Gambling Heart by Thom Lane

Author:Thom Lane [Lane, Thom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Loose Id LLC
Published: 2013-09-04T16:00:00+00:00

Quietly, obediently, I did that. And knelt beside the whipping post, and waited an hour until at last he came, still coldly furious with me.

“You do not,” he said, ripping the tunic from my back, “you do not,” strapping my wrists to the ring high above my head so that I hung naked and exposed to his anger, “you do not choose who you belong to, or who you don’t. I am master and you are slave and you do not, ever try to influence or persuade me to anything. I make the decisions, and you obey. If I choose to sell you, tomorrow or next month or next year, you accept that and obey your new owner exactly as you will obey me from now onward. For all your life onward, you will live as a slave should. Be what you are. That’s all. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Master,” I whispered, small and frightened. At least he’d said if and not when. There was precious small comfort in that, but it was something to hold on to.

Then he whipped me. A dozen strokes, with a thick blade. It was vicious, and no fun for either one of us; and I sobbed under every stroke and knew this wasn’t the worst of it, there was something more to come. There had to be.

When at last he threw the whip aside and came back to me, he gripped my sweat-soaked hair in his hand and dragged my head up to face him again when I only wanted to hide in the pain and the fear and the darkness. Sometimes it was better to be ignorant and afraid, than to know the truth of what was coming.

I didn’t ask, but he told me anyway.

“Master Lucan tells me that there is one way to make you what you should be. One. If I turn around and take you back to Amaranth in the morning, if I take you to the Mages’ Guild, one of the masters there can burn this talent out of you. He says you won’t be quite so quick afterwards, not quite so smart—but who needs a smart slave, anyway? Steady and obedient and reliable, that’s what I look for in a boy. That’s all. Pretty is a bonus, but you’ll still be just as pretty when it’s done. There won’t be a mark on you. I don’t need you to be clever. A strong back, an eager mouth, and a hot, tight rump, yes. What need more?”

I thought he was trying to persuade himself, as much as tell me what he’d decided, what my fate would be. I didn’t think he was making a very good job of it, either. He didn’t sound persuaded.

It didn’t make any difference, whether or not he believed his own argument. What he did with me, that was all that mattered now. He took me down from the whipping post, bound my wrists again behind me, dragged me up to his room and chained me to the foot of the bed.

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