Birds of a Feather: Chapter 6
By Theodoric of York and Wardall Clark.
Warning: NO PORTION of this work may be REPRODUCED FOR SALE for any purpose. DC Comics retains full copyright to Superman, Wonder woman and the other characters mentioned here and John Norman retains full copyright to the planet and society of Gor. Birds of a Feather contains explicit sex and violence**, including scenes of rape and torture. This story is not for anyone under the age of consent** in their jurisdiction to read such sexually explicit material. Authors Notes: This is the conclusion of an ongoing series melding John Norman's World of Gor with DC Comics heroes and heroines. At the end of Chapter Seven is a thorough glossary of terms, places and recurring characters. If you find yourself completely baffled by Gorean customs, terms, or politics you should try reading the series in order: (1) A Cat and a Fiddle [by Theodoric of York], (1a) The Cat and the Shackles. (1b) Under the Shadow of the Bat (2) Diana and the Ubar (3) The Princess and the Mercenary [all by Wardall Clark.] In these earlier works Catwoman, Batgirl, Supergirl, Wonder Woman, and Wonder Girl fall prey to Kurri interplanetary slavers. Selina Kyle escaped to become a legendary Gorean outlaw until Batman came to Gor to re-enslave her. Barbara Gordon wound up as Scully, the abject slave of Mulkar, an agent of the Priest Kings. Kara Zor-El endured years of traumatizing captivity before Batman and Selina freed her. Princess Diana escaped from degrading slavery to a power-mad Ubar only to be recaptured and brought to the Sardar where her memories were altered in a failed effort to make her a docile slave. She escaped by killing her lover/jailor and was at large when Birds of a Feather began. Troia wound up in the hands of the Ubar from whom Diana escaped and was tortured for her sister's crimes.
Lois Lane and photographer Morgan Croft fell into a trap and were raped, and kidnapped by Gorean interplanetary slavers along with a runaway nicknamed Pikachu. Supergirl had fallen prey to a Gorean slaver in the opening scene of Diana and the Ubar. After Batman rescued her she was admitted to Arkham Asylum for treatment. When Batman and Superman visit Kara to arrange for her release, they quarrel about the practice of slavery and Lois' prospects of resisting being broken into a submissive as Supergirl was. Meanwhile, Diana took up with a Gorean warrior from Tyros in hopes of rescuing her sister from the clutches of Gor's most sadistic ruler, Lurius of Jad, the Ubar of the Empire of Cos.
Supergirl submitted herself as a slave to Superman who is brought to Gor by the Priest Kings' agent Mulkar to rescue Lois and Wonder Woman. Clark cannot read the local language, so Kara entraps Justina, a scribe, into slavery. Diana escapes from her captor with the intention of learning to become a pony slave. Meanwhile Lois becomes engaged in a battle of wits and Wills with Arbus, a master slave trainer. Morgan, now renamed Cricket displays great potential as a Pony slave racer. Pickachu becomes beloved as a story telling kettle girl.
Chapter Six: The Strange Marriage of Clark of Kent
Arbus said, "You are doing well! I think we might of have found your vocation. I can envision your lovely body on a pedestal on display in front of thousands of people, the official time piece of the Pavilion of Ar." Lois looked at him resentfully. She said, "I hope not. All I do is kneel all day getting cold, while a man sticks a finger against my neck. I never knew anything could be so boring. I still haven't gotten the cold out of my joints." Arbus slipped his hand over her breast. Feeling the firm yet resilient flesh, he announced, "You seem warm enough for me." He paused to squeeze her breast. The nipple grew hard in his hand. He remarked, "I am surprised that you did not take part in the barbarian's hunger strike. A week ago you would have." She answered, "A week ago I would have been force-fed like the rest of the girls." Arbus said, "You have come a long way since you have come here. Yet you still resist becoming a slave even though you know that ultimately your resistance will prove futile. Why do you do that? You otherwise seem to be a practical girl." Lois snapped back, "You claim to know me better than I know myself. You tell me!" "You remind me of those free companions who were convinced that their mate is going to rescue them. So they hold out hope, and attempt to resist acknowledging their slave status." He moved his hand from her breast. He started to rub and caress her knee. He would start to kiss it between phrases. He continued, "But it is a distant hope in any case. In your case you must realize the utter futility of such a hope. Your companion is on a distant planet nearly two hundred million miles away. So that can't be it." "Have any of those free companions ever showed up to claim their loved ones? What happens if they do?" She stretched her leg out. He answered, "A few have, but it is rare. I usually offer to sell their slut back to them. By that time that is what the girl had become. Sometime it turns out the male does not like what I have done with his companion. Then I might have to kill him." She asked, "Do you ever worry that he might kill you instead?" He answered, "Not really. I have over two hundred years of experience with the sword, and a man who would challenge me over a slave girl is allowing his passion to rule his judgment. Such man has always proved to be easy kills. I never feel good about it, though. After all, he threw away his life over something quite trivial."
