Settling her small shapely body astride the big male slave’s bare lower back as he knelt with his face just off the ground, Najya gave him only a moment before pulling back and up hard on his hair.

Knowing that this slave understood the dialect of the Ghazi, the Princess commanded, “Up, slave, on your feet!”

Startled by the sharp pain in his scalp and before he could grasp what was being done with him, the slave rose quickly to his feet, lifting the Princess with him. Immediately she released most of the tension on his hair and the pain subsided. With the big slave now standing erect, Najya had to grip his lean muscular body tightly with her legs to keep from sliding down over his slender hips.

“Bend, slave, lean forward,” she commanded pushing down on the back of the slave’s neck with her gloved left hand that held a tight turn in his long hair.

The slave bent forward at the waist making it somewhat easier for the Princess to stay mounted and she eased somewhat the hold she had with her legs.

“Move, slave!” The princess commanded.

By this time the big slave had realized what was being done to him, and an intense rage and humiliation began to build. He defiantly stood still and tried to turn his head to look back at the Princess. With the large hank of his hair in her hand she jerked his head back to the front.

“I said MOVE, slave!” This time Najya punctuated her command with a lash from her whip across his right flank and down his thigh.

Startled by the intense burning pain, the slave’s entire body jerked involuntarily and he quickly began walking as his rider had commanded. As he began to move away from the Captain and the hostlers, they began to follow about ten feet behind,

“Remain there!” The Princess ordered the Captain and the two Royal hostlers.

Najya wanted to control this slave herself but, more importantly, when she was finished with him she wanted the slave to know that it was she who had controlled him.

About fifty yards from where they had left the Captain and the two hostlers, Najya yanked the slave’s hair to the left and commanded: “Turn, slave!”

The slave turned. Then for the next ten or fifteen minutes, The Princess rode him back and forth and up and down the flat sandy floor of the wadi without incident. Using her firm grip on his hair, and barked orders, Najya had made him turn, stop and move as and when she wished. She knew, however that things were going too smoothly and that this had been entirely too easy.

Najya was an expert at reading a slave’s character and whether or not a particular slave possessed what she thought of as spirit. Spirit generally came out as rebellion when a slave was first being trained, but later showed itself as heart and the endurance to keep going when those without it failed. All of the slaves she selected to draw her Royal chariot had this spirit and she believed she had seen it in this big male as well. Now she was waiting for the rebellion that she all but knew would come.

After turning the slave beneath her to once again walk in the direction away form her small waiting entourage, Najya gave him a new command: “Faster slave, double speed.”

Instead of increasing his pace as he had been commanded, the slave suddenly stopped cold and stood as if frozen to the ground. With only a moment’s hesitation, Najya repeated her command, this time concluding with a crack of her whip again across the slave’s right flank and leg.

“I said FASTER slave, not stop!” She shouted in his ear and lashed him twice more.

His rage having built as Najya had expected, the slave suddenly began to buck and spin in a concerted effort to throw the Princess from his back. Having been expecting just such an action, the Princess responded by wrapping her legs tightly around the slave’s waist. Unlike those of an elf, the Princesses’ legs were long enough for her to lock her feet around him. She also held fast to the portion of his long hair that was wrapped tightly around her small gloved hand. Every time that the slave bucked or spun, she rewarded him with another yank on his hair and yet another stripe on his reddening flank.

Finally, seeing that he was not having much success at dislodging the small young woman from his back and tiring of the ever increasing pain in his right flank and scalp, the slave tried another tactic. He dropped to his knees, then proceeded to roll on to his back in an effort to pin the Princess beneath his body. Feeling him drop beneath her, Najya quickly unlocked her feet and legs from around his waist and simply slipped from his back when he began to roll. Standing next to him as the slave went to the ground she applied a stinging rain of leather to what ever side of him was exposed. When he rolled on to his back she lashed him repeatedly with expert aim where she knew he would feel it the most. The slave finally screamed with pain and rage and quickly rolled back to his stomach and tried to crawl out of the range of the Princesses’ whip. With his arms chained to his collar as they were, he had no success in escaping crawling on his knees alone. The Princess stayed right behind, following him and continuing to apply the burning rain of leather all over his naked body. The slave then scrambled to get back on his feet with the hopeless idea of trying to run away which, of course, the chain between his ankles would not allow. However, as he got his feet beneath him and began to rise, the Princess simply leapt on his back and again grabbed his hair and wrapped her strong legs tightly around his waist locking her small feet.

