I turned away from him. "I am the Tatrix of Corcyrus, am I not?" I asked. "Yes," he said.

"You know that I am from Earth," I said. "How is it that I was brought here, to be Tatrix?"

"We wished to go outside the city," he said, "to find one from the outside, free of all connections and factions, to rule over us with wisdom and objectivity." "I see," I said. "Then I am truly the Tatrix of Corcyrus."

"Of course," he said.

"How is it, then," I asked, "that I have been treated with rudeness, that even now I am barefoot in your presence?" I did not, of course, make an effort to put my slippers back on. I did not know if he would permit it. He had, of course, ordered me to remove them.

"You are useful," he said, "and you have your purposes. You are not, however, indispensable. It would be well for you to remember that. It might encourage you to be more cooperative."

"I suppose," I said, "I should be pleased that you did not order me to strip completely and kneel before you."

"You are, of course," he said, "a free woman."

"Yet it seems," I said, "if only implicitly, you have threatened me." "Suitable disciplines and punishments may be arranged for a free woman," he said, "suitable to her status and dignity."

"I am sure of it," I said, ironically.

He then approached me, and stood quite close to me. I was facing away from him. "And yet," he said, "I sense that such disciplines and punishments, those suitable for free women, would not be suitable for you."

"And what sorts of disciplines and punishments would be suitable for me?" I asked.

He held me from behind, by the arms. I was helpless. "Such that would be appropriate for slaves," he said.

I stiffened, but I could not free myself.

"You are so different from her," he said. I felt his breath on the left side of my neck. "Your dispositions, your responses, the way you carry yourself, the way you move, how you speak." I felt weak. "I sense," he said, "wherein your deepest fulfillments would lie. I sense what it is that you need and want, what it is that without it you will never achieve your most perfect and complete self." "What?" I asked.

"The collar," he said.

"Nol" I cried.

"Fight it and deny it, if you will," he said. "Have your sport. But it is true." "No," I wept.

"Consider your incredible femininity," he said. "You have the curves, the softness, the instincts, the helplessness of the slave."

"Nol" I said. "I will try to be less feminine, and thus more of a womanl" "Words from the insane asylums on Earth," he laughed. "Tbis is Gor. It is fortunate you are not a slave, or your true womanhood, the marvelous softness and depth of your femininity, revealed and manifested, would in all its fullness be required of you, and without compromise, even to the whip, by masters." He then put his right hand in my hair and held my left wrist in his left hand. He drew my head back, painfully, untu even my back was bent backwards.

"It is interesting," he said, "how different she is from you.

Yet, too, you seem in many ways so similar." I whimpered, helplessly held. "Do you know that women such as you are born to the chain?" he asked.

"No," I said, strained. No "Yes," he said, "and you will not be complete until it is on you.

I whimpered helplessly. Why did he not drag me to the bed and take me?

I understood then what true womanhood was. It was not the denial and frustration of femininity but the full surrender to it, being true to, and honest to, my deepest nature and needs. Femininity was not incompatible with womanhood. It was its expression.

What insanities, what perversions, what sickness, I had been taught on Earthl "Ah, forgive me, Lady Sheila," said Ligurious, as though concerned. "I almost forget, holding you in this fashion, that you are a free woman."

He then released me.

I straightened up, and, turning about, pulled away from him, as though I had managed to free myself. V Ligurious bowed to me, from the waist, as though in deep apology. But he was smiling.

I was horrified. I realized then that I must fight my femininity. I had learned, of course, that in doing this, far from expressing womanhood, I was frustrating and denying it, but that, in my terror, was what I then wished to do. I then, terribly, feared my womanhood, and that to which it might lead.

I thus, then, decided that my femininity, and thereby my womanhood, must be denied and fought. I could no longer be so simple as to pretend to myself that my womanhood was best served by its own frustration, suppression and denial. I was no longer victimized by that propagandistic stupidity.

The danger, I now understood clearly, was womanhood itself.

Openly, honestly, must it be repudiated and denied. That was what was most to be feared, that was the great danger to women, their own womanhood, that which was what they were, in their deepest heart and belly. I was afraid to look deeply into myself. I was afraid of what I might find there.

"I am a free woman," I said. "I am free! I am freel"

"Of course* you are," he said.

"I am now going to put on my slippers," I said.

"Have you received permission to do so?" he asked.

I looked at him, frightened.

"You may do so," be said.

I slipped into the slippers. I then felt more secure. There is something about being barefoot before a man who is shod that tends to make a woman feel more like a slave before him. "niesc sorts of feelings are intensified, of course, if the woman is naked, or partially clothed, as I was, according to his dictates, before him. Slaves, of course, are often commanded to nudity before their master and their clothing, any, is always subject to his approval.

In the slippers, interestingly, I felt again the Tatrix of Corcyrus.

"Are there spies in the city?" I asked.

"Doubtless Argentum has spies in the city," he said.

"Our spies," I said. "Ones who spy on our own people."

"Of course," he said. "That is a realistic precaution in any city. "And to whom do these spies report?" I asked.

"To the proper authorities," he said.

"I am not aware of receiving the reports of these spies," I said.

"You are still being trained in the governance of Corcyrus," he said. "How goes the war?" I asked.

"As I reported earlier," he said, "well."

"The enemy," I said, suddenly,, almost faltering, "is within twenty pasangs of Corcyrus."

"That information is, I believe," he said, "approximately correct." "that is too closel" I said.

"Such matters need -not concern the Tatrix,," he said. "They need concern, rather, our generals."

"That is too closel" I said.

"We shall soon cut their supply lines," be said. "Do not fear, Lady Sheila. Our forces will be victorious."

"Ar is in the warl" I said.

"That is true," he said. "But momentarily we are expecting reinforcements from Cos."' "I am afraid, Ligurious," I said.

"There is nothing to fear," he said. "The city is secure. The palace is impregnable."

"I do not want the war," I said. "I want the fighting stopped. I am afraid. I want a trucel"

"Such matters," he said, "need not concern you. Leave them to others." "Surely the enemy will consider a trucel" I said.

Ligurious looked at me and, suddenly, laughed. His laughter unsettled me. I felt that perhaps I had said something inutterably naive or stupid.

"That is out of the question?" I asked.

"Yes," said Ligurious. Was the enemy so bitter, so determined? What bad driven them to these passions of war?

What was it that they desired in Corcyrus?

"Sue for peacel" I said.

"Everything is planned for," said Ligurious. "We have anticipated all contingencies."

"I want us to sue for peace," I said.

"That decision is not yours," said Ligurious.

"Am I not the Tatrix of Corcyrus?" I demanded.