Witness of Gor (89 page)

It is irritating to be sometimes struck by a free woman or women after this has occurred, as though we could help it! Though we are doubtless quite sensitive to matters of modesty we, as slave, are not permitted modesty. It is one thing to be bared for our masters, and another for strangers.

"Now," said he, "face me, again.”

She complied.

He then approached her and reached to the veil.

"It is your face now," said he, "the utmost delicacy, and least expression, of your features, which are to be exposed.”

She did not pull back.

"Perhaps you do not understand," he said. "Your features are to be publicly exposed, such that anyone, the least of the workers at the docks, even a male slave, may look freely, and as he pleases, upon them.”

She stood a little closer to him.

"You will be able to hide nothing," he said.

She even lifted her chin.

"Are you truly prepared," he asked, "so easily, to be face-stripped?”

She lifted her chin a little more, looking up at him.

"Strange," he said, "that you do not cringe, that you do not try to flee, that I need not use the leash, to hold you here. Have you learned so soon the futility, the meaninglessness, of recalcitrance, of disobedience? Perhaps you have felt the whip. Or perhaps you understand, already, the brand, the collar." He pulled away part of the veil from about her throat, freeing it from under the collar. "It is with pleasure, as you may well conjecture," he said, "that I now bare the face of she who was once the Lady Constanzia of Besnit. I have dreamed of unveiling her, of stripping her face, of exposing it, of making it naked." He continued to unwrap the veil.

"In a moment now, my dear," he said, "your face will be naked, as is fitting for what you are now, a slave.”

"Aiii!" he cried, in astonishment, dropping the veil to one side.

Instantly she fell to her knees before him.

He tore the gag from her, pulling out the wadding, discarding the binding.

Her head then was down to his feet, she weeping, covering them with kisses. The leash, fixed on her, fell to the floor. "I love you, my master!" she wept. "I love you!”

He drew her up to her knees and he crouched before her, holding her by the upper arms.

"What madness is this!" he cried, in consternation. "I do not understand! Are you not my Tuta!”

"I am whoever you will have me be!" she wept.

"But what of the Lady Constanzia of Besnit!”

"I was she," she cried.

"You are Tuta!" he said.

"She was the Lady Constanzia of Besnit," she wept.

"Tuta was a slave!”

"No! She was free! By the kindness of the pit master she was permitted to go abroad in the city, though only if collared, and clothed as a slave! I assure you there was no danger of her escaping!”

"Tuta," said he, "was right-thigh branded!”

"No," said she. "You assumed that because in certain rags permitted to me you could see only my left thigh, and, it not being marked, you inferred, I thought to be a slave, that I was rightthigh marked.”

He stared at her, in disbelief.

"I trust that master does not object to a left-thigh-marked girl," she said.

"No, no," he said. "I am right-handed. I prefer it.”

"Good," she said.

"You were the Lady Constanzia?”

"Until this morning, and scarcely an Ahn ago, when I was, by order of the house of William, in Harfax, branded and collared.”

"Why did you not tell me you were free?" he asked.

"I must appear as a slave," she said. "And you did not tell me who you were either!”

"Of course not," he said. "What business would it have been of yours? I thought you were a mere slave.”

"Yes, Master," she said, happily.

"My Tuta!" he said, beside himself with elation.

"No, my name is Constanzia," she said. "That is the name which has been given to me by my master!”

"Should you not have told me you were free?" he asked.

"But would you have then related to me, would you have felt free to do so, would you have even approached me, would you have considered me? I wanted you to relate to me. I wanted you to approach me. I wanted you to like me. Thus I wanted you to see me not as what I was, in some legal sense, a free woman, but as what I was in my heart, what I had come to long to be, as a full woman, as one who, in the order of nature, belongs to men, as one who, in the order of nature, is a man's slave.”

"And so I saw you," he said.

"And appropriately, my master," she whispered.

"Surely you should have told me you were free," he said.

"No, Master," she said.

"Why?" he asked.

"When I was near you," she said, "I was not free. When I was near you, I was a slave.”

They kissed.

"The first moment I laid eyes on you," she said, "I wanted to be your slave.”

"And I," he said, "from the first moment I saw you, I wanted you in my collar.”

"It is in your collar I am now," she whispered.

"How can you have been Constanzia of Besnit?" he demanded.

"Forget that cold, greedy, proud woman," she begged, "think now only of the slave in your arms, who would die for you.”

"The Lady Constanzia of Besnit," he said, "muchly wronged my house.”

"She is now your slave," she said. "Do with her as you will.”

"I must take you back to Harfax," he said.

"I heel my master with love," she said.

"I must, by oath, throw you naked and in chains to the feet of my father.”

"Do so," she said. "I beg it.”

"Your life will not be easy in the house," he said.

"I am a slave," she said. "We do not expect our life to be easy.”

"What am I to do with you?”

"It is my hope that my master will do with me as he pleases.”

"I love you," he said.

"And I love you, too, my master," she said.

"Tuta!" said he.

"Constanzia," she said.