Lady Monica studied Lady Justina intently. She seemed looser, freer in some way. She looked stunning in her new robes. "She must have come into an inheritance of some sort. How else could she afford fine new robes and a new slave to boot" The Lady slaverwas slightly annoyed that her friend had not come to her first, but she had to admit that this special blonde slave looked absolutely yummy.
Maybe she could think of a way that Justina could make amends for her oversight in not going through Monica's business in buying Clark of Kent's delectable slave. Under her veil the slaver licked her lips as Lady Justina offered her a drink. The Law of the Home Stone did not apply to slaves or strangers. It might be possible for her to covertly acquire both the blonde with the special sexual organs and this juicy- looking stranger looking for an enslaved free companion. If Justina got in the way that would be too bad for her and good for Lady Monica's coffers; Justina was obvious collar meat to a slaver's discerning eye.
* * * It was morning, and Arbus' sex was still buried deep within Lois' cunt. He asked her "Are you warmed up yet?" The sex between them the night before had been interesting. Lois no longer tried to fight her body's natural reactions to a master's touch. Given enough time and the right tools, Arbus would eventually use that lack of initial resistance to overwhelm her mind with the power of her slave orgasms. Once that began to happen she would be ruined for freedom. Her legs wrapped around Arbus, Lois begged, "No, Arbus. Please don't get up yet. Don't send me back to the kennel. I am getting cold again." Her body was shaking with unrelieved sexual tension. Arbus had a nasty habit of leaving her unfulfilled and making her beg to be finished off by hand. Relief was always granted, but sometimes there was a delay while she provided some menial slave's service. She was learning that Arbus had all the power in their relationship. He could always simply summon another kajira, while she was helpless to relieve the feelings the men of the slavers' house casually and arbitrarily inflicted on her. Thus it was with relief that she felt his powerful hips flex and drive that long prick of his up to the entrance to her womb. As he pulled back, he dragged the fatter tip against her g-spot. The pleasure was so great that she almost forgot Arbus's inflexible rule. Whenever he was fucking her she was to repeat out loud "Lois is a Kajira, Arbus owns me," in both English and Gorean.
The first time she had disobeyed this command he had forced a string of six beads into her anus and stuffed her vagina with some insidious device he called a passion goad. Then she had been gagged so that twenty minutes later, when she was literally screaming for someone, anyone, to stop the unrelieved arousal driving her mad, there had been no way for the tightly-bound slave girl to communicate her desperate need besides flopping across the stone floor and rubbing her body against her owner's leg. Arbus had touched her, eventually, but when he did he only made it worse. In no way would Lois risk that penalty again. By the time he had finally penetrated her inflamed channels that day, she had been contemplating agreeing to formal slave submission in order to end the torment of acute sexual frustration.
As he drove himself to orgasm, Arbus marveled again at the sagacity of the slavers who had trapped her. The former Lois Lane was not exceptionally beautiful but with proper diet, exercise, and cosmetics she would hold her own with other pleasure slaves. With the massive infusions of the anti-aging Stabilization Serums she was receiving her current loveliness would last until her death a hundred or so years in the future.
