"No, Master," I said.

"Do you want to be a woman?" he asked.

"I am a woman," I said.

"But do you want to be a woman?" he asked.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"How do you feel about being a woman?" he asked.

"Feel?" I said.

"Yes," he said.

"I love being a woman," I said.

"Good," he said.

Until I had been brought here I had not understood what a marvelous, glorious, wonderful thing it was to be a woman. To be sure I had learned this, as perhaps one must, in bondage. A female slave, you see is not permitted to deny her s.e.x. Only here, for the first time in my life, had I found it possible to fulfill my s.e.x. Indeed, here I had no choice in the matter. I must fulfill it, wholly and irreservedly. It was no wonder then that, in spite of the dangers in which I might stand, I was so joyful.

He rose from the edge of the divan and picked up the length of chain looped beside it. This chain was some seven feet in length. There was a lock clip at one end and a collar at the other. I lay there. He made me wait for the collar. By means of the lock clip he fastened the chain to a ring fixed in the divan, one near the floor, on the right, as one faced the divan. He then took the chain about the head of the divan and there, at one point, placed a link over a stout hook, part of an integral slide-ring mounted there. In this way, it was, in effect, as though the chain was mounted at the head of the divan, rather than at the side, the hook would carry the weight of the chain, preventing it from drawing against the collar, the length of chain between the hook and collar would rest on the divan, and the amount of play in the chain allotted to me, without opening the slide-ring, would be strictly controlled. Thus, I would be, in effect, on a short chain run from the head of the divan, but, ultimately, on a long chain, run from the side ring. This is a convenience in chaining for masters. One need not, then, locking and unlocking them, spend a great deal of time changing chains. The amount of chain allotted to me from the hook would be about three feet, and from the side ring, if the chain were freed of the hook, about seven feet.

There were various rings and hooks about the divan, permitting a large degree of flexibility in custodial and pleasure arrangements. The slave is commonly prohibited from touching the slide-rings and, in any event, remains attached to the divan, by means of the longer chain. Also, of course, the slide-rings may not be available to her, depending on how she is secured, what she can reach, the number of chains, and so on. As an a.n.a.logy, it would be quite easy for a girl to unbuckle certain sorts of leather wristlets and anklets, but if she is unable to reach the buckles, as, for example, if she is spread-eagled between rings, she is as helpless as if she were held by locked steel. Slide-rings, too, it might be mentioned, can be locked shut, either with their own locks, or, more commonly, with external clip locks. He then put the collar about my neck, and closed it. I was then chained by the neck to the divan, held about a yard from the slide-ring at the head of the divan, and held, ultimately, by the lock clip, to the side ring.

He stood beside the divan. He looked down upon me.

"You not a trained dancer, of course," he said.

"No Master," I said.

"Yet," said he, "I did not find your dance displeasing."

"The slave is grateful if she has not been found entirely displeasing,"

I whispered.

"I am now going to have you, Earth woman," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said.

I was well had and soon screamed my submission and my begging for more.

His least touch, that of a master, set me on fire. Occasionally he tortured me, as it amused him, bringing me to the point of yielding, and then desisting, as I writhed, pleading, before him, lifting my body, begging for relief, for mercy. Four times he roared, laughing within me, as I clutched him. In the manner of these men with their slaves, almost in moments, I had been made wholly his.

Numerous times, sweating in my collar, I yielded.

The minimalities, the tepidities, accepted by the men of Earth in their females were not, by men such as these, permitted to us.

They choose to own us, wholly.

Then, though I clutched him still, he wearied of me.

He undid the chain from the slide-ring at the head of the divan and thrust me from the divan to the floor. I looked up at him, above me, from the tiles.

"You will sleep there tonight," he said.

Tears came to my eyes.

"I may want you again, toward morning," he said.

I looked up at him.

"Turn about," he said, "so that you lie with your head toward the foot of the couch."

I rose to all fours, and turned about, and then lay down on the tiles, on my left side, so that I might face the divan. The chain was on my neck, holding me to the divan.

I drew my legs up.

He tossed me a sheet. I gratefully clutched it about me. I then lay there, huddled in the sheet, on the tiles, my head toward the bottom of the divan.

He was soon asleep.

I lay there for a long time, trying to understand my feelings.

But, too, it seemed, this last time, he had too soon finished with me.

He had wearied of me and then thrust me from him, before I had been completed.

I squirmed a little, and moaned softly.

He did not hear me, for he was asleep. And, if he had heard me, he might have ordered me to silence.

Or perhaps kicked or beaten me.

I had seen two other girls as I had entered. They had then slipped away. I had no doubt that, in this place, they would be prize slaves, not ignorant girls from the pits. How I envied them, serving in their light silks in a place such as this. Might I not be able, sometime, to so serve, in some such placer Was I so inferior to them? Could I not serve wine, and tend to the cleaning, and polish silver, as well as they? How much better to be slave in a place such as this than in the pits! And how much better, too, I thought, might it be to be merely the slave of a quiet, simple man, not even a rich one, and serve him, and keep his compartments, and love him. I wondered why I had been brought here tonight. But I supposed that required, really, no explanation. Tunics are not that efficient at concealing slave curves, even those of an Earth woman, nor are they intended to be. I wondered where the slave, Dorna, was, whom I had met on the surface of the tower. I wondered if she sometimes lay here, beside the divan, as I. I wondered if she was kenneled tonight. I did not think she would be pleased, if she learned who it was who now lay here, beside the divan.

