"And shall I strip and await your pleasure?" she asked. "No," I told her. "Clearly," she said, " a girl is safe with you." I said nothing.

"Do you behave in this fashion with the sluts in the paga taverns?" she asked. "They are different," I said. "They are slaves." And I added, not pleasantly, "And only slaves."I see," she said. "I envy the miserable creatures."

"Do not," I said. "You donot know what it is to be slave." "I have been a slave," she said. "You were only a display slave," I said. "You were not a full slave. You do not have the least idea of what it would be to be a full slave."

"Collar me, and teach me," she said. "You are a woman of Earth," I said. "I have no intention of abusing you." "I am grateful, Keeper," she said acidly.

I bent, angry to my pouch. I would find some money which I would insert in the lining of my tunic, a common thing among manual laborers on Gor."What is wrong," she asked from the stairs. "This was not here before," I said. I drew the object from the pouch. "What is it?" she asked.

I turned the object slowly in my hand. It was a fragment of polished stone, a fragment of what apeared to have once been a beveled, rectangular solid. It was about the size of a fist. It was a yellowish stone, with an intricate and unusual brownish discoloration at the point where it had apparently been broken from a larger stone. "What is it?" she asked."I am not sure," I said. "I think it is the topaz."

14. Lola

I went back outside and brought in the other materials which I had purchased here and there in Victoria. I then closed and bolted the door. "Who is there?" called down Miss Henderson, from upstairs. "It is Jason," I said. The slave did not count."Who is she?" asked Miss Henderson from the head of the stairs. "Is it not obvious?" I asked.

"It is a female slave. I am calling her Lola." this seemed to me appropriate, as it was the name which she ahd worn in the House of Andronicus. "Who is she?" asked Lola. I smiled to myself. She would not have draed to speak so peremptorily before another male on Gor.Miss Henderson stood aghast at the top of the stairs, that a slave should have spoken so."She is pretty and in your house," said Lola to me, "and yet she is not in a collar. I see that you have not changed since the House of Andronicus, Jason."Insolent slave!" cried Miss Henderson. She had not worn a house veil since the night I had kenneled her.I noted that Lola had used my name. That would cost her, I decided an additional five strokes.

"There is shopping to be done," I told Miss Henderson. "Attend to it," "I do not wish to," she said. "Attend to it," I told her.

"Yes, Jason," she said angrily. She descended the stairs, took some coins from the kitchen, unbolted the door, and left. I rebolted the door again after her.

Lola looked at me. "At least I shall have an easy slavery," she said.

I had found her this morning near noon when I had been on my luncheon break. At such times, for my amusement and interest, I occasionally frequented some of the dock markets, where though cheap girls tend to be sold there, one may occasionally see a real beauty being vended. It is pleasant of course to see women being sold, particularily if they are beautiful.

She was kneeling, back on her heels, naked, on the hot boards of a slaver's platform. The boards were rough and splintery and there were tiny droplets of tar on them. She was shackled by the wrists on a short chain to an iron ring, heavy, whose plate was bolted into the boards.

"Lola!" I had said, my mouth full, chewing on the meat I had bought on the wharves.She had jerked back, seeing me.The sales had not yet begun. "What do you want for her?" I asked."Ten copper tarsks," he said. "Done!" I said.

"No!" she cried. "Be silent, Wench," he ordered her. I removed a ten-tarsk piece from the lining of my tunic. Workers do not commonly carry pouches at their work.

"Do not sell me to him," begged the girl, "please!" But he kicked her brutallly to silence. I paid him and he unshackled her. He also removed his collar from her throat."Come along," I told her. She descended from the platform and naked and miserable, heeled me as I threaded my way slowly from the place. She did not try to escape. She knew there was no escape for her. She was a Gorean slave girl.

I stopped at the warehouse where I had been working and collected a half day's wages. My employer did not object,for he could see that I had purchased something of interest. Doubtless, I was eager to get her home.

"Continue working, Jason" called one of the fellows. "Let her here in the warehouse. We will see that no harm comes to her!" There was much laughter. I waved to them as I left the warehouse. "Have her once for me!" called one of my fellow workers after me."Little do they know you!" she said bitterly.

On the way home I stopped in the market to buy a few thinks, some articles for which I thought I might find a use. "Why are you buying a slave whip?" she asked me."Be patient," I told her. "Perhaps you will learn."

I also bought some chains, and binding fiber, and other things. Interestingly for no reason I clearly understood, I bought two sets of certain articles.Also on the way home, I purchased her a slave tunic and stopped at the shop of a metal worker, where i had her measured and purchased a collar for her. I had the collar inscribed according to my specifications. I put it in my sack with its two keys, tied to it with a string.

I snapped my fingers, and the girl, to the side, rose from her knees and lightly hurried to the table, beside which she again knelt, head down. "You may clear, Lola," I told her. "A deferential slut," said Miss Henderson, who knelt across the table from me.Lola kept her head down."Rather different that when you brought her into the house this afternoon," she said. "What did you do to her?"

"Reminded her she was a slave," I said."I see," said Miss Henderson.Lola rose to her feet and padded softly, barefoot, carrying the dishes to the kitchen. "Her tunic is sleeveless and too short," said Miss Henderson. "It pleases me," I said. "Of course," said Miss Henderson. "She is yours."

"Why have you tied me like this?" has asked Lola.

I had tied her wrists together before her body, before the opened door of the house, leaving a dangling, loose strap of about a foot in length.

I then swept her from her feet and carried her across the threshold and put her down on her feet, near the side wall to the left."Why have you carried me into the house as a capture slave?" she asked. I had rebolted the door, after Miss Henderson, sent on her shopping errands by myself, had exited.I had then turned again to face Lola. We were alone in the house.

She looked at me. "At least I shall have an easy slavery," she said. "Stand here," I told her, positioning her about five feet from the wall, facing it, to the left of the door as you enter, beneath a stout beam."I shall make you a poor slave," she said.

I went to the side of the room and loosening the chain, lowered the chain. Attached to the end of the chain, on theother side of the beam ring, now descending, was a wide circle of steel, a steel ring, some six inches in diameter. I stopped thechain where the steel ring dangled at her belly."You know what that is?" I asked her. "I am a slave girl," she said. "Speak it," I said."It is a whipping ring," she said.I tied her tethered wrists, by the free end of the strap to the ring.

"Why have you tied me to the whipping ring?" she asked. "Why do you think?" I asked. "You're bluffing," she said.

I went back to the wall and pulled the chain again through the beam ring. Then her hands were held well over her head…

"I will make you a poor slave," she said. "Oh!" she said."Perhaps not," I said. "Release me," she said tensely. She stood now, painfully, on the tips of her toes.