"Yes, Master," we had said.
Standing outside the door to the Belled Collar, we stepped back, and knelt.
Bran Loort, who had once been of Tabuk's Ford, carrying a low table, entered the tavern. He performed odd jobs about the tavern in return for his keep and a tarsk a week. We had knelt because he was free. Yet I wondered if in his heart he was free. He seemed a downcast, defeated man. He carried the table past us, which he had taken to the shop of a carver and enameler, to be inlaid with a Kaissa board. He was now returning it to the tavern. He slept in the tavern overnight. He was entitled to the use of the girls of the tavern, as it was his place of employment. Yet he had never used one of us. I feared he could not do so. I recalled he had been defeated by Thurnus and then, stripped, thrust before a rape-rack in the village on which a girl, naked and helpless, awaited him. "I give you my permission," had said Thurnus. Bran Loort had looked down. "Go ahead," had urged Thurnus. "Take her!" "I cannot," had whispered Bran Loort. He had been a defeated man. He had turned away from the rack and bent down to pick up his tunic. He had gone to the gate and it had been opened for him. He had left the village of Tabuk's Ford. He had found his way to Ar. He did small work about the tavern.
Bina and I regained our feet.
"I am sorry I fought you for the candy," she said.
"I am stronger than you," I said. "You should have given it to me."
"No," she said.
I did not speak to her.
"But it is embarrassing to fight before the men as a slave," she said.
"The candy," I said, "belongs to the girl who is strong enough to take it."
"You are the only girl I know here," said Bina. "We were once both the slaves of Clitus Vitellius. We have shared a chain before. I want to be your friend."
"You, too," I said, looking at Bina, Slave Beads, "are the only old friend I have here."
"Let us be friends," she said.
"We are friends," I said.
"Good," she said, hugging me.
I hugged and kissed her.
"But the candy was mine," I said.
"Slave!" she hissed, her eyes flashing.
"Slave!" I cried.
"Hurry inside," said Busebius, standing at the door. "Do you think I bought you to stand outside like free ladies and sniff the air!"
"No, Master!" we cried, and hurried within.
"Paga!" called a man. I hurried to him.
It was now the eighteenth hour. The tavern was more crowded. I knelt back against the low wall, my wrists braceleted over and behind my head to Ring 6. A customer had reserved me to himself. I waited while he addressed himself to a game of Kaissa.
I had been longer in the tavern than Bina. I had been twenty days slave here and she had been with us only six. There were twenty-two slaves in the tavern, not counting the dancers, of which there were five.
"Do not run away," had said the man, putting me on my knees and braceleting my hands above and behind my head to the ring.
"No, Master," I had said, through gritted teeth.
I watched him playing Kaissa, completely absorbed in the game. I clenched my fists in the bracelets.
Then I saw that he had brought about capture of Home Stone. They put away the pieces, sliding them into the drawer in the Kaissa table. They then conversed a bit, discussing, it seemed, the game. Then one man left, and he who had reserved me for himself, as though recalling me, took the rental key from his pouch and approached me.
I put my head down.
He unlocked the bracelets. I looked up at him.
"What is your name?" he asked.
"Teela," I said. I had told him before.
"Go to Alcove Six," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said. "Does Master desire special equipment, or harnesses?"
"Hook bracelets," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said, putting my head down to his feet. He then left me, to return the bracelets and keys to the counter. I rose to my feet and went to the slave room to fetch the hook bracelets, leather cuffs with locks on them, and snaps; they are soft and the snaps, as opposed to the cuffs, require no key; some men enjoy them on their slaves; by means of the snaps the girl may be variously secured by the locked cuffs, her hands being fastened behind her or before her, or perhaps to her collar. I then hurried to the alcove, climbing the ladder.
The master was awaiting me. He put forth his hand and I gave him the hook bracelets. The keys for the hook bracelets are kept at the counter, as are the keys to the steel slave bracelets.
"Remove your silk," he said.
I did so.
"Extend your wrists," he said.
I did so. He fastened the hook bracelets on me. He did not, however, fasten them together.
I knelt before him, on the scarlet furs in the small alcove, in the light of the tiny lamp. I knelt in the position of the pleasure slave, the cuffs locked on me.
"Address yourself to my pleasure," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said, crawling forward, head down, my hair upon his body, to kiss him.
It was well after the nineteenth hour, and again I was upon the floor.
The tavern was crowded. The music swirled loudly. Our finest dancer, Helen, a slim, blond Earth girl, tantalized the customers of Busebius in her silver chains. She wore the same collar as I. There was no escape for her, or for me. Our brands, our collars, the society, guaranteed it. If we escaped one master we would but fall to another. We were slaves.
"Paga!" called a man. I hurried to him.
On Gor I had met four Earth girls; all were slaves. Too, I had met several who, though Gorean, bore the names of Earth girls; such names, on Gor, I knew, are regarded as excellent names for slaves.
I knelt and poured the man his paga.
"Paga!" called another. I leaped to my feet, to hurry to him and serve him. Never, it seemed, had we been so crowded. I had not even had time to go to Busebius, behind his counter, to have the hook bracelets removed from my wrists.
I brushed against Bina, she hurrying to serve another of our master's customers.
I heard Helen cry out as silk was torn from her thigh. Still she danced.
A man reached for my ankle. I fled past him.
I hurried to the counter and handed Busebius, who was beaming, the paga vessel and strap. Again it had been emptied.
He dipped the vessel into a great vat of paga and returned it to me.
"Paga! Paga!" I heard. I did not even have time to slip the vessel on its strap over my shoulder. Holding its two handles with my hands, I fled back, with a jangle of slave bells, to the floor, to serve.
The door of the paga tavern flew open. The music, for a moment stopped. Helen froze in a motion. Eyes turned toward the door. My heart skipped a beat.
Impressive men stood there, warriors, though not in the garb of Ar.
Their leader, without helmet, but in cloak and medallion, indicated that the music should continue.
The musicians again played, and, again, Helen danced.
The leader of the newcomers removed his gloves, slowly, and thrust them in his belt.
His eyes viewed the slave body of Helen, as a master's eyes look upon the flesh of a property girl.
Busebius, bowing, rushed to him.
The stranger casually looked away from Helen, and she bit her lip, tears in her eyes, no longer under his scrutiny.
He looked upon me, and I straightened my body. He was incredibly strong and handsome. I hoped that I looked my most beautiful.
He turned his attention to Busebius, who was speaking to him.
"Who is it?" I heard a man ask.
Bina stood near to me. She shook. She read the medallion of the stranger.
"See the medallion," said a man.
Busebius conducted the visitors, his honored guests, to a private corner of the tavern from which, on the raised dais there, they might well view the room, the musicians, and the dancer.
"Do you not know them?" asked a man.