I then fell asleep.

Toward dawn I awakened.

I lay there on the tiles. A bit of light crept into the room from the window and porch.

I heard him stirring.

I lay there, tensely. It would be he who would decide what was to be done.

He stood up, beside the divan. He lifted me in his arms, and turned me about, so that my head was toward the head of the divan. He then, with a rattle of chain, flung me upon it.

He must have slept well.

He was indeed refreshed!

But his day would doubtless be a busy one. He was an important man. He would have much planned.

He had little time now for a slave. He was quick with me. But I had been restless during the night, it had almost been as though I had been waiting for him, hoping for him. My response was grateful, almost instantaneous. But then he was done with me. He thrust me from the surface of the divan, to my knees, beside it. I was grateful for whatever crumbs or morsels I had been thrown. He unlocked the collar from my throat. I was free now of the divan.

"Fetch the street sandals," he said, indicating a pair of sandals across the room. I went to all fours and crawled to the sandals, and picked them up in my teeth, and, on all fours, brought them back to him, and dropped them at his feet. I had been taught to fetch sandals in the pens.

He looked down at me.

I knelt before him.

I picked up one of the sandals, and kissed it, and then, humbly, head down, placed it on his foot. I did the same with the second sandal.

I then looked up at him.

"You fetch, kiss, and tie sandals well, Earth woman," he said.

"Please do not call me an Earth woman, Master," I begged. "Surely, by now, it is clear what I have become, that I am only a Gorean slave girl!"

"But we will keep an Earth-girl name on you," he said.

"As Master pleases," I said.

"It may serve, from time to time, to remind you of your origins."

"Yes, Master," I said.

In a short time he was prepared to leave his compartments.

"Guards will come for you shortly," he said.

He carried some thongs, and motioned that I should lie upon my stomach in the vicinity of the double door. He crouched beside me and crossed my wrists. He jerked tight knots on them.

He then crossed my ankles, and pulled them up, close to my wrists. In a moment, with a few quick movements, my ankles had been tied tightly together and fastened to my wrists. He then put me to my side. I looked up at him.

"Slave," said he.

"Yes, Master?" I said.

"You did not dance badly," he said, "and it is clear that you are familiar with slave movement." I supposed that slave movement, its subtlety, its grace, its sensuousness, was now a part of me, in part trained into me, in part naturally manifesting itself, in my current condition. I was no longer even aware of it, really. Slaves are not permitted to move with the rigidity, the awkwardness, of free women. Indeed, it is said that a skilled slaver can tell the difference between a free woman in the robes of concealment and a slave in them merely by having them walk about. Even so subtle a thing, you see, militates against a slave's possibility of escape. To be sure, a slave might escape one master, to fall into the hands of another. She might change her collar, so to speak. But then the new master, knowing her for an escaped slave, is likely to keep her in close chains, and treat her with great harshness and cruelty.

Indeed, after he has pleasured himself with her for some weeks he may simply return her in chains to her former master, for her punishment.

"Master?" I asked.

"It was not merely for your ignorance that you were purchased," he said. "We also wanted one who was beautiful and desirable, and such things."

I was silent.

"You are a natural slave," he said, "and you have come along well. We are pleased."

"Then I, too, am pleased," I said, "Master."

"The peasant," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"He is in your keeping," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said. He was actually in the keeping of the pit master, the depth warden, of course, but it was I, it seemed, who would be attending to the servile trivialities of his keeping, his feeding, the emptying of his wastes bucket, and such.

"Do you recall how you are to appear before him?" he asked.

"Yes, Master," I said. "In a string and slave strip, if that."

"And how are you to move before him?" he asked.

"Master?" I asked.

"You are to move well before him," he said.

"I do not understand," I said.

"Surely I need not explain such things to a female slave," he said.

"Master?" I asked.

"He is to be tortured," he said.

I was silent.

"Let him, helpless in his chains, be mocked and taunted," he said, fiercely, "as might be a helpless male slave by an insolent slave girl."

I did not look up. My left cheek was upon the tiles. I saw only his feet.

"He is to suffer," he said. "He is to well understand the contempt in which we hold him, the insult we do him."

"Master?" I asked.

"He is my enemy," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said.

And so it seemed that I, a lowly slave, figured somehow, in no way I clearly understood, in some obscure affair of state. I now better understood, as well, my having been obtained. My beauty, if beauty it was, was intended to have its purpose in certain plans. It was, it seemed, to be as food exhibited to a starving man. And it seemed, too, that, from the point of view of those on this world, that some grievous insult was intended as well, first, doubtless, the general insult that he, a free man, would be attended by a mere slave, an insult common to those in the pits, and, second, that he, a free man, would be attended by such a slave, a mere pierced-ear girl, and one who would be clad in such a way before him, and behave in such a way before him, one whom he, to his misery, would be unable either to enjoy or punish.

He must endure, even, it seemed, if they had their way, the provocations, the mockery, of a slave. How rich the joke! How delicious the insult! But I wondered, really, if the peasant, so simple, so huge, so remote, would even understand this sort of thing. Might it not all be lost upon him? I was not even certain he understood he was in chains, in the depths. Perhaps in his mind, he was in some simple hut, far off, perhaps in some small, fertile valley, tending his fields.