The fools on Earth labored under the delusion that it was their most beautiful women who were at risk from Gorean slave runners. It was true that a homely woman had nothing to fear, but beauty wasn't really the criteria of choice. What the slavers looked for was a link between sexual arousal and submission to another's will. It was a surprisingly common trait on both Earth and Gor, and it made his business a profitable one. The slave runners selected attractive women with this trait; they were brought to men like Arbus at an age when they were still impressionable and sexually inexperienced; and his house churned out women broken to a Gorean's collar.
Lois had the key trait in spades. She also had a wonderful body and a high capacity for sex, even rough sex. On the other hand, she was far past the impressionable age. That changed Arbus's tactics; Lois had to be treated and punished differently from his other trainee pleasure slaves. His plan so far to refuse her any formal training and then punish her failings to please her masters in the widest variety of ways until he found the one that really terrified her. So far he knew that she feared being spanked more than being whipped, and that she was very uncomfortable with giving sexual service to other women, especially to his budding champion steed Cricket.
Lois' voice broke as she approached climax. The words in her mouth got tangled up and she screeched "Arbus is my master." before correcting herself. To her horror, Arbus stopped moving. She tensed and tried to squeeze her lower muscles around him so he would climax, but he lifted himself off her body. To her relief he was smiling. The smile vanished as he got to his feet, gesturing that she should assume the kneeling position she had been taught under the pain of Silvia's slave goad. "What is Lois?" he demanded in Gorean. "Lois is a slave girl." She replied in the same language. As always she felt of jolt of sensual pleasure at the words. Weeks of conditioning had taken their toll on her psyche. Arbus noted her quiver and continued the ritual. "What is a slave girl?"
A woman who is owned by a master or mistress"
"What are you?"
"I am a slave girl." Again she felt her loins flood with blood and her nipples go harder and more sensitive.
"Who owns you?"
"The House of Arbus" was her response to the standard question. It was not the one he wanted so his next question was "Who is your Master?"
"I am the slave of Arbus and Rollo."
The slaver's voice was filled with impatience. He told her "I bought Rollo's share weeks ago, Lois. I am your master. A slave is commanded to say "You are my Master, Arbus" Lois looked at him for a long time, pressing her lips together as if to hold back the words. Then she shook her head. "I have no master. I am a free woman and wife of the most wonderful man on Earth."
"Very well, I had such a free woman captive in my house once before. We surgically implanted a passion goad in her body. I kept it there until the time she begged to make a slave's submission to a man. For the first four days, we used her each time she begged for it, that got her accustomed to the sexual life of a slave. Then we simply let her simmer for hour after hour with a gag in her mouth, that her entreaties disturb no one but herself. When Rollo finally saw to her needs she kissed his feet and offered her hands for the binding ritual. When he next took her she experienced slave orgasm. I sold the slut for a magnificent price. I still use that goad from time to time. Now tell me again, if you dare, that I am not your master."
Lois had gone pale as he spoke. This was a torture she dared not invite. "You are my Master, Arbus. Lois' master is Arbus." With the words came more unwanted arousal. "Damn that conditioning." She grumbled in her mind.
"Very good, Lois. Now tell me what you are."
"La Kajira," She answered in the Gorean they had been speaking. As always she felt a powerful rush of sensual sensations.
"And what does that mean in English, Lois"
"It means 'I am a slave girl', …Master." Lois' body rippled with the feelings. She felt as if his hands were already caressing her body. Arbus noticed the pause. He also noticed the changes in his girl's posture. She looked beaten and he pressed his advantage; "Now answer my questions in English."
They went through the ritual again, this time in English. Each of them was naked, each of them was becoming further aroused by Lois's words. When he decided she was ready for a master's use, Arbus bent Lois over the top of the sleeping couch and locked her ankles and wrists to the rings on the floor. With a shove and a twist he worked an inch-thick wooden passion goad into her rectum. Lois was now completely at his mercy and he proceeded to take the fullest possible advantage of his rights as her owner and master.
He took her over and over again, stopping only to drink more of the drug which kept his prick hard and delayed his climax. He worked slowly and Lois had to alternate between 'I am a slave girl' and 'You are my Master' in English if she wanted to him to speed up. She climaxed again and again, but her cunt remained almost virginally tight under the effects of the goad and her body kept juicing. At last she passed out.
