John Norman - Beasts of Gor

In the feasting house Imnak sang. Poalu was there, too. I checked the harness on the snow sleen on my sled.

“I am not greater than the mountain,” said Imnak, “and yet the mountain cannot sing without me. It is only through me, and others, too, that the mountain can see, and can sing. Only through me can the mountain know how beautiful it is. I must tell the mountain of its beauty. Songs come from me now, telling me their names and stories. One is glad that they come. One is pleased. to be a friend of songs. No one can climb to the top of the mountain. One climbs a little higher than another, but that is all. It is enough for a hunter, one small and frail, to stand on the lower slopes and sing. No one climbs much higher than another, and no one can truly speak the glory and beauty of the mountain. It is enough to stand on the lower slopes and sing. Who could ask more from life than the opportunity to stand for a time on the slope of the mountain and sing?”

The harness on the snow sleen was secure. The beast was restless.

There were some eight sleds there. Ram and Drusus had their sleds, and, besides mine, there were the sleds of five hunters, men who would accompany us south, across Ax Glacier. Tied by the neck to the left-hand, rear upright of Ram’s sled, clad in furs, was Tina. Tied by the necks to the left-hand, rear upright of the sled of Drusus, clad in furs, were the two beauties he had selected and chained in the complex of the Kurii. Various girls were tied similarly to the sleds of the hunters who would accompany us. They were girls from the complex, some of whom had been free women, who would be taken south as trade goods. Tied to the left-hand, rear upright of my own sled, too, was a coffie line. On it, neck-secured, were six girls. It was a double coffle line; the last girl is placed on it first; the double line is knotted about her neck and then the two strands are taken forward; the fifth girl was next neck-knotted into the line and the two strands taken forward again, and so on; when the first girl is put in the coffle, the two strands are then taken forward again and knotted about the left-hand, rear upright of the sled; this way the only free ends of the bond, by means of which it might be untied, knotted together, fall at the left hand of the driver, and are easily within his view. This is a useful coffie tie when the girls’ hands are not tied behind their backs. We wanted their hands free to help with the sled, when it became necessary to haul or push it over rough ground or through heaps of ice or broken snow.

The coffle line looped up to the neck of the first girl. She was Arlene; the second was Audrey; the third was Barbara; Constance was fourth; Belinda was fifth; she who had been the Lady Rosa was sixth. They were all clad in furs. The snow blew gently about them.

I went to the rear of the coffle line and took the last girl on the line gently in my arms. I put my lips, gently to hers. They were cool, in the cold night. Yet beneath mine they yielded, as a slave’s. Already had she who had been the Lady Rosa learned much. There is a difference between the kiss of the free woman and the kiss of the slave girl; the slave girl yields to her master; the difference is unmistakable. It is said that he whose lips have never touched those of a slave girl does not know, truly, what it is to hold a woman in his arms.

“What shall I call you?” I asked. “Rosita? Pepita?”

“Call me whatever you wish, Master,” she said, “I am wholly yours.”

I touched her thigh through the furs. “When we reach Port Kar,” I told her, “I will brand you.”

“Yes, Master,” she said.

I went to the fourth girl on the coffle, Belinda, whom I had obtained in the complex, whom I had first enjoyed in the steel corridors of the complex, while her throat was still chained to the overhead slave track. I took her in my arms gently, and kissed her, as I had the last girl on the line.

“You are already branded,” I told her.

“Brand me a thousand times,” she said, “each time I will be more yours.”

“One brand,” I said, “is enough to make clear the slave of you.”

“Yes, Master,” she said. “But each time you touch me you brand me. Each time you touch me you make me more a slave. Each time you touch me I am the more yours.”

“You are a slave,” I said. “It would be the same for any master.”

She put her head down. “Yes, Master,” she said.

I pushed up her chin with my thumb. She was crying. “Hope that you will one day fall into the power of your love master,” I said. “For there is in you, I sense, a superb love slave.”

“Thank you, Master,” she said. She pressed her lips to the back of my mittened hand.

I went to Constance, who was the fourth girl on the coffle.

I kissed her.

“You, like Belinda, are already a branded slave girl,” I told her.

“Yes, Master,” she said. “Master,” she said.

“Yes,” I said.

“You were going to sell me in Lydius,” she said.

“Yes,” I said.

“Are you still going to do so?” she asked. frightened.

“No,” I said. “I will take you back to Port Kar,” I said.

“Thank you, Master,” she breathed.

“Port Kar has excellent markets,” I told her.

“Will you not keep me?” she begged.

“Perhaps, for a time,” I said.

“I will try so hard to be pleasing to you,” she said.

“You will do so, or you will wish that you had done so,” I said.

“Yes, Master,” she said.

I looked at her.

“It is said the women of Kassau make excellent slaves,” I said.

“I will show you that it is true, Master,” she said.

“Properly trained, you might make an excellent gift for one of Torvaldsland,” I said.

She looked at me, frightened. “We women of Kassau fear the mighty raiders,” she said.

“You would look well at their feet,” I said.

She shuddered.

I regarded her. Perhaps I would have her trained as an exquisite pleasure slave, trained in sensuous dance and the thousand arts of pleasure. She might then be sent, formerly of Kassau, now trained, perfumed and silked. to one of the fierce Torvaldsland rovers. Perhaps Ivar Forkbeard, my friend, might enjoy her licking at his boots. Girls make lovely gifts. I usually kept some in my house, in Port Kar, for such purposes.

But perhaps I would keep her, for a time. Or, perhaps I would put her on a block in Port Kar.

I did not know.

“I will try to please you,” she said.

“In Port Kar,” I said, “a girl who is not pleasing is not unoften bound hand and foot, and thrown naked, as garbage, to the urts in the canals.”

“I will try to be pleasing,” she smiled.

I laughed, and gently cuffed the side of her head, She kissed at my mitten.

“When I sell you,” I said, “if I should sell you, I will sell you south, into a perfumed slavery.”

“Thank you, Master,” she said.

I was fond of Constance. Why should she herd verr and churn butter in Torvaldsland? Let her serve naked and loving, bangled, perfumed, made-up, on the multicolored tiles of some southern domicile. Let her crawl naked, collared, to the feet of a southern master.

It would be suffIcient.

But perhaps I would keep her. I did not know. I could decide that later, at my convenience.

I went to Barbara, and took her in my arms, and kissed her, gently.

“I will brand you in Port Kar,” I told her.

“I await the iron with eagerness, Master,” she said.

I then went to the second girl on the coffle line, Audrey. I took her in my arms and, gently, kissed her.

She clutched me. “I beg your brand,” she said, hoarsely.

“Are you not the former rich girl of Earth?” I asked.

“I am a Gorean slut and a slave,” she said. “I beg your brand.”