Renegades of Gor

21 The River

"Let the first of the two females be fetched," said Aemilianus. It was now the middle of the morning, following yesterday's late-afternoon action at the piers.

The Tais moved with the current west on the Vosk. She led the main body of the flotilla westward. Ahead of us, in oblique formation, barely discernible, were four smaller galleys. These formed, as it were, an advance guard. Similarly, behind the main body of the flotilla, bringing up the rear, back a pasang or so, flying no colors, their markings concealed, were two galleys. One of these was the ship to whose captain I had spoken earlier, the Tina.

"Yes, Commander," said a man.

Aemilianus sat on the deck, rather before the steps leading up to the helm deck and, above that, to the height of the stern castle, leading against a backrest of canvas and rope. Calliodorus of Port Cos, his friend, stood near him. beside him, too, stood his aide, Surilius. Marsias, too, and the fellows whom I had encountered in the cell earlier, and who had fought with us on the walkway, were there, too. The grizzled fellow, too, had asked to be present. These were wounded. Marsias and one other fellow were lying on pallets. The others of the wounded sat on the deck. The young man, Marcus, was there, too. It was he who had made it through to Port Cos and returned with the ships which had made possible the evacuation from the piers. Now, in spite of his youth, he stood high in these councils, those of the survivors of Ar's Station. Many others were there, too, several of whom had fought with me on the wall and elsewhere. Among them were the two young fellows who had served me so well on the wall, as my messengers, and had served well later, too, on the landing. Those who stood with us here, I gathered, stood high among the survivors of Ar's Station.

I looked about myself.

It was remarkable to see the difference in the fellows from Ar's Station, now that they had had some food and a decent night's sleep, though only stretched out on the crowded deck of a galley. It had been perhaps the first night's sleep many of them had had in weeks, not disrupted by watches or alarms.

The "first of the two females" had not yet been fetched. They were arranging a special chaining for her. This would be the one in the improvised hood. I had had her hood pushed up yesterday evening and early this morning, though at neither time in such a way as to uncover her eyes, and, after having had her warned to silence, had had her gag removed, and had had her fed and watered. Though she would know that she was on a galley and moving with the current on the Vosk, thus west, she had no real idea as to where she was or what was to be done with her. She was being kept with other women, also ordered to silence, who, with one exception, were slaves. The voices she had heard about her, for the most part, naturally enough, given the crew of the Tais, would have had Cosians accents, or accents akin to them.

Yesterday afternoon, shortly after we had cleared the harbor at Ar's Station, I had drawn the mask of Marsias from my features, and had shaken my head, glad to feel the air of the Vosk about me, so fresh and clear.

"I thought it was you," had said Aemilianus, weakly. "It had to be you. your escape and that of the heinous traitress, Lady Claudia, became generally known after the recall of the troops from the citadel, in the retreat to the landing. We were informed of it by the good Marsias, and his fellow guardsmen. Too, there was no sword like yours in Ar's Station."

"You might perhaps have joined with those of Cos," had said a fellow, "in the fighting. Why did you not do so?

"The wall needed defending," I has said. "One thing led to another." "Ad you not held the wall as long as you did," had said Aemilianus. "And had you not further delayed Cos at the gate, and on the walkway, the day would have been finished long before the arrival of Calliodorus."

Several men had assented to this.

"It was nothing," I had said.

Back by the port side of the stairs leading to the helm deck, a few feet from where Aemilianus sat, knelt Shirley, his beautiful blond slave. No longer was she so pale and drawn as before. Now she was considerably freshened by rest and food. Her blond hair which had been closely cropped, if not shaved, early in the siege of Ar's Station was now growing out. And, already, with the rest and food, her beauty gave hints of returning to a voluptuousness that brings high prices on a slave block, and can drive a master half mad with passion. Too, looking at her, I realized that Aemilianus, too, must be feeling much better, and much stronger. She was in chains. Though the girl loves the master with all her heart and would never dream of fleeing from him, absurd though such a dream might be on Gor, given the branding, the collaring, the closeness of the society, and such, she knows that she is upon occasion to be put in chains. In this act is symbolized his desire of her, that she is worth chaining and keeping. And in this act is symbolized his power over her. Despite their love, she is still his, and a slave.

Even the gentlest and kindest of masters has absolute power over the slave. She is no less owned by him that she would be by the cruelest brute on Gor. Elated and reassured then is the woman that she is chained, in this finding continuing evidence of her master's desire for her, his passion for her, his prizing of her, his determination to keep her for himself. And for her part, she rejoices that she is helpless to escape him, that she truly belongs to him, that she is truly his, legally and otherwise, and that she must, as she intensely desires to do, continue to live for service and love. It is not merely pleasant to own a slave, to dress her as you please, if you wish to permit her clothing, to have her at your bidding, to do with her as you please; it is exalting. The man who has not owned a slave has no conception of the maximums of sexuality, nor has the woman who has not been owned.

"How is my old friend Callimachus, commander of the forces of the Vosk League?" asked Aemilianus of Calliodorus. The body sovereign in the Vosk League, incidentally, at least as I understand it, is its High Council, which is composed of representatives from the member towns.

This Calliodorus, I gathered, then, whoever he was, would be the appointee of that council.

"Hard at work at his desk, attending to numerous administrative duties," said Calliodorus.

"Doubtless he will also be certain to be publicly visible in Victoria," smiled Aemilianus.

"As would you in his situation," smiled Calliodorus.

"Doubtless he will be astonished to learn of yesterday's action at Ar's Station. "Doubtless," agreed Calliodorus. "We may rest assured, of course, that he will conduct a careful investigation."

Aemilianus laughed.

The results of this investigation, I gathered, might prove to be inconclusive. We heard the sound of chain and saw the "first of the two females to be fetched forth."

It was she in the improvised hood.

She was led forth, before us, in her small steps, by a hand on her left arm. Then she was sat on the deck, before Aemilianus.

She sat there, hooded. I do not think she was sure, actually, where she was, except that she had presumably been conducted further aft, or if anyone were about.

She sat there for a moment, listening. We were silent.

No longer wore she the leather collar, with its leash. No longer were her hands thonged behind her.

But she was in sirik.

The metal collar was fastened on her throat. From it a long chain, dangled downward. To this chain, near her waist, was attached another chain, terminating at each end with a wrist ring, into which rings her wrists had been placed and locked. At the end of the chain dangling from the collar, to which the wrist-ring was attached, was an ankle-ring chain, terminating at each end with an ankle ring, into which her ankles had been placed and locked. The neck chain was rather long and if she were to stand some of it would have lain upon the deck. The device permits of numerous adjustments. As it was now adjusted, her wrists had some twelve inches of play, her ankles some fourteen inches of play. The smallness of her steps had been a function of the current adjustment of her ankle chaining.

