"Norman, John - Slave Girl of Gor" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norman John)

I felt the collar, weighted by the chain, pull down against my collarbone; the chain hung between my breasts; I felt its heavy links on my body. I stood very still.\par
\ldblquote Please,\rdblquote I whispered, not moving my position.\par
The bearded man approached me. Suddenly he struck me with his right hand, a swift, savage, open-handed slap. I was hurled stumbling, spinning, to the end of the chain, which caught me, cruelly, at the neck, jerking me to the ground. My lip and the side of my mouth were cut. My head seemed to explode. I tasted blood.\par
The man barked a command. In panic and misery, in a movement of collar and chain, I fled again to my place and again stood before them, so straight, my chin again high, precisely as I had been before.\par
I wondered what could be the status of women on this world, on a world where there were such men.\par
He did not strike me again. I had placated him by my obedience.\par
He spoke to me again. I looked into his eyes. For a moment our eyes met. I knelt.\par
The other man thrust my body down on my heels, so that I knelt back on my heels. He took my hands and placed them on my thighs. I looked up at them.\par
I am a brunet, with very dark brown hair. My eyes, too, are dark brown. I am lightly complexioned. I am some five feet five inches in height and weigh about one hundred and twenty pounds. I am thought to be not amply but excitingly figured.\par
The men looked down upon me. At that time my hair was cut short. I felt the side of the point of the bearded man\rquote s spear under my chin, and I lifted my chin, so that my head was high.\par
My name was Judy Thornton. I was an English major and poetess.\par
I knelt before barbarians, nude and chained.\par
I was terribly frightened.\par
I knelt exactly as they had placed me, scarcely daring to breathe. I feared to move in the slightest. I did not wish to be again struck, or to irritate or offend them in the least. I did not know what they might do, these mighty and terrible men, so unpredictable, so uncompromising and primitive, so different from the men of Earth, if they were not completely and fully, and absolutely, pleased with me. I determined to give them no cause for anger. I determined that they would have my absolute obedience. Thus I knelt not moving before them. I felt the wind move the hair on the back of my neck.\par
The men continued to regard me. This frightened me. I did not move at all. I remained, of course, as they had placed me. I looked straight ahead, not even daring to meet their eyes. I was terrified lest, inadvertently, I had done something to displease them. I moved no muscle. I knelt back on my heels, my back straight, my hands on my thighs, my chin up. My knees were pressed closely, defensively, together.\par
The man said something. I could not understand.\par
Then, with the butt of his spear, roughly, to my horror, he thrust apart my knees.\par
I was Judy Thornton. I was an English major and poetess. \par
I could not help but moan, the position was so elegant and helpless.\par
I knelt before them in what I would later learn was the position of the Gorean pleasure slave.\par
Satisfied then, the beasts turned from me. I did not move. They busied themselves in the vicinity of the rock. It seemed they searched for something.\par
Once the bearded fellow returned to stand near me. He said something. It was a question. He repeated it. I stared ahead, terrified. My eyes filled with tears. \ldblquote I do not know,\rdblquote I whispered. \ldblquote I do not understand. I do not know what you want.\rdblquote\par
He turned away, and again gave himself to his search. After a time, angry, he returned to regard me. His fellow, too, was with him. \ldblquote Bina?\rdblquote he said, very clearly. \ldblquote Bina, Kajira. Var Bina, Kajira?\rdblquote\par
\ldblquote I do not know what you want,\rdblquote I whispered. \ldblquote I do not understand you.\rdblquote\par
I gathered they must be asking after whatever it was they sought. They had covered the area thoroughly, even turning aside long grass with the blades of their spears.\par
They had not found it.\par
\ldblquote Var Bina, Kajira?\rdblquote repeated the bearded man.\par
I knelt as they had placed me, the chain hanging, heavy, from my collar.\par
\ldblquote I do not know,\rdblquote I whispered.\par
Suddenly, savagely, he struck me across the mouth with the back of his right hand. I flew to the left, to the grass. The blow was vicious. It hurt me more than had the first. I could not believe its force, its ruthlessness, its swiftness. I could scarcely see; I fought blackness and pain and seething light; I was on my hands and knees in the grass, my head down; I tasted blood; the collar hurt my neck; I spit blood into the grass; he had struck me; did he not know I was a woman! He jerked me by the collar and chain to his knees; he thrust both hands into my hair. \ldblquote Var Bina, Kajira!\rdblquote he cried. \ldblquote Var Bina!\rdblquote \ldblquote I do not understand you!\rdblquote I cried. \ldblquote Oh!\rdblquote I screamed with misery. With both hands he shook my head viciously. I could not believe the pain. My small hands were helpless on his wrists. \ldblquote Var Bina!\rdblquote he demanded. \ldblquote Please, please!\rdblquote I wept.\par
