"It seems he knows how to keep a slave," said the man.

She shuddered.

"What did he want you for, other than the usual purposes of a slave?"

he asked.

"I do not know," she said.

"Perhaps we are too lenient with you here," he mused.

"No, no," she whispered.

To be sure, it did not seem likely to me that this was a place in which men might be criticized for being too lenient with their slaves.

"I wonder what we should do with you," he said.

"Do not return me to him, I beg it!" she wept.

I saw she was terrified. I thought of the master she feared. From her reactions even I, who did not even know him, began to tremble. From her fear I was afraid. I was afraid even to think of such a man. Then I thought that perhaps I now better understood the men in this place, that they might steal from such a man.

To be sure, I did not know the whole story. Perhaps her former owner, he under discussion, was ignorant of the ident.i.ty of her thief. Or perhaps the men here had merely purchased her, or captured her later, from another.

Between the man she feared and this place she might have changed hands a dozen times, as any property.

"I wonder what I should do with you," he said.

"Keep me!" she begged.

She did not request her freedom, of course. How insulting and absurd would have been such a request of men such as these. We wore our collars and would continue to wear them. They liked us in our collars, and found us precious in them. It would be as absurd and meaningless for us to be freed on this world as it would be for a dog or horse to be freed on my former world.

It is said that only a fool frees a slave girl. It is true.

"Keep me, Master," she begged. "Keep me, Master."

She then, lowering her head again, began again, beggingly, pleadingly, submissively with tears, desperately zealous to placate and please him, to lick and kiss his feet. She did this quite well, I thought.

My fear did not prevent me from observing her carefully. I was only a collared Earth-girl kajira. One might even have said, as one had, as the saying has it, that my brand was still smoking. Surely it was fresh. I had much to learn. Knowing suitable placatory behaviors, sometimes necessary to pacify and appease these impatient men, these demanding and powerful masters, is something very much in a girl's best interest.

Indeed, being able to please and placate a male can sometimes mean the difference between life and death, between being ordered to the furs, there to be incontestably ravished and subjugated, there, gratefully, to be totally conquered-and being hurled to ravening sleen.

She lifted her head to him, timidly, after a time, doubtless anxious to examine his visage for some clue, however faint, as to his mood, seeking there some trace, however tiny, which might hint at what was to be done with her.

I myself could not determine what he might be thinking.

"Have my ears pierced, Master!" suddenly said Dorna.

"What?" he asked.

She rose to her knees, begging, before him. "I beg to have my ears pierced, Master!" she said.

"I beg it!" She turned her head before him, to one side and then to the other. She displayed herself, desperately, pleadingly. She indicated her ear lobes. "Let my beauty, if beauty it be," said she, "be enhanced with earrings!"

There was laughter behind her, but Dorna paid no attention to it.

"Are you not curious to know what I might look like in earrings, Master?" she asked.

"Do you not fear that such might enflame your belly?" he asked.

"Let it then be enflamed!" she said.

"You do not care how much of a slave you become?" he asked.

"No, Master!" she said.

"Perhaps I could have your ears pierced, and have you put in earrings, and then have you returned to your former master," he mused.

"Oh, please, no!" she wept.

She sank down, again, to her belly.

"It is interesting to ponder what might be done with you," he said.

"I am Master's slave," she said. "It will be done with me as Master pleases."

Dorna then, clearly, was not a state slave. He in the chair was clearly her master. I did not even know his name. He was an officer in this city, it seemed, a captain, or perhaps even a high captain.

"Do you think you have been pleasing?" he asked.

She lifted her head, tears in her eyes. "I have not been pleasing," she said. "Forgive me, Master. Let me begin again. I beg to be permitted to begin again. Let me prove to Master how good a slave I can be."

"Kneel," he said.

She rose to her knees before him.

"Speak," said he.

"I beg to have my ears pierced," she said.

He regarded her.

"Dorna begs to have her ears pierced." she said. "Dorna, who is Master's humble and abject slave, begs to have her ears pierced."

"But it has already been decided," said he, "that Dorna will have her ears pierced."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Dorna does not wish," said he, "to be returned to her former master?"

"No, Master!" she said.

"What does Dorna wish?" asked he.

"To be kept by Master!" she said.

"I see," he said.

"Let me prove to you that I am a new slave," she begged. "Let me prove to you that I am not totally worthless in your collar!"

"Perhaps I shall make the decision tonight," he said, "after your ears have been pierced."

"Yes, Master!" she exclaimed.

"I am curious," he said, "to see what you will look like in earrings."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"See Dorna on her knees," said a man.

"See her beg," said another.

"I would like to see her in earrings," said another.

"She belongs in them," said another.

"A bared face and earrings," laughed one, "is a far cry from a mask of silver or gold."

"She might make an interesting slave," speculated another, "a common slave, I mean."

"Yes," said another.

"I beg to be pleasing to Master," said Dorna.

"Hear Dorna begging to be pleasing to a man," said a man.

"Doubtless she did not foresee this when she fled Tharna," said a man.

"No," laughed another.

Doubtless Dorna could not have helped, on one level or another, to have been aware of the comments of the men. But if she was aware of them, she gave little, if any, indication of it. Her primary attention was clearly on he in whose power she lay totally, as a helpless slave.

"Do you think you are capable of being pleasing?" he asked.

"Yes, Master," she said.

"And you wish to be kept?"

"Yes, Master!"

"At least for a time?"

"Yes, Master!" she said.

"Tonight," said he, "I will give you an opportunity to please me."

"Thank you, Master," she said.

"Your performance tonight will help me decide," he said, "as to whether or not there is any point in keeping you among my women."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"You understand?"

"Yes, Master."

"Do you think you will do well?" he asked.

"I shall do my best to be pleasing in all ways," she said.

"You will endeavor to prove acceptable?" he asked.

"Yes, Master," she said.

"But I require more than mere acceptability in the performances of my women," he said.

"That is well known amongst us, Master," she said.

"It will be a test, will it not be?" he asked.

"Yes, Master," she said.

"What level do you think you must attain to pa.s.s this test?" he inquired.

"I know that I must be superb!" she sobbed.

"And do you think you can attain such a level?" he asked.

"I will do my best, Master," she said.

He then spoke to one of the fellows near the great chair, the same to whom he had given the keys to my collar. "Take this slave away," he said, indicating Dorna.

"Send her to me tonight, bathed and perfumed, in earrings, with but a single veil."

"Yes, Captain," said the man. "Slave," said he to Dorna, indicating a location near the wall, where a flat trap had now been thrown back, revealing a stairwell, "Yes, Master," said Dorna to the man. Then she put her head down and, quickly, kissed each of the feet of the man in the chair. "Thank you, Master!" she said. Then she leaped up, and hurried to the stairwell, preceding the man down. She would not daily, nor make him wait. She was a slave.

Attention was then returned to me, and, instantly, frightened, I adjusted my position, so that I knelt with perfection. Under the gaze of he in the chair I subtly, frightened, widened my knees, slightly. One feels terribly vulnerable kneeling before men in the common position. It makes it so clear that one is a slave, and, too, so clear, the sort of slave one is.

I did not know where I was. I did not know my name. I did not know why I had been purchased. I did recall that he in the chair had speculated to Dorna, before his displeasure had been incurred, that she would not be displeased with my disposition.