The compound where the slaves lived was only one of a collection of buildings and open areas, similar in size to a small town. The community was a hive of activity, as the Master – a wealthy and powerful member of the upper nobility – administered his many enterprises, including spice growing and trading, the manufacturing of certain luxury goods, a fleet of seagoing vessels, and the buying and selling of slaves. The settlement was surrounded by moderate desert country (which effectively discouraged the slaves from fleeing), but the immediate area supported a number of crops.
Discipline for the large slave population was a serious affair, frequently and severely imposed. For the field slaves, whipping posts and stocks abounded, often with their victims left still bound and bleeding. Philip, Aspasia, Naivia and the other house slaves, whose principal responsibility was the delivery of sophisticated satisfaction, were admonished in a more subtle fashion. They were too valuable, and their good looks too delicate, to risk being disfigured by the savage beatings imposed on the field slaves, who were regarded as little different from beasts of burden. However, this was not to say that they escaped corporal punishment; it was a common sight in the house slaves' dining quarters to see one or other young slave standing as they ate; the wooden benches were hard on buttocks and thighs tender from a recent whipping. But the exquisite penalties that were inflicted on the house slaves were more carefully calculated, and often combined with the slaves' prime function: the giving of pleasure. They were not, however, regarded with anything other than fear by the slaves, who knew only too well the exquisite agony they brought.
Young slaves like Philip and Kyla were of simple country origins, brought up in strict village communities in the mountains or by the sea and sold into slavery by greedy relatives or successful military captains. But the lands around the compound were sometimes the scene of violent encounters, of raids and pillage, captured caravans and plundered estates. The latter occurrences brought a very different kind of captive to the compound; often individuals who had been accustomed to wealth and power, but now found themselves in bondage forever when a slave trader offered their bodies to the Master or his agents, who were almost always in the market for promising human material. It was these slaves, fallen from relatively lofty heights, who had the most difficulty adapting to their new state of servility. The chastisements administered by Astarte, her twin Amazon servants Kyla and Shura, and the other administrators of discipline, fell most heavily on them, remorselessly compelling them to abandon all resistance. The punishments proceeded inexorably, ending only after the will to resist was completely broken, and the slaves – by then usually striped from top to bottom, since instruction generally continued for quite a while after the unwise individuals had discovered the error of their ways - were ready to obey any instruction, perform any sex act with enthusiasm and abandon, even protrude their buttocks invitingly to receive additional cuts of the cane.
Two female slaves who had been recently captured in a raid were fated to be splendid examples of the skill of the Mistress and her acolytes in eliminating resistance and replacing it with utter submission and grateful obedience. One was a handsome dark-haired woman of about forty, with a patrician face, lush figure, and arrogant air, the other her stepdaughter, a slender, petite blonde, with a spoiled expression, beautiful fair skin, small well shaped breasts and narrow, attractive buttocks. This misguided pair did not abandon their supercilious attitudes once placed in the slave quarters, remaining sulky and complaining when shown their new responsibilities and tossing their heads rudely when reprimanded. The other slaves watched with interest to see from which direction the lightning bolt would fall. Sure enough, the pair was seated together at the evening meal in the slaves' dining room, where they held themselves at a distance from their fellows. The door opened and two of the household's guards marched in. One whisked the young blonde girl from her seat, easily holding her with one arm. Her stepmother rose in indignation, but was quickly pushed down into place by the other guard. She stared open-mouthed as her precious pet was removed from the room, squealing and struggling without making the least impression on her abductor's composure.
The petite young slave was brought into another room, her dress pulled off, and tossed naked onto a bed, her fine hair disordered and falling on her pretty, sulky face. She tried to raise herself up, while also endeavoring to cover her private parts with her hands. The guard simply pushed her back face down, and straddled her slender body, gripping her slender wrists together behind her back in one powerful hand while he knelt on the backs of her knees. The young slave was held completely helpless in spite of her struggles; her soft narrow buttocks and white thighs were turned invitingly upwards, entirely unprotected. Leaning back, the guard easily maintained his control of the girl as Shura, who had been waiting in a corner of the room, moved forward, a flat wooden paddle gripped in her delicate hand. Without delay she aimed and struck the helpless girl as hard as she could across her twin cheeks; a mighty crack was heard followed immediately by the girl's muffled shriek. Shura commenced a steady punishment of the soft surfaces exposed to her mercy. She struck again and again, sometimes shifting from rounded buttock to tender inner thigh, then delivering a succession of blows on the same spot. The girl screamed and sobbed wildly, but her face remained pressed into the bed; Shura gleefully guided her tormenting attentions back and forth, up and down, again and again. The girl's soft flesh was bright pink from the marks of the paddle, and Shura wore a delighted expression as she selected one target after another, aimed and struck, then moved immediately to the next place of punishment. The cracks of the paddle on flesh were a staccato counterpart to the girl's howls; she shrieked with pain, begging for mercy, without having the smallest effect on Shura's remorseless chastisement. Though the pain of the paddle was intense, it did not cut or shed blood; nevertheless the slave's buttocks glowed pink, then red as the spanking continued for minute after minute. Clearly the blonde had never experienced pain like this in her prior pampered existence; her screams became howls, then gradually died down as she commenced to sob hopelessly, like a baby. Shura was panting hard; her arm grew tired and she switched the paddle to her other hand, enabling a new flood of strokes. Finally she paused; delivered one more resounding swat on the brightest part of her victim's bottom, and sat back, while the girl sobbed more quietly and the guard, still easily holding her in place, now demonstrated a considerable tumescence under his robe.