He threw me down, with a rattle of chain, to his feet. I lay there on my side, terrified. He unlooped the shoulder belt from him and cast it, with the scabbard and blade, to one side. Then he swiftly loosened the belt at his waist. He slipped it free from the sheath and dagger, and doubled it. He struck it once in the palm of his hand. I could not see him. I lay before him, turned away from him, on the grass. Then I heard it whistle through the air. I cried out with pain. Again and again, viciously, he struck me. Once he stopped. \ldblquote Var Bina, Kajira?\rdblquote he asked. \ldblquote Please don\rquote t hurt me,\rdblquote I begged. Again he struck, and again and again. I writhed before him, lashed, squirming on my belly in the grass, weeping,\rquote clutching at the grass. In the pain I could scarcely comprehend it. I was being beaten! Did he not know I was a girl! \ldblquote Please don\rquote t hit me,\rdblquote I cried. \ldblquote Please!\rdblquote I covered my head with my hands. I lay with my head down. I shuddered with each blow. I would do anything if he would stop! But I did not know what he wanted!\par
Then he stopped, angrily. I did not even lift my head, but lay, weeping, my hands still over my head, the chain running between my legs, and under my body, to the collar.\par
I heard him replace the sheath and dagger on his belt, and put on the belt. I heard him lift the shoulder belt and regard himself with the blade. I did not look up, but lay weeping, chained, trembling. I would do anything he wanted, anything.\par
One of the men spoke to me, and prodded me with the butt of his spear.\par
I rose to my hands and knees. I felt the chain on my collar. Again I was prodded with the butt of his spear.\par
Red-eyed, my cheeks and body stained with tears, in pain, my back and sides, and legs, stinging, I adjusted the chain and knelt again as I had originally. There was blood at my mouth. Little had changed. I knelt precisely as I had before. Little had changed, save that I had been struck and beaten.\par
The two men conferred. Then, to my horror, the bearded one approached me. He crouched before me. He took from his dagger sheath the steel blade, narrow, about seven inches long, double-edged, evenly sharpened. He held this up before my face. He did not speak. The other man crouched down behind me. With his left hand fastened in my hair, he drew my head back; with his right hand he thrust up, high on my neck, under my chin, the heavy iron collar I wore. It hurt. My jugular vein was, held as I was, prominent and, beneath the clasping, circular iron, prominent and exposed.\par
\ldblquote No,\rdblquote I begged. \ldblquote No!\rdblquote\par
I gathered that I was of no use to these men. I felt the delicate, razor-sharp edge of the dagger on my throat.\par
\ldblquote Var Bina, Kajira?\rdblquote queried the man. \ldblquote Var Bina?\rdblquote\par
\ldblquote Please!\rdblquote I wept, whispering. \ldblquote Please!\rdblquote I would have done anything. I would have done anything. I would have told them anything, done anything, but I knew nothing. I could not give them what information they desired.\par
\ldblquote Don\rquote t kill me,\rdblquote I begged. \ldblquote I will do anything you want! Keep me! Keep me for yourselves! Keep me as your captive, your prisoner! Keep me as anything you want! Am I not beautiful? Could I not serve you? Could I not please you?\rdblquote Then, suddenly, from deep within me, welling up, from somewhere so deep within me that I did not know I contained such depths, flooding from me, startling me, horrifying me with my own wickedness, I cried out, \ldblquote Do not kill me! I am willing even to be your slave! Yes! Yes! I am willing even to be your slave. Your slave! Do not kill me! I will be your slave! Let me be your slave! I beg to be your slave!\rdblquote\par
I shook with the horror, the scandal, the wickedness, of what I had said. But then, boldly, desperately, determinedly, resolutely, repudiating nothing, I whispered, clearly and firmly, my head back, held back, his hand in my hair, \ldblquote Do not kill me, please. Yes, I will be even your slave. Yes, I, Judy Thornton, will be your slave. I, Judy Thornton, beg to be your slave. Please. Please, let me be a slave!\rdblquote I tried to smile. \ldblquote Make me your slave,\rdblquote I whispered, \ldblquote Masters!\rdblquote How startled I was that I had called them Masters, and yet, how natural, it seemed, for I was a girl, suitable prey for such as they, a natural quarry and prey for such as they, and they, as I sensed, were the natural masters, by the dark laws of biology, of such as I.\par
\ldblquote Please, Masters,\rdblquote I whispered.\par
\ldblquote Var Bina, Kajira?\rdblquote queried the man.\par
I moaned with misery. I did not know but they, rich and powerful masters, had access to many women as beautiful, or more beautiful, than I. On Earth I had been noted as a beauty, an unusual, even ravishingly beautiful girl, but on Gor, as I would come to understand, I, and others like me, could be acquired and disposed of for a handful of copper tarsks. There was little special about us. In many houses we would be kept with the kettles, as scullery and kitchen girls. I had been the most beautiful girl in the junior class at my elite girls\rquote college. In all the school, there had been only one more lovely than I, or so some said, the lovely Elicia Nevina, who was in anthropology, in the senior class. How I had hated her. What rivals we had been!\par
I felt the edge of the dagger anchor itself in the outer layer of skin on my throat, preparing for its slash. I felt the man\rquote s hand and arm, through the steel of the dagger, flex for the movement of his arm. My throat was to be cut.\par
But the blade paused. It withdrew from my throat. The bearded man was looking outward, away from me, over the field. Then I, too, heard it. It was a man singing, boldly, a melodic, repetitious song.\par
Angrily the bearded man stood up, sheathed the dagger, took up his shield, his spear. His fellow, the other man, already accoutered, even to the helmet, watched the man approach. He balanced his spear in his right hand. The bearded man did not yet don his helmet, but stood near it.\par
I went to my hands and knees in the grass. I could scarcely move. I threw up in the grass. I pulled at the collar and chain, futilely. If only I could have run, or crawled away. But I was fastened in place.\par