"I do not want to be a slave!" she cried. "I do not want to be a slave!"
Again he thrust her head beneath the water. I feared he might drown her.
Again he pulled her head, by the hair, from the water. "I will obey, Master," she gasped.
He kept her on her stomach by the bath and slipped the leather loop of the leash over her head. Quickly his large, efficient hands shortened the loop, sliding the slip ring to a snug fit, then securing it in place, preventing its backward movement, with the snap lock. The leash could then tighten, functioning as a locked choke leash, but could not loosen.
Elicia Nevins turned to her side, unbelievingly. She touched the leather. She had been leashed. She looked up at the warrior. "Master?" she asked.
"Soon," he said.
"Whose leash do I wear?" she asked.
"That of Bosk of Port Kar," he said.
"Not he!" she cried. I gathered she had heard of her enemy.
"He," said Bosk of Port Kar.
She trembled, leashed. I did not think hers would be an easy slavery. I did not envy her. The name of Bosk of Port Kar was dreaded among women on Gor.
He pulled her to her knees by the leash. She looked up at him.
He gestured to me. "Where is the key to her collar?" he asked.
"In the yellow drawer, in the vanity," she said, hastily, "beneath silk."
"Fetch it," said Bosk of Port Kar to me.
I fled to the drawer and found the key. I did not daily to obey. He had spoken to me in the voice of the Gorean master.
He indicated that I should press the key into the hands of Elicia and kneel with my back to her. I did so. "Remove the collar," said he to Elicia. Fumbling, she opened my collar and pulled it away, putting it and the key on the tiles. "Say, 'I no longer own you'," commanded the warrior. "I no longer own you," whispered Elicia, to me, frightened. I sprang to my feet, and turned to face her. She shrank back, leashed. My fists were clenched. She looked up at me. It was sweet to me to see her on her knees, leashed. "Kneel," said Bosk of Port Kar to me. "Yes, Master," I said. I was still a slave. Elicia and I knelt near to one another.
He stood near Elicia, and looked down upon her. Her lip trembled. "You are an agent of Kurii," he said, "and are a valuable as well as beautiful catch."
"Will I be taken to Port Kar to be interrogated?" she asked.
"Yes," he said.
"I will be cooperative," she said. "I will speak all I know." She had no desire to be put under the tortures of Port Kar.
"Of course," he said.
He glanced outside the long, high window in her compartments, out upon the towers of Ar. It was still bright. The blue sky was intense among and over the lofty towers of the city.
"It is early afternoon," she said. "It will be difficult to take me from the city by day." That was true. Tarnsmen, periodic and alight, patrolled the city. "Doubtless," she said, "you are awaiting the fall of darkness."
"That is true," said he, "Prisoner."
She looked up at him, his leather on her throat.
"Do not fear," said he, "we will find a way to while away the time."
"How am I to be taken from the city?" she asked.
"Bound, naked, belly up," said he, "across the saddle of a tarn."
"Scarcely the way to transport a free woman," she said.
"By nightfall," said he, "you will be fit cargo for such mode of transport."
She shuddered.
"Go to the vanity," he said, "and kneel before it." She did this. He then, crouching behind her, crossed her ankles and, with the long, loose end of the leash, tied them together. The leash then ran from her throat back to her ankles. Her hands were free.
"Apply cosmetics and scents," said he. "You are to be absolutely beautiful," he said.
She reached, miserably, for the tiny boxes and brushes.
"Go into the outer room," he said to me. "Among my things you will find an iron. Prepare a brazier and heat the iron. You will find there, too, earrings and a saddle needle. Bring them."
"Yes, Master," I said.
It was in the late afternoon that I, holding its handles with quilted cloths, slid the brazier into the chamber of the couch and bath. I had not done this earlier in order that the room not be made uncomfortably hot.
"How beautiful you are, Elicia," I said, startled. She sat at the foot of the couch, her knees drawn up and together, on furs thrown to the tiles from its surface. She no longer wore the leash. Her ankles were tied and her hands were tied behind her. She was made up beautifully for her branding. Her left ankle, I noted, on a chain of some five feet in length, was fastened to the slave ring at the couch's foot. On many nights I had slept there chained. It had been Bosk's decision that she would be branded at the slave ring of her own couch.
"Judy," she wept, "what is he going to do?"
"He is going to brand you," I said.
"No!" she said.
"You were not forced to come to Gor," I said.
She struggled in the bonds. Bosk of Port Kar, with the quilted cloth, drew forth the iron, and thrust it back. It would soon be ready.
"You are a beast and a barbarian!" she cried to him, drawing back. Then she could move no further back against the stone couch. She could draw her feet up no further.
He took her and threw her to her right side, wedging her in the corner formed by the tiles and the foot of the stone couch. With the leash he tied her thighs tightly together, leaving between the tight, confining leather strips an open space, a small, lovely territory, for the passage of the iron. He gestured that I slide the brazier near to him, and I did so. He indicated that I should give him the quilted cloth with which he might seize the iron, and I did so.
"Help me, Judy!" wept Elicia.
"You were not forced to come to Gor, Elicia," I told her. She lay on her right side, bound, thrust against the foot of the couch. Wadded furs helped to hold her in place. Her thighs had been tied for the iron. Bosk's weight, too, pressed upon her. She shut her eyes.
I looked outside, at the clouds, the blue sky of the late afternoon. It was sunny. The towers were beautiful. I saw some small birds in flight.
I closed my eyes when she screamed. I listened to the iron, patient, performing its identificatory work. I smelled the branding. Bosk did not hurry. He did his work upon her well.
I again opened my eyes. The sky was lovely and blue outside of the window. More birds flew by.
I heard the girl sobbing. There was a new slave girl on Gor.
I looked upon her. She looked at me, tears in her eyes. She had been marked incontrovertibly, and well.
"I am a slave," she said.
"Yes," I said.
"Remove the brazier and iron," said Bosk of Port Kar. "Set the iron to cool."
"Yes, Master," I said.
With the quilted cloths I took the brazier from the room, and the iron, too. Outside, in the outer room, I put the iron aside, on the tiles, near his belongings. It would cool.
When I returned to the chamber of the bath and couch he had sat the new slave up, against the couch. He, with a saddle needle, was piercing her left ear lobe. I saw the needle run through and a tiny spot of blood. He had already pierced her right ear lobe. Then he took the earrings I had brought, golden loops, an inch in diameter, and fastened them in her ears. He then gave me the saddle needle to clean and replace in his gear, which I did.
When again I returned to the chamber of the bath and couch he had freed her of her bonds, with the exception of the chain on her left ankle, which fastened her to the slave ring at the foot of the couch.
She lay on the deep furs at the foot of the couch, chained by the ankle, branded, in earrings.
She looked up at me.
"Greetings, Slave," I said.
"Greetings, Mistress," she said.
"Bring wine," said Bosk of Port Kar to me. "I will be served by the slave."