"As I had expected about her white throat there was fastened, graceful and gleaming, the slender, close-fitting collar of a Gorean slave girl.
It was a collar ike most others, of steel, secured with a small, heavy lock which closed behind the girl's neck.
'You see', said the girl, 'I did not lie to you.'
'Your demeanor,' I said, 'does not suggest that of a slave girl.'
She rose to her feet and backed away, her hands at the shoulders of her robe.
'Nonetheless,' she said, 'I am a slave girl.' She turned away, 'Do you wish to see my brand?' she asked, comtemptuously.
'No,' I said.
So she was a slave girl.
But on her collar there was not written the name of her owner and his city, as I would have expected. Instead I had read there only the Gorean numeral which would correspond to '708'.
'You may do with me what you please' said the girl, turning to face me. 'as long as you are in this room I belong to you.'
'I don't understand,' I said.
'I am a Chamber Slave,' she said.
'I don't understand,' I said.
'It means,' she said,irritably, 'that I am confined to this room, and that I am the slave of whoever enters the room.'
'But surely you can leave,' I said.
I gestured to the massive portal which, empty of the door or gate, led only too clearly into the corridor beyond.
'No,' she said bitterly, 'I cannot leave.' I arose and walked through the portal and found myself in a long stone passageway beyond it which stretched as far as I could see in either direction. It was lit with energy bulbs.
....
Standing in the passageway outside the room I extended my hand to the girl. 'Come,' I said. 'there is no danger.'
She ran to the far wall and crouched against the it, 'No,' she cried.
....
I gathered her in my arms and she fought like a she-larl, screaming, I wanted to convince her that there was no danger, that her fears were groundless. Her fingernails clawed across my face.
I was angered and I swept from her feet so she was helpless in my arms.
I began to carry her toward the portal.
'Please.' she whispered, her voice hoarse with terror. 'Please, Master, no, no, Master!.'
She sounded so piteous that I abandoned my plan and released her, though I was irritated by her fear.
She collapsed at my feet, shaking and whimpering,and put her head to my knee. 'Look!,' she said, pointing to the great threshold.
I looked but I saw nothing other then the stone sides of the portal and on each side three rounded red domes, of perhaps four inches width apiece.
'They are harmless,' I said, for I had passed them with safety. To demonstate this I again left the chamber.
Outsife the chamber, carved over the portal, I saw something I had not noted before. In Gorean notation, the numeral '708' was carved above the door. I now understood the meaning of the numeral on the girl's collar. I re-entered the chamber. 'You see, I said, 'they are harmless.'
'For you,' she said, 'not for me.'
'Why not,' I asked.
....
'There,' she said, pointing to the small rounded domes set in the sides of the portal.
'I don't understand,' I said.
She moved from my arms and approached the portal. When she was within perhaps a yard of the exit the small red domes began to glow."
Book 3, Priest Kings of Gor, pages 35 - 39