She sat on the deck. She felt the ankle rings and the chain between them, and the neck chain, and then, with each hand, she tried to slip the wrist ring from the opposite wrist. She could not, of course, begin to do so. She was exploring the device. Then she put her hands on the neck chain and moved up it, with her fingers, and pulled it against its staple on the collar. Then she felt the staple, jerked the chain again against it, and convinced herself that it was well secured there. Then she felt, wonderingly, the collar itself. It was well on her, and locked. She seemed puzzled, and frightened.

The device had been only put on her a few moments ago. This was the first time, I gathered, that she had worn slave chains.

She probably had no idea how beautiful she looked in them.

Although she could now reach her hood and gag, given the length of the neck chain, which permitted her to lift her chained wrists to her head, she did not, of course, do so. She would not dare to so much as touch them, let alone remove them. She was not unfamiliar with Gorean disciplines.

"Kneel," said Aemilianus, gently.

Swiftly she knelt.

She began to tremble. The chains made small sounds.

I gathered that she did not know before whom she knelt. Also, interestingly, absurdly, it seemed that she was not altogether sure of her condition and status, obvious though it must be to anyone who looked upon her.

Aemilianus made a small sign to Calliodorus.

"You may put your head to the deck," said Calliodorus.

The girl did so, putting her palms to the deck.

"You may raise it," he said.

She raised her head. She was then kneeling as before, amongst us.

"Free her mouth," said Calliodorus.

I crouched beside the girl and undid the hood and pushed it up, and fastened it then as a half hood on her. In this way the effectiveness of the hood as a blindfold had not been compromised, for even an instant. I then untied the gag strips from the back of her neck, and pulled away the gag. I then, carefully, delicately, removed the mass of sopped wadding from her mouth. I put it on the deck beside her, heavy and sodden, with the rest of the gag. In this way these things were at hand, and her mouth might then, at our convenience, if we wished, be restored swiftly to its former condition of helpless closure. "You are not branded," observed Calliodorus.

"No! No!" she cried eagerly.

"Do you wish to live?" he inquired.

"Yes!" she said, fervently.

"Are you, or have you ever been, a woman of Ar's Station?" he asked. "Yes!" she said.

"How, came it then," he asked, "that you were in bonds on the piers, leashed and thonged, hooded and gagged?"

"An escaping prisoner did such things to me," she said. "Hooded, I was not recognized. Gagged, I could not make my plight known."

"Do you know what happened yesterday on the piers?" he asked.

"I have only a very imperfect understanding of what occurred," she said. "Twice on the piers I fainted, and was unconscious. I was awakened by the kicks of free women and conducted helplessly aboard this vessel."

"What do you think occurred on the piers?" he asked.

"Ships came to the piers," she said, "and I think that many on the piers, including myself, were embarked aboard them."

"Cosian ships?" he said.

"I do not know," she said, miserably. "There were Cosian ships about." "But surely you have learned much since you were brought on board," he said. "I was kept with women," she said, "who were ordered to silence." "What do you think was the fate of the women who brought you on board?" he asked.

"I do not know," she said.

"Do you think they were with you last night, similarly ordered to silence?" "I do not know," she said.

"What have you heard on the ship?" he asked.

"Little," she said. "I have heard men conducting the business of the ship." "Have you perhaps formed some conjectures as to the origins of these men?" "Yes," she said.

"On what basis?" he asked.

"On their speech," she said.

"Their speech?" he asked.

"Their accents," she said.

"Does my speech have an accent?" asked Calliodorus, interested.

"Yes," she said.

"Ah," he said. He, like most people, was not accustomed to thinking of his own speech as having an accent.

"And what is my accent?" he asked.

"I make it out to be Cosian," she whispered.

"And what of the accents of the men?" he asked.

"The same," she said.

"In whose power are you then?" he asked.

"In the power of Cosians!" she said, suddenly, now sure of it.

"You may speak," he said.

"Spare me!" she suddenly begged. "Spare me, noble Cosians!" She clasped her hands together piteously, holding them forth toward Calliodorus and Aemilianus. "Spare me!" she wept. "Take pity on a female!"

The men were silent, observant.

Their silence must have been disconcerting to the girl. She indicated her beauty, as she could, with her chained hands.

"I think that I am not unattractive," she said, piteously, desperately. "See? See? And it is my hope that my face, too, should you be pleased to look upon it, may be found not unattractive!"

"Do you seek to interest your captors?" he asked.

"Yes!" she said.

"As a female?" he asked.

"Yes!" she said.

"Say it," said he.

"I seek to interest my captors," she said, "as a female!" "What have you have of us?" he inquired.

"My life!" she wept.

"On what condition?" he asked.

"Any of your election," she said.

"Absolute bondage?" he asked.

"Of course!" she said, unhesitantly.

"Even to Cosians?" he asked.

"Certainly!" she said.

"Why should Cosians accept you as a slave?" he asked.

"Ia€”I do not understand," she faltered.

"Do you think it would be in their interest to accept you as a slave?" he asked. "I do not understand," she said.

"Do you think you would prove to be of any value to them as a slave?" "I would strive desperately to be of value," she said.

"Perhaps you should be bloodied and thrown overboard to river sharks." "No!" she wept.

"Do you think that just any woman can make a satisfactory slave?"

"I do not know," she said, "but I beg the opportunity to try!"

"You would serve Cosians then?" he asked.

"Yes!" she wept.

"Belly," he said.

She slipped to her belly on the deck, her hands up, beneath her shoulders. She lifted herself a little from the deck, lifting her head, still half concealed in hood, to Calliodorus and Aemilianus. Her lips were lovely, and trembling. "Go to your back," said Calliodorus.

She lay on her back.

Suddenly she lifted one knee, and pointed her toes. She had realized then, suddenly, that something was being done to her analogous, in its small way, to putting a girl through slave paces. She tried her best to be appealing. "To your belly, again," said Calliodorus.

He had hardly spoken before she was on her belly, as before. Quick was she, she would show him, to obey.

"Kneel," he said.

She returned to her kneeling position. "Of what are you worthy, female?" he inquired.

"Only to be a slave," she said.

"Speak," he said.

"I beg the inestimable honor and privilege of being made an absolute slave," she said.

"To Cosians?" he asked.

"To any man," she said.

It irritated me that she had spoken as she had to them for it was as if she were not already a slave, and an unconditional, categorical and absolute slave. She had not even addressed the men as "Master." Clearly she suspected, or hoped, and nothing had as yet occurred to gainsay this suspicion or hope, that they did not know she was already a slave, that she had only yesterday spoken self-irreversible words of self-enslavement on the upper battlements. She did not know, of course, that I was also on board.

"Unhood her," said Calliodorus.

I stepped back, so that the slave could not see me.

Then the slave was blinking and crying, and rubbing her eyes with the backs of her fists.

Then, having managed to adjust somewhat to the light, and managing to achieve some grasp of her surroundings, and seeing in the midst of what men she knelt, she looked about herself wildly, in consternation.

"Is this the behavior typical of the women of Ar's Station?" smiled Calliodorus, glancing at Aemilianus.

"Say more simply it is the behavior typical of women," smiled Aemilianus. "Commander," begged the girl.

