About slavery, dreams and the perfect Master & perfect slave "What is slavery like in the south?" asked Audrey.
"It is the same as here," I said. "You would be in the absolute power of a
man."
"I know that, Master," she said. "But how would I be dressed? What would I
have to do?"
"You would be dressed, if at all, as your master pleased," I said, "and you
would have to do whatever you were told."
"Oh, I know that, Master," she said, laughing, kissing me. Then she lay with
her head on my shoulder.
"Would I be branded?" she asked.
"Doubtless," I said. "It is easier to keep track of a slave that way."
"Does that hurt much?" she asked.
"At the time," I said, "not later."
"Where are we branded?" she asked.
"A girl is commonly branded on the left or right thigh," I said, "sometimes
on the lower left abdomen."
"I am afraid to be branded," she said.
"It does not hurt afterwards," I said. "It is only a mark to help keep track
of you."
"Really, Master?" she asked.
"Well," I said, "if the truth must be told, it does, considerably, enhance
your beauty. Also it is sometimes not without its psychological effect."
"I can well imagine its psychological effect," she said. She shuddered.
"It can help to impress upon a girl that she is a slave," I admitted.
I touched her on the thigh.
"There?" she asked.
"Quite possibly," I said.
Suddenly she clutched me. "Oh, oh," she cried. "It is the thought of being
branded," she whispered, intensely. "Please, Master, hold me, hold me!"
Her thighs were clenched fiercely. "I am going into orgasm," she cried out,
frightened. I held her, as she gasped and wept in my arms. I had not even
entered her, or touched her intimately. She looked up at me, tears in her
eyes. Angrily I thrust apart her legs. "Forgive me, Master," she wept "It
was the thought of being branded."
"So, Slave," I said, "you want the iron?"
"Yes, Master," she wept.
"If I should have you in the south," I said, "I would have you soon marked."
"Yes, Master," she wept. "Yes, Master!"
"Serve me now, Slave," I said.
"Yes, Master," she cried. "Yes, Master!" she cried.
"Serve me again," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said. "Audrey will now serve her master again.
"Does Audrey like serving her master?" I asked.
"Audrey loves serving her master," she whispered.
"Why is that?" I asked.
"Audrey is a slave," she whispered.
"It is true," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said. Then she began to cry out with helpless pleasure.
"In the south," I said, "there are many cities. Many of these cities consist
largely of high cylinders, joined by traceries of high bridges."
"It sounds very beautiful," she said.
"It is," I said.
"Are there many slave girls in these cities?" she asked.
"Yes, many," I said.
"Tell me of them," she said.
'They are commonly kept barefoot," I said, "and are clad in brief tunics.
Their hair is usually worn long and loosely. Their throats are normally
encircled by collars, which identify their masters."
"Are such girls treated kindly?" she asked.
"It depends on the will of the master," I said. "They are slaves."
"Of course," she said.
"Most girls are treated kindly," I said, "provided they are absolutely
pleasing in all ways."
She was silent.
"That is little enough to expect from a slave," I pointed out.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Do you object?" I asked.
"No," she said. "It is only that the domination to which the Gorean slave girl
is subject is so uncompromising, so complete."
"It is absolutely uncompromising and complete," I told her. "Goreans are not
men of Earth," I said. "They will have what they truly want from a woman,
everything."
"Though I am destined to be the helpless victim of their will, their power
and their lust," she said, "yet I cannot help but admire and fear such
men."
'They will make you be a woman, their woman," I said.
"In my most secret dreams," she said, "I longed for such a man. I did not know
they could exist."
"Something in your heart," I said, "whispered to you that there must be
somewhere such men."
"It was only a longing dream," she whispered, "the yearning of a girl for a
true man, one proud and free and strong, one not dishonest, one not broken,
one not robbed of himself, one who could by his might and strength make me
as much a woman as he was a man."
"And then?" I asked.
