Rogue of Gor (28 page)

The whip dance was now approaching its climax.

"She is a pretty little thing," I said, looking after Miss Henderson. "What do you call her?"

"Beverly," said Policrates.

"You are cruel," I said, smiling, "to give her an Earth-girl name."

"She is an Earth girl," he said, grinning.

"Oh," I said.

"Do you like Earth girls?" he asked.

"Yes," I said.

"That one is raw," he said, "but, in time, like the others, I think she will make an excellent slave."

"Do you think she is a natural slave?" I asked.

"Undoubtedly," he said. "I meant that she was not yet fully trained, not yet broken fully to the collar."

"I see," I said.

"Kliomenes fell in with her at the tavern of Hibron, the Pirate's Chain, in Victoria," he said. "He immediately sized her up as slave meat. Thinking herself in delightful converse with him she informed him that her name on Earth had been Beverly. Accordingly it seemed fitting that we should put that name again upon her, though now only as a slave name, by our whim."

"Of course," I said.

"She herself," said Policrates, "repudiated the assistance of a fellow desiring to extricate her from her peril, mocking and dismissing him, one called Jason, of Victoria, he to whom you bear some physical resemblance."

"I see," I said.

"Kliomenes did not even use Tassa powder on her," he said "He simply bound her and carried her, struggling, to his ship." He indicated the girl, among the tables, moving about, kneeling and serving fruit. I thought her thighs and ankles, and her back, which was much exposed, were beautiful. "She now serves us well," he said.

I turned my attention to the dancer on the floor. She lay now on her back, one knee lifted, her arms at her sides, palms down, before the brute with his whip, who towered over her. Her head, too, was turned to the side. Then she turned her head to face the brute who tyrannized her. She looked deeply into his eyes. Then, delicately, in a graceful gesture, she turned her hands, putting their backs to the floor, exposing her palms, and the soft flesh of her palms, to him, indicating her surrender, her submission, her vulnerability and her readiness.

There was applause, the striking of the left shoulder, from the tables.

The brute then crouched beside her and encircled her neck with the coils of his whip. He drew her to her knees then before him. She looked up at him, her neck in the whip coils, his.

There was more applause. Then the brute looked to Policrates, who indicated a table. He then pulled the girl to her feet and, running her over the tiles, and then releasing the coils from her neck, threw her stumbling into the arms of waiting pirates who, with a cry of pleasure, seized her and began to work their lusty wills upon her. There was more applause, and laughter.

I rose to my feet.

"The feast has but begun," laughed Policrates.

"I am weary," I said. "I think I shall retire to my chambers."

"Certainly!" he laughed. "Your journey has been long. I shall, of course, send a girl to wash your body, and content you."

"Policrates is generous," I said.

"It is nothing," he said.

This form, of hospitality, of course, is common on Gor. It is common to provide a guest with a girl for the night, to see to his comfort. My compliment, nonetheless, was appropriate, as was his reply. Ritualistic amenities, and pleasantries, on such occasions are invariably observed.

He rose to stand beside me. Together we looked about the tables, at the various girls, slaves, nude and partially clothed, who served there.

"Take your pick of the wenches," he said.

I looked about, at the girls, attending dutifully to their serving, many of them not even conscious of my, attention. One of them could discover later that she had been selected to be sent to my chambers for the evening.

"Tais is interesting," said Policrates. A dark-haired girl quickly averted her eyes from ours, putting down her head and hurrying to pour wine nearby. Two silver chains ran from a large loop on her collar to her wrists. The snug metal bracelets there were jeweled. "There is Relia there," he said. "Consider her." He indicated another dark-haired girl. She wore a long, lovely red gown, but it had been pulled down about her waist. She carried a tray of tiny cups, Aped with liqueurs. She was willowy and sweetly-breasted. A silver collar graced her throat. "Tela, when captured," he sail, indicating a blonde, "begged to be permitted to be kept in white silk." He laughed. "After throwing her to a crew, for their pleasure, we put her, as she had asked, in white silk." "Amusing," I said. "She now often begs for red silk." he said. "Perhaps we will one day permit it to her." "I see," I said. "She is now quick to lick a man's feet," he added. "Excellent," I said "Bikkie," said he, indicating a short, dark-haired girl, "is good. Too, there are Mira and Tala, the matched blondes. They are sisters from Cos." He indicated two girls, one older than the other, one perhaps nineteen, the other seventeen enteen. They were fastened together by the neck, by a knotted red strap some four feet in length. They were slender, and nude. "You may have both," he said.

I continued to look about.

"I saw that you were interested in Ulm," he said, referring to a girl in a diaphanous bit of swirling yellow silk. She was the woman who had been free, whom I had seen enslaved on the wharves of Victoria, only a few nights past. In her own hair she had tied the knot of bondage. "She is trying hard to improve her skills," he said. "I think she will be ready for sale in another month. Perhaps you could assist in her training."

"Perhaps some other time," I said.

"There are others, of course," said he, "below, in cages."

"I think I see one in which I might be interested," I said.

"Which?" asked he.

"That one," I said.

"Beverly," said he, "the Earth girl?"

"Yes," I said.

"Choose another," he said.

"Why?" I asked.

"She is raw, and untrained," he said. "She is a poor slave."

"I find her, nonetheless, not to be without interest," I said.

"Very well," he said. "I will have her sent to your chambers within the Ahn."

"My thanks, Policrates," I said. "Oh," I said. "I may wish, in the privacy of my chambers, to remove this mask."

"I understand," said he. "I will send her to you blindfolded."

"My thanks, Policrates," I said.

"It is nothing," he said.

