The end of a final corridor widened out into a semi-familiar square slave area, and the men in it went to their knees at the appearance of the guard woman leading me. I would have hung back if I possibly could have, but she turned and took my arm, then thrust me out ahead of her.
“Your slave has been displeasing in the task she was given,” the woman announced, her amusement and satisfaction evident only in her eyes. “Which of you will punish her before she serves your meal?”
The eyes of the kneeling men came to me where I stood, most of them upset, a few of them oddly annoyed. I found that I was trembling at that mass stare, but this time didn’t have to wonder why. One of them was going to punish me, and I didn’t want to be punished by a Rimilian male.
“Mistress, I will punish her,” one of them said, a handsome man I seemed to remember better than most of the others. “We thank you for having brought this need to our attention, and will quickly see to it.”
“Quickly and thoroughly,” the woman said, folding her arms as she looked at me. “You may begin now, for I have other matters awaiting my attention.”
“Yes, mistress,” the man acknowledged, sounding defeated, almost as though he had been hoping she would leave. He got to his feet and walked to the side of the area, picked something up, then brought it back toward me. As he came closer I saw it was a strip of heavy leather that he held, and I immediately looked up into his eyes. He was one of those who had been faintly annoyed, and I could feel my trembling increase.
“Kneel here to your master, slave,” he commanded sternly, pointing to the floor in front of him where he’d stopped, about five feet away from me. I should have hurried over but I simply couldn’t, finding all but small, hesitant steps beyond me. All of the men were watching me, and the woman as well, and as I knelt on the spot I’d been ordered to I knew that I’d never in my life felt so completely stripped bare.
“Put your brow to the stone, girl,“ ‘ the man I knelt to ordered, the strip of leather now held in both of his hands, his blue eyes even more stern-looking than they had been. “I shall not punish you as the high mistress does, yet shall you be well seen to.”
I put my head and palms to the stone, feeling the ache in my back as I did so. That was where the high mistress punished me, I knew, across the back and occasionally across the breasts, but that wasn’t how I would be punished this time. My hair had tumbled onto the stone, some of it falling over my hands, and then I heard a faint scuff, as though the feet I knelt before moved away from in front of me. An instant later there were knees on my hair and big hands wrapped around my wrists, and then two other hands took my ankles. I was being held rigidly in place, and didn’t understand why until the first stroke fell.
“Oh!” I cried, thoughtlessly trying to straighten up, or move away, or protect myself with my hands, none of which worked. I cried out again as I was struck a second time and then a third, and not long after that my eyes were full of tears of pain and humiliation. The guard woman had begun chuckling in amusement almost at the very start, really enjoying the way that leather was being applied to my bottom. If I hadn’t been held I wouldn’t have stayed in that position, being horribly humiliated in front of another woman, but I was being held and couldn’t pull loose. Two men were holding me while another strapped my bottom, and the woman’s laughter was filled with the knowledge that I could do nothing to stop it.
“Are you punished, slave?” the handsome man’s voice came then, the sternness still in it. “Will you in future be a good, obedient slave?”
“Yes, master, I am punished,” I sobbed, willing to say anything if it would make him stop, feeling my tears roll down into my hair. “I will be a good, obedient slave.”
“She fails to beg you to cease,” the woman watching put in, sounding as though she were giving lessons. “She must have a bit more.”
“Oh!” I cried as it began again, wishing I could scream instead, my wrist and ankles almost numb from the strength of the hold on them, my head throbbing where it was forced to the stone. “Please no, master, please, no more! I will be a good, obedient slave, as good and obedient as you wish! I have been punished, master, please do not punish your slave the more!”
“A bit more will do her endless good,” the woman said in a no-arguments voice as the strokes began to stop again. “You must not allow your slave to go without proper punishment, boy, else will she be quick to seek advantage over you. Does she greet you eagerly on your pallet, or must you force her to your use?”
“She-shows no eagerness for my use, mistress,” the man with the strip of leather admitted reluctantly, a bewilderment behind the words. “I have not allowed her to escape her duty, yet did I expect her reception to be somewhat more joyful. ”
“Once you have done with her punishment, she will be a good deal more receptive,” the woman assured him, her voice full of confidence. “A well-punished slave is ever a slave eager to please.”
“Yes, mistress, that is surely so,” the man said thoughtfully, and then I was being strapped again, just as hard as before. I cried and screamed and begged him to stop, but it took a while before he did so. When I was finally allowed to straighten on my knees I couldn’t stop sobbing, and the woman looked down at me in deep satisfaction.
“When next she requires such punishment, there will be others who will wish to witness it,” she said to the man beside her, just short of chuckling again at the way I immediately dropped my eyes in mortification. “Come the time, you will inform me beforehand, do you understand? And be sure she is given her special wine before you all depart to serve the Chama.”
“Yes, mistress,” my master the slave answered, complete acquiescence in his tone. The next minute the sound of receding footsteps came, and once they were out of hearing distance my master crouched next to me and put a hand under my chin.
“How foolish you were for disobeying, wenda,” he scolded me gently, his large blue eyes on my face. “Have you not yet learned that to disobey is to be punished?”
“Yes, master,” I said with a sniff, finding it impossible to stop crying. “I have now learned that lesson.”
“Clearly we, your masters, did you no service by failing to punish you before this,” he said, and then he looked at me very sternly again. “Do you wish us to inform the mistress that we mean to punish you in the same way upon the next occasion?”
“Please, no, master!” I begged, horrified at the thought, putting my hands out toward him. “I could not bear being done so again, I would die of the shame!”
“So I believed, from the words spoken so often in your sleep,” he said with a nod, the sternness gone again. “To avoid such a thing, will you greet the use of your masters with greater eagerness and joy? Will you accept, rather than being made to take?”
I hesitated very briefly at the question, his gaze impossible to avoid, then found the hesitation a waste of time. I had been given a choice, but I really had no choice at all.
“I will greet you eagerly, master,” I agreed, lowering only my eyes when his hand refused to release my chin. “Your slave will serve you as best she may.”
“Oh, excellent!” my master said with a laugh of joy, a pleased stirring coming from those others who had chosen to join him in my use. There were very few of them, I knew, but I hadn’t yet discovered why. “And as our meal is not yet ready to be served, you may begin at once. There is a good deal of time before we will be called to serve the Chama and her guests at their own meal.”
“Now, master?” I asked in dismay, knowing when his hand left my chin that I was about to be lifted in his arms, which happened just about immediately. “Please, master, not so soon after your punishment, please not!”