43

[Dept of PMM Castle Life]

There were now six stripes on her body, from her ankles to the back of her neck. They were slender and red. Each was well placed. Spreading from each stripe there was a redness of pain. She clenched her fists in her bonds. Now her entire back burned scarlet.
The panther girls, in their chains, laughed. They enjoyed seeing the pretty Earth-girl slave beaten.
I nodded to the red-haired girl. Swiftly, across the back, in rapid succession, she delivered Ilene’s last four stinging stripes.
I then unfastened her wrists from the branch.
She was bent over with pain. I picked up the bit of yellow silk and threw it to her. She caught it, and held it before her body.
"It is you," I told her," "who will be sold in Port Kar."
I then turned away from her.
I heard the red-haired girl addressing the panther women. "On your feet, Slaves," she said, slapping the switch in her hand.
They stood up.
"Get bowls," said the red-haired girl to Ilene. "And open a bag of slave meal. When the slaves pass you, give each half a bowl of meal."
"Yes, Mistress," said Ilene.
"Then gather fruit and nuts for them," said the red-haired girl.
"Yes, Mistress, "said Ilene.
I went to the tree about which had been fastened the length of chain extending from the first girl’s Harl ring, that tethering the girls to the tree. I unsnapped it and refastened it about the left wrist of the first girl on the chain, that she might carry it as she had the day before.
The red-haired girl, to my satisfaction, but not asking me, took some of the silk we carried and cut it into strips, wrapping it in and around the ankle rings of her charges, and about the girl’s ankles, that their ankles be protected in the march. She was a good first girl. "Thank you, Mistress," said one of the girls to her. "Be silent, Slave," responded the red-haired girl. "Yes, Mistress," responded the other. She was a good first girl. She, with her switch, maintained a harsh and perfect discipline among her charges, but she was not more cruel to them that it was customary to be with Gorean slaves. They were animals in her charge. She was, accordingly, solicitous for their welfare. From my point of view, of course, a girl with a scarred ankle is likely to bring a lower price than a perfect specimen. I thus approved of her action.
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A switch was put in the hands of Eta. She stood over me. I put down my head. She did not strike me. I looked up at her. I realized then that she was first girl in the camp, and that I must obey her, that she had been empowered to set me tasks and duties. Suddenly I feared her. Before I had looked down upon her. Now I trembled. It was she who held the switch over me. Before I had generally obeyed her only when men were present. I had preferred to leave her the work. Now I realized I must, without question, take slave instructions from her and discharge swiftly and well whatever menial duties she might place upon me. I met her eyes. Though I was a delicate girl of Earth, beautiful and sensitive, even one who wrote poetry, I had little doubt she would use the switch, and richly, upon me, did I not work well. I put down my head. I determined to work well. In this camp I, though of Earth, was inferior to her. She could command me. She held the switch. I would obey. She was first girl.
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A man lifted his cup, and I hastened to him, to serve him. I then returned to the shadows. I noted that Eta served wine to the tall, handsome, blond-haired fellow. I did not mind. I liked Eta, though she was first girl, and over me. I had worked well under her and she had not switched me.
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Now she was owned by my master, and she was a newer girl than I. She did not yet know the nature of the relationships in which she was now helplessly implicated, relationships which could be every bit as perilous and significant as the physical bond of steel on her wrist. Was I first girl? Was I over her? Did I have switch rights upon her body, as Eta had upon mine? Would I be cruel to her? Would I make her suffer? Would she have to please the masters incredibly, and constantly attend them, that they might perhaps be moved to shield her to some tiny extent from my vengeance? Too, she was coffled before me, and this put her much at my mercy. Chained as she was I might, if I chose, make the march a misery of unexpected blows and torments for her. Her fears, in the light of these considerations, were understandable.
"I forgive you," I told her.
