Vera appeared next to me and started to say something, but she was interrupted by the arrival of our host and hostess. Rod came in first, dressed in a deep blue formal suit with wine red ascot, and he paused in the doorway with fists on hips to look around. He was a big man, broad shouldered and hefty, but as a man, Rodmil Holper had never appealed to me. His narrow, dark eyes rested briefly on Vera, shifted slightly to me, and a hint of amusement showed on his lips. He glanced around at his silent guests again, then laughed shortly.
“I’m glad to see you’re all here,” he said in a superior way “And so early, too. Well, you won’t regret it. Jan.”
At the flat-voiced summons, Janverin Elliott appeared, making me gasp along with everyone else. Jan was a big woman, taller and broader than either Vera or me, usually flaunting her size. She normally wore high heels, high-piled hair styles, wide, flowing outfits, matching them all with quick-tempered, sweeping gestures and moods. But the Janverin Elliott we all knew so well wasn’t there. Instead, we saw a woman with nothing left of her former pride. Her black hair hung loosely above the thin, short, cut-out garment that was her only clothing, and when Rod said her name she hurried to kneel before him, pressing her forehead to the floor. We were all speechless at this terrible servility, and Rod laughed again.
“As you can see, friends, Jan has learned what will please me. Let’s see how Jan feels about it.” He reached down and pulled Jan up by her hair, then slapped her face so hard that blood appeared in the corner of her mouth. “What do you say Jan? Do you want me to turn you loose?”
“No, Rod, please!” she begged, quivering with emotion, but seeming to be afraid to touch the man who held her so cruelly “Please keep me as your woman. I’ve never known such happiness as that which I’ve known as your woman. You’ve taught me what being a woman really means, and I’ll devote my life to you if you’ll let me.”
Rod let go of her hair and she slid down to grasp his ankles, kissing them and pressing her face on them. Vera was very quiet beside me, but I felt sick to my stomach.
“You see?” Rod asked the other men smugly “She knows when she’s well off. And the same can be accomplished with any woman if you just bother to try Watch.”
He looked toward the doorway and we all followed his gaze to see Guylor Sutton standing there. Guy wasn’t as big as Rod, but they both had the same narrow-eyed look and were close friends. Beside me, Vera began shivering.
Guy entered the room and stopped about five feet from Vera, his eyes angry as though he had been deeply insulted.
“Verasten Hardy your time has come,” he said in an ugly voice. “Place yourself before me in the correct manner.”
Vera shuddered, her eyes and fists closed tight, and I quickly put my arms around her.
“Guylor Sutton, you leave her alone!” I snapped. “I don’t know what sickness has gotten into all of you, but Vera wants no part of it. Leave her alone, I say!”
Guy’s lips tightened, but Rod kicked Jan away from him and came to stand near Guy
“Terrillian Reya,” Rod said, looking me over in a way I didn’t like. “You’re another one who needs to be taught how to be a woman. You’ll stay with us, and Jan will show you what to do to avoid the lash—or usually avoid it. Whipping you will be a pleasure.”
He was nearly drooling as he discussed his twisted expectations, and I had never been so repelled by anything or anyone.
“You are sick.” I told him coldly holding Vera even more tightly “What’s the matter, Rod, can’t you cope with a woman who isn’t a slave? Can’t you face her if she isn’t groveling at your feet? Can’t you realize your masculinity without a whip in your hand? Treating Jan like that doesn’t make you a man, Rod! It makes you a self-professed coward!”
Rod’s face had twitched at everything I’d said to him, but the last word was more than he could stand. He snarled wordlessly and came forward to hit me the way he’d hit Jan. I put my arm up to ward off the blow, but it never reached me. Tammad was suddenly there between us, and he lifted Rodmil Holper by the front of his suit. He lifted the man clear off the floor and threw him, easily and without effort, into the wall ten feet away Rod struck the wall with a thud, slid down to the floor, then looked up at Tammad with a dazed but fear-filled stare.
“She is correct,” Tammad told Rod calmly, staring down at him without expression, but with a definite tinge of disgust to his voice. “Only darayse cause pain to women without reason. The woman learned nothing through the pain you gave her, and no true man could be tempted by a slave such as her. To raise your hands in such a manner to another man may gain you the name of warrior; to raise your hands in such a manner to a woman gains naught but shame. It is time to depart.”
The other people in the room shook themselves, as if coming out of a daze. They began filing past Rod, who was still on the floor with Jan crying in a heap near him, and none of them said anything or looked at the couple on the floor. When I began urging Vera out of the room, Guy tried to get in our way, but Tammad just brushed him aside so that we could leave.
Once outside, I tried to talk Vera into coming home with me, but the night air seemed to have braced her. She straightened up, brushed at her hair, and smiled weakly
“Thanks anyway Terry,” she said and patted my shoulder. “You’ve done enough, and believe me, it helped. I’m not afraid of Guy any longer, because now I know that he can’t do that to me unless I let him. And I’m not going to let him! I’m going to stay with some friends for a while, and if Guylor Sutton shows up, I’ll call the peacemen.”
She ended with an emphatic nod of her head, marched to her speedster, climbed in, and flew away I watched until she’d disappeared into the distance, then looked back at Jan’s house. “You cannot aid the other,” Tammad said quietly, almost reading my thoughts. “She wishes to remain as she is, and will not allow you to help.”
“But why?” I asked him, really needing an explanation. “Why should she want to live like that?”
“She does not care to direct her own destiny’ he said, looking down at me and brushing the hair from my cheek. “She will accept the abuse of the non-man because she believes him to be stronger than she. If he were truly stronger, he would force her to do the right, not the pleasurable. Let us return home.”
I looked away from him, back toward the house again, feeling very reluctant to leave Jan like that. She had been a friend of sorts for a long time, but the choice was taken from me. Tammad lifted me in his arms, carried me to my speedster, and thrust me into the hatch.
“You can do nothing further, so let us be gone;” he directed, slapping my bottom to move me out of the way “I would be beyond the necessity for flying through the air as quickly as possible.”
“I’m calling the peacemen as soon as I get home,” I decided as we both strapped in. If they detain Rod, Jan will have a chance to...”
“You shall not,” he said, giving me a disapproving look. The woman has chosen her lot in life, and cannot be taken from it save through her own will. If she does not feel death preferable to slavery-slavery is the proper place for her.”
“You’d never say that if you were the slave!” I snapped. “Wouldn’t you want someone to come and help you?”
“One cannot free a slave.” he answered, still patient, but just barely. “Likewise, one cannot enslave a free man. The former may be unshackled, but will soon seek a new master to serve; the latter may be weighted down with chains, but can never be made to bend the knee. Think upon that, woman, as you take us home.”
I started the speedster and got us airborne, but I still didn’t care for what he’d said. Jan was no natural born slave; all she needed was a little help. The peacemen would help her, and she would be fine again.