Secrets of Gor Chapter Six

 

“I was beginning to think I’d never see you again, Flower of the Assante,” said Donna as she poured me a glass of hot Bazi tea. “When you left my house two months ago, you were not happy with me.”

 

I sat in Donna’s dining room again, the one that led out into the small courtyard where her beautiful children played. To the side of the room, watching me was my chaperone, Evona. My frustration with the restrictions on my life had reached breaking point, and furthermore I was concerned that I was experiencing sexual desires that had never bothered me in the past. These needs had led me to invite and welcome Simon’s intimate touch, even though we were arguing frequently, but I began to fear that the indifferent sexual coupling was making my situation worse.

 

When I was a young girl I had, for a while, a skin rash on my lower legs, caused I think by the stress of having to live up to the impossible standards set by my strict mother. The rash would come and go, becoming very itchy, especially at night as I tried to sleep. I would find that scratching at the itch would soothe the immediate discomfort, but as soon as I stopped scratching, the itching would feel worse than before. And that is how I now felt with my rising sexual desires. I would find a light relief as Simon placed me on my back, lifted the hem of my nightgown, and entered me, but the coupling ultimately failed to satisfy me, and when it was over, with no climax on my part, my sexual frustration grew, repeating the cycle again a few nights later. If I kept myself busy I could forget how I was feeling, but then at times I would see strong, powerful men, and I would feel a burning between my legs, and a craving for what I had felt in that barn loft, and in that paga tavern, but which I did not feel in the safety of my own bed. 

 

“I’m sorry if I gave that impression, Donna.” 

 

Worse still, yesterday I had watched a girl wagon entering the city. It was a flatbed wagon of the sort commonly employed by slavers. A central bar ran along the floor and to it, seated either side with their feet extended towards the bar, girls were chained by their ankles. There were eight of them, naked, recent captures by the look of them from a border conflict with one of our neighbouring cities, Lara, for we are often fighting one city or another. What struck me most was one of the dark haired girls who gazed fearfully at this strange city that might now be her home. She was similar in size and appearance to me, that I imagined for a moment that it was I who was being brought into a city as a prize. No one would have mistaken us, but the similarities were close enough that she sparked my imagination. For a moment, as the wagon trundled by, our eyes met and she seemed surprised at something in my gaze. And then the cart moved on. The girls would be branded, processed and ultimately sold. 

 

“Perhaps you’ve been busy? Too busy to call on an old friend? Or perhaps things have improved recently between you and Simon? I hear you are sharing the delights of companionship at last. Congratulations.”

 

“Where did you hear that? From Simon?”

 

“No.” Donna sat back on her own cushion. “I assure you, little flower, I don’t discuss your sex life with Simon. Or any man for that matter. Well, perhaps Victor.”

 

“Is Victor here today?” I glanced about the room. I hadn’t seen him in a while. 

 

“No. He is working. He has some research in a field outside of Vonda. He will be back in a few days. I know he will regret missing your visit. He likes you. I see you have brought a friend.” Donna indicated the presence of Evona who smiled back at her.

 

“The fact she is still breathing is an oversight on my part,” I remarked. “She watches me like a trained tarn and is paid to do so.” I saw no point in pretending otherwise.

 

“I see. Why do you need a chaperone?”

 

“Simon believes it is for my own good. With my brother missing somewhere on the black coast, and with my parents engaged in the Argentum Corcyrus border war, I have no one to turn to who might rid me of this inconvenience. I’d kill her myself, but I no longer have my knife. I don’t suppose you could lend me one?”

 

Donna shook her head. “It’s a new rug. I wouldn’t want blood stains on it. Besides which, murder is illegal in this city.”

 

“That’s never stopped my family before.” I sighed. “I was hoping you could talk to Simon for me.”

 

“Certainly. But I’m unlikely to run into him. We move in different circles, little Flower.”

 

“Tell him to stop, this, please, Donna. He sulks because he believes I secretly want to submit myself to some dominant man who will keep me as his slave. Simon has to learn to trust me.”

 

“I am sure he will, given time. Why do you think I have some influence over him? Because, I don’t. I only know him through you.”

 

“My situation is intolerable. I have no privacy. He controls my life, for fear I will engage in behaviour unsuitable for my status.”

 

“Men do that when they enter into Free Companionship. With Victor and I things are different. We have a mutual respect for one another and we work as a team. Simon has developed a more traditional approach to your relationship. And he has every legal right to. You became his woman, his property, when you became his Free Companion for a year. When the year is up, you will be free of him, if that is what you want.”

 

“And until then I’m being treated like a child!”

 

“I can sense your frustration, little Flower. I’m not sure what I can do to help you, though. He is your companion, and that gives him rights over you.”

 

“Can you convince him that I don’t have repressed slave feelings? Then he might stop all of this.”

 

“I’m not sure I’m convinced of that myself. We’ve both seen what is recorded in your slave papers. Do you want me to remind you of what was written there?”

“I wish you’d stop referring to them as my slave papers. I’m not a slave.” 