Immediately the girl straightened herself insolently, and dismissed me from her awareness. She had, she assumed then, nothing to fear from me, and I might be contemptuously ignored. This irritated me. Doubtless she considered herself, and quite possibly correctly, my superior in beauty, and thus planned to soon stand higher in the relationships of bondage than I, a lesser girl. Having nothing to fear from me she would freely and opportunistically insinuate herself among the men. Slave girls compete for the attentions of masters. Each strives to be more pleasing to them than the other. The quality of a slave girl’s life is commonly a direct function of her pleasingness to her master. Whether she Is a treasured love slave or an ignored pot-and-floor wench depends much upon her. Gorean men, unlike the men of Earth, do not bother much with girls that are not pleasing to them. Yet even such may find their utility, and indirectly serve masters, perhaps sweating in the public kitchens of the high cylinders, or laboring, neck-locked, at the looms in the cloth mills, or digging, chained with others, in the sul fields. It is a rare girl who, having tasted the mills or sul fields, does not beg her proprietor to be sold again on the open market, that she may attempt anew, and perhaps more successfully this time, to be pleasing to a man.
I was furious with the posture, so proud and sensual, of the girl before me. I wondered why I had forgiven her. It had seemed the natural thing to do. I had done it, unthinkingly. It was not irrational, of course. For example, she was beautiful, and any dominance which I might have over her might be temporary, and then our relationship might be reversed. What if she much pleased my master one night and he gave her switch rights over me? Also, on another march, it might be I who would be coffled before her, and at her mercy.
Yet I was angry. She now ignored me. Her victory had been cheaply won.
Suddenly, angrily, I kicked her.
She cried out, startled. I stood straight, as though I had done nothing. The soldier with the coffle, who was gathering jewelry into a scarf from various coffers in the tent, pretended that he had not noticed my action. Masters do not much interfere in the squabbles of slaves. Let them impose their own internal order among themselves. On the other hand, they would not approve if one slave injured or marked, or reduced in value, another. That would be serious, and not to be tolerated.
The girl before me now no longer stood proudly and sensually. She was now only a frightened, chained girl, at my mercy. She was coffled before me.
"On the other hand," I said to her, "I may not forgive you either."
"Marla begs forgiveness, Mistress," she whispered.
"I may forgive you and I may not," I said.
"Yes, Mistress," said the girl. She trembled. The chain shook on her wrist. I was pleased. Too, if she feared me, perhaps I could, for a time, frighten her away from my master.
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"Wine, Slave Girl," said Marla, holding her cup to me.
Angrily I put down the Sul paga and fetched the flask of the Ka-la-na of Ar, and filled her cup. She did not look at me, nor thank me, for I was a slave. Was she not, too, a slave? I saw her, in the shreds of her white gown, cuddling with her wine in my master’s arms. She had risen swiftly in favor among the masters, displacing even Eta as favorite girl. I had feared, even from the beginning, that she would become excessively popular. My master was, apparently, much taken with her. I hated her. Eta, too, did not regard her with unusual affection.
Marla looked at me, and smiled. "You are a pretty slave," she said.
"Thank you, Mistress," I said, restraining myself. Since she had become first girl in the camp we were all constrained to serve her and address her as Mistress. Even though she was given no jewelry or fine raiment, she was high slave in the camp.
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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.
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"You will not be sold, Dina," Sucha had said to me. "You are a prize."
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
We girls in the keep were pleasure slaves, but it must be clearly understood that we were the only girls in the keep. Thus, we served, too, as work slaves. Scrubbing must be done, and the sewing, and the washing and ironing of clothes, and the cleaning; too, we aided in the kitchen, usually in the preparing of vegetables and in the scouring of pots and pans; too, water must be carried to the men on the parapets; there was much work of a lowly and servile nature which it fell naturally to us, the girls of the keep, to perform. Yet generally I think we did not, have too much to complain of. We were permitted to sleep late in the slave quarters, and manual labors, for most of us, tended to be curtailed in the early afternoon, that we might rest and prepare ourselves for the evening. I think few of us did on the average more than two or three Ahn of light labors on a normal day. We were never under any delusion that our main task was not the delight and pleasure of our masters.
I was no longer low girl in the slave quarters. It was not that I had fought, for there were few girls there whom I suspected could not beat me, but that the matter had been determined by Sucha. She carried the whip. Each new girl, as she was introduced among us, became automatically low girl, the other girls being correspondingly advanced. We obeyed Sucha. She never hesitated to use the whip. We were kept in perfect order. I was not displeased. Had Borchoff not placed the whip in the hands of Sucha, I, for one, would have fared much more poorly in the slave quarters. Slave quarters, as I have mentioned, can become a jungle. This was prevented at Stones of Turmus by the whip of Sucha. I was not the only girl who was not displeased to be protected from intimidation and violence. Sometimes masters, in their cruelty, do not appoint a first girl. Then the slave girls, as best then can, by teeth and nails, must adjudicate their differences and establish a mode of governance for themselves. Sometimes masters do not appoint a first girl in order that the lower ranking girls will strive ever more desperately to please them, to become favorites, and thus to be to some extent more protected. "If you beat me, the master will not be pleased," is not a threat to be taken lightly in the slave quarters, particularly if it is thought to be true. The distant menace of the master’s displeasure has its influence and effect, naturally, on the social arrangements of the kennels. Sometimes a girl will pretend to be more favored by the master than she is, for her own prestige, and to win position in the kennels. But it is not hard to know the truth in these matters. Who is most often summoned to his couch?
