Vagabonds of Gor (42 page)

"But I am privy to much information," she said. "I am the confidante of the Lady Talena of Ar!"

"Is she treasonous to Ar, as you?" I asked.

"Yes!" she said.

I turned about and looked at her.

"Archly treasonous," she said. "Why are you looking at me like that? Do not kill me!"

I then returned to the poling of the raft.

"You will be regarded as the suborned spy," I said. "Lady Talena will be above suspicion. By now she will have been dissociated from you."

"That may not be so easy," she said. "I am privy to much information."

"I see," I said. She laughed.

It interested me that she did not seem to understand that those who had been her paymasters might now regard her as a danger to their party.

"On the other hand," I said, "perhaps I should merely turn you over to anyone, say, fellows from Brundisium."

"But to them," she said, "I would be only a woman of Ar!"

"Yes," I said, "and merely another woman of Ar."

"What would be my fate?" she asked.

"You have a short, meaty, sexy little body," I said. "Perhaps you would become a dancer in a tavern in Brundisium."

"I do not know how to dance," she said. "Under the whip, women learn quickly," I said. I heard the water splash a bit as she struggled, futilely, with her bonds. Then she was again following.

"Why are you upset?" I asked. "You know you wish to dance naked, or scantily clad, in a collar and chains before men."

"Oh! Oh!" she said, angrily. But she did not deny my words.

"Perhaps you would prefer to be sold for sleen feed," I said.

"No!" she cried.

"Probably," I said, "like many women of Ar, and Ar's Station, you would be shipped overseas to Cos or Tyros, or another of the islands."

"And there?"

"Who knows?" I said. "Perhaps a scribe would buy you to clean his chamber and keep his papers in order."

"What?" she said.

"You can read, can't you?" I said.

"Yes!" she said.

"And to serve him in other ways," I said.

"Scribes," she said, in disappointment, "are weak."

"Not all of them," I said, "as you might discover under his whip."

She moaned, and gasped, stumbling in the water.

"Or," I said, "you might be purchased by a tradesman or artisan, to share his mat and kettle."

"I," she said, scornfully, "the Lady Ina!"

"No," I said, "only then Ina or Tula, or whatever your master might be pleased to call you, only a slave."

"Oh!" she said, angrily.

"And you might be pleased then to have so high a station," I said.

"Doubtless," she said.

She followed behind, quietly, for an Ehn.

"And," said she, "could I dance even for such masters?"

"It would doubtless be required of you," I said. I heard her gasp, softly.

"But many fates could befall you," I said. "Perhaps yours would be a straw-filled pallet in a public kitchen or laundry, crawled to after a work day of fifteen Ahn."

"Surely I am too beautiful for that," she said.

"But are you amenable?" I asked.

"I can be very amenable," she said.

"And so, too," I said, "sooner or later, and usually sooner, become the other girls in the kitchens and laundries."

"I would prefer a more delicate, intimate and feminine service," she said.

"That is because you have the makings of a hot slave," I said.

"Please do not speak of me so!" she begged. "That you are sexually responsive, and could become significantly so," I said, "is no cause for dismay, or embarrassment or shame. Rather you should rejoice that your body is so marvelously healthy and alive."

"But it puts me so much at the mercy of men!" she said.

"True," I said.

"But what if I were cold?" she said.

"You would not long be permitted to be so in a collar," I said. "Slaves must become hot, and learn to beg."

"I suppose slaves are proud of their responsiveness," she said, angrily, but with a note of keen interest in her voice.

"Well," I said, "they are not free women."

"But are they proud of their responsiveness?" she asked. "Yes," I said, "and attempt to improve it even further."

"Disgusting!" she cried.

"They are not free women," I said.

"I suppose they have no choice," she said.

"It is part of what being a slave is," I said.

"Doubtless they have no choice," she said, seemingly as though distressed, but with an undercurrent of tenseness and excitement.

"They wish to improve themselves, and attempt zealously to do so," I said.

