«T-t-the Master. He says-«
«-that you are Girls, not people, and only people have names? Is that it?» She did not speak, but nodded slowly and looked up at him with surprise now mixed with the fear in her eyes. His arms tightened again, and went on tightening until her gasp warned him that he was squeezing her as if he had the Ice Master here in his hands. If it had been the Ice Master, he would have gone on squeezing until the man slipped to the floor a boneless pulp. He was beginning to see what the Ice Master had done to the Girls.
«I do not tell the Ice Master everything I do or say,» he said sharply. (Provided, he added to himself, that this room isn't so thoroughly bugged that the bastard can pick up a cockroach's footsteps!) «So if you do not tell him everything, then I can give you a name and he will never know that we do forbidden things. Do you understand me?» She nodded, with the surprise now beginning to overcome the terror. He was something new in her life-not surprisingly, all things considered. «Then I think I will call you Lora. Say it after me. Lora.»
«Lora.»
«That's right. Now, Lora, why are you here?»
«For your p-p-Pleasure,» she said. The stammer would have told him, even without looking into her eyes, that the fear was back again, swamping everything. He felt her stiffen against him until it was as though he held a store-window dummy in his arms.
«Yes. But what kind of pleasure?» She gaped at him as though he had suddenly grown a second head, then stared down at his genitals.
«But you-you seem to be a Whole One. Have you n-n-never taken Pleasure before?»
Blade could not help flushing. She was implying he was either a eunuch or incredibly ignorant. But he felt himself also on the track of something too important to let himself be put aside by a little embarrassment.
«I have not taken pleasure here,» he said with emphasis on the last word. «You must show me how, lest I do something else forbidden that cannot be hidden from the Ice Master.» She swallowed several times hard, then stared at him for a moment, unclasped her trunks, and slipped them off. Nude, she lay down on the hard tile surrounding the bath and spread her legs apart. Her arms were stiff at her side, fists clenched until the knuckles were sheet-white. And the trapped-animal look was back in her eyes, stronger than ever before.
Blade stepped back a pace as the realization hit him, and for a minute could do nothing except swear, out loud and eloquently, by every Home Dimensional and X Dimensional spirit or deity he could remember. The wretched girl on the floor was expecting to be raped! No wonder the Ice Master was able to keep the Girls in line! He wiped out their memories of any previous existence, told them that they were merely Girls-indistinguishable as individuals. Then he conditioned the ungelded males among the slaves and guards-the Whole Ones-to be as brutal and ferocious in sex-in Pleasure-as possible. The Girls were kept in line by threats of being turned over to the Whole Ones for Unlimited Pleasure-no doubt a particularly unpleasant and no doubt usually fatal form of mass rape. Even without considering the possibility of Leyndt being subjected to that treatment, the whole notion made him almost physically ill.
He looked back to the girl. At the moment, he could no more have made love to her than he could have made love to a suit of armor. But if he could demonstrate to Lora that there were other ways of Pleasure than the one she was used to-and if she then passed this earthshaking news on to the other Girls-? Here was very definitely another chink in the Ice Master's armor, where a wedge might be driven in at the appropriate time. Meanwhile…
«Lora,» he said. Her eyes flickered in his direction. «Don't lie like that. Sit up and look at me.» For a moment he thought she was too paralyzed by fear to respond, then slowly she sat up and curled her legs under her. Her hands lay in her lap, and gradually he saw the fists unclench themselves. He sat down in the same position in front of her, and patted her hands gently. «That's much better. I see how the Whole Ones take Pleasure. But I cannot take Pleasure that way. I have not been taught how to do it that way.»
«But that is the Master's way!»
«Do not always tell me what is the Master's way! There are many other ways of doing things besides the Master's way! For example-have you ever during Pleasure taken this-«he pointed toward his groin «-in your mouth?» He traced a line across her pink lips with his fingers. «It is also a way of giving Pleasure to a Whole One, and does not hurt you. The Whole Ones of the Master like to hurt, don't they?» She nodded. «Then let us find out all the ways of Pleasure that do not hurt. What can the Master do or say about it, if he never finds out?» Again she nodded, and this time she bent forward on hands and knees and began inexpertly to work.
She was so inexpert and simultaneously so enthusiastic that Blade at one or two moments wondered if he was going to come out of this a Whole One. But she was so entirely at sea in this new realm of Pleasure without pain that he could guide her more or less as he chose, and was able to alternately warn her off and urge her on until he was fully aroused. Then he turned to arousing her.
He could not have handled her body more delicately if she had been one of the priceless pieces of carved-jade in his father's collection, or a butterfly whose gaudy wings would crumble to dust at a hair's too much pressure. Lips caressed cheeks, tongue licked out at earlobes and nipples, fingers ran up and down thigh muscles and probed gently around the dark mat of curly hair between her legs. He saw the fear fade from her eyes, surprise replace it, and then-and his own arousal increased at the sight-readiness and even eagerness. But it was not until he saw her lips begin to move in soundless pleading and heard her breath coming in short puffs that he gently eased her legs apart and himself into her.
Even then he lay quietly until the momentary spasm of uncertainty had passed from her face. Then he began a sure, slow, relaxed (but not too relaxed, he reminded himself!) stroking, feeling tremors go through her muscles as he did so. He fought back any urge to quicken his stroke, listening for every breath she gave out, every sound she made, as clues to her state of mind and body. When he heard her begin to urge him on, it was then that he quickened his stroke, feeling her approaching climax as fast as he was, then reach it at almost the same moment as he did. They lay intertwined for a long gentle moment afterward, then he rolled off her and lay down beside her, looking into her eyes. Her mouth sagged slackly open and her breath was coming in gasps that made it impossible for her to speak, but the look in her eyes said all he needed for the moment. He had revealed to her a whole new world, and as the man who had done so would have her allegiance to the death.
Which it might very well come to, he said to himself after she had risen, bathed with him in the tub, and gone out again. He had not asked her to do anything beyond telling the other Girls (in strict confidence, and warning them to keep silent in turn) about her experience, and hoping that the Girls would start to consider him a friend. Possibly some of them would actively seek to be sent to his chamber for Pleasure, and he could acquire a more direct hold over them in the same way he had done with Lora. That would be desirable. But it might also be risky. If the Ice Master noticed that his Girls were positively clamoring for Pleasure with Blade, his suspicions might well go into high gear. If he had not already bugged the chamber, he might do so now, or even worse, interrogate some of the Girls. If the interrogation revealed anything out of line, two or three of the Girls would no doubt be subjected to Unlimited Pleasure «to encourage the others» and whatever hold he might have or hope to develop over the rest would be smashed on the spot.