"Meat, Dina!" cried another man, and I hastened to him, to kneel and serve him. I wore red silk, a golden necklace about my throat, intertwined with my collar, and bells.
I saw Sucha lying soft in the arms of a lieutenant, kissing him. How marvelously she melted in his arms, his.
She was seldom permitted to carry her whip outside the slave quarters, except in conducting a new slave through the corridors and bringing her through the small iron door, as she had me. When she left the slave quarters she normally knelt before a guard and handed him the whip, her authority ended. He would then take the whip and thrust it against her lips, and she would kiss it, after which he would order her to her feet and discard the whip, which she would retrieve on her way back to the slave quarters. Outside the slave quarters we were normally under the governance not of Sucha, but men. We stood under her governance outside the quarters only when she was permitted to retain the whip. I watched her yielding in the arms of the lieutenant, moaning under his touch. She did not now have the whip. She was now, in the hall of Turian pleasures, as it is called, only another slave girl.
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I was not chained now; the last four times I had been permitted to come to the wharves unchained; Aurelion, I think, was pleased with me. Once he had ever permitted me to serve his pleasure. How proud I had been, and how envious the other girls had been. I struggled to be fantastic to him. I think he was not displeased. Afterwards he had, before leaving, thrown a candy to the floor before me which I, gratefully, in the manner of the Chatka and Curla, which was necessary, had picked up in my mouth. "Thank you, Master," I had said. The candy was hard and very sweet. I showed it off to the other girls. "I pleased the master," I boasted. "He once gave me five candies," said Narla. "Liar!" I cried. I knew the master had never even called for her. We leaped toward one another. Tima, the first girl, had separated us with a whip.
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I had placed Constance’s bound wrists over those of the new slave for Constance was first girl. She would be first to be lifted from the pommel.
"You are first girl," I told Constance.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Constance is first girl," I told her who had been the Lady Tina of Lydius.
"Yes, Master," said she who had been the Lady Tina of Lydius.
"Address her as Mistress," I told the former free girl. "Mistress," said she who had been the former Lady Tina of Lydius, frightened, to Constance.
"Slave," responded Constance to her confirming the former free woman as second girl.
"Now, on to Lydius!" I said.
"Yes, Master," said the two girls, the blond and the brunet, first girl and second girl, yet both really new slaves, neither of whom had as yet even been branded.
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Thimble had been made first girl. She made Thistle carry the metal bucket of gruel while she, with a ladle, filled the bowls.
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"We are going to pick moss and grass," she said. Moss is used as wicks for the lamps. Grass, dried, is used for insulation between the inner soles of the boots and the bottom of the fur stockings in the winter.
"That is good," I said. "Why is Thistle yoked?"
"It pleased me, Master," said Thimble, first girl. There was little love lost between the girls.
"Was she insubordinate?" I asked.
"She said a sharp word to me," said Thimble.
"Did you switch her, too?" I asked.
"Of course, Master," said Thimble.
"Excellent," I said. Discipline must be kept in the tent.
I looked at Thistle. She met my eyes, briefly, and then looked down.
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Since the coming of Poalu to the tent life had become hard for them. It was not that Poalu, though she was first girl, and firm, was cruel to them, but rather simply that Imnak now had little time for them and paid them scant attention.
Unfortunately, before the coming of Poalu to the tent, both girls had been brought to the second stage of slavery. The first stage is knowing they must obey, the second stage is needing the touch of a man.
Imnak now seldom touched them.
Their needs, accordingly, were much on them.
