Barbarian of Gor Chapter Eleven

 

The fact is I was now recognised, within Corcyrus at least, as being of the caste of Slavers.

 

I had collared a woman in the wilderness where the laws of Corcyrus and Torcadino do not apply.

 

The only law pertaining to enslavement of women that applies in the wilderness is Common Capture Law. Free Women are not protected from licensed and accredited slavers under Common Capture Law.

 

Technically speaking, I had just enslaved Lady Laetitia. 

 

She was my slave now.

 

Unfortunately that fact had only dawned upon me after the fact. 

 

Of course Adamus and Felix might object to this. They indeed might try and kill me in defence of Laetitia. The Lady had not spoken legal words of submission, after all, and they had sworn oaths to protect her. So in reality Laetitia had nothing to worry about, least of all because I had no intention of exercising any claim under Common Capture Law on her.

 

I mention this only in passing. Technically speaking, I now owned a new slave. 

 

Of course a court would say I had been derelict in my duty as a slaver. I had not, for example, stripped the girl and begun meticulous recordings of data pertaining to her body. I had not measured her wrists, ankles, throat, hips, waist, breasts, nor had I taken ink stamps of hr fingers and toes, or recorded the position of any birth marks. I had not even prepared capture papers recording the enslavement. And I had certainly not tested her for slave responses. 

 

Just what kind of bumbling slaver was I? My caste would probably have me struck off in disgust, and rightly so. We have standards and traditions for a reason. A woman reduced to slavery should take comfort in the knowledge that all legal formalities have been dutifully observed, and that in the event of her unlikely escape, papers exist that can identify her down to the relative size of her toes. All courts uphold the sanctity of papers of enslavement, and consider them the bedrock of the legal system. 

 

I left Laetitia’s room feeling angry with myself. Free Women should not play games. They should not toy with the collar. It is a serious matter. I was angry that she had accepted this without argument. The most precious things a Free woman owns are her honour, reputation and chastity. She should have protested when Adamus suggested this plan of action. She should have said no. 

 

I had deliberately left now as I wanted her to feel the weight of what she had done. Let her sit and stew in that small room and feel the steel and how it is locked about her throat. Let her try and slip the metal band and find she cannot. Let her gaze at herself in the mirror and feel ashamed. Let her wrestle with her doubts and uncertainties, and perhaps in a few ahn she might be tearful and inform me she had changed her mind.

 

“I want the collar removed from my throat,” she would say to me. Her eyes would be wet with tears. Her cheeks would be flushed with shame.

 

I would of course do as she wished. 

 

She is the daughter of the Tatrix, and she would have learned a valuable lesson. No one need know of her shame. I would keep her secret. I would do that.

 

I had locked her in her room of course. It was for her own safety, especially now that she wore a collar. She would not be able to open the door to anyone. I would return after having eaten, and then she would plead with me to end this farce. 

 

I found Adamus and Felix, minutes later, still seated in the common dining area of the Inn.

 

“This was you, yes? Just to be clear – this was your idea?” I marched straight up to Adamus, my face a picture of fury.

 

“Do you want some black wine, Roland?”

 

“Never mind the black wine. You did this? You told Laetitia that she would have to pose as a slave? Do you deny it?”

 

“This isn’t a democracy, Roland.” Adamus shifted in his seat to face me. “I don’t have to consult with you and gain your approval on anything.”

 

“The girl wears a collar now.”

 

“So you collared her?” He arched a eyebrow.

 

“Because you told her this was the only way.” I loomed over the table, facing him down.

 

“But still, just to be clear, Roland, you just collared the daughter of the Tatrix? Tch.” his voice was quiet, and there was no one else yet at the nearby tables. I could see from his expression that Felix was not at all happy with any of this. 

 

“Free Women should not play at slavery,” I said.

 

“I agree.” Adamus lifted his cup and drank some more of the coffee-like liquid. “It never turns out well for them.”

 

“No Gorean man would have proposed this plan.”

 

“No, they probably wouldn’t have. And that’s why it will work. It’s unthinkable and beyond the pale to a Gorean.” And again, I could see from Felix’s expression that this was certainly the case. He was fighting now his natural urge to protest alongside me, versus his discipline to his Captain.

 

“She will come to her senses,” I said.

 

“Oh?” Adamus seemed faintly amused by this.

 

“She will come to her senses and she will tell me to unlock the collar.”

 

“Well then, it’s probably best that I look after the key, isn’t it?” He held his left hand out to me. “If you please.”

 

When I didn’t say anything, he simply added, “that was an order in case it wasn’t obvious.”

 

“You want the key? The only key to the collar locked around her throat?”

 

“That’s right.”

 

“Just who are you, Adamus? What’s your story?”

