Clitus Vitellius had turned to the slender, virginal girl. "Do you wish to be in the least troublesome?" he asked her, lifting the whip, laughing.
"No, Master!" she cried.
He collared her, as he had done me. We both wore his collar. He knelt us together. "I submit, fully, Master," I said. "I submit, fully, Master," said the virginal girl, quickly, following my example.
The slave whip lay to one side.
"We have surely delayed the sales of the Curulean too long," said Clitus Vitellius, to the auctioneer.
The auctioneer bowed, the pouch of gold in his hand.
"Come, Slaves," said Clitus Vitellius to the two of us, naked in his collar.
He lifted his shield and took up his spear, and then descended the steps of the great block. We followed him. He ascended the long aisle leading from the hall. Men cried out his name, and cheered, and smote their left shoulders, as he passed them. He strode as a Warrior. We hurried after him, his slave girls.
"Will he march us through the streets naked?" asked the virginal girl.
"He will do with us as he pleases," I told her. "He is a Warrior"
29
A Warrior's Vengeance; The Furs Of My Master
We were but four bridges from the Towers of the Warriors when Clitus Vitellius turned suddenly, regarding me. I stopped, suddenly, naked, behind him, where I was heeling him. The virginal girl, too, stopped suddenly. But he did not look at her. He approached me. He stood before me, his shield on his left arm, the mighty spear grasped in his right hand. Immediately I trembled, and knelt, head down.
"Oh!" cried the virginal girl. He, placing the spear and shield to one side, had moved to her and was tying her hands behind her back. He fastened her by the wrists to a ring at the foot of the Four Lamps bridge. Such rings arecommon in Gorean cities, in public places, and serve the convenience of masters in tethering their slaves. The ring was mounted on a post, about a yard high. She stood at the post, naked, tethered there, her hands fastened behind her back, at the foot of the Four Lamps bridge. I could see the lights of glorious Ar. The light of one lamp was upon her. She was very beautiful. "Master?" she begged.
He took a blunt marking stick from his pouch and wrote Gorean words on her left shoulder.
He then, to her amazement, and mine, removed his collar from her throat.
"Master?" she sobbed.
He replaced the collar and marking stick in his pouch. "Can you read?" he asked her.
"Yes," she said.
"Read then what I have inscribed upon your body," said he.
"I cannot well see it, Master," she said. "But from the feel of it in my flesh, I know what you have written."
"Speak it aloud," said he, "Slave."
"You have written 'Collar me. Own me, " she said.
"Yes," he said.
"You are leaving me here for the first stranger who passes, Master?" she asked.
"Do you object, Slave?" he asked.
"No, Master!" she said, drawing back. The point of the spear, which Clitus Vitellius had now retrieved, was at her throat.
I then felt the point of the spear in my back. "On your feet, Slave," he said.
Swiftly I rose to my feet.
He then strode past me, and began the crossing of the bridge of Four Lamps. I hastened to follow him, heeling him obediently. I did turn, on the crest of the bridge, to look back at the tethered girl. The area at the foot of the bridge was deserted. It was late. She seemed very much alone there, naked, the light of the lamp on her, tethered, waiting for the first individual who might chance by.
I turned away, hurrying to follow Clitus Vitellius. I remembered the look he had given me when first, moments ago, he had stopped and turned, and approached me. Never had I seen such lust, possessiveness and desire in a man's eyes. I felt weak. I wondered about the service of how many girls I would have to render to him. He had cast aside the virginal girl, arrogantly, in a warrior's gesture, leaving her for whomsoever might find and desire her. Her slave service, and mine, and more, he would now want from me. I did not know if I could be so much a slave to him.
We were but a short way from the Towers of Warriors, on the second of its approaching high bridges, when again Clitus Vitellius turned and faced me.
"I cannot wait," he said to me.
"Yes, Master," I said. We were on a high bridge, one of the highest in all Ar. The lights of the city were strewn beneath us; above us burned the stars of Gor.
He placed his shield upon the bridge, straps down, its convex surface like a bow facing the stars.
He indicated that I should take my position upon it, and I did so, my head down. With the straps, brought about the sides of the great shield he fastened my wrists apart, one on each side, about at shoulder level, at the edges of the shield. I lay over the shield, bound upon it.
"Now I have you where I want you, Dina," said he, "Earth girl."
"Yes, Master," I said.
Swiftly he took me in his arms. I yielded immediately to my master.
"I love you, Master," I said to him.
His hands were upon my shoulders. He dragged me upward to his pressing mouth, pulling me against the wrist straps which held my wrists at the shield's edges. I thought he might tear me from the shield. Then he flung me back, arched across its surface. I felt his lips at my belly and thighs. I could not protect myself from the fierce ardor to which I must submit. Then again I cried out, lost in my slave's love of him, my master.
He unbound my wrists from the shield. He thrust me from its surface. I rolled to my side, on the bridge. I lay quietly on the bridge, in his collar.
"It is getting late," he said. "I must get you to the love furs."
"Yes, Master," I said.
"Get up," he said. He moved his foot against my body.
I tried to get up, but could scarcely stand. I sank to my hands and knees.
He laughed at me.
I sank to my side. I lifted my hand to him.
"Get up, Earth girl," he said.
"I will try, Master," I said.
But again I fell to my knees.
"Do not beat me, Master," I begged. "You have made me so weak."
"I can smell your weakness," he said.
"Yes, Master," I. said. I was so overcome by my love for him that I could not stand. I had never known such weakness. I felt I had the strength only to lie vulnerably before him, perhaps holding and kissing him, awaiting him. It is, I suppose, one of nature's utilities, reducing the female's effectiveness in self-defense or flight, putting her all the more at the mercy of the stronger beast.
"I cannot walk, Master," I said. "Let me crawl to your furs."
He slung his shield upon his back, and tied his spear, too, beneath the shield's edge, upon his back.
I felt myself lifted gently into his arms. He carried me, my head against his left shoulder, over the bridge and toward the second bridge, leading to the Towers of the Warriors.
I served him wine.
I was the only girl in his compartments. I well understood the meaning of this. He had chosen the perfection of one man, the complete master, and one woman, the total slave. It is called the perfect bondage, each all and perfect to the other.
It is right for some men, and not for others. Much depends on whether the man has met his perfect slave and the woman her perfect master.
Clitus Vitellius and I, though I would not have dared tell him, were so related. I think he, too, knew this.
When I had served him wine he gave me, too, to drink of the cup. This was, in its way, a great honor, and a token of his recognition as to how I stood to him. I still, of course, did not dare to drink from the same edge of the cup as he, the master.
I put the cup aside.
At his indication I spread the love furs. I did not spread them upon the couch hut at its foot. I was slave. Only a small lamp burned in the compartment.
At a gesture from Clitus Vitellius I reclined upon the furs, at the foot of the couch.