Realizing he had not succeeded, the slave stopped and stood bent over at the waist as he gasped for air. Najya allowed him time to recover then again commanded, “Move, slave and I said faster.” Her command punctuated with a lash from her whip.

Once again the slave rebelled and did everything that he could to throw the girl from his back. He even arched his back and jumped while twisting, which was a very difficult move to make but it too proved unsuccessful. The Princess remained mounted and continued to apply her whip every time he bucked or spun. Due to the pain he still felt between his legs, he did not repeat the effort of rolling as he had learned his lesson about not exposing those parts of his body to the Princesses’ whip. Again he wore himself out for the moment and stopped panting heavily.

The princess, again, allowed the slave to recover and again commanded, “Move slave and faster.” Again she applied the whip.

This time the slave obeyed and stepped off carrying his rider at a faster walk than before, the chain between his ankles preventing him from attempting to run. The slave obeyed Najya’s commands perfectly for the next several minutes. Not yet trusting the slave’s obedience, the Princess did not relax the hold she had with her legs or the grip she held in his hair.

As the Princess expected, the slave had been hoping that she would let her guard down. Suddenly with no warning, he again began bucking as hard as ever, hoping to throw her from his now very sweaty back. The Princess was ready for him and with her feet locked around him held tight while pulling back hard on his hair and lashing him every time he bucked or spun.

Finally after several long minutes of trying everything he could to dislodge his rider, the slave realized that he was beaten. He stopped fighting and stood still for a moment then dropped slowly to his knees. Once down he bent over with his face almost in the dirt of the wadi’s bed as if to show his surrender to the Princess. Najya remained mounted on his heaving back and once again allowed the big slave several minutes to recover until his breathing finally slowed.

When his heaving stopped, Najya pulled up on his hair but this time with only a gentle but firm tug commanding softly, “up, slave.” And the slave rose to his feet.

“Now move, slave and with no more nonsense,” she commanded softly.

She emphasized the last word with her whip, but this time with only a light attention commanding stroke rather than the burning lashes he had so recently been receiving. At first the slave remained frozen where he stood, obviously considering his very limited options. Then with a shake of his head he began walking forward.

“Faster,” the Princess commanded softly with another light whip stroke, and the big slave picked up his pace.

For the next hour, Najya rode the slave back and forth across the floor of the wide wadi, stopping, starting, turning and standing him at will. Only twice during this time did the slave hesitate in obeying the Princesses’ commands, and on both occasions received a quick light stroke from her whip. Finally, she rode him out near the wadi’s center, hundreds of yards from where the Captain and hostlers waited. With the slave facing away from the three men the Princess pulled back firmly on his hair and commanded him to stop and kneel which he did. Dismounting, Najya walked around the dirty, sweating slave to stand in front of him as he knelt with his face to the ground.

The slave’s breathing was almost at a normal rate even though the Princess had just ridden him for an hour, and that following his extreme efforts at trying to throw her from his back. The slave was very strong and obviously in superb physical condition. Rather than remounting him, the Princess commanded him to stand and face her and the slave obeyed. He stood and faced her with his back toward where the Captain and hostlers stood waiting at a distance.

For almost a half hour all that the Captain and the hostlers could see from where they were standing was the back of the standing slave as he completely screened the Princess from their view. As time passed, Captain Makin was becoming clearly agitated and concerned for her safety when Najya suddenly stepped into view beside the slave. Although too far away for the three men to see, she tapped the back of the slave’s left knee with her whip, and slave immediately knelt to allow his mistress to mount. The Princess mounted quickly but did not immediately command the slave to his feet. For several more minutes she simply sat there as he knelt with his back almost horizontal but with his head somewhat lifted. Finally, with a light tug on his hair the slave rose to his feet, and stood awaiting her next command which came quickly. With a pull of his hair to one side and a light tap from her whip, the slave wheeled in place and broke into a brisk walk back to where the three men waited. As she approached, the three men were clearly in awe of their Princess and what she had evidently accomplished.

