Yet with all due respect and regard for the most astounding and marvellous sex, I suspect that, perhaps partly because of my Gorean training, it is true that a touch of the slave ring is occasionally beneficial.
Of custom, a slave girl may not even ascend the couch to serve her master's pleasure.The point of this restriction, I suppose, is to draw a clearer distinction between her status and that of a Free Companion.At any rate the dignities of the couch are, by custom, reserved for the Free Companion.
When a master wishes to make use of a slave girl he tells her to light the lamp of love which she obediently does, placing it in the window of his chamber that they may not be disturbed.Then with his own hand he throws upon the stone floor of his chamber luxurious love furs, perhaps from the larl itself, and commands her to them.
I had placed Vika gently on the great stone couch.
I kissed her gently on the forehead.
Her eyes opened.
'Did I leave the chamber?' she asked.
'Yes,' I said.
She regarded me for a long time.'How can I conquer you?' she asked.'I love you, Tarl Cabot.'
'You are only grateful,' I said.
'No,' she said, 'I love you.'
'You must not,' I said.
'I do,' she said.
I wondered how I should speak to her, for I must disabuse her of the illusion that there could be love between us.In the house of Priest-Kings there could be no love, nor could she know her own mind in these matters, and there was always Talena, whose image would never be eradicated from my heart.
'But you are a woman of Treve,' I said, smiling.
'You thought I was a Passion Slave,' she chided.
I shrugged.
She looked away from me, toward the wall.'You were right in a way, Tarl Cabot.'
'How is that?' I asked.
She looked at me directly.'My mother,' she said bitterly, '- was a Passion Slave - bred in the pens of Ar.'
'She must have been very beautiful,' I said.
Vika looked at me strangely.'Yes,' she said, 'I suppose she was.'
'Do you not remember her?' I asked.
'No,' she said, 'for she died when I was very young.'
'I'm sorry,' I said.
'It doesn't matter,' said Vika, 'for she was only an animal bred in the pens of Ar.'
'Do you despise her so?' I asked.
'She was a bred slave,' said Vika.
I said nothing.
'But my father,' said Vika, 'whose slave she was, and who was of the Caste of Physicians of Treve, loved her very much and asked her to be his Free Companion.'Vika laughed softly. 'For three years she refused him,' she said.
'Why?' I asked.
'Because she loved him,' said Vika, 'and did not wish him to take for his Free Companion only a lowly Passion Slave.'
'She was a very deep and noble woman,' I said.
Vika made a gesture of disgust.'She was a fool,' she said. 'How often would a bred slave have a chance of freedom?'
'Seldom indeed,' I admitted.
'But in the end,' said Vika, 'fearing he would slay himself she consented to become his Free Companion.'Vikar regarded me closely.Her eyes met mine very directly.'I was born free,' she said.'You must understand that.I am not a bred slave.'
'I understand,' I said.'Perhaps,' I suggested, 'your mother was not only beautiful, but proud and brave and fine.'
'How could that be?' laughed Vika scornfully.'I have told you she was only a bred slave, an animal from the pens of Ar.'
'But you never knew her,' I said.
'I know what she was,' said Vika.
'What of your father?' I asked.
'In a way,' she said, 'he is dead too.'
'What do you mean, in a way?' I asked.
'Nothing,' she said.
I looked about the room, at the chests against the wall dim in the reduced light of the energy bulbs, at the walls, at the shattered device in the ceiling, at the broken sensors, at the great, empty portal that led into the passageway beyond.
'He must have loved you very much, after your mother died,' I said.
'Yes,' said Vika, 'I suppose so - but he was a fool.'
'Why do you say that?' I asked.
'He followed me into the Sardar, to try and save me,' she said.
'He must have been a very brave man,' I said.
She rolled away from me and stared at the wall.After a time she spoke, her words cruel with contempt.
'He was a pompous little fool,' she said, 'and afraid even of the cry of a larl.'
She sniffed.
Suddenly she rolled back to face me.'How,' she asked, 'could my mother have loved him?He was only a fat, pompous little fool.'
'Perhaps he was kind to her,' I suggested, '- when others were not.'
'Why would anyone be kind to a Passion Slave?' asked Vika.
I shrugged.
'For the Passion Slave,' she said, 'it is the belled ankle, perfume, the whip and the furs of love.'
'Perhaps he was kind to her,' I suggested again, '- when others were not.'
'I don't understand,' said Vika.
'Perhaps,' I said, 'he cared for her and spoke to her and was gentle - and loved her.'
'Perhaps,' said Vika.'But would that be enough?'
'Perhaps,' I said.
'I wonder,' said Vika.'I have often wondered about that.'
'What became of him,' I asked, 'when he entered the Sardar?'
Vika would not speak.
'Do you know?' I asked.
'Yes,' she said.
'Then what?' I asked.
She shook her head bitterly.'Do not ask me,' she said.
I would not press her further on the matter.
'How is it,' I asked, 'that he allowed you to come to the Sardar?'
'He did not,' said Vika.'He tried to prevent me but I sought out the Initiates of Treve, proposing myself as an offering to the Priest-Kings.I did not, of course, tell them my true reason for desiring to come to the Sardar.'She paused.'I wonder if they knew,' she mused.
'It is not improbable,' I said.
'My father would not hear of it, of course,' she said.She laughed.'He locked me in my chambers, but the High Initiate of the City came with warriors and they broke into our compartments and beat my father until he could not move and I went gladly with them.'She laughed again.'Oh how pleased I was when they beat him and he cried out - for he was not a true man and even though of the Caste of Physicians could not stand pain.He could not even bear to hear the cry of a larl.'
I knew that Gorean caste lines, though largely following birth, were not inflexible, and that a man who did not care for his caste might be allowed to change caste, if approved by the High Council of his city, an approval usually contingent on his qualifications for the work of another caste and the willingness of the members of the new caste to accept him as a Caste Brother.
'Perhaps,' I suggested, 'it was because he could not stand pain that he remained a member of the Caste of Physicians.'
'Perhaps,' said Vika.'He always wanted to stop suffering, even that of an animal or slave.'
I smiled.
'You see,' she said, 'he was weak.'
'I see,' I said.
Vika lay back in the silks and furs.'You are the first of the men in this chamber,' she said, 'who have spoken to me of these things.'
I did not reply.
'I love you, Tarl Cabot,' she said.
'I think not,' I said gently.