This movement was transmitted through the leather,
until it jerked and snapped at he ring,
on the leash collar.
"Oh, please , no!" she wept.
I have shaken the leash, once," I said.
"You did not then perform.
Fortunate it was for you then
that you were a free woman, and not a slave.
Even so, I was not pleased. Do you understand?"
"Yes!" she said.
"Now, when I shake it again, you will perform."
She put her head down, trembling.
"Do you understand?" I asked.
"Yes," she whispered.
"You must remember, gentlemen," I said,
"she is only a free woman."
I shook the leash and Lady Klio, naked,
attempted to perform.
Some of the men laughed.
"Surely you can do better than that," I said.
She sank to her stomach,
in the dirt, at the bottom of the trench, weeping.
"Whip her," said a tall fellow,
watching her, with his arms folded.
She looked up at him, frightened.
His eyes suddenly glinted.
I had not seen what passed between them
but I suspect that he had seen in her eyes
something swift, some flash of sudden fear
and recognition,
that she had seen him as her Master.
Then she put down her head again and there,
in the dirt, shuddered.
"On your knees," I said. "Now."
She cried out, and rose quickly to her knees.
"Knees spread," I said.
She knelt there, her knees spread.
She blushed crimson.
It seemed she could not take her eyes
off the tall fellow.
"Perform," I encouraged her.
"Move. Call attention to your charms."
Again Lady Klio began to perform, as she could.
"It may not be much, gentlemen,"
I informed them, holding the leash,
"but surely for such a woman
it is an unusual activity.
I suspect that she is not accustomed to doing it.
Perhaps in the future she will be better at it.
Look, gentlemen. Little as it may be.
I suspect this is far more
than was provided for the many chaps
who paid for her meals, her lodging,
her wardrobe, her transportation, her luxuries,
her claimed needs, her numerous bills.
"Continue to perform," I said.
You may leave your knees,
but do not rise to your feet.
She regarded me, in wild protest.
"Yes,?" I said.
"Do not make me do these things," she begged.
"Do not make me dance and writhe so.
I am a free woman!"
"Your freedom will soon be a matter of the past,"
I told her. "How well you do now could influence
the quality of your life in the future."
"Do not fear," I said.
"I know you are truly a slave.
I learned it in your kiss,
when you were shackled at the wall
at the Crooked Tarn. I think that perhaps,
in the same kiss, you learned it."
The men laughed.
She sneaked a glance at the tall fellow,
and then, hastily, put down her head.
He smiled.
"Lady Elene, of Tyros, your friend,
whom you remember from the Crooked Tarn,
and the coffle," I said,
"is even now in a slave collar."
It had been put on her within moments of her sale.
Klio looked back at me.
"In her performance," I said,
the slave, unrestrained, emerged quickly
and in moments the woman
discovered that it was she.
It pleased the men abundantly.
It brought a good price.
It is now collared."
Klio sobbed.
"Frankly," I said,
"I had not expected you to be inferior to her."
She looked at me, angrily.
"But perhaps the women of Tyros," I said,
"are superior to those of Cos?"
"I think not," said a man, rather angrily.
There was laughter from the others.
I supposed he must be Cosian, natively.
"But then," I said,
"it is said, I have heard,
that those of Port Kar prize Cosians as slaves."
"Show us what a Cosian can do," said a man.
"Thus," I said, "it seems that it is not, really,
that the women of Tyros are superior
to the women of Cos, but merely that,
in your particular case,
you are inferior to the Lady Elene."
She looked at me, again angrily.
"But that is only to be expected,
upon occasion, I suppose," I said,
"that some woman of Tyros would be superior
to some woman of Cos.
Too, it is no disgrace to be inferior
to the Lady Elene, who is quite attractive and,
in time, might even make a dancer."
"I am inferior to Elene," she said, angrily.
The men laughed at her vehemence.
She looked at the tall fellow.
I quickly then,
that she would feel the authoritative signal
of the leash and collar rings
while she was looking at the tall fellow,
shook the leash.
"Ah!" said a fellow.
I was quite pleasant then with Klio.
My expectation, I then felt,
that she would prove to be the most exciting
and desirable of the two, was borne out.
That was why I had saved her for last,
of course, for use in the trench closest to Ar's Station.
To be sure,
I might have been somewhat prejudiced,
for I remembered Klio's lovely dark hair,
and I tend to be partial to brunets.
Who, eventually,
would prove to be the best slave
I did not know.
Let such women compete desperately
with one another,
and with other slaves,
each striving to be the best.
One of the men cried out with pleasure.
Such things seem very natural for a woman.
Perhaps they are, to some extent like slave dance,
instinctive, the biological template,
or genetic dispositions for them,
having been selected for ,
the biological need of a woman to belong,
I wondered if Klio,
sensing these deep, dark, wonderful,
frightening things within her,
the rightfulness of the destiny of submission
to men for her, and such, had not,
perhaps in the privacy of her own chambers,
before her mirror, put the leash on herself.
Perhaps she had then, there,
before the mirror,
in the privacy of her own quarters,
moved similarly.
It is not unusual for women to do this sort of thing,
alone, often in bonds and chains,
expressing plaintively there in their
longing for a master.
"Superb! Superb!" cried for another fellow.
Klio, I recalled, had chosen a dangerous way of life,
one which she must surely have realized,
on one level or another, might lead to the collar.
'Klio', " I said to the men,
"might be an excellent name for a slave,
do you not think so?"
"Yes!" said more than one.
Klio flushed with pleasure.
Somehow it seemed she became
even more sinuous, more sensuous, then.
I saw that she was paying a bit too much
attention to the tall fellow.
indicating a grizzled sapper to one side,
his hooks near him,
"address yourself to him, about the feet and legs."
He grinned.
"No!" said the tall fellow.
"I will buy her!" he said.
for Klio. I fear I must admit occasionally to
a streak of opportunistic greediness.
"A silver tarsk!" he cried.
Klio, redeemed through Ephialtes,
had only cost me thirty copper tarsks.
but, after all, I was taken by surprise
by the splendid offer,
and even opportunistic greediness has its limits,
particularly when surprised.
"On all fours," I said to Klio.
Immediately she went to all fours.
"A silver tarsk," I said.
I had not even returned the leash
and collar to my pouch
before I heard a decisive click
and a small cry from Klio.
does she not?" I asked.
"I will improve her in it," said he, grimly.
"Share her," said a fellow.
"Let her dance again," said another, "not in the leash."
"Proffer her to the arms of each of us," said another,
"in turn."
and I could hardly see her among them.
Even the fellow from the low wooden platform,
which put him a vantage over
the top of the trench,
had joined them.
(Renegades of Gor, Pages 170-178)
