Kur of Gor (61 page)

"I have seen that body,” said Cabot.

"I have great power over men,” she said.

"That is because you are not in a collar,” he said. “Then they would have great power over you."

"You yourself kissed me,” she said, “in the forest world."

The slave, Lita, gasped. How foolish she was! Did she not know she was no more than a slave, and thus rightless, and meaningless?

"It was a lapse,” said Cabot, “but I admit you would fit nicely in a man's arms."

Lita looked up, her eyes fresh with tears.

"Particularly if you were in a collar,” said Cabot. “But then that is true of any woman."

"I have never forgotten your touch,” she said, softly.

"You squirmed nicely,” said Cabot, “exactly as would a slave."

Lita whimpered, in protest.

The Lady Bina laughed. “You are trying to make me angry,” she said. “You will not succeed."

"Lord Grendel rescued you,” said Cabot. “He saved your life. He loves you."

"He is Kur,” she said, “and a poor Kur, one deformed, consider his hands, his voice."

"Master,” whispered Lita, “Lord Grendel approaches."

"Tal,” said Cabot, rising.

"Tal,” said Lord Grendel.

"Where is the tool, to free me of this hated device?” said the Lady Bina, indicating the unwelcome encirclement which graced her slim neck.

There are chain collars, thought Cabot.

As it is difficult to engrave such, these will commonly bear a small, dangling metal disk. On this disk pertinent information may be recorded, such as a girl's current name and master.

"Forgive me, my lady,” said Lord Grendel, “I could not find one in the time I had.” He then turned to Cabot. “Many of the cattle are now beyond the pens. This will attract attention. There will doubtless be inquiries. I think it is best for us to leave this place, and seek some camp of allies."

"I know one,” said Cabot.

"I, too,” said Lord Grendel.

"Let us lose no time,” said Cabot.

As the Lady Bina rose to her feet the bell on her neck gave out its note.

"Master,” exclaimed Lita, pointing, toward the left. “There!"

"It is one of the cattle,” said Cabot.

The massive thing, perhaps six hundred pounds in weight, was in the area from which the ropes and hooks had approached the slaughter bench.

"Drive it away!” demanded the Lady Bina.

Stupidly, balefully, the creature, massive and stolid, not moving, was looking at the Lady Bina.

"I think he remembers her,” said Cabot. “I think he knows what she did. I think he understands now what she was doing."

"Get rid of him!” said the Lady Bina, shuddering.

"I do not think such things are dangerous,” said Lord Grendel.

"Perhaps not before,” said Cabot, “but now I do not know. Things are not now the same."

"Drive it away!” demanded the Lady Bina.

"It is only human,” said Lord Grendel.

"Drive it away!” she said.

"Very well, my lady,” he said, and raised his arms and roared, and the creature turned slowly about, and moved away.

"What will be done with the bodies?” asked Cabot.

Lita looked sick.

"Our cohorts, I think,” said Lord Grendel, “will burn this place."

"Good,” said Cabot.

"Where are we going?” asked the Lady Bina.

"Blindfold her,” said Cabot.

"It may be best,” said Lord Grendel.

"Never!” said the Lady Bina.

"A hood would be better,” said Cabot, “and a gag hood even better. I would much enjoy shoving the packing in her pretty little mouth, securing it behind the back of her neck, and then fastening the hood on her, buckling it in place, closely, tightly."

"She is a free woman,” said Lord Grendel, scandalized.

"She might run to the purple scarves, and seek to ingratiate herself once more with Agamemnon, swearing her fealty to him, perhaps bartering for power with our plans and positions,” said Cabot.

"Purple scarves?” she said.

"The ensigns of those loyal to Agamemnon,” said Cabot, watching her.

"Oh,” she said.

Cabot was satisfied then with the results of his experiment.

"You would not betray us, would you?” asked Lord Grendel.

"Certainly not,” she said.

"Let us leave her here,” said Cabot.

"No!” she said.

"Humans will be killed on sight,” said Grendel.

"Take me with you!” she said.

"Better to put an ost in your pouch,” said Cabot.

The ost, according to the resources, is a tiny, highly venomous snake. It is indigenous to certain locales on Gor.

"Let us leave her here, bound hand and foot,” said Cabot.

"Never,” said Lord Grendel.