When the Princess arrived back where the Captain and hostlers were waiting, she pulled gently on his hair and said softly, “Stop, boy.” And the slave halted obediently.

The two hostlers were struck with amazement as they observed the obedience of the big slave. The two hostlers regularly assisted the trainers with the Royal Chariot teams and as such, both were becoming familiar with the difficulty of training such slaves. Chariot slaves had first to be tamed and taught to accept their lives as draft animals before real progress could be made in training them to work as a team. The hostlers were well along at learning how to read what was in a slave’s mind by observing carefully his or her eyes and general demeanor. What the hostlers both saw in this slave was that the rage and hatred so obvious earlier, had been replaced by not just resignation, but a kind of acceptance of the small figure mounted on his back. If they could believe what they saw, Princess Najya had accomplished in a matter of hours what it often took many months to fully realize. She had broken and tamed this slave in an afternoon! She had called him “Boy”!

In the culture of the Ghazi tribe, slaves occupied the absolute lowest rung, being considered on a level with the sheep and goat like animals that they raised. This was due to the fact that, in the eyes of the Ghazi, they had lost their human status when they allowed themselves to be taken captive rather than fighting to the death. When the Princess called this slave “boy” she had, in effect, returned in part his status as a human, It was, truly, a compliment of significant proportions.

Sitting her mount in front of the Captain and the hostlers, Najya said, “Captain, drive my chariot back for me, if you would, I’m going to ride this big boy back to the encampment.”

Turning to the hostlers, she said, “The two of you go ahead and harness the team. You’ll find them chained up next to my chariot in that little grove back somewhat from the rim of the wadi, you know, the one there around the seep. Captain Makin will be up to join you, shortly.”

“Here is the key to unlock them,” she said as she tossed it to the closest hostler. “And give the Captain the key to the slave’s collar and manacles. You remembered to bring it with you as I asked, didn’t you?”

“Of course, Your Highness, here is the key, Captain,” The leader of the two hostlers said as he passed the key to Captain Makin.

“When you get my team harnessed and hitched you are welcome to ride back with the Captain if you would like,” she called as the hostlers were turning to leave,

The hostlers were surprised at the Princesses’ sudden generosity and, thanking her respectfully, quickly scrambled up the path leading to the rim of the wadi. It was at least a mile back to the encampment with most of the distance a gradual uphill grade. The team would be working to handle the chariot and three riders, but that would give the hostlers a good opportunity to observe them and the effects of their training. They knew that they would especially enjoy watching the two female members of this team as they labored in their traces.

“I want to see if he can take the steep route up the bank with me on his back, and if I can stay on him,” Najya said to the Captain who was still standing awaiting her instructions.

“Do you think he can?” He asked. “He looks rather tired to me. What about using the gradual trail we came down, instead?”

“He’s not that tired, he’s just dirty from rolling on the ground, and sweaty from all the bucking that he did,” she replied. “Besides, when the tribe travels we may not always find a gradual trail. I need to see what he can do.”

“You’ve still got a lot left in you, don’t you boy?” she asked patting the slave on his shoulder.

The slave nodded silently in response.

“Good boy, now down, on your knees!” The Princess commanded. “Let’s get those chains off of you. You’re going to need both your legs and your arms to get the two of us up that steep section of bank.”

“Are you certain about this, Princess,” the Captain asked with genuine concern. “He still looks dangerous to me.”

“He’s perfectly safe now,” She replied. “We came to an understanding out there didn’t we, boy”?

Again the slave nodded silently in response.

“Good boy,” she said, patting him again. “Now, down, and sit back on your heels.”

As the slave’s back lowered, the Princess slipped from it allowing him to assume the posture that she had commanded.

“Give me the extra water bag we brought, Captain,” she said holding out her hand.

