I knew so little of this world!

When I did understand it I became aware, more seriously than hitherto, of the nature of the men in this city-of their skill, ferocity and pride, and their sense of honor.

The men of Gor, our masters, tend to take honor very seriously.

I would learn more of this later.

The slave, incidentally, wants to be owned by a man of honor. We want to be proud of our masters.

Too, we are safer with such a man. The man of honor, of course, and perhaps in part because of his sense of honor, holds us in uncompromising, perfect bondage. But that is what we want, for we are slaves.

This, the generally preferred targeting of slaves in raids, and such, I would suppose, has less to do with ordinances, and such, as other things, such as the relative inaccessibility of free women. But I would like to think, too, that it is primarily because we are far more attractive than free women.

If free women were really beautiful, why would they not be already in collars? To be sure, most slaves were once free women. I would have to grant that. On Earth, I myself, though a natural and rightful slave, had been legally free.

That changed, of course, once I had arrived on this world. I did have to admit, however, that my charge, the free woman, the Lady Constanzia of Besnit, was an extraordinarily beautiful female. She would be a prize for any chain. And she was free, of course. But the nets and ropes of the hunters, I note, most frequently close on the muchly exposed, startled bodies of kajirae, and I would like to think that the reason for this is simple, that we are just, statistically, much more desirable, much better catches. Oh, I suppose there is some pleasure for a brute in unwrapping a free woman, so to speak, like a present, the suspense, the antic.i.p.ation, and such, hoping to be pleasantly surprised, and so on, but what if he isn't?

Then what? Perhaps he can get a few coins on her, as a laundress, or perhaps he might sell her to a woman as a serving slave. But they usually like pretty women as serving slaves.

A word might be devoted to that.

Taste is doubtless involved, as the pretty woman dresses up the compartments of the free woman, much as does exquisite furniture, attractive appointments, and such. But I think, too, free women enjoy ruling women who are superior to themselves in beauty.

In the wars between free women and slave girls woe to the slave girl who is the serving slave of the free woman! On such a woman the free woman may to her heart's content indulge her vanity, her arrogance, and her pettiness, and may inflict on her her animosity, and, indeed, her hatred, and her frustration, ventilating these things abundantly and richly, and with impunity, upon the unfortunate, innocent one who is taken as standing proxy for her kind, that kind of which the free woman is so resentful and jealous, a kind of much greater interest and attractiveness to men, the female slave. The serving slave of a free woman is often lashed mercilessly if she so much as looks at a man. Some claim that the keeping of pretty serving slaves by free women is to guard against their own abduction. Should a tarnsman, say, with slave noose in hand, invade their quarters he may choose the slave over the mistress. To be sure, if he prefers the slave he is certain to do so, and she is such that she will rush eagerly to his bracelets, joyful in her femininity and collar to now have the opportunity to serve her natural master, a male. But obviously, if the fellow is interested, he will take both. If he takes one, he will bind her belly up over his saddle, usually that she may be casually and conveniently caressed in flight, that she may be writhing in helpless, raging heat by the time he reaches his camp. If he takes two he will simply chain them one on each side of the saddle, to the booty rings, and thus have a balanced load. If this is done they may be bound in the camp and aroused at his leisure. In the case of taking both the mistress and the slave, the slave, of course, having been longer in the collar, will be "first girl" over her erstwhile mistress. Naturally this is a situation to which she, switch in hand, does not object.

But let us suppose, say, that the tarnsman, the beast, is not satisfied with the "present" he has purloined, it now, unwrapped and examined, having been found wanting.

So let her be a laundress, a field slave, a factory slave, chained to her loom.

But perhaps she could become beautiful in bondage. What then? And there are many modalities of female beauty. And women are very pretty in collars. And as they lose their inhibitions, and such. But there is no comparison, in my view, at least, between the slave girl and the current free woman. We are better, infinitely better! At the very least the free woman, once she is in a collar, and finds out what it is all about, will be much improved; she will soon be a thousand times, and more, better than she was when she was only another smug, vain, haughty, nuisance.

The collar is good for us, you see.

So the slave girl is infinitely better than the free woman.

On the other hand, I must grant that the "free woman," once she is no longer free, once she becomes a slave, and learns her collar-once she is no longer free-and has now become a slave girl-will have her value-on the block, and in the kitchen, and in the furs.

That is undeniable.

But then of course she is a slave girl.

In any event, the Lady Constanzia and I were similarly attired.

Yes, I thought, she was beautiful.

And how right that collar looked on her neck!

How she had looked at it in the mirror, and adjusted it, this morningso carefully, so admiringly-with such approving vanity!

She loved it, the pretty little b.i.t.c.h!

To be sure, we were very much the same height. She was perhaps a quarter of an inch or so taller than I. I had little doubt that many men, seeing us, took us for a matched set.

We were similar in hair and eye color, and were similarly figured.

I also doubted now that anyone, even a slaver, would have suspected that the Lady Constanzia was not a slave, without ascertaining, of course, that she lacked the brand. She had something now, you see, of the eagerness, the vitality, the interest, the curiosity, the awakened nature, the readiness to live and experience, of a slave.

Certainly most of the men looking upon us-and there were many-would have taken us both for slaves and-I am confident-attractive slaves.

Certainly there could be little doubt about our charms.

I was a little apprehensive about matters, of course, for it seemed that the pit master had realized what I was doing with the free woman, using her, at least from my own point of view, to take out my little vengeances on my superiors, free women. It was for that reason, I suspect, that he had decided, today, what we would both wear.

