Part 120 (2/2)

”Could you now thrust downward before I could resist, or defend myself?” he asked.

I considered the position of his hands, behind his head, the quickness with which the knife might thrust down, the nature of the blade, its sharpness.

”Yes, Master,” I said.

”None know you are here,” he said. ”You could find your way out. You could frequent dangerous areas, where you might well be seized as a strayed slave, not to be returned to a master, but to be sold illicitly, in a black market. You might be out of the city in a week.”

”I do not even have clothing, Master,” I said.

”Surely you have seen naked slaves in the street,” he said.

”Yes, Master,” I said. I had seen them, at least, in Treve. I myself, on the other hand, had never been put naked into the streets. It is normally done as a punishment. Normally, too, the slave is locked in the iron belt.

”You would have to be careful not to be picked up by a guardsman,” he said.

”I do not understand what master is saying,” I said.

”Surely you have lied to me,” he said, ”suggesting that you might care for me.”

”No!” I said.

”The knife is in your grasp,” he said. ”You need pretend no longer.”

”I love you, truly,” I said.

”You are a barbarian,” he said. ”I am a Gorean.”

”You are a man,” I said. ”I am a woman.”

”Barbarian,” he said.

”Do not hold my origins against me,” I said. ”I am now only a Gorean slave girl, and am as eager, or more eager, to serve you as any girl of your own world!”

”You could not care for me,” he said, ”for I would be a stern master.”

”Be so,” I said.

”I am not the sort of male which I have heard you women of Earth prefer,” he said.

”Do not believe all you have heard, Master,” I said.

”Oh?” he said.

”Do you think we truly prefer manipulable weaklings who have surrendered their dominance?” I asked.

”Do you think such can exact from us the depths of our womanhood? I cannot speak for all women of Earth, but I can speak for one, for myself. I want a man of strength, of power, one who will relish me, and desire me, with might and pa.s.sion, one who will put me in my place, and keep me there, as a woman, and will see to it, to his joy and fulfillment, and mine, that I am well mastered. I want a man so strong, so intelligent, so energetic, so powerful, so overwhelming, so uncompromising, so mighty, that I can, before him, be no more than his abject slave.”

”You are truly a slave,” he said.

”Yes, Master,” I said.

”Do the women of Earth desire true men?” he asked.

”Master?” I asked.

”In the biological sense,” he said, ”as opposed to some political sense or another, whatever is current.”

”Yes, Master,” I whispered. ”We cry for them, in the darkness, Master.”

”My life,” he said, absently, gazing at the ceiling, ”is now worth very little.”

”Master?” I said.

”I have not complied with the orders set to me,” he said. ”I have betrayed my superiors. They are not such, I a.s.sure you, as to look lightly upon such omissions. I can no longer return to Telnus. There is little, if anything, left for me now. Presumably I will be hunted down, and slain. If you were with me, you, too, would die.”

”Then I, too, would die,” I said.

”Lie no longer,” he said. ”You may now kill me.”

”I do not lie,” I said. ”And I would rather plunge the dagger into my own heart.”

”You may kill me,” he said.

”Never,” I said.

He closed his eyes.

”Strike,” he said.

The point of the dagger was over his heart. In an instant I might have leaned forward and, with all my weight, slight as it was, moved that thin blade deeply into his body, to the hilt, even through the heart.

”No,” I said.

He opened his eyes.

”No,” I said. ”Forgive me, Master.”

”Must a command be repeated?” he asked.

”Repeat it a thousand times,” I said. ”I will not do it.”

”You disobey?” he asked, puzzled.

”Forgive me, Master,” I said. ”Yes, Master.”

”Why?” he asked.

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