Witness of Gor (61 page)

"Her lips are of interest," he said.

"Please, Master," I protested.

"I am going to taste your lips, Tuta," he said.

"Master!" I protested.

He did not immediately address himself, however, to the Lady Constanzia. Rather he stood there for a time, and let her stand there, for a time, her lips in the position he had commanded, her eyes closed, as he had ordered.

I heard a tiny clink of metal as she pulled a bit, futilely, against the bracelets which held her small hands confined behind her back.

Then, to my surprise, and dismay, I saw her lift her chin a little more, and stretch her neck a little, lifting her lips to him. How shameless! She was offering herself to him! Could the Lady Constanzia be a slave? With a low, throaty laugh, almost a growl, he then enfolded her, she helpless, braceleted, in his arms and, indeed, tasted, and lengthily, and well, tasted the lips of the free woman, the Lady Constanzia!

After a time, perhaps even three or four Ehn, he released her, and she sank to her knees, before him. Then she looked straight ahead. Her eyes were wide. She was clearly shaken. She began to tremble. I feared she might collapse to the stones.

He crouched down beside her, briefly.

"Oh!" she said, suddenly.

"She is not in the iron belt," he observed.

"She has not had her slave wine, Master!" I said, quickly. "Please, I beg of you! Do not! Do not!”

He stood up.

"Have no fear," said he.

"May we leave?" I begged.

"Her lips are indeed of interest," he said to me. "To be sure, she was more kissed than kissing.”

"Yes, Master," I said.

"Does she know how to use them?" he asked.

"No, Master," I said. "She is a new slave.”

"But she is intelligent, you said?”

"Yes, Master.”

"Then she can learn how to use them?”

"Of course, Master.”

"Does she know the seven basic kisses of the slave?" he asked.

"No, Master," I said.

"Not even that?”

"No, Master," I said.

Naturally the number of "basic kisses" tends to vary with the nature of the analysis in question, much depending on how broadly or narrowly the notion of "basic" is understood, and the criteria for distinguishing between a "basic kiss" and a major variation thereof. If I may be permitted to exaggerate a point, for purposes of clarification, one might ask, are there two basic kisses with five hundred variations of each, four basic kisses with two hundred and fifty variations of each, five with two hundred variations of each, ten with one hundred variations of each, or, as some authorities might prefer, merely one thousand basic kisses? Or are there ten thousand, and so on? All authorities agree, of course, that the varieties of possible kisses, with respect to location, pressure, liquidity, duration, timing, and such, are infinite in number. The notion of "seven basic kisses," however, is, apparently, a common one.

It deftly imposes some useful order on what might otherwise be a chaos. It is nothing against the value of a classificatory scheme that it is not the only one possible. As a last note, I might add that there does seem to be general agreement among authorities on the importance of a given number of types of kisses, and perhaps that is more important than whether one accounts a given kiss A to be a variation of B, or B to be a variation of A, and so on. There are apparently, incidentally, on this world, a number of manuals devoted to slave training. In most of these, as I understand it, seven is indeed given as the number of the "basic kisses." For what it is worth, that is the number which was impressed on me in the pens. I had had seven basic lessons on the matter, with variations taught within the lessons. There were also frequent review lessons later on.

One does not, of course, forget such things. To be sure, much depends, as we were always being told, on the individual master. It is his will which, to us, is all. In our practices we were sometimes blindfolded. I presume there were several reasons for that, for example, that we might learn how to concentrate on the tactual sensations involved, that we might be able to kiss well in the dark and, when we were using male slaves to practice on, that we should not become involved with them personally. When one kisses a man as a slave it is hard not to feel oneself as slave to him. I do not think the male slaves objected to being used in our training. Some who began by crying out in rage, perhaps new slaves, ended up moaning with pleasure. They, too, were generally blindfolded, except when we must kiss them upon their closed eyes. Later, as our skills improved, the guards permitted us, sans blindfolds, to practice upon them. And they were harsh taskmasters, I tell you! Diligently must we strive to please them! But we preferred their seventies to the helplessness of the slaves for we knew that they were such as to whom we belonged, free men. Sometimes we felt the switch when we did not do well. I so wanted to kiss he whose whip I had first kissed, but he would never permit it. I wanted to kiss him as he had never been kissed before, but he would not permit it. How he scorned me! And perhaps rightly, for I was naught but a slave! After we had kissed the guards we were much aroused.

Shamelessly, later, throbbing with need, we would beg their attentions from our kennels.

Sometimes they were kind to us and sometimes they were not.

"She is quite ignorant then," said the fellow.

"Yes, Master," I said.

The Lady Constanzia, I am sure, did not appreciate my concurrence in this matter, but he was a free man, and I a slave, and his conjecture was, after all, obviously true.

"A pity," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"Do you come often to this terrace?" he asked.

"We have not, in the past," I said.

"Will you in the future?" he asked.

"I do not know if we will be permitted abroad," I said.

"And if you are?" he asked.

"Perhaps then, Master," I said. I had wanted to come to this terrace for a particular reason.

It gave access, by means of a bridge, to an area in which I had hoped I might obtain certain information. This was unknown, of course, to the Lady Constanzia. I had come here some times before, but things had not been satisfactory. One must be here, or rather at a place close by, at a certain time to learn what I wanted to know, if one could know it.