"You are aboard the Tais, a warship of Port Cos," said Aemilianus. "You have had the honor of conversing with her captain, my former comrade in arms, and friend, Calliodorus."

"Port Cos!" she said.

"Yes," he said.

"That accounts for the accents," she said.

"Precisely," he said.

"It is true," said a man, "her face is not unattractive."

She blushed.

"I understand nothing of what is going on," she said to Aemilianus. "Ten ships of Port Cos, and fifteen others," said Aemilianus, "entered the harbor of Ar's Station yesterday afternoon, shortly before what would presumably have been the last attack of Cos on the piers. These twenty-five ships neutralized what forces of Cos could be brought to bear at that point and succeeded in evacuating the piers."

"Then we are among friends," she said.

"Most of us," said Aemilianus.

"Why am I in chains?" she asked.

"Slave chains," said Aemilianus.

"Why am I in slave chains?" she asked.

"Do you not know?" he asked.

She was silent, wondering feverishly, doubtless, how much he knew.

"My commander can see," she then said, lightly, "that the only collar I wear is a portion of my chaining, and that I am not branded."

I stood rather behind her, my arms folded. My face must have appeared somewhat severe. Certainly I was angry. Though she had not explicitly claimed to be free, it seemed clear that she was hoping to be taken as such.

"Perhaps," she said, "my chains may not be removed, and I may be given suitable raiment, that of a free woman, that I may take a place among my free sisters." She had certainly worded that carefully, I thought. She had not said "my place," which might suggest she had a right to it, but "a place," which was compatible with it merely being a place she took, with or without title, so to speak. "You are on trial," he said.

She looked at him, startled, aghast.

"Or," said he, "if you are a slave, you are being given a small hearing." "I do not understand," she said.

"Perhaps you do," he said.

"On what charges?" she asked.

"The charges, if you are a free woman," he said, "are several, such as the intent to deceive with respect to caste, the jeopardizing of fellow citizenesses by disgarding traditional concealments and modesties, to your own advantage in the event of the taking of the city, for example, going barefoot and baring your calves, and such, and a lack of patriotism, as evidenced by having refused to cut your hair, to supply needed war material to your compatriots." "But you can see, Commander," she said, suddenly lifting her hands to her head, "that my hair has been cut, and shortly, too!" She rubbed her hand over the brush of hair on her head.

"It is our understanding that your hair was shorn only yesterday, and against your will, in a cell in the citadel, by an escaping prisoner."

"Surely you do not believe that, Commander," she said.

"Lady Claudia, the traitress, and an undisputed free woman," he said, "is in our power. Shall she be brought forward to testify as tot he circumstances in which, and the time at which, your hair was shorn?"

"No, Commander," said the girl.

"You do not dispute what I have said then?" he asked.

"No, Commander," she said, defeated.

"It is also believed that you carried much gold with you, in your purse, presumably, again, to improve your chances of persuading victorious Cosians to spare you, resources incidentally much beyond the reach of most women of Ar's Station, thus, again, supplying you with an advantage over them. Is this disputed?"

"No, Commander," she said. She knew, of course, that Lady Claudia could testify as to the presence of the gold in her purse. Indeed, interestingly, although this was not known to the girl, that very gold had been used after the fall of the gate to assist in the escape of Aemilianus and his colleagues to the piers. I had scattered it behind mercenaries, to clear a passage.

"You have not charged me," she said, "with not wearing robes of concealment." "In Ar's Station," he said, "as in Ar, robes of concealment, precisely, are not legally obligatory for free women, no more than the veil. Such things are more a matter of custom. On the other hand, as you know, there are statutes prescribing certain standards of decorum for free women. For example, they may not appear naked in the streets, as may slaves. Indeed, a free woman who appears in public in violation of these standards of decorum, for example, with her arms or legs too much bared, may be made a slave.

"There was no crime then," she said, "in my appearing in public as I did, even though, say, I wore but a single layer and my calves, ankles and feet were bared."

"Whether the degree of your exposure was sufficient to violate the codes of decorum is a subtle point," said Aemilianus, "but I will not press it." "Surely may low-caste girls go about with only as much, or even less, she said. "But you are of the Merchants," said Aemilianus, smiling.

"A low caste!" she said.

I smiled. The Merchants often maintain that they are a high caste, and should, accordingly, be included in the councils of high caste. Now, however, it seemed she was eager to accept that, and stress that, the Merchants was not a high caste. The traditional high castes of Gor are the Initiates, Scribes, Builders, Physicians and Warriors.

"I do not press the point," said Aemilianus.

"And if I dressed in such a manner that my caste would not be clear," she said, "it is no more than many women do upon occasion. Surely such women even reserve the caste robes and colors for such things as formal occasions, and some even for ceremonial functions."

"True," said Aemilianus.

"I do not think then I should be held accountable under the charge of attempting to deceive with respect to caste," she said. "For example, I engaged in no business under false pretenses, and I never claimed explicitly to be of a caste other than my own." It seemed to me that she did have a point here. The legal problems connected with intent to deceive with respect to caste, of course, problems of the sort which presumably constitute the rationale of the law, usually come up in cases of fraud or impersonation, for example, with someone pretending to be of the Physicians. "And, too," she continued, "if conquering Cosians should have seen fit to take me for a simple, low-caste maid, I see no reason why the laws of Ar's Station should now be exercised against me. What would be the point of that, to protect Cosians from a mistake which they never had the opportunity to make?"

"You hoped by your mode of dress, and such," said Aemilianus, "to conceal that you were of a caste on which vengeances might be visited, and thus to improve your chances of survival."

She tossed her head, and the chain dangling from her collar moved in its staple. "I am not a man," she said. "Indeed, I can barely lift, let alone wield, the weapons of men. I have nothing of their strength. I have nothing of their power. I am other than they. I am a woman. I am something quite different from a man. I think that I am entitled, then, to attempt to secure my survival as best I can, and in my own way."

"In the way of a female?" asked Aemilianus.

"Yes!" she said.

"In doing what you did," he said, "in going barefoot, in baring your calves, in not having your hair shortened, in carrying gold and such, you arrogated to yourself considerable advantages over other women in Ar's Station." "It is every woman for herself," she said. "It is not my fault if other women were not as clever as I. It is not my fault if they did not judiciously bare their bodies, and design themselves clothing such as might appeal to a conquering invader. Too, it is not my fault if they lacked the gold wherewith to sweeten a petition to foes for the collar. Am I to be blamed, too, for being more beautiful than many women of Ar's Station, for I am certain that I am, and for thus having some additional unfair advantage over them?"

"Why did you not donate your hair to the defense of the city?" asked Aemilianus. "I did not want to," she said.

"Why not?"

"It was pretty," she said, angrily.

"And?" he asked.

"I thought I would be more attractive with it," she said, angrily. "I thought if I were captured by Cosians, I would be more likely to be spared, if it was not cut."

"While the women of Ar's Station had theirs cut?"

"If they wished," she said.

"And thus might be less likely to be spared?" he asked.

"That is their business, not mine," she said.

