Fighting Slave of Gor (39 page)

"Well done, Jason," said Kenneth. "Well done."

We heard the striking of the long bar from near the pit. Another match was beginning.

We walked around, behind the tiers, still Pressing through an admiring throng. Slave girls pattered behind, hoping for another look, but fearful now, away from the gate, of jostling free persons.

"Back," begged Kenneth, "back! Return to the tiers!"

We were now near the corridor gate leading from the small arena, to the stables where we were prepared for combat.

"The Mistress!" said Kenneth.

I looked up. Before us, standing, near the corridor gate, were two free women, veiled, in flowing. lovely robes.

Swiftly I knelt. I was owned by one of these women.

"Congratulations, Jason," said the Lady Florence of Vonda. "You did well."

"Thank you, Mistress," I said. I looked up at her. My throat was locked in her collar. I was still breathing heavily.

Though she was robed and veiled I would have recognized her, of course, from her eyes, her attitude, the lineaments of her body. Silk slaves recognize the bodies of their mistresses, even when they are robed and veiled, with much the same ease with which a master recognizes the bodies of his slaves. Too, I had, as I had learned on Gor, a good eye for woman flesh. Too, to my amazement, I recognized the woman who stood beside her.

"May I present, Kenneth," said the Lady Florence of Vonda, "my dear friend, the Lady Melpomene of Vonda."

"I am charmed, Lady Melpomene," said Kenneth, bowing.

"Jason," said the Lady Florence, "perhaps you remember my good friend, the Lady Melpomene of Vonda, my city."

"Yes, Mistress," I said, putting my head down.

"We have patched up our differences, Jason," said the Lady Florence, "and we are now the best, and fastest, of friends."

"I am pleased to hear that, Mistress," I said.

"Lady Melpomene will be staying with us for two or three days," said the Lady Florence. "And, soon, we shall have some house guests."

"Yes, Mistress," I said.

"You will see that the grounds, and the stables, are tidy, won't you, Kenneth?" asked the Lady Florence.

"Surely, Lady Florence," said Kenneth.

"And you will keep the stable sluts on their chains, won't you?" she asked.

"As Lady Florence wishes," said Kenneth.

"We would not wish the sight of them to embarrass or offend our guests."

"No, Lady Florence," said Kenneth.

"Oh, Kenneth," asked the Lady Florence, "is the new girl working out?"

"Yes, Lady Florence," he said.

"What is her name?" she asked, absently.

"Taphris," said Kenneth.

"Oh, yes!" she said. "Is she doing well?"

"Yes," said Kenneth, "she has the makings of a superb stable slut."

"Oh," said the Mistress.

Taphris, in her stable collar, reddening, gasping, shrank back.

"It seems her tunic has been torn," said the Lady Florence, "and, too, it seems her hair has been cut."

Taphris, with two hands, tried to pull together the sides of her tunic, but it did her little good. She was now as exposed as any stable slut. Kenneth had seen to that. The Mistress' spy was now only a dream of pleasure to any man who might lay eyes upon her.

"Surely Mistress recognizes that her tunic is now more fit for the arduous and crude labors of the stable slut than before."

"Of course," said Lady Florence.

"And her hair had value," said Kenneth, "so, as she is merely a stable slut, I saw fit to shear it."

"Of course," said the Lady Florence. She would not interfere, of course, with Kenneth's management of the slaves.

Kenneth smiled.

"Again, Jason," said the Lady Florence, turning away from Kenneth, "permit me to congratulate you on your victory."

"Thank you, Mistress," I said.

"I did not know, Lady Florence," said Kenneth, "that you were a partisan of the bouts."

"I am not," she said. "It is only that the Lady Melpomene and I thought it might be amusing, for the afternoon, to see how some of those of the lower castes see fit to spend their time."

"I see," said Kenneth. "Did Lady Florence enjoy the bouts?" he asked.

"As a woman of taste, and one of refined sensibility," she said, "I could not enjoy them."

"I see," said Kenneth.

"They are far too brutal," she said. She turned to the Lady Melpomene. "How did you find them, my dear?" she inquired.

"Disgusting, simply disgusting," said the Lady Melpomene, quickly.

"Most disgusting of all, perhaps," said the Lady Florence, "was the disgraceful sight of those half-naked slave girls pawing after the fighters."

"Yes," said the Lady Melpomene.

"They are only slaves," pointed out Kenneth.

"This is true," admitted the Lady Florence.

"Yes," said the Lady Melpomene. "What can one expect of collared sluts?"

"I wonder, though, what it would be like to feel such emotion," mused the Lady Florence.

"They wear only a rag and a collar," said the Lady Melpomene. "They are owned. They must serve. They are not permitted pride. Under such circumstances it is doubtless easy to feel emotion"

"Perhaps," shuddered the Lady Florence.

"With your permission, Lady Florence," said Kenneth, "I would like to get Jason to the stall, that we may dry and warm him. He is hot and sweaty. I do not wish him to take a chill."

"I trust you take as good care of my tharlarion as you do of your fighters," said the Lady Florence.

"Of course," grinned Kenneth.

"You may kiss my feet, Jason," said the Lady Florence I bent, putting my lips to her slippers, kissing them. "Now those of the Lady Melpomene," she said. Again I bent, this time pressing my lips to the slippers of the Lady Melpomene, too, kissing them.

"He has become a sturdy brute, hasn't he?" asked the Lady Florence.

I lifted my head.

"And a handsome brute, too." she said.

"Come, Jason," said Kenneth, drawing me to my feet. He half pushed me down the corridor.