Arbus himself was exhausted by then, and very impressed that it had taken so long. But he was also elated. Lois had revealed two weaknesses tonight, and he was just the man to use them to produce the kind of pleasure slave men would pay dozens of gold tarn pieces to own.
Two days later,
The now nameless slave looked up in terror at the man holding the white-hot iron just inches away from her thigh. Her former friend Justina had shed her new robes of concealment in favor of a simple slave shift in the color of the scribes. A standard slave color encircled her throat proclaiming her the slave of Clark of Kent. Exactly as Lady Monica had always speculated, Justina looked very content in her new role as a slave to a strong man.
She had fallen into the trap set by her former friend and the blonde slave slut. She had gotten too greedy. Justina had apparently delivered herself and the collector's item slave into Lady Monica's power. But the Slaver's Surprise had turned out to be on Lady Monica rather than on Justina. A few minutes ago she had been declared slave by the city magistrates for the twin crimes of couching with another free person's slaves and then trying to steal them.
"Who would have guessed that the slender blonde would be able to bite through a wooden gag and scream loud enough to be heard by her master three blocks away?
That mental question was the new kajira's last coherent thought before she screamed in agony as the penalty brand marked her as a criminal who had been judicially reduced to the status of an animal without rights. She was property now, and her new master was a man who obviously held her profession in contempt. She could only dread what a man who could batter down an oaken door would do to her naked flesh with a whip. The former slaver began to cry uncontrollably. She was a kajira now. Her property had been confiscated. Her family was lost to her. And she didn't even have the protection of being beautiful to shield her from a master's wrath.
Startled, Pikachu looked up from the kettle she was scrubbing. She had not heard Martin coming. "Yes, Master?" she inquired meekly. Martin smiled reassuringly. "There is no need to shiver, my cuddly little urt. You have done nothing wrong. As a matter of fact, I have come to bring you a present." Pikachu looked up worried. **"A present?" she asked, surprised. "**Please do not be so cruel. Slave Girls are not allowed to own anything." He responded by revealing a beautiful silk scarf, "I am sure that Arbus will not mind. Besides, soon you will be mine! When that happens I will shower you with all sorts of presents. You will see." Pikachu shied away as she answered, "Master, I do not want your presents. I am just a damaged kettle girl. I am sure you can find someone more worthy of your attentions than me." Martin said, "Don't say so. You are a very special girl. The first time I placed my eyes upon you I wanted to possess you. It has been a long time since I wanted to possess someone as much!" He slid his hands underneath her garment and began to fondle her. Oh God, she thought. It is happening again. Just like with my stepfather. "Please don't," she begged; "I am not very good!" Martin was amused by her fearfulness. He answered, "I will teach you!" She whimpered, "Why me? Can't you just find somebody else?" He answered, "There are many reasons actually! First you are Japanese. I have wished to own a Japanese slut ever since we were allies during the Great War! You are intelligent. You did not participate in that silly hunger strike of the other new girls because you knew it would not work. We Goreans love intelligent slaves. You have fine curves and I want to possess them. Besides, your every action begs for my ownership. You know it in your heart!" Nervous about showing disrespect or defiance, she whispered "No, I do not!" He answered, "Yes you do! You will soon learn that I know you sluts better than you do yourselves. Just stop squirming and allow me to show you I am right!" She laid back and opened her thighs wide. She whimpered, "Your slave begs her use!" There were tears in her eyes. She braced herself for her rape. Instead, her head reeled from a sharp slap. He hissed, "Don't you lie to me, you arrogant slut." Pikachu whimpered again, "This slave girl begs for your touch!" She received another slap for her efforts. He hissed, "I will let you know when it is time for you to beg for my touch! Do you understand?" She agreed meekly, "Yes Master. Whatever you command from me, I will attempt to comply!" He answered angrily, "Then stop lying to me! Tell me the truth. Why are you so contemptuous of me? We were allies once, we can be so again! We fought well against overwhelming odds and we can do so again. We can be Germany and Japan again. You will see that this time we will prevail. You shall see!"
"Allies? We were never allies! Why would I want to be your ally now?"
"You need an ally. You are a tiny girl-woman in a land that wants to crush you. Why won't you allow me to protect you?"