"What of the desperate need of cordage for catapults? he asked. "Let the hair of slaves be shorn," she said.

"And what if there was not enough? he asked.

"Then get hair from the women who are willing to give it," she said. "What if there was not enough?" he asked.

"My hair would make no difference," she said.

"What if all the free women took that position? he asked.

"They did not," she said.

"For one in chains you speak rather arrogantly," he observed.

"Surely they will be removed in a moment," she said.

"What did you do to contribute to the defense of the city?" he asked. "I accepted a duty," she said.

"Bit it is true, is it not," he asked, "that you did this only late in the siege?"

"Yes," she said.

"And only after it had been made clear that women who did not participate in the efforts of defense were to be lowered over the wall at noon, naked, to Cosians." "Yes," she said, angrily.

"What duty did you choose?" he asked.

"I served as a warder in the citadel," she said.

"Why did you choose that duty?" he asked.

"I thought it would be easy," she said.

"And in such a place," he said, perhaps it would have seemed less inappropriate to wear garments such as you did, and go barefoot, and such?"

"Perhaps," she said.

"You did not choose to work on the wall? he asked.

"No," she said.

"Why not?" he asked.

"I am not strong," she said.

Straighten your back," he said.

She did so.

"There seems nothing wrong with your body," he said.

One or two of the men smiled.

"Slight as it is," he said, "it seems such that it could be appropriately subjected to lengthy servile labors."

She looked at him, frightened.

"Or perhaps more appropriately yet," he said, "to numerous, various labors of a more delightful sort, labors particularly suitable for females." "Commander!" she protested.

He said nothing. I wondered if he were not, in his mercy, giving her an opportunity to request permission to speak. I was curious to see if she would ask such permission.

"Have I heard the sum of these charges? she asked.

"Your behavior of this morning might be included," he said, "in which, before your compatriots, you in effect begged the collar of Cosians."

"I had no idea, Commander, that you or the others were here," she said. "We gathered that," he said.

There was laughter.

"I beg your indulgence," she said. "I am only a female."

Aemilianus did not speak.

"I do not think my behavior so untoward, unpredictable or surprising for my sex," she said.

The face of Aemilianus remained expressionless.

"I do not think that other women, those of Ar's Station, or of other cities, under similar circumstances, would have behaved differently," she said. "Do you think they would have behaved so, so readily?" he asked.

"I do not know," she said. "Perhaps stupider women would not have. It is every woman for herself!"

"I understand," said Aemilianus.

"If that, then," she said, "is the sum of the charges against me, I request that they be dismissed. Surely my defense, even if you do not approve of me, is sound. Surely everything that I have done, including the matter of wanting to keep my hair, lies within the prerogatives of a free female. Similarly, it is surely within her rights to pursue her own best interests, selfishly or not, as she understands them. Similarly, it is not her fault if other women are not as favored as she with intelligence and wealth, and perhaps beauty. If there is any objection to my conduct, surely it must be merely that I was not, in your opinion, sufficiently patriotic, and surely it is no crime to be insufficiently patriotic. Therefore, remove my chains." At this point she lifted her chained wrists to Aemilianus. "The matter," said Aemilianus, "is considerably more complex than you seem to understand. There are more subtleties here than you seem to realize. For one thing, your conviction that it is not a crime to be insufficiently patriotic may not be shared by everyone. In particular, it may not be shared by those who risked their lives in defense of the city, those who, say, fought upon the wall, or at the gate, or on the landing or walkway. Secondly, there is the consideration, subtle at times, to be sure, of conduct indicating suitability for the collar."

She shuddered.

The principle he had alluded to pertains to conduct in a free woman which is taken as sufficient to warrant her reduction to slavery. The most common application of this principle occurs, in areas such as fraud and theft. Other applications may occur, for example, in cases of indigency and vagrancy. Prostitution, rare on Gor because of female slaves, is another case. The woman are taken, enslaved, cleaned up and controlled. Indulgence in sensuous dance is another case. Sensuous dance is almost always performed by slaves on Gor. A free woman who performs such dancing publicly is almost begging for the collar. In some cities the sentence of bondage is mandatory for such a woman.

"Conduct indicating suitability for the collar," of course, can be interpreted in various ways, and more broadly and narrowly. It is almost always understood, of course, fortunately for women, and as I suppose the phrase itself makes clear, in the special legal sense of the phrase, as having to do with overt behavior rather than psychological predispositions and such. Many Goreans believe that all women are natural slaves, and thus, in a sense, are all eminently suitable for the collar. But even taken in the appropriate, legal behavioral sense the phrase is, as may well be imagined, subject to diverse interpretations.

For example, in the present one, a judge would be expected to decide whether or not the behaviors of the sort performed, constituted behavior for which the collar might be suitably imposed. Also important, of course, at least in the eyes of some, might be her failures in the defense effort, her refusal to be shorn, contributing her hair for use as catapult cordage, in spite of the desperate need for such materials, and the fact that it was only after the imposition of a severe penalty for noncompliance that she accepted even a small duty in the siege.

It was on the basis of considerations such as these, and perhaps cumulatively, taking into consideration their conjoint weight, that a determination might be made as to whether or not it was fitting that she be made a slave. Her begging for a Cosian collar but moments ago, and her open admission of the fittingness and rightness of her being collared, interestingly, would probably not be considered at all. In most cities such things are taken for granted, the natural righfulness of slavery for females, and such, and are accordingly seldom regarded as germane with respect to the legal imposition of a sentence of bondage.

"You do not think then that these charges should be dismissed out of hand!" she asked, faltering.

"I would certainly not think so," said Aemilianus.

"I see," she said, frightened. She was kneeling up, off her heels.

We heard a Vosk gull screaming overhead.

From where I stood I could see the linked ankle rings on her fair ankles, and part of the long chain running from the ankle-ring chain up, before her body, to the staple on her collar. The wrist-ring chain, in front, was attached to the same long chain. I could see also the metal collar on her neck. It was in plain view, of course, as I had cut her hair.

"What then is your decision upon the charges, Commander? she asked. "'Charges'?" he asked.

"Yes," she said.

"Charges," he said, "are appropriate to free women."

"Commander?" she asked.

"They might be involved, for example," he said, "in a trial."

"Of course, Commander," she said.

"Whereas in your case," he said, "such considerations, being pertinent to free women, may be simply beside the point."

"But surely I have been on trial!" she said.

"Perhaps, rather," he said, "as I suggested earlier, we are not engaged her in a trial but in something quite different." "I do not understand," she said.

"Perhaps this is more in the nature of a little hearing, a quire informal little hearing, or inquiry."

"Commander?" she faltered.

"And perhaps what we are really concerned with here are not charges, which are pertinent only to free persons, but causes for punishment, which are pertinent to slaves."

She looked at him in terror.

"To be sure," he said, "anything, with or without reason, may be done to a slave."

"Commandera€”" she said.

"I do not think we need now concern ourselves with matters such as intentional misrepresentations of caste, violations of decorum, arrogation of advantages, jeopardization of fellow citizens, and insufficiency of patriotism. We must rather consider matters which, I believe, are more pertinent in your case, and, I fear, unfortunately for you, far more serious."

