Savages of Gor (37 page)

"I do not know, Master," she winced.

"It will not be," I assured her.

"Yes, Master," she said.

I bent down and kissed her on the side, on one of the long welts raised by the whip stroke, one of the blows in virtue of which she was assessed.

"You struck me with great force," she said.

"No, I did not," I said.

She shuddered. "You are then very strong," she whispered.

I turned her about, and put her on her back, before me. I knelt beside her and sniffed her belly. "Again," I said, "you are womnaka."

"I am only a slave," she said. "Does it please you, or displease you, that I am unable to resist you?"

"It does not displease me," I said. I then touched her.

"Oh," she cried, eyes closed, squirming helplessly, rearing half upward, trussed, then falling back. She looked at me, wildly.

"You are indeed a slave," I told her.

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Do you beg to be had?" I asked.

"Yes, Master," she said. "Yes, Master!"

"First," I said, "You will earn your keep. You will be put to work."

"Yes, Master," she said.

I then pulled her to her knees and lay then on one elbow, indolently, watching her. She then, on her knees, her hands bound behind her, with her hair, her mouth and body, need fully and desperately, began to please me. In a short while I took her and threw her beneath me.

Aiii!" she sobbed. "I yield me your slave, my Master!" She was superb. I wondered if the lad who had been her former master, and who now must be a man, and had sold her, had any idea as to the wonder, the surrendered, curvaceous, obedient, orgasmic triumph, which his little Lodge-Pin or Pimples, now a ravishing, helpless beauty, had become. Had he any notion of this it was difficult to imagine that he would be able to rest until he had once again fastened his beaded collar on her throat. Clearly she was now the sort of woman for whom men might kill.

"Am I worth four hides, Master?" she asked, gasping.

"Five," I assured her.

She laughed, and kissed me happily.

"This is Wagmezahu, Corn Stalks," said Grunt. "He is Fleer."

"Hou," said Corn Stalks.

"Hou," said I to him.

"Is the new slave satisfactory?" asked Grunt.

"Quite," I said.

"Good," he said.

I sat back, cross-legged, away from the fire. I now understood why Grunt had been scanning the plains. I now understood why he had wished to remain at the trading point. He had, doubtless, been waiting for this Fleer. This was also, doubtless, the reason he had encouraged me to take my time with the new girl, which I had, that they not be disturbed. Although the Fleer speak a language clearly akin to Kaiila and Dust Leg there bad often been strife among them. Thusly the Fleer had waited before coming to the camp. If the Dust Legs knew of his presence in their country they had not chosen to do anything about it, perhaps in deference to Grunt.

Grunt and the Fleer spoke largely in sign, this being easier for them than the attempt to communicate verbally.

I sat back from the fire, watching them closely. It was now late at night. Grunt had shortened the coffle by two collars and chain lengths. I had put the new girl in Margaret's place, after Priscilla and before the Hobarts. This was the position of "Last Girl," which, fittingly, not counting the Hobarts, she would occupy, being the newest girl on the coffle. Coffle arrangements, incidentally, are seldom arbitrary. One common principle of arrangements is in order of height, with the tallest girls coming first; this makes a lovely coffle. Sometimes, too, coffles are arranged in order of beauty or preference, the most beautiful or the most preferred girls coming first. Coloring and body type can also be important. It is for such reasons, perhaps, that the coffle is sometimes spoken of as the slaver's necklace. Sales strategies, too, can enter into the formation of a coffle, as, for example, when a girl is put between two plainer girls to accentuate her beauty, or a superb girl is saved for last, and many other considerations, as well, can enter into the formation of a coffle. When one sees a chain of beauties, fastened together, say, by the neck, or the left wrist or left ankle, it is well to remember that their locations on that sturdy, metallic bond, keeping them precisely where the master wishes, are seldom likely to be merely fortuitous. After I had carried the new girl to the chain and put her on the grass, locking the collar on her, I went to the red-haired girl and, as I had earlier promised her, bound her hand and foot. She had asked a stupid question, one pertaining to respect. She would spend the night tied.

"Is the new girl pleasing?" she had asked me, reproachfully.

"Yes," I said.

"More pleasing than I?" she asked, lying at my feet, her hands tied behind her, her ankles crossed and bound, her neck in the coffle collar.

"Yes," I said. "She is an experienced slave. You are only a new slave. You have much to learn."

"Yes, Master," she said.

I then, for good measure, gagged her. She must learn that she was a slave.

Corn Stalks, after a time, took his leave. Before he left Grunt gave him some hard candy and a fine steel knife.

"You seem moody," I said to Grunt. He had returned to the fire, and sat before it, not speaking.

"It is nothing," he said.

"I should like to learn some Dust Leg," I said.

"I will teach you some, as we ride," he said.

"If I learn some Dust Leg, I should be able, to some extent, to communicate with Kaiila," I said.

"Very easily," said Grunt, "for they are much the same, and, too, you would be able to make yourself understood to the Kailiauk, and, to some extent, to the Fleer."

"I have heard little of the Kailiauk," I said.

"They are not well known west of the perimeter," he said. 'Their country lies to the south and east of that of the Kaiila."

"Mostly," I said, "you spoke to Corn Stalks in sign."

"Yes," he said. "It is easier for us." He looked at me. "To learn sign," he said, "would probably be more useful to you, all things considered, than learning a smattering of Dust Leg."

"Teach me sign," I asked.

