Savages of Gor (18 page)

The girl now wore a brassiere, a garter belt and stockings. Too, beneath the narrow garter belt, in what was perhaps an indication of charming reserve, I could see silken panties.

"She is not really ugly," said Ginger.

"No," said Evelyn.

The girl watched in horror as the remains of her silken slip was cast upon the flames, causing them to spring up anew. Her Earth clothing, before her very eyes, piece by piece, was being destroyed. It was thus being made clear to her that she was making a transition to a new reality.

"No," she said, "Please, no."

The auctioneer freed her stockings from the hooks and buttons on the four garter straps. In a moment the auctioneer had drawn the stockings from her legs, slipping them underneath the ropes on her ankles and discarding them in the flames. Then, after viewing her for a moment, he stepped behind her. He undid the two-hook back closure on the garter belt. This article of clothing, too, then, in a moment, was cast into the flames. She then hung before us clad only, save for the ribbon binding back her hair, in her brassiere and panties.

"Undo her hair!'' called a man.

"Yes!" called another man.

I smiled to myself. Yes, it was the exact time for the woman's hair to be unbound. The hair of slave girls, incidentally, unless shaved or shortened as a punishment, is usually worn long. There is more, cosmetically, which can be done with long hair and such hair, too, is often useful in the performance of intimate duties for her master. Too, of course, it can be balled and thrust in her mouth, for use as a gag, either, save when one does not wish to hear her for a time, or, perhaps, if one wishes, to silence her cries in the throes of her submission spasms. Too, of course, she may be bound with it.

"Of course." said the auctioneer. He then untied the hair ribbon, which had bound her red hair back so primly. He threw it in the fire. He then fluffed her hair and brought it forward, over her shoulders. He then brushed it back, behind her back, and smoothed it. He turned her on the rope, to the left and right, that men might see the cut and fall of the hair against her back. It was pretty. Then the auctioneer turned her so that she was, again, helplessly, exposed frontally to the crowd.

"She is really quite pretty," said Ginger, irritatedly,

"Yes." agreed Evelyn.

"But not as pretty as I," said Ginger.

"At least not so pretty as I," said Evelyn.

I smiled. I had little doubt the suspended girl would bring a higher price than either of them, though they both were, admittedly, obviously full and desirably luscious slaves.

"Two silver tarsks," said a man.

"Excellent," said the auctioneer.

The girl looked out on the crowd with fear and misery. Doubtless she hoped, against hope, that she had now been adequately dismayed to the crowd. Surely the brutes would not dare go further. That she had been brought clothed into the hall surely argued that her dignity and pride would continue to be respected, at least to the degree that she was now concealed. Too, had the fellow attending to her not now paused in his abusive, insolent labors? But then she glanced to the side blocks. There there were women, much like herself; they, fixed in place, wearing collars and chains, she could not help but note, were absolutely naked. But she, surely, was different from them! She was finer, and more delicate. Anyone could see that! Then she hung, relieved, in the ropes. The auctioneer was conferring with an attendant, to the side. Her ordeal, as she conceived it, was now concluded. The exposure and disgrace which had been visited upon the other girls was not to be her lot. She was better. She was different.

The attendant, to whom the auctioneer had been addressing himself, took his exit.

But did the girl not know that she was not different? Did she not know that she, too, was only a slave?

"I wonder if she is beautiful," said Ginger.

"As she is now clad, it is not difficult to speculate on the matter," said Evelyn.

"Why don't they take off her clothes, so we can see, said Ginger.

"Yes," said Evelyn.

I smiled to myself. These girls, at any rate, understood something of the nature of a Gorean market.

"Were you a side-block girl?" asked Ginger.

"No," said Evelyn. "I was auctioned."

"I, too," said Ginger.

"Were you brought in naked?" asked Evelyn.

"Yes," said Ginger.

"I was, too," said Evelyn.

"Do you think that they think she is better than us?" asked Ginger.

"Perhaps," said Evelyn. "Men are fools."

"No!" cried the suspended girl, suddenly. "Don't! Please!" The auctioneer was behind her.

"No" she cried. "I am a virgin I have never been seen by men!"' "No!" she cried. Her breasts were lovely. Would the last vestige of her modesty not be permitted her?

"No," she pleaded. "Please, no!''

"No!" she cried, and then hung, helpless and sobbing in the ropes.

I saw that the stripped slave was beautiful.

"Three tarsks," said a man.

"Three five," said another. This was a bid of three silver tarsks and fifty copper tarsks. There are one hundred copper tarsks to one silver tarsk in Kailiauk. The ratio is ten to one in certain other cities and towns. The smallest Gorean coin is usually a tarsk bit, usually valued from a quarter to a tenth of a tarsk. Gorean coinage tends to vary from community to community. Certain coins, such as the silver tarsk of Tharna and the golden tarn of Ar, tend, to some extent, to standardize what otherwise might be a mercantile chaos. This same standardization, in the region of the Tamber Gulf and south, along the shore of Thassa, tends to be effected by the golden tam of Port Kar. Coin merchants often have recourse to scales. This is sensible considering such things as the occasional debasings of coinages, usually unannounced by the communities in question, and the frequent practice of splitting and shaving coins. It is, for example, not unusual for a Gorean coin pouch to contain parts of coins as well as whole coins. Business is often conducted by notes and letters of credit. Paper currency, however, in itself, is unknown.

"Four!" called out another man.

"Five!" cried out another.

"But, Gentlemen," called the auctioneer, turning the girl on the rope, turning her left thigh to the crowd, "restrain your bids! Can you not see that she has not yet even been branded?"

"Mark her! Mark her!" called more than one man.

