Slave Girl of Gor (42 page)

"Yes, Master," I said. My fists clenched in the slave bracelets. I was tendered in payment for a small, worthless powder. I grew angry. Surely I was at least a few copper tarsks' worth of slave girl. "But the powder was worthless," I pouted.

"But so, too, are you, pretty little Dina," said Thurnus. He threw back his head and laughed.

"Yes, Master," I said, angrily.

He turned to Sandal Thong. "I pronounce you my preferred slave," said he. "You will sleep in my hut, and tend it."

"A slave is grateful," said she, "Master."

"Too," said he, "you are first girl."

"As Master wishes," she said.

Radish, Verr Tail and Turnip fled to her, hugging her and kissing her. "We are so happy for you," said Turnip.

"I am first girl," said Sandal Thong.

"I am so happy for you," said Radish.

"Fetch a switch," said Sandal Thong.

"Sandal Thong?" asked Radish, stunned.

"Fetch a switch," said Sandal Thong.

"Yes, Mistress," said Radish, hurrying away.

In a few moments Radish returned, carrying a switch, which she placed in the hands of Sandal Thong.

"Kneel," said Sandal Thong to the three girls. They knelt.

"In a straight line, four horts apart, facing the master," she said. She dressed their line. "Straight," she said. She kicked back Radish's knees. "Backs straight, hands on thighs, bellies sucked in, heads high," she sad. She tapped Verr Tail on the belly with her switch. Verr Tail sucked her belly in, tight. She tapped Turnip twice under the chin. Turnip lifted her chin. In their eyes I could read their distress. But they knelt beautifully under Sandal Thong's discipline.

"Here are your slaves, Master," she said to Thurnus.

"Excellent," said Thurnus. He looked upon the three girls. They dared not move a muscle. I had little doubt but that Sandal Thong would richly switch any of them who disobeyed in the least, or gave the least hint of disobedience. Thurnus grinned. He began to suspect the wonders that he would now have from these girls.

"You may cage them at your pleasure," he said.

"Yes, Master," said Sandal Thong. In her love for Thurnus she was determined that he would have the best from all his girls. Too, I had little doubt but that when it was the turn of the village slave, Melina, to serve the house of Thurnus that she, too, would fall under the same strict discipline. Sandal Thong, switch in hand, would see that Melina served her master to perfection.

"You may rise, Dina," said Tup Ladletender to me.

I rose, standing in close bracelets.

"You may bid your former cagemate farewell," said Sandal Thong.

Radish, Verr Tail and Turnip came to me and wished me well, hugging and kissing me. I, too, wished them well.

"Slaves to your cage," said Sandal Thong.

"We must go to our cage," said Radish to me. "I wish you well."

"I, too, wish you well," I said. "I wish you all well."

The three girls hurried to the cage. Sandal Thong, switch in hand, came to me. She hugged and kissed me. "I wish you well, Dina," she said.

"I, too, wish you well, Mistress," I said. I addressed her as mistress, for she was first girl.

Sandal Thong then turned and followed the other girls, to lock them in the cage for the night.

Thurnus came over to me and put his hand on my head, and shook it.

I looked at him, tears in my eyes.

"The village," said he, "is no place for you, little Dina. The days are too long and the work too hard." He looked at me. "You have the body of a pleasure slave," he said. "You belong at the feet of men."

"Yes, Master," I said.

"Come along, Slave," said Tup Ladletender, taking my arm.

He began to lead me away. I stopped, and turned, pulling against his arm.

"I wish you well, Master," I said to Thurnus.

"You cannot even pull a plow," he said.

"I make a very poor she-bosk," I said.

"You are not the she-bosk," he said, "but the meadow." I put my head down, reddening. It was not mine to plow, but to be plowed. "I wish you well, little slave," said Thurnus.

"Thank you, Master," I said.

I felt Tup Ladletender's band close more firmly on my arm. "Will it be necessary to beat you?" he asked.

"No, Master," I said, frightened, and hurried on beside him, his hand on my arm.

His cart, with the two large wheels, and the two long handles, was near the village gate.

The gate was opened for us by its tender.

I expected to be tied to the back of the wagon, that I might follow in its dust. To my surprise he placed me between the two handles. He removed the slave bracelets, putting them in a drawer in the side of the cart.

"I am too weak to draw the cart, Master," I told him.

He removed two pair of wrist rings and chains from another drawer. He locked one wrist ring from one pair on the left handle, and snapped its matching wrist ring on my left wrist. He then locked one wrist ring from the other pair on the cart's long right handle and snapped its mate about my right wrist. I was chained between the handles. There was about a foot of chain between each wrist ring locked on its handle and its matching ring which clasped my corresponding wrist.

"I cannot draw the cart, Master," I told him.

I cried out as the whip cut my back. I seized the handles and threw my weight against them, bent over, digging with my feet into the dirt.

"I cannot, Master!" I cried.

The whip struck me again.

I cried out with misery and drew the cart.

I pulled Tup Ladletender's cart through the gate and out onto the dusty road leading from Tabuk's Ford.

I felt a drop of rain. Then it began to fall lightly. I looked up. The billowing, skudding clouds were swift in the night. I could see the moons behind them. Then more rain splashed into the dust. I felt it on my hair and naked body. I pulled the cart. Then it began to pour, and I slipped in the mud. Ladletender helped, pushing, at the wheels and cart. At last we waited, standing in the driving rain. Then he removed me from between the handles, and, together, we sat beneath the cart.

"The drought is broken," said Tup Ladletender to me.

"Yes, Master," I said.

