“No,” he said.
She continued to stand in the center of the cage, her arms at her sides. The cord was still taut between his hand and the latch.
“We have been until now indulgent with you,” he said. “But you have abused our lenience. If you should dare again to attempt to interfere with the possible function of the cage you will find yourself within it as though you might be a slave girl. You will be shackled within it, naked, and with your head shaved. Do you understand?”
“Yes, sir,” she said.
“You may remove your hands from your sides,” he said.
Swiftly, gratefully, she seized the bars, putting her arms about them. It seemed she scarcely dared to stand on the floor of the cage, that constituting, too, its gate.
“You are gloveless,” he said. “Your hands have been stripped.”
“Yes, sir,” she said.
“And your feet have been stripped,” he said.
“Yes, sir,” she said.
“And your face, too, as you doubtless realize,” said he, “might be stripped, your features revealed to all and sundry.”
“Yes, sir,” she said.
“And you realize that your body, too, might be stripped,” he said, “utterly.”
“Yes, sire,” she said.
“You understand all this?” he asked.
“Yes, sir,” she moaned.
“Be good,” he said to her.
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Yes, what?” asked he.
“Yes, sir,” she said.
He went then again to the wheel, at the wall, and, turning the crank, began to raise the cage. She moaned. As the cage rose the various ropes, and the cord extending to the latch, uncoiled from their respective places. And still there were many coils left. He now raised the cage to a point much higher than it had been at first. It hung now, swinging on its chain, but a foot or two below the lofty vaulted ceiling. The torch hardly reached so high. If the latch were sprung now she would plunge perhaps twenty yards before striking the surface of the pool.
“Sir!” called the free woman, from high above. “Sir! Please, sir!” There was a ring to her voice, from the stone of the chamber.
The pit master looked up at the cage. The brunette slave lifted the torch a little higher.
As the demonstration, or whatever it might have been, for the benefit of the free woman, and perhaps, too, for my benefit, seemed to have been concluded, I knelt. Indeed, it was hard to stand. I was shaken. I was trembling. Too, ofcourse, in the presence of a free person, or persons, this is an appropriate, and common, posture for slaves. When a free person enters a room, unless we are serving another, or something of such a sort, we commonly kneel. Even if we are naked in the furs, we will commonly kneel, perhaps then merely to be thrown back upon them.
And so, unbidden, I knelt, a slave.
“How progress negotiations pertinent to my ransom?” she called down.
“I do not even know if there are such negotiations,” he said.
“What?” she cried.
“I have no information pertaining to such,” said he.
“Surely I have not been forgotten!” she cried.
“I do not know,” said he.
“Surely negotiations proceed!” she exclaimed.
“Perhaps,” he said.
“In this very city!” she said.
“No,” said he. “Such negotiations, if there are such, would be conducted elsewhere, perhaps even thousands of pasangs away.” That was, I gathered, a great distance.
“Is it not known that I am here?” she begged.
“No,” said he. “It is not known that you are here.”
“How long must I stay here?” called the free woman.
“I do not know,” said he. “Perhaps for years, perhaps forever.”
The free woman, far above us, cried out with dismay. I heard the bars shaken. I heard her weeping.
I put my head down, swiftly, for I was now illuminated by the torch.
“Stand,” said he.
I struggled to my feet, as quickly as I could. If one knows what is wise for one, one obeys the men of this world instantly, and as perfectly as possible.
He took the rope which had bound my ankles and looped it about my bound wrists, behind me.
“Bend over, at the waist,” said he.
I did so, and he took the double strand of the rope looped about my wrists and brought it forward, between my legs, and then looped it up again, separating the strands, passed one over my collar and then tied it to the other. In this fashion was my head held down. This is not uncommon tie. It may also function to keep a kneeling girl’s head down. It is useful in learning deference. A similar tie, but one which immobilizes the slave, utilizes a short tether running from her bound ankles to the front of her collar. In these ways any pressure which might be exerted is exerted at the back of the neck. The front of the throat is, of course, as you are doubtless well aware, easily damaged and is to be carefully protected. Similar precautions occur with several other forms of domestic animal, as well, not merely slaves. In my training, in the pens, I had occasionally been put in a choke collar. In it, I assure you that I obeyed instantly, obedient to its slightest pressure. On the other hand, such things, I think, should seldom, if ever, be sued with slaves, particularly with female slaves, who tend to be beautiful, delicate and sensitive. Their use, I think, if they are used at all, should be reserved for fierce animals, such as the six-legged beasts I had seen, or perhaps for powerful warriors, or brawny, recalcitrant male slaves in the quarries or mines, captives or animals whose control may require such fierce devices. We do not need them! We know who is master. Our leash training, I assure you, may be accomplished readily with the common leash and collar, and a whip or switch. Indeed, I believe it can be more quickly and efficiently completed, as, less terrified of our lives, except to the extent that we might be found displeasing, we are, in a normal leash and collar, freer to concentrate our attention more fully on our lessons. If you are concerned with such things, do not fear. The whip or switch, I assure you, gives you more than ample control over us.
“Oh!” I said, for he had seized the rope running from my hands, tied behind my back, to the front of my collar, and, by means of it, threw me forcefully, stumbling, toward the passageway. Within it I stopped, gasping. He and the slave were still behind me, on the walkway about the retaining wall. I could tell their position from the torchlight. I could no longer see the cage, suspended at the top of the chamber.
“May I speak, Master?” asked the slave with the torch.
“Yes,” said he.
“Do you think her ransom will be paid?” she asked.
“Let us hope so, for her sake,” said he, “for I have not found her pleasing.”
“Yes, Master,” she said.
He then entered the passageway, shambling within, followed by the beautiful brunette, holding the torch. Her hair was long and loose. Not even a string had been given to her to dress it. It flowed about her shoulders, and behind her even to the small of her back. I envied her such hair. I had no doubt she would bring a high price. Was the coinage of beautiful women so plentiful here, in this city of raiders and warriors, I wondered, that even specimens such as she, such gems as she, who might be the centerpiece of a collection elsewhere, who might be brought to the block at the climax of an auction, labored here in the darkness beneath the city as though she might be the lowest of slaves, subservient in a gloomy labyrinth supervised by a monster. But she could not be the lowest of slaves for I was surely lower than she. My ears were even pierced, which was, it seemed, a matter of great moment on this world. Too, I need not pity her too much, nor with fear and loathing bemoan the uniqueness of her fate, for the monster to whom she addressed the title “Master” was none other than that to which my own service and deference were due. I began, bent over, to tremble in terror. What manner of place was this? How could it be that my hands were tied behind my back, how could it be that I could not straighten up, that my head was held down, how could it be that there was a collar on my neck! How far away were the malls! But, yet, too, how vanished here were the confusions, the anomie, the pretenses, the trivialities, the meaninglessnesses, the nonrealities of my former life! In this very real place, on this far world, I found myself, for the first time in my life, very real. I was now something quite real. No longer was there doubt about my existence or my meaning. No, that was all behind me. I was now something quite real, and unimportant as it might be. I now had an identity, as lowly as it might be. It was clear, certain, inflexible, and undeniable as the collar on my neck.