, the intake of breath through saliva, certain sounds made with the tongue and lips, certain clickings and smackings, and such, of the sort that might cause a free woman to swoon with dismay, but are addressed appropriately enough, and usually to her pleasure, to slaves. Too, I heard whistles and sex calls. Some men, by such noises, summon a girl, running, to their feet. If she is close enough, of course, noises of the preceding sort may also be used for this purpose.
"Please, please, sirs," said Mirus, in mock protest. "Desist! This is a virgin! You will embarrass her!"
There was much laughter. This was a splendid joke, I gathered. Who, after all, cares for the feelings of a slave?
"No woman like that," said a man, "with a collar on her neck, is a virgin!"
There was more laughter.
I gathered that that was supposed to be a compliment. I glanced up at Hendow. How pleased he seemed to be to own me. How proud he seemed to be! I was afraid, but I was pleased, too, and grateful, that he was pleased with me. I wanted to be pleasing to him. He was my master.
"But she is a virgin!" laughed Mirus.
"Who cares?" called a man.
There was more laughter.
"Among our guests this evening," said Mirus, gesturing, "is one well known to you all, Tamirus." He indicated a good-natured-looking fellow, sitting to one side in green robes. This fellow lifted his hand, in good humor, to the crowd. "Later," said Mirus, "when our lovely chain-daughters in attendance, Tupita, Sita and Ina, whom some of you well know, and intimately, and whom I recommend to you all, as I also do my lovely assistants, Aynur and Tula, have presented to you another chain-daughter, this lovely slut, their sister in bondage, we shall call upon Tamirus for his attestation."
There was a good-humored cheer, acknowledging which Tamirus, grinning, once more lifted his hand. The attestation, I gathered, was little more than a formality, but, I supposed, some of the fellows would want it.
I stood toward the center and about a third forward from the rear of the floor, my arm still in the grip of Hendow, my master.
"I will buy another ostrakon!" called a man. I saw Aynur and Tula glance at one another. Aynur's bowl was no longer empty. Tula's now held less.
"We shall reopen the sale of ostraka presently," called Mirus.
The musicians were on my left.
"Hendow," called Mirus, dramatically, "my employer, and dear friend, Hendow, are you not the master of this tavern?"
"I am," grinned Hendow.
There was laughter.
I was afraid my arm would be bruised where Hendow held it. His grip was like iron.
"And you own many women?"
"Yes," said Hendow.
"We see you have a slave in hand."
"Yes," said Hendow.
"Do you own her, as well?" asked Mirus.
"Yes," said Hendow.
"And is it your intention to keep her all for yourself?" asked Mirus.
"No," said Hendow, grinning.
There was a cheer.
"She is then to have the same status as your other women, and to be available to your customers, and such?" asked Mirus.
"Yes," said Hendow.
There was another cheer.
"She is then to be not a private slave, but a public slave?" inquired Mirus.
"Yes!" said Hendow.
This announcement was greeted with another cheer.
"If she is a treasured private slave, noble Hendow," said Mirus, "take her swiftly to your chambers. If she is not, but is as your other women, then, noble friend, we pray you, step back from her, leaving her upon the floor before us."
I felt Hendow's hand release my arm. He stepped back. There was a cheer. I did not know where he was. I supposed he might be somewhere behind me, and to my left. I felt very much alone. To be sure, the other girls were still near me. But we were all slaves, before men.
"Come forward, come forward," said Mirus, coaxingly, beckoning to me.
I came forward, in the cuffs and leashes, clutching the sheet, the girls with me. I now stood back about a third from the front edge of the dancing floor. The men could see me very well now. The musicians were now back, and to the left.
"I will buy an ostrakon!" called a man.
"And I!" called another.
"And I!" said another.
I watched Mirus take tarsk bits from these men. He dropped the coins into the sack at his belt. From the distention and apparent weight of the sack I gathered he had already taken in several tarsk bits. I supposed that I should feel flattered. I clutched the sheet up higher about my neck. I wondered where Hendow was, somewhere behind me, I thought. When a fellow had paid his tarsk bit Mirus would reach into the copper bowl carried by Tula and draw forth from it one of the small, about three inches long and an inch wide, thin, flat, brittle, glazed, baked-clay ostraka. They were oval and, along the long axis, slotted. The ostraka are lovely and fragile. A number, the same number, was written at the bottom and top of each item. I winced as Mirus snapped one of the ostraka in two, giving half to the purchaser and throwing the other half into Aynur's bowl. "Good luck!" he said.
"What is her name?" called a man.
"'Doreen'," said Mirus. "At least that is the name by which she is known to Borko."
I shuddered, and the men laughed, seeing my fear. I did not think the nature of Hendow's Borko, that massive hunting sleen, was unknown to them.
I heard the snappings of ostraka.
"Bring her over here, so we can see her better," said a man.
"And over here," said another, on the other side.