"What matters?" she asked, terrified.

"Chief among them," he said, "would seem to be misrepresentation of status." "Ia€”I do not understand," she whispered.

"Impersonation of a free woman," he said.

She did not dare to speak.

"And, of course," he said, "there are several associated considerations, such as arrogant speech, speaking without permission, and failure to use the proper forms of address."

She shuddered.

"You may speak," he said.

She lifted her hands toward her collar. "You can see that the only collar I wear," she said, "is a portion of my chaining. You can see that I am not branded!"

"Are you, or are you not, a free woman?" asked Aemilianus. "Speak clearly." She squirmed, kneeling on the deck. She trembled in the chains. She looked from one face to another, before her, and at the sides. Wildly she must have been considering whether or not there might be any there who had heard her speak the self-irreversible words of self-enslavement on the upper battlements. Then, kneeling up, again off her heels, she straightened her back, and, I fear, was preparing to respond boldly, and negatively, to the question of Aemilianus. She lifted her head, she drew in her breath.

"Consider your answer carefully," I said to her, from behind her.

Hearing my voice she suddenly uttered a shriek of misery, flung her hands up in the wrist rings, until the chaining impeded their further movements, and jerked helplessly in the chains. Then she lowered her hands and wavered. I feared she might faint. Then she bent over at the waist and put her head down, and turned half about, on her knees. Then, lifting her head a little, she looked up at me. I looked down at the slave, my arms folded.

Then she again, quickly, put her head down.

She then turned again, on her knees, to face Aemilianus. "I am a slave!" she cried, prostrating herself before him, her chained wrists under her thighs. "Forgive me, Master! Have mercy on me, Master!"

She had seen me on the ship, standing there, a free man, among peers. She had had some concept, doubtless, of what I had done on the wall, if nowhere else. I did not think she was under any delusion as to who would be believed in any conflict of testimonies. Too, of course, Lady Claudia, still a free person, who could render free testimony, not even extracted under torture, for example, had been present. Too, the young crossbowman, though she would not know his identity, as she had been hooded, had been there later, when she had, by the code of whimpers, acknowledged herself a slave, and before him, and me, had performed an enticing, placatory slave behavior. She was surely under no delusion, now, as to whether Aemilianus and the others knew the truth. They had merely been playing with a slave.

"It is a serious matter," said Aemilianus to her, "when a she-tarsk claims not to be a she-tarsk."

"I did not claim explicitly to be a free woman, Master!" she wept.

There was laughter from those about. Even Aemilianus smiled. Her entire behavior had been calculated to deceive those about as to her status.

"Please forgive a slave, Master!" she wept. She lifted herself a little, timidly. There was laughter.

I had not wanted her to assert, explicitly, in response to the question of Aemilianus, concerning her status, that she was a free woman. although she did not realize it at the time, she was already then in deep enough difficulties. In making clear to her the futility of such a lie, sure to be devastating in its consequences, and, indeed, the futility of attempting to prolong her entire absurd charade. I had saved her subjection to hideous tortures, and perhaps her life. It is a very serious "cause for punishment" on the part of a slave to conceal or deny her status. Normally, of course, there is very little danger of this sort of thing occurring, as she is usually collared and branded, and, usually, is clad in a distinctive manner.

"Kneel," said Aemilianus.

The girls struggled up, in her chains, and then knelt before him. She crossed her chained hands over her breasts, covering herself. This was interesting, this sudden, poignant touch of frightened modesty, now that she was aware of her slave vulnerability.

Aemilianus' eyes were upon her. She lowered her hands. He continued to regard her. She then knelt back on her heels. Still his gaze did not leave her. She then, blushing, opened her knees.

"How did you become a slave?" he asked. He knew, of course.

"I confessed my natural slavery," she said, "and then spoke words of self-enslavement."

"At which point," said Aemilianus, "you ceased to be a person, and became a property."

"Yes, Master," she whispered.

"An animal."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Do you think it is acceptable for properties, for animals, to pretend to the status of persons?"

"No, Master!" she said.

"But yet you did so."

"Forgive me, Master!" she begged.

"I have a mind to turn you over to free women," he said.

"Please, no, Master!" she wept, terrified.

"What do you think should be your disposition? he asked. She looked up, startled. It seemed she thought wildly, excitedly, for a moment. But then she put down her head, humbly, fearfully. "Whatever master pleases," she said.

"It is a suitable answer," said Aemilianus. I drew a deep breath. That, I feared, had been a close one.

"You are in slave chains, observed Aemilianus.

"It is fitting for me, Master," she said. "I am a slave."

"What is your name?" he asked.

"I have no name," she said. "I have not yet been named."

"You were eager to serve Cosians," he said.

"Or any man, Master," she whispered.

"You were not pleasing," he said.

"Forgive me, Master!" she said.

"Put her to one side," said Aemilianus, "and bring forth the other female." Two men took the former Lady Publia, now an unnamed female slave, by the arms and pulled her to one side, where they put her on her on her belly on the deck, her chained wrists under her.

In another moment another figure, also in sirik, was produced. The sturdy collar of the sirik, from which the central vertical chain depended, could not be seen on her in front, or at the sides, because of her veil. One could see it, of course, at the back of her neck, below the white, scarflike turban. Too, of course, once could see, in front, the dependent chain, the wrist rings and ankle rings, and such. I saw the figure's eyes, frightened, meet mine as she was drawn forth, with small, hurried steps. She was put on her knees before Aemilianus. She looked to one side and saw the former Lady Publia, naked, in sirik, lying on her belly, on the deck.

"Consider," said Aemilianus, "the exciting costume in which the prisoner appears before us, the baring of so much of the arms, the baring of the calves, the ankles, the feet, the cling of it, indicating it conceals no undergarments but only female, how closely it resembles in may ways that of some simple, humble, impoverished, low-caste maid, and yet how cleverly it is contrived to display its occupant, and in a fashion calculated to stimulate the capture appetites of vigorous men, men accustomed to look upon females as slaves and loot, as prizes and pleasures." There was assent to this. I am sure that more than one man there wished to tear those taunting rags from the beauty they bedecked.

The former Lady Publia, lying at the side, groaned. A fellow kicked her. She was then silent.

"Are these ingenious rags yours?" asked Aemilianus of the figure kneeling before him.

"No," she said.

"They belonged once, did they not, to a woman called Lady Publia, of Ar's Station?"

"Yes," she said.

"Why are you wearing them?" asked Aemilianus.

"I wore them that I not be recognized," she said.

"You would fear then," he asked, "to be recognized?"

"Yes," she said.

"You had wished to be taken, perhaps, for the former Lady Publia, of Ar's Station?"

"Yes," she said.

"Let us see who this woman is," said Aemilianus, "who has disguised herself as the former Lady Publia, and who for some reason, it seems, fears to be recognized." He made a small sign. A man then, carefully, not hurrying, removed the veil and turban.

