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.Let the girl revel in her growth, and notfear that one day there will be more to learn, nowhere else to go.There areno summits on the heights of love.Ulrick, however, had assured me in thehouse, once, that I had talent.I hoped so.Such, among the imperious mastersof this world, might improve my chances for survival.I did have a live body,some understanding of my womanhood, and a desire to please men.I looked downinto some of the faces below me, behind the railing, across the dirt, acrossthe tarsk run.I had better be pleasing to such men, I thought, shuddering.Then I moaned to myself.Teibar was not here.I was alone.What was I doing here? Why wasI brought here, to this world? My wrists hurt, held up so high in the steel.Were the men not being cruel to me? Could they not see I was naked, andhelpless? Category, I heard,   Pleasure Slave.When I heard this categorization, so matter-of-factly given, concluding thefellow s recounting of attributes and features, measurements and such, I wassuddenly, inordinately, startled.I had known, of course, I was not a houseslave, or a tower slave, for Iwas not permitted to kneel in fashions appropriate to those varieties ofslave.Too, I had understood, of course, that many of the things Iwas taught seemed to have direct application to the pleasing of masters, andPage 88ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmleven profoundly sensuously so, but I130had not, until now, heard that exact simple, direct expression.We had neverbeen told, in so many words, that that was the sort of slave we were.Perhapsthe Gorean girls had understood, clearly enough, but I do not think we girlsof Earth had, at least not is so direct a way, not in the way, certainly,which seemed to be summarized so clearly and succinctly by that oneexpression.Ulrick had not even told me the sort of slave I was.He hadlaughed, and informed me that I would learn from men.Now, it seemed, on thesales block, I had done so.I threw back my head, and moaned.The chainoverhead tightened and I was pulled up a little more, so that only my toeswere on the block.The auctioneer lifted his whip, cracked it, and called for the first bid.My wrists hurt.He was calling for a bid on an illiterate barbarian.I realized, suddenly, that that was I.I was an educated, civilized, refined woman on my own world.Here I was an illiterate barbarian!I heard someone call out from the floor.I realized, suddenly, Ihad been bid upon.I was being sold! Too, he was not bidding on part of me,say, on my body.He was bidding in the Gorean fashion on all of me, on thewhole slave.The bid had been for twenty copper tarsks.In a moment I hadheard twenty-two, and twenty-seven.On my own world I was a modern woman, of sorts, independent, and free, andwith political power, particularly with fearful, cringing men.But here menwere not fearful and cringing.But then I had been taken from Earth, and mypower, to be brought here to be utterly powerless, to be a slave, to be apleasure slave! How reductive, I thought, to be a pleasure slave! Then I knewthat that was what, on a proper, natural world, I would be, that that, on suchworld, was right for me. No, no! I wept, in English.I heard more bids.The auctioneer walked about me.He touched me, here and there, with his whip.He turned me on the chain, I on my toes, exhibiting me.Then I again faced the men.There were more bidsI though how amused Teibar might have been, to have thought of me, his hated modern woman, as he thought, being sold, and being sold in this place, aplace fit for her, a sales barn, where tarsks, four-legged, and two-legged,like herself, were sold.Iwondered if Teibar knew I would be sold in this place.He was doubtless privyto the records of the house.But he may have left their service before I wasconsigned to the wholesaler131outside Brundisium.But it could be this was a common clearing point for theirslaves.It could be, too, he had retained contacts with the house.He mightvery well know I was here.He may have even, for his amusement, arranged thatit would be here, or in a similar outlet, that I was sold, influencing theorders in some fashion.Perhaps that I was here, naked in a sales barn, my wrists manacled over myhead, being bid upon by strangers, was part of his vengeance on me.At theleast he would have known that this, or something similar, would be done tome! How amused he must be, when he thought of such things, his haughty,pretentious  modern woman. as he thought, she whom he held in such contempt,to her dismay and terror, and miscry, now being sold naked from a slave block,into absolute bondage!Then I became aware of someone, or one or two men, actually, calling up fromthe floor.It was not bids they were calling.I tried to understand them.IPage 89ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmldid not know if it were their accents, or I simply, in my confusion, my miseryand distress, had suddenly lost almost all my command of Gorean.I could notreally understand them.The chain slackened above me and my arms fell, somewhat.The auctioneer puthis whip on his belt, held me by the left arm in his right hand, and, with hisleft hand, reaching up, lifted the chain between my manacles off the lowerhook of the short chain, that attached to the strand of the double chainoverhead.His hand on my arm kept me from collapsing to the sawdust.My handswere down, the chain on the manacles now against my thighs.He said somethingto me, but I did not understand it.Then he reached in front of me andgathered the chain between my manacles into his hands and lifted my wrists up,bending my arms back.He put my wrists back, behind my head, and then releasedthe chain on the manacles, letting it drop behind my neck. Clasp your handsbehind the back of your head, he said.I understood him now. Bend back, hesaid. Display yourself. I obeyed, of course.Too, the whip was now again inhis hand. Flex your knees, he said. Now, turn, he said. Do not forget ourfriends to the right, he said.I then displayed myself, again, identically,at the right side of the block.Idid not think the other girls had been removed from the chain, or not many ofthem, given the speed with which the line had moved [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]