He drew forth the knife and looked at me.
"I love you, Master," I whispered.
"I shall cut you to bits," he said, "and throw you, little by little, to the sharks."
He could do with me what he chose. I was his.
He drew back the knife, the blade in his hand, behind his head. I closed my eyes.
It struck in the wood, sinking four inches deep, beside me. I opened my eyes. I shuddered.
He was looking down at me. "I have you now," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said.
He dropped to one knee, crouching beside me. He jerked the tag on my collar. He read it aloud, "Send me to the Lady Elicia of Ar, of Six Towers." He laughed.
"You, a lady's serving slave," he grinned.
Then he lifted my flanks from the wood, and then thrust me back, holding me to the wood. I closed my eyes, almost fainting from his touch.
He released me. He stood up, looking down at me.
"I love you, Master," I said.
He kicked me, viciously, and I cried out. "Lying slave girl!" he said.
He crouched again beside me and jerked the knife free from the wood. I felt its point at my throat.
Then he thrust the knife again into the wood, a foot from me. He looked down at me. "No," he said, "the sharks, the knife, are too good for you."
I felt his left hand at my throat. He could crush it easily.
I shuddered.
Then his hand moved from my throat to touch my right breast, musingly. "No," he said, "the sharks, the knife, are too good for you."
"Have pity on a poor slave," I begged. But I saw in his eyes that he would have no pity on me.
I felt his right hand on my body.
"I have pursued you," he said. "Those at the Chatka and Curla were kind enough to tell me that you had been shipped on the Jewel of Jad. We seized a small, oared galley. We joined with those of Port Kar. In the engagement I sought you. It was not easy. Captives were persuaded to speak. Survivors from the Jewel of Jad were picked up by the ramship, Luciana of Telnus. We sought her. We found her. In the engagement the galley was destroyed. My men swam to a ship of Port Kar. I yet did hunt for you."
"Your hunt has been successful, Master," I said. "You have caught me."
"Yes," he said, "the vicious, little lying slave, the little she-sleen and collared traitress, is now caught." He looked down at me. "She lies now before me, naked and bound, at my mercy."
"Yes, Master," I said.
"Slut," said he.
"Yes, Master," I said.
He turned my head from side to side. "Even your ears are pierced," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said. There were tears in my eyes.
"The vengeance of a warrior," said he, "you will learn, little slut of a slave, is not a light thing."
"I am yours, Master," I said. I looked up at him, in the fog. I felt the raftlike structure shifting beneath us. I was bound at his mercy, my bit of tunic torn aside, on a particle of wreckage on a great sea. "I am yours, Master," I whispered. "Do with me as you will."
His left hand held me. His right hand moved at my body. His teeth and lips pressed suddenly, savagely, against the side of my throat, over the collar.
"I love you, Clitus Vitellius!" I cried.
He struck me, savagely, for I, a slave, had spoken his name.
Then he continued his depredations on my body. In moments, to the sky and sea, and to his manhood, helplessly, I cried myself his.
23
The Raft
I lay in the arms of Clitus Vitellius, my master, under the bright stars of Gor, under the white moons and the black sky, on the rough wood, in the midst of that great, lonely sea. I heard the water lap at the wreckage on which we lay. He had freed me of the ring, that my hands, under his directives, might pleasure him.
I put my head on the leanness of his belly, and my arms about him. He held my head in his hands. He lay upon his back.
"Do not think you are my love slave," said he. "You are only a lying slave, my prisoner, a captured traitress I will have my way with."
"I know, Master," I said, pressing my lips to him. He had been very cruel to me. He had punished me much.
"If I were you," said he, "I would be terrified."
I kissed him.
"You do not seem to be terrified," he said.
"I have always feared you, Master," I said, "your temper, your strength, your will. But I love you, too."
He seized me by the arms and flung me to my back on the wood. He looked down upon me, holding me. He was very rough.
"Lying slave!" he said.
I looked up at him. "It is true," I said, "Master."
"You love any man," he said.
"I wear a collar," I said.
He laughed.
"I am a girl of Earth," I said. "I cannot help myself in the arms of a Gorean male. But it is you, Master, whom I most love, whom I truly love."
"You seek to escape punishment," he said.
"No, Master," I said. "Punish me." I felt his hands on my arms, so tight. He had terrible strength. I felt weak.
"I own you," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said.
"You will not," said he, "with your smiles and pretty noises evade my vengeance." He struck me, cruelly.
"No, Master," I said.
He stood up, angrily on the wreckage. He stepped away from me, looking out to sea. I remained as I was. Then he turned about, regarding me.
"I lie at your mercy, Master," I said. "Avenge yourself."
He drew forth the knife at his belt.
Then angrily he thrust it again in its sheath. He turned away.
I smiled, and climbed to my knees and stretched. "A girl is hungry," I said.
He remained, looking out to sea.
"It is strange," he said.
"What is strange, Master?" I asked.
"Be silent," said he to me, "Slave."
"Yes, Master," I said. He would not speak to me of his thoughts.
"Can it be, Clitus Vitellius?" he asked himself, aloud. He turned about, angrily, and looked at me.
"I betrayed you, Master," I said, "because I so much loved you. Had I not loved you so much I could not have so much hated you. I had lived for the moment when I might avenge myself upon you, and when it presented itself, I performed delicious but unspeakable treachery. When they took you away I felt anguish, and a grief I cannot describe to you. I cried out and wept with misery. I had betrayed he whom I loved. Life then to me was but stones and ashes. Better that it had been I who had been betrayed. When I learned of your escape elation and joy flooded me. It was enough to know you lived and were free."
"Traitress," said he.
"I am here," I said. "Do with me what you want." He regarded me with fury, but then he looked away again. After a time, he turned again to face me. "It is near dawn," he said. "I am weary. It is time to bind you for the night."
"Please do not bind me, Master," I said. I rose to my feet, and brushed back my hair. I smiled at him. "I promise I will not run away, Master," I said.
I stood on the shifting piece of wreckage.
"I am well aware of the penalties for a runaway slave girl," I said.
"Lie down by the ring," he said, "and be silent."
"Yes, Master," I said.
I lay down near the ring.
"On your side," he said.
I complied. He was the master. I felt my wrists taken behind my back, crossed and tied together, tightly.
I wanted so much to find some way to convince him of my love for him. I wanted him to know, truly, how I loved him. After that he could do what he wanted with me.
He took two pieces of my tunic, twisting them together. He then thrust them about the collar I wore, between the metal and my neck. He then, by means of this improvised rope, tied my collar close to the iron ring on the wreckage, no more than an inch from it. He then removed the knife from his sheath, plunged it into the wood a few feet from him, and lay down. In a moment he had turned away from me, and was asleep.