The free woman knelt very straight. She held her head up, her neck in the closely fitting, now-visible collar, not trying to hide anything.

"Is she recognized? asked Aemilianus.

"She is," said more than one man, grimly.

"I think I understand now," said Aemilianus, "why you feared to be recognized." Lady Claudia was silent.

"You are the traitress, Lady Claudia," he said.

"Yes," she said.

"You attempted escape," he said.

"Yes," she said.

"But you have not escaped, have you? he asked.

"No," she said. "I have not escaped." In a way, I thought that this was ironic. On the piers, had Cosians swarmed over them, doing slaughter, and, where it pleased them, making slaves, her beauty, which was considerable, bared and submitted, might have found favor with conquerors. She might even have been thrown chained to an officer, thenceforth to be his and serve him with perfection, at least until, say, he might tire of her, and, say, give or sell her to another. She might even have served in her way as a souvenir to one fellow or another of the action at Ar's Station. More mercy might she then have found in the wielder of a bloody sword on the piers than in the abstractions of the justice of her own city. The man with the sword is at least swayable; he is at least human and real.

"You have been found guilty of treason against your city, and are under sentence of impalement, " said Aemilianus. "Do you gainsay either of these assertions?" "No," she said.

Aemilianus turned to Marsias, who lay nearby, wounded, reclining on one elbow, on a pallet. "Marsais," said he, "have you the strength to carry out the sentence?"

The man nodded.

"Do you, Lady Claudia," asked Aemilianus, "regret your treason?" "Keenly," she said.

"For you were apprehended," he said.

"Yes," she said. "But it goes much beyond such simplicities."

"Speak," he said.

"I have learned," she said, "in the cell, and in the arms of a man, what I am, truly. I forsook the softness and the reality of my being for ambition and cruelty. I had not understood earlier what it was to be a woman, or the joys, and meaning, of service and love. I sought power when I, rightfully, should have been subject to it, reveling in helplessness, submission and love. I did great wrong in seeking, one such as I, to interfere in the destiny of states, which is not my province. I have brought pain to myself and others. I am pleased only that my acts, as far as I know, had no consequences seriously deleterious to my city or her citizens."

"You accept the justice of your impalement?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, "as I am a free woman. But I think it would be more appropriate if I were fed to sleen."

"Such things are for slaves, he said.

"Yes, Commander," she said. "Look over there," he said, indicating the former Lady Publia, chained and prone. "That is a slave," he said.

"Yes," said Lady Claudia.

"Are you like her?" he asked, scornfully.

"Yes," she said.

The former Lady Publia, so helpless, looked at her, gratefully, with tears in her eyes.

"No, you are not," said Aemilianus, "for you are free."

"But I envy her," said Lady Claudia. "She is at least free to be what she is, and wholly, but I am not."

The slave, frightened, moved a little in her chains. The links made a tiny sound on the deck, near her ankles. Looking about, I saw that more than one man would have been interested in having her.

"Has a suitable spear been prepared?" asked Aemilianus.

"I have seen to it," said Marsias.

"Let her garments be removed," said Aemilianus.

It took but a moment to pull the rags back, and down, from her body. It would take another moment or so to remove them completely, for them to be cut or torn from her, as they were now held on her by the chaining of the sirik, that of her wrists. Men's eyes glistened. I heard soft whistles, the intakings of breath, small, almost inadvertent gasps, and other tributes, somewhat more vulgar, things such as small clicks and the smackings of lips, to her beauty, noises which would generally be expected to great the revelation of he beauty of a slave, rather than a free woman. She blushed, and yet was proud. I am sure, of her beauty. She did have superb slave curves. I did not doubt that what she would bring a good price in a slave market. Her entire body gloriously made clear a luscious hormonal richness and an exquisite femininity. She was a beautiful woman. The rags then had been cut from her and thrown to the side. She knelt then before us, beautifully. Many men, including myself, struck our left shoulders in applause.

There was little doubt that Aemilianus himself was impressed with her.

I think that any man might have been impressed with her, whether he found her a free prisoner on the deck of the Tais or in some slave market, chained on a bench, awaiting a buyer. "You could have been a bred slave," he said.

"In a sense I am a bred slave," she said, "for I am a woman."

"The spear is ready," said a man.

"Let her chains be removed," said Aemilianus, "and her hands tied behind her. Use a belly thong."

With the belly thong, presumably her hands would be tied closely, tightly, at the small of her back. This is an excellent, general tie. It is seldom, however, if ever, used in impalements. Apparently Aemilianus had call for the tie, in this context, as an act of mercy. He did not want her to be able to get her fingers on the spear which, in their futility and helplessness, might delay, or deepen or prolong the agony of impalement.

"May I speak?" I inquired.

One fellow, with a thong, and the key to the Lady Claudia's locks had already stepped forward. When I spoke, he halted, and stepped back. I assumed he would remove the Lady Claudia's wrist rings first, then affix the belly thong on her, fastening her hands behind her back, tightly, and then, and then only, remove the ankle rings and the collar, the remainder of the sirik. Such, at any rate, would have been a common Gorean manner of proceeding.

"Of course," said Aemilianus.

"In the cell, yesterday morning," I said, it seemed a long time ago now, "I gathered that my fate was not to be inextricably linked to that of Lady Claudia, that you had perhaps not convinced yourself, and quite properly, of my guilt in the matter of espionage."

"true," said Aemilianus. "I was not sure of you, what you were, or why you did what you did. There are still many things I do not understand, for example, about the military actions, and inactions, of the past months."

"Much would become clear," I said, "if you were willing to entertain the possibility of treason in Ar, treason in high places, treason of profound character and enormous scope."

"Only days ago," said Aemilianus, "that would have seemed unthinkable." "But it is not so unthinkable now?" I asked.

"No," said Aemilianus. "Clearly Ar's Station was abandoned, and presumably therewith the Vosk, and its basin, surrendered to Cos."

"My general sympathies," said Calliodorus, "as will be understood, are with Cos in these matters. Certainly I have no love for Ar. But if Cos thinks to hold sway upon the river I think, then, she has not reckoned with Port Cos, nor with the river towns themselves. We on the river will welcome neither the septered emissaries of Lurius of Jad nor Marlenus of Ar. Too, in the Vosk League, to which Port Cos is party, we have the nucleus of a vehicle for our alliance, a vehicle for common action if not common governance."

"Ar looks not with favor upon the Vosk League," said Aemilianus. "She sees in it the possibility of another Salerian Confederation."

"She did not admit Ar's Station to join the league," said Calliodorus. "It was thought by many in Ar, seemingly Marlenus among them," said Aemilianus, "that entry into the League would appear to accept the principle that Ar was but one power among others on the river, and not the sole mistress of the waterway, as she would be. Cos may have acted more judiciously in the matter, thinking that Port Cos might dominate the league, and that she, in turn, might exercise her own control over it, and that she, in turn, might exercise her own control over it, through the might of Port Cos."