"And then, one day, on a platform in the Sardar, I learned that it was not a
simple dream, but that it had been a dream to which there corresponded a
fearful reality."
"You, wench of Earth," I said to her, "now lie naked on Gor, a slave girl."
"Yes," she whispered.
"Are you frightened?" I asked.
"Yes," she whispered. "I am terribly frightened." She clutched my arms.
"Should those of Earth not be told that there truly is a Gor?" she asked.
"No," I said. "It is better that they do not know."
"How many girls, this very night on Earth," she asked, "are being brought to
Gor?"
"I do not know," I said. "Perhaps none. I do not know the schedule of the
slave runs."
"The horror, and the joy, of it," she said.
"Joy," I asked, "Slave?"
"Yes, joy," she whispered. "Master?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Would you please stand over me?" she asked.
I did so.
"Yes," she said, "that is how I imagined him, the man in my dreams, he for
whom I longed, he who would come for me and place me, regardless of my will,
resolutely in his total bondage."
"And what did you do?" I asked.
"I knelt before him, like this," she said, "and put my head to his feet." She
looked up at me. "You see," she said, "I knew, in seeing him, that he was my
master."
"And what did he do?" I asked.
"He did not let me speak," she said, "but took me by the shoulders and gently,
but powerfully, pressed me back."
"Like this?" I asked.
"Yes," she said. "Oh, I wanted to protest, and speak, and question him, but I
saw in his eyes that I must not do so."
"And then?" I asked.
"He told me that he would try me out," she said, "and see if I pleased him.
If I did not he would leave me alone, and unharmed, and I should not see him
again. But to beware, for if he was pleased with me, he would take me away
with him, to a far world, one very different from my own, where he could
keep me as he wished, and would do so, as a slave." She smiled at me. "He
encouraged me to try to resist him, that I might keep my pride and freedom."
She looked up at me. "You see, he only wanted me if I truly was a slave," she
said.
"What did you do then?" I asked.
"I opened my body to him like a flower," she said. "I said to him, "Do not
leave me, Master. Take me with you. I am truly a slave as you have suspected.
You are the first man to discern this. Thus you are the first man to whom I
belong.'" She smiled. "'Yes,' he said, 'I see that you are a slave, but I do
not know if you will please me.'"
"And then?" I asked.
"Then," she said, "I was very afraid, for I sensed that if he should so much
as touch his lips to mine I could never again be anything but a man's slave.
What if I should not please him? Would he not then simply abandon me, leaving
me behind, a masterless girl, a lonely, forlorn slave on a world empty of men
strong enough to be a woman's master?"
I supposed it was hard for one who was a slave to be in a world in which there
were no masters. Perhaps there were masters on such a world, but she had not
yet found them. The slave seeks her master, the master his slave. When they
find one another they will know it. She will kneel to him, and he will accept
her as his.
"Did he permit you to speak further?" I asked.
"Yes," she said. I opened my arms to him. I said to him, 'I will try with all,
my heart to please you, my master, that I may be found worthy to be taken
with you as your slave."'
"What then did he say?" I asked.
"He said nothing," she said. "He only held me by the arms, and I could not
move. Then he laughed. Then he used me for his pleasure."
"His domination was ruthless?" I asked.
"Yes," she smiled, "lovingly ruthless."
"He treated you as a slave?" I asked.
"Completely," she said.
"As was proper," I said.
"Of course," she smiled. "I was his slave. Should a slave not be treated as
a slave?"
"Of course," I said.
"When he finished with me," she said, "I said to him, 'Have I pleased you,
Master?' He did not respond but, from a bottle, poured a tiny bit of fluid
into a cloth. 'Did I please you, Master?' I again begged. Then he placed the
damp cloth over my mouth and nose, holding it tightly. 'Yes,' he said, 'you
have pleased me, Slave.' I looked up at him. I could sense the fumes in the
cloth. 'You are a pretty slave,' he said. 'You will bring a good price in the
market.' I realized then that he would only keep me for a time, and would then
sell me. I realized then that I would have many masters. I struggled, but I
could not escape. Then I lost consciousness."