 

“I could ask the same of you, Roland. I do not know you, I did not want you, and frankly I’m not sure I can trust you.”

 

“Well, we’re of like minds about each other, then.”

 

“The difference being,” said Adamus, “I’m in command and you’re not. Now you can obey my direct order, or I’ll have Felix draw steel and kill you for disobedience. He’ll do that if I tell him to. His discipline is excellent.”

 

I could see with a glance that Felix wasn’t happy about any of this, but, yes, his discipline was excellent.

 

“Give him the key, Roland,” said Felix. “We are brothers here. I do not wish to kill you.”

 

I slapped the key down hard on the table surface and watched as Adamus picked it up and stashed it in his belt pouch.

 

“Better,” he said.

 

“Fuck you. No, really, fuck you,” I said.

 

“That’s enough,” said Adamus, and now his voice had a dangerous edge to it. “I have tolerated your outburst for a little while, but now there will be an end to it. We have a mission, and I will not allow it to be compromised. You can either acknowledge my authority here or you can leave. I don’t need a man who can’t follow basic military discipline. This is the only time you will have this choice. Consider your next words carefully.”

 

“I’m not leaving Laetitia to you.”

 

“Then?”

 

“I acknowledge your authority.”

 

“Fine. We will not speak of this again. Now sit down and have some black wine with your sword brothers.” 

 

I allowed Laetitia one ahn to consider what she had done. And then I returned to her room.

 

I knocked on her door after unlocking it from the outside. 

 

“Who is it?” Her voice sounded fragile. I think she had been crying.

 

“Roland. Open the door.”

 

The bolts were slid back. I waited. Moments later the door opened a crack. 

 

“Roland?” I saw her face pressed to the side of her door. Yes, she had been crying. She had been alone in a room with her collar. How had she felt? The earlier confidence was gone, it seemed. 

 

“Open the door,” I said. I was not going to push it open. The girl did as she was told and I entered, swiftly closing the door behind me.

 

She looked every inch the new slave girl. Now with a collar about her throat she seemed anxious about her brisk slave livery, She tugged at the hem of the tunic skirt and blushed as I looked at her. Her eyes were puffy.

 

“It’s not as you imagined it, is it?”

 

“No.” She nibbled her lower lip. “No, it isn’t.”

 

“You are still a Free Woman,” I said.

 

“What you said earlier…” she couldn’t look at me.

 

“Forget it. I just wanted to scare some sense into you.”

 

“But Common Capture Law?”

 

“You are not a slave, Laetitia. You are not my slave.” I saw her clench her small hands into fists as she held them beneath her chin.  

 

“You are being kind. But what does Common Capture Law say about this?”

 

“It doesn’t matter.”

 

“Tell me. I need to know?”

 

“You’re not a slave, Laetitia.”

 

“That’s what you say or is that what the law says? Did you actually enslave me under Common Capture Law? Please? I must know?”

 

“Adamus wants to leave in the next ahn.”

 

“Oh!” she seemed flustered, angry at my refusal to tell her what she wanted to hear. She wanted to know that she was still legally free, and that the collaring of a woman by an accredited slaver in the wilderness had no legal ramifications. 

 

“Adamus has the key to your collar.”

 

Laetitia turned round, surprised. “Captain Adamus has the key?”

 

“He didn’t trust me with it.”

 

“I… thought you would keep my key…”

 

“That was my intention. Adamus will remove the collar if you want him to.” But even as I said those words I wasn’t 100% sure they were true. “Can you do this? There is still time.”

 

“I will suffer this long enough that we leave this tavern without suspicion. An uncollared woman who wore a slave tunic would be remembered by everyone here. People would talk, and when Stannis’s men arrive…”

 

“Yes, that is true.”

 

“But a woman in a collar is a slave. She will not be remembered.”

 

“That is true, also.”

 

“I’m not strong, Roland. I try desperately to be strong, but the truth is…”

 

“Hush.” I took the girl in my arms and held her for a moment. “You are the strongest girl I know.”

 

“Am I now legally a slave, Roland?” She buried her head against my shoulder. ”I have to know! Did I stupidly allow that to happen?”

 

“You are not a slave, Laetitia.”

 

“Tell me what Common Capture Law says on the matter?”

 

“We don’t have time for this.” 

 

You may wonder why I didn’t just speak some words to free her. But to do that would be to imply and to confirm she was actually now a slave. You cannot free a free person. That person has to be slave first in order to free her. Ergo she would not then be a Free Woman, she would be a freed slave. There is a distinction. Better she didn’t know what Common Capture Law said about collaring women in the wilderness. 

 

“I am free, aren’t I?”

 

“Of course you are,” I lied.   

 

I held the lovely young slave in my embrace and allowed her some time to cry. She was new to her collar, after all.