Players of Gor (2 page)

The woman drew herself up to her full height. She looked at Samos, angrily. "What is the meaning of my presence here?" she demanded.

"Lady Rowena is of the merchants," said Samos to me. "The ship on which she had passage, enroute from Lydius to Cos, was detained by two of my rovers. Her captain kindly consented to a transfer of cargo."

"What is the meaning of my presence here?" repeated the woman, angrily.

"Surely you are aware of the time of year?" inquired Samos.

"I do not understand," she said. "Where are my maidens?"

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"In the pens," said Samos.

"The pens?" she gasped.

"Yes," said Samos. "But do not fear for them. They are perfectly safe-in their chains."

Slavers remain active all year on Gor, but the peak seasons for slaving are the spring and early summer. This has to do with such matters as the weather, and the major markets associated with certain feasts and holidays, for example, the Love Feast in Ar, which occurs in the late summer, occupying the full five days of the Fifth Passage Hand. Also, during these seasons, of course, occur the great markets associated with the fairs of En'Kara and En'Var. These are the two major seasonal markets on Gor, exceeding all others in the volume of women processed.

"Chains?" she whispered. She shrank back, her hand at her breast.

"Yes," said Samos.

"I was hooded," she said. "I do not even know where I am."

"You are in Port Kar," he said.

She staggered. I feared she might faint.

"Who are you?" she whispered.

"Samos," said he, "first slaver of Port Kar."

She shuddered with misery. A tiny moan escaped her. I saw she had heard of Samos, of Port Kar. "What hope have I?" she asked.

"None," said Samos. "Remove your veil."

"Make my maidens slaves," she said. "They are good for little else. But I am a free woman!"

"Do you think you are better than they?" asked Samos.

"Yes," she said.

"You are no different from them," he said. "you, too, are only a female."

"No!" she cried.

"Remove your veil," he said.

"I am too beautiful to be a slave," she said.

"Your veil," said Samos, gently. She was, after all, a free woman.

Some of the slave girls, some naked, some scantily clad, looked at one another. Had they so dallied in their compliance, hesitating perhaps even an instant in their immediate and absolute obedience, serious punishments would doubtless have been theirs. They were, of course, only slaves.

"Please, no," said Lady Rowena.

"You are my prisoner," said Samos. "Doubtless you are

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aware that you could be stripped absolutely naked at my slightest word."

She put her hands to the veil and, delicately, unpinned it, dropping it to the side.

"Brush back your hood," said Samos.

She did so and, putting back her head, drew forth and freed, with both hands, long, golden tresses, which she arranged before her. They were in two plaits, one before each shoulder; they hung almost to her knees.

"Unbind your hair," said Samos.

She unplaited her hair and, with her head down, shook it loose, and smoothed it. She then, again, lifted her head.

"Put your hair behind your back," said Samos.

She did so.

She then stood before us, regarded, as a woman.

"What is to be my fate?" she asked.

Samos and I regarded her admiringly. Several of the men did so as well. Several of them changed their position, to come about, near and behind our table, where they might see better. I heard soft cries from more than one of the slave girls. They, too, were impressed. The woman straightened her body. She could not help but bask in the warmth of our appraisal.

I turned about a bit.

I saw a blond-haired slave girl, in a brief, revealing tunic, sneak on her knees near to Samos. It was Linda, a former Earth girl, one of the preferred slaves of Samos. She was looking at the standing woman with fear and anger. She reached out to touch Samos' sleeve. He shook free, a small gesture, of her touch.

I then returned my attention to the standing woman.

"As you can see," she said to Samos, "I am too beautiful to be a slave."

I had seen thousands of slave girls who were more beautiful than she but, to be sure, there was no doubt about it; she was quite beautiful.

Samos did not speak.

"What is to be my fate?" she asked.

"You are too beautiful not to be a slave," said Samos.

"No!" she cried. "No!"

"Take her below," said Samos to one of the two guards flanking the woman. "Put the iron to her body, left thigh, common Kajira mark, and, I think, for the time, a common house collar will do for her." She looked at him, aghast. Then her two arms were seized by the guards. Samos looked down at

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the board. "It is your move," he said. I, too, returned my attentions to the board. The guards made as though to conduct the woman from our presence. The business with her, we assumed, was done.

She struggled. "No!" she cried. "No!"

Samos looked up, and the guards held her where she was. "Do you protest?" he asked.

"Certainly," she cried.

"On what grounds?" he asked, puzzled. She was his by legitimate capture, and he could do with her whatever he pleased. Any court on Gor would have upheld this.

"On the grounds that I am a free woman!" she said.

"Oh?" he asked.

"Yes!" she said.

I could see that Samos was annoyed. He wished to return to his game.

"I would rather die than be a slave!" she cried.

"Very well," said Samos. "Strip her."

In moments her clothing was half torn from her, and was down about her hips.

"Why are you taking away my clothes!" she wept.

"In order that the blood not stain them," he said.

"Blood!" she cried, in consternation. "I do not understand!"

Then she was naked and thrown on her knees, her right side facing us. Even her gloves and slippers had been removed. One of the guards held her on her knees, bent over. The other guard took her hair in both hands and, by it, pulled her head down, and forward. The back of her neck, with its tiny, fine, golden hair was bared.

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

Samos signaled to another of his men, who unsheathed his sword.

