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She was one of the most rawly sensuous creatures on which I had ever looked.
"I am Sura," she said, looking at me, "I teach girls to give pleasure to men."
"You are lead girl?" asked Sura of Elizabeth.
"Yes," said Elizabeth.
Sura's finger flicked the slave goad on. She rotated the dial. The tip began to glow, a bright yellow.
"Yes Mistress," said Elizabeth.
"You are barbarian?" asked Sura.
"Yes Mistress," said Elizabeth.
Sura spat on the stones before Elizabeth.
"They are all barbarians," said Ho-Tu.
Sura turned about and looked at him with disgust. "How does Cernus expect me to train barbarians?" she asked.
Ho-Tu shrugged.
"Do what you can, " said Flaminius. "These are all intelligent slaves. They all have promise."
"You know nothing of such matters," said Sura.
Flaminius looked down, angry.
Sura walked over to the girls, lifted Virginia's head and looked into her eyes, and then stepped back. "Her face is too thin," she said "and there are blemishes, and she is thin, too thin."
Ho-Tu shrugged.
Sura looked at Elizabeth. "This one," she said, "was Tuchuk. She will know nothing except the care of Bosk and the cleaning of leather."
Elizabeth wisely, refrained from response.
"Now this one," said Sura, examining Phyllis, "has a slave's body, but how does she move? I have seen these barbarians. They cannot even stand straight. They cannot even walk."
"Do what you can," said Flaminius.
"It's hopeless," said Sura, stepping back to us. "Nothing can be done for them. Sell them off a minor block and be done with it.
They are kettle girls, only that." Sura dialed the slave goad down, and then switched it off.
"Sura," said Flaminius.
"Kettle girls," snapped Sura.
Ho-Tu shook his head. "Sura is right," he said, rather too agreeably. "They are only kettle girls."
"But," protested Flaminius.
"Kettle girls," insisted Ho-Tu.
Sura laughed in triumph.
"No one could do anything with such barbarians," said Ho-Tu to Flaminius. "Not even Sura."
Something about the back of Sura's neck informed me she had noted what Ho-Tu had said and hadn't cared for the sound of it.
I saw Ho-Tu grimace at Flaminius.
A smile broke out on the Physician's face. "You're right," he said, "no one could do anything with such barbarians. They could not be trained by anyone, except perhaps Tethrite of the House of Portus."
"I had forgotten about her," said Ho-Tu.
"Tethrite is an ignorant she-thalarion," said Sura irritably.
"She is the best trainer in Ar," said Ho-Tu.
"I, Sura, am the best in Ar," said the girl, not pleasantly.
"Of course," said Ho-Tu to Sura.
"Besides, " said Flaminius to Ho-Tu, "even
Tethrite of the House of Portus could not train such barbarians."
Sura was now inspecting the girls more closely.
She had pushed one thumb under Virginia's head. "Do not be frightened,
little bird," said Sura soothingly in Gorean to Virginia. Sura removed
her thumb and Virginia kept her fine head on its delicate neck high. "Some
men might like a thin, pocked face," said Sura. "And her eyes, the gray,
that is very good."
Sura looked at Elizabeth. "You are probably the stupid one, "she said.
"I scarcely think so," said Elizabeth, adding acidly, "Mistress."
"Good," said Sura to herself, "good."
"And you," she said to Phyllis, "you with the body of a Passion Slave, what of you?" Sura then took the slave goad, which was off, and moved it along the left side of Phyllis' body, touching her with the cold metal. Instinctively, even in her pain from the branding and with her aching limbs, Phyllis made a small noise and pulled away from the cold metal. The movement of her shoulders and belly was noted by Sura. She stood up and again the slave goad dangled from her right wrist.
She indicated Virginia and Phyllis. "How do you expect me to train uncollared slaves?" she asked.
Ho-Tu grinned. "Call the smith!" said he to the guard. "Plate collars!"
To their surprise, the guard then released the two girls, and Elizabeth as well, from their slave bracelets.
Flaminius gestured that the two girls should try to rise and walk a bit about the room.
Awkwardly, painfully, they did so, stumbling to the edge of the room, then leaning against the wall, taking a step at a time. Elizabeth, now also free, went to their side, trying to help them. She did not speak to them, however. As far as they knew she could speak only Gorean.
When the smith arrived, he took, from a rack in the wall, two narrow, straight bars of iron, not really plates but narrow cubes, about a half inch in width and fifteen inches in length.
The girls were then motioned to the anvil. First Virginia and then Phyllis laid their heads and throats on the anvil, head turned to the side, their hands holding the anvil, and the smith, expertly, with his heavy hammer and a ringing of iron, curved the collar about their throats; a space of about a quarter inch was left between the two ends of the collar; the ends matched perfectly; both Virginia and Phyllis stepped away from the anvil feeling the metal on their throats, both now collared slave girls.
"If your training goes well," said Flaminius to the girls, "you will in time be given a pretty collar." He indicated Elizabeth's yellow enameled collar, bearing the legend of the House of Cernus. "It will even have a lock," said Flaminius.
Virginia looked at him blankly.
"You would like a pretty collar, wouldn't you?" asked Flaminius.
"Yes Master," said Virginia numbly.
"And what of you Phyllis?" asked Flaminius.
"Yes Master,"said the girl in a whisper.
"I will decide if and when they receive a lock collar, " said Sura.
"Of course," said Flaminius, backing away a step, bowing his head.
"Kneel," said Sura, pointing to the stones before her feet.
This time Virginia and Phyllis needed no translation, and they, with Elizabeth, knelt before Sura.
Sura turned to Ho-Tu. "The Tuchuk girl, " she said, "keeps quarters with the Assassin. I do not object. Take the others to cells of Red Silk.
"They are White Silk," said Ho-Tu.
Sura laughed. "Very well," she said, "to cells of White Silk. Feed them well. You have almost crippled them. How you expect me to train crippled barbarians I am not clear."
"You will do splendidly," said Flaminius warmly.
Sura glared at him, coldly, and the Physician dropped his eyes.
"In the first weeks, " she said "I will also need one who speaks their tongue. Further, when not in training, they must learn Gorean quickly."
"I will send one who speaks their tongue," said Flaminius. "Also I will arrange that they are taught Gorean."
"Translate for me," said Sura, to Flaminius, as she turned and faced the three kneeling girls.
She then spoke to them in short sentences, pausing for Flaminius to translate.
"I am Sura," she said. "I will train you. In the hours of training you are my slaves. You will do what I wish. You will work. You will work and you will learn. You will be pleasing. I will teach you. You will work and you will learn."
Then she looked at them. "Fear me," she said. Flaminius translated this, as well.
Then without speaking she flicked on the slave goad and rotated the dial. The tip began to glow brightly. Then suddenly she struck at the three kneeling girls. The charge must have been high, judging by the intense shower of firey yellow needles of light and the screams of pain from the three girls. Again and again Sura struck and the girls, half stunned, half crazed with pain, seemed unable to even move, but could only scream and cry. Even Elizabeth, whom I knew was swift and spirited, seemed paralyzed and tortured by the goad. Then Sura dialed the goad down, and turned it off. The three girls lying in pain on the stones looked up at her in fear, even the proud Elizabeth, their bodies trembling, their eyes wide. I read in their eyes, even those of Elizabeth, a sudden terror of the goad.
"Fear me," said Sura softly. Flaminius translated.
The Sura turned to Flaminius. "Have them sent to my training room at the
sixth Ahn, " she said, and turned, and walked away, the slave bells flashing
on her ankle.
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