On the height of the central block I saw two attendants sliding out a branding rack . Another, its handles wrapped in heavy cloth, carried out a cylindrical, glowing brazier, from which protruded the handles of two irons. He placed this near the branding rack. At the same time the auctioneer freed the ankles of the girl from the ropes. He then freed the end of her wrist rope from its ring and the rope, sliding through the overhead ring, loosened. As it did so the attendant to whom the auctioneer had earlier addressed himself, now returned, supported the girl. I did not think she could stand. When the rope permitted it be lifted her in his arms. Her weight was nothing for him. The auctioneer then jerked the remainder of the rope through the overhead ring. The attendant then carried the girl, the rope trailing beside him, to the height of the central block. There, with the help of another fellow, he lowered her into the heavy rack, and spun shut the sturdy vises on her left and right thighs. She had been carried to the rack naked, her wrists bound before her. She winced, unable to move her thighs, dismayed doubtless at the perfect tightness with, which they were held. Her wrists were then freed of the rope and taken behind her where they were fastened to a sturdy metal pole, a portion of the rack, by dangling slave bracelets.

The fellow who had carried in the brazier now drew forth, holding it with two gloves, an iron. It was white hot.

The girl regarded it, wild-eyed.

"No!" she cried. "Are you beasts and barbarians? What do you think I am? Do you think I am an animal! Do you think I am a slave!''

The iron was leveled. It approached the circular aperture in the vise, through which, deeply into her fair thigh, it would be thrust, and held, burning and hissing, until its work was done, until the girl was marked, and well, as slave meat.

"You are bluffing!" she cried. "You cannot be serious!''

She then learned that the intention of the iron with respect to her body was quite real.

The vises were spun loose. Her hands were freed of the restraining slave bracelets, only then to be tied with a cord behind her. Dismayed and sobbing she was freed of the rack and put on her knees, head down, at the auctioneer's feet. The rack and the brazier, the iron returned to it, were removed from the central block. The girl then, naked and kneeling, her hands bound behind her, at the auctioneer's feet, lifted her head and looked wildly out at the crowd. She had been branded.

"She does not know what has happened to her," said Ginger.

"She knows," said Evelyn.

"But she does not yet fully understand it," said Ginger.

"No," said Evelyn.

"But she will soon understand it, and fully," said Ginger, "even so stupid a slave."

"Yes," said Evelyn.

The auctioneer then removed the long, supple kaiila quirt from his belt. Twice he struck the girl across the back. She cried out in pain. Her education had now commenced. No time, now, would be lost in teaching her her condition. He dragged her to her feet by the hair and bent her backwards, displaying the bow of her beauty to the crowd.

"I have a bid of five tarsks on this slut," he called. "Do I bear more? Do I hear more?"

"Is she trained?" called a man.

"Train her yourself," called the auctioneer, "to your own pleasures." It was understood, of course, that these barbarians were not trained. They had not yet been taught, as far as I could tell, even the proper modes of kneeling before a master.

"Five five!" called a man.

"Good! Good!" called the auctioneer, displaying the slave. "Do I hear more?"

"Can she speak Gorean?" called a man. I smiled. It was clearly understood that these barbarian slaves could not speak Gorean.

"Train her like a sleen or a kaiila, on her hands and knees," said the auctioneer. "She will soon learn what is required of her."

"Pose her!" called a man.

"In what way, Noble Sir?" inquired the auctioneer, obligingly. He then, following the instructions of the fellow, sat the girl down, near the front of the central block, her left leg under her, her right leg extended and flexed, her right side facing the fellow, her shoulders back, her head turned sharply to look at him. In this way the curves of her right leg, and the lines of her figure, are pleasantly displayed.

"Imagine her in your collar!" challenged the auctioneer.

"Kneel her!" called a man.

The auctioneer then knelt the girl near the front of the central block. She knelt back on her heels. Her knees were widely spread. Her back was straight, her head high.

"Five seven!" called a man.

"Five seven!" repeated the auctioneer.

"Get her on her feet, so we can see her legs!" called a man.

"Belly her!" called another.

"Make her walk!" called a man.

"Kneel her, with her head to the ground!" called another.

"Put her through slave paces!" called another.

I looked to the, side. One of the fellows there was the short, muscular fellow who wore the low, broad-brimmed hat. I recalled he had purchased at least four or five of the girls from the side blocks. They had been excellent females, in my opinion, but they had not seemed to be, at least on the whole, the choicest merchandise available to him, and for similar costs. It was almost as though he were purchasing them for some purpose other than that for which slave girls are commonly purchased. I did not, now, understand his apparent interest in the red-haired slave now being vended. She, surely, was the sort of woman that would be purchased, at least usually, to fulfill one of the more common purposes of slave girls.

"Men are beasts," said Ginger.

"Yes," said Evelyn.

There was the sound of a quirt lashing flesh. The red-haired girl cried out in pain.

"She does not even know what they want her to do," said Ginger.

"She is a stupid slave," said Evelyn,

"She will learn," said Ginger.

"We all learn," said Evelyn.

I had noted, during the course of the evening, that more than one of the attendants about, and the auctioneer, too, had noted the presence of the two tavern girls in the crowd. They had not taken any action, however, to eject them. I found this of interest. Perhaps they thought them to be with me and that I, so to speak, was answerable for them. Again I was puzzled as to why they would be clinging about me. As I had not volunteered to accompany one or the other of them back to her master's tavern they should have attempted, after a bit, to apply their beauty and enslaved wiles to the enticement of a more likely prospect. It was surely not their business to be standing about observing slave sales. Even now, perhaps, their masters had taken slave whips down from the walls, curious as to their absence.