"If such were her intent, and I do not doubt it," said Calliodorus, "she misjudged the interests, the pride and temper of Port Cos. Though we have close ties, historical, cultural and political, with Cos, we are, unlike Ar's Station, a sovereign polity in our own right. We are in all ways institutionally and legally autonomous."

"Yes?" said Aemilianus, returning his attention to me.

"It had not pleased me," I said, "that this woman," and here I indicated the Lady Claudia by placing my foot against her, and thrusting her forward, so that she fell to all fours in he chains on the deck, "was to be impaled." "It was the justice of Ar's Station," said Aemilianus.

"look upon her," I said. "Does not impalement in this case seem a waste of slut?"

Lady Claudia, a free woman, gasped, so spoken of. Yes, too, she shuddered with pleasure in her chains, realizing that she had been found worthy by a man to have so familiar, vulgar, and exciting an expression, and doubtlessly appropriately, applied to her.

"The question," said Aemilianus, "is not so much the suitability of the female for "helpless-slut' status as one of justice."

"I determined then in the cell," I said, "to take action, not merely, of course, for her sake, but for mine as well, as I could not know for certain what you would eventually decide in my case, nor could I count on being released from a burning citadel by Cosians. After all, they might not take more interest in their enemies' criminals, and such, than in their enemies themselves. Also, Lady Claudia was to be well fed that morning, and so this put sustenance in my way, of which I took advantage. Indeed, I perhaps ate better than any in Ar's Station that morning.

"Your action on behalf of Lady Claudia," he said, "was very nearly successful. Had it not been for the timely arrival of our friend Calliodorus, and certain mysterious others, she might now be in the chains of Cosians rather than in those of Ar's Station. But, as it turned out, Calliodorus, and others, did arrive, and she did not escape. We are prepared to overlook your attempt to abet her escape, serious though this is, in view of your action on the wall, and elsewhere."

"My position on the matter, however," I said, "has not changed." Lady Claudia rose to her knees, and turned, to face me, wildly. The former Lady Publia, the nameless, chained slave lying on her belly, on the deck, turned her head to look at me. Aemilianus' s slave, Shirley, too, regarded me, her eyes wide, frightened. Men stepped back a little, uneasily. More than one loosened the blade in his sheath.

"Do you approve of treason?" asked Aemilianus.

"Not generally," I said.

"Perhaps you approve of it, however," he asked, "in this specific case, in the case of the Lady Claudia?"

"Not at all," I said.

"Surely a polity, even if it be one of pirates, if it is to survive, if it is to protect itself, must establish some forms of justice and law within its own precincts?"

"One would suppose so," I said.

"Even if it is of the rack and spear." "I would suppose so," I said.

"By what title then would you presume to interfere, by that of the sword?" "Please, noble sir," wept the Lady Claudia. "Risk nothing for me, a traitress! You have too much imperiled yourself already on my behalf, so unworthy an object!"

"Were you given permission to speak?" I asked her.

She was silent, startled. She was, after all, a free woman.

"I have no intention of imperiling myself on your behalf," I informed her. She did not speak, confused.

"She looks well in slave chains, does she not?" I asked Aemilianus. "Yes," he said. She was a dream in such chains, and their meaning. It lacked only that she should wear them truly, as a slave."

"The men of Ar's Station," I said, "I would suppose, have no particular interest, personally, in impaling this female."

Several of the men laughed.

"On the high spear of public, legal impalement, of course," I added. There was more laughter.

The Lady Claudia shuddered, understanding what it might be to be at the mercy of men.

I turned to Aemilianus. "What do those of Ar's Station value most highly," I asked, "their justicea€”or their honor?"

Several of the men cried out, angrily. Lest some not understand their fury, let it be said, simply, that they were Goreans. Several hands grasped the hilts of swords.

"Their honor," said Aemilianus, quietly.

"I am not of Ar's Station," I said, "and I have little love for her. Indeed, I do not see why I should, as I was not well treated within her walls. But yet I have served her, and perhaps well. Is that not so?"

"It is so," said Aemilianus. "Indeed, had you not held the wall as long as you did, and the gate, and had you not aided in the evacuation of the landing, and had you not, with others, held the walkway until it could be destroyed behind you, I think there would be few of us here now who would be alive today." "Then perhaps you will not think the less of me if I ask a boon," I said.

"You will not assure us it was nothing?" smiled Aemilianus.

"Was it nothing?" I asked.

"No," he smiled. "It was not nothing."

"I ask a boon then," I said.

"I am surprised that you would do so," he said.

"Think of me then as a mercenary," I said, "and I am speaking of my pay." "We did not contract for your services," he said.

"I know," I said. "This is a matter of honor."

"Speak," I said.

"I ask the commutation of the sentence of impalement in the case of the Lady Claudia of Ar's Station."

"You do not ask for her freedom?" he asked.

"Of course not," I said. "She is guilty."

"You have no objection then," he said, "in view of her guilt, if a terrible and grievous penalty is inflicted upon her?"

"Of course no," I said.

"Even a fate "worse than death'?" he smiled.

"Who speaks of it so?" I asked.

"Do not some free women speak of it so?" he asked.

"And are not those the very women who first bare their breasts to conquerors and beg the privilege of licking their feet?"

"Perhaps, upon occasion," said Aemilianus.

"If it were truly a fate worse then death," I said, "or even so unfortunate a lot, it seems it would be very hard to understand their happiness, their emotional fulfillments, their ecstasies, their willingness to die for their masters."

"Perhaps then," he said, "for all its demands and duties, it is not truly a fate worse then death."

"Perhaps not," I said, "else, after a time, they would not love it so." "Perhaps those who would foolishly call it so do so only in their attempts to dissuade themselves from their desperate fascination with it, and longing for it."

"Perhaps," I said.

"At any rate," he smiled, "let them not make pronouncements on such matters until they have had some experience of that of which they speak, until they have had for a time, so to speak, the collar on their own necks." "Yet," I said, "slavery is a most serious matter."

"It is," he granted.

Gorean slavery is categorical and absolute. The slave is a property, an animal. She is incapable of doing anything to alter, change or affect her status. She is owned by the master, and owes him all. She can be bought and sold. She must serve with perfection.

Aemilianus looked at the Lady Claudia. "Do you understand the nature of our discourse, of that of which we speak?"

"Yes," she said.

"Good," he said.

She looked at him.

"Claudia, Lady of Ar's Station, free woman," he said, sternly.

She, kneeling before him, regarded him.

"Put your head to the deck," he said.

Men gasped, to see a free woman perform this act. More than one, I am sure, wanted to seize her.

"Lift your head," said Aemilianus.

She did so.

"You have been found guilty of treason," he said, "and sentenced to impalement. By the power that was vested in me I did this. By the same power, I now rescind the sentence of impalement."

"Commander!" she cried, tears in her eyes.

"Do you expect to escape punishment?" he asked.

She put down her head, shuddering.

"Do you know the sort of chains you wear?" he asked.

"Slave chains," she said.

"They look well on you," he said.

She did not speak.

Then, suddenly, in a moment, as of panic, seemingly unable to help herself, she tried the chains, those on her wrists, trying to slip them from her wrists, then jerking them, but they held her well.

