"Tied as I am," she asid, "it seems to me not unfitting that I should call you 'Master' I said nothing. "I request permission to do so," she said. "It is granted," I said. "What does you collar say?" I asked.
Suddenly she reared in the ropes. "You must help me to remove it!" she said. "What does it say?" I asked."It says, 'I am the slave girl, Darlene, " she said. "It is an Earth-girl name." I said. "Precisely," she said, "You can well imagine what might be done with me if I were caught in such a collar. Men might think that I was an Earth girl or one of those girls like an Earth girl and was given this name!"
I smiled.
"Surely you understand my fears," she said. "Of course," I said. "I used to train Earth girls," she said. "I know how men look upon them."I nodded. Gorean men were not gentle with Earth girls. They regarded them as natural slaves and treated them accordingly, fully. Some of the most abject slaveries on Gor were assigned to Earth girls.
"So you will helmp me out of this collar as soon as possible will you not?" she asked. "I will if it pleases me," I said. She lay back. "I am in your ropes," she shrugged. I crouched then beside her. "You know me don't you?" she said. "Yes," I said.
"You heard my name about the Inn," she said. "Yes," I said, "but even aside from that I would have know you." "Even veiled?" she asked. "Yes," I said.
She pulled at the ropes. "You have then," she said, " a shrewd eye for the flesh of women." "Perhaps," i said. "Do you truly know me?" she asked. "Yes," I said. "What is my name?" she asked. "You are the Lady Tima of Vonda, a slaver of that city, of the house of Tima."
"Who are you?" she asked frightened. "Do you not recall me?" I asked. "I was once a silk slave. My name is Jason."
Slowly recognition crept into her eyes. "No," she whispered. "No!" Then struggling wildly, she tore at the ropes. "No," she screamed. "No!" Then again she lay before me, tied as helplessly and perfectly as before. "No," she whispered. "No, no."Yes, I whispered to her. "Yes."
The Lady Tina now lay on the slave mat where I had put her later in the moring.
"You will help me get this hated collar off, won't you?" she purred, lifting her arms and putting them about my neck, lifting her lips to mine. "Does Darlene beg it?" I asked. "Darlene!" she said, lying back angrily. "Is that not the name on the collar?" I asked. "Yes," she said, "it is."
"Does Darlene beg it?" I asked. "Yes," she purred again, liftingher arms and putting them about my neck. "Yes," she whispered. "Darlene begs it." Then we kissed. "The request of Darlene is refused." I told her.
Angrily she scrambled to her knees and pulled at the collar. She looked at me in fury. "You sleen!" she said.
I smiled. "Sleen! Sleen!" she said.The Ta-Teera had been half torn from her. She had squirmed well. "Sleen! Sleen!" she wept.She was soft and luscious and cured. It ws easy to see why men make women slaves."Be silent!" I said to her suddenly. She looked at me, frightened.
"Do not leave the mat," I told her, getting up. I want to one of the narrow, barred windows in the inn. I saw five armed men running down the street.
"River pirates," I said. "I think they must be." She moaned and foolishly tried to cover her beauty. I looked back at her. "Do you think the would permit you modesty in their shackles?" I asked. Then I returned to her side. "They are not coming here," I said. "I think they have decided it is time to leae Lara." "Why?" she asked. "Yet, I do not smell smoke." I said. "It is interesting."
"What is going on?" she asked. "Can you not guess?" I asked. "No," she said, "No."I then took her by the arms and threw her to her back on the slave mat beneath me. "My dear Lady Tendite or 'Darlene' as I may choose to call you," I said. "I do not htink we have a great deal more time to tarry in this place."
"What do you mean?" she asked. "And you must leave it somewhat earlier than I," I said. I do not understand," she said. "Oh," she said, entered and held. She tried to press me away but could not do so. Then she clutched at me. "Excellent Darlene," I said. "What are you making me do?" she whispered. "Can you not guess?" I asked her.
"You have won, Jason," she whispered to me, lying on her side beside me, her head on her arm. "You have made me yield to you, irreservedly, helplessly and as a slave."
"As a free woman," I said, "you cannot yet begin to understand the fullness, the helplessness, of true slave yielding."
"I sense what they might be," she whispered, "being fully owned, begin fully and legally at the mercy of a master." "Do the thoughts intrigue you?" I asked.
"I must put them from my mind," she said. "I must not even dare to think them." "Why?" I asked. "they are too profoundly feminine," she said. "And thus not fit for a proud free woman?" she said. "Yes," she said. "But suitable perhaps for a collared slave?" I said. "Yes," she smiled, "Such a woman is permitted to be true to herself."
"I suspect," I said, "she is given no choice but to be true to herself." "Yes," said the girl. "She is given no choice. She must be true to herself. If she should be reluctant the master and the whip will see to it."
"You seem to speak enviously of the miserable women in bondage." "Perhaps," she said. "You yourself wear a collar." I said. "But I am a free woman," she said. "For the time, perhaps," I said. "What do you mean?" she said.
"Get up," I told her. We got up.She faced me. "You are not going to help me get the collar off are you?" she asked. She touched me about the shoulder with her finger. "No," I said. "You fill me with strange feelings, Jason," she siad. "Oh?" I asked. "I am accustomed," she said, "to have men dowhat I wish." "I suggest Lady Tendite," I said, "that you begin to accustom yourself to doing what men wish."
"What are you doing?" she asked. I had heard men neaarby, the sound of weapons. I dragged her toward the door of the inn. I slid back the panel and looked out. The street, as far as I could tell, was clear. I then shut the panel and swung up the heavy bars on the door. I opened the door and looked out.
The street was clear. I held the Lady Tendite firmly by her left upper arm. She was barefoot in the torn Ta-Teera and collar. I then flung her down the wide, shallow steps and some 15 feet into the street beyond. She fell to her hands and knees in the street, and suddenly scrambled up, wildly, looking about herself. I then shut the door, dropping the two heavy beams into place. She ran to the door and began to pound on it. "Let me in!" she cried. "Let me in!"
Within the inn I left the main room and went up to the second floor where, from one of the room's windows I might command a better view of the street. I could still hear her pounding on the door below. "Let me in Jason!" she sobbed. "Let me in!" Again and again she struck with her small fists against the door. "I will be your slave, Master!" she cried. "Have mercy on me, Master! Please have mercy on me, Master!"
Then from the window, I saw her run to the center of the street. She turned from the left to the right, uncertainly. She was sobbing. "Hold Slave!" I heard. Men had entered the street. I saw they wore, as I had thought, the uniforms of Ar.
The girl turned wildly in the street and started to run from the men. But she had gone only a step or two when she saw some five other men at the end of the street, also approaching her. She stopped, uncertainly, confused, in the street. The men, not hurrying, then surrounded her.
"I am not what I seem!" she cried. "I am not a slave!" One of the men seized her by the hair and ben back her head. "Her name is 'Darlene'," he said. "No!" she said. "I am the LadyTendite, a free woman of Vonda!" One of the men then was drwing her hands behind her back. He snapped her wrists in slave braclets. "I'm not a slave!" she said. "Darlene is an excellent slave name," said one of the men. "I am hot for her already."Wait until we have her in the camp," said their leader. "A nice catch," said another.Another man was snapping a leash on her collar. "Are you an Earth wench?" asked one of the men. "No," she said, "No!" Nonetheless, I wager you will whip as well," said another.