"But they have no choice!" she insisted, determinedly.

"True," I said. "They are given no choice, it is commanded of them. They must obey."

"They must become sexual?"

"Yes," I said, "whether they wish to or not. Indeed, they may be grievously punished, even slain, if they do not."

"Yes!" she said, eagerly.

"Surely you object, and feel grief for them, such piteous creatures, so abused, so forced, so helpless, so rightless, who must unquestioningly bend their collared necks, and wills, to the lust of imperious masters?" I asked.

"No," she said. "They are slaves. It serves them right, it is fitting for them. Anything may be done to slaves."

"But if you were a slave," I said, "such heat, such sexuality, too, could be commanded of you."

"I am not a slave," she said.

"But, if you were," I said.

"Well," she said, "yes, in such a case, I suppose I, too, would have to obey."

"And perform," I said.

"Yes," she said, "and perform."

I moved the raft south, through the rence, under the moons. I had decided to go in this direction after acquiring my fair captive. She reminded me, in a sense, of the war, and the things at stake. Too, it was in the south that my truer concerns of the moment lay, and I had determined to neglect them no further. It was in the south that Dietrich of Tarnburg stood at bay in Torcadino. And it was in Ar I had been betrayed. She reminded me, too, of a woman, a woman whose name was Talena, said once to have been the daughter of Marlenus of Ar.

"Captor," she called.

"Yes," I said.

"You were jesting, were you not," she asked, "about the possible fates that might befall me?"

"No," I said.

"I am a woman of Ar," she said. "What might I do in Cos?"

"Many things," I said. "You are pretty. Perhaps you could be chained to a ring in a Cosian brothel."

"That might do for a time," she said, "but I think I would prefer a private master."

"Perhaps you might meet one in the brothel," I said, "among the patrons, and attract him, perhaps influencing him in virtue of the excellence your services, to make an acceptable offer on you to the brothel master."

"Perhaps," she said.

"It would be interesting to see you desperately attempting to render yourself worthy of his considerations."

"Doubtless," she said.

"Perhaps you might even win him away from his patronage of such places," I said.

"How?" she asked.

"By making his own compartments, in virtue of the diligence, delicacy and imagination of your services, more exciting than any public brothel."

"By making his home his own brothel?" she said.

"Yes," I said.

"His private brothel?"

"Yes," I said.

"I see," she said.

"There is also a thing called 'love'," I said.

"Yes!" she said.

"But if this occurred, as is not infrequent, the slave being nothing, the master all," I said, "do you think you would no longer have to fear his whip?"

"Of course not," she said.

"You understand that you would still be held under perfect discipline?"

"Of course," she said. "I would be a slave."

"But then, on the other hand," I said, "aside from such possibilities, and still considering the question of a private master, you might find yourself under the tutelage of a whip-master in a rich man's pleasure gardens."

"But I would be only one of many women there?" she said.

"Undoubtedly," I said. "Perhaps one of fifty, or a hundred."

"I think I would prefer to be the single slave of a single master," she said.

"Such things," I said, "would not be up to you."

"You are joking about these things, are you not?" she asked.

"No," I said.

"I am a free woman!" she said.

"I know," I said.

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

"First," I said, "I would like to get out of the delta."

"But if we are successful in that," she said, "what will you do with me?"

"We shall see," I said. "We shall see."

"Then I am totally at your mercy?" she said.

"Yes," I said.

"And you will do with me as you please, won't you?"

"Yes," I said.

She moaned, and followed behind, on her strap.

Chapter 20 - I DECIDE TO IMPOSE DISCIPLINE

She suddenly screamed, and I spun about.

"Get it off me!" she cried, hysterically. "Get it off me!"

"Be silent!" I said.

"Get it off me!" she screamed.

I put the pole down on the raft, leaped into the water, angrily, and waded to her.

"Get it off me!" she screamed.

I struck her with the flat of my hand.

She looked up at me, startled, blood about her mouth.

"Be silent," I said.

"Please take it off me!" she whispered.