Magicians of Gor (66 page)

she was now curious as to what she might look like on a sales block, or what the

nature of the bids might be.

As Lavinia was cognizant of the usual itinerary of the fellow from the theater

to the house of Appanius and she had gone about to Tarn Court, on the way, and

was presumably stationed there, to the east, under the bowers, I took a similar

route, rapidly striding. In this fashion I would appear to be moving in the

direction opposite the fellow and his two companions. I could then renew my

contact with them from a distance, discreetly observing the encounter between

that party and a girl seemingly in the garments of the state slave. In a few Ehn

I was on Tarn Court, following the fellow and his companions. Once off Aulus,

and perhaps being confident that they were not followed, they had slowed their

pace. Tarn Court is a wide street, or, at least, wide for a city street of Gor.

Several blocks east of Aulus, before noon, it is the location of a vegetable and

fruit market. In the areas of the market, stretching almost from the north to

the south side of the street, the street is shaded by a large number of

vine-covered trellises, cresting bowers, which provide protection for the

produce and, later in the day, shade for pedestrians. Many Gorean streets,

incidentally, are almost always in shade because of their narrowness and the

encompassing buildings. A result of this is that one is not always clear as to

the position of the sun and, accordingly, it is easy to lose one’s orientation,

even as to the time of day. The fact that not all Gorean streets have generally

accepted or marked names can add to the confusion. To one who knows the area

this presents little difficulty but to a stranger, or one unfamiliar with the

area, it can be extremely confusing. Interestingly enough many Gorean

municipalities intentionally resist the attempt to impose some form of rational

order on this seeming chaos. This (pg. 388) is not simply because of the

Gorean’s typical reverence for tradition but because it is thought to have some

military advantage, as well. For example, portions of invading forces have upon

several occasions, in one city or another, literally become lost in the city,

with the result that they have been unable to rally, rendezvous, group and

attain objectives. Cases have been reported where an enemy force has literally

withdrawn from a city and some of its components have remained in the city,

wandering about for a day or two, out of communication with the main forces.

Needless to say, the military situation of such isolated contingents is an often

unenviable one. More than one such group has been set upon and destroyed. To be

sure, invaders usually supply themselves with fellows who are familiar with the

city. It is illegal in many cities, incidentally, to take maps of the city out

of the city. More than one fellow, too, has put himself in the quarries or on

the bench of a galley for having been caught with such a map in his possession.

I was about fifty yards behind the group of three fellows, who were sauntering

east of tarn Court. For a long time I did not detect the presence of Lavinia.

Then, some seventy yards or so ahead, and to the right, near a wall, before the

eastern termination of the trellised area where the morning market is held, from

a patchwork of lights and shadows, I picked her out. She, after entering from

the south, from a side street, had apparently hurried on ahead. In this fashion

she could make certain that she would not miss the group when it passed. She

would also have time to prepare herself, and regain her composure. She had

positioned herself on her knees, at a wall, near a slave ring. This was fully

appropriate. Too, it added to the effect which her appearance must have on all

males who saw her, her beauty, her collar and a slave ring. The ring was about

level with her neck. To such rings, of course, a master may fasten or chain a

girl while he busies himself elsewhere. I was pleased that she had had the

intelligence not to act as though she had been put at the ring “bound by the

master’s will” because her leaving the ring might then have elicited

astonishment or comment. There are many ways of putting a girl at the ring,

“bound by the master’s will.” One typical way is to stand her at the ring and

have her place her right hand behind her back through the ring and grasp her

left wrist. Another typical way is to kneel her at the ring and have her put her

right hand through the ring, grasping her left wrist. One of the simplest and

perhaps the most typical way of “binding by the master’s will” is simply to have

the girl grasp her left wrist with her right hand behind her back. Needless to

say whatever amusement, pleasure or (pg. 389) convenience this may afford a

master it can be exquisitely frustrating to a slave to strive desperately and in

terror to maintain this position while, say, being subjected to various

attentions typical of the mastery. Most masters, in such a situation, would

simply bind the girl, tying or braceleting her hands behind her back. In this

fashion she knows her struggles will be unavailing, that she is helpless and

cannot escape. She may then without fear or hesitation open herself completely

to the joy of the subjugation, to the rapture of her conquest, to the bliss of

her surrender.

When the party of three, the handsome fellow, and his two companions, were

within a few yards of her, she rose lightly, gracefully, to her feet. They noted

this movement, of course, and doubtless had observed her earlier. Certainly it

is difficult for a kneeling slave, and one of such beauty, as they could now

detect, even given the mixtures of light and shadow beneath the trellises, to be

ignored. Their eyes met, and then she lowered her head, humbly. This contact,

however, brief as it was, gave them to halt. In it she had conveyed to them that

she had been waiting for them, and would approach. The two fellows with the

handsome slave looked to one another. This girl who had been waiting was a state

slave. Could she bear a message from someone in the Central Cylinder, say, from

one of the many free women in the entourage of even the Ubara? Too, they may

have remembered her from the theater, and from Aulus. Certainly the slave had

bided her time discreetly. Could something sensitive be afoot? There were few

about. The street was muchly deserted. The market was closed. The day was hot,

even under the trellises. I lounged against a wall, several yards away, near a

doorway. I did not think it would be easy to pick me out, even if one were

interested in doing so, given the variegated patterns of light and shade, and

the dangling vines. Too, between us, here and there, were some of the posts

supporting the overhead trelliswork. The fellow said something to them. The two

men immediately drew back. That interested me. It seemed that no official note

was to be taken of this encounter, or, at least, that its content was to be

accorded the delicacy of privity, at least in theory.

