Some Gorean “coaches,” and fee carts, not many, are slung on layers of leather. This gives a reasonably smooth ride but the swaying, until one accommodates oneself to it, can induce nausea, in effect, seasickness. This seems to be particularly the case with free women, who are notoriously delicate and given to imaginary complaints.
Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 19 “We are free women!” said the third woman. “We expected men to be gentlemen, to be understanding, to take care of us!” “We counted on the kindness of men!” said the forth woman. “They will do anything for free women!” said the second woman. I laughed, and they shuddered in their chains, against the wall. It was still raining, but the force of the storm had muchly subsided. I released my grip under the chin of the first woman. “Do not laugh!” begged the first woman. “In short,” I said, “you entered the inn, and remained here, in spite of the fact that you had not the wherewithal to meet your obligations, expecting perhaps you might somehow do so with impunity, that your bills would perhaps be simply overlooked, or dismissed by the inn in futile anger, or that eager men could be found to pay them, doubtless vying for the privilege of being of service to lofty free women.” “Would you have had us spend the night on the road, like peasants?” demanded the third woman. “But these are hard times,” I said, “and not all men are fools.” The third woman cried out with anger, shaking her shackles. She was well curved, and diet and exercise could much improve her. I thought she might bring as much as sixty copper tarsks in a market. If that were so, and the inn sold her for that much, they would have made then, as I recalled, some twenty-five copper tarsks on her. “When you discovered you had not the price of the inn’s services,” I said, “you might have asked if you might earn your keep for the night.” “We are not inn girls!” cried the second woman. “It is interesting that you should think immediately in such terms,” I said. “I had in mind other sorts of things, such as laundering and cleaning.” “Such tasks are for slaves!” said the fifth woman. “Many free women do them,” I said. “Those tasks are for low free women,” she said, “not for high free women such as we!” “Yet you are now at the wall, in shackles,” I said, “and have upon you not so much as a veil.” “Nonetheless,” said the second woman, “we are high free women, and women such as we do not earn our keep.” “Perhaps women such as you,” I speculated, “will soon, at last, find yourself doing so.” Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 42 - 43 This must be she, then, of whom the keeper had spoken. I recalled that he had told me that although the use of an inn girl would cost me, in these times, three copper tarsks for only a quarter of an Ahn, I might have the free woman working in the paga room for an Ahn for only a tarsk bit. To be sure, that perhaps overrated her value considerably, as she was only a free woman. Whereas free women, technically, are priceless, they are also, usually, in bed, worthless. They are not worthy of kneeling and humbly holding candles within a thousand pasangs of a slave. To be sure, they commonly hold an inflated opinion of their expertise and desirability. They are no good, however, until they have been imbonded, and have begun, vulnerably and fearfully, to tread, willingly or not, the paths to fulfillment, and ecstasy. The outrageousness of the price, of course, was doubtless to be expected, given the general inflations of the times. I had told him I would let him know later. I would. “What is your name?” I asked. “It is none of your business,” she said. “Have you ever been whipped?” I asked. “I am Temione, Lady of Telnus,” she said. “No, I have not been whipped,” she added. Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 63 “There are some others outside,” I said, “who may have had similar ideas to yours, in one way or another. They are now in the court, chained naked to rings. Do you know them?” She looked away, angrily. “Lady Temione,” I said, “you have been asked a question.” “There are five others,” she said, “Rimice, Klio, and Liomache, from Cos, Elene, from Tyros, and Amina, a Vennan.” “What do you think will happen to them?” I asked. “Doubtless they will be redeemed, and freed,” she said. “We are all free women. Men, some sorts of men, will save us. Men, some sorts, cannot so much as stand to see a tear in a woman’s eye. To such men it is unthinkable that we might bear the consequences of our actions.” “Do you think I am such a man?” I asked. “No,” she said, “else I would have petitioned redemption from you.” “Men such as those of whom you speak,” I said, “those who are so solicitous, so kindly, those who are so eager to render you succor, who will strive so desperately