Mercenaries of Gor

"Look," I said to the captive, indicating the blonde.

The blonde tried to pull the tunic further down her thighs. She clenched her knees more closely together.

"She does look as though she belonged in a collar, doesn't she?" I asked the captive.

The captive looked up at me.

"Doesn't she?" I asked.

The captive uttered muffled noises.

I seized the captive's head, pulling it up. "Doesn't she?" I asked. "You may whimper once for "Yes," and twice for "No." I am sure you are familiar with the procedure."

She looked at me with fury. I shook her head. She whimpered once. "What?" I asked. She then whimpered again, once, clearly. "Do you wish to be beaten?" I asked. She whimpered twice, clearly. "I see that you are familiar with the procedure," I said, I then thrust her back to the floor of the alcove. I again regarded the blonde. "What are you going to do with me?" she whispered. I put my hands on her upper arms.

"What?" she asked.

I forced myself to remove my hands from her arms.

"What?" she asked.

"We are going to get out of here," I said. I then looked back at the bound captive, and then located the leather thong with the tarsk bit threaded on it. She looked at me wildly over the gag. She shook her head. She whimpered twice, again and again, desperately. Then the thong was tied about her waist, knotted in the back and the tiny coin, threaded on the thong, dangled at her belly. I pushed it into her belly so that she could feel its impression, and then released it. I then took her by the hair with my right hand.

"Come along," I said to her. I picked up the tiny lamp with my other hand. "Follow us," I said to the blonde. I then left the alcove, holding the lamp, drawing the bound captive by the hair after me. The blonde followed. The one body in the tu

In a moment or two, as we were near the end of the tu

We emerged into a yard, where the slaves presumably could get fresh air and be exercised. There were some treadmills there, and some wooden platforms, with chain holes in the planks, where, in good weather, girls might be secured for ta

I pulled my captive around and between buildings, and emerged onto the street called the Alley of the Slave Brothels of Ludmilla, and then I went between more buildings and emerged on the Avenue of Turia. This is a splendid avenue, and there are many shops on it. There I put my captive on her knees, her back to a slave ring, fixed in a wall a foot or so above the level of the pavement. I then slipped the extra binding fiber dangling from her wrists, that with which I had earlier tied her ankles up behind her, to her wrists, through the ring and then crossed her ankles and knotted it securely about them. Once again then were her wrists fastened to her ankles, though she was this time secured as well to a slave ring.

"This is a very busy street," I said, "though it does not seem so at this hour. Doubtless you will soon attract your share of attention. Doubtless some of the customers of the Tu

She looked up at me.

"Farewell, Free Woman," I said.

She extended her head toward me, whimpering, tears in her eyes.

"Do you beg for mercy, for release?" I asked. She shook her head, negatively.

"Surely you know I would not give it to you," I said.

She nodded, tears in her eyes.

"I am not that sort of man," I said.

She nodded.

"What then?" I asked.

She reached toward me with her head. I crouched down beside her. I touched her gently on the left side of her face. She pressed her cheek, the gag binding drawn back tight between her teeth, against mine. I felt her tears.

"You are not unattractive," I said. "And in you somewhere there is a female. Do not despise any longer other women, for you, too, are a woman. Let your female emerge and become one with you, until there is only you, who is the female." She whimpered softly, piteously, gratefully.

"I do not think you will long be much good for working at the Tu

She put her head down.

"For you have now discovered how inordinately precious and glorious it is to be a woman," I said. "It is its own thing, and it is different from being a man. Too, it is not even to be a pseudo-man or facsimile male. It is quite different. Such things are u

She kept her head down.

I stood up, and looked down at her. "Have no fear," I said. "You look well kneeling at the feet of a man."

She raised her head, tears ru

"A rag, or a bit of silk, would become you more than the masculine leather, so amusingly outlandish, so silly and absurd on your female body, which you seemed so fond of affecting," I said. She shrank back. "And your neck is rather bare," I said. "It could use an ornamenta€”perhaps a steel collar." I stepped back. "Yes," I said, considering her, "you are not unattractive. You would make an acceptable possession. You yourself, like the girls you so terrorized and dominated, like all women, as you have perhaps guessed by now, are ultimately and appropriately the property of men."

She nodded, and lowered her head. Tears fell from her eyes to the pavement. "Come along," I said to the blonde.

"You will leave her here, like this?" she asked.

"Of course," I said. "And it is much what would have happened to you except that you would have been free, naked and bound, the tarsk bit at your belly, to try and make your way home."

I then, leaving my former hostess behind me on her knees, naked, her hands and ankles tied behind her to the slave ring, the tarsk bit on her belly, conducted the blonde back between the buildings to the Alley of the Slave Brothels of Ludmilla. It was on that street that there was to be found the insula of Achiates.

"There is the Tu

"Free women scarcely speak of it except in whispers," she said, shuddering. "It is one of the lowest of the slave brothels in Ar."

"It is there that you were taken," I said.

"What a grim and terrible place it seems," she said.

"It does look a bit grim now," I admitted. "But then you are not seeing it at its best. It is closed now, and it is early morning. It is hard to look one's best this early in the morning. I'm sure you will agree. In the evening now, when it opens, it looks much better, warmer, cheerful, lit up, even perhaps a bit gaudy. You would have known that last night if you could have gotten your head out of the sack."