"Come, frightened urt," said Tupita. She guided me to the right, where I must stand at the edge of the floor, there, and then further to the right, and back. I then saw Hendow, my master. He was standing back, near the wall at the back of the tavern, near the threshold with the beaded curtain, that through which I had entered.
I was then moved further to the right, in a circular pattern, and I then stood at the back, right corner of the dancing floor, as one would see it from the front. I was then a moment later conducted again to my right, and I now stood in the vicinity of what would be the front, right corner of the floor, as one would see it from the front. I was near the edge. Tupita apparently wanted me to be close to the men, that my proximity, I suppose, might stimulate them.
I heard the snappings of more ostraka.
"Oh!" I cried. I was frightened. I could not pull away. "Stand as you are," said Tupita. "Yes, Mistress," I said. A man, sitting near the edge of the floor, had put out his hand and held my left ankle. He then, with his thumb, rubbed slowly below and behind the anklebone, and then, with his fingers, up, just below the calf. I shuddered at his touch. I went up an inch or two on the toes of my foot.
"Look at that," called a man.
"That is no virgin," said another.
; "She is a virgin," averred Mirus, snapping another ostrakon, not even looking about. "You will shortly have the attestation," he said.
"I will take another ostrakon," said the fellow who had touched me.
"I, too," said another.
My ankle released, Tupita, aided by Sita, again put me toward the center of the floor, near the front, much where I had stood before.
I was trembling. I could not help how I had moved under his touch.
The men looked at me. I heard laughter. I blushed.
There was more laughter.
"In time, however," said Mirus, continuing his transactions, "we expect her to feel at least some minimal slave heat."
There was laughter.
I must have turned red, all of me that was not covered by the sheet, my face and neck, and my calves, ankles and feet. There was then more laughter. Suddenly I wished I was one of those women like leather who hated men. But then in a moment I did not really want to be like that either. I was too soft, too lovely, and too feminine for that. I was not that sort of woman. I was a different sort. I was afraid then, very afraid. I sensed vaguely, in my virgin's belly, the thought terrifying me, what men, such men, might do to me. These intimations, however, did not serve to prepare me even for what, as a matter of course, in even a few weeks, I could be forced to feel, or for what it would be to be made the helpless victim of "slave needs."
"Five!" called a man. "Five!"
"Two here!" said another.
I looked about, from face to face, and then I looked away, not daring to meet such eyes, those of masters.
How faraway seemed the library.
Incredibly, here, on this world, I was owned.
"She is lovely," said a man.
"Yes," said another.
There were sexual noises, and calls. I could not object to these. I was a slave.
How powerful seemed these men. I think any of them could have broken me in pieces, like the lovely ostraka. And how fierce they seemed. How they would make a woman obey them! And how they looked upon me, with such eagerness and interest, seeing me as what I was, a slave!
I clenched my fists on the sheet. Beneath it, save for a steel collar and some beads, I was naked.
"Let us have the drawing," urged a fellow.
I felt inordinately helpless, so small and weak, and desired, among such men.
I heard the snappings of the ostraka.
How absurd then, and artificial, and unreal, suddenly, seemed Earth, with all its preposterous political myths, its subversion of nature, its insidious conditioning programs, its pretendings to deny the simple, obvious truths of aristocracy, its contrived trammelings of right and power, its desperate attempts to destroy the natural relationships between men and women, to level and mediocratize the diversity and glory of nature, its corrupt machineries of falsification and repression. Men can do with us as they wish, I thought, and Gorean men, at least if the woman is a slave, will. I was not on Earth. I was on a different world. I stood now on a dancing floor in a tavern, in a complex, beautiful civilization, one quite different from my own, one in which strong, proud men had refused to relinquish their natural sovereignty. I did not stand before them as a primitive. Their civilization had a history as long and complex as my own. I did stand before them, however, in a collar, and in the order of nature.
I felt tension in the leashes attached to the rings on the cuffs I wore. Tupita and Sita, on my right and left, respectively, stood near to me. They had muchly coiled the leashes and their two hands, each on their own leash, and turned in the leash, and gripping it tightly, were about a foot from the rings on the cuffs. I sensed Ina behind me. She took hold of the sheet, at the shoulders, from behind, that it might be lifted gracefully from me.
Earlier Hendow had brought me to the floor, helpless, like a doll, in his grip. He had then, in response to the ritualistic petition of Mirus, removed his hand from my arm, stepped back from me and left me there. The symbolic meaning of this was clear. He was not reserving me for himself. I was also for his customers. I was a new girl in his tavern. I was a public slave.
I felt tension through the cuffs, I heard the tiny noises of the joined rings, those on the cuffs and leashes, I felt the pulling of the leash rings against the rings on the cuffs. My wrists were slowly being drawn to the sides. The men leaned forward. I could not keep my hands on the sheet without opening the sheet myself. Tears in my eyes I released the sheet. Ina then, gracefully, drew the sheet away and, carrying it, withdrew from the floor.