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I had had Sasi, at the invitation of Ulafi, spend several hours a day tutoring the blond girl in Gorean. Sasi enjoyed this, standing over the blond girl with a strap, striking her when she made mistakes. When she had had a good session Ulafi would sometimes, when he thought of it, throw her a bit of cake or pastry, which she would gratefully receive. She would then kneel before Ulafi and kiss his feet, clutching the bit of cake or pastry. "Thank you, Master," she would say. She would then kneel before Sasi, her teacher, and offer her the bit of cake or pastry, which Sasi would take, taking most of it and returning a portion of it to her. "Thank you, Mistress," she would say, for Sasi was first girl. She would then creep to her cage, and be locked within it. She would lie curled up in it, a lovely, helpless slave, and try to make the bit of cake or pastry last as long as possible.
When more than one slave girl stands in a relationship of slave girls, as when they serve in the same shop or house, or adorn the same rich man’s pleasure gardens, it is common for the master, or masters, to appoint a "first girl." Her authority is then to the other girls as is that of the master. This tends to reduce squabbling. The first girl is usually, though not always, the favorite of the master. There is usually much competition to be first girl. First girls can be cruel and petty but, commonly, they attempt to govern with intelligence and justice. They know that another girl, at the master’s whim, may become first girl, and that they themselves may then be under her almost absolute power. In my own house I often rotated the position of first girl among my slaves who were native Goreans. I never made an Earth-girl slave first girl. This is fitting. Let them be always as the slaves of slaves.
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The blond-haired barbarian looked across the deck to Sasi. "Mistress," she whispered to Sasi, who stood to her as first girl.
"Yes, Slave," said Sasi.
The blond lifted her bound wrists, the line running up to the golden ring in the left ear of the kailiauk head, through it, and back to the deck. "Why are we bound like this?" she asked.
"Do you not know, you little fool?" asked Sasi. I smiled, for Sasi was actually a bit shorter than the blond girl. I would have guessed they would have weighed about the same. Sasi may have weighed a little more. Neither was a large girl.
"No, Mistress," said the blond girl. She was deferential to Sasi. If she had not been, she might have been whipped to within an inch of her life.
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"It is not wrong to experience sexual pleasure," I told her.
"But there is another woman present," she said.
"Show her your slave heat," I said.
"Forgive me," she cried out, calling to whoever might be in the room, "I cannot help myself. The Master is exciting me!"
"Master," said Sasi, unable to restrain herself. "Withdraw from her! Let me serve your pleasure!"
"No, no!" said the blond-haired barbarian, clutching me. "He is with me now!" Her lip trembled. "Do not withdraw from me," she begged.
"Why not?" I asked.
"I want to serve your pleasure," she whispered.
"What do you know of serving a man’s pleasure," said Sasi. "Beg his forgiveness for disappointing him, and let him seize me in his arms."
"No!" said the blond-haired barbarian. Then she said to me, "I am sorry if I disappoint you, Master."
"You have not yet disappointed me," I said.
"I will try not to disappoint you, Master," she said.
"Let me serve your pleasure, Master," begged Sasi.
"It is now I who am serving his pleasure!" said the blond girl.
"If you call that serving his pleasure," said Sasi.
"Help me," begged the blond girl.
"Lift your body against his," said Sasi, "squirm, kiss!"
The blond moaned with misery. "That is like a slave," she whispered.
"Obey!" said Sasi.
"Is she first girl?" asked the blond.
"Yes," I said.
"Yes, Mistress," said the blond, miserably. Then she obeyed, for she was a slave. From time to time Sasi and I made simple suggestions to the blond who, for the first time, was being ravished. We forced her to cooperate in her rape. I began to grit my teeth.
"Stop moving," I told her.
She stopped moving. But she did not want to stop moving. She clutched my arms.
"My passion is making me a slave," she whispered.
"You are already a slave," I told her.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Passion, technically," I said, "has nothing to do with the imposition of the yoke of slavery. It is, of course, afterwards required of the enslaved woman. Passion is commanded of her."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"The sense in which passion makes you a slave," I said, "is that it puts you in what is in effect a slave’s position, helpless, yielding, submitting to the master."
"Yes, Master," she whispered.
"But you will not even begin to know what true passion is, ignorant girl," I said, "until you have been longer a slave."
"Yes, Master," she whispered.
"You may begin again to respond now, Slave," I told her.
"Yes, Master," she said. Then she began again to move and, soon, was crying out, softly.
"I think she will be a hot slave," I said to Sasi.