"An interesting dream," I said.
"Then one day," she said, "I awakened, chained on Gor," She kissed me.
"Master," she said.
"Yes," I said.
"The girls who are kept slave in the cities," she asked, "are they happy?"
"Many are blissfully happy," I said. "Strange," I mused, "that that should be
so, and yet the facts are incontrovertible, Many of them, collared, subject
to the whip, are yet blissfully happy. It makes little sense to me. I do not
profess to understand it."
"I sense how it could be, Master," she said.
"A girl, of course," I said, "in having many masters learns how to please men.
She must, of course."
"I am sure that is part of it, Master," said Audrey. "May I speak?"
"Yes," I said. "I sense," she said, "what my true master would be like."
"Any man who owns you is your true master," I said.
"That is true," she laughed. "But I have a dream of a perfect master, to
whom I could be but a perfect slave."
"I see," I said.
"Other girls, too," she said, "must sense this sort of thing."
"Perhaps," I said.
"Do not men have some sense of what sort of girl would be their perfect
slave?" she asked.
"Some girls are surely more attractive and desirable than others," I said,
"and clearly this is not a simple function of physical appearance. Indeed,
some rather plain girls are, for no reason that is clear to me, tormentingly
attractive, intensely desirable."
"There is no simple answer," she said.
"No," I said, "I do not think so."
"Is it not true," she laughed, "that all men want a woman who will bring them
their slippers in her teeth?"
"Sandals," I corrected her.
"Sandals," she laughed.
"Yes," I said, "every man wants such a woman."
"And a slave girl must," she said.
"If the master so instructs her," I said. "Of course."
"All men want," she laughed, "is a girl panting in their arms."
"Surely more than that," I said. "Any girl can be made to pant in a mans
arms," I pointed out.
"That is true," she said, bitterly. She was slave. She knew she could be
forced to yield to any man.
"What is it that you are trying to say?" I asked.
"You could not easily delineate for me your criteria for the perfect slave,"
she said, "nor I to you my criteria for the perfect master. Indeed, one might
be a perfect slave to one master and not to another, as one might be the
perfect master to one slave and not to another."
"Go on," I told her.
"But we both sense," she said, "that there would be a rightness, or
rightnesses, about such matters."
"Perhaps," I said.
"I think I would know my perfect master as soon as his eyes met mine," she
said.
"I doubt it," I said.
"I would certainly know," she said, "that it might well be he."
"Perhaps," I granted.
"Too," she said, "I suspect that you generally have little difficulty in
picking from a line of chained girls those who are of the most interest to
you."
"That is true," I smiled. "But such difficulties, even should they occur,
are, of course, not intolerable."
"Beast," she said. "But my point, Master, if I may be permitted to continue
to speak, is that both of us would sense rightnesses, fittingnesses, matches,
agrecabiities. complementarities, in such matters."
"Of course," I said. Then I said, "Ah yes, your point is an interesting one."
"Yes," she said. "Suppose that a woman is, as I am, a natural slave."
"Yes," I said, "the buying and the selling."
"A girl will often have many masters, will she not?" she asked.
"Yes," I said. "A comely girl may change hands many times."
"And a master, of course," she said, "is likely to own, from month to month,
or year to year, several different girls."
"Yes," I said. Most Gorean masters could not afford more than one girl. The
price obtained on one, of course, can be applied to the purchase of the next.
In this sense, after the initial investment, provided one both sells and
buys, girls are cheap.
"A man, too," she said, "buys women who are attractive to him. It is harder
for the woman, but she, too, at times, is in a position to influence her
sale. She will try to appear more beautiful and pleasing to the man she
wishes to buy her than to one she does not wish to buy her."
"The slaver will take her hide off with the whip if he catches her at it," I
said. "Too," I said, "at a public auction that sort of thing is difficult or
impossible."
