But the girl didn’t come close enough to be grabbed, only almost close enough. Out of the corner of his eye Jake could see that Tandro was writhing where he knelt, something that Jake would have also done if he hadn’t had a ten-point-steel grip on himself. His intense interest couldn’t be missed by anyone who looked at him, but at least he wasn’t adding to his own humiliation by writhing.

The girl danced for a very long time, years and decades and centuries in Jake’s estimation, but finally she went to her knees and bowed her head while she squirmed around a little and then the dance was over. The flute playing stopped while the men in the audience made loud sounds of appreciation, and then Himlin turned his head toward Jake.

“Well, slave, I can see that you liked the dance quite a lot,” Himlin commented, making his men laugh again. “Now I’ll find out if you also obeyed my orders. Without speaking aloud, tell me if you’re able to say whether the female slave’s special training has been effective—and that you know what she’s been trained to do.”

Jake nodded his head, the only way left him to show that he’d figured out the answer to the question, but Himlin didn’t go on to ask that question. He turned to Tandro and said the same thing he’d said to Jake, but Tandro didn’t show a nod the way Jake had. Tandro shook his head instead, which told Jake why Himlin had silenced him. If Jake had spoken aloud, he might have been able to share his knowledge with Tandro.

“Oh, that’s really too bad,” Himlin said when he saw Tandro’s headshake, the slaver pretending to be upset on Tandro’s behalf. “I’m afraid you’re going to regret not having the answer, but maybe you won’t be alone regretting the lack. Your friend claims to know how to answer my question, but maybe he doesn’t know at all. It’s time to find out, so tell me, slave, what was the female slave trained to do?”

“She was trained to entice men into wanting to rape her,” Jake said, suddenly wondering if his answer was the one Himlin was looking for. “And yes, her training has been very effective.”

Those words brought laughter from all the men again, and Himlin wasn’t shy about joining in. The slaver enjoyed his laugh while even the dancer smiled, and then he half leaned down to Jake.

“What a good slave you are, obeying your master so well,” Himlin said as he patted Jake’s head. “You’ve earned a small reward, which I know you’ll be grateful for. Girl, go and bend over the form and raise that silk up to your waist.”

Jake’s mouth turned even drier as the girl instantly obeyed the orders she’d been given. She jumped to her feet and hurried to the form Jake himself had used, then raised the bottom of her silk costume before bending over the form. She was in exactly the right position to be used, and Jake waited tensely for permission to go and do that using. He needed a woman, needed her desperately, and even putting on a show for his captors wouldn’t—make the time - a complete waste—It actually took Jake that long to realize that Himlin wasn’t giving him permission to use the girl, but had gotten to his own feet and walked over to her. Himlin had his body wrap open in no time, showing that he was almost as badly aroused as Jake, and then the slaver was thrusting himself into the girl. The girl cried out when that very large tool was pushed into her, but she made no attempt to escape the following use. Not that she could have escaped even if she’d wanted to…

Terrible disappointment flooded over Jake, the emotion so sharp that for the first time in his adult life he really wanted to cry. He’d done exactly what he was supposed to do, had been praised and promised a reward, and then the reward he’d hoped for was snatched out of his hands by his master. Even though doing something like that was his master’s prerogative, Jake still wanted to cry. He’d have to be careful to be much better the next time, or else this would just happen again—Jake shook his head hard as anger flooded his mind, chasing out all those alien thoughts. He didn’t want to cry, he wanted to hurt Himlin for tormenting him, and also for giving him more orders while he was unconscious than he’d realized. If his previous reaction hadn’t been so totally alien to his normal way of looking at things, he might not have been able to thrust the ideas away so easily. Jake could have ended up an eager slave, anxious to do well for the man who had made himself Jake’s master…

It would have been nice if Jake could have spoken aloud the words that now filled his mind, but asking for trouble was definitely a bad idea. Himlin had probably given Jake the kind of orders that were given to female slaves, having no idea that the same kind of orders would be useless to hold a man. Which was a damned good thing, or Jake would have been really deep in it right now.

And the only question left now, Jake thought, was how much worse it would get. That it would get worse was so sure a thing that Jake would have willing to bet every cent he owned on the certainty. And he couldn’t even hope for rescue. Tain would be a fool if she didn’t get Ennie and herself out of the town and back to base, but she might have been that kind of fool if Jake hadn’t … enjoyed himself.

It’s my own fault, Jake thought as every ache and sense of need intensified in his awareness. This will be going on for a very long time, and I have no one but myself to blame. Not that that makes acceptance any easier… What the hell else will Himlin do to us…?

Himlin took his time with the girl slave, and from the way Tandro moved just a little where he knelt Jake knew that his friend was suffering at least as much as Jake himself. Every time the girl moaned Jake’s suffering increased a notch, but there was a limit to the increase. The rise stopped just short of the point where Jake would have come just by watching, which showed another segment of the orders he’d been given. Without permission from his “master,” he was allowed nothing in the way of relief.

When Himlin finished with the girl he closed his body wrap again and sauntered back to his chair. The girl seemed to be deeply satisfied, and it took a minute or so before she was able to leave the form and follow Himlin to kneel at his feet—just out of Jake’s reach. She was also out of Tandro’s reach, and having her so close but still beyond touching and use made her presence even worse for Jake.

“And now for the regret I spoke of earlier,” Himlin said once the girl knelt in front of him, but the slaver’s gaze was on Tandro rather than the girl. “A slave is required to be pleasing at all times, and you, slave, were less than pleasing by being unable to answer my questions. Go to the form and bend over it the way the girl did.”

Jake watched as Tandro obeyed the orders he’d been given, but not even the expressionless expression Tandro showed was enough to keep Jake from knowing how really disturbed his friend was. The native tried hard not to limp—or flinch—as he made his way to the wooden form and bent over it, but Jake was sure Tandro knew what was coming as well as he did. Slaves who weren’t pleasing were punished…

“Your reward, slave, is to know that you won’t be punished—this time,” Himlin said, and Jake glanced up to see that the slaver now looked at him. “You should also be rewarded with the knowledge that you’ve pleased your master just as a good slave is supposed to do. Now let’s enjoy teaching a new slave his proper place in life.”

By that time one of the slaver’s men had positioned himself behind Tandro, a switch in his hand. Again Jake knew that a whipping would have been easier to take and watch, but he and Tandro weren’t going to be given a chance to salve their pride. Humiliating pain was what slaves were given, and that’s all that Jake and Tandro could look forward to. Stubborn defiance had a way of melting back faster in the presence of humiliation than in the face of real pain…