Taking the bag, Najya removed the plug and inserted the spout into the slave’s mouth. In near desperation from his thirst, he quickly drained the small bag.

Next, after handing the empty bag to the Captain, Najya untied the rope that ran from the slave’s collar to the chain between his ankles and let it drop. She then unlocked the two manacles from his wrists and let them hang from his collar. Pulling his head forward, she reached back and unlocked and removed the collar itself, handing the set of restraints to the Captain. After removing the manacles she noticed that there was blood on the slave’s wrists from where the metal manacles had dug in, probably while he was struggling to throw her. Najya pulled the tail of her blouse from where it was tucked into her tight leather pants now stained dark with the slave’s sweat and, using her own saliva, gently cleaned the wounds. As she did this the slave looked directly into the Princesses’ eyes. Clearly an understanding existed between slave and mistress.

Standing and grasping his hair she gently pulled his head forward until his back was horizontal, Najya quickly remounted the slave. Bringing him to his feet with a gentle tug on his hair she sat him comfortably, facing the Captain.

“I believe that I could use a drink as well,” she said to the Captain and he handed her the other bag he had been carrying.

As she sat mounted on the slave drinking her water, the Princess stopped and said, “Captain, remove his shackles, please. I don’t want that chain getting caught on anything on the way up the bank.”

“Also we may try a bit of running on the way back. And besides, he no longer needs to be restrained that way, do you, boy?” She asked the slave.

Still silent, the slave shook his head negatively.

Once his shackles were removed, Najya wheeled the slave with a tug on his hair, and with a tap of whip, started him toward the bottom of the wadi’s bank to begin the climb out. For the first half dozen yards or so, the angle of the bank was shallow but it steepened the farther they climbed. As the angle became quite steep, the slave was forced to use both hands and feet in order to haul both himself and his rider up the slope. By this time the slave, like the Princesses’ leather pants, was soaked with sweat and his body quite slippery as a result. Even with her legs wrapped tightly around the slave’s waist and her feet locked she was forced to lean forward and wrap both her arms around his neck to keep from slipping off. Holding on this way, Najya realized that she could successfully ride this slave over very rough terrain.

When Najya and the Captain arrived back at the trees where they had left her chariot, the hostlers had the team harnessed, hitched and standing at the ready. The Captain stepped aboard the chariot and was immediately handed the reins and whip for the drive back to the tribe’s encampment.

Following their unexpected reward the chariot team wanted to show off for the Princess and the Captain, so immediately broke into a fast trot as soon as the Captain cracked the whip to start them. Najya gave the slave a light tap with her whip and he, too, set out at a fast jog easily keeping pace with the chariot over the smooth hard surface of the desert. After about a half mile of fast riding, the Princess decided that the slave’s gait was a bit rougher than was comfortable, so pulling back on his hair, slowed him to a brisk walk while calling to the Captain to slow the team as well. They continued at this pace until they arrived at the center of the Ghazi’s large encampment the center of which was a smooth open area over fifty yards in diameter which served as meeting place, town square, warrior training ground, athletic field and many other purposes.

As they entered the open area the chariot team again showed off for the Princess with a beautiful high stepping prance that well displayed their training. The team’s prancing gait caused some of the tribesmen and women to stop and watch. The four slaves moved precisely as one with the breasts of the females and the now tired members of the males bouncing in perfect unison. However, few eyes were on the prancing team as most were concentrating on watching their Princess riding the large male slave without so much as a collar or restraint on him of any kind.

The Captain drove the chariot directly to the area of the pens where the Royal chariots and all the teams of slaves that drew them were kept. Leaving him there with instructions to wait for her return Princess Najya, turned the slave and rode him to the tent shop of the tribal blacksmith. There with the command of “down boy” she had the slave kneel directly in front of a small anvil but did not dismount. The tribal smith had been told to expect her visit and was ready for her.

“Raise your head, boy,” Najya said softly to the slave as she pulled up gently on his hair. “The smith is going to fit you with a proper collar, now. Relax and do as he tells you and it won’t hurt in any way.”