She answered, "Because I am not who you think I am." Martin said confidently, "I know you better than you know yourself." Suddenly Pikachu snapped. "If that were true you would know I am not Japanese, I am Nisei, an American. We whipped your ass!"
"You are not an American anymore. You are a barbarian on Gor. In this fight you will not have the overwhelming resources that you had back then. You will find you are only a foolish girl trapped in a world that has countless centuries experience breaking haughty sluts like you. You think you are so smart? In the end, you will be no different than the rest of the sluts, a cock-sucking, foot-kissing cunt hungry for a good fucking!"
"I will be anything you want me to be. If you want me to be your fantasy Japanese slave slut, then I will strive to be so!"
He answered, "Then be your true self. Be the little slut who thinks herself special. Resist me! Resist Gor! Give us the joy of crushing you. That is what I want from you!" Pikachu whispered, "Can't you allow me just to be a kettle girl. I am happy as a kettle girl. That is all I want!" She received another slap. He hissed, "When will you learn that your will means nothing? Your happiness means nothing. You are nothing. You are less than nothing. You are a slave girl!" Suddenly an epiphany came to Pikachu. She exclaimed, "You don't even respect us at all!" Martin answered, "Of course not, you little slut! Slave girls are not supposed to be respected." "Arbus does. He respects us for what we are, female animals in need of molding into kajira. He respects us for what we become, pleasure slaves or tower slaves or work slaves or whatever. We are far from nothing! He is an artist and we are his medium." She paused and then added, "We are his creations, each special in her own way!" He hissed, "How dare you!" She replied, "I could resist you if I wanted. Arbus knows this. Is that why you fear me?"
"Fear you? I don't fear any kajira, least of all you!"
She persisted: "You are afraid that a damaged little kettle girl might be able to take on the might of Gor and succeed. Does Arbus fear this too?" "Arbus, like myself, is a real man." he refuted her. "He fears nothing from a slave girl like you." With those words he threw her underneath him and proceeded to make use of her body over and over again.
When he left her for his sleeping quarters the young barbarian slave was bruised and whimpering. Some time later, Sylvia noted with some concern that Pikachu had not touched her evening meal.
* * * *
Clark stood in front of the magistrates again, looking embarrassed. Justina knelt, whimpering in front of the table. She was still getting used to the whip and she had just felt the full measure of it. Kara knelt submissively but there was a twinkle in her eye. The former Lady Monica knelt, her mouth gagged. She looked at Clark with fury.
Lucius of Thentis exclaimed, "This had got to stop!" Thesius responded, "Now do not be so hasty. After the confiscation of both the former Lady's Justina's and Lady Monica's estates our city's finances are looking much rosier. I say this Clark of Kent is doing us a favor by claiming women of their sort and allowing us to confiscate their property. If he wants such morally degenerate slave girls, I say,' let him have them.' Thentis gets richer and everybody is a winner!" The woman Judge/Magistrate looked at Thesius and asked, "Thesius, have you seen the list potential slave girls they hoped to seduce?" Clark exclaimed, "You made a list?" Kara answered proudly, "Yes! Justina proved very helpful in suggesting special friends of hers that might aid up in our quest!" Clark turned his attention back to the council. He asked, "May I see this list?" The woman answered, "Certainly!" She handed him a piece of parchment to Clark. He could not read it, yet one aspect of the list horrified him. He shouted, "There must be fifteen or twenty names on this list!" "Each and every one of them talented in their own ways," Kara answered proudly. Lucius remarked, "There are some of the most talented women of our community on that list. The cultural and economic impact of the loss of such women on our community would be severe, maybe even devastating." Thesius interjected, "Lucius my friend, you speak too harshly. Thentis would be better off without these degenerate sluts that prefer the touch of a woman to a man." The woman's eyebrows rose at that remark. She asked, "Thesius, have you seen this list? A number of the women on this list have free companions!" Thesius answered, "So what? They are obviously companioned with men that cannot satisfy them. Any man like that deserves to have his companion taken away from him." The woman said, "Thesius, your companion is on the list." Thesius screamed, "What! Let me see that list!" He leaned over and almost ripped the parchment as he grabbed his from