"Yes," said Sasi, "I think so, Master."
"Please do not use those words of me," she begged.
"Say," I told her, " ‘I am proud to be a hot slave.’"
"I am proud to be a hot slave," she cried out, miserably.
"And you are proud of it, you know," I told her.
She clutched me, startled. Her lip trembled. "Yes," she said, suddenly, "it is true. How incredible! I am proud! I am proud to be a hot slave!"
"Of course," I told her, "Slave."
"No, no!" she said. "I am ashamed to be a hot slave!"
"Whether you are proud or ashamed," I told her, "in any event, you are a hot slave."
"Yes, Master," she said. That could not be denied.
"I come from a far world," she said. "The girl from that world is ashamed. The girl on this world, the slave, is not ashamed. She is proud." She put her head to the side. "How shamelessly proud she is," she said.
"The girl from the far world," I told her, "no longer exists. What exists now, in her place, is herself transformed, herself become a beautiful slave at the mercy of a master."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"What is the name of your former world?" I asked.
"It is called Earth," she said. "Have you heard of it, Master?" she asked.
"Yes," I said. "Her women are not unknown in our markets."
"Oh," she said.
"They make excellent slaves," I said.
She said nothing.
"Do you find that hard to believe?" I asked.
"No, Master," she said. Then she lifted her lips, and kissed me. "Master," she said.
"Yes," I said.
"You took my virginity," she said. "Now, I beg you, consummate your will upon me."
"Do you beg as a slave?" I asked.
"Yes, Master," she said. "I beg as a slave."
"Beg," I told her.
"Take me," she begged. "Make me yours. Have me, as your slave."
"Do you yield," I asked her, "fully and completely, and as a slave?"
"Yes, Master," she whispered. "I yield, fully and completely, and as a slave."
I then took her.
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We had made Tende first girl. She had been, after all, the former mistress of the two white slaves.
They would obey her with perfection. If they did not we would beat them. If Tende, for her part, did not do well as first girl Kisu and I had agreed that Alice should have the opportunity. Tende, we were sure, fearing to be at the mercy of one of her former slaves, would strive to be a good first girl.
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"Janice," whispered Tende.
Janice left my side to crawl to Tende. Tende had struggled to a sitting position. Janice knelt while Tende sat, for Tende was first girl. "Mistress?" asked Janice.
"May I speak with you?" asked Tende.
"Of course, Mistress," said Janice.
Tende then struggled to her knees. I knew then she wished to speak of her master.
"How can I please Kisu more?" she asked Janice.
"Do you feel, deep in your heart; that you are a slave?" asked Janice.
"Yes," said Tende, "in the most profound depths of my heart I feel that I am a slave."
"Then serve him as a slave, fully," said Janice.
"I will," said Tende.
The girls had spoken in Gorean. Kisu had asked that I have Janice and Alice help Tende with the language. I had complied. In the several weeks of our trip she had become reasonably fluent. Tende was an intelligent woman. Kisu, too, of course, profited from these lessons. Indeed, perhaps it was partly from his own interest that he insisted on these instructions for Tende. But, too, doubtless, he thought it amusing that Tende, who had once been so proud, be forced under his will to acquire a new language. For my part, I was pleased at both Kisu’s and Tende’s growth in Gorean. Considering Ayari and myself, and Alice and Janice, it was clearly the most sensible choice for a common medium of communication.
Janice then crawled back to my side.
"He did not forget to tie me," said Alice. She knelt a few feet from us, her hands bound behind her, a line running from her bound wrists to the same tree to which Tende was tethered.
"Oh, be quiet, Bound Slave," said Janice.
"Untie me, Master," begged Alice. "Let me serve you."
"I will serve him," said Janice, not pleasantly.
"Let me serve you, Master," begged Alice.
"Be quiet," said Janice, "or I will scratch your eyes out!"
"If I were not bound," said Alice, "I would claw you to pieces!"