 

“Not in Vonda, true, but in another city the papers would be legal and binding. And have you considered that even in Vonda the papers would have to be contested?”

“What?”

 

“Cassandra, the first recourse of a magistrate seeing those papers would be to have you rendered into bondage. The papers are genuine after all. You would claim that the enslavement was illegal under Vondan law, and from what I know, the circumstances were illegal, but here is the problem you would face. The magistrate would have to enslave you, according to the papers, once he saw them. An appeal would then have to be brought to the court, with a lawyer claiming that the papers are not valid. But a slave cannot bring forward a legal case. You do understand that?”

 

“I’m not a slave!”

 

“Upon presentation of the papers to a court of law in Vonda, you automatically would be, until a successful appeal, or legal challenge declares the papers null and void. But a slave cannot bring forward a legal case to then appeal.”

 

“But that would mean I would remain a slave!”

 

“It is an awkward legal situation. You would have to be a Free Woman to contest the court order, and yet the court order you would be contesting would make you a slave instantly, and therefore you could not then launch an appeal.”

“Where are the papers?”

 

“Safe.”

“Donna, you have to destroy them. Give them to me!”

 

“I can’t do that, Cassandra, they don’t belong to me. Mikos isn’t a fool. When he loaned them to me, for the purpose of speaking with you, he had the loan certified in the Cylinder of Justice. A record has been made and I signed to take responsibility of them. Were I not to return the papers to Mikos, legal sanctions could be taken against me in due course. But, relax, I’m not going to show the papers to anyone, other than you.”

 

“What if Mikos does?”

 

“He could have done so originally, but he is an honourable man. I think it simply amuses him to know that, although you continue to live your life as normal, he does in fact own you. You are his property, and he could, if he wished, claim you at any time. Do you want to be his slave?”

 

“No!” Why did she keep asking me that? It was becoming quite insufferable! 

 

“Because it would be easy enough for you to present yourself to him.”

 

“Will he sell the papers to me? I’ll buy them. I can make him a rich man.”

 

“Legally you can’t do that, Cassandra. A slave cannot own property, and she cannot legally buy anything. You therefore cannot buy your slave papers. Any such transaction would be null and void in law.”

 

“So what? Once I had the papers I would burn them, then no one could prove I couldn’t buy them.”

 

Donna sighed and poured some more Bazi tea. “You do know there are always a minimum of three sets of slave papers? I temporarily hold Mikos’s copy, but a second copy is of course held by the slaver house that enslaved you, and a third copy is filed with the cylinder of justice. Yes, Mikos could give you his copy, but the transaction would have to be recorded in the cylinder of justice, otherwise as far as the courts are concerned, the sale of the slave Cassie never took place. Mikos would still legally own you, despite you paying him a large sum of money to receive his copy of the papers.”

 

“Then get him to record the transfer of sale to me.”

“And again, the problem here is you cannot buy yourself, for you are a slave.”

 

“I’m not a slave! Stop saying I am!”

 

“Legally a slave, Cassandra. You are, legally. If the sale was recorded, and you now owned Cassie, Mikos would only have to then point out that Cassandra and Cassie are one and the same and that a slave cannot purchase herself. A magistrate would be forced to check your finger and toe prints against the ones in the slave papers and that would prove the issue. You would be rendered back into Mikos’s ownership, regardless of the fact you had attempted to buy yourself. It would all have been a waste of time on your part.”

 

“This is madness! I just have to trust him? Trust Mikos? Never knowing if one day he decides to return and claim me?” I shivered at the thought of the possibility – being rendered into bondage at his feet. Stripped naked, collared and handed over to him. The things he would do to me! 

 

“Drink your Bazi tea, Cassandra. I can see you are growing agitated.”

 

“I can’t live my life like this, worrying whether sometime tomorrow court officials might summon me to the chamber of justice!” I felt a horrible tightness in my chest. Argentum was outside my power and influence, and even now was locked into a dangerous land war with Corycyrus.  I couldn’t even have Mikos murdered to keep him quiet. I had no power in a city so far away. Is that why he had left? Because he knew that I might consider killing him to protect myself? 

 

But strangely enough I felt an uneasy sense of revulsion at the thought of having Mikos killed. For some reason, I didn’t like the idea of him being dead. An image flashed into my mind of his smiling face as he tied my wrists to a slave ring in a paga tavern alcove and brushed the pleasure silk up about my thighs as he began to touch me. I suddenly felt hot and flushed at the thought, as I had been feeling recently each time the memories came flooding back, which my recent sexual frustration had ensured was now quite often. I shifted position where I knelt and felt an unwelcome warmth between my thighs at the memories.

 

Why was I beginning to crave sex? I had never used to feel this way. What had Mikos done to me, to my chaste self-control, all those months ago?

 

“I have an idea,” I said. “I can issue legal cases at the moment, because I am a Free Woman. I can issue a case to declare the slave papers in the House of Andronicus and the Cylinder of Justice as having been drawn up illegally, and have them declared null and void.”

 

“Do you own the slave, Cassandra? No? Then you have no interest in the case and you cannot challenge the legality of the papers. To do so you would have to present the slave in question and have her testify before a magistrate. Slaves typically testify under torture in courts of law, as you know.”

