Vagabonds of Gor (65 page)

"Then you understand the matter," I said.

"Yes," he said.

"Excellent," I said.

"You are very generous," he said.

"Not at all," I said.

Ina shrank back.

"As you are still a free woman, Ina," I said, "and not a slave, an animal, you still have a permissible interest in political matters."

"My captor?" she said.

"Doubtless you are eager to do your bit to improve relations between the rence and Ar," I said.

"Of course," she said, frightened.

"And in any event," I said, "as you are a captive, you have no say in such matters."

"Of course not," she said.

"You will give me what I wish?" the youth asked Ina. She was, after all, a free woman.

"You are a male and I am a captive so I must give you whatever you wish," she said.

"And you will try to do very well, won't you, Ina?" I inquired.

"Yes, my captor!" she said, frightened.

"I do not think my mother would approve of this," he said.

"I doubt that your father would mind," I said.

"I do not think so," he said.

"What do you think he would do, if he were you, and here in this situation?" I asked.

"True!" he said.

Ina shrank back, again, in the sand, frightened.

He could not take his eyes from her. She was the sort of woman that it is very difficult not to look at and, indeed, to feast one's eyes upon. In the last several days, bit by bit, she had become in effect slave soft, and slave beautiful. There are dangers, of course, in a woman becoming so soft and beautiful. Men become restless and eager in their presence, and often find it difficult to control themselves.

"I have had only one woman before, in Ven," he said to me.

"Do not worry about it," I said.

"I did have her seven times," he said.

"There you are," I said.

"But she was a slave," he said.

"That is all right," I said.

"My point," said he, "is that I have never made love to a free woman."

"That is all right," I said.

"I do not know how to make love to a free woman," he said.

"Do not worry about it," I said. "There is commonly little worthy of that name which takes place with free women."

"Oh?" he said.

"Yes," I said. "They are too much concerned with their status, dignity, freedom and independence to be any good in the furs."

"I warn you, female," said he, "I do not know how to make love to a free woman."

"Use me then as a slave," she said.

"With your permission?" he inquired.

"Of course," I said. "And, too, do not be hesitant as I assure you that pretty little Ina is already familiar with some of the rude, imperious usages to which, commonly, only slaves are subjected."

"Excellent," he said.

I had done these things to her, of course, not only because I, personally, like most men, relate most powerfully, deliciously and rewardingly to women in the mode of nature, as master to slave, but because I thought this might prove to be in Ina's best interests, should the burning iron ever be pressed into her flesh. Not all Gorean masters, for example, are patient with new slaves. Also, it is understandable that many women find it difficult, at first, to adjust to the dramatic _volte-face_ involved in the transition from a lofty, respected free woman to that of a property at the feet of a master. I had hoped I might, in some degree, have mitigated the hazards of this transition in the case of Ina, should it ever occur. Already, then, I had taught her something of obedience, service and placation.

The youth thrust the last of the hard bread in his mouth, took another swig of water from the bowl, put it down, leaped up, and seized Ina by the hair, and then, holding her by the hair, her head at his waist, dragged her, she gasping, into some nearby shrubbery. Before she was quite there I did see her face, once, she looking at me, astonished, wincing, as she hurried beside her young use-master to the place of his choosing.

I myself then finished the hard bread and also the water in the bowl.

It was toward evening when the youth, refreshed and ebullient, emerged from the shrubbery.

"You wished to detain me, didn't you?" he asked, jovially.

"I would not have insisted you remain in the camp," I said, "but it is true that I preferred that you not rejoin your fellows until after our departure."

"I do not object," he said. He turned about, to watch Ina emerge from the shrubbery. She was crawling, on all fours. "She is not to stand, until after I have left the camp," he said.

"Excellent," I said.

He snapped his fingers and indicated that Ina should approach us. She did so and then looked up at us.

"I forgot to send a whip into the shrubbery with you," I said.

"It was not necessary," he said.

"Good," I said.

Ina looked down, frightened.

"We need more such as she, only true slaves, in the delta," he said.

"She herself would look well, branded and collared, wouldn't she?" I asked.

We regarded Ina.

"Yes," he said.

She trembled.

"She is slave exciting," he said.