"Yes," said Audrey, "in a public auction, as I understand it, a woman is
completely at the mercy of the men."
"Your point is an excellent one," I said. "If women are true slaves, and
men are true masters, and slave exchanges are frequent, there is a resonable
chance that a man may find his choice slave, and a girl her choice master."
"Or perfect slave and master," she whispered.
Beasts
"You are a highly intelligent slave," I said, "Audrey."
"Thank you, Master," she said.
"You have been instructive to me," I said. "I am pleased by this."
"Men of Earth," she said, "will not listen to a woman.
"Some men will," I said. "But what you intimate is true. Generally men of
Earth will not listen to women. Their minds are closed on the matter. Being
men they think all human beings are the same as themselves. It is a natural
fallacy. Masculine women, those unfortunate creatures, in their frustration,
exploit this weakness in the men of Earth. They tell them what they want to
hear. This they then take as evidence confirming their preconceptions. It is
sad that the true needs of women must then be sacrificed to the ignorance of
men and the political and economic ambitions of hirsute frustrates."
"You speak cruelly," she said.
"I am sorry," I said. "Doubtless the matter is more complex than these
simplicities suggest."
"I pity women who are not women," she said.
"On Earth," I said, "they proclaim themselves the true women."
"That is natural," she said. "What do you expect them to say?"
"I suppose you are right," I said.
"I think so," she said.
Beasts
About the girls situation and potential future
"Master," she said. She spoke very softly, that she not awaken me, should I
be asleep.
"Yes," I said.
"Do you think Imnak will keep me a slave forever," she asked.
"No" I said, "I do not think so."
"Will he free me?" she asked.
"Of course not," I said.
"Will I be killed?" she asked.
"I do not think it likely," I said, "if you are sufficiently pleasing."
"I will be sufficiently pleasing," she said, earnestly. "What do you think
will be done with me?" she asked.
"Imnak now has Poalu," I said.
"He does not need me any longer," she said.
"No," I said, "nor Thimble, though you are both pretty things to have in the
tent."
"What will he do with us?" she asked.
"It is my guess," I said, "that both Thimble and yourself will be traded
south next spring for tea and sugar."
"Traded! For tea and sugar!" she said.
"Yes," I said.
"Audrey Brewster sold for tea and sugar!" she said.
"Thistle, the slave," I said.
"But I am she," she said.
"Be pleased that panther girls are not selling you for arrow points and a
handful of candy," I said.
"Who are panther girls?" she asked.
"Strong women, huntresses who frequent the northern forests," I said. "They
enjoy selling feminine women like yourself."
"Oh," she said.
"You are a slave," I said. "Do you think you would like to be a woman's
slave?"
"No," she said, shuddering. She kissed me. "I am a man's slave," she said.
"It is true," I said.
Marauders
Asking a few questions in a new city
I then went back, amidships, and gathered up a sea bag and a few articles, a
shaving knife, and such, which I had purchased on the ship from one or another
of the good fellows of Port Cos. Then, my blade over my shoulder, I lifted my
hand to the deck officer and took leave of the Tais.
I had scarcely set foot on the pier when the three girls came quickly forward,
and knelt down.
“Come to the Dina!” said the first. “All our girls are
dinas!” She turned her left thigh to me and drew up her tunic,
showing me the dina brand. The dina is a small, roselike flower. It is
popularly called the “slave-flower.” The dina brand, or
slave-flower brand, is a common one on Gor.
“Come to the Veninium!” said the second. The veminium is a
delicate, five-petaled blue flower common in both the northern and southern
hemispheres of Gor. “We are not so expensive!” The use of the
veninium, as a name for the tavern, given the widely spread range of the
flower was perhaps supposed to suggest affordable beauty. The second and the
third girls were the one who were bare-breasted.
“My master’s tavern is the Larma!” said the
third.
I smiled. The larma is luscious. It has a rather hard shell but the shell
is brittle and easily broken.