"To be sure," he said, "it would be wise for you to learn some Dust Leg or Kaiila. There is no substitute for being able to converse with these people in their own language. Sign, as far as I know, is common to all the tribes of the Barrens."

"Why are they called Dust Legs?" I asked.

"I do not know," said Grunt, "but I think it is because they were the last of the major tribes to master the kaiila. Afoot, they were much at the mercy of the others. Their heritage as traders and diplomats may stem from that period."

"It is an interesting hypothesis," I said.

"I can teach you hundreds of signs in a short time," said Grunt. "It is a very limited language, hut in most situations it is quite adequate, and, because many of the signs seem so appropriate and natural, it can be easily learned. In four or five days you can learn most of what you would need of sign."

"I would like to learn something of Dust Leg and Kaiila, and also sign," I said.

"I will be pleased to help you," said Grunt.

"Grunt?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"After I came to join you," I said, "Corn Stalks didn't stay long."

"He does not know you," said Grunt.

I nodded. Goreans, in general, not merely red savages, tend to be wary of strangers, in particular those who speak other languages or come from other territories or cities. There is only one word in Gorean, incidentally, for stranger and enemy. To be sure, the specific meaning intended is usually clear in the context. Goreans are not unaware that there may exist such things as familiar enemies and friendly strangers.

"He did not do trading, as far as I know," I said.

"No," said Grunt. "We talked. He is a friend."

"What is the sign for a red savage?" I asked.

Grunt rubbed the back of his left hand from the wrist to the knuckle with his right index finger. "The general sign for a man is this," he said. He held his right hand in front of his chest, the index finger pointing up, and raised it in front of his face. He then repeated the sign for the red savage. "I am not clear on the specific rationale for the sign for the savage," he said. "You will note, however, that the same finger, the index finger, is used in the sign, as in the sign for man. The origins of some of these signs are obscure. Some think the sign for the red savage has a relation to the spreading of war paint. Others think that it means a man who goes straight or a man who is close to the earth, to nature. Doubtless there are other explanations, as well. This is the sign for friend." He then put his first two fingers together and raised them upward, beside his face. "It probably means two men growing up together."

"Interesting," I said. "What does this mean?" I put the middle fingers of my right hand on my right thumb, extending the index and little finger. This suggests a pointed snout and ears.

"You have seen Dust Legs make that sign," he said. "It means a wild sleen. It is also used for the Sleen tribe. Do you know what this means?" He then spread the index finger and the second finger of his right hand and drew them from the left to the right, in front of his body.

"No," I said.

"That is the sign for a domestic sleen," he said. "You see? It is like the spread poles of a travois, which might be drawn by such an animal."

"Yes!" I said.

"What is this?" he asked, drawing his right index finger across his forehead, from left to right.

"A white man?" I asked.

"Yes," he said. "Good."

"It is like the line of the brim of a hat, across the forehead," I said.

"Good," he said, "And this?" With the fingers of both hands slightly curved, he made downward motions from the top of his head to the shoulders. It was as though he were combing hair.

"A woman?" I asked.

"Good," he said. "Good. And this?"

"A white woman?" I asked.

"Yes," he said. He had traced a line with his right index across his forehead, from left to right, and had then opened his hand and moved it downward, toward his shoulder, in the combing motion. "What do you think this means?" he asked. He then made the combing motions with his hand, then lowered his head and looked at his left wrist, which he grasped firmly in his right hand, the left wrist, the weaker wrist, helpless in the grip of the stronger.

"I am not sure," I said.

"The second sign indicates bondage," he said.

"A female slave?" I asked.

"Yes," said Grunt, "but, more generally, it is another sign which may stand for any white woman, and is often used in this way."

"The same sign then," I said, "that sign, stands for both white woman and female slave?'

"Yes," he said. "It is the most common way of referring to a white woman. You see, in the Barrens, all white women are regarded as being female slaves. Our friends of the plains divide white women into those who have already, properly, been imbonded, and those who, improperly, have not yet been imbonded."

I considered the nature of women, and their desirability. "That distinction makes sense to me," I said. "But are there no women of the red savages themselves who are slaves?"

"Of course, there are," said Grunt. "They are fond of carrying off women of the enemy to make their own slaves. Surely you can imagine how pleasant it is for these fellows to be served, and as a slave, by one of the enemy's women."

"Of course," I said.

"Such a woman may be designated as follows," he said, "by use of the sign woman, followed by the sign for the red savages, followed by a bondage sign."

"I see," I said. He had illustrated his words with the sign.

"If the context is clear," he said, "the signs simply for a female slave may be used."

"I understand," I said.

"Here is another way of designating a white woman or a female slave," he said. He then made the sign for woman, followed by a downward striking motion, as though holding a switch. "Sometimes, too," he said, "when the context is clear, this sign alone may be used." He then spread the first and second fingers of his right hand arid laid them over the index finger of his left hand. "You see?" he asked. "It is ankles bound on a leg stretcher."

"I see," I said.

"The meanings in these signs are clear," he said, "the weaker who is held by the stronger, she who is subject to the whip, and she whose ankles may be spread at her master's pleasure."

"Yes," I said.

"What is this?" asked Grunt. He held his left hand with the palm in, before his chest, and placed the index and second finger of his right hand astride the edge of his left hand.

"A rider?" I asked.

"Kaiila," he said. Then, holding his hands as he had, he rotated his hands in tiny circles, as though the kaiila were in motion. "That is to ride," he said.