The slave hesitated but quickly changed his mind when the Princess gave his sore right flank a light but definite slap with her whip. The slave then raised his head to allow the smith to accurately measure his neck with a knotted string. Going to one of his storage chests, the smith returned with a steel collar just over an inch wide and just over an eighth of an inch thick. He quickly placed it around the slave’s neck and closing it, inserted the end of an oversize pin in its closure. Positioning the slave’s neck in a special recess in the anvil and taking a hammer and drift, he drove the pin into the closure with several hard sure strokes. The slave now wore a collar as did all of the tribe’s slaves. A collar that did not unlock with a key as the one he had worn earlier today, but one that would remain on his neck unless cut off or removed with tools.

Complimenting the smith on his swift work, the Princess pulled up on the slave’s hair. She had not bothered to dismount as she had known that the work would not take long. Besides, the Princess was beginning to realize that she enjoyed sitting on this slave’s back in a somewhat erotic sort of way.

“Up, boy,” she said, and the slave rose again to his feet to be turned to face back toward the pen area where they had left the Captain and the Royal Chariot.

“Move, boy, and this time run, but very smoothly,” she whispered. “I want my subjects to see what a magnificent creature you are. But, if you bounce me off your back in front of them, you won’t get the reward you are hoping for.”

The slave broke immediately into a swift but very smooth run being especially careful to bring each foot down on the balls of his feet to cushion the shock for his rider. They fairly flew the fifty odd yards back to where the Captain and hostlers stood waiting. When she pulled the slave to a sliding stop in front of the Captain, a cheer for the Princess went up from all of the tribesmen that had gathered to watch.

With her command of “down boy,” the slave knelt.

Najya dismounted and commanded him to hold in his kneeling position. Stepping over to a nearby rack, she selected a slave leash then returned and snapped it to the single ring on the slave’s new collar.

“Give him plenty of water to drink then clean him up very well,” she ordered the leader of the hostlers as she handed him the leash. “I want to show him off.”

With the hostlers working rapidly together, in a few minutes the dirt and sweat had been washed from the slave’s body and he had been well rubbed down and oiled until his body shown. The chief hostler led the slave out of the hostlers’ canopied enclosure and handed his leash to the Princess. Najya took the leash in her left hand and tapped the slave on the back of his left knee with her doubled over whip causing the slave, once again, to drop to his knees. She mounted and settled herself on his back. Then, reaching forward, she carefully rotated the collar on the slave’s neck until the single ring and attached leash was moved to the back. Now, using the leash rather than the slave’s hair she gave two light tugs upward as she commanded him to rise which he did. Pulling the leash to the left to turn the slave in that direction, the Princess noticed that the collar tended to slip and rotate on his neck. Nonetheless the slave grasped her intention and turned left as she had wanted. A light tap with her whip, and the slave began walking in the direction to which he had been turned.

By this time, a number of the tribe’s members had gathered to watch their Princess and the magnificent male slave that she was riding. For half an hour Najya rode proudly back and forth through the crowd until everyone had gotten a chance to examine her mount. All expressed amazement at the imposing physical stature of the slave, and admiration for the Princess for her obvious ability to control him. Finally, after all of her subjects there had seen him, Najya turned the slave back toward the slave pens and in a final gesture of her dominance, gave him two light cracks with her whip putting him back into the soft running gait that he had taken earlier and covered the distance back to the pens in very short order.

The Ghazi’s slave pens were really pens in name only. They were actually just areas of ground surrounding a stout iron post driven deeply into the hard desert soil. Given the nomadic lifestyle of the Ghazi and all of the desert tribes, everything they owned had to be moved on a regular basis. With only slaves as draft animals, the movement of large metal cages or anything else suitable for the securing of large numbers of slaves was quite impractical. The Ghazi, like most other tribes had solved this problem by securing their slaves to something rather than in something. The slaves in a “pen” were all fastened by their collars to the heavy posts by chains of sufficient length to allow them to reach the food trough, the water trough and the open fronted tent that provided minimal protection from cold desert nights. They could also reach the waste pits that were periodically dug then recovered as they filled.

