She trembled.
"Reach now," I said, "to the cord at the left side of your waist." "I do not even know how to strip myself before a man," she said, in misery. "There are a thousand ways in which it may be done," I said. She touched the cord. Her fingers were on it. Then she looked up at me. "How might a slave do this?" she asked.
"In one of a thousand ways," I smiled.
She moaned.
"A typical way might be as follows," I said. "The girl might stand or kneel before the master. She might say, "Your property begs to be permitted to reveal herself to you. Then, if the permission is granted, she does so."
"Your property begs to be permitted to reveal herself to you," she whispered, softly.
"But," I said, "as you are a free woman, you are not my property." She regarded me.
"And so I do not grant you permission."
"Are you angry?" she asked.
"No," I said, angrily. The slave was so visible in her, so near the surface, that it was maddening. How it strove to emerge, and become her, totally! That she, such a woman, should still be free was an outrage to all justice and rationality. Her thigh should bear a brand! She belonged in a collar!
"Master?" she asked.
I forced myself to remember that she, fittingly or not, absurdly or not, was at least at this moment, free.
"Master!" she pleaded.
She was not now a slave. I must accord her dignity and respect!
"Collar me!" she begged.
I seized her by the arms.
I held her.
But then, in the distance, we heard the trumpets, the horns.
"What is it?" she asked.
"It is the recall," I said. "The assault has been terminated."
"The city has not yet fallen," she said.
"No," I said.
I released her.
"Shall I build up the fire?" she asked.
"No," I said.
I went outside the tent and scuffed some dirt over the remains of the fire and then reentered the tent, and, from the inside, tied shut the flaps.
"It is dark," she said. "Lie down," I said.
I removed my belt, and tunic, and crouched beside her.
I put my hand down, into her hair, and lifted her head a bit, and turned it, in the darkness. With my other hand, I touched her neck.
"Collar me," she begged.
It would have been easy enough to do so, there in the darkness of the tent. "No," I said.
I then put her back, on her back in the dirt.
"Lift your body," I said.
She obeyed.
"Shall I free the cord?" she sobbed.
"I shall do so," I said.
"Do not leave me tomorrow," she begged.
"I must," I said.
I laid aside the cord and strip. "Do not lower your body," I said.
"It is now lifted to you, as though it were that of a slave," she said. I put my hand on her, gently.
"Oh!" she said, squirming.
"Excellent," I said.
She sobbed.
"I think," I said, "you might bring a high price in a slave market." "Do not leave me," she begged.
"I must," I said.
10 The Trenches; The Wall
"Behold Klio, the free woman," I said, whipping the sheet from her. She was on all fours in the trench and looked up, about her, with alarm, at the men.
There was raucous laughter.
I put a leash on her neck.
"She has already made her contribution to the success of Cos," laughed a fellow. "But not of her own free will, I wager," laughed another.
"You have leashed me!" protested Klio, looking back at me.
There was more laughter from the men.
"Keep you head down," one of the fellows advised me.
"There is not so much need now," said another fellow. "They seldom fire now without a clear target."
"Where am I?" asked Klio.
"You are within two hundred yards of Ar's Station," I informed her. She trembled. This was the most advanced of the Cosian siege trenches. Even the openings to the mines, now gated, and closely guarded, were further to the rear. The only closer entrenchments were sapping trenches, partly covered with wood, leading directly towards the walls. There were used not only for attempting undermine the walls, but also for providing cover to men advancing for assaults. The sapping trench, of course, requires much less labor on the part of the besiegers but, too, it is less difficult to detect and stop than the mines. The mine, of course, need not stop at the wall, but can proceed within the city and when opened, pour soldiers out, behind the walls. The wall mine is usually terminated in place with a system of supports. Then later, concerted with an attack, these supports may be burned or, more dangerously, struck away. The coordination between the collapse of the wall and the attack can be sharpened when the supports are struck away, the same signal, say, the blast of trumpets, initiating both actions.
"Where is Elene?" asked Klio. When we had left Ephialtes this morning I had taken both Elene, from Tyros, and Klio, from Telnus, along. Elene had been the third woman of the debtor sluts. She was the only one who had been a blonde. Klio had been second at the wall.
"I sold her, a hundred yards or so back," I said.
What!" cried Klio.
I had redeemed her, by means of Ephialtes, at the Crooked Tarn, for thirty-five copper tarsks, the cost of her bill, but I had sold her for forty, a modest, almost irresistible price, considering the value of women here, at least prior to the city's fall. A squad had chipped in and bought her. She would serve them all. Later they would probably play stones, or roll dice, for her. I had conveyed to the men, as though by inadvertence, that I suspected she might have little value as she had had her head shaved. I had suggested, too, I think, that I might be in need of money. As I was I made a profit on her which, when I had left the Crooked Tarn, I had never really counted upon, nor even anticipated. To me she had not been so much a property on which to make a profit as an instrumentality in my plans. Still, in her way, she was a property, and, accordingly, I was not displeased to be able not only to utilize her in my plans but also make some money on her.
Her blond hair would in time grow out again and the soldiers would discover that she had an additional loveliness. Eventually I had no doubt she would bring a high price. Auburn hair is generally thought to be the most prized hair on Gor, but I myself generally prefer brunets. This is not to deny that blonde, suitably enslaved, and desperate to please, are not without interest. Blondes sometimes bring higher prices as their hair color is rarer, but once they are home, in the collar, they are, of course, no more than any other slave. In the end, in my opinion, the crucial factor is the individual girl. Everything depends on the individual slave.
"Yes, sold," I said, answering Klio's look of disbelief. There was laughter from the men.
"And before I sold her," I said, "she performed well."
"No, please!" said Klio.
I had, as though looking for a good price first on Elene, made my way through the network of trenches toward the walls of Ar's Station. A trench back, one of the siege trenches, I had sold her. Some of the fellows from this trench, the forward trench, had come back to watch. There had been no difficulty in moving through the trenches in my guise as a mercenary with one or two women to sell. I had followed them back, at their own behest, through one of the connecting trenches, to the lead trench. We had herded Klio before us, under the sheet, on all fours, encouraging her occasionally with a foot or the blow of the looped slave leash, not yet on her at that time.
"Did you already sell the best one?" asked on the men.
"You might think so, or not," I said. "I do not know. I think, from my own point of view, that I would prefer this one."