And thus Cabot's second experiment came to its conclusion. He had satisfied himself that the Lady Bina, as he had supposed, could not be trusted, and that Lord Grendel, for whatever reason, might die before he would permit harm to come to her.

Cabot wished that she might be collared, for then she would be of little danger to anyone, save to herself, if she were not fully pleasing to masters.

"Are the jewels in her tiara genuine?” asked Cabot.

"I would think so,” said Lord Grendel, “as that would improve the joke, Lord Agamemnon rewarding her with riches of little interest to himself, and then placing her naked in the pens. Thus she was genuinely rewarded with wealth, perhaps as promised, and then, afterwards, treated as Lord Agamemnon thought appropriate."

"Treated as the despicable, worthless, treacherous slut she was,” said Cabot.

"Kurii often have dealings with traitors,” said Lord Grendel, “but they feel no obligation to be fond of them, to respect them, and such."

"Let us be on our way,” she said.

Then she looked at Lita, with disgust.

"If any are to be left here, bound hand and foot,” she said, “let it be she, whose presence might handicap us, a worthless slave."

"She is not mine,” said Lord Grendel.

"She comes with us,” said Cabot.

Lita threw him a swift glance, of relief, of joy, of gratitude.

"Wait!” said the Lady Bina. “I cannot go like this. I am unclothed!"

"We will find you something suitable, as soon as possible,” said Lord Grendel.

"See,” said the Lady Bina, “the slave is clothed and I am not!"

"It is only a tiny, shameful tunic,” said Lord Grendel, “a handful of cheap, clinging cloth."

"She is clothed,” said the Lady Bina.

"But,” said Lord Grendel, “it is not a garment for such as you, a free woman. It is a garment designed to designate its wearer's worthlessness, her meaninglessness, that she is no more than goods, no more than an animal. It is, like others of its kind, little more than a degrading rag. Do not think of it. Put it from your mind! It is clearly no more than the mockery of a garment. Consider its lightness, its brevity. It is brazen. It is shamefully revealing. It is the sort of garment in which a lusty man, for his pleasure, and amusement, would put a woman helplessly in his power, indeed, if he permitted her a garment at all. To such a garment, in its scantiness, in its revealing suggestiveness, in what it says about its occupant, might not a full and honest nudity be preferable? Such a garment is a public proclamation that its wearer, by it so belittled and demeaned, by it so mercilessly exhibited, by it so blatantly exposed, can be no more than a slave."

"I will have it,” she said.

"Please, no, my lady!” said Lord Grendel.

"My tiara,” she said, “will enhance and redeem the ensemble. It will indicate my condition, my rank."

"My lady!” protested Lord Grendel, in misery.

"Slave!” said the Lady Bina.

"Mistress,” said Lita, her head down, frightened.

Lita was kneeling, as is common with slaves in the presence of free persons. She did have her knees together, doubtless because of the presence of a free woman, Lady Bina.

"Remove your garment,” said the Lady Bina. “Give it to me!"

Lita looked wildly at Cabot.

"Must a command be repeated?” he asked.

"No, Master,” she whispered.

A slave's obedience is to be instantaneous, and unquestioning. The least hesitation may mean the whip. They are slaves.

"Good,” said the Lady Bina, seizing the garment. She then held it to her nose, disdainfully. “It stinks,” she said.

Lita had, that very morning, washed the garment, and her own body, in a small stream, shortly before they had encountered the trapped sleen, subsequently freed by Cabot.

To be sure, a garment will retain the scent of a wearer, even if worn for a few moments. If this is not clear to a human, it is clear to us, and, of course, even more so to sleen, but then the sleen, as is well known, is a remarkable tracker. Goreans use them for such purposes, and so, too, do we.

"And you stink,” added the Lady Bina.

"Yes, Mistress,” whispered Lita.

"At least she does not have a bell on her neck,” said Cabot.

The Lady Bina regarded him, with fury.

"We will remove it as soon as possible,” Lord Grendel reassured the Lady Bina.

"Is the slave crying?” asked the Lady Bina, amused.

"I trust not,” said Cabot. Lita's head was down, far down, almost to the floor.

