John Norman - Rogue of Gor

The brute then crouched beside her and encircled her neck with the coils of his whip. He drew her to her knees then before him. She looked up at him, her neck in the whip coils, his.

There was more applause. Then the brute looked to Policrates, who indicated a table. He then pulled the girl to her feet and, running her over the tiles, and then releasing the coils from her neck, threw her stumbling into the arms of waiting pirates who, with a cry of pleasure, seized her and began to work their lusty wills upon her. There was more applause, and laughter.

I rose to my feet.

“The feast has but begun,” laughed Policrates.

“I am weary,” I said. “I think I shall retire to my chambers.”

“Certainly!” he laughed. “Your journey has been long. I shall, of course, send a girl to wash your body, and content you.”

“Policrates is generous,” I said.

“It is nothing,” he said.

This form of hospitality, of course, is common on Gor. It is common to provide a guest with a girl for the night, to see to his comfort. My compliment, nonetheless, was appropriate, as was his reply. Ritualistic amenities, and pleasantries, on such occasions are invariably observed.

He rose to stand beside me. Together we looked about the tables, at the various girls, slaves, nude and partially clothed, who served there.

“Take your pick of the wenches,” he said.

I looked about, at the girls, attending dutifully to their serving, many of them not even conscious of my attention. One of them could discover later that she had been selected to be sent to my chambers for the evening.

“Tais is interesting,” said Policrates. A dark-haired girl quickly averted her eyes from ours, putting down her head and hurrying to pour wine nearby. Two silver chains ran from a large loop on her collar to her wrists. The snug metal bracelets there were jeweled.

“There is Relia there,” he said. “Consider her.” He indicated another dark-haired girl. She wore a long, lovely red gown, but it had been pulled down about her waist. She carried a tray of tiny cups, filled with liqueurs. She was willowy and sweetly-breasted. A silver collar graced her throat.

“Tela, when captured,” he said, indicating a blonde, “begged to be permitted to be kept in white silk.” He laughed. “After throwing her to a crew, for their pleasure, we put her, as she had asked, in white silk.”

“Amusing,” I said. “She now often begs for red silk.” he said. “Perhaps we will one day permit it to her.”

“I see,” I said. “She is now quick to lick a man’s feet,” he added. “Excellent,” I said.

“Bikkie,” said he, indicating a short, dark-haired girl, “is good. Too, there are Mira and Tala, the matched blondes. They are sisters from Cos.” He indicated two girls, one older than the other, one perhaps nineteen, the other seventeen. They were fastened together by the neck, by a knotted red strap some four feet in length. They were slender, and nude. “You may have both,” he said.

I continued to look about.

“I saw that you were interested in Ulm,” he said, referring to a girl in a diaphanous bit of swirling yellow silk. She was the woman who had been free, whom I had seen enslaved on the wharves of Victoria, only a few nights past. In her own hair she had tied the knot of bondage. “She is trying hard to improve her skills,” he said. “I think she will be ready for sale in another month. Perhaps you could assist in her training.”

“Perhaps some other time,” I said.

“There are others, of course,” said he, “below, in cages.”

“I think I see one in which I might be interested,” I said.

“Which?” asked he.

“That one,” I said.

“Beverly,” said he, “the Earth girl?”

“Yes,” I said.

“Choose another,” he said.

“Why?” I asked.

“She is raw, and untrained,” he said. “She is a poor slave.”

“I find her, nonetheless, not to be without interest,” I said.

“Very well,” he said. “I will have her sent to your chambers within the Ahn.”

“My thanks, Policrates,” I said. “Oh,” I said. “I may wish, in the privacy of my chambers, to remove this mask.”

“I understand,” said he. “I will send her to you blindfolded.”

“My thanks, Policrates,” I said.

“It is nothing,” he said.

I then bowed graciously to my host, Policrates, and to Kliomenes, his lieutenant and confederate, and then turned about, and made my way to my chambers.

“Master?” she asked.

She stood within the door to my chambers. The door had been shut behind her. A guard had conducted her to my chambers. He had opened the door. Timidly, blindfolded, conducted by his hand on her arm, she had entered. The door had then shut behind her. She stood now within my chambers. We were absolutely alone.

“Master?” she asked. “I have come to serve you,” she said.

I did not respond to her, but observed her. She stood timidly, blindfolded, near the door. She wore a tiny, diaphanous bit of brown silk about her body. It was high on her thighs. It was off her right shoulder and held loosely on her by a casually knotted, narrow disrobing loop, fastened over her left shoulder. A single tug would open the garment, dropping it to her ankles.

She carried, folded, several large, colored, soft towels, with two sponges, and oils, for the bath. On the towels, too, were certain other articles. Among them was, opened, the rounded steel loop she had worn about her neck, earlier. It, with its key, lay on the top towel. It had been removed from her for she was to assist me in the bath. It accompanied her, that it might be again, when she had bathed me, replaced on her. Similarly the steel loops from her wrists and ankles had been removed. They, however, had been kept elsewhere. They did not accompany her.

On the towels, however, coiled, there was a whip, and slave cuffs, and anklets, of leather, with snaps. Too, it might be mentioned, there were, as is usual, chains at the foot of the great couch, which might be lengthened or shortened. One chain terminated in a collar, which might be locked about a girl’s neck. The other chain terminated in a smaller loop of steel, an ankle ring, suitable for a girl’s ankle.

I regarded her.

Her hair was still coiffured high upon her head, and held, as before, with the braided yellow cord, stout enough to bind her with. She was barefoot, as is common with slaves.

“Master?” she asked. “Are you in the room?”

I moved, that she might know my presence.

“Forgive me, Master,” she said, “if I have awakened you, or disturbed you.”

I pulled away the mask I wore and discarded it, to one side on the great couch.

I snapped my fingers.

“Yes, Master,” she said. She approached the sound, and knelt before me.

“I am Beverly,” she said. “I have been sent to serve you.”

I did not speak.

“It is a great honor for me, Master,” she said, “that one such as you should select Beverly to serve you.”

I did not respond to her.

“The water will have been readied,” she said. Near the couch was a large, round, sunken tub, with some six inches of water in it. Too, to one side, there were rinsing jars.

She put the objects she carried on the floor, to her right.

“Here, Master,” she said, feeling for it, “is a slave collar. You may place it on me when you wish.” She put it, with its key, at my feet. “Here, too,” she said, putting the objects near the collar, “are slave cuffs, and anklets.” I regarded the objects, with their tiny belts and buckles, with their attached, sewn in, metal snap rings. “And here, Master,” she said, “is your whip.” She kissed it and put it, too, at my feet.