"It is possible he was discovered, and then captured, and returned to Agamemnon,” said Lord Grendel.
"In any event, he is not here,” said Cabot.
Cabot and Lord Grendel had had much better fortune with the smith who had fashioned the first weapon points, pretending, at least, that he took them to be ornamental pendants.
To be sure, Cabot's last silver coins, from the wager of Peisistratus, had now been expended in this small market.
Each now bore a sack, containing hundreds of such points.
"Do you think it was wise to have left Flavion behind, in the camp?” asked Cabot.
"Yes,” said Lord Grendel. “Let him think himself unsuspected. Let him be sessile, biding his time, projecting new treacheries. We may be able to put him to use."
"What if he betrays the camp?” asked Cabot.
"It would be only one camp,” said Lord Grendel. “He wishes to be of greater value to Agamemnon than that. Better, if regroupings should occur, to gather intelligence on a dozen camps, on a dozen leaders, on a dozen strategies. Let him think he lies coiled amongst us like an ost at our feet, unsuspected, unnoted, aware, listening."
"The insurrection is finished,” said Cabot. “Only pockets of resistance remain, waiting to be dealt with, one by one."
"Our venture here is finished,” said Lord Grendel. “We shall return to the camp."
"Excellent,” said Cabot.
"Perhaps you are anxious to return to your pretty little beast,” said Lord Grendel.
"The shapely collar slut, Lita?” said Cabot.
"Yes,'’ said Lord Grendel.
"Perhaps,” said Cabot, lightly.
"You spoke in your sleep,” said Grendel.
"It is hard for a master to be without his slave,” said Cabot.
"And one thing is harder than that,” said Grendel.
"And what is that?” asked Cabot.
"Had you not put slave fires in her belly?” asked Grendel.
"It is true she is a slave,” said Cabot.
"And that is it,” said Grendel.
"What?” asked Cabot.
"The one thing that is harder than for a master to be without his slave,” said Grendel.
"And what is that?” said Cabot.
"For a slave to be without her master,” said Grendel.
"I would suppose it is really much the same,” said Cabot.
"I rather doubt it,” said Lord Grendel. “I have often reflected upon the mercilessness of masters, who so unilaterally and imperiously put helpless slaves into the throes of such needs."
"It does make them more desperately dependent, and easier to control,” said Cabot.
"I would not be surprised,” said Lord Grendel, “if the sexual needs, the helplessness, the passion, of human females far exceeded that of males."
"Only when they have been sexually awakened,” said Cabot. “I know a world where many males would be surprised to encounter that speculation."
"I think I have heard of such a world,” said Grendel.
"It is not Gor,” smiled Cabot.
"No,” said Lord Grendel. “It would be such a very different world, such a tragic, self-denying, unfulfilled world."
"In the world of which you may be thinking,” said Cabot, “not all women are sexually inert, torpid, or dormant. Some have the urgent, needful bellies of Gorean slave girls."
"But that is unusual, is it not?” asked Grendel.
"It is hard to tell,” said Cabot, “but the common view is that it would be unusual."
"Strange,” said Lord Grendel, “given the extensive distribution of sexually vital tissue in the human female, its globality, and its subtle interrelationships with thought and feeling, and such. It would seem, as one thinks about it, that almost their entire body is, in its way, a sexual organ. Consider, for example, their sensitivity, their awareness of the subtlest colors, scents, and textures. Even their skin is alive, responsive to the slightest touch, to the least whispers and nuances of their environment."
"It is true that if you put them naked on certain surfaces, sometimes tiles, sometimes a rug, they find themselves, sometimes to their dismay, in a state of sexual arousal."
"And tied naked to a tree?"
"Of course,” said Cabot.
"Human females, it seems to me,” said Grendel, “are quite remarkable. It seems to me that each presents for a master's delectation a unique gift and property of emotion, consciousness, subtlety, and sensation."
"It is certainly pleasant to own them,” said Cabot.
"And how vital, alive, and sensitive they are!"
"They are aware, of course,” said Cabot, “of the coarseness of rope constricting their limbs, the weight of iron on a limb, a wrist, an ankle, such things."
"And the feel of a collar on their neck?"
"Doubtless,” said Cabot.
"And to the brush of silk,” said Grendel, “and to the scent of a perfume."
"Particularly,” said Cabot, “to one they know has been prepared for a slave."
"So I fail to understand,” said Grendel, “how it is, if it be true, that so many of the women of the world we may have in mind are seemingly strangers to their bodies and needs."
"Presumably there are explanations,” said Cabot.
"Are they a different sort of woman?” asked Grendel.
"No,” said Cabot. “Certainly not. Bring them to Gor, put them in collars, and sell them, and they are soon amongst the hottest of slaves. Certainly they bring high prices off the block."
"Then I do not understand it,” said Lord Grendel.
"In the history of the world of which we may be speaking,” said Cabot, “for thousands of years women were recognized, and even feared, for the intensity of their sexuality. They were the needful ones, the pleaders, the seducers, the temptresses, those to be guarded against."
"Interesting,” said Grendel.
"Much has to do, I am sure,” said Cabot, “with cultural prescriptions, societal dictates, requirements, influences, pressures, and such things. When a society is seized by the ill-constituted, the miserable, the sick, the self-fearing, the weak, the haters, and such, it is natural they would mold, as they can, their world in their own pathological image. Too, when a world becomes essentially a machine, with countless interlocking, dehumanized parts, practices, and procedures, there is little room or time left for the long-forgotten animals, once human, who tend to its needs, and now wander about within it, lost in its mazes."
Lord Grendel was silent.
"There is some possibility,” said Cabot, “that the seeming dearth of female passion on such a world, seemingly so unnaturally pervasive, seemingly so inexplicable, is actually in its way an evidence not of the absence or weakness of female drives and needs, but of their remarkable strength, which requires for its suppression societal devices of such detail and power."
"Women must be turned against women?” said Grendel.
"Yes,” said Cabot. “It is forbidden to them, so to speak, to open certain doors, to look into certain mirrors, for fear of what they might find, for fear of what they might see."
"It seems a tragic waste of woman,” said Grendel.
"True,” said Cabot.
"It seems they are sexually asleep,” said Grendel.
"In their dreams, and fantasies,” said Cabot, “I suspect that few are sexually asleep."
"They fear nature, and themselves?” asked Grendel.
"Perhaps,” said Cabot. “Certainly in nature there are obvious, pervasive complementarities, and they are females."
"You speak of dominance and submission?” asked Grendel.
"Yes,” said Cabot.
"They fear to find their masters?"
"I do not think so,” said Cabot. “I think, rather, they long to find them."
"Interesting,” said Grendel.
"And they realize, if only in their secret dreams, that they will not be whole until they kneel before them."