After a time I said, "May I have a candy, Master?" I had not forgotten the candy he had given me beneath the hut of Thurnus. How sweet and good it had been. It had been only a cheap hard candy but such things are rare in the lives of most slave girls. They are very precious.

"Do you want it very much?" asked Tup Ladletender.

"Yes, Master," I said.

He took me in his arms, and thrust me back to the mud between the wheels of the cart.

I looked up at him.

"Earn it," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said, reaching for him.

The rain drove down from the sweet dark sky in torrents. One could scarcely see the trees and road.

10

I Am An Item Of Merchandise

I swam out in the pool to the end of my neck tether, and splashed in the water.

"Clean yourself well, Dina," said Tup Ladletender. "You must be sparkling."

"Yes, Master," I called to him.

I had knelt beside the pool and, the rope on my neck, washed my hair. Then I had been permitted to wash in the pool and cleanse my body. The welts I had received from the beatings of Bran Loon and his bullies had healed. I had only four marks on my body from the animal whip of Tup Ladletender, with which he had encouraged me in my. drawing of his cart. These now had almost disappeared. Generally he disciplined me with a cuff of the flat of his hand. I respected hint He managed me well.

I had been his slave for some two weeks.

We had visited various villages, but, on the whole, we had made our way along the road to Ar. He must replenish his stores. I was pleased that he had not sold me to peasants. Another fate, I knew, he had in store for me.

When we had come to the great road I had rejoiced. It is broad, fairly smooth, and built like a wall, sunk in the earth. It is not hard to draw the cart on such a road. My work, thus, was easier. We could see villages here and there more frequently now; too, occasionally there were hostels and taverns on the road. I enjoyed seeing caravans pass, and villagers with their bosk wagons. I feared the great tharlarion of the caravans. Often the animals wore belled harnesses. Once we were passed by a great slave caravan. There were more than four hundred wagons with girls ankle-chained in them. It was a caravan of Mintar, the great merchant. Another time we were passed by a smaller slave caravan. In this caravan, there were few wagons, and those there were showed scarring and marks of fire. Goods and wounded men lay in the wagons. Afoot, between the wagons, walked a chain of forty girls. They were neck chained, and their wrists were fastened behind their backs with slave bracelets. Their heads were down. Many were beautiful.

"What occurred?" asked Tup Ladletender.

"Raiders from Treve," said a man with bandaged shoulder, in one of the wagons.

The great road to Ar is marked with pasang stones. We had followed the road to within two hundred pasangs of Ar. Then we had left it, and, for two days, followed a side road. The countryside was still relatively populated.

Tup Ladletender's cart was now at the hut of a villager whom he knew.

In the distance, even from the pool, I could see the white, looming walls of the merchant keep, Stones of Turmus, a Turian outpost, licensed for the storage of goods within the realm of Ar. Such outposts are not uncommon on Gor. They are useful in maintaining the security of trade. Their function is not military but commercial. Turia is one of the great trading centers of Gor. It lies far to the south, in the middle latitudes of her southern hemisphere.

"Look, Dina!" said Tup Ladletender, pointing upward.

I looked up and saw, far overhead, some four tarnsmen in flight. They carried the yellow banners of truce.

"They are bound, I wager, for Port Kar," said Tup Ladletender, "whence they will take ship to Cos."

I had heard there was fighting between Ar and Cos, it having to do with the alleged support by Cos accorded to Vosk pirates. The Vosk is a mighty river which flows westward, emptying into a vast rence delta, finding its way eventually to Thassa, the sea. The motivation of the hostilities was apparently mostly economic, having to do with trade monopolies sought by both cities in the territories bordering the Vosk. Ar claimed the southern shore of the Vosk. Cos, and the other major maritime Ubarate, Tyros, on the other hand, had traditionally conducted trade, through overland merchant connections, with these territories. I watched the tarnsmen disappear in the distance. Twice earlier, on the great road to Ar, Tup Ladletender had pointed out tarnsmen in flight, presumably messengers. Marlenus of Ar, and other Ubars, commonly employed such couriers.

The thought of Clitus Vitellius passed through my mind. He had spurned me. How I hated him!

I felt a tug on the neck tether. "I am coming, Master," I called.

I swam in; to the side of the pool. Ladletender handed me a towel. My tether he tied to a tree. I toweled myself.

"You must sparkle, Dina," he said to me.

"Yes, Master," I said. I looked up to the keep of Stones of Turmus in the distance.

I wondered how much I would bring. I had never been sold before.

"Pay attention to your master," said Tup Ladletender.

"Yes, Master," I said.

Tup Ladletender handed me a wide-toothed comb. I began, with long strokes, to straighten my hair. I continued to look at the keep of Stones of Turmus. It was high and formidable. It was within those walls that I would be owned.

We had stayed in a nearby village overnight, in which Ladletender had a friend. His cart was there now. I had not drawn the cart this morning. I must be refreshed.

"Brush your hair," said tadletender.

"Yes, Master," I said.

After I had finished, Ladletender retrieved the brush and comb, dropping them in his pouch.

He looked me over. I blushed, under Gorean appraisal. I wore only my tether.

"Stand as a slave," he said.

I stood beautifully, back straight, head high, belly sucked in, hip turned. No woman can stand more beautifully than as a Gorean slave girl.

"Excellent," said Ladletender, smacking his lips.

"Master is pleased," I said.

"Yes," he said.

"The slave, too, is then pleased," I said.

"Behold," said he. He drew forth, from a leather bag nearby, a sack, such as vegetables may be carried in. I looked at it. I was puzzled. It was folded; it was small. He removed the tether from my neck. I shook my head and hair, the bond removed.

He gestured to the sack. It had been used to carry vegetables. There was printing on it.

"Put it on," he said.