Clark. Furiously he started studying the list. He exclaimed, "Where is she! "I don't see her." Lucius leaned over, pointed to a name, and said helpfully, "See right there." Thesius looked up at Clark and exclaimed, "Slander. You are trying to slander me!" The woman answered "From the testimony of all three of the slaves that does not seem to be the case. Justina claims that they would just be attempting to acquire extremely talented women that would also prove pleasing to their master in the furs. In a way you should be honored." Thesius answered, "You see, my companion is a cold fish. She had no passion in the furs." He paused and looked at the expressions on Justina and Monica's faces. He cried, "Don't you give me those looks!" He then added, "She has no passion, at least not for males! WHAT? Stop giving me those looks!" Lucius answered, "This is beside the point. Do we have your word that you will go no further in acquiring more pillars of our community?" Clark answered, "I had no intention of allowing it to go this far. Had I known what they were up to I certainly would have put a stop to it." Suddenly Thesius exclaimed, "Lady Hieda is on this list!" That is impossible!" "Why so?" asked the woman, curiously. Thesius answered, "She loves the touch of a man. She could not possibly have the need for a woman!" "How would you know that?" asked the woman, archly. She was trying very hard to suppress her laughter at the conceited warrior's discomfiture. "She and I …. " Thesius broke off abruptly then changed the subject, "That is beside the point. This proves that they have got to be lying! They are just trying to besmirch the good name of many of the ladies of our community. Let me have a day with them with the whip and they will be singing a different tune." Lucius answered, "I am sure, given enough time with you and the whip, that they would be willing to say anything you wanted them to say. So let us just assume that they were lying and move on." Thesius exclaimed, "You can't believe any these accusations!" The woman answered, "Thesius, nobody is accusing you of anything! I agree with Lucius. Let us just move on!" She turned her attention to Clark and asked, "Do I have your agreement that this will go no further than these chambers and you will not attempt to acquired more of the ladies of our city, whether they be on the list or otherwise!" Justina looked up and exclaimed, "Could we at least acquire Lady Petra?" "Why?" asked Clark. Justina answered, "She is a great cook!" Clark said, "Cook?" He paused, and then asked, "Is there something wrong with my cooking?"
Realizing that nothing would shake Firnax from his commitment to turn her over to his Ubar for sentencing to death or state slavery, Diana had given Firnax and his men the slip in Lydius by picking the locks on her slave bracelets. The men of Gor were experts in intimidating woman, and they could render even the Larl Woman all but helpless in a matter of seconds with binding cord, but their long experience in dealing with too many carefully selected earth girl slaves had created blind spots. One was their proclivity for using light shackles with deadbolt locks. Using either of the two devices she kept concealed on her body, she could open them in less than a Gorean minute if no one was observing her movements.
Diana traveled from Lydius along the coast to Helmutsport, where she had run up a debt and been sold the first man willing to pay it. She then induced that master to sell her to a Pony slave collector. A plan was forming in her mind and she needed to see if it would work.
Tregor of Koroba was a very wealthy physician from a family of wealthy physicians. He had the money to indulge his whims and his latest whim was to develop a stable of champion show ponies. To that end, he sought out the most beautiful possible newly enslaved women and did everything in his power to reduce them to obedient beasts of burden. Diana was branded on the buttock with cattleman's symbol representing the House of his family, and her training in the gaits, postures, and demeanor of a pony slave began that same day.
Like any other beautiful slaves, Tregor's Pony slaves were used sexually on a regular basis. That bothered Diana not at all; in her months on Gor, Wonder Woman had well learned the pleasure of a good fucking. What Diana found objectionable was Tregor's practice of muting his pony girls. Some had suffered physical surgery on their vocal cords. Others, such as Diana, were given something that interfered with the connection between the speech center of their brains and the muscles of their throat and tongue. Until her Amazon's metabolism managed to counteract the drug, she found that her thoughts failed to translate into articulated sounds. She could grunt and squeal and pretend to be a horse or other animal but she could not speak.