I then bowed graciously to my host, Policrates, and to Kliomenes, his lieutenant and confederate, and then turned about, and made my way to my chambers.

24

WHAT OCCURRED IN MY CHAMBERS, WHEN MISS HENDERSON THOUGHT ME TO BE THE COURIER OF RAGNAR VOSKJARD

"Master?" she asked.

She stood within the door to my chambers. The door had been shut behind her. A guard had conducted her to my chambers. He had opened the door. Timidly, blindfolded, conducted by his hand on her arm, she had entered. The door had then shut behind her. She stood now within my chambers. We were absolutely alone.

"Master?" she asked. "I have come to serve you," she said.

I did not respond to her, but observed her. She stood timidly, blindfolded, near the door. She wore a tiny, diaphanous bit of brown silk about her body. It was high on her thighs. It was off her right shoulder and held loosely on her by a casually knotted, narrow disrobing loop, fastened over her left shoulder. A single tug would open the garment, dropping it to her ankles. She carried, folded, several large, colored, soft towels, with two sponges, and oils, for the bath. On the towels, too, were certain other articles. Among them was, opened, the rounded steel loop she had worn about her neck, earlier. It, with its key, lay on the top towel. It had been removed from her for she was to assist me in the bath. It accompanied her, that it might be again, when she had bathed me, replaced on her. Similarly the steel loops from her wrists and ankles had been removed. They, however, had been kept elsewhere. They did not accompany her. On the towels, however, coiled, there was a whip, and slave cuffs, and anklets, of leather, with snaps. Too, it might be mentioned, there were, as is usual, chains at the foot of the great couch, which might be lengthened or shortened. One chain terminated in a collar, which might be locked about a girl's neck. The other chain terminated in a smaller loop of steel, an ankle ring, suitable for a girl's ankle.

I regarded her.

Her hair was still coiffured high upon her head, and held, as before, with the braided yellow cord, stout enough to bind her with. She was barefoot, as is common with slaves.

"Master?" she asked. "Are you in the room?"

I moved, that she might know my presence.

"Forgive me, Master," she said, "if I have awakened you, or disturbed you."

I pulled away the mask I wore and discarded it, to one side on the great couch.

I snapped my fingers.

"Yes, Master," she said. She approached the sound, and knelt before me.

"I am Beverly," she said. "I have been sent to serve you."

I did not speak.

"It is a great honor for me, Master," she said, "that one such as you should select Beverly to serve you."

I did not respond to her.

"The water will have been readied," she said. Near the couch was a large, round, sunken tub, with some six inches of water in it. Too, to one side, there were rinsing jars.

She put the objects she carried on the floor, to her right.

"Here, Master," she said, feeling for it, "is a slave collar. You may place it on me when you wish." She put it, with its key, at my feet. "Here, too," she said, putting the objects near the collar, "are slave cuffs, and anklets." I regarded the objects, with their tiny belts and buckles, with their attached, sewn in, metal snap rings. "And here, Master," she said, "is your whip." She kissed it and put it, too, at my feet.

"Beverly is now ready to serve her Master," she said.

I again snapped my fingers, and the girl stood.

She stood lovely, and straight, her hands now 'empty, the towels and oils, and other articles on the floor near us.

"Am I to bathe you now, Master?" she asked

I regarded her blindfold. It was efficient, and Gorean. Most blindfolds, of a sort used on Earth, are inefficient, for one may see under them. This is not the case with the common Gorean blindfold. It consists, commonly, of three pieces, usually two rounded pieces of soft felt, three to four inches in diameter, and the binding, which usually consists of two or more turns of a dark, thick, folded cloth, or scarf, knotted behind the head. The pieces of rounded, face-hugging felt, the eye coverings, in the girl's blindfold were about three and a half inches in diameter. They were yellow. The binding, some three turns of folded, opaque, thick black clot, knotted tightly behind her head, held the eye coverings securely in place. The blindfold, of course, is seldom used in the transportation of a slave. Slave hoods are much more common in such a role. Some of these are fitted with gags. Also, they may be, or some of them, locked upon the I girl. The blindfold, of course, as will be recalled by those who have seen a girl in one, has its own advantages. It permits, for example, something of the beauty of her face, such as her trembling lips, to be seen. Also it permits you to place your teeth upon hers, to test her tongue for responsiveness with yours and, if one wishes, to run the tip of one's finger lightly inside her mouth, between her teeth and the interior of her cheek.

"May I bathe Master now?" she asked.

I jerked loose the disrobing loop at her left shoulder. Beverly Henderson was stripped before me.

I walked around, behind her. She lifted up her chin. She trembled, slightly. She was extremely aware of my presence. I bent forward, slightly. She had been subtly perfumed. She shuddered. She had felt my breath at the left side of her neck, and on her left shoulder.

I then walked about her and stood before her.

"Yes, Master," she said. She reached out and, gently, first touching my chest, her hands lingering there for a moment, found the knot in the belt of soft cloth with which I had closed the casual tunic I had donned. She undid the knot and parted the tunic, kissing me at the belly. She then went behind me and, gently, removed the tunic, kissing me beneath the left shoulder blade. She then stood again before me. She folded the tunic and belt, kissing them, and then knelt down, placing them to one side. She then stood again, before me, her head down.

I smiled. The girl had been taught how to disrobe a master for the bath.

I then placed the articles for the bath in her hands, and conducted her to the side of the tub. She placed the articles where she might find them. She then took a vial of oil and one of the sponges in her hands. I then helped her step within the tub.

I looked at her.

She stood in the water, blindfolded, waiting for me. Miss Beverly Henderson, once a proud girl of Earth, now only a Gorean slave girl, waited to bathe a free male, one whom she must address as master and serve as he pleased.