I stood there, my wrists at my shoulders. I could not draw my hands together to cover myself. The cuffs I wore, buckled tightly on me, and the taut leashes attached to them, in the keeping of Tupita and Sita, saw to it. I stood there, then, in collar and beads, displayed, a tavern slave, a paga slave, a public slave, naked on a Gorean dancing floor.
The hands of men smote repeatedly on their left shoulders. "Yes!" cried several. "Yes! Yes!" "Marvelous!" breathed some. "Superb!" cried others, pounding with their goblets on the tables. I gathered that Teibar, who had picked me for the collar, had known his business.
There was then slackness in the leashes. My arms went to my sides.
There was a white ribbon looped on my collar, and drawn down about it, snugly.
"You are naked before men," whispered Tupita. "Obeisance!"
I quickly knelt before the men and put my head to the floor, the palms of my hands, too, on the floor. I heard several of the beads touch the wood.
I was then jerked up to my feet by the leashes, and drawn about the floor, being shown to the men on all sides.
Men swarmed about Mirus, who was hard put to satisfy their demands for ostraka.
I was then knelt near the center of the floor, and a little toward its front. I knelt as I had been taught, and as the sort of slave I was, the sort of slave I had first learned I was in Market of Semris, a pleasure slave. My hands, my wrists buckled in the leather cuffs, were on my thighs. Tupita and Sita stood near me, and a little behind me. The leashes were slack.
"Alas, generous sirs!" cried Mirus. "The ostraka grow few in number!"
I saw men rise hurriedly to move toward him.
"I shall take ten," said a man.
"No!" cried another.
"Let us have the attestation!" cried Mirus, forcing the two fellows apart.
Tamirus approached me. He wore green robes. I did not know at that time but this indicated he was of the caste of physicians. That is a high caste. If I had known he was of high caste I might have been a great deal more frightened than I was. Most Goreans take caste very seriously. It is apparently one of the socially stabilizing forces on Gor. It tends to reduce the dislocations, disappointments and tragedies inherent in more mobile structures, in which men are taught that they are failures if they do not manage to make large amounts of money or excel in one of a small number of prestigious professions. The system also helps to keep men of energy and high intelligence in a wide variety of occupations, this preventing the drain of such men into a small number of often artificially desiderated occupations, this tending then to leave lesser men, or frustrated men, to practice other hundreds of arts the survival and maintenance of which are important to a superior civilization. Provisions for changing caste exist on Gor, but they are seldom utilized. Most Goreans are proud of their castes and the skills appropriate to them. Such skills, too, tend to be appreciated by other Goreans, and are not looked down on. My virginity had been checked at various times. Teibar had done it on Earth, in the library; it had been done in the house of my training, shortly after I had arrived there; it had been done outside Brundisium, by the wholesaler there, and in Market of Semris twice, once when I had arrived there, by the men of Teibar of Market of Semris, and once before I had left, by Hendow's man. It had also been checked when I had arrived here, and again, this afternoon, before I had been bedecked in these beads I wore, slave beads.
"How are you, my dear?" asked Tamirus.
"Very good, Master," I said
. "Thank you, Master."
"On your back, idiot," said Tupita.
I looked at her, angrily.
By the leashes, pulling up and twisting, to my surprise, handling me quite easily, with surprising expertness, she and Sita pulled me up, half on my feet, and then brought me back, gasping, off balance, and lowered me to my back. I had not realized their skill, nor how easily I could be controlled by the two leashes. There are many tricks, of course, with leashes, in the management of slaves. Tupita held down my right wrist, and Sita my left wrist. "Throw your legs apart or we will do this differently," said Tupita. I obeyed, on my back, on the dancing floor. There are various attitudes in which the virginity of a girl may be checked. The least embarrassing to her is probably this one.
Tamirus was careful with me, and gentle. He checked twice, delicately.
"Thank you, Master," I said to him, gratefully.
He stood up. "It is as certified by the house of Hendow," he said. "The slave is a virgin."
"Not for long!" called a fellow.
"Thank you for your public confirmation in this matter," called Mirus.
Tamirus lifted his hand good-humoredly, graciously, to Mirus, and then, too, to the others in the tavern, and returned to his table. There, waiting for him, was a goblet of paga, doubtless a gratuity for the loan of his expertise. Too, he would doubtless have his choice of Hendow's women this night, with the probable exception of myself, for we went with the paga. Indeed, I thought he might already have made his choice. Near his table, but back a bit from it, discretely, at slave's distance, knelt luscious Inger, blond and voluptuous, from the north, from Skjern, who had come to Brundisium in the heavy shackles of Torvaldslanders. It was she who had brought his paga. It would doubtless be she who would serve him this night, with the fullness of the Gorean slave. With pen dipped into an inkhorn at his belt Tamirus was signing a paper. He replaced the pen in the inkhorn, which closed the horn, shook the paper a bit and held it up. A fellow near him handed it obligingly to Mirus. I saw Inger inch a little closer to Tamirus, on her knees. Doubtless she had served him before. Perhaps she wished him to purchase her.
