I regarded her.
"They are only standards and flags, carried into battle," she said, "stimulatoryto the rabble, useful to the elite."
"Perhaps you are right," I said. I did not know. Human motivation is commonlycomplex. That she had responded as she had, however, whether she was right orwrong, reminded me that she was an agent of Kurii. Such folk commonly see thingsin terms of women, gold and power. I grinned down at her. This agent, strippedand in her yoke, was well neutralized before me. She was no longer a player inthe game; she was now only a prize in it.
"Do not look at me like that," she said.
"I am not of the Waniyanpi," I said, "Female."
"Female!" she said.
"You had best begin to think of yourself in such terms," I said.
She twisted, angrily, in the yoke. Then she looked up at me. "Free me," shedemanded.
"No," I said.
"I will pay you much," she said.
"No," I said.
"You could take me from these fools," she said.
"I suspect so," I said.
"Then carry me off with you," she said.
"Do you beg to be carried off?" I asked.
"Yes," she said.
"If I did so," I said, "it would be as a slave."
"Oh," she said.
"Do you still beg to be carried off?" I inquired.
"Yes," she said.
"As a surrendered slave," I asked, "a total and abject slave?"
"Yes!" she said.
"No," I said.
"No?" she said.
"No," I said.
"Take me with you," she begged.
"I am going to leave you precisely where you are," I said, "my lovely mercenary."
"Mercenary?" she said. "I am not a mercenary! I am the Lady Mira of Venna, ofthe Merchants!
I smiled.
She shrank back on her heels. "What do you know of me she asked. "What are youdoing in the Barrens? Who are you?"
"You look well in the yoke," I said.
"Who are you?" she said.
"A traveler," I said.
"You are going to leave me here, like this?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"I do not want to go to a compound of these people," she said. "They are insane,all of them."
"But you begged to be taken to their compound," I said "to be taught theirTeaching."
"I did not want to die," she said. "I did not want to be put out to die."
"You had best pretend well to believe their teaching," said. "They would not,most likely, look lightly on being deceived in this respect."
"I do not want to live a life of hypocrisy," she said.
"Doubtless many live such a life in the compound of the Waniyanpi," I said.
"Should I try to believe their absurdities?" she asked.
"It might be easier on you, if you could," I said.
"But I am not a fool," she said.
"To be sure," I said, "it is easiest to subscribe to odd beliefs when they havebeen inculcated in childhood. The trenchment of eccentric beliefs is commonlyperpetrated most successfully on the innocent and defenseless, even moresuccessfully than on the ignorant and desperate."
"I am afraid of them," she said.
"They will treat you with dignity and respect," I said, "as a Same."
"Better a collar in the cities," she said, "better to be abused and sold from apublic platform, better to be a slave girl fearful and obedient at the feet ofher master."
"Perhaps," I said.
"I am afraid of them," she.
"Why?" I asked.
"Did you not see how they would not look at me? I am afraid they will make meashamed of my own body."
"In all things," I said, "remember that you are beautiful."
"Thank you," she whispered.
To be sure, the danger of which she spoke was quite real. It was difficult forone's values not to be affected by the values of those about them. Even themarvelous beauties and profundities of human sexuality, I knew, incrediblyenough, in some environments tended to trigger bizarre reactions of anxiety,embarrassment and shame. To the average Gorean such reactions would seemincomprehensible. Perhaps such environments, apart from semantic might simply beregarded, if any, as insane. How tragic, in particular, it is, to see suchreactions being absorbed by children.
"Do you truly think I am beautiful?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Then take me with you," she begged.
"No," I said.
"You would leave me with them?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Why?" she asked.
"It amuses me," I said.
"Tarsk!" she cried.
I held the quirt before her face. "You may kiss it," I told her, "or be beatenwith it."
She kissed the quirt, the supple, slim leather.
"Again," I told her, "lingeringly."
She complied. Then she looked up at me. "You called me a mercenary, ' she said.
"I was wrong," I said. "You are only a former mercenary."
"And what am I now?" she asked.
"Surely you can guess," I said.
"No!" she said.
"Yes," I assured her.
She struggled in the yoke, unavailingly. "I am helpless'" she said.
"Yes," I said.
She straightened her body. She tossed her head. "If you took me with you," shesaid, "I would doubtless be your slave."
"Totally," I told her.
"It is fortunate for me, then," she said, "that I will accompany the Waniyanpito their camp. There I will be free."
"The Waniyanpi are all slaves," I told her, "slaves of the red savages."
"Do the savages live in the compounds?" she asked.
"Not normally," I said. "They normally leave the Waniyanpi much alone. They donot much care, I think, to be around them."
"Then, for most practical purposes," she said, "They are slaves withoutmasters."
"Perhaps," I said.
"Then I, too, would be a slave without a master," she said.
"For most practical purposes, for most of the time, I suppose," I said. TheWaniyanpi, incidentally, are owned by tribes, not individuals. Their slavery,thus, is somewhat remote and impersonal. That one is owned by a collectivity, ofcourse, may obscure one's slavery but, in the final analysis, it does not alterit. Some slaves believe they are notcause their masters tell them so.
"That is the best sort of slave to be," she said, "one without a master."
"Is it?" I asked. Lonely and unfulfilled is the slave without a master.
"When I was taken prisoner," she said, "I feared I would be made a slave, a trueslave. I feared a tether would be-put on my neck and I would be ran to the campof a master, sweating at the lathered flank of his kaiila, that there I would behis, to be dressed, and worked and used as he pleased. I feared that hard laborsand degradation would be mine. I feared that a beaded collar would be tied on myneck. I feared that I would be subject to ropes and whips, unsparingly appliedif I were in the least bit unpleasing. Mostly I feared being alone with him inhis lodge, where I must, at his smallest indication, serve him intimately, andabjectly and lengthily, as his least whim might dictate, with the fullattentiveness and services of the female slave. You can imagine my terrors atthe mere thought of finding myself so helplessly belonging to a man, sohelplessly in his power, so helplessly subject to his mastery and domination."
"Of course," I said.
"And so it is," she said, "that I rejoice that I am to be spared all that. I amastonished at my good fortune. How foolish were the red savages to be so lenientwith me! ' "They am not fools," I said. I "They took other girls, ' she said, "I heard, to their camps."
"Yes," I said.