"Kenneth!" called the Lady Florence.

Kenneth stopped and turned.

"Is he to be rewarded?" she asked.

"Surely," said Kenneth. "Was it not a splendid performance? Did he not do excellently?"

"Double rations, and wine," she said.

"Of course," said Kenneth.

I was angry.

"And no slut!" she said, clearly.

"He is a male slave, a fighter," protested Kenneth. "He needs a collared slut squirming in his arms. He has earned her."

"No slut," she said.

"Let me at least chain Taphris at his side," said Kenneth. "She is the least of the sluts, and has been shorn."

Taphris shrank back.

"No, Kenneth," said the Lady Florence. "Do not give him a woman."

"He is a man," said Kenneth. "He needs meat and a slave girl."

"He is not to be given a woman," she said. "Is that clearly understood, Kenneth?"

"Yes, Lady Florence," he said, angrily.

"Kenneth," she said.

"Yes, Lady Florence," he said.

"I will later find a slut for him," she said. "I have a slut in mind."

Kenneth looked at her, puzzled. "Very well, Lady Florence," he said. Then he turned about, to thrust me ahead of him down the corridor, I looked back, seeing again, at the gate, the Lady Florence and, beside her, the Lady Melpomene. Then I yielded to the pressure of Kenneth's arm and was guided down the corridor, toward the stall set aside for our fighters. Bares was close behind us, and then Taphris. Back, behind the gate, from the tiers, I could hear shouting. Another match was in progress.

21
THE
INCUBATION
SHED

I was naked and sweating profusely. It is hot in the incubation shed.

"The Mistress seems in a good mood," I said.

"Shhh," Bares, who was stripped to the waist, cautioned me. "Listen." He put his ear down to the warm sand.

I joined him, listening. Beneath the warm sand, say a foot below the surface, we heard a tiny noise, a scratching.

"It will be coming out soon," said Bares, grinning, straightening up.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"Taphris," said Bares, "put more sticks in the flame ditch."

She looked at us. She was naked. Bares had made her remove her clothes in the incubation shed. She was covered with sweat. Her flesh, in the light from the flame ditch, it almost encircling the buried clutch before us, glowed reddishly. Girths cloths lay at hand. These, sewn from feed sacks, are used to dry and wrap the hatchlings. Snout straps, too, coiled, used to secure their jaws, also lay nearby.

"I should not have to do this work," said Taphris.

"Get on your hands and knees," said Bares. "Carry the sticks, one by one, in your mouth."

"Yes, Master," she said, angrily. I smiled to myself to see the Mistress' spy, commanded by a free man obeying.

"It is too bad she is not to be used," said Bares. "She needs raping"

I shrugged. What Bares said was doubtless true.

"Kenneth, too, is displeased with her," said Bares to me. "One can scarcely make a move in the stables without knowing that the little she-sleen is going to report it to the Mistress."

I nodded.

We watched Taphris, on her hands and knees, carry a stick to the edge of the flame ditch and, shutting her eyes, drop it in, then quickly drawing back. She then looked at us.

"Continue, Slave," said Barns.

"Yes, Master," she said, returning on her hands and knees to the box for another stick.

"It is irritating, having such a spy about," said Barus. "Too, she thinks she is important. She thinks she is still a house girl, and not a stable slut. Her presence in the stables is not good for the discipline of the other girls."

That was true. If she were not to be whipped and chained, and disrobed and raped, as might be the others, and for no obvious reason, such as being the favorite of one of the keepers, a reason a slave girl can understand, then puzzlement, and perhaps even consternation and dissension, might soon manifest itself in the kennels. The other girls might then soon want the same privileges. And if such matters were allowed to proceed unchecked soon half-naked slave girls might aspire to the pretensions of free women, desiring to be the mistresses of their own clothing and bodies. But matters, of course, would never be permitted to reach that point. Long before that point was reached the leather would have been removed from its nail in the whipping shed.

"We must do something about Taphris," said Barns.

I shrugged. It seemed to me now, objectively, that Taphris was under sufficient discipline. She was crawling about, naked, on her hands and knees, carrying sticks in her mouth, feeding the slow fires in the flame ditch. To be sure, it had for a moment this afternoon seemed otherwise.

"Taphris," said Barns, sharply.

"Yes, Master!" she said, startled.

"Bring water," he said.

"Yes, Master," she said. She got to her feet and went to the side of the shed, where the water bucket was placed, to get the yellow, half-gourd dipper.

We watched her.

"She is pretty," said Barus.

"Yes," I said.

"It is a pity she is not to be raped," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said.

She filled the half-gourd dipper.

"It will not be difficult to get rid of her when we wish," said Barns. "Kenneth has already intimated to the Mistress that she has the makings of an excellent stable slut."

"I see," I smiled.

"Soon the Mistress will fear to trust her in the stables, where you are," he said.

"I see," I said.

"Two of the sluts in the kennels have been whining for you," said Barns.

"Might I inquire which ones?" I asked.

"Tuka and Claudia," he said. "And I do not think Peliope or Leah would much mind having your hands on them either."

I shrugged.

"They sweat in their chains," he said.

"I wish I could have them," I said.

"It is not the wish of the Mistress," he said.

"Your drink, Master," said Taphris.

He looked at her and, suddenly, frightened, she fell to her knees. She put her head down. She pressed the yellow, rough-skinned half-gourd, brimming with water, deep into her belly. Then she lifted the yellow side of the gourd to her lips and, lingeringly, turning her head, kissed it; then she lifted it to him with both hands, her head down between her extended arms.