"We were put on the racks as free women," she said, "that we, the women of the enemy, be properly humiliated. Too is it not a rich joke for the men of Ar that more than a thousand of the free women of Vonda adorn their pleasure racks, fastened down like slave girls, their use available for a tarsk bit to the passers-by?"
"Yes," I smiled, "it is a rich joke." The men of Gor are fond of such jokes.
And only after this, our profound humiliation," she said, "will the men ofAr it it should please them see fit to permit us to be divided into lots, and be branded and collared and sold into slavery throughout the townsand cities of Gor."
"Splendid," I said, "splendid!" She looked at me with horror. "Are you a man of Gor?" she asked. I shrugged. I did not know.
Then again, suddenly, she lifted her body to me. "You have aroused me," she whispered. "You know you have aroused me and cruelly."You lift you body like a female slave, Lady Tima," I said. She groaned and lay back. She moaned.
The blonde a few racks down was now sobbing with pleasure. She was alone. "Masters, Masters," she called. "I am only a tarsk bit! Please touch me!" What a slut she is," I said. "Yes, Jason," whispered the Lady Tima.
"These straps seem to hold you quite well," I said. "I am absolutely helpless," she said. "Touch me, I beg you!"
"The pleasure rack is an interesting device," I said. I examined the wooden wheels the levers. In virtue of the axes of the device and the various gears and pinions and the joints braces, fitted, sliding boards, notches and lock points, it can be adjusted to a variety of positions. To be sure not all the pleasure racks were as sophisticated as that on which was bound my former Mistress, the former female slaver, the Lady Tima of Vonda. This device, like some of the others, had doubtless been brought from the city, perhaps dragged forth by shackled men of Vonda hauling on wagon ropes.
"Jason," begged the Lady Tima. "I have never seen one this close before," I said. "Jason!" she cried. "You look well on your knees before me," I said. "Jason!" she wept.
I then bend her backwards, and then lifting and turning her, examined the left side of her beautyk ad then the rights. I then put her through a variety of positions, more experimenting with the possibilities of the apparatus than annything else, though the experiments had their aesthetic value, for the Lady Tima was a lovely woman.
"Fascinating," I said. "Jason," she protested. I then, as I had grown more proficient with the device, used it for one of its two major purposes, that of exhiting and displaying the helpless prisoner. Its second major purpose of course, is to hold the woman in any position one pleases. I rotated her to her back. I then turned away. "Jason!" she cried. "Jason!"
I turned back, again, to face her. "You have humiliated and abused me," she said,"You have turned me about and examined me on ther rack as though I might be a slave girl! You have cruelly arounsed me. You cannot leave me now!" I can," I told her."Please come back," she wept. "Touch me! Touch me!"
"Do you beg it?" I asked. "Yes," she said, "I beg it as a slave!" "As a slave?" I asked. "Yes, yes," she said. "I beg it as a slave!"
"But that is lower than a mere slut," I said. "Surely you remember the blonde girl," I said, indicating the girl some racks from her. "I beg it as both a slut and a slave," she said.
I then went slowly to the rack. She looked up at me frightened. Then I fastened her in position, preading her thighs uncomfortable apart. Then looking down upon her, I spread her legs by another four inches. Then I had her.
3. The Food Tent
"Over here," I told the Lady Gina, "Kneel down," I indicated a place on the straw, at the wall of the food tent, a clear place, between other couples.She knelt before me, looking up at me, "You are the first man who has ordered me to the straw," she said."Do you think you are unattractive?" I asked."I know I am unattractive," she said."To many men," I said, "you would be very attractive."
"I am a naked and shackled prisoner," she said, "soon perhaps, if it should please the men of Ar, to be branded a slave. I have waited upon your table and brought you food and drink. Beyond these things, I beg you not to insult and torture me."
"You performed your duties as a naked waitress well," I said, "expertly and deferentially." "I do not wish to be killed," she said.
"You were a fine trainer," I said. "You taught me much."And now, " she smiled, "is it your intention to give your training a little training?" Perhaps," I said."I have never had the feelings of a normal woman," she said.
"Lie down," I told her. "I obey," she said. She looked up at me. "You do not seem angry with me," she said.
I sat beside her. "I am not," I said. "Keeper!" I called, "Give me the key to the shackles of this one."
He came to me and gave me a key, with which I removed the shakle from her right ankle. I returned the key to him. I did not unlock the shackle on her left ankle. She continued to wear it, with the short chain and the opened right shackle.
"He did not seem surprised or started," I said, "that I should open your shackle." "No," she said, bewildered. "He did not."Is it not thus so unthinkable," I said, "that a man might desire to free your legs." She looked at me, frightened.
"Remember," I said, "you are not now carrying a whip and keys, clad in black leather in a position of power, men at your mercy." "No," she whispers.
"And even in that guise," I said, "it is not so improbably but what men might wish to take your whip from you and throw you down and teach you what it is to be a women."
"I wanted them to do so," she said. "I wanted them to make me a woman." "You are a women," I told her. "Dare to be it."No!" she said. "It means surrender to men!" "Of course," I told her.
"I do not have the feelings of normal women" she said. "perhaps it is only that you are afraid to have them," I said. "No no!" she said."Then have them," I said.
"No!" she said. "The Lady Gina will never be a submitted slave!" "You are too proud to be a woman?" I asked. "Yes," she said. "Even though you are in truth, a woman?"
"Yes," she said. "It is wrong to be a woman! It is wrong to be a woman!" "You could always pretend that to be a woman is to be like a man," I said.
"I am not a fool," she said. "Do you reallly think it is wrong for a woman to be a true woman?" "Yes," she said, "for it is to be a woman and not a man!" "But you are not in fact a man," I said."I know," she said.
"Be a woman then," I said. "I dare not," she said. "Why?" I asked. "I do not know," she said.
"Is it such a terrible thing to be a woman?" I asked. "Yes, yes!" she said."No," I said, "it is not terrible. It is deeply and profoundling marvelous. She trembled.
"Take your place in the order of nature," I said. "At the feet of men!" she said."It is where you belong," I said.
She began to shudder at my side. "I begin to feel such emotions, such feelings," she said. "They frighten me. They threaten to overwhelm me."It is uncontrollable. It is like a storm," I said. "Yes," she said. "Yield to them," I said. "I do not want to be a women!" she wept. "I do not want to be a woman!"
"How fared the House of Andronicus?" I asked her.She looked at me, startled."The goods and the slaves fled or were taken," she said. "The House itself was destroyed."And Andronicus?" I asked."He fled," she said with the others.