"I would prefer," said Kliomenes, "that he did not wear a mask." "Surly you must understand," said Policrates, "that his identify must remain concealed." Policrates gestured about himself, to the tables. "What if one hear should turn traitor, and later identify and betry our guest, say for gold? Or, what if his features might be seen by a slave, say, a mere serving wench, who might later, herself being sold or given away, inadvertently, by her reaction, give suspicious as to his identity?"
Kliomenes nodded glumly, and turned again to his wine.
"Do even the slaves here know that I am the courier fo Rganer Voskjard?" I asked."Of coures," said Policrates. "To celebrate your arrival, and the bringing of the pledge of the topaz, this very feast has been commanded. Indeed, even if it were not so, it is difficult to keep rumors of such matters from the kitchens and kennels. The little sluts, even in their chains, are prone to gossip and are eager for the least tidbit of news."I smiled.
"Meat, Master?" asked a girl, nude, who knelt now beside me. She offered a tray on which small cubes of roasted bosk, on tiny sticks, steamed. I took several, dipping them by the sticks in a sauce, carried on the same tray. I returned the tiny sticks to the tray and looked at the girl. She put down her head. Her hair had been cut quite short, probably as a punishment. She must now, nude, offer meat to men. It is understood of course in such a situation that in asking such a question that the girl is offering herself to the male, as much or more, than the steaming, nourishing delights on her plate. This sort of thing, incidentally, is quite common in Gorean serving. This sort of question, generally, is unerstood more broadly than merely being an inquiry into the male's culinary preferences of the moment. The classical question in this respect, almost universal on Gor, is "Wine, Master?"
"Do you think, truly," asked Policrates, "that the fleet os Rganar Voskjard, fully rigged and fitted, can be here in twenty days?" I see no difficulty in the matter," I assured him."Good," he said.
I looked about at the girls among the tables. Some, but not all, wore five steel loops on their body, a rounded, narrow collar loop, and rounded and narrow, lops on their wrists and ankles. Such looks in a variety of ways can provide a variety of ties. Only a bit of binding fiber, slipped behind the loops is required. Goeran men are sometimes ingenious in the ties to which they subject slave girls. Different ties, of course, have different purposes.
One may generally distinguish among such things as control ties, discipline ties, and pleasure ties. These ties are not mutually exculsive of course.
"Grapes, Master?" said a soft feminie voice near to me. I looked about but I did not react. It was the free owman, or the woman who had been free, who had been ordered from the crowd on the wharves of Victoria. I reaclled her having been stripped by the pirate and his blade at her throat. She had tied the knot of bondage in her own hair. She ahd been ordered to run to the galley. There I had seen her bound helplessly at its railing, her back to it, exposing her beauty, with others. "Master?" she asked. Her voice, and mein, were deferential and totally submissive. An incredible transformation had come over her. She was not soft and lovely and beautiful, a woman who was and knew herself owned. I wanted to take her in my arms. She lifted the tray of grapes to me, proffering it.They were Ta grapes. I smiles. Each, I noted had been carfully peeled. Doubtless that had been the task to which she had set that afternoon. Suchtrivial, painstaking tasks are often useful in teaching a women that she is a slave. "Master?" she asked. I wanted to take her in my arms. I permitted her to feed me a grape. Then she withdrew. I watched her withdraw. She was beautiful. She wore a snatch of yellow silk.
"I see that she pleased you," said Policrates. "You may have her this evening in your chambers, if you wish."Perhaps," I said. I shrugged.The whip dance continued before us.
"Fruit, Master," asked a girl softly, timidly, kneeling down lightly beside me. Her head was down. She was frightened. I turned, sitting to face her. She trembled. She did not raise her head. "She fears you," said Policratesk "for she knows you are the courier of Ragnar Voskjard. Too she is perhaps intimidated by my presence, and that of Kliomenes, for we are highest in this holding." I smiled. Such men of course held over her the total power of life or death. I regarded the girl.
There were five, narrow, rounded loops of steel locked upon her hair body, one serving as collar, and the others for her wrists and ankles. In her hands she carried, held, ripe rounded fruit.
She wore, like the girl before her, tantalizing to the eye, what might constitute a master's conception of a garment suitable for a lovely female slave, a fragment of silk which made unmistakable clear that the beauty to which it clung, and which it made little pretense to conceal, lay fully at the disposition and mercy of lusty men. Yet is was, in its way, more demure than that which had been worn by the girl before her. In particular, as it was tied snugly, it gathered her breasts, holding them together and lifting them.
"She is a new slave," said Policrates, "and is not yet fully broken to the collar."Her dark hair was coiffured loosely and high upon her head. It was bound with a braided yellow cord, strong enough to hold her wrists, should she be bound with it. If the cord were jerked loose the hair would fall, uncound, to the small of her back."She is exquisite, isn't she?" asked Policrates.
I put my thumb under her chin and lifted up her head. Her soft brown eyes, frightened, met mine.there was a look in them which I had seen before, I thought, in others girls, in the eyes of asalve girl as she looks into the eyes of a master. That interested me. Then she turned aside her head, though it was still held much in place by the obdurate pressure of my thumb. She did not recognize me.Her delicate lips wore lipstick, red. There was a subtle shading of blue on her upper eyelids.
"She fears that you will find her pleasing," said Policrates, "but yet, I think, desires that you will."The girl trembled. I removed my thumb from beneath her chin, and she put her head down. Policrates regarded her. "Little, fool," he said, "for what purpose have you come to this table?"
The girl lifted her head then and timidly lifted the ripe, rounded fruit which she held in her hands. Gorean peaches and plums, to me. Her eyes met mine, and then she looked down, blushing. I then understood the purpose of the gathering of her brief yellow garmet at her breasts, lifting them, sweet, rounded and swelling, for the inspection and delectation of masters. In her gesture, her offering of the fruit, it is cleafning understood that she was offering to me as well the lovely fruits of her service and beauty.
I took one of the peaches and bit into it, watching her. She shuddered.
"You are dismissed," said Policrates."Yes, Master," she said, frightened, and rising quickly, lightly, hurried away, barefoot on the tiles to serve others.I thought Miss Henderson made a lovely slave girl.
The whip dance was now approaching its climax.
"She is a pretty little think," I said, looking after MIss Henderson, "What do you call her?" Beverly," said Policrates. "You are cruel," i said, smiling, "to give her an Earth-girl name."She is an Earth girl," he said grinning."Oh," I said."Do you like Earth girls?" he asked."Yes," I said.
"That one is raw," he said, "but in time like the others, I think she will make an excellent slave."Do you think she is a natural slave?" I asked."Undoubtedly," he said. "I meant that she was not yet fully trained, not yet broken fully to the collar. "I see," I said.