"Then release me!" she whispered.
"I do not understand," I said.
"You agreed this was a terrible mistake," she whispered.
"No," I said. "Yes, that you were a free woman."
"I do not understand what I am doing here," she said, "naked and tied beside you."
"Really?" I asked.
"It can not be that!" she said.
"Why not?" I asked.
"I am free!" she said.
"But your bills are not paid," I said.
She made an angry noise.
"It seems that this time you did not manage to inveigle some fellow into paying them for you."
"What are you going to do to me?" she asked.
"What do you think?" I asked.
"Not that," she said.
"Precisely," I said.
"I am not an inn girl," she said. "I am a free woman! I am not subject to guest use!"
"Were you told you were not subject to guest use?" I asked.
"No," she said, hesitantly.
"So?" I said. "But I assumed, of course, as I was freea€”"
"Are you a virgin?" I asked.
"That is surely a personal matter," she said. "Surely that is my own business." "It would take only a moment for me to make the determination," I said. "No," she said, pulling back. "I am not a virgin.
"It would seem then," I said, "that at least once or twice you must have had to pay off fellows for their assistance."
"They were not gentlemen," she said.
"I think you will discover," I said, "that from now on you no longer possess bargaining power in such matters."
"I do not understand," she said.
"In the future," I said, "I think you will find that you will no longer have control over the gratifications which might be attendant upon your uses, nor over the numbers, times or natures of them."
"I do not understand," she said, frightened.
"I am pleased you are not a virgin," I said. "Thus our relationship can be much simpler."
"Am I truly available to you?" she asked.
"Yes," I said. "I paid for you, for the Ahn."
"Paid?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"It must have been terribly expensive," she said.
"The price of an inn girl here," I said, "is three copper tarsks for the quarter of an Ahn."
"That is extremely expensive, is it not?" she asked.
"Terribly so," I agreed. I was not too pleased with the keeper. Surely he was a heinously gouging scoundrel. Other than that, however, he seemed a rather good fellow. Space 97, for example, did have one edge, the top edge, on the wall. "If a common inn girl costs so much," she breathed, "how could you even begin to afford someone like me? You must have been devastatingly smitten with my beauty!"
"You are actually a bit fat," I said, "but I think that could be worked off you, with a sparing, judicious diet, complex exercises, suitable disciplines, and such."
"Perhaps I should try to be pleasing to you," she said, impressed. "Why?" I asked. She was, after all, a free woman.
"You must have paid at lest a golden tarn disk," she said, "to have rights over me, for a whole Ahn."
"No," I said.
"Nine silver tarsks?" she asked.
"No," I said.
"Five?" she asked.
"No," I said. "I paid only a tarsk bit."
"What!" she said.
"Shhh," I cautioned her. "Do not awaken the guests."
"That is absurd!" she said. "I am a free woman."
"It is doubtless a great deal more than you are worth," I said.
"I will see to it," she said, "that I do not give you any pleasure." "I think," I said, "you will find it difficult to do anything about that," I pulled her to me.
"Beast!" she said.
"Your squirming," I said, "is delightful."
She cried out in frustration, and then held herself as still as possible. I smiled to myself. How fortunate for this woman that she was a free female, and not a slave.
"Yes," she said, angrily, trying to hold herself still, her hands behind her, tied.
I felt the tag, attached on the chain, near the padlock. "It seems to have the shape of a malformed tarn," I said, "a crooked neck, an enlarged right leg and talons."
"It does," she said, angrily.
"It resembles the sign within the palisade then," I said, "that which is visible for a pasang or so, down the road, the sign of the "Crooked Tarn'." "Of course," she said.
I jerked the tag, playfully. "And where is this little tag?" I asked. "It is on me," she said, seething, trying to hold herself still.
"Does it have writing on it?" I asked.
"Yes," she said. Surely it would.
"They must have shown it to you before they put it on you."
"Yes," she said.
"What does it say?" I asked.
"Debtor," she said. "Oh!" she said.
"What else?" I asked.
"My wrists have been thonged!" she said. "My hands have been tied behind my back! I cannot free them! Do you not know what that means? Do you not understand? I am helpless!"
"You should have paid your bills," I said. "I thought you were not supposed to move."
"Oh!" she said, angrily. Then, again, she said, "oh!" but softly, startled. I desisted in my attentions.
She controlled herself, and did not press against me.
"The word "debtor' is in large letter," she said. "Beneath it, in smaller letters, it says "Inquire at the Crooked Tarn pertinent to Redemption Fees. " "Would you like your hands untied?" I asked.
"Yes!" she said.
"Turn about," I said.
Swiftly she did so.
"Ah," I said.
"Are you not going to untie my hands?" she asked, anxiously.
"No!" I said.
"Beast! Beast!" she said.
I held her where she was.
"I am a free woman!" she said.
I desisted, again, in my attentions, but I kept her where she was.
"I have never been near a man before," she said, "like this."
"How does it make you feel?" I asked.
"It makes me fee vulnerable," she said.
"You are vulnerable," I said.
The palms of her hands, as she was, faced me. The palms of a woman's hands are extremely sensitive. I traced a little pattern in the palm of her right hand. "I am not a Kajira!" she said.
The pattern I had traced in her palm was that of a small cursive "Kef', the first letter in the expression "Kajira'. The cursive "Kef', in one variation or another, is commonly used as a slave brand for females.
"I suppose you had better get done with it," she said.
"With what?" I asked.
"With my humiliation," she said.
"I see," I said.
She pushed back a bit, but, because I held her, she could not reach me. "You may use me," she said. "I give you my permission."
"Your permission is not required," I said.
"I suppose not," she said.
"You are not in shackles," I said.
"They were removed," she said.
"Why do you suppose that was?" I asked.
"To make me more convenient to guests, it would seem," she said.
"Yes," I said.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"I am untying your hands," I said.
"Why?" she asked.
"You sound disappointed," I said.
"Certainly not!" she said.
I did wrap the thong about her left wrist, tucking in the ends. In this way it would remain upon her body, and be immediately available, if I wished to make use of it later. The symbolism of this, and the convenience of it, would not elude the Lady Temione. She was Gorean.
"May I turn about?" she asked.
"No," I said.
"Do you think the keeper's man anticipated that the thong might be removed?" she asked.
"He would certainly suppose it might be," I said. "He would recognize, of course, that it might be removed from your body, or, indeed, be used to tie you in any one of a hundred other ways.
She shuddered.
"But now that I am not shackled, or bound," she said, "might I not escape?" "You are within the palisade," I said.