“Our next offering is a nicely made little sweetie,” a man’s voice boomed out, coming from an area to Tain’s right just beyond the stage. There was no sound equipment being used, of course, but the man obviously didn’t need any. “You can see she hasn’t given us any trouble like the last offering, so those of you who want a good, obedient little girl will want to bid on her. Turn around for the people, girl.”

Under other circumstances Tain would have told the man what he could do with himself, but right now all she did was turn as directed. Someone who wanted an obedient slave would be easy to take out, once they were away from this place with all its guards. By the time Tain turned back to the audience there were bids being made, but nothing to give Tain a swelled head. All the bids were on the low side, and the one woman who bid twice dropped out after that.

The bidding finally came down to two men, but one of the two dropped out just as the amount was beginning to approach real money. The auctioneer declared the winner, his voice sounding very pleased, and the man with the winning bid went over to the auctioneer to pay what he now owed. Tain tried to get a look at the man, but he stood just beyond the auctioneer’s narrow platform and was completely blocked by the platform side.

Well, who her new owner was didn’t really matter, Tain thought as a different guard came to take her arm and move her off the stage to the right and down a short flight of steps. After all that brightness it was hard for Tain to see anything in the relative dimness, and then she was pulled into a room that had a number of people in it. Two women, semi-dressed in very short, very low-cut tunics of a sort wore the narrow, red-cloth armbands that marked them as slaves, and they were the ones the guard pulled Tain over to.

“Obey these slaves as if they were free,” the guard said to Tain, and then he released her arm and walked away. The man was probably on his way back to his post near the stage, but Tain didn’t even get the chance to see him leave the room. One of the slaves moved behind her, and the next minute there was a blindfold being put over Tain’s eyes. It was standard procedure to blindfold newly-sold slaves before they were handed over to their new owners, Tain knew, but that didn’t mean she had to like the practice.

But there was another part of the standard practice that was a good deal worse than simply being blindfolded. Tain had been trying not to think about that other part, but not thinking about it didn’t stop it from being done.

“Bend over and hold your ankles,” a female voice said softly from right next to Tain. “Once you’re bent over, relax your inner muscles.”

For once Tain was relieved that she had very little choice but to do as she’d been told. If she had had the choice she probably would have refused, or at least she’d have tried to refuse. There were three male guards in the room in addition to the two slaves, and although she might have been able to take all three there was always the chance that one of the guards might have gotten lucky. If she tried something and it didn’t work, she’d be in a much worse position than she currently was.

A position that was more than bad enough. Tain’s breath drew in when she felt the small, round thing being pushed into her bottom, the kind of thing that the guard had put into Ennie after her switching. The insertion was designed to make the new slave really hot, so that when her owner decided he wanted a taste of her she would not just be ready but would be downright eager.

“You aren’t permitted to take that out or do anything to make it come out on its own,” the slave told Tain softly once the insertion was solidly in place. “If you’re a very good slave your master will see that you’re eased. You can stand straight again now.”

Swallowing the rude sound she wanted to make wasn’t easy for Tain, but she still managed to keep her comments to herself as she carefully straightened up. The insertion was worse than she’d thought it would be, and it was all Tain could do not to squirm in place the way Ennie had been doing. Heat began to flash through Tain’s body from the feel of that insertion, but she gritted her teeth and tried to ignore the feeling. Once her new “master” got her out of this place, she’d be rid of him and the insertion together.

Not to mention the blindfold. The cloth had been folded into a fairly narrow band, which meant the thing was tight over her eyes and almost nothing of light leaked in. The practice was meant to make the new slave nervous and unsure of herself, two reactions designed to help her learn her “place,” but Tain already knew her place…

Even so, when a big hand wrapped itself around her right arm and began to lead her somewhere it was all Tain could do not to gasp. Walking with that insertion inside her was bad enough, but not being able to see where she was going made things a lot worse. She felt the edge of a doorway when she was taken through it, and then the sensation of moving air on her body told her she was outside the building.

The first part of the trip lasted only a few steps past the outer door. Sounds told Tain there were people all around her, and she also heard the snort of what seemed to be a horse. She expected to be handed over to her new owner and taken away, but the first thing that happened after the hand on her arm stopped her came as a surprise. Her arms were drawn behind her and her wrists quickly tied, making Tain want to curse out loud. Now she would have to wait until the leather on her wrists were removed along with the blindfold before she’d be able to free herself.

As soon as she was tied to the satisfaction of the guard who had been guiding her, Tain was given another surprise. This time she did gasp as she was lifted into the man’s arms, but he didn’t hold her for long. Another set of arms took her and arranged her astride the horse she’d heard, most of her lower body in this other man’s lap. His right arm came to circle her waist and hold her in place, and then the horse was moving off from where it had stood.

Tain hated surprises, and this newest turn of events made her more sure of that than ever. Her new owner should have had a small wagon or buggy to put her in, not be mounted on a horse. And he shouldn’t have asked to have her tied, not when she’d been presented as a slave who didn’t give any trouble. Nothing was working out right, especially not her position on the horse. The way her bottom rested on the man’s thighs made that insertion work on her even more than it had been doing, which was to his benefit but not hers.

The horse was kept to a fairly slow pace for a short time, but then the man holding Tain made a clicking sound and the horse shifted into a trot. That gait was much worse than the walk had been, and it became more than Tain could do not to squirm around. The man holding her chuckled, showing he knew what she was going through, but that was it as far as reaction went. He still kept the horse at a trot and his hand and arm kept her close to his body.

By the time they finally stopped Tain was silently frantic. She wanted to scream and curse the man who held her, but doing something like that would not have gotten the leather off her wrists and the blindfold taken from her eyes. When the man dismounted and then lifted her from the horse’s saddle Tain moaned, so badly in need that if she’d been free she’d probably have tried to rape the fool.

But she wasn’t free, so all she could do was rant inside the privacy of her head as she was carried a short distance and then set back on her feet. A big hand on her arm kept her from bouncing and squirming away from where she’d been put, and then a length of leather was tied to her left arm. A moment later the man walked away, but when Tain tried to take a couple of steps of her own she found that the other end of the leather on her arm had been tied to something and pulling at the something didn’t loosen the leather.