It was during her third week of training that Diana witnessed something else that convinced her not to continue with her current owner. A girl from the jungles of Ishindi first asked, then pleaded, and then begged for death rather than pony slavery, but she was simply bound tightly and force-fed something that would eliminate her ability to think in verbal terms altogether. After that, the men of the house took turns raping the slave's dark-skinned athletic body until she passed out. They revived her with a bucket of water and then burned a brand into her flesh. When the unwilling kajira later proved recalcitrant during training she was hamstrung and sold as a coin girl.
Diana had killed men for such treatment of women before, but this time she hesitated in order to continue her rescue plan. That proved a bad mistake, as shortly afterward Tregor conducted a series of public time trials for all his slaves, both male and female. Not suspecting her owner's reasons, Diana ran as fast as she could the whole distance. Three days later she was given a drug to purge the effects of the contraceptive slave wine. That was followed two days later by fertility drugs to induce multiple ovulations.
Desperate to avoid pregnancy, Diana started forcing her partners to pull out and climax only in her mouth. She was beaten unconscious and brutally raped again and again in her rectum as she hung from the whipping post. Yet she still refused to consent to being bred. Undeterred, Tregor simply chained his girl with her legs spread and had her penetrated with dildo-like syringes so that her womb could be injected with sperm taken from the men he planned to mate her with. It hurt a great deal, because by Tregor's order the spike of wood, glass and leather was inserted completely dry into his disobedient slave's woman's passage.
Diana endured two days of this treatment, before she realized that her cooperation in the process was not necessary. Sooner or later, the dosage of hormones she was being given would become great enough to artificially induce her 12-year cycle of fertility. She agreed to cooperate. As a "reward", she was chained less painfully and the eleven inch-long syringe was lubricated before it violated her yet again with its two cupfuls of sperm.
Tregor was found dead two mornings later. His voice box had been cut out and a portion of his severed sex was lodged in his windpipe. His Free Companion lay beside him, a collar riveted around her neck. She was barely alive. Both her legs had been hamstrung and the first letter of Larl had been carved into her lower belly. She could not tell anyone who did this, as a hood had been tied around her head beforehand.
An investigation showed that all Tregor's slaves were well secured for the night, and the kennel guards reported nothing amiss. The following week, after first arranging for all the pony girls to be given some basic courses in the skills of house and chamber slaves, Tregor's widow auctioned off the entire stable.
Diana's purchaser suspected she could be the Larl Woman and sent messages to a bounty hunter from Cos. Before the slave catcher could reach Koroba, her owner purchased a second tall, dark-haired slave and 'unaccountably forgot' that he already possessed such a girl. Diana 'borrowed' the clothes of a tall free woman one afternoon and left the city to return to the Northern Forests.
Now she was leaving the great forests again. It was time to head south for Ar, and a rendezvous with Lurius of Jad. She remembered what the Ubar had done to her only in dreams, but two former masters had given her enough of the details of her stay in Cos for her to know that the dreams which made her wake up screaming were not simply fabrications of her imagination. She supposed that she could make the trip in the garb of a free woman, but that meant using the lasso to compel a cohort of males to escort her or stealing enough coin to hire one. Neither prospect appealed to her as much as the idea of simply persuading a master that the next Love Festival of Spring would be an exciting time to visit Ar.
* * * *
The night of her enslavement, after a long and arduous interrogation about the practices of slavers and their sources of barbarian girls, Clark exercised his full rights of ownership over the slave girl he had named Mira. Though her sexual experience came mostly from the instruction of slaves, she was completely abject in her submission to him. Gorean to the core, Mira was a girl who knew herself owned and by the time he took her for the third time she was screaming her status as a kajira under the sexual domination of her Master.
In the morning, to Mira's total surprise, Clark of Kent declared the former Lady Monica a free woman once more. He said it was enough that she had lost her business and other property the moment she had been declared a slave. She had failed to enslave him or steal Kara and Justina, so no lasting harm had been done to him. He had learned that she had not held back any information from him in the days just past and so she was now free to do with her life what she could. He wished her well, and strangely, she felt that he meant the words.