The information I wanted, of course, like that which had been denied to me about the reason for my being in the pits, had been denied me. It was a simple enough bit of information, but a slave girl must be extremely careful about certain things. For example, asking a question outright, particularly of a stranger, can involve great risks. The stranger will presumably assume that you are supposed to be denied the information or you would have already obtained it from your master or keeper.

To be sure, one may, kneeling, innocently request certain sorts of information, such as the directions to a shop or given street, or such, but to ask about something which is either sensitive or presumed to be generally known can be frowned upon. For example, a slave would not request information as to the departure or arrival times of sky caravans and such; and she would not, presumably, ask something of the simplicity of that which I wished to know. It would automatically be assumed that that information, for some reason, had been denied to her. One might, of course, merely be told that curiosity is not becoming in a kajira, which, I had learned, is something of a saying on this world, but, more likely, one might be cuffed or beaten, and then one might have one's hands bound behind one and one's question written on, say, the interior of one's thigh or on a breast, usually the left, as most masters are right-handed, where, when one returns to one's keeper or master, it will be clear that one has been disobedient, and attempted to obtain the denied information illicitly.

"Perhaps, then, I shall see you again," he said.

"Perhaps, Master," I said.

"You may leave," he said, suddenly, rather angrily.

"Thank you, Master," I said. I leaped up and the Lady Constanzia, not daring to look at the scarlet-clad stranger, rose, too, to her feet.

We turned about.

"Stop!" said he.

We stopped.

"Do not turn," said he. "Do not kneel.”

We remained as we were facing away from him, I with the leash, she with her hands braceleted behind her.

"When is she to be put up for sale?" he asked. His voice, in all its power, seemed almost to break. It seemed that within him, unaccountably, this question had cost him something. It was as though it had suddenly erupted within him. It seemed to have emerged out of a struggle, some internal conflict.

"I do not know, Master," I said.

"It does not matter, of course," he said, suddenly, angrily.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"Go!" he ordered.

"Yes, Master," I said. I swiftly then made my way toward my previous destination, a point on the wall of the terrace, which wall was, across an expanse of terrace, to the right of a bridge leading from the terrace, which bridge was, across an expanse of terrace, to the right of the balustrade.

I drew more heavily on the leash. The Lady Constanzia, clearly, was hanging back. I stopped and turned about. She then, too, turned about. We could see the scarlet-clad figure striding fiercely across the terrace, not looking back. He seemed angry. I conjectured that the Lady Constanzia had been trying, earlier, to glimpse his retreating figure over her shoulder.

"Do you think we will see him again?" she asked.

"I do not know," I said. "The cut of his clothes seems foreign to this city. He is probably here on some business.”

"He will then be gone soon?”

"I would suppose so," I said.

"He kissed me," she said.

"Do not be upset," I said. "He thinks you are only a slave. He does not know you are a free woman.”

"Do you think he likes me?" she asked.

"It is possible," I said, "that he might have found you of interest.”

"Of interest?”

"Yes," I said.

"Of what sort of interest?" she asked.

"Of slave interest," I said.

"Ohh," she breathed.

"But half the men who look upon you, clad as you are," I said, "might not mind having a chain on you.”

"Do you think so?" she asked, eagerly.

"Yes," I said. "But, too, they would probably all be of the opinion that you are short on whiptraining.”

"Do you think I am short on whip-training?" she asked.

"If you were a slave, certainly," I said. "But do not concern yourself with such matters, as you are a free woman.”

Whip-training, incidentally, does not require that the pupil is struck, only that she is subject to that contingency. To be sure, it is difficult to get through whiptraining without having felt the lash. On the whole, of course, the more intelligent the girl is, and the more quickly she trains, the less she is likely to feel the lash, and the stupider she is, or the more slowly or clumsily she trains, the more likely she is to feel it.

"I have never been kissed before like that," she said.

"You have never been kissed in a collar before," I said.

"It is not at all as one kisses a free woman," she said.

"I dare say," I admitted.

"I did not know a kiss could be like that," she said.

"They are brutes," I said. "What they are denied in the world of free women they arrogate to themselves in the world of slaves. It is there, in that world, that their natural dominance, liberated from the bondage of artificial constraints, flourishes unchecked. Beware, for in that world we belong to them. In that world we are totally theirs. In that world we must obey and serve them, utterly. In that world they use us as it pleases them, and have from us whatever they wish, in total perfection.”

She shuddered.

"Rejoice," said I, "that you are a free woman.”

"It is only in such a world, is it not," she asked, "that they can be true men?”

"Yes," I said.

"But then," she said, frightened, "it must be only in such a world that we could be true women.”

"You are a free woman," I said. "Do not concern yourself with such matters. Do not think such thoughts.”

The scarlet-clad figure had now left the terrace. I then drew her to the wall.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Kneel here," I said, "your back to the wall.”

"What are you going to do?" she asked.

"Exactly what I told you before," I said.

"Surely you were joking," she said.

"No," I said.

"Must a command be repeated?" I inquired.

"No," she said.

She knelt down, with her back to the wall.

By means of the leash I chained her to a slave ring. Slave rings are common in public places on this world.

"I do not want to stay here," she said.

"I think you will find that you have little choice," I said.