to help you, and please you, do they stir you deeply in your belly?” “I am a free woman,” she said. “We do not consider such things.” “But you must fear the iron,” I said. “It will never happen,” she said. “But you must fear it,” I said. “Perhaps,” she said. “Things, then,” I said, “would be quite different.” “Yes,” she said. “They would then be quite different.” This was quite true. The slave girl is in a totally different category from the free woman. It is the difference between being a person and being a property, between being a respected, legally autonomous entity, entitled to dignity and pride, and being a domestic animal. The same fellow who will go to absurd lengths to please a free woman, and even make a fool of himself over her, will, even with the same woman, if she has been enslaved, simply gesture her with his whip, and without a second thought, to the furs. Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 64 - 65 “How did the keeper seem when he ordered you shackled and put in the paga room?” I asked. “Amused,” she said, angrily. Perhaps you had spoken up to him,” I speculated, “though you were only a debtor slut.” “Such is my right!” she said. “I am a free woman!” “You dared to protest the treatment you received?” I asked. “Of course!” she cried. “How is it that a free woman, should be stripped, and searched, and put in a cage, and such!” “Perhaps you made demands, threatened him, insulted him, that sort of thing?” I asked. “Perhaps,” she said. “I can see then,” I said, “why it might have amused him to put you here, to serve as a waitress.” “Perhaps,” she said, angrily. Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 68 The Lady Temione paused near my table, on all fours. She looked at me. She had been rejected by a man, thrown from him, in disgust. I saw that she was stunned, that she was confused, that she was bewildered. Many free women regard themselves, without justification, as marvelous prizes. It can come as a great shock to them to suddenly realize they are, for most practical purposes, worthless. This rejection had shaken her profoundly. Like many free women she probably regarded herself as inordinately attractive. She looked at me, piteously, beggingly. She wanted some reassurance from me that she might be at least a little bit desirable or attractive. Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 79 As I have indicated, the lips and mouth of a female are commonly regarded as extremely sensuous features to a Gorean, hence the concern of many free women, particularly of high caste, in the high cities, to conceal them. Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 125 “Beg,” I said. “I am not in the mood,” she cried. I laughed. How amusing are free women! Slaves learn to be in the “mood” instantaneously, at so little as a glance or a snapping of the fingers, and a pointing to the floor. Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 146 The slave cannot free herself. She can be freed only by an owner. The condition of slavery does not require the collar, or the brand, or an anklet, bracelet or ring, or any such overt sign of bondage. Such things, as symbolic as they are, as profoundly meaningful as they are, and as useful as they are for marking properties, identifying masters, and such, are not necessary to slavery. They are, in effect, though their affixing can legally affect imbondment, ultimately, in themselves, tokens of bondage, and are not to be confused with the reality itself. The uncollared slave is not then a free woman but only a slave who is not then in a collar. Similarly a slave is still a slave even if her brand could be made to magically disappear or, if she has been a made a slave in some other way, if she has not yet been branded. Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 273 I saw one free woman backed against the wall, a sword at her belly. Then she pulled her robes away from her shoulders and breasts, and then, a moment later, at an impatient movement of the sword, which made her wince, thrust them down over her hips, and let them slip to her knees. Then she straightened up. The sword was then again at her belly, only now it was bared to the sharpened steel. She turned her head to the side, in misery, in terror, being assessed. Then, at a movement of the blade, and ordered, doubtless, she looked at the fellow. It seemed then she was suddenly startled. Then she began to tremble. I had little doubt she had seen in him her master. It is an interesting moment for a woman, the first time she finds herself looking as a slave into the eyes of her master. She quickly knelt, as though fearful of displeasing him. I saw her turned about, rudely and thrust up, closely, against the wall. Her hands were bound behind her. She was leashed. Renegades of Gor Book 23 Page 320 Page39 |