One of the aspects of the mastery, inconvenient at times, though it can be borne, is the competition among girls for the attentions of the master. Indeed, some masters keep more than one girl, just for this purpose, not merely to lessen the labors of each, but that each may, in the intensity of their rivalry, strive to please him more than the other. Each wishes, of course, to undermine the position of the other and to become the favorite. From the girl’s point of view there are few slaves who would not rather do double the labor and be the only wench in the master’s compartments. To be sure, the loser in such a competition generally becomes the master’s work slave and the winner his pleasure slave. My own view on the matter, for what it is worth, is that a pleasure slave becomes even more marvelous when she is forced to function also as a work slave. The girl who launders, cleans and cooks for a master knows well she is owned. In my own house I see that my favorite pleasure slaves, girls such as lovely, dark-haired Vella, perform their full share or, if I please, much more than their full share of servile labors. It is not unusual to see her in a brief work tunic, sleeveless and white, sweating over the laundry tubs or, on her hands and knees, naked, scrubbing the corridors in chains. I recalled that she had upon occasion displeased me. Once a guest at first refused to believe that the lovely wench in pleasure silk, a chain on her slave bracelets run to a ring on her serving collar, who served his viands at a feast was the same girl whom he had spurned to one side with his foot that afternoon in a corridor. I stripped her and put her on her hands and knees and he saw then that it was she. Even more astonished was he when I had her dance for him and the other guests. "You let such a superb slave scrub in your corridors," he asked. "Yes," I said. "Why?" he asked. "Because it pleases me," I told him.
"Master!" begged Alice.
"Be quiet!" said Janice.
Whereas rivalries among men can be serious and dangerous, the most that rivalries among slave girls can be is petty and vicious; that is to be expected; they are, after all, only small, lovely animals.
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I went to the door and, opening it, admitted Lola. She entered, carrying my gear, that which I had taken to the other house. She knelt deferentially before me. "I kneel before my Master," she said. "You may arise," I said. "Thank you, Master," she said. "Put my gear to the side," I said. "And lock the door." "Yes, Master," she said. She did these things, and then walked to the center of the room. She looked down at the prone slave. "Well, what have we here," she asked, "a well-tamed, well-whipped slave?"
The prone slave was silent, trembling.
"Well?" asked Lola, suddenly, viciously, kicking the girl m the side.
"Yes, Mistress," cried the girl, "I am a well-tamed, well-whipped slave!"
"My Master knows well how to handle a woman," said Lola.
"Yes, Mistress," said the girl.
"Do you remember that, when you were free, you once took me to the docks and sold me?" asked Lola.
"Yes, Mistress," said the girl, "but now, I, too, am only a slave."
"Do you think you will make a good slave?" asked Lola.
"I will try, desperately, Mistress," said the girl.
"Who is first girl?" asked Lola.
"I do not know, Mistress," cried the slave.
"Lola is first girl," I informed her.
"You are first girl, Mistress," cried the slave, "you are first girl!"
"Have you ever seen your collar?" asked Lola.
"No, Mistress," said the girl. "When it was fastened on me, I was hooded."
"Would you like to see it?" asked Lola.
"Yes, Mistress," said the girl.
Lola, from a chest near one wall, fetched forth a mirror, which she held close to the tiles, that the prone slave might for the first time see the collar in which she had been placed.
"It is beautiful," breathed the slave, touching it, "it is beautiful!" I smiled. It was only a common collar, of a sort which many girls on Gor wore. Yet, to be sure, it was attractive. It, like most slave collars for women, was designed for both beauty and security.
"You know the meaning of a slave collar, don't you?" asked Lola.
"Yes, Mistress," said the girl.
"You look well in one, don't you?" asked Lola.
"Yes, Mistress," said the girl.
"You belong in one, don't you?" asked Lola.
"Yes, Mistress," said the girl.
"There is writing here on the collar," said Lola. "It says, 'I am the property of Jason of Victoria.'"
"Yes, Mistress," said the girl.
"It will well serve to identify you, will it not?" she asked.
"Yes, Mistress," said the girl.
"Is what it says true?" asked Lola.
"Yes, Mistress," said the girl, "it is true!" I thought I saw her shudder with pleasure on the tiles.
In a moment Lola had replaced the mirror in the chest, and closed the chest. She then came to where I stood. Together we regarded the prone slave. "She is a pretty little thing," said Lola.
"I think she will prove satisfactory," I said, "for the purposes for which I require her, those of a common slave, a low slave, one to be set chores about the house, and one from whom full domestic services will be required."
Lola looked at me.
"'Domestic services' in the Gorean sense," I said.
Lola laughed. Certainly the former Miss Henderson, of Earth, should have her sensuous possibilities exploited. How absurd it would be to permit those conquered curves to languish.
"What are your commands, Master?" asked Lola.