I watched the girl approach the slave.

She approached with rapid, small steps, her head down, her hands to the side,

slightly extended, palms back. When near him she lifted her head slightly,

hardly daring to meet his eyes, and then she knelt before him, as before a

master, doing obeisance onto him, her head down to the stones before his golden

sandals, the palms of her hands, too, on the stones. This (pg. 390) was not

appropriate, of course, even though both were slaves, as she was female and he

male, and the obeisance thus, manifested in this instance in the persons of

slaves, might be regarded simply as that of that of femaleness to maleness. The

perfect obeisance, of course, the natural obeisance was that it seemed so

perfectly to exemplify that of the female slave, literally that of the slave to

her master, though it was performed before a male who was not only not her

master, but himself a slave. That I found of interest. Did she think he owned

her? Too, she did not have to perform such an obeisance in this context. It was

not, for example, required by custom or prescribed by ordinance. Too, as he did

not own her nor expect to encounter her he would not have had an opportunity to

specify certain details of her relationship with him, for example, his

preferences with respect to her manner of presenting herself before him, the

nature of the rituals of deference or submission to be expected of her, and

such. He was, after all, only a slave, too. Indeed, sometimes female slaves are

quite cruel to male slaves, taunting or mocking them, and such. Let the female

slave hope, in such a case, that she does not find herself braceleted and put to

him in his cell, a whip tied about her neck. In such a case he is as master to

her.

Lavinia looked up at him, tears in her eyes. He then, I think, from his

reaction, clearly recognized her, well recollecting her once a free female, whom

he, as a seduction slave, had entrapped for his master, Appanius. He seemed

stunned. I did not know if this were merely his surprise at seeing her here,

again, from so long ago, so unexpectedly, she now in her collar, or if the

startled response to her might be more the result of recognizing the incredible

transformation which had taken place in her, that the mere free woman he had

entrapped had now become, in her bondage, so astoundingly fascinating and

beautiful. Perhaps it was both. Lavinia then, seemingly overcome, trembling, put

herself to her belly before him, her lips and hair over his sandals, and

beggingly, timidly, as though she feared she might be struck or kicked, began to

kiss and lick his feet. I myself, I am sure, was little less startled than the

fellow to whom these attentions were addressed. I had expected Lavinia to kneel

before him and give him the message, little more. Indeed, I was not certain that

she would have been permitted to do even this. I had thought it possible that

she might be kicked back or cuffed away from him, if not by him, then by (pg.

391) the fellows with him. She was, after all, a slave. If this sort of thing

occurred, I would not be likely to interfere, of course, for that might reveal,

or suggest, my connection with her, a relationship which I was eager, at this

point, to conceal. I did not anticipate, of course, that she would be subjected

to much more abuse than is natural to, or fitting for, a female slave. I was

prepared, of course, to interfere if it seemed likely she might be in danger of

disfigurement or serious injury. After all, she was not without value in a

market, and one would not wish anything to happen to her which might lower her

price.

She slowly moved to her knees again, her head down, licking and kissing, and

then, her knees under her, she began to raise her ministrations to his shins and

calves. She looked up at him, again. It seemed he could not move, so stunned, so

startled, he was. Tears were in her eyes. Then she put her hands on his legs,

and began to kiss him about the knees, and then above the knees. She now,

kneeling before him, close to him, had her arms lovingly about his legs, her

head down, shaking as though with sobs. She then looked up at him again. It

seemed there was no other place that she would rather be. She then, again,

lowered her head, and was kissing and licking delicately at the sides of his

legs. To serve him and give him pleasure seemed as though it might be her

desire, her happiness, her meaning and destiny in life. Did she think she was

his slave? Again she looked up, this time pleadingly. I saw the two fellows in

the background exchange alarmed glances. Was the handsome fellow in some sort of

danger? Were there risks involved which might be clear to them, if not to

others? She then put her head to the side, brushing up the purple tunic with the

side of her head, kissing and licking at his thigh beneath the tunic. At this

point one of the fellows rushed forward with an angry cry and seized her by the

hair. “Lewd slave!” he cried. He hurled her, she crying out with pain, to her

side on the stones of the street. He then rushed to her, and she curled up,

making herself small, and kicked her, twice, to which blows she reacted. She was

then on her right thigh, and the palms of her hands, half-sitting, half lying,

on the street. She looked at them. The handsome fellow had not moved. He stayed

where he was, as though rooted to the spot. “Away, lewd slave!” snarled one of

the men with the fellow. “Begone!” said the other.

At this point Lavinia swiftly knelt, her knees in proper position, that of the

female slave who is used also for the pleasure of men, reach to her tunic, and

from within it, from where she had concealed it, from where it rested, at her

bosom, withdrew the note which she then held, her arm extended, to the handsome

(pg. 392) fellow. One of the other two strode forward to seize the not but

Lavinia drew it back, clutched in her tiny fist, held it to her body, and shook

her head vigorously, negatively. This note, it seemed, was to be delivered to

the slave alone. The fellow reached for it again and she put down her head to