Suddenly I felt my wrists lashed swiftly, rudely, together. I drew back my wrists in fear. They were already bound! They were bound with incredible tightness. I had been bound by a tarnsman.
I looked up at him in fear. I saw him take an object from a warrior at his side. It was an opened, steel slave collar.
He held it before me.
"Read the collar," said Rask of Treve.
"I cannot," I whispered. "I cannot read."
"She is illiterate," said Ena.
"Ignorant barbarian!" I heard more than one girl laugh.
I felt so ashamed. I regarded the engraving on the collar, tiny, in neat, cursive script. I could not read it.
"Read it to her," said Rask of Treve to Ena.
"It says," said Ena, "a€”I am the property of Rask of Treve."
I said nothing. "Do you understand?" asked Ena.
"Yes," I said. "Yes!"
Now, with his two hands, he held the collar about my neck, but he did not yet close it. I was looking up at him. My throat was encircled by the collar, he holding it, but the collar was not yet shut. My eyes met his. His eyes were fierce, amused, mine were frightened. My eyes pleaded for mercy. I would receive none. The collar snapped shut. There was a shout of pleasure from the men and girls about. I heard hands striking the left shoulder in Gorean applause. Among the warriors, the flat of sword blades and the blades of spears rang on shields. I closed my eyes, shuddering.
I opened my eyes. I could not hold up my head. I saw before me the dirt, and the sandals of Rask of Treve.
Then I remembered that I must speak one more line. I lifted my head, tears in my eyes.
"I am yours, Master," I said.
He lifted me to my feet, one hand on each of my arms. My wrists were bound before my body. I wore his collar. He put his head to the left side of my face, and then to the right. He inhaled the perfume. Then he stood there, holding me. I looked up at him. Inadvertently my lips parted and I, standing on my toes, lifted my head, that I might delicately touch with my lips those of my master. But he did not bend to meet my lips. His arms held me from him.
"Put her in a work tunic," he said, "and send her to the shed."
15 My Master Will Have His Girl Please Him
"Ute!" I cried.
The guard, by the hair, threw me to her feet. I looked up at her with horror. The left side of her forehead was still discolored where I had struck her with a rock.
"I thoughta€”" I whispered.
She stood before the long, low shed, which I had seen before, when I had examined the camp. It was windowless, and formed of heavy logs. It had a heavy plank door, which was now open. When I had seen it before, it had been locked by two hasps and staples, secured by two heavy padlocks. A lovely girl, in brief work tunic, emerged, and went about the camp. I had supposed it a storage shed. I now realized it was a dormitory for female work slaves. And I realized, to my horror, that I would be such a slave.
"You wear a collar," said Ute.
"Yes," I whispered, knelling before her, my head down. I had seen that she, too, wore a collar. More importantly, about her forehead, tying back her dark hair, was a strip of rep cloth, brown, of the same material as the work tunic. I knew this meant that she had authority among the girls. Ena was high girl in the camp, but I suspected that Ute might be first among the work slaves. I began to shake.
"She is frightened," said the guard. "Does she know you?"
"She is known to me," said Ute.
I put my head down to the dirt before me. My wrists were still bound, fastened by the leather knots of the tarnsman, Rask of Treve. I was still unclothed. I wore only my bonds and, locked about my throat, a collar of steel.
"You may leave us," said Ute to the guard. "You have delivered the slave. She is now in my charge."
The guard turned and left.
I dared not look up. I was terrified.
"On the first day of my capture, at the first camp of my captors," said Ute.:I fell to Rask of Treve." She paused. "Suddenly, from the darkness, he stood before them. "Yield to me the female slave," he said. They would choose to fight. "I am Rask of Treve, he said. They then did not choose to draw their blades. With their own tarn goads, Rask of Treve drove their tarns from their camp. He then lifted me, bound, in his arms, and backed from the camp. "I thank you for the female slave, he said. And one of them said to him, "And we thank you, Rask of Treve, for our lives. Their journey back to the camp of Haakon of Skjern, afoot, will be long. Rask of Treve then brought me to his camp, where he made me his slave."
I looked up at Ute. "You wear the Kajira talmit," I said.
"The first girl of the work slaves," said Ute, "had been sold shortly before my capture. There had been dissensions, factions, among the girls, each wanting one of their own party to be first girl. I was new. I had no allegiances. Rask of Treve, by his will, and because, for some reason, he trusted me, set me above them all."
"Am I to be a work slave?" I asked.
"Did you expect to be sent to the tent of the women? asked Ute.
"Yes," I said. I had indeed expected to live in the tent of the women, not in a dark shed, among work girls.
Ute laughed. "You are a work slave."
I put my head down.
"You were captured, I understand," said Ute, "southwest of the village of Rorus."
I did not speak.
"Accordingly," said Ute, "you were still seeking my village of Rarir." "No!" I cried.
"From whence," said Ute, "you would have sought the island of Teletus." "No, no!" I cried.
"And on that island," she said, "you would have presented yourself to my foster parents, as my friend."
I shook my head in terror.
"Perhaps they might even have adopted you, in my place, as their daughter," suggested Ute.
"Oh no, Ute!" I cried. "No! No!"
"Your life would then have been quite easy, and pleasant," said Ute. I put my head down, in terror, to her feet.
By the hair, Ute, bending over me, yanked my head painfully up. "Who betrayed Ute?" she demanded.
I shook my head.
Ute's fists were excruciating in my hair.
"Who? she demanded.
I could not speak, so terrified I was.
She shook my head viciously.
"Who?" she demanded.
"I did," I cried. "I did!"
"Speak as a slave! demanded Ute.
"El-in-or betrayed Ute!" I cried. "El-in-or betrayed Ute!"
"Worthless slave," I heard a voice behind me say.
I turned, as well as I could, and saw, to my dismay, Rask of Treve. I closed my eyes, sobbing.
"It is as you said," said Rask of Treve, to Ute, "she is worthless." Ute removed her hands from my hair, and I put my head down.
"She is a liar, and a thief, and a traitress," said Rask of Treve. "She is utterly worthless."
"Yet," said Ute, "in a camp such as this, we may find uses for such a girl, there are many menial tasks to which she might be well applied."
"See that she is worked well," said Rask of Treve.
"I shall," said Ute, "Master."
Rask of Treve strode from where I knelt, leaving me with Ute.
I looked up at her, tears in my eyes. I shook my head. "You told him? I whispered. "He commanded me to speak," said Ute, "and I, as a slave, must need obey."
I shook my head.
"Your master knows you well, Slave," said Ute, smiling.
I put down my head, sobbing. "No, no."
"Guard!" called Ute.
A guard approached.
"Unbind the slave," said Ute.
I lifted my tightly bound wrists to the guard, and he undid the knots. I still knelt.