"You will answer quickly enough to either," he said.

"Yes, Master," she said, happily.

There was a sound behind the portal to one side, that through which the clerk and the guards had earlier entered, bringing with them the slave.

Henry looked quickly toward the portal.

She looked over her shoulder, too. Frustration crossed her lovely features.

"I would serve you!" she said.

"Serve me?" he said.

"Surely master knows what to do with a slave," she said.

He threw her then to her back on the tiles. "Spread your legs, slave,”

he said.

"Yes, my master!" she said, delightedly.

I heard another sound behind the portal. The clerk, I gathered, had returned. The pit master, with the two pit guards, and I, of course, were waiting for him.

"Shameless," said the pit master to me, regarding the pair, she in his arms, on the scarlet circle.

"Yes, Master," I said, happily.

"Yet doubtless he should try the slut out," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"I wonder how she will do as a slave," he said.

I considered the pair. She was gasping in his arms, head back, eyes closed.

"Excellently, I conjecture, Master," I said.

"She looks well, naked, in her collar," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"She belongs in it," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"Ai! Aiiii!" cried Henry.

"Oh, my master! My master!" cried the slave.

Then she wept, pulling at the binding fiber, "I cannot hold you! I cannot hold you!”

He then knelt beside her, and lifted her to a half-sitting position in his arms.

Her head and hair were back, hanging down. Her body was gorgeous with color, a mottled scarlet tapestry. Her nipples were tightly pointed.

"It seems you will do as a slave," he said.

"I desire only to serve and please my master," she said.

He gasped, trying to regain his breath. He put her to her back on the scarlet circle. He, kneeling, looked down upon her.

"I love you," he said.

"And I love you, my master," she said.

Then suddenly, without warning, he seized her ankles and thrust them cruelly apart.

"You are a slave," he reminded her.

"Yes, Master," she said. "Do with me as you will.”

"Ah!" she cried.

It took him longer with her this time, and, then, in a few minutes, he stood up, unsteadily.

She looked up at him. "The slave would be grateful if her master were pleased with her," she said.

"The master is pleased with her," he said.

"The slave is grateful," she said.

The portal leading from the chamber opened and the clerk stepped through, taking in, in a glance, the slave, naked on the tiles, and her master standing over her. He did not seem surprised.

"Sir," said he. "The court must conduct further business.”

"We are leaving," said Henry, he of the house of William, in Harfax.

The clerk withdrew, presumably to return shortly.

She stretched a little, and lifted one knee, rather saucily, rather provocatively, I thought.

"Do you think that I may do as a slave, truly?" she asked.

"It is possible," he said.

"And how do I compare to your Tuta?" she asked.

"There seems little to choose between you," he said.

"But how could I compare with her?" she asked. "I am too unlike her!”

"Not as unlike as you think," he said.

"I am only as a moon to her sun," she pouted, "only as a tarskbit, and a shaved one, to her gold.”

"Perhaps it was a mistake to remove your gag," he said.

"In your mind, compared to her, I could be only as nothing," she said.

"Be silent," he said.

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Master?" she asked. For he had drawn a knife from his robes.

"Kneel," he said.

She did so.

He then went behind her and cut the remains of the outer robe of concealment away from her bound wrists.

"What are you doing?" he asked, for she had lifted her bound wrists out, away from her body, lifting them up, toward him.

"Are you not going to sever the binding fiber?" she asked.

"What is wrong with it?" he asked. "Does it not bind you perfectly?”

"It does bind me perfectly," she assured him. "I am quite helpless in it.”

"Then," said he, "it will remain as it is, until I might be pleased to remove it.”

"Oh," she said.

"Do you understand, Constanzia, Tuta-Constanzia?" he asked.

"Yes, Master," she said. "We understand.”

The leash still dangled from her neck.

"On your feet," he said.

She struggled to her feet.

He took the leash and drew her to him, quite closely. He then regarded her, about a foot from him, he holding her there, by the leash.

"You have served well in quick usages," he said. "We will see later how you do when put to service for Ahn at a time.”

"I know nothing!" she said, in alarm. "I have not been lovetrained!”

"I will train you to my tastes," he said.

"Whip-train me," she whispered.

"The training of such as you is always subject to the whip," he said.

"Good," she said.

I recalled, as undoubtedly she had, as well, his often-remarked observation, early in their acquaintance, that she was in need of whip-training. Now, it seemed that that deficiency would be remedied. It would be attended to.

She inched closer to him. She was now almost touching him, looking up at him.

"And as what shall I be trained?" she asked.

"As a pleasure slave, of course," he said.

"You dare?" she asked. "You dare do that to she who was once the Lady Constanzia of Besnit?”

"Certainly," he said.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because that is the way I want you," he said.

"You are a beast," she said.

"I am a man," he said.

"But what of my will in these matters?" she asked.

"You have no will in these matters," he said. "You are a slave. Your will is meaningless; it is nothing.”

This was true. The will of the slave did not count. The will of the master was all.

"But would I be a good pleasure slave?" she asked.