The girl pressed her cheek against the rough bark of the tree and moaned, and wept, staining the bark with her tears.

At a sign from my master the man who had been her guard freed her of the slave bracelets.

She now led the coffle.

"Am I not to be ransomed?" she said.

"You are too politically valuable to be ransomed," he said.

I recalled that the Lady Sabina was valuable indeed. Her companionship with Thandar of Ti, of the city of Ti, of the Salerian Confederation was to result in an alliance between Fortress of Saphronicus and the Confederation. The companionship, of course, was political. The Lady Sabina and Thandar of Ti, according to Eta, had never seen one another, the companionship being arranged by their parents and the councils of their respective cities. In such a companionship the Lady Sabina would have raised caste, and become one of the high ladies of Ti, and of the Confederation. She had been looking forward, it was well known, with enthusiasm to her attaining this high station.

"Accordingly," said my master, "it is expedient in the affairs of states that you be rendered politically valueless."

The Lady Sabina, at the head of the coffle, moaned.

As a slave she would indeed be politically valueless. She could be exchanged, or bought and sold, for whatever masters might wish. The slave is not a person before Gorean law but a rightless animal.

"Do not enslave me, Captain," she said. "Keep me and sell me to the Confederation. Free, returned to them, I will be worth immense riches to you. You and your men, if you return me to the Confederation, will become rich beyond your wildest dreams!"

"Do you ask me, Lady," inquired my master, "to betray Ar?"

She suddenly sank to her knees in terror before him. Would she be instantly slain? "No, Captain," she whispered.

"Considering your future status," said my master, "you may begin now to address free men by the title of 'Master. The experience and the practice will do you good."

"Yes," she said, "-Master."

"Behind you, Lady Sabina," said my master, "you will note a slave girl, Lehna."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Earlier this evening," said my master, "you much and richly switched her."

"Yes, Master," said the Lady Sabina.

"Give Lehna a switch," said my master to one of his men. Lehna beamed. She was given a switch.

"Lehna," said my master, "should the Lady Sabina daily or in any way attempt to delay the coffle, it will be your charge to hasten her."

"Yes, Master," said Lehna. I did not envy the Lady Sabina.

"I am sorry I switched you, Lehna," said the Lady Sabina.

Lehna struck her savagely across the back with the switch, and the Lady Sabina, whose thin undergarment shielded her from the blow scarcely at all, cried out with misery. She could not believe the sting of the stripe. It was, I conjectured, the first time in her life she had ever been struck. "Lehna!" she cried.

"Address the girls as Mistress," ordered my master, standing over the kneeling free girl.

"Yes, Master," she said.

Lehna again, savagely, struck the kneeling girl. "Please, do not strike me, Mistress!" wept the Lady Sabina.

My master turned away, to speak to his men. In a few moments he, not looking back, strode away, through the trees, followed by the majority of his men, in single file. One man remained behind, to follow the coffle, some yards to the rear.

"On your feet, Lady Sabina!" cried Lehna.

The Lady Sabina leapt to her feet, with a rustle of chain.

"You will take your first step with your deft foot," said Lehan, "upon my signal. Later you will learn to walk gracefully and beautifully in chains. That is too much to expect now from an ignorant girl."

"Yes, Mistress," said the Lady Sabina.

"Are you ready, noble, lofty Lady Sabina?" inquired Lehna.

"I am sorry I switched you, Mistress," said the Lady Sabina.

"Do not fret, my dear," said Lehna. "I will see that you are well repaid."

"Please, Mistress!" cried the Lady Sabina.

"Were you given permission to speak in coffle?" asked Lehna.

"No, Mistress," moaned the Lady Sabina. Lehna then struck her twice, cruelly, with the switch.

"Do you think me weak, Lady Sabina?" inquired Lehna.

"No, no!" wept the Lady Sabina.

Lehna then struck her again. "You are right," she said. "I am not weak."

The Lady Sabina wept.

"Stand straight," said Lehna. "Straighter!" She poked the Lady Sabina with the switch.

The Lady Sabina then, choking back her tears, stood straight in the coffle, the posture accentuating the lovely lines of her chained beauty. I smiled. She stood as straight, as desirably, as beautifully as a slave girl.

"On the left foot, on my signal," said Lehna.

"Yes, Mistress," said the Lady Sabina.

"Now!" said Lehna, crying out, striking her. With a cry of misery the Lady Sabina, moving first on her left foot, stumbled forward. "Faster!" said Lehna, hitting her again. "Yes, Mistress!" cried the Lady Sabina.

We hurried on then, swiftly, through the mixed shadows and moonlit trees, following the men, our masters.

"I do not want to be run for the pleasure of boys," wept Slave Beads.

"Be silent, Slave Girl," snapped Lehna.

"Yes, Mistress," said Slave Beads.

The girls of Clitus Vitellius, I among them, stood at the line scratched in the dirt within the peasant village of Tabuk 's Ford, some four hundred pasangs to the north, and slightly to the west of Ar, some twenty pasangs off the Vosk road to the west.

The young lads of the peasantry eyed us with pleasure. We were all vital, lithe beauties, and, most excitingly, slaves. It was not everyday that such girls, the girls of a warrior, would be run for their pleasure. Our bondage meant that we must, once captured, be marvels for them.

There was discussion of the rules of the hunt. Too, bets were being taken. Some of the young men came to the line, to look us over at closer hand.

"Oh," said Slave Beads. One of the lads had put his hand on her leg.

"Good stock," said one of the boys. "Yes," agreed another.

Another young lad, strapping, put his hands on me. I tried to pull away a bit, but I did not much resist. I was a slave, and did not wish to be whipped.

On the other side of Donna. Marla stood, her head in the air, seeming not to notice the hands of the boys upon her.

I looked over at Slave Beads. She was crying. Her head was in her hands. Two peasant lads, one standing, one crouching, were, by hand and eye, appraising her flesh. They did this with the same attention and innocence that they would have brought to the examination of any other domestic animal.

The two boys then moved on to me. I closed my eyes. They were not gentle. I was examined with less respect, being a slave, than would have been accorded to a bosk heifer.

I wanted to tear at their eyes with my fingernails. But I did not wish to be whipped, or slain. It is not surprising that the Gorean slave girl is obedient. Those who are not obedient are often destroyed. I was terribly afraid then, that I had even felt a momentary impulse to rebellion. I shook with terror. Did I think I was still on Earth? Did I not know I was now on Gor? I shuddered. Rebellion is not permitted to the Gorean slave girl.

The boys continued to examine me.

Tears formed in my eyes. There is a mock rebellion which is sometimes permitted a slave girl, or even commanded of her, for the master's amusement. I felt a tear on my cheek. "Show rebellion," is a command which a girl must, as any other, obey. Yet it is a terribly cruel command. "Kneel," is the command which, commonly, puts an end to her rebellion. When a girl has been permitted defiance it is then all the sweeter, I gather, to bring her again to her knees before you.

Suffice it to say the girl belongs to her master, completely. I opened my eyes. The young men moved on to Donna.