John Norman - Rouge of Gor

"Treacherous sleen!" he said. "It was not I who struck down at you," I pointed out. "Sleen!" he said.

"Ho there!" I cried out loudly. "Ho there! What are you doing here? Who are you! Get away from there! We do not permit pilfering on these wharves!" The man trembled with rage. He advanced a step.

"Begone, Thief!" I cried, "Begone!"

"Be silent, you fool," said the man. "Thief, Thief!" I cried. "You may not steal here, Fellow! This is Victoria you know!"

"What is going on here?" called a voice from alont the wharves behind me. "A thief!" I cried. "Assistance! Assistance!" Glancing back, I saw a lantern approaching. Two men were there advancing with slaves. "Sleen!" said the fellow with the mast and then he turned and made his way rapidly away.

"It that you Jason?" asked one of the men. "Yes," I said sheathing my sword. "What is it?" asked the other man. "Some fellow prowling about the docks." I said, "doubtless not up to much good."

"He seems to be gone now," said the first man. "Yes," I said. "Bfore he was over by the quarry warehouse.

He was busying himself about the granit there, that of the defaulted shipment." "There is nothing of value there," said the second man. "That is true." I said.

"It is the second Ahn," said Callimachus. "Surely they are not coming." Peggy knelt with her head to the feet of Tasdron, her master. The heavy chain, with the girl bell and coins box was sill locked on her neck.I pulled her had up by the hair. I lifted up the chain and Tasdron put his collar again on her neck.

"Did you do as Jason told you?" asked Tasdron. "Yes Master," she said, her neck now again locked in Tasdron's collar.

I thrust the key to the chain in the cahin lock and opened it, pulling away the apparatus of the Coin Girl from her neck.

"I sought out Aemilianus, Captain of the Guardsmen of Ar's Station," she said. "I put myself naked before him, kneeling and humbly began to lick and kiss his feet." "Yes," said Tasdron."I then, in seeming to try to please him, whispered to him of the topaz, and that I had been sent to his feet by those who knew its whereabouts. If he wished information as to its location, he was to come to the tavern this night at the 20th Ahn."

"You yourself," said Tasdron, "did not return until the first Ahn." "I did not even find Aemilianus," she said, "until near the 20th Ahn." "Why?" asked Tasdron, not pleasantly."I was detained by men," she said. "I was naked. I wore the bell and coint box."I moved the coin box on the chain, which I held. There were now several coins in it. When she had been sent from the tavern, it had been empty.

"Aemilianus hemself used me," she said. "He tied my hands tightly behind my back and took me to his private compartments. There he subjected me to slave rape."

"Did he pay his coin?" asked Tasdron. "Yes, Master," she said reddening. "Did you please your customers?" asked Tasdron. "Yes Master," she said. "Did you yield to them," asked Tasdron, "to Aemilianus, and the others?" Please do not make me speak Master," she begged. She was in the presence of Callimachus, whom she loved. "Speak, Slave," snapped Tasdron.

"Yes Master," she said. "But I could not help myself, Master," she wept. "I am a slave girl. I am only a slave girl!" She seemed to speak to Tasdron, but I knew well for whom her words were intended.

"I do not understand," said Tasdron. "You are under an obligation to yield and to yield perfectly, fully and totally. You are a slave."Even if I were not under such an obligation," she whispered, "my Master, I still could ot have helped myself. I would still have had to yield to them fully and totally, perfectly."Of course," said Tasdron. "You are a slave girl." "Yes Master," she whispered. "I am a slave girl."

Then, head down, she trembled and wept. How shamed she was that her slavery had been so clarified and manifested before Callimachus. I glanced to Callimachus. He did not seem concerned with the girl. What to him, were the helpless confessions of a lovely, meaningless slave?

"Aemilianus is not here," I said. "When he unbound me and sent me from his compartment," she said, "ordering me to return to my master, he did nothing but dismiss me. I do not know if he will come or not."

"At least Aemilianus knows how to handle a woman," said Tasdron. "Yes, Master," said the girl.

I put the chain with the girl bell and coin box on the low table. There was a sound of bells, and Tasdron had agains locked slave bells on Peggy's left ankle. He picked up the tiny bit of slave silk which we had earlier ordered her to remove, before disguising her as a Coin Girl and sending her into the streets to fetch Aemilianus to our meeting. He tossed her the bit of silk. "You may put on the silk," he said. "Yes Master," she said.

It amused me to see how gratfully she slipped the brief bit of scandalous, diaphanous yellow silk about her body, how pleased she was to do so, though it was naught but a laughting mockery of a garment, one obviously only for a female slave. Some free women think they would rather go naked than wear such a garment, but then they have not yet been made slves. It they were slaves, then they too I believe would find it very precious.

"Bring us food and drink," said Tasdron to Peggy."Yes, Master," she said, and swiftly with a rustle of bells left the room.

"Where is Glyco?" asked Tasdron. "He had only to fetch Callisthenes, whom he knows. There should be no difficulty in that. They should have been here more than an Ahn ago." "I do not know," I said. "Perhaps they have met with foul play," said Tasdron. "I do not know," I said. "Spies are everwhere," said Tasdron, miserably. "Perhaps our projects have already been uncovered."

"The tavern has not yet been burned," I pointed out. "Oh excellent," said Tasdron irritatedly. I smiled."You do not understand the dangers implicit in these endeavours, do you not?" inquired Tasdron. "I think so," I said.

"There is someone now at the door in the back." said Callimachus.

Tasdron hurried through the rear door of the room and down the corridor to the alley door. He slid back a narrow panel and then shut the panel and opened the door. Two figures were admitted, and the door was closed and locked behind them. I recognized the figure of Glyco, portly and short-legged, breathing heavily, warpped in a long brown cloak, which concealed the white and gold of the merchant's in advance. The second man, tall and rangy, was he who had interrogated me in the headquarters of the men of Port Cos a few days earlier, when on the asseverations of Miss Henderson, I had been taken into custody. I had been released after the testimonies afforded by Tasdron, who had made it clear to him that I, well known in Victoria, and having arrived from the east on the river, could not be the courier ofRagnar Voskjard. He had also taken Miss Henderson into custody as I recalled. He had turned her over to me, bound, when I had been released. I had not, however, slain her nor sold her into slavery. I had returned her to my house, unpunished and in honor. She was, after all, a woman of Earth. Later of course, she had been captured by Kliomenes, the lieutenant to Policrates, the pirate, and taken to the stronghold of Policrates. There in full Gorean legality she had been again enslaved, as months before, she had been in the House of Andronicus, in Vonda, when first she had been brought to Gor as a helpless Earth girl to be branded and collared and sold to Gorean brutes for their pleasure. Indeed in my visit to the stronghold of Policrates, she had served me, and well, as a slave, though not knowing it was I whom she served. It was in that visit that I had learned thaat the little Earth beauty belonged in a collar.

The tall man, behind Glyco, entered the room. He wore a brown cloak over his uniform. In his left hand, held against his body, there was a helmet, crested with sleen hair.I know knew him to be Callisthenes.His left shoulder was hunched. His right hand, strong long-fingered, wide, seemed fit for the hilt of the Gorean blade.