"Please, no," said Lady Rowena.

"You are my prisoner," said Samos. "Doubtless you are aware that you could be stripped absolutely naked at my slightest word."

She put her hands to the veil and, delicately, unpinned it, dropping it to the side.

"Brush back your hood," said Samos.

She did so and, putting back her head, drew forth and freed, with both hands, long, golden tresses, which she arranged before her. They were in two plaits, one before each shoulder; they hung almost to her knees.

"Unbind your hair," said Samos.

She unplaited her hair and, with her head down, shook it loose, and smoothed it. She then, again, lifted her head.

"Put your hair behind your back," said Samos.

She did so.

She then stood before us, regarded, as a woman.

"What is to be my fate?" she asked.

Samos and I regarded her admiringly. Several of the men did so as well. Several of them changed their position, to come about, near and behind our table, where they might see better. I heard soft cries from more than one of the slave girls. They, too, were impressed. The woman straightened her body. She could not help but bask in the warmth of our appraisal.

I turned about a bit.

I saw a blond-haired slave girl, in a brief, revealing tunic, sneak on her knees near to Samos. It was Linda, a former Earth girl, one of the preferred slaves of Samos. She was looking at the standing woman with fear and anger. She reached out to touch Samos' sleeve. He shook free, a small gesture, of her touch.

I then returned my attention to the standing woman.

"As you can see," she said to Samos, "I am too beautiful to be a slave."

I had seen thousands of slave girls who were more beautiful than she but, to be sure, there was no doubt about it; she was quite beautiful.

Samos did not speak.

"What is to be my fate?" she asked.

"You are too beautiful not to be a slave," said Samos.

"No!" she cried. "No!"

"Take her below," said Samos to one of the two guards flanking the woman. "Put the iron to her body, left thigh, common Kajira mark, and, I think, for the time, a common house collar will do for her." She looked at him, aghast. Then her two arms were seized by the guards. Samos looked down at the board. "It is your move," he said. I, too, returned my attentions to the board. The guards made as though to conduct the woman from our presence. The business with her, we assumed, was done.

She struggled. "No!" she cried. "No!"

Samos looked up, and the guards held her where she was. "Do you protest?" he asked.

"Certainly," she cried.

"On what grounds?" he asked, puzzled. She was his by legitimate capture, and he could do with her whatever he pleased. Any court on Gor would have upheld this.

"On the grounds that I am a free woman!" she said.

"Oh?" he asked.

"Yes!" she said.

I could see that Samos was annoyed. He wished to return to his game.

"I would rather die than be a slave!" she cried.

"Very well," said Samos. "Strip her."

In moments her clothing was half torn from her, and was down about her hips.

"Why are you taking away my clothes!" she wept.

"In order that the blood not stain them," he said.

"Blood!" she cried, in consternation. "I do not understand!"

Then she was naked and thrown on her knees, her right side facing us. Even her gloves and slippers had been removed. One of the guards held her on her knees, bent over. The other guard took her hair in both hands and, by it, pulled her head down, and forward. The back of her neck, with its tiny, fine, golden hair was bared.

"What are you going to do?" she cried.

Samos signaled to another of his men, who unsheathed his sword.

The fellow laid the edge of the blade gently on the back of her neck, and then he lifted the blade away and upward. He grasped the hilt with both hands, his left hand extending somewhat beyond the butt end of the hilt. In this way considerable leverage can be obtained. Several of the slave girls looked away.

"What are you going to do!" she screamed.

"Behead you," said Samos.

"Why!" she cried.

"There is no place in my holding for a free woman," he said.

"Enslave me!" she cried.

"I cannot believe my ears," he said, skeptically.

"Enslave me!" she cried. "Enslave me!"

The fellow with the blade lowered it a bit, and looked at Samos.

"Is this the proud Lady Rowena of Lydius who speaks?" inquired Samos.

"Yes," she wept, helpless n the grip of the guards, her body bent forward, her head down.

"The proud free woman?" he asked.

"Yes," she wept.

"Let me understand this clearly," said Samos. "In spite of the fact that I am willing to accord you the dignity of a swift and honorable death, one fitting for a free woman, you would choose instead, and prefer, the degradation of slavery?"

"yes," she said.

"Speak clearly," he said.

"I beg slavery," she said.

"You understand, of course," he said, "that the slavery for which you beg is one which is total and absolute?"

"Yes," she said.

I smiled to myself. It would be a Gorean slavery.

"You seemed to think earlier," said Samos, "that such a slavery might be all right for your maidens, but not for yourself."

"I was wrong," she said. "I am no different from them. I, too, am only a female."

The fellow with the blade lowered it. The Lady Rowena, doubtless, saw it, near her neck.

"I am troubled," said Samos.

The Lady Rowena twisted her head to the right, wincing, from the hold of the guard, with two hands, on her hair, to regard Samos. Her face was agonized. her lip trembled. "Grant my petition, I beg you," she said.

"I hesitate," said Samos.

"Do you hesitate," she asked, "because of some lack of certitude as to my nature, for fear of some impropriety or subtle lack f fittingness in such an action?"

Samos shrugged.

"Dismiss such reservations from your mind," she said. Her body suddenly shook with sobs. "My pretense to freedom was always a sham. I am now ready to be a woman. Indeed, in this, I sense a possible fulfillment greater than any I have hitherto dreamed. How marvelous to cast aside the artificiality of roles and become, at last, what one truly is, one's self!"

"Speak more clearly," said Samos.

"It is appropriate that I be enslaved," she said.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because," she said, "in the deepest heart and belly of me I am a slave."

"How do you know?" he asked.

"It has been made clear to me in my needs," she said. "It has been made clear to me in my feelings. For years it has been made manifest to me in hidden thoughts and secret desires, in countless recurrent dreams and fantasies."

"Interesting," said Samos.

"Enslave me," she said.

"No," he said.

She looked at him with horror. The fellow with the sword renewed his two-handed grip on its hilt.

"Pronounce yourself slave," said Samos. The fellow relaxed his grip on the hilt.

"Do not make me do this," she begged. "Pity me! Consider my sensibilities!"

His face was expressionless.

"I am a slave," she said, pronouncing herself slave. Several of the slave girls cried out. There was now a new slave on Gor.

At a gesture from Samos the fellow with the blade resheathed the weapon, and the two guards who had held the girl in position released her, standing up.

She was now on her hands and knees, naked on the tiles, before the table. She looked wildly at Samos. "See the slave!" laughed more than one of the slave girls, pointing at her. They were not reprimanded. The girl, frightened, looked from face to face. The words had been spoken. They could not now be unspoken. She was now rightless, only a nameless animal, incapable of doing anything whatsoever to qualify or alter her status.