"In two days, in the evening," I said, "I shall have a small supper here, nothing pretentious, just something for a few friends. Substantially the affair will be catered by the tavern of Tasdron, but there will be much shopping and cooking for you, too, to do."
"I understand, Master," said Lola.
"The house, of course, is to be spotless," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"And I shall also depend upon you for decorations, that the house may appear festive, lamps and ribbons, and flowers, and such."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Too, see to it that some small, tasteful entertainment is provided."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"If things are not perfect," I said, "I shall not be pleased."
"Master will be pleased," she said.
"It is late now," I said.
"What of her?" asked Lola, gesturing with her head toward the prone slave.
We walked over to where the former Miss Henderson lay. I turned her over with my foot, and looked down upon her.
"She does not even know how to lie at a man's feet," said Lola. She then crouched down and turned the girl's hands so that their backs rested on the tiles, and the soft, open palms were vulnerably exposed to me. Also she lifted her left knee, that it might be flexed. "There," she said, "that is better." There are many ways, of course, for a woman to lie at a man's feet. Lola had selected, however, one of the loveliest.
The girl looked up at me, frightened.
I walked about her and, with my foot, turned her again to her stomach.
"What is to be done with her?" asked Lola.
"Clean her stinking slave's body," I said, "and then kennel her for the night."
"Look," said Lola, suddenly, "she is unconscious." She bent down beside the girl. "She has fainted," she laughed.
"It has been hard on her," I said. "She had to learn much this evening."
"In a collar a girl must learn quickly," said Lola.
"It is true," I said.
I turned away. I was weary.
"Master," called Lola.
"Yes," I said.
"How is she to be treated?"
"You are first girl," I said. "You hold switch rights over her. See that she is worked well."
"Full discipline?" asked Lola.
"Of course," I said.
"Excellent, Master," said Lola.
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"I am first girl," said Ginger, walking back and forth before the line of girls, kneeling before her, a switch in her small hand, "and Evelyn is second girl." She indicated Evelyn. She spoke in English, a language held in common by the new barbarian slaves. Five spoke English natively; three were American, including the red-haired girl, and two were British; two of the other girls were Swedish, and the last girl, with the short, dark hair, was French. "You will address myself, and Evelyn, as Mistress," she said. "You will learn your lessons well, both those of the language and of service."
The girls looked at one another.
"This is a switch," said Ginger, lifting the supple switch. She then struck one of the girls, one of the Swedish girls, with a stinging, slashing blow at the side of the neck.
"This is a switch," repeated Ginger.
"Yes, Mistress," said the red-haired girl, swiftly. I was pleased to see that she was quite intelligent. "Yes, Mistress," said the other girls. "Yes, Mistress!" said the Swedish girl, tears in her eyes.
"Evelyn and I," said Ginger, "do not intend to do all the work of the camp alone. In time, some of you, at least, will be freed to assist in our labors.
The girls, quickly, glanced at one another.
"Little fools!" laughed Ginger. "You are all little fools! Kneel straighter, little fools!"
Quickly the girls complied.
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I sat on the bank, watching her work with her hair. She was now combing it out, with her fingers. She would not yet be entitled, of course, to use the common brush and comb slotted for the use of the coffle. The other girls, unless the masters intervened, would vote on whether or not she was to be granted its use. This is a way of encouraging a new girl to be congenial and to participate equitably in the work. One negative vote will keep the brush and comb from a new girl. The suspension of brush-and-comb privileges is also used, upon occasion, by the first girls as a disciplinary measure, within the coffle. Other disciplinary measures practiced among girls themselves involve such things as bonds, the control of rations and switchings. Girls, thus, under the control of first girls, reporting to the masters, commonly keep a good order among themselves. All, of course, including the first girls, are in all things subject, ultimately, to the total authority of the master.
"Ginger!" I called.
Ginger, in a moment, came running to the stream.
"Bring the comb and brush," I told her.
"Yes, Master," she said. Her authority, as that of any slave, could be overruled by any free person.
In a few moments Ginger returned with the comb and brush. "Give her the comb," I said. I, myself, took the brush, which I placed beside me. Ginger waded into the stream and gave the comb to the new girl. "You do not yet have general comb-and-brush privileges," she informed her. "Unless, of course, the masters order it," she added.
"Yes, Mistress," said the new girl, bowing her head to her.