Within, the fleshy endocarp, the fruit, is delicious, and very juicy.
Sometimes, when a woman is referred to as a “larma,” it is
suggested that her hard or frigid exterior conceals a rather different sort
of interior, one likely to be quite delicious. Once the shell has been
broken through or removed, irrevocably, there is, you see, exposed, soft,
vulnerable, juicy and helpless, the interior, in the fruit, the fleshy
endocarp, in the woman, the slave.
“Are all the paga taverns in Port Cos named for flowers or
fruits?’ I asked.
“No!” laughed the first.
“Surely there is a connection,” I said, “through ownership
or tradition?”
“Many towns have a tavern of dinas, Master,” said the first.
“That is true,” I granted her.
“’Veminium’ is a pretty name,” said the second.
“True,” I said. “Incidentally, what is the point of the
name? Is it to suggest that the girls there, like the veminia, are cheap and
pretty?”
The second girl, she from the Veminium, gasped, suddenly, laughing, putting
her hand before her mouth. “I do not know!” she said, looking at
the others, scandalized, laughing. “I never thought of it!
Perhaps, Master!”
“And are all the girls there cheap and pretty?” I asked.
“I think we are pretty,” she laughed. “I do not know if we
are so cheap.”
I smiled. I had wondered if perhaps the name had not been chosen more to lure
fellows inward, than to supply an objective assessment of the commercial
competitiveness of the contained services and merchandise.
“There are many paga taverns in Port Cos, Master,” said the first.
“Not all are named for flowers or fruits. There is the Cage, the Jewels
of Telnus, Artemidorus’ Cargo, the Secret Basement, the Hold,, the
Scarlet Whip, the Tavern of the Collar of the Two Chains, and many
others.”
“I am pleased to hear it,” I said. “I take it that you are
all friends.”
“Yes, Master,” said the first.
“The Veminium and the Larma are owned by brothers,” said
the first.
“They are near one another,” said the second.
I was pleased to hear these things. The girls were friends, which suggested
they might be from similar style and level institutions. Certainly girls
from high taverns and from low taverns seldom consort with one another.
And two of the places were owned by brothers and were near one another.
These were connections, at least of some sort.
“And what of the girls at the Larma?” I asked. “Are they
expensive?”
“We, like those at the Dina and Veminium, are affordable,” she
said. “Our uses go much for the standard prices.”
“Were the girls at the Larma all once larmas?” I asked.
“I suppose some, Master,” laughed the third girl.
“Were you a larma?” I asked her.
“No, Master,” she laughed. “I have known that I was a slave
since puberty, and I never pretended to be otherwise, perhaps because I
feared someone might see through me and beat me.”
“Of what caste were you?’ I asked.
“Of the Peasants,” she said. “We had too many daughters,
too few sons. Two of my older brothers had already been sold into slavery
before I was fifteen. One autumn my father’s fields again failed. We
were starving. I begged him to sell me. He then beat me, and bound me, and
sold me.”
“You are happy as a slave?” I asked.
“Yes, Master,” she said. “It is what I am, and want to be.
I hope only that someday I may have a private master, a love master, to whom
I may be his devoted and obedient love slave.”
“You long,” I asked, “for a master who is strong, and
love?”
“Yes, Master,” she said.
She was a pretty young thing. She had very dark hair and very light skin,
and, for a girl who had once been of the Peasants, was surprisingly slim.
She reminded me a little of Phoebe, from Telnus, whom I had left on the
coffle with the remainder of the debtor sluts I had redeemed, and obtained,
at the Crooked Tarn, Temione, Amina, Rimice and Liomache.
“Master!” she said.
I had put down the sea bag and, crouching before her, lifted back
the beads about her body.
“Are you typical of the girls at the Larma?” I asked her.
“I think so, Master,” she said.
“You are, of course, soliciting for your master’s tavern,”
I said.
“Yes, Master,” she said.
Renegades