The fellow laid the edge of the blade gently on the back of her neck, and then he lifted the blade away and upward. He grasped the hilt with both hands, his left hand extending somewhat beyond the butt end of the hilt. In this way considerable leverage can be obtained. Several of the slave girls looked away.

"What are you going to do!" she screamed.

"Behead you," said Samos.

"Why!" she cried.

"There is no place in my holding for a free woman," he said.

"Enslave me!" she cried.

"I cannot believe my ears," he said, skeptically.

"Enslave me!" she cried. "Enslave me!"

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The fellow with the blade lowered it a bit, and looked at Samos.

"Is this the proud Lady Rowena of Lydius who speaks?" inquired Samos.

"Yes," she wept, helpless n the grip of the guards, her body bent forward, her head down.

"The proud free woman?" he asked.

"Yes," she wept.

"Let me understand this clearly," said Samos. "In spite of the fact that I am willing to accord you the dignity of a swift and honorable death, one fitting for a free woman, you would choose instead, and prefer, the degradation of slavery?"

"yes," she said.

"Speak clearly," he said.

"I beg slavery," she said.

"You understand, of course," he said, "that the slavery for which you beg is one which is total and absolute?"

"Yes," she said.

I smiled to myself. It would be a Gorean slavery.

"You seemed to think earlier," said Samos, "that such a slavery might be all right for your maidens, but not for yourself."

"I was wrong," she said. "I am no different from them. I, too, am only a female."

The fellow with the blade lowered it. The Lady Rowena, doubtless, saw it, near her neck.

"I am troubled," said Samos.

The Lady Rowena twisted her head to the right, wincing, from the hold of the guard, with two hands, on her hair, to regard Samos. Her face was agonized. her lip trembled. "Grant my petition, I beg you," she said.

"I hesitate," said Samos.

"Do you hesitate," she asked, "because of some lack of certitude as to my nature, for fear of some impropriety or subtle lack f fittingness in such an action?"

Samos shrugged.

"Dismiss such reservations from your mind," she said. Her body suddenly shook with sobs. "My pretense to freedom was always a sham. I am now ready to be a woman. Indeed, in this, I sense a possible fulfillment greater than any I have hitherto dreamed. How marvelous to cast aside the artificiality of roles and become, at last, what one truly is, one's self!"

"Speak more clearly," said Samos.

"It is appropriate that I be enslaved," she said.

"Why?" he asked.

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"Because," she said, "in the deepest heart and belly of me I am a slave."

"How do you know?" he asked.

"It has been made clear to me in my needs," she said. "It has been made clear to me in my feelings. For years it has been made manifest to me in hidden thoughts and secret desires, in countless recurrent dreams and fantasies."

"Interesting," said Samos.

"Enslave me," she said.

"No," he said.

She looked at him with horror. The fellow with the sword renewed his two-handed grip on its hilt.

"Pronounce yourself slave," said Samos. The fellow relaxed his grip on the hilt.

"Do not make me do this," she begged. "Pity me! Consider my sensibilities!"

His face was expressionless.

"I am a slave," she said, pronouncing herself slave. Several of the slave girls cried out. There was now a new slave on Gor.

At a gesture from Samos the fellow with the blade resheathed the weapon, and the two guards who had held the girl in position released her, standing up.

She was now on her hands and knees, naked on the tiles, before the table. She looked wildly at Samos. "See the slave!" laughed more than one of the slave girls, pointing at her. They were not reprimanded. The girl, frightened, looked from face to face. The words had been spoken. They could not now be unspoken. She was now rightless, only a nameless animal, incapable of doing anything whatsoever to qualify or alter her status.

"Slave! Slave!" laughed the slave girls.

At a gesture from Samos the two guards pulled the girl to her feet and held her before us.

"Take her away," said Samos, "and throw her to sleen."

"No, Master!" she screamed. "Please, no, Master! Mercy, Master!"

I could see that he was not too pleased with she who had formerly been the Lady Rowena of Lydius.

"Master!" she cried.

She was turned away from us. Her toes barely touched the tiles. She was utterly helpless n the grip of the guards. She looked wildly back, over her shoulder. "Why are you doing this?" she cried. She did not, of course, question his authority, or his right to do with her as he pleased.

The guards hesitated, holding her in place, her back to us, in

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case Samos might be pleased to respond to her. In a moment, if Samos did not speak, they would proceed on their way, she in helpless custody between them.

"It is one thing to be a slave," said Samos. "It is another to be permitted to live."

"Why would you do this to me?" she sobbed, over her shoulder. "Why would you have me thrown to sleen?"

"I think," said Samos, "there is still too much of the free woman in you."

"No!" she cried. "There is no more free woman left in me! The free woman is gone!"

"Is it true?" he asked.

"Yes," she cried, "yes, Master!"

"What, then, is left in you?" he asked.

"Only the slave!" she cried.

"What do you mean-in you?" he asked.

"I spoke loosely, Master," she wept. "Forgive me. That which I only and totally am is now a slave.!"

"It is one thing to be a slave," said Samos. "It is another to be an adequate slave."

"Master?" she asked, in misery.

"Keeping you would be a waste of collar and gruel," he said.

"No, Master," she said. "I would strive to serve well. I would strive desperately to be found worthy of being kept in my collar, and to be pleasing within it!"