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.Yet generally I think we did not, have too much tocomplain of.We were permitted to sleep late in the slave quarters, and manual labors, for most ofus, tended to be curtailed in the early afternoon, that we might rest and prepare ourselves forthe evening.I think few of us did on the average more than two or three Ahn of light labors on anormal day.We were never under any delusion that our main task was not the delight and pleasureof our masters.I was no longer low girl in the slave quarters.It was not that I had fought, for there were fewgirls there whom I suspected could not beat me, but that the matter had been determined by Sucha.She carried the whip.Each new girl, as she was introduced among us, became automatically lowgirl, the other girls being correspondingly advanced.We obeyed Sucha.She never hesitated to usethe whip.We were kept in perfect order.I was not displeased.Had Borchoff not placed the whip inthe hands of Sucha, I, for one, would have fared much more poorly in the slave quarters.Slavefile:///F|/rah/John%20Norman/Slave%20Girl%20Of%20Gor.txt (131 of 227) [1/20/03 3:34:31 AM]file:///F|/rah/John%20Norman/Slave%20Girl%20Of%20Gor.txtquarters, as I have mentioned, can become a jungle.This was prevented at Stones of Turmus by thewhip of Sucha.I was not the only girl who was not displeased to be protected from intimidationand violence.Sometimes masters, in their cruelty, do not appoint a first girl.Then the slavegirls, as best then can, by teeth and nails, must adjudicate their differences and establish amode of governance for themselves.Sometimes masters do not appoint a first girl in order that thelower ranking girls will strive ever more desperately to please them, to become favorites, andthus to be to some extent more protected."If you beat me, the master will not be pleased," is nota threat to be taken lightly in the slave quarters, particularly if it is thought to be true.Thedistant menace of the master's displeasure has its influence and effect, naturally, on the socialarrangements of the kennels.Sometimes a girl will pretend to be more favored by the master thanshe is, for her own prestige, and to win position in the kennels.But it is not hard to know thetruth in these matters.Who is most often summoned to his couch?"Meat, Dina!" cried another man, and I hastened to him, to kneel and serve him.I wore red silk, agolden necklace about my throat, intertwined with my collar, and bells.I saw Sucha lying soft in the arms of a lieutenant, kissing him.How marvelously she melted in hisarms, his.She was seldom permitted to carry her whip outside the slave quarters, except in conducting a newslave through the corridors and bringing her through the small iron door, as she had me.When sheleft the slave quarters she normally knelt before a guard and handed him the whip, her authorityended.He would then take the whip and thrust it against her lips, and she would kiss it, afterwhich he would order her to her feet and discard the whip, which she would retrieve on her wayback to the slave quarters.Outside the slave quarters we were normally under the governance notof Sucha, but men.We stood under her governance outside the quarters only when she was permittedto retain the whip.I watched her yielding in the arms of the lieutenant, moaning under his touch.She did not now have the whip.She was now, in the hall of Turian pleasures, as it is called, onlyanother slave girl."Dina!" called a man.I was struck by a soldier past whom I hurried.I gathered the man had called before, and I had notheard him.The soldier had struck me for I had been tardy in responding to the first man.Ibrushed the silk of the girl who danced between the tables.The music swirled about me.I knelt before the man who had called."Are you deaf?" he asked."Forgive a miserable girl, Master," I begged."I did not hear you.""Give me meat," he said.I lifted the platter to him and he thrust the eating prong into a slab of meat, hot with Turianspices.It was the last piece on the platter.He looked at me."I will fetch more meat immediately, Master," I said."You are the meat I want, Dina," he said."It is not yet time to serve the wine," I whispered.This is a common Gorean idiom.I wasreminding him, timidly, that the time of general pleasure had not yet arrived.I, and several ofthe other girls, had not yet been released from our serving duties.There were still courses ofthe banquet to be served to our masters.In the time of desserts and wines we would crawl to theirtables, slave girls."Fetch in the prisoner," called Borchoff, captain of the keep of Stones of Turmus.This afternoon I had been upon the heights of the keep, carrying water to the men on the parapets.I had stood there, looking out over the wall, at the vast fields about.It was more than eightyfeet to the ground."Is it your intention, Dina," had asked a soldier, coming up behind me, "to dash yourself to theground?""No, Master," I said to him."I am not a free woman.I am a slave girl." I backed gently againsthim, and lifted my head, turning it to him.I felt his hands on my arms."Attend to your duties, Slave Girl," he said."Yes, Master," I said.I had been summoned more than once to his couch.I poured him a cup of water from the small verrskin bag over my shoulder.It was hot on the parapet.The stones were hot to my bare feet.I wore a brief, one-piece, brownwork tunic.It was all I wore, with the exception of the collar.We wore such tunics when engagedas work slaves.The tunics of work slaves are usually brown or gray.I looked above me at the posts mounted on the walls.Between them was slung fine wire, gentlybending and swaying in the slow breeze of the hot afternoon.Such wire is tarn wire.It is used toprevent the descent of tarns into the courtyard of a fortress.It is common in Gorean defenses.file:///F|/rah/John%20Norman/Slave%20Girl%20Of%20Gor.txt (132 of 227) [1/20/03 3:34:31 AM]file:///F|/rah/John%20Norman/Slave%20Girl%20Of%20Gor.txtI looked again over the wall."Master," I asked."Yes," he said."I see dust there," I said, pointing to the road beneath, winding toward the fortress."They have him," said the soldier beside me.Two tharlarion, ponderous and stately, made their way toward the keep.They were mounted by twowarriors, with lances.More warriors, eight men from the keep, followed, bearing spears.Betweenthe tharlarion, fastened by neck chains, running to the stirrups of the two beasts, strode a man.He was dark-haired.He wore chains.His wrists were fastened behind his back."Who is it, Master?" I asked."We do not know," said the soldier
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