John Norman - Rouge of Gor

I went to pull the collar from her ghroat and again her small hands tightened on it. "You own me," she said. "What are you going to do with me?"

"Free you," I said. "I will give you what your heart most desires, your total liberation and freedom!" She looked at me aghast. I pulled away the collar and flung it, the key in the lock, to the side. "You do not want me," she whispered. "Have no fear," I said. "I will not take advantage of you, nor abuse you, nor exploit you. You will be accorded all dignity and respect. In all things you will be my full and lovely equal." Then I realized I had made an error. "Excuse me," I said. "I did not mean to demean you. I did not mean to say 'lovely'"

"You will be in all things, simply, and straight forwardly, my equal."How can a slave be the equal of her master?" she asked. "You are free," I told her. "I might have been brought by a Gorean men," she said. "One who might have treasured me, and cherished me, and made me serve him well, and used me richly."

"I have freed you," I said. "Are you not happy?" I asked, puzzled. "I am naked," she said. "Forgive me," I cried. Quickly I hurried to one of the cage attendants. For a tarsk bit I purchased one of the discarded sheets torn from the slave beauties who were still being sold from the block.

I hurried back to the girl and stood before her, the sheet in my hand. For the briefest instant I felt sick. She was so beautiful. Should I have marched her through the streets of Victoria naked, an exhibited slave, for my own joy, that of her master and that men might rejoice in her beauty and call out to me their congratulation, commending me on the splendid fortune that was mine, that of having such a woman in my total power?

"Please," she said. I stepped more closly to her and staqnding before her, held the sheet behind her, preparing to draw it about her. "Do not look at me, you lustful beast," she said. "Cover me quickly!"

Swiftly I drew the sheet about her and she, from within it, clutched it even more closely about herself. I could see, as she had gathered the sheet, the outline of her small fists beneath it.

"Do not look at my calves and ankles," she said, "please."Forgive me," I said. "Let us hurry from this place."

"Yes," she said, "it is offensive, I smell here the stinking of slaves." Quickly we left the sales barn of Lysander.

"Where do you live?" she asked. "I have taken a small room near the wharves," I said. "I too will need a room." she said. "I cannot afford much," I said. "Then we shall manage to divide the room," she said, "somehow with a screen or partition of some sort."

"Of course," I said. "You must too go out and purchse me clothing," she said. "I cannot wear a sheet." "What about a slave tunic?" I asked. "Do not jest, Jason," she said. "It is in this direction," I said, indicating a streete leading toward the river front.

"I have no money," she said. "And I have no Home Stone. "What is that?" she asked.

We heard the sound of a bell, and then a moment laters, that of coins in a metal box. A girl in a brown rag, slve, emerged from the shodows. About her neck, chained there was a bronze bell, hollow, lattish with sloping sides, with a flat top and ring, and a slotted, metal coin box, locked.Swiftly she knelt before me. She lifted her head. "Have me for a tarsk bit," Master," she begged. Her hands were braceleted behind her back.

"No," I told her. "Get away you filthy thing," said Miss Henderson. "If I do not return with the equivalent of a copper tarsk," said the girl kneeling before me, "I will be whipped." "Get away!" said Miss Henderson.

"Your slave requires discipline," said the girl kneeling before me. "She isnot my slave," I said. "It seems she would make a good slave," said the girl. I drew out a copper tarsk and prepared to place it in the girl's coin box. Swiftly the girl, before I could put the coin in the box, lay on her back, on the stones of the street before me. "You must use me first," she said. "and then put the coin in only if I please you."

"Do not give away our money," said Miss Henderson. "It is my money," I said. "Do not squander our meager resources," she said. "They are my resources, not yours," I pointed out. "I will do wht I please with them." "Of course, Jason," she said irritatedly."I will not use you," I told the girl, "but I wil give youthe coin." I made as though to place the coin in the box, which now, as she lay back on her elbows, hung beside her left breast, sweeling against the thin slave cloth.

Quickly she scarmbed back, and rose to her feet. "I am worth the tarsk bit," she said. "An my master is a proud man. He does not send us into the streets to beg." "But you may be whipped," I said. "I will get the money elsewhere," she said. "And if I were you, I would whip the slave beside you."

"Get out of here!" cried Miss Henderson. The girl thenfled with a sound of her bell and the jangling of the coins in the box. "Disgusting! Disgusting! said Miss Henderson. "Terrible! Disgusting!"

"Some men," I said, "buy such girls and send them out into the streets.They keep them in kennels and send them out in the afternoon. It is how they earn their living.

"Terrible! Disgusting!" said Miss Henderson.

"You were saying," she said, "that I have no money, and that I have no Home Stone. Too, there is no practical trade of which I am the Mistress." "There is one trade which is available to all women," I said. "Do not jest, Jason," she said. "It is not amusing."That of cook," I said."Very funny," she said.

"How do you expect to earn your keep?" I asked. "Nothing, absolutely nothing," she said. "I did not ask to be purchased." "I see that you are scarcely likely to prove to be an economic asset," I said.

"You could always, I suppose put a bell and coin box about my neck and send me into the streets." she said. "It is a thought," I admitted.She made an angry noise and we continued on toward the river front.

"Have you a job?" she asked. "No," I said. "You must get one," she said.

"I expect that would be advisble," I said. I supposed I might work as an oarsman or a dock worker. I was strong. It no longer seems a good way to make money by challenging my fellows in the taverns. One might respond with a knife or sword. Tonight my life had been saved by a dissolute fellow, a man called Callimachus, perhaps from Port Cos, farther west on the river, a derelict. Had it not been for him, I would doubtless have been slain by the pirate, Kliomenes.

"We will need money," she said. I said nothing. "You may call me Beverly," she said. "What about Veminia?" I asked.The veminium is a small lovely Gorean flower, softly petaled and blue. "That is a slave name," she said. "That is what I was called in the house of Oneander of Ar."

"Most Goreans," I said, "would regard 'Beverly' as a slave name."What of 'Jason'?" she asked angrily. "I am sorry to disappoint you," I said, "but that is a not uncommon name on Gor, particularly as I understand it, west on the river, and on the islands of Cos and Tyros."

"Oh," she said. "Unlike Beverly," I said. "I see," she said acidly. "Beverly," I added. "The name Beverly may be worn as a free name, as well as a slave name," she said. "I sahll wear it as a free name." "Very well," I said.

"We shall have to make careful arrangments to gover our shring common lodgings," she said. "Of course," I said "I shall bathe first," she said. "There is asmall copper tub," I said. "And each of us shall do his share of the cooking, the cleaning, and the housework," she said. "Each wil have full responsiblity for his own portions of these labors." "I am to work the day," I said, "and the, do half the work of the room or lodgings?" "Do not expect me to perform menial labors for you," she said.

"I am a free woman. I shall take care o fmy things. And you shall take care of yours." "I see," I said. "I trust your room is not in this dismal structure," she said, looking up at a swinging lantern hanging over and inn's threshold. "Yes," I said. "We shall have to do better than this," she said. I looked down at her. I considered tearing the sheet from her. I wondered what she would look like with a bell and coin box on her neck. Then I reminded myself that she was a free woman, and that she was from the planet Earth, my old planet. She was not a Gorean girl, but something nobler and finer, an Earth woman.