Suddenly Lady Monica recognized the truth: "Clark of Kent was no ordinary scribe at all. Nor was he an assassin or warrior in disguise. He was not a man of Gor at all. He probably could not even read Gorean. He spoke it with the same accent as did kajiri from the barbarian lands, the ones who claimed to be from a different planet altogether. His lover and companion had somehow been brought here and he was determined to get her back." As a slaver for the past two decades she knew that his quest was entirely wasted effort; "N**early every barbarian red silk girl was ruined for freedom in a matter of months. Gorean men simply didn't settle for less than breaking their wills and taking total possession of their bodies. The only barbarian who had ever escaped that fate even temporarily was the legendary Panther/Larl Woman. And there was a rumor among slavers that she had once been captured and tamed by a certain Brutus of the Assassins, who had caught her above the rooftops of Ar. When Clark of Kent found his Lois he would find her unworthy of their companionship and would have to seek another to bear his children for him.** What man of pride would want the get of slave slut bearing his name?" An idea came to her, a way to protect herself from being slain or re-enslaved and yet enjoy more of the pleasure she had felt the night before. "Clark, I would like to help you in your search. I know that this is not your planet. You need a guide. I will be that for you if you will allow it."
"No, thank you. That will not be necessary. I have Justina now."
"Yes, but she is a little naïf who has seen less than twenty five summers. She was a very gentle and shy person who sees only the best in everyone around her. I am but fifteen years older than she is, but I can already recognize all sides of human nature. I have traveled more than she and my name will be known to many to whom you must speak. She took an enormous risk by masquerading as a free woman; I could have told you that. She did not even know that the magistrates could have her lashed and penalty branded on her face for that offense. You need a free companion, Clark of Kent, and the right woman is standing before you."
"Why in the world would I trust you? You tried to steal Kara and Justina.
"I did it because I was a slaver. It was my business to be interested in collector's items like your cousin and bits of fluff like my former friend. They have remarkably beautiful faces and both are obvious collar meat, natural slaves who won't need to be beaten into submission but will make it instinctively once they realize they don't have a choice in the matter. Ask them. Ask them how many times they felt the whip before they began following orders."
"I have never whipped Justina or Kara!" He responded indignantly.
"Exactly my point. They obey you not out of fear of you but out of a slave's awe for their master. But they don't show you proper slave's obeisance and that gives you away as a barbarian. Some girls, especially barbarians, seem to find proper respect hard to give. I predict that for these girls it will take little more than a single switching and a few reminders before they start acting as any other slaves do. You didn't even know they were constantly being impertinent by Gorean standards, did you?"
"No, they seemed obedient enough. They always did what I told them. Kara seemed little different from another slave girl we traveled with.
"Master, I am sorry," Supergirl interjected. "You never seemed to like it when I acted as Marcus taught me. You kept growling that I should stop groveling. I have endangered us all by not trying harder to explain." Before Clark could respond to Kara, Lady Monica addressed his cousin. Her manner and tone was stern but the words themselves were kind. "Nonsense, girl. You did exactly what was necessary to be pleasing to your master. That is a kajira's sole responsibility. A free man's safety is his own responsibility and that of his companions and friends. Do you want to be his free companion?" "Oh no, Mistress!" Clark saw that Justina was just as horrified by the idea.
"Good, now bend over and show your bottom for his belt. You interrupted a conversation between two free people. If you did that to a Gorean male, you would be cuffed in the mouth as hard as he could swing his arm."
Clark looked the plain-spoken free woman in front of him and at the two cringing slaves to one side. They were clothed in blue tunics and Lady Monica was naked and yet in posture and countenance there was a strength and dignity that had been stripped from his cousin and which Justina had apparently never possessed. Monica had been a trafficker in human flesh. She was nothing like Lois in looks or voice, and compared to women like Kara and Justina she was practically homely. Yet her body was soft and had felt good in his arms.
A free companionship was renewable on a year-to-year basis on Gor. He had no idea how long he would be here searching but he doubted that with his super senses and Kara's he would need more than that. Monica could bring him knowledge and insight of the kind he had been unwilling to accept from Mulkar. She was no threat to him or Kara that he could see and if she taught Justina how to be a good slave, the auburn-haired beauty could only benefit from that knowledge and discipline.
"Very well, Lady Monica you have a deal. Where do we go to get hitched in this town?"