 

My face possibly looked pale as I considered giving testimony in a court of law, under torture, posing as the slave in question, brought forward by my legal team.

 

“The legal case could declare in advance that I am the girl in question, painting myself as the victim here, and seeking justice and remedy. It would be embarrassing, but money can hush things up in the case of the legal teams concerned.”

 

“The precise moment that you admit to being the girl in question, that very precise moment, recorded in your legal papers, before they can then be submitted to the court, you are then in the eyes of the law a slave until your appeal against the papers can be heard, and of course it will not be heard, because a slave cannot serve papers. So we are back to square one. There will be no appeal.”

 

“This is insane!”

 

“You have to bear in mind, Cassandra, that you are legally a slave, even though you carry on your life as normal. You are a de facto slave until you bring an appeal, which in theory you would win, except that a slave cannot bring an appeal.”

 

“I’m not even branded!”

 

“That makes no difference to your legal status, and frankly would soon be rectified. You would swiftly be branded within an ahn of the court judgement, for brands are required by merchant law. Your Master could be fined for neglecting to brand you within a reasonable period of time from your formal enslavement.” 

 

“You’re clever, Donna, there must be something I can do?”

 

“You could leave Vonda and live somewhere where professional slave hunters, appointed by the court, might never find you? Some wild barren place where there is no law or justice, just the rule of outlaws?”

 

“I’m not sure that’s a better life than slavery, and might eventually lead to slavery, anyway.” 

 

“True. There is another possibility. You are in a period of Free Companionship with Simon that commenced prior to your illegal enslavement. Simon therefore has legal interest in you, and could contest the papers on the grounds that he has possession of you as a Free Woman for the duration that remains of your contract. As the slave papers effectively dispute that, and clearly cancel the Free Companionship from the moment you were enslaved…”

 

“I am not enslaved!”

 

“You are. You are legally a slave. There’s no point in repeatedly denying that fact.”

 

“It was not a legal enslavement!” Why did she not understand that?

 

“So you keep saying. It technically is, until an appeal challenges the matter. The appeal would win, but you can’t bring it to court. Simon, in theory, could. He could file papers, and unlike you, where you would lose the right to file papers the moment you drew them up and admitted you are the girl named as the slave Cassie, then the case could be heard. There would be an embarrassment factor. The court would understand the delicacy of the situation if Simon spoke to the officials in advance. It could possibly be heard behind closed doors in private sittings. Simon could be the answer here.”

 

“He still feels betrayed by the assessment of my responses in the slave papers. He keeps imagining that is how I would be with a man who might dominate me, and he will not listen to reason. He feels sure I dream of other men capable of keeping me in bondage.”

 

“Do you?”

 

My face flushed, for in recent nights I had been having frightening dreams as I tossed and turned in bed, following the less than satisfactory love making that never brought me anywhere near a climax. 

 

Donna noticed my expression and nodded. “I told you it would begin. The feelings. The desires. It always does. You will soon be at war with yourself. Have you lingered near a slave market recently?”

 

“No!”

 

“Do you fantasise being in a paga tavern alcove with a man like Mikos?”

 

“No!” 

 

Donna sighed. “The second repudiation was a lie. There are only two possible endings to all of this – either you become repulsed by the stark reality of being a slave, or you learn you would be happier as a slave. You know what I have suggested, but you’re not interested. You need to kill these feelings before they can no longer be denied, or fully embrace them. Your experience has woken long repressed feelings that lurk within many women. A day and a night of genuine slave service in this house would act as a future deterrent to you. I do not molly coddle slaves. I might add that it would go a long way to reassure Simon that he has nothing to fear. But it is ultimately your choice.”

 

“If I did this…” I swallowed hard as I spoke those words. 

 

Donna smiled and touched my hand. “Brave girl.”

 

“… you would not tell anyone?”

 

“You would be a new slave in this household. No one would know you were formally the Lady Cassandra Assante. Your slave papers make no mention of your true identity, so I could easily gloss over them. You already have a legal pedigree, having been passed through the House of Andronicus and ownership of Mikos. It’s not as if you appeared suddenly from nowhere. I would arrange things so that no one would question your slavery, or look into your true identity.”

 

“I will stop feeling the way I do?” I said softly.

 

“I cannot guarantee that. Maybe you will discover a new life in a collar, and that you are a naturally submissive slave, but I think the likelihood is that you will find the experience repulsive enough to stop fantasising. You will then have some sort of peace and revert to your old life before you met Mikos. You will once again be the Lady Cassandra Assante, and you will find your relationship with Simon will improve. And then in time there will be children.”

 

“When do we do this?” I said quietly.

 

“I need to arrange some things. This has to be perfect. When I am ready, I will send for you.”

 

“Tomorrow? I would like to get this over with quickly.”

 

“No, not tomorrow. This will be unexpected when it happens, little Flower. Just like it would be if you were hauled before a magistrate to be enslaved. This has to feel real for you. This won’t be play acting.”