John Norman - Rouge of Gor

"Are all women such slaves as you?" I asked. She smiled up at me, curled on the furs. "Yes, Master," she said. I turned to go.

"Master," she said. I turned again to face her. "You have made much of the fact that I am an Earth girl and a slave," she said. "Yes," I said. "there is another girl in whom you are interested, isn't there," she asked, "an Earth girl?" Perhaps," I said. "Is she a slave?" she asked.

"No," I said. I had freed her. "That is unfortunate," she said. I shrugged.

"Does she have a Home Stone?" she asked."No," I said."Then enslave her" she said. "She is different from you," I said."Is she pretty?" she asked. "Yes," I said."Then she is not so different," she said, "Have I seen her?" "Long ago, once," I said, "at the restaurant. She was with me."

"She!" laughed the girl. "Yes," I said. "She was very pretty Master," she said. "Is she on Gor?" she asked. "Yes," I said. "And free?" she asked. "Yes," I said.

"I do not like that," said the girl, "Why should I be a slave and she be free?"

"If she were here," I said, "you would have to kneel before her, and obey her."The collared girl shuddered. Slave girls fear free women, greatly. There is little to wonder about in this. Free women, perhaps envying them their collars, are often extremely cruel to them.

"Do you think she would make a good slave?" I asked.The girl smiled. "I think she would make an excellent slave, Master."I shall have to keep that in mind." I said.Swiftly the girl knelt before me. "I assure you that she is a slave," she said. "I remember her. She is a slave. It is wrong for her not to be put in a collar. She is a slave, truly. Thus she should be made a slave, and be used, and treated and handled accordingly."You do not know her," I said."Perhaps it is you who do no tknow her," she said… I smiled."I am an enslaved woman," said the girl. "Do you now think that one slave knows another?"

I laughed. "Take her in hand," she said."Take away her clothes. Put her in a collar. Throw her to your feet. use her. You will see!" I smote my thigh, laughing, in the Gorean fashion, so preposterous were the urgent words of the lovely, kneeling slave. How preposterous it was even to think of the lovely Miss Henderson as a slave.The girl knelt back, on her heels. "I assure you Master," she said, "she is as much, or more a slave than I."

"Watch your tongue, Girl," I said, angrily, "lest it be slit."She shuddered, and put down her head. "Forgive me Master," she whispered."She is different from you," I said. "Your are only a shameful and degraded slave."

"Do you wish her to be herself," she asked, "or to conform to some alien image which your culture has devised for her?" I did not speak."She is not man," she said, "She is a woman."They are the same," I said."That is stupid," she said.

"I know," I said. Then I said angrily, "I know that she is not a man. I know that she is a women." "And if that is so," she said, "how do you d\consider her differently?" "I don't know!" I said.

"Perhaps Master is indeed from earth," she said. "I was once from Earth," I said. "I must respect her."Do not respect her," she said, "fulfill her." "How?" I asked. "Make her your full and total slave" she said. "I cannot," I said.

"Surely Master knows he is of the dominant sex," she said. "and that it is those of our sex who must submit." "I know that is true," I said, "but it is my duty not to believe it."

"Can it truly be one's duty not to believe the truth?" she asked. "Yes," I said. "It is important to hld the correct opinions, whether they conform to reality or not."

"Perhaps such opinions subserve thpurposes of ambitious and eccentric minorities," she said."and that is doubtless and important point it their favor, but the do not seem to advance the cause of a civiliation congenial to the nature of the human species as it is in actuality constituted."

"It is important to cater to the few," I said, "though it may in time spell doom and pain to the many. "That is madness," she said. "It is the principle on which my world is based," I said. "Tht is no longer your world," she said. "How do you know?" I asked.

"I could tell a few Ehn ago," she said, "by how you held me." I shrugged. "Abandon disease and madness, "she said, "Return to the order of nature."

"To look upon truth, openly," I said, "could be a fearful thing," "Yes, Master," she whispered and put her head down, the collar n ther throat.

I reached to her hair and twisitng her head, she crying out, threw her to the furs. "But it might not be unpleasant to do so," I said and then took her.

Almost instantly she had writhed in my arems, surrendering as a female slave to her master. Then trembling, held, she looked up at me. "You took me well Master," she said. I laughed, pleased with my conquest and trimph over her. I then knew what was the order of nature. And she too, knew it well.

"The other girl," she whispered, "is she unpleasant or difficult to get on with?" "Perhaps," I said. "Do you find her at times a bother or troublsome"

"Yes," I said. "May I make a suggestion?" she asked. "Yes," I said. "Buy a whip," she said.

"Do not forget you are a kept women," I told her. "Kept woman!" she cried. «Precisely,» I said."I do not care to think of myself as a kept woman," she said."Unfortunate, for that is exactly what you are."

"Where were you last night, and today," she demanded. "I own you no accountings… Is my supper ready?" I have already eaten," she said."Is my supper ready," he asked."You may prepare it yourself," shd said.

"The house is dirty," I said."Such work is not mine to do, " she said. "If you wish such work done, buy yourself a slave."

I had rented a small house a few blocks from the wharves. It had an upstairs and a downstairs. It was small, but stout, as are most Gorean dwellings. On the small earnings I made at the wharves it was somewhat expensive for me, but it was not altogether impractical. There were two bedrooms upstairs, and there was a hall, living room and kitchen downstairs.Mis Henderson's bedroom had a porch, which overlooked a small garden, surrpounded by a high wall.

"Would you be pleased," I asked her, "to return to an inn?"

"The house is not unpleasant," she said, "but it has certain distressing features." "And what are those?" I asked. I thought the house was rather nice, considering the modesty of the budget which must needs sustain its rental.

"My couch," she said, "in the master bedroom, has a heavy iron ring set in its base."That is a slave ring," I said. "Surely you know it's purpose."Yes," she said acidly.Such rings are commonly used for chaining slave girls, generally by the neck, to the foot of their Master's couch.

"And too," she said, "I do not like the slave kennels in the hall."I shrugged. "It is a Gorean house," I said.

"Did you bring the suls from the market?" she asked. "No," I said, "I did not."How much money did you earn today?" she asked.The amount of money earned varied from day to day depending on the galleys in port and the need for men from the hiring yard.

"It is none of your business," I told her. Her shoulders stiffened under the robes of concealment and her eyes flashed angrily over the slilk of the house veil. I could see her lips and mouth, vaguely, beneath the veil.

"You brought nothing from the market," she said. "Accordingly there is very little for you here to eat."Were you not to shop?" I saked. "I gave you money." "I did not feel like it," she said.

"I will eat out," he said."That is expensive," she said. "There is some bread and dried meat left." "I will eat out," I said.

"The girls are pretty at the paga taverns aren't they?" she asked, pointedly. "Thay had better be," I said, "or they would bring in little money for their masters." "I have heard such girls are hot," she said. "It is one of the features for which they are purchased." I said. "I see, she said in cold fury. "And what if they are not 'in the mood'?" she asked.