The slave, who as an animal is not entitled to clothing, and may be denied clothing altogether, if it be the wish of her master, is likely to find even a tunic, even a camisk, precious. Now she had been deprived of her single garment, slight as it was, in the presence of a free woman. In this way another aspect of her slavery was brought home to her. “It is a good lesson for her,” thought Cabot. “Such small things help her to better understand what she is, slave."

The Gorean slave girl is much at the mercy of free women, by whom she is likely to be resented and hated, and free women are not above petty exercises of power, ordering the slave to kneel, to serve her, to bare herself, to kiss her embroidered slippers, and such. Too, not unoften a tearful slave returns to her master with her tunic wadded in her mouth and the welts of a switch upon the backs of her thighs. The protection of the slave, of course, is the male. The better the slave pleases her master the more likely he is to intervene between her and free women. Many a blow, thus, has been prevented by the interposition of a free male between his slave and a free woman, to the fury of the frustrated free woman. This is as it should be, for a slave's whippings, should she be whipped, are most appropriately at the discretion of the master. Needless to say, most slaves endeavor to so please the master that they are seldom, if ever, whipped. Occasionally, interestingly, a slave may beg to be whipped, that she be reminded that she is a slave. Too, sometimes, a master will bind and whip his girl, with the same object in mind, to remind her that she is a slave.

Clearly Lita, shaken, now stripped, whether she should of or not, felt miserable, reduced, shamed, humiliated, and worthless, before a free woman, and before Grendel and her master.

A tear had fallen to the boards.

"It will have to do,” said the Lady Bina, holding the garment out. “It stinks of the body of a slave, but it is better than nothing."

"Perhaps not,” said Lord Grendel. “Consider its lines, its lightness, what it does for its occupant's lineaments. Consider, too, its meaning!"

The Lady Bina swiftly drew on the tunic.

"Ai!” said Cabot, appreciatively.

She pulled it down, more closely, about her hips.

"Do you like it?” she asked Cabot.

"You lack only the collar,” said Cabot.

"Is it attractive?"

"Yes,” said Cabot. “Indeed, a master might be reluctant to allow you on the streets so clad, but then, if you were a slave, he would have no choice. It would be a matter of law."

"Poor slaves!” she laughed.

"You might be stalked, and stolen,” said Cabot. “Bids would doubtless be forthcoming on you."

"I am so beautiful?” she asked.

"Certainly,” said Cabot, “and such a garment much enhances a woman's beauty, which is its purpose."

"Oh?” she said.

"And such a garment,” he said, “has its role, too, to play in the protection of free women."

"How so?” she asked, puzzled.

"Suppose you were a slaver or raider,” said Cabot, “and you had to choose between a woman so clad, an indisputable beauty, one with an obvious sales value, one who might go for several coins, and an unknown quantity, a woman heavily robed and veiled, who, stripped, might be of little interest even to a myopic tarsk. On which would your capture rope be more likely to fall and tighten?"

"I see,” she said.

"But the major reason for so clothing slaves,” he said, “is doubtless for the pleasure of men."

"The beasts!” she said.

"Have no fear, my lady,” said Grendel. “We will shortly obtain something more suitable."

"Too,” said Cabot, “they help the slave keep clearly in mind that she is a slave, and such garments, too, have their effect on her."

"And what is that?” she asked.

"In them,” he said, “she cannot help but feel female, helpless, and vulnerable."

"I see,” she said.

"Accordingly,” he said, “in such a garment, the slave is very much sexually aware, acutely so, and this has a common consequence."

"And what is that?” she asked.

"That she cannot help but be sexually ready, and even, frequently, whether she wishes it or not, in a state of sexual arousal."

"I see,” she said.

"Shortly, shortly!” insisted Lord Grendel.

"Be quiet,” chided the Lady Bina.

Cabot noted that his friend, Lord Grendel, was uneasy, and moist about the jaws.

Ah, thought Cabot, he is not unaware of the effect of that tiny garment on the body of the Lady Bina.

Surely then he will hasten to have her the sooner more appropriately clothed.

It is difficult to see a woman with dignity and respect in such a garment. Indeed, is that not another purpose of such a garmenture, that in it a woman cannot be viewed with dignity or respect, that in it she can be viewed as only a slave.

"Free women,” said the Lady Bina, “are a thousand times more beautiful than slaves."

Cabot turned to regard his slave, Lita. Her head was down, and her knees were together. “Position!” he snapped. “Get your head up!"