I pulled the edges of the slits at the side of the brief skirt a little more closely together, but, of course, as soon as I released them, they parted again.

My flanks were well displayed.

It was not that I minded this so much in itself, for I am not altogether unaware of my own possible charms, and, as a slave, doubtless a vain one, was not above displaying them, and even flaunting them upon occasion, shamelessly and joyously, as that I was somewhat irritated that the distinction between us, she and I, was no longer clearly marked. To be sure, it was she who was in the bracelets, and not I, and it was I who held the leash, and not she. That, I supposed, should be more than enough.

"Do you see him?" she asked, anxiously.

"No," I said, not even looking about. I wanted to get to the docking area. Already the tarns, one by one, were alighting.

"Am I overdressed?" she asked, anxiously.

"No," I said.

"Do you think the tunic is pretty?" she asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Do you think he will like me like this?" she asked.

"Yes," I said. She was exquisitely fetching. The tunics are designed to set off the charms of a slave. And this tunic, to be sure, left little to the imagination.

"I hope so," she worried.

"In a slave collar," I said, "any woman might as well be naked."

"Oh," she said.

The collar, of course, speaks of the vulnerability of the slave. It makes clear her helplessness, her availability. In this sense, in seeing a woman in a slave collar, it is much like seeing her naked, or, if you prefer, potentially naked.

"I can see little from my knees!" she protested, looking up at me.

"It is not yours to look," I said, "but yours to be found, if any should regard you of interest."

"Oh!" she said.

I was. .h.i.tching her head back, by the leash and collar, close to the slave ring.

"Please, Janice!" she said. "Not so close!"

"Why not?" I asked.

"I want to be able to put my head down," she said. "I want my lips to be able to touch the very tiles of the terrace!"

I looked at her. I did not think it was the tiles of the terrace that she wanted to kiss.

"Please, Janice," she begged.

"So you have already reached that phase, have you?" I said.

"Yes!" she said, defiantly, earnestly.

I gave her the slack she required.

"Thank you, Janice!" she said. "Thank you!"

"I will be back shortly," I said.

"Do you see him?" she asked.

"No," I said, looking about. "Do not get up!" It is customary for slaves not to stand at slave rings.

Usually they kneel there, or sit there, or lie there.

"Yes, Mistress!" she said. How naturally, how quickly, how easily, I thought, had that expression escaped her! To be sure, it was part of her disguise, so to speak.

There were still people hurrying over the bridge. There was already a crowd at the docking area, mostly near the warehouses.

I checked the bracelets, and the leash lock, of the Lady Constanzia.

"You have been so kind to me, Janice!" she exclaimed. "I am sorry that I had you whipped!"

That had occurred in my first day in the depths, when she was still the occupant of a dangling slave cage, suspended over a pool to which large aquatic rodents, one variety of urt, had access.

"Do not concern yourself with the matter," I said. "I may have your clothing removed and have you whipped."

"Janice!" she said.

"Then you can see for yourself what it is like," I said.

"Please do not whip me, Janice," she said.

I could do this, incidentally, as she was in my keeping. On the other hand, I had no intention of doing so.

I was really rather fond of the Lady Constanzia. She did not seem to me to be a bad sort, considering that she was a free woman.

"Perhaps I shall," I said, lightly.

"No!" she begged.

"Why not?" I asked.

"I want my first beating to come from the hands of a man," she said.

"After that, you may do with me what you want."

"I will be back shortly!" I a.s.sured her.

I did turn back, at the bridge, to see her kneeling there, in the accustomed place, by the slave ring.

I could also see, now, the scarlet-clad figure for whom she had been waiting making his way across the terrace, toward her. At almost the same time she may have seen him because, when I glanced back, she was kneeling beautifully, modestly, head down, at the ring. Perhaps she would lift her head, seeming surprised, and pleased, when his shadow fell across her body.

Some days ago, upon my suggestion, following her urgent request for it, the pit master had permitted her slave wine. Who knew, after all, what might occur in the streets or markets? There were many byways in such a city. narrow alleylike streets, dark doorways, and such, into which a slave, ordered to silence, might be drawn.

"That is what we must drink," I had informed her, noting with satisfaction the expression on her face as she had lifted up the bowl, filled with the foul brew, and had smelled it. "It is not like the delicious beverages quaffed by free women for such purposes, is it?" I had asked.

"No," she had whispered.

"I am told, however," I said, "that the releaser is delicious. When we are given that we know that we are to be bred." This form of mating, as one might suppose, is carefully controlled and takes place under supervision. The slaves selected for breeding are generally unknown to one another, normally hooded and commonly forbidden to speak. In this way it is felt that certain complications may be avoided.

She looked down at the foul brew.

"You need not drink it," I said to her.

"No," she whispered. Then she lifted the bowl to her lips. She put back her head. Then, scarcely pausing to take a breath, she drained the bowl.

"Oh!" she cried, her entire body shuddering.

"That is slave wine," I said, "free woman."

I regarded her with some satisfaction. I thought that she might now understand, a little bit better than before, what it might be to be a slave.

"How can you drink it?" she asked.

"Do you think we are given a choice?" I asked.

She put the bowl down, unsteadily.

"Will it work with a free woman?" she asked.

"If she is a female," I said. "Where do you think slave girls come from?"

"Bracelet me now, Janice," she asked. "Leash me. Take me above now."

The scarlet-clad figure had now reached the Lady Constanzia. I saw her lift her head, timidly, to him.