"Yes, Master," I moaned. "I beg it! I beg it!"

He then entered me suddenly and fiercely.

I clutched him.

"Please!" I whispered.

"Not yet," he said.

After a few minutes I again begged for his permission to yield. "Not yet," he said. I moaned. He, by varying hi rhythms and movements, brought me again and again to the point of yielding, and then stopped short, letting me go back a greater or lesser distance, and then bringing me forward, one speed or another, again. In this he not only showed h power over me but took much pleasure from me.

"It is pleasant to enjoy the Tatrix of Corcyrus," he said.

"Yes, Master," I sobbed, bitterly.

Yet I could not deny that he was forcing me, too, to experience much pleasure, its nature and amount depended completely on his will.

A quarter of an Ahn must have passed.

Then again, for I do not know what time, he brought if to a point of almost unbearable tension.

"You may now yield, Lady Sheila," he said, "as you have begged, as a slave." "Thank you, Master!" I cried, and threw my head back elation and gratitude, and freed myself of feeling, and, as He mastered me, cried out my slave's submission to him.

Afterwards he stood up and looked down, regarding me "It is pleasant to have had the Tatrix of Corcyrus," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said. I lay, had, at his feet.

He then crouched down, next to me, and rolled me ton stomach. He then jerked my hands behind my back and casually braceleted me. "You will spend the night braceleted," He Informed me. "Yes, Master," I said. He then shackled my left ankle and chained me, by means of it, to the slave ring at the foot of his couch. He then unlocked the leash collar and freed me of it and the leash. These articles, with the key, he then replaced in one of the chests at the side of the room. He then took most of the covers and threw them back on the couch. He did, leave me a sheet on the tiles. I lay on half of it. The other half, folded, he threw over me. He then retired.

Toward morning, in the early hours, he summoned me to his bed and again made use of me. I knelt beside the bed, kissed the covers and crawled into it. He knelt me and turned me about, and pushed my head down. He was quick with me. He was half asleep. I suppose I should have been grateful that I was permitted the honor of the couch. I do not think he, half asleep, wished to' leave it. He did not bother unbraceleting me. Then, with his foot, when lie was finished, he thrust me from the couch. At the foot of the couch, on the tiles, with my teeth; I readjusted the sheet about me, as I could. I then lay there, wide-eyed, for a time, not sleeping.

How far I was from my small apartment, from the perfume counter in the department store on Long Island. That mercenary little chit was now, on this natural world, a braceleted slave at the foot of a man's couch. No longer, now, was she, in the prerogatives of freedom, permitted to give men nothing, or frustration now she must serve them with perfection and provide them, to the best of her ability, at their merest whim, with fantastic pleasures. At least now, I thought, I am good for something.

How casually Miles of Argentum had just used me! But I did not object, for I was a slave. This form of casual, use, this off-handed employment of us, while perhaps inappropriate for a free woman, was acceptable for a slave. We did not have to be the subject of elaborate and tiresome preparations and pretenses, of complex rituals of attention and respect. We could, at times, be mere conveniences to the master, and, in this, too, we find something honest, natural, straightforward and lovely. There are times when the master simply wants us, and now. At such times, too, as we are slaves, it pleases us to serve. To be sure, the use to which Miles of Argentum had just subjected me, and I was well aware of this, had not been merely casual, a simple convenience use. It had, too, been a spurning use. Though he had not spoken to me, save to summon me imperiously to him, I had little doubt that he was still thinking of me in terms of Sheila, the Tatrix of Corcyrus. What a rich joke on the proud Tatrix! What a splendid lesson for the captured sovereign, to be subjected to a mere convenience use in the early morning, and then to be spurned to her place at a slave ring. But even so I did not object. Something in the woman of me responded to the masterful authority in this treatment. It made clear to me, once again, the delicious, terrible domination to which I was subject on Gor. I wanted men to be my superiors and masters, as they were on Gor. I wanted to be owned by them, as I was on Gor. I wanted to love them, and obey them, as I had to, without choice, on Gor.

I thought of Miles of Argentum.

How skillful he was at teaching a woman her slavery. How well he had put me through my paces on the leash, and then later in his arms. And, but moments ago, he had simply ordered me to him and had then, wordlessly, before taking me, positioned me precisely as he wanted me, my head even down.

I considered my compliance with his wishes and desires. I had obeyed him perfectly. I would not have dared to do otherwise, of course. He was not a man of Earth, or a typical man of Earth. He was a Gorean male.

I twisted a bit on the tiles, carefully, so as not to dislodge the sheet. I moved my wrists a little, they locked helplessly behind my back in their slave bracelets.

How men do with us as they please, I thought. How they master us!

I pulled for a moment, angrily, futilely, irrationally, against the slave bracelets, but I could not, of course, free myself.

What a glorious world this is for men, I thought, that here women such as I must serve and please them!

But then I squirmed with pleasure and joy.

And what a glorious world for women, I thought, that here we must so serve and please!

I felt then the raptures of my bondage, from the tranquilities of selfless service to the ecstasy of a slave's sexual surrender to the dominant male, the master. How perfect I was for bondage; how perfect bondage was for me. I had been designed by nature for bondage. This was clear in my body, and in my nature and dispositions. I rejoiced that I had been brought to a world in which I was free to fulfill, and, in certain circumstances, would have no choice but to fulfill, this implicit destiny. Here, on Gor, there were none of the confusions, the denials, the lies and ambiguities of Earth; here there was clarity, structure and truth. Here civilization did not war with nature; here slaves were slaves, and masters masters. Here I would be what I was, and without compromise, a slave. I did not object. Rather was I thrilled with this, as Iliad now learned, my natural fulfillment.

I was frightened of Miles of Argentum.

He seemed to think of me not as the helpless and lowly slave I was, a mere girl rented.for his pleasure for an evening, but as though I were a high lady and free captive, Sheila, the Tatrix of Corcyrus, who was then, perhaps in his vengeance on her for her escape from his camp, to be humiliated and humbled, and forced even, in her now unbreakable captivity to perform and serve as a slave. Certainly he had taken much pleasure with me.

But he must know that the true Sheila had fallen to Has-san, the Slave Hunter. Only recently he had brought her to Argentum in a golden sack. Even now, for his amusement, he kept her for several Ahn a day in that sack, suspended, tied shut in the throne room, while business was conducted. The sack was to be opened, and she was to be presented to Claudius Ubar of Argentum, and the high council, and high citizen celebr of Argentum, at the climax of a great feast, to be ated two days from now.

So what interest had Miles of Argentum in me?

Surely he did not think that I might be the real Sheila.

In his treatment of me, and in calling me Sheila, and so on, surely he had been only playing a game with me.