"Or at least as slave exciting as a woman can be who is not a slave," I said.

"Yes," he said.

"What are you thinking of?" I asked.

"Nothing," he said.

"Do you care to speak of it?" I asked.

"I was thinking of my father and my mother," he said.

"Oh?" I said.

"And how my father is held in, inhibited and frustrated, by my mother."

"Keep your head down," I said to Ina.

Immediately she lowered her head again.

The young man continued to regard the captive. "You are thinking," I said, "of how well your mother would look at your father's feet, branded and in a collar."

"I love her very much," he said, "but it is where she belongs."

"I have no doubt about it," I said.

"Perhaps I shall speak to my father," he said.

"The decision, of course, is his," I said.

"Of course," he said.

"If women were there," I said, "it would certainly be easier for their sons to become men."

"True," he said.

Mothers in Tharna, of course, are kept as slaves, indeed, they are not merely kept as slaves; they are slaves.

"I wish you well," I said.

"How did you know I was spying on you?" he asked.

"The tor shrub," I said, "does not grow higher than a man's waist."

"I was stupid," he said.

"No," I said, "you were careless."

"It was a mistake," he said.

"Yes, it was a mistake," I said.

"Such a mistake," he said, "might cost a man his life."

"It is possible," I said.

"I shall not make it again," he said.

"Good," I said.

"You are not my enemy, are you?" he asked.

"No," I said. "Nor are the others here."

"My thanks," said he, "for the repast."

"Such as it was," I said.

"Thanks, too," said he, "for the use of the blond female."

"You are more than welcome," I said.

"I wish you well," he said.

"I wish you well," I said.

He then turned, and left the camp.

Plenius came up to me. "We must leave soon," he said. "Yes," I said. I did not think that the youth would return with his fellows, to attack us, but they probably had rence craft and could move much more quickly than we in the marsh. Accordingly I would take our next trek southwest, for they would, I supposed, assume we would continue south, or, fearing their pursuit, perhaps even move east, away from the point at which we had caught the lad spying on the camp. To be sure, I did not think it would be easy to track men such as those I was now with in the delta. They had become wise to the ways of the marsh. They would be terribly dangerous, now, to follow.

Ina looked up at me.

"You may speak," I informed her.

"He is gone," she said. "I may now rise to my feet."

"Remain on all fours," I told her.

"Yes, my captor," she said.

Her mien seemed a little tense, strained.

"Did you serve our young guest well?" I asked.

"I did my best," she said. "I think he was pleased. At least his cries, and grunts, of pleasure would suggest that he was not dissatisfied."

"Good," I said. To be sure, I had heard several of these sounds emanating from the shrubbery.

"But his usages were brief, and abrupt," she said.

"He is a lad," I said.

"But I," she said, "am a woman."

"Did you respond to him?" I asked.

"I could not help myself," she said. "Apparently you have trained my body in that fashion."

"You do almost all of that yourself," I said.

"But I was given little choice," she said.

"True," I said.

"But time and again," she said, "I was not granted my full release."

"He is a lad," I said.

"In the end," she said, "he succeeded, apart from obtaining his own brief pleasures, in doing little more than arousing me."

"Captives," I said, "are next to nothing, as slaves are nothing. The captive, and the slave, may be done with as one pleases. The captive, like the slave, must accept usages of any sort to which captors, or masters, are pleased to subject them. Entitled to expect little if they are captives, and nothing if they are slaves, let them rejoice if they receive anything. Be pleased that you were not beaten."

"Yes my captor," she said.

To be sure the youth, had it not been, presumably, for his haste, or lack of experience, might have done far better for himself than he had. It is not that it is not fully appropriate for captives and slaves to be occasionally subjected to brief, casual and even frustrating usages, if only to remind them that they are captives or slaves, but that the youth, had he taken care to enforce lengthy and exquisite ecstasies on the captive would have discovered that his own pleasures would have been marvelously deepened, lengthened and multiplied. One of the great pleasures in the mastery, increasing the sense of its joy and power, is forcing the female to experience, at your will, and convenience, incredible pleasures, carrying her up and down, and through, a series of slave orgasms, making her more and more helpless, until she is irremediably yours, lost in the throes of her submission ecstasies.