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"That is the speculation," I said, putting aside the towel.
"Did the guardsmen of Ax's Station find the topaz?" she asked.
"Not to my knowledge," I said. "They stopped me, and others, outside the
tavern of
Cleanthes. Later they searched all in the tavern, save those whom they
remembered from outside, as having been previously examined."
"You were not searched a second time then?" she asked.
"No," I said. "It was the same men who were conducting the search."
"If the topaz should reach the stronghold of Policrates," she said, "the way
would be clear for the uniting of the raider forces of both the east and
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west."
"It has perhaps already reached the stronghold of Policrates," I said.
"Surely routes to such a citadel have been invested," she said.
"They cannot be adequately invested," I said, "without considerable forces. I
do not think a careful courier would have difficulty reaching the citadel."
"What hope, then, have those who would wish to keep the topaz from reaching
Policrates?"
"The hope is to apprehend the courier before he can reach the citadel," I
said.
"A slim hope," she said.
"I agree," I said.
"I would not wish to be who carries the topaz," she said
"Nor I," I said, smiling.
"You kenneled me last night," she said.
"That is not unknown to me," I said.
-s
"I will no longer try to keep a door locked between us," she said.
"That is advisable," I said.
She came then and stood near me. I restrained myself from seizing her in my
arms and throwing her to the, floor of the hall.
"Jason," she said.
"Yes," I said.
She drew her robe down, slightly, from her shoulders.
"Yes?" I said.
"I am ready to earn my keep," she said.
"You speak like a slave girl," I scorned her.
"Slave girls do not earn their keep," she said. "They do what they are told."
"If you were a slave girl, would you do what you were told?" I asked.
"Of course," she said. "I would have to."
"That is true," I said. She looked into my eyes and saw that it was indeed
true, absoiutely.
"I wonder if you would make a good slave," I said.
"Enslave me," she said, "and see."
"You are a woman of Earth;" I said.
"On this world," she said, "many women of Earth are kept as the total slaves
of their masters."
I looked at her.
Suddenly she knelt before me. "Enslave me," she begged. "I will make you a
good slave."
"Get on your feet," I said, confused. "You are a woman of Earth. Must I teach
you, of all people, a little feminist, how to be a true person?"
"This is Gor," she said, "not Earth. Such things are behind me now. I have
learned too much."
"Get up," I said.
"On Gor," she said, "I do not need to pretend any longer. Here I do not need
to be a political puppet. Here I am free at last to be a woman."
"Get up!" I cried.
"Fulfill my needs, please!" she begged.
"No!" I cried. Then I said, again, "Get up, quickly. You shame me."
She rose to her feet, tears in her eyes. She drew her robe tightly about her.
"It is I who have been shamed," she said.
"You have shamed yourself," I said, angrily.
"No," she said, "that is not true, Jason. I have been honest to myself. It is
you who have shamed me, punishing me for permitting myself this careless
honesty. It is my fault, in a sense. You are a man of Earth, still. I should
have known better."
"You should not have such needs," I told her.
"I have them," she said.
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"Change them," I said.
"I cannot," she said.
"Surely you desire to do so," I said.
"No," she said, "no longer, I love them. They are the deepest part of me."
"You must then, at the least," I said, "pretend that you do not have them."
"Why?" she asked.
"I do not know," I said, "perhaps because they do not conform to the values of
the glandularly deficient and sexually inert."
"This is not Earth," she said. "Why should I conform to such values?"
"I do not know," I said. "I do not know!
"Such men and women," she said, "must make virtues of their deficiencies.
Otherwise, to their humiliation, they would confess themselves less than
others."
"Perhaps," I said. "I do not know."
"Why do you let others, the petty and resentful, the fearful and inadequate,
legislate for you in this sphere?"
"I do not know," I said.
"What are their credentials?" she asked. "Where are their proofs?"
"I do not know," I said.
"Heeding their advise produces misery and frustration, impairments, physical
and mental, anxiety, pain, sickness and self-torture. It can even shorten
lives. Do these sorts of things seem to you the manifestations of a correct
moral position?"
"I do not know," I said.
"Is it only the stupid, and the mutilated and crippled, who are to be
accounted healthy?"
"I do not know," I said. "I do not know!"
"I am sorry if I have embarrassed you," she said.
"Go to your room," I said.
"You have refused me as a woman," she said.
"Go to your room, Miss Henderson," I said.
"Of course, Keeper," she said. She turned away from me. She went toward the
stairs.
At the foot of the stairs, she turned, again, to face me. "I am still prepared
to earn my keep,"
she said.
"You are a woman of Earth," I said. "It is not necessary for a woman of Earth
to earn her keep."
Take me to the market, and sell me," she said
"Why?" I asked., "Perhaps a man will buy me," she said.
"I do not deny you your freedom," I said.
"You are refusing me my slavery," she said.
"You are displeasing me," I said.
Then beat me and rape me," she said, "and put me under discipline."
"Go to your room, Miss Henderson," I warned her.
"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 do not know what it is to be a slave."
"I have been a slave," she said.
"You were only a display slave," I said. "You were not a full slave. You do
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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, angrily, 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.
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