[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

to be awarded as a gift. In a moment Peggy was on her feet and her head was
back. She winced and then laughed with joy. Her wrists had been tightly tied.
She knew then that her life with Callimachus would not be easy, nor did she
wish it to be. She did not want a weak man; she wanted a man strong enough to
elicit, dominate and control the woman in her; Callimachus. a Gorean master,
she now realized, would do so; she now realized that he would not compromise
with her; she would be kept in total slavery, under the strictest of
disciplines, fully owned and uncompromisingly mastered; she would serve him
perfectly; she was joyful.
"Please, Master," begged Florence, "bind me in some way."
"Very well," said Miles of Vonda, kindly.
Peggy, her hands tied behind her back, went to kneel before Tasdron. He had
given her to
Callimachus. She kissed his feet in gratitude. `"Thank you, Master," she wept,
"thank yow!
"Thank you, Master," breathed Florence to miles of Vonda. He had locked her
hands behind her back, in slave bracelets. She, too, now had been bound by her
master. His desire for her, and his mastery over her, had now been, to her
joy, by the steel of the confining bracelets, attested. She extended her head
to him, her lips pursed, her eyes closed, to kiss him, but he seized the sides
of the
opening of her slave tunic, the left side in his right fist, the right side in
his left fist. "Master?" she asked, opening her eyes. The sides of her tunic
were held tightly. "Master?" she asked. "Are you not a slave?" asked Miles of
Vonda. "Yes, Master," she said. Then, suddenly, laughing, Miles of Vonda
jerked open the tunic and tore it down about her lovely, flaring hips. He then
thrust it open and back on her hips. Its upper portions hung back, do pending
from the belt, still in place, about her braceleted wrists. "Yes, Master! she
said.
"March me naked through the streets as your slave. I love you! Miles of Vonda
then picked up the
lyre, which she had used earlier in entertaining us. With its strap he slung
the small, lovely, curved, stringed instrument about her body, the strap over
her right shoulder, the instrument behind her left hip. The delicacy of the
instrument, with its suggestion of refinement, gentility and civilization,
contrasted nicely with the barbarity of her luscious, enslaved nudity, the
shreds of her tunic and her helpless, steel-clasped wrists.
"I love you, Master! she cried. She pressed her body to him and he, clasping
her to him, with
force and possessiveness, kissed her as his desired and owned slave. I had
little doubt that when he arrived home he would play well upon her body,
making it the instrument of his attentions. He would draw forth from her by
his skills rhapsodies of movements, cries, moans, utterances and admissions, a
music to the ears of both the conquering master and the delicious, yielding
slave, she who finds, and can find, her most glorious victory only in her most
complete and devastating defeat. "I love you, Master! she was weeping. "I
love you!
Tasdron, with a snapping of his fingers calling Peggy to her feet, removed his
collar from about her neck, and she ran to stand, head down, deferential and
bound, near Callimachus. I threw
Page 154
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Aemilianus the key to the collar of Shirley, and he removed it from her. I
myself took the steel of my collar from Lola's throat.
"Thank you for giving me to Calliodorus," she said.
"Serve him well," I said.
"I shall. I shall! she said.
Slave girls, of course, may speak the name of their masters to others, for
example, as in locutions such as, "I am the girl of Calliodorus of Port Cos,"
or "I come from the house of
Calliodorus." It is only that they are seldom, in addressing the master
himself, permitted to use his name. He is usually addressed simply as
"Master," or as "my Master."
"I have an announcement to make," said Tasdron, "for which I have waited until
now." We regarded him. The slaves knelt. A free man was speaking. "The forces
of the Vosk League are soon to be organized," said Tasdron. "It is my honor
and pleasure to inform you that one among us has agreed to act as the
commander of these forces. He is, of course, Callimachus, of Port Cos!
"Congratulations!" I cried to Callimachus, shaking his hand. There was Gorean
applause.
"The appointment was made earlier this afternoon, in a secret session of the
High Council of the Vosk League," said Tasdron, "that body sovereign in the
league, composed of representatives drawn from all the member towns." Tasdron
smiled at me. "This time and place," he said, "seemed appropriate for making
the first public announcement of the appointment."
"Thank you, Tasdron," I said. He had honored my house. Peggy was looking up at
Callimachus, from her knees, her hands bound behind her back. Her eyes were
shining. How proud she was of her master.
"But what of Port Cost" asked Calliodorus. "Are you not to return to Port Cos,
to replace
Callisthenes, to become High Captain?"
"That post is yours, my friend, Calliodorus," said Glyco.
"My thanks!" said Calliodorus.
We applauded him, congratulating him and expressing our approval of the wisdom
of the appointment. On her knees beside him, her hands tightly bound behind
her back in the black binding strap, Lola pressed her lips fervently against
his leg, and looked up at him. Her eyes shone, too. How proud, too, she was of
her master!"
Tasdron reached into his pouch. "I am sure that you recognize this," he said.
He held, in his hands, two pieces of rock.
"The topaz! said Aemilianus.
"The topaz! said Calliodorus.
"What you do not know," said Tasdron, "is that long ago, over a century ago,
this stone, unbroken, was the Home Stone of Victoria."
We were startled. There was silence in the room.
"Over a hundred years ago," said Tasdron, "it was carried away by pirates, and
broken. Since that time Victoria has not had a Home Stone. What had once been
our Home Stone served then as nothing more than a pledge symbol among the
buccaneers of the river. In a few days we of the council of Victoria will go
down to the river. There, from the shore of the Vosk, we shall select a common
stone, not much unlike others. That, then, shall be the new Home Stone of
Victoria."
There were tears in my eyes.
"What of the topaz?" asked Aemilianus.
"It has been broken," said Tasdron. "No longer may it serve as a Home Stone."
"Why have you brought it here?" asked Calliodorus.
Page 155
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
"Ar's Station and Port Cos," said Tasdron, "are mighty powers on the river. I
brought it here that I might give one half to you, Aemilianus, and one half to
you, Calliodorus. In all that may later ensue, whatever it may be, do not
forget that you once fought together, and once were comrades."
Tasdron then gave half of the topaz to Aemilianus and the other half to
Calliodorus.
"My thanks," said Aemilianus.
"My thanks," said Calliodorus.
Then Aemilianus looked at Calliodorus. "Let us never forget the topaz," he
said.
"We will not," said Calliodorus.
We then went to the door, and, as pleasantries were exchanged, our guests, one
by one, began to take their leave. Miles of Vonda left first, heeled by his
curvacious, auburnhaired beauty, Florence, once, too, of Vonda. On the street,
below, at the foot of the stairs, he ordered her to precede him. She then did
so, well exposed in the shreds of the tunic, the delicate lyre slung behind
her left hip, her wrists fastened behind her, with Gorean efficiency, in her
master's steel. She walked before him, her shoulders back, her head high; she [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Archiwum