Страница 113 из 127
"You claim to be of Ar," said he. "Yet you ca
"I ca
"Shall I have you taken before the magistrates of Ar," he inquired, "to substantiate your claim of citizenship?"
"No," she mid, "no!" She looked at him, terrified. To claim a Home Stone as one's own when it is not is a serious offense among Goreans. Elicia Nevins shuddered. She had no wish to be impaled upon the walls of Ar.
"Mercy, Warrior!" she begged.
"Are you of Ar?" he asked.
"No," she said, "I am not of Ar."
"Read further in the bill of enslavement," said he.
Her hands shaking, she read further.
"Sex?" he asked.
"Female," she read.
"Origin?" he asked.
"The planet Earth," she read.
"Name?"
"Elicia Nevins," she read. The document designated her by her own name. She trembled. The document shook in her hand.
"Is that your name?" he asked.
She looked at me, and then she looked again at the war-nor. "Yes," she said, "it is my name."
"You are Elicia Nevins?" he asked.
"Yes," she said, "I am Elicia Nevins."
"Fate? he asked.
"Slavery," she read. She handed him the document with trembling hands.
"Prepare to be leashed," he said.
He looked aside, casually, as he returned the bill of enslavement to his tunic. In this moment Elicia, springing to her feet, ran to the side of the room and picked up the small dagger. I cried out. She whirled, holding the dagger. He closed his tunic, the bill of enslavement concealed within it. He looked at her, unmoved.
I do not think Elicia realized at this time that he had already begun her training.
"Get out!" she cried. "I have a knife! I will kill you! Get out!"
"You have finished your bath," he said, "and are fresh and ready. Adorn yourself now with cosmetics and scents."
"Get out!" she screamed.
"You seem slow to obey," he remarked.
She looked wildly about her, toward the open door leading from the chamber of her bath and couch.
"There is no escape," he said. "The outer door is secured with a small chain."
She fled through the door and ran to the outer door. We followed her, watching. We were then in the room containing the curule chair, the room in which she had first interviewed me, her new slave girl.
She pulled at the chain on the door, looped in rings, holding the bolt in place, and cut at the door with the knife, hysterically. Then she turned again, wildly, gasping, her hair about her face, viewing us. She fled then again into the chamber she had so recently vacated, and shut the door, throwing its bolts in place.
The warrior rose from the curule chair, in which he had taken his place, and went to the door. I stood back, startled. He kicked it twice, splintering it back, until it hung wildly open, on one hinge. The side of the door and the door frame had been splintered loose. With one foot he then brushed the door back. Within the room, miserable, brandishing her knife, stood Elicia.
"Stay away!" she screamed.
He entered the room, and faced her. I, too, slipped into the room, remaining much behind him.
"You have not yet complied with my command to adorn yourself with cosmetics and scents," he observed. "Are you disobeying?"
"Get out!" she screamed.
"Apparently you require discipline," he said.
"Get out!" she screamed. "Get out!"
He approached her swiftly. She struck down at him, and he took her wrist and, turning her body, suddenly, savagely, thrust her wrist behind her and forced it up high against her back. She screamed with pain. She was high on her toes. His left hand was on her left arm, holding her; his right hand held her right wrist, small, high behind her back. The knife clattered harmlessly on the tiles. With his right foot, he swept it to one side. He held her still for a moment. Her head was back. Her eyes were shut. Her teeth were clenched. Then, with his left foot, he kicked her feet from beneath her and she knelt at his feet, head down, her arm twisted high behind her, the wrist now bent, held between two of his fingers. She knelt near the bath. "You require discipline," he said.
"Please," she wept.
He released her wrist and arm, and taking her by the hair, thrust her on her stomach on the tiles, at the edge of the bath, her head over the water.
"I will buy my freedom!" she cried. "Let me pay you!"
He thrust her head under the water, under the foams of beauty. After a time he pulled her up, sputtering.
"I do not want to be a slave," she gasped, water ru
Again he submerged her head, holding it under the water. After a time, a longer time, he again pulled her head up, freeing it of the water. She gasped. She spit water. She coughed. Water streamed from her head. Her eyes were blinded by water and foam.
"I do not want to be a slave!" she cried. "I do not want to be a slave!"
Again he thrust her head beneath the water. I feared he might drown her.
Again he pulled her head, by the hair, from the water. "I will obey, Master," she gasped.
He kept her on her stomach by the bath and slipped the leather loop of the leash over her head. Quickly his large, efficient hands shortened the loop, sliding the slip ring to a snug fit, then securing it in place, preventing its backward movement, with the snap lock. The leash could then tighten, functioning as a locked choke leash, but could not loosen.
Elicia Nevins turned to her side, unbelievingly. She touched the leather. She had been leashed. She looked up at the warrior. "Master?" she asked.
"Soon," he said.
"Whose leash do I wear?" she asked.
"That of Bosk of Port Kar," he said.
"Not he!" she cried. I gathered she had heard of her enemy.
"He," said Bosk of Port Kar.
She trembled, leashed. I did not think hers would be an easy slavery. I did not envy her. The name of Bosk of Port Kar was dreaded among women on Gor.
He pulled her to her knees by the leash. She looked up at him.
He gestured to me. "Where is the key to her collar?" he asked.
"In the yellow drawer, in the vanity," she said, hastily, "beneath silk."
"Fetch it," said Bosk of Port Kar to me.
I fled to the drawer and found the key. I did not daily to obey. He had spoken to me in the voice of the Gorean master.
He indicated that I should press the key into the hands of Elicia and kneel with my back to her. I did so. "Remove the collar," said he to Elicia. Fumbling, she opened my collar and pulled it away, putting it and the key on the tiles. "Say, 'I no longer own you'," commanded the warrior. "I no longer own you," whispered Elicia, to me, frightened. I sprang to my feet, and turned to face her. She shrank back, leashed. My fists were clenched. She looked up at me. It was sweet to me to see her on her knees, leashed. "Kneel," said Bosk of Port Kar to me. "Yes, Master," I said. I was still a slave. Elicia and I knelt near to one another.
He stood near Elicia, and looked down upon her. Her lip trembled. "You are an agent of Kurii," he said, "and are a valuable as well as beautiful catch."
"Will I be taken to Port Kar to be interrogated?" she asked.
"Yes," he said.
"I will be cooperative," she said. "I will speak all I know." She had no desire to be put under the tortures of Port Kar.
"Of course," he said.
He glanced outside the long, high window in her compartments, out upon the towers of Ar. It was still bright. The blue sky was intense among and over the lofty towers of the city.
"It is early afternoon," she said. "It will be difficult to take me from the city by day." That was true. Tarnsmen, periodic and alight, patrolled the city. "Doubtless," she said, "you are awaiting the fall of darkness."