Vagabonds of Gor

by Norman, John;

  "You cannot be serious," she said. "Oh!"

  "I am very serious," I said, "though I am somewhat reluctant to admit it."

  "What of me?" she asked.

  "You, my dear," I said, "will be a mute rence girl."

  "A rence girl!" she said, half rearing up.

  "Yes," I said. "It will make sense to the fellows of Ar that I may have picked up a rence girl in the delta, particularly one as pretty as you are. That will be understandable. What fellow, the opportunity conveniently affording itself, would not do the same? Too, you are not branded, so that will fit in with such a story. As you are not marked, it would be highly unlikely I could palm you off as a slave. Who would believe it? On the other hand, who would expect a rencer captive to be branded, at least until one got as far as an iron. Too, given what I told our friend, Plenius, the fellow I saved from the sand, my former keeper, they will be unlikely to associate you with the Lady Ina. They will believe that she was taken by rencers and presumably done away with, or possibly enslaved. You should not be in much danger, really. At least I hope not. Remember that they have never seen the face of the Lady Ina, not fully, for she was always veiled when in their vicinity. Too, as you have been under discipline, and will continue to be kept under discipline, I do not think you are likely to be betrayed by the arrogance or mannerisms of a free woman. For example, you may not be aware of this but you now carry yourself, and move, differently from what you did before. Everything about you now is much softer and more beautiful than it was. Indeed, frankly, I do not know if you could go back to being a free woman, at least of the sort you were. That I fear, for better or for worse, is now behind you."

  "It seems you have thought these matters through in some detail," she said.

  "Too," I said, "I shall call you 'Ina'."

  "Is that wise?" she asked.

  "I think so," I said. "I think the men of Ar, remembering that the Lady Ina was somewhat rude to me in one of their camps, will see this as a rich joke, giving her name to a lowly rence girl. But also, if they grow suspicious of you, I want it to be very natural that you would promptly, and without thought, answer to the name of 'Ina'. It might surely provoke suspicion if you were supposedly, say, Feize or Yasmine, or Nancy or Jane, and you answered to the name of 'Ina'."

  "You speak of me as though I might be a sleen," she said, "'answering to a name'."

  "You are a captive," I reminded her.

  "True," she said.

  "Also," I said, "I like the name 'Ina' for you. 'Ina' is an excellent name for you!"

  "Is that supposed to be flattering?" she asked.

  I looked at her. I considered what she might look like in a collar, and chains. "Yes," I said. I wondered if she knew that 'Ina' was a common slave name.

  "And I am to be mute?" she said.

  "I think that is in our best interests," I said. "If you are a simple rence girl, we cannot very well have you speaking with the accents of a cultured lady of Ar."

  "I suppose not," she said, grudgingly.

  "There is nothing personal in this," I said. "You have a lovely accent. I am fond of hearing it. Indeed, I am particularly fond of hearing it in female slaves."

  "Slaves!"

  "But you, of course, are a free woman."

  "Yes!" she said.

  "There are many lovely accents, of course," I said, "for example, those of Turia and Cos."

  "Particularly in female slaves," she said.

  "Yes," I said.

  She pulled a little at her wrists, futilely.

  "Have you heard of the planet, Earth?" I asked.

  "Yes," she said.

  "And of women brought here from that planet?"

  "Slaves," she said.

  "Of course," I said.

  "Yes," she said.

  "Many speak their Gorean with a piquant flavor," I said.

  "Undoubtedly," she said.

  "And many find those accents interesting, even exotic and charming, as I find yours."

  "Do not confuse me with the women of Earth," she said.

  "Why?" I asked.

  "They are slave stock," she said.

  "All women are slave stock," I said.

  She looked up at me, angrily, but then, as I touched her lightly, she moaned, and squirmed helplessly.

  "You squirm rather like a slave," I said.

  "Oh!" she gasped.

  "Yes," I said. "To be sure, many of the girls brought here from Earth learn their Gorean so well that they become indistinguishable from native-born slaves. Perhaps they have best been brought under the whip. Even so they will often, in the pronunciation of a word or two, betray their Earth origin. Sometimes masters enjoy tricking such a mistake out of them. The girls must then be anxious whether they are to be mocked, savored or beaten."

  "Please touch me again," she whispered. "Yes!"

  Many women, of course, have high linguistic aptitudes. These may have been selected for, considering the high mobility of women, in virtue of practices in exogamous mating, enslavements, sales, captures, and such, assisting them to placate, and accommodate themselves to, foreign masters.

  "And so," I said, "in spite of the pleasure which listening to your accent affords me I would rather forgo that pleasure temporarily, enjoyable though it may be, than risk impalement on its account."

  "Of course," she said, tensely.

  "You are then to be as a mute rence girl."

  "Perhaps I can write in the sand," she said.

  "No," I said. "Most rence girls are illiterate."

  "How, then, am I to communicate?" she asked.

  "By whimpers, moans, and such," I said.

  "Then I shall be, in effect, no more than a pet animal!"

  "Yes," I said. "And with respect to moans and whimpers, considering what is likely to be done to you, you will probably find such sounds appropriate enough."

  "I see," she said.

  "I trust you will play your role well," I said.

  "I will try," she said.

  "Your life may depend on it," I said.

  "You are then truly going to the aid of the men of Ar?" she said.

  "Yes," I said.

  "Your decision is made," she said.

  "Yes," I said. "I made it earlier."

  "When I was kneeling, with my head down to the sand?"

  "Yes," I said.

  "I yielded to you!" she said. "And yet you were paying me no attention!"

  "I was thinking," I said.

  She made an angry noise.

  "Do not be angry," I said. "Slaves are sometimes used for such purposes, to content a fellow while he considers more important matters."

  "Then I was used as might have been a slave!" she said.

  "As a slave might sometimes be used," I said.

  "I see," she said.

  "Surely you do not regard that as inappropriate," I said.

  "Oh!" she said, angrily.

  She struggled.

  She could not free her wrists.

  "But I assure you," I said, "you have on the whole as yet, being a free woman, very little understanding of what it might be to be subjected to slave use."

  She shrank down in the sand, looking up at me, frightened.

  "No," I said.

  "So much they are at the mercy of their masters?" she said.

  "Totally," I said.

  "Good," she said.

  "What?" I asked.

  "Good," she said. "They are slaves. That is as it should be. It matters not!"

  I laughed softly to myself. Did she not know that she, too, could become a slave, that she, too, could have such obediences and helplessnesses imposed upon her?

  She turned her head to the side. "I wonder if you are paying me any attention now," she said, poutingly.

  "Look up at me," I said.

  She did so.

  "Oh!" she said.

  "Yes," I said. "I am paying you attention now. Too, you are now well worth watching."

  "'Worth watching'!" she said.