"Smell me, too, Master," said another slave. She, too, in brown rep-cloth, rubbed against the perforations.
"Get your filthy, stinking little bodies away from there!" called Prodicus.
The, two girls laughed and, turning about, ran swiftly, lightly, away.
Both were exciting, briefly tunicked, collared. One's tunic had been torn to the waist on her left side.
They did not stay to feel the whip of Prodicus.
"Slave! Slave!" called a small child, beating on the metal of the slave box. "Slave! Slave!" called his companion. They struck repeatedly on the box. Inside the noise was painful. Then they ran to play elsewhere.
"Master!" I called to a man who was passing by. I pressed my face against the perforations. "Please, Master," I called, "in what city am I?"
He spit against the perforations. I swiftly drew back my face. I wiped my cheek.
He was kind, I now realize, not to have had me beaten.
How insolent I had been, to have dared to speak to him. Some slaves have been slain for such acts.
"Are you a pretty one?" I heard. A woman's voice had spoken. I looked up, through the perforations.
"I can see very little of him," said another voice, also that of a woman. Two free women, veiled and in robes, stood near the slave box. They had market baskets on their arms.
"Are you pretty?" I heard.
"I do not know, Mistress," I said.
She laughed.
"For what market are you bound?" asked the other woman.
"The market of Tima," I said.
They looked at one another and laughed. "I'll bet you are a pretty one!" said one of the women.
"My companion would not even let me have a pet like you," said the other.
"Are you quite tame?" asked the first woman.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"He probably is," said the second woman. "The market of Tima is famous for her tamed slaves."
I did not tell them that I came from a world in which almost all the males were perfectly tamed, indeed, a world in which males were supposed to pride themselves on their inoffensiveness and agreeability.
"I do not trust Kajiri," said the first woman. "They can revert. Can you imagine how fearful that might be, if one turned on you?"
The second one shuddered, but I thought with pleasure. "Yes," she said.
"Consider your danger, and what they might make you do," said the first.
"Yes," said the second.
"They might treat you as though you were little better than a slave."
"Or perhaps as only a slave," said the second.
"How horrifying that would be," said the first.
"Yes," said the second, but it seemed to me that she, beneath her robes and veil, shuddered again with pleasure.
"But if the Mistress is strong," said the first, "what has she to fear?"
"One who is stronger than she," said the second.
"I am stronger than any man," said the first.
"But what if you should meet your Master?" asked the second.
The first one was silent then for a moment. Then she spoke. "I would love him and serve him, helplessly," she said.
"Beautiful Mistresses," I said, "can you tell me in what city I am?"
"Be silent, Slave," said the first woman.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"Curiosity is not becoming in a Kajirus," said the second.
"Yes, Mistress," I said. "Forgive me, Mistresses."
They turned away, their market baskets on their arms. The butt of the whip of Prodicus suddenly struck twice at the side of the box, sharply. I jerked away from the sound, crying out, startled, frightened. "Be silent in there, Slave," he said, "or you will be well beaten."
"Yes, Master," I said. "Forgive me, Master."
I then felt the slave box, on the rings and poles, again being lifted. I pressed my face again to the perforations. I saw the brightly colored robes and tunics of the people. The square was crowded. I saw market stalls and heard the cries of vendors hawking their goods. I smelled fresh vegetables and roasting meat. The day was bright. The air was clear. On a cement dais, at one side of the square, I saw a man selling naked, chained slave girls. They were very beautiful, and piteous, in their collars and chains. I thought of Miss Beverly Henderson. How lovely she had been. I scarcely dared to conjecture what tragic fate might have befallen her on this rude world.
"Make way," called Prodicus. "Make way for goods bound for the market of Tima!"
10 I FIND MYSELF SLAVE IN THE HOUSE OF THE LADY TIMA; I AM RECREATION FOR THE LADY TIMA, AFTER SHE HAS FINISHED HER WORK
The door of the slave box, behind me, was opened, and swung down. At the same time I was thrust forward in the box and my ankles were seized. I was dragged backwards out of the box on my belly. Four men held me. Prodicus jammed the key into the lock on the back of my collar and, in an instant, had opened the collar, which he jerked from my throat. Almost at the same time another man closed another collar about my throat and snapped it shut. I then wore the collar of the House of Tima. I saw a woman, stern and cruel, in black leather, with leather wristlets, sign a paper. Prodicus placed the paper in his tunic. Two men lifted me and flung me to my knees on the cement flooring of the large room. The door, or gate, to the slave box was swung up and shut, the bolts thrown in place. Prodicus gestured to the carrying slaves and they set their poles again through the rings and, in moments, they, carrying the box, preceded by Prodicus, had exited through an iron door.
I felt the woman's whip under my chin. It pushed my head up.
"Greetings, Pretty Slave," she said.
"Greetings, Mistress," I said.
"I am Tima," she said. "I am Mistress here"
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
Then she turned to the men about her, strong fellows, fit for keeping order in slave pens.
"Whip him," she said. "Then clean and groom him. Then send him to my chamber."
"Yes, Lady Tima," said one of them.
I was lifted to my feet and, two men holding my arms, was dragged stumbling from her presence.
"Kneel here," said the man, indicating a position before the heavy door, of iron, in the dark corridor. "When we have left," he said, "make your presence known."
"Yes, Master," I said, miserably. I had not been in the House of Tima more than a few Elm before I had been bound at a whipping ring, suspended over my head, and, dangling, feet tethered to a second ring, well lashed. I had then been conducted to a small, low-ceilinged cell in which I was locked. I lay there, alone, miserable, I conjecture, for some Ahn. Then a man brought a pan of water and a bowl of moistened slave gruel. I was not hungry but I was ordered to eat and, kneeling, observed, did so. When I had fed to his satisfaction he made me precede him to a warm, humid chamber. In that place there were sunken baths, cisterns of water, and vessels of heating water. Too, there were strigils, towels and oils. He removed my collar and ordered me into the bath. It was uncomfortably hot but I dared not object. Gorean masters tend not to be tolerant of the feelings of slaves. An enslaved male of Earth, fool that I was, I did not even know how to take a bath. Laughing, he explained to me the use of the strigils, the rinsings and oils. Frightened though I was, I was pleased, in the lengthy process of the bath, which tends for Goreans to be a pleasant experience, and is often a social one, at the public baths, to rid myself of the stink of the pens. I had then been scented, with the colognes and perfumes thought suitable for certain types of male slaves. I was then given a white, silken tunic. "Kneel," he then said. I knelt, and again he fastened me in my collar. We left the chamber. I was then made to lead the way through the halls of the House of Tima, until we arrived at the entrance to a long, dark corridor. This entrance was protected by two guardsmen, armed with spears and swords. "Continue forward, Slave," said the man. "Yes, Master," I said. I continued to walk forward and the two guards, not speaking, fell into step behind us. The corridor was long, and branching. We walked for some Ehn. I could feel the carpeting beneath my bare feet. "Turn left," said the man. We continued to walk. I was aware of the steel locked on my neck, the silk on my body. "Turn right," he said. We continued on for another Elm. "Stop here," he said. We stood before a heavy, iron door.