Generally, each “pen” secured ten slaves and was only likely to be filled at night. The Ghazi’s slaves were worked daily doing virtually all of the laborious tasks required to maintain the encampment. Each morning, slaves of both sexes were taken from the “pens”, leashed, and taken by the overseers that directed their work. In addition to their riveted collars most slaves were fitted with ankle chains even shorter than the one that the Princesses’ big male had worn earlier. Fastened in this way a slave could walk to perform his or her work, but was prevented from running to try to escape. Only slaves that were used to draw carts were allowed freedom to use their legs as their harnesses and traces kept them well secured.

A substantial number of the tribe’s slaves were kept in the “Pens” as they were considered common slaves or the property of the tribe itself with the Princess considered as their owner. The Ghazi’s frequent raids on other tribes added to these slaves on a regular basis requiring that a number of them be taken away to be sold in the port markets several times a year. In addition to common slaves, a number of the tribesmen and women owned personal slaves that they had bought from the Princess for their own use. These personal slaves were not kept in the pens, but were housed by their individual owners as they saw fit.

An exception to the very meager accommodations that the pens provided for the tribe’s slaves, were the facilities that the Princess had ordered for her special slaves such as the ones who drew her Royal Chariot. These slaves were still neck chained when in their pen but were fed much better and were allowed to eat from individual food bowls and drink from cups. They also slept in an enclosed warm and carpeted tent. In addition, instead of waste pits, the chariot teams used waste buckets that were regularly emptied by other slaves. The slaves of the royal chariot teams were well aware that their better living conditions depended on their performance in drawing the several Royal Chariots. As a result, they all tended to pull hard and to run fast whenever in the traces.

Back at the pens, Najya stopped the slave and remained mounted as she spoke with the Captain.

“As this day has proved to be more of a success than I anticipated, I would like to see you in my tent this evening,” she said smiling.

“Of course, Your Highness, after dinner as usual?” He asked also smiling. “It does appear that a celebration is in order.”

“No, why don’t you meet me there in a little while. I would enjoy some company while dining, tonight” she said, and turning the slave rode off toward a solitary tent separated a bit from the others in the pens.

Dismounting in front of the tent, the Princess picked up a lock that was attached to the end of a chain coming out from under the tent’s closed flap. Pulling a key on a golden chain from inside her blouse, she opened the lock and quickly re-locked it to the collar ring on the kneeling slave’s neck and unsnapped his leash.

“Wait here, boy,” she ordered. “What you’re looking for is inside, but I need to get it ready for you.”

Throwing back the flap of the tent the Princess walked in to see the kneeling female slave that she knew would be there. The slave was incredibly beautiful with the long almost black hair, dark brown eyes, large breasts and slender waist so typical of the females of this continent. The slave was chained by her collar with a long chain which lay coiled on the thick woven carpet that floored the tent. Her chain led to a heavy post driven deep into the ground next to the opening of the tent as did the other long chain that led outside which was now locked to the collar of the big male.

“Up, slave,” the Princess said to the kneeling girl who practically leapt to her feet.

Other than her collar the only other item the female slave wore was a metal and leather device that went around her waist and between her legs locking in the back which she had worn except when relieving herself for the past two weeks. The Princess had ordered that she be allowed no sexual contact during this time and the device had seen to it. Due to her beauty, this particular slave was used almost nightly as a reward to various tribesmen and occasionally tribeswomen who, for whatever reason, had especially pleased the Princess. As such she had become not only a slave to the Princess, but to her own heightened sexual needs as well. As the Princess unlocked and removed the device from the slave, her knees almost buckled in anticipation of the relief she so desperately needed.

Stepping back out of the tent the Princess spoke softly to the still kneeling male,

“Alright, boy, I believe you will find what I promised you, inside. She is so ready for you that you can smell her from here.”

“There is plenty of food for you there as well, but I rather think that your first interest is in satisfying your other appetite,” the Princess laughed knowingly.

Turning to leave Najya looked back and said to the slave as he entered the tent, “As I said there will be many others, but I believe that you will particularly enjoy this first one. Do not wear yourself out though, boy, as you and I are going riding together in the morning.”