These rings, incidentally, those for the ears and for the nose, do not servesimply to bedeck the female. They also have a role to play in her arousal. Thebrushing of the sides of the girl's neck by the dangling ornament is, in itself,a delicate stimulation of a sensitive area of her body, the sides of her neckbeneath the ears; this area is quite sensitive to light touches; if the earringis of more than one piece, the tiny sounds made by it, too, can also bestimulatory; accordingly, the earring's feel and movement, and caress, andsometimes sound, persistent, subtle and sensual, functioning on both a consciousand subliminate level, can often bring a female to, and often keep herindefinitely in, a state of incipient sexual readiness. It is easy to see whyfree women on Gor do not wear them, and why they are, commonly, only put on lowslaves. Similar remarks hold, too, of course, for the nose ring, which touches,lightly, the very sensitive area of a girl's upper lip. The nose ring, too, ofcourse, makes clear to the girl that she is a domestic animal. Many domesticanimals on Gor wear them.

The girl kneeling before me, once Elicia Nevins, once the lofty, beautiful andproud agent of Kurii, now only my lovely slave, reached for my sandals. Shepressed them to her lips, kissing them, and then, head down, began to tie themon my feet. She was quite beautiful, kneeling before me, performing this lowlytask, the heavy iron collar and chain on her neck.

I wondered what the emissary of Samos might wish.

"Your sandals are tied, Master," said the girl, lifting her, head, kneelingback.

I regarded her. It is pleasant to own a woman.

"Of what are you thinking, Master?" she asked.

"I was thinking," I said, "of the first time that I put you to my pleasure. Doyou recall it?"

"Yes, Master," she said. "I have never forgotten. And it was not only the firsttime that you put me to your pleasure. It was the first time that any man hadput me to his pleasure."

"As I recall," I said, "you yielded well, for a new slave."

"Thank you, Master," she said. "And while you were waiting for darkness, toescape the city, whiling away the time, you made me yield again and again."

"Yes," I said. I had then, after the fall of darkness, deeming it thenreasonably safe, bound her naked, belly up, over the saddle of my tarn and,eluding patrols, escaped from the city. I had brought her back to Port Kar,where I had thrown her, a bound slave, to the feet of Samos. He had had her putin one of his girl dungeons, where we had interrogated her. We had learned much.

After she had been emptied of information she might then be bound naked andthrown to the urts in the canals, or, perhaps, if we wished, kept as a slave.

She was comely. I had had her hooded and brought to my house. When she wasunhooded she found herself at my feet.

"Are you grateful that you were spared?" I asked.

"Yes, Master," she said, "and particularly that you have seen fit to keep me, ifonly for a time, as your own slave."

Nothing so fulfills a woman as her own slavery.

After I had used her, I had put her with my other women. Most of these areavailable to my men, as well as to myself.

"A girl is grateful," she said, "that this night you had her chained to yourslave ring."

"Who is grateful?" I asked.

"Elicia is grateful," she said.

"Who is Elicia?" I asked.

"I am Elicia," she said. "That is the name my Master has seen fit to give me."

I smiled. Slaves, no more than other animals, do not have names in their ownright. They are named by the Master. She wore her former name, but now only as aslave name, and by my decision.

I stood up, and drew about me one of the furs from the couch. I went to the sideof the room and, with a belt, belted the fur about me. Also, from the wall, fromits peg, I took down the scabbard with its sheathed short sword. I removed theblade from the scabbard and wiped it on the fur I had belted about me. I thenreinserted the blade in the scabbard. The blade is wiped to remove moisture fromit. Most Gorean scabbards are not moisture proof, as this would entail eithertoo close a fit for the blade or an impeding flap. I slung the scabbard strapover my left shoulder, in the Gorean fashion. In this way the scabbard, theblade once drawn, may be discarded, with its strap, which accouterments,otherwise, might constitute an encumbrance in combat. On marches, incidentallyand in certain other contexts, the strap, which is adjustable, is usually putover the right shoulder. This minimizes slippage in common and recurrent motion.

In both cases, of course, for a right-handed individual, the scabbard is at theleft hip, facilitating the convenient and swift across-the-body draw.

I then went again to the side of the fur-strewn, great stone couch, at the sideof which, on the, tiles, chained by the neck, knelt the beautiful slave.

I stood before her.

She lowered herself to her belly and, holding my ankles gently with her hands,covered my feet with kisses. Her lips, and her tongue, were warm and wet.

"I love you, my Master," she said, "and I am yours."

I stepped back from her. "Go to the foot of the couch," I told her, "and curlthere."

"Yes, Master," she said. She then, on her hands and knees, crawled to the footof the couch and, drawing up her legs, curled there on the cold tiles.

When I went to the door, I stopped and looked back, once, at her. She, curledthere on the cold, damp tiles, at the foot of the couch, the chain on her neck,regarded me.

The only light in the room was from the tiny tharlarion-oil lamp which, earlier,Thurnock had placed on the shelf near the door.

"I love you, my Master," she said, "and I am yours."

I then turned about and left the room. In a few Ahn, near dawn, men would cometo the room and free her, and then, later, put her to work with the other women.

"How many are there?" I asked Samos.

"Two," he said.

"Are they alive?" I asked.

"Yes," he said.

"This seems an unpropitious place for a meeting," I said. We were in the remainsof a half-fallen, ruined tarn complex, built on a wide platform, at the edge ofthe rence marshes, some four pasangs from the northeast delta gate of Port Kar.

In climbing to the platform, and in traversing it, the guards with us, who hadnow remained outside, had, with the butts of their spears, prodded more than onesinuous tharlarion from the boards, the creature then plunging angrily, hissing,into the marsh. The complex consisted of a tarn cot, now muchly open to the sky,with an anterior building to house supplies and tam keepers. It had beenabandoned for years. We were now within the anterior building. Through theruined roof, between unshielded beams, I could see patches of the night sky ofGor, and one of her three moons. Ahead, where a wall had mostly fallen, I couldsee the remains of the large tarn cot. At one time it had been a huge, convex,cage like lacing of mighty branches, lashed together, a high dome of fastened,interwoven wood, but now, after years of disrepair, and the pelting of rains andthe tearings of winds, little remained of this once impressive and intricatestructure but the skeletal, arched remnants of its lower portions.

"I do not care for this place," I said.

"It suits them," said Samos.

"It is too dark," I said, "and the opportunities for surprise and ambush are tooabundant."

"It suits them," said Samos.

"Doubtless," I said.

"I think we are in little danger," he said. "Too, guards are about."

"Could we not have met in your holding?" I asked.

"Surely you could not expect such things to move easily about among men?" askedSamos.

"No," I granted him.

"I wonder if they know we are here," said Samos.

"If they are alive," I said, "they will know."

"Perhaps," said Samos.

"What is the purpose of this parley?" I asked.