"You understand clearly, do you not," he asked, "what in now propose to do?" "Yes," she said, frightened.

"It is my intention," he said, "to sentence you to slavery. Do you understand this, and what it means?"

"I think so," she said, "a€”as far as any free woman can."

"Do you have anything to say before I pass such sentence upon you?" "No," she said.

"I sentence you to slavery," he said, uttering the sentence.

She trembled, sentenced.

"It only remains now," said Aemilianus, "for the sentence to be carried out. If you wish I, in the office of magistrate, shall carry it out. On the other hand, if you wish, you may yourself carry out the sentence."

"I?" she said.

"Yes," he said.

"You would have me proclaim myself slave?" she asked.

"Or I shall do it," he said. "In the end, it does not matter."

"In my heart," she said, "I am, and have been for years, a slave. It is fitting then, I suppose, that it should be I who say the words."

Aemilianus regarded her.

"I am a slave," she said.

Men cried out with pleasure and smote their left shoulders in Gorean applause, gazing on the new slave, looking about herself, frightened, kneeling chained before Aemilianus.

"Bring the other salve here, too," said Aemilianus, gesturing to the former Lady Publia.

In a moment the two slaves, naked, and in their siriks, were before him. Men adjusted the positions of the slaves, rudely, so that they knelt well, back on their heels, their backs straight, their knees spread."

"Calliodorus, my friend," said Aemilianus, "behold two slaves." "I behold them," said Calliodorus.

"Do you find them pleasing?" asked Aemilianus.

"Yes," said Calliodorus. "Both were obviously born for the collar." "This one," said Aemilianus, indicating the former Lady Publia, "at least for the time, we will call Publia." "Who are you?" asked Calliodorus of the former Lady Publia. "Publia!" she said.

"And this one," continued Aemilianus, indicating the former Lady Claudia, "at least for the time, we will call Claudia."

"Your name?" asked Calliodorus of the former Lady Claudia.

"'Claudia'!" she said, quickly.

"It is my request, if it is not too much trouble," said Aemilianus to Calliodorus, "that both of these slaves be taken to Port Cos, and there properly branded and collared."

I smiled. It did not seem likely that in the future there would be any doubts about Publia's status, nor, indeed, that of Claudia either. I though they would both look quite lovely in the garments of slaves, if they were permitted clothing.

"And then," said Aemilianus, "if you would, as one of these females was prepared to surrender herself to Cosians, and the other served Cosians, in betraying her city, see that they come into the keeping of Cosians."

"That will be easy to arrange," said Calliodorus. "There are many Cosians, envoys and such, in Port Cos.

The girls exchanged glances. Their fates were being decided by men, but I did not think unjustly.

"Do you have on board facilities for slaves?" inquired Aemilianus.

"Below deck," said Calliodorus, "we have some slave cages."

"Excellent," said Aemilianus. Then he addressed the slaves. "You may perform obeisance before masters," he said.

Both the girls then bent forward and, putting the palms of their hands on the deck, lowered their heads to the boards.

Aemilianus then nodded to Calliodorus. It was a small gesture. It indicated that he, at least at that time, had no further interest in the two women.

"Take then below decks," said Calliodorus to one of his men. "Cage them." The fellow, standing behind and rather between the two girls took them each by an arm, Claudia by her right arm, and Publia by her left, and pulled them to their feet. Then, turning them and thrusting them forward, without relinquishing his hold on their arms, he conducted them ahead of him, toward a hatch. "The cages," apologized Calliodorus, "are individual cages, and rather tiny. They are, in effect, punishment cages."

"No matter," said Aemilianus.

"But, of course," said Calliodorus, "it is probably best for them to begin to learn quickly that they are slaves."

"Certainly," said Aemilianus.

"Doubtless in the morning they will be willing and eager to leave the cages, under any conditions," said Calliodorus.

"Excellent," smiled Aemilianus.

"I would recommend, however," said Calliodorus, "that the one called Publia be taken from the cage for a time this evening, to be given a good hiding at the mast."

"Of course," said Aemilianus.

It was only fitting, after all, that she be punished, and well. She had attempted to take advantage of the fact that she had not yet been branded and collared. She had attempted to pass herself off as a free woman. In many cities, such a thing is a capital offense. Here, however, in accord with a fortune much greater than she would be likely to realize for a few days, she, a naA?ve young slave, and guilty of what, in effect, was a first offense, was only to be whipped. Still, even so, I did not think she would be likely to forget her little bout this evening with the leather. For one thing, few slave girls forget their first whipping. Too, if nothing else it would impress upon her that she was a slave and that masters would think nothing of punishing her if she was not pleasing. That is a good thing for a girl to learn. I supposed, too, that it might have an effect in discouraging her, should the opportunity arise, as I did not think it would, from seeking to implement another deceit with respect to her status in the immediate future. Later, of course, as she began to understand what it was to be a slave girl, as she began to grasp something of the nature of her condition, and its categoricality, she would hastily, and fearfully, on her own, reject such thoughts. She would not dare to countenance them. She might find herself trembling in terror if even the smallest and most casual of such thoughts chanced to enter her mind.

I saw the fellow who had conducted the slaves to the hold emerge through the hatch and close it, after him. I supposed the slaves in their cages. Calliodorus, too, seemed to note the reappearance of the fellow.

"The former Lady Claudia and I were cellmates," I said to Calliodorus. "I determined at that time that she, though then free, would make an excellent slave."

"Good," he said. Slaves, of course, are not only trained in a broad spectrum of sexual arts, such as how to kiss and caress, and such, but much attention is given, too, to their own responsiveness and pleasure. There is nothing surprising about this. Their responsiveness and pleasure puts them far more under the master's power. Too, as might be imagined, it is very pleasant for a man to see the marvelous changes and effects which he can induce in a woman, for example, to have her thrashing helplessly at his touch, crying out her submission, begging for more. The slave, because of her training, her emotional freedom, thousands of times greater than that of a free woman, the discipline she is under, and such, can attain orgasm much more quickly than a free woman, sometimes, particularly if she has been deprived for a time, almost immediately. A response which might take a free woman a third to a half of an Ahn to attain a slave, and not an unusual slave, might attain in three or four Ehn. Beyond this the slave is often forced to endure lengthy, multiple orgasms, sometimes being carried by the will of the master for Ahn, whether she wills it or not, from one peak to another.

"She served Cosians, and declared for them," I said to Calliodorus. "Do you think that might put her in good stead with Cosians, should she come into their keeping, as that is what seems to be in store for her, at least in the near future?"

"In what way?" asked Calliodorus.

"That they might then see fit to reward her with her freedom," I said. "No," said Calliodorus. "She is now a slave. That changes everything. Even if she had once been a Cosian girl, even of Telnus, of good family and high caste, she would still, now, be a slave, and only a slave. Too, Cosians, I assure you, are not overly fond of traitresses. One who is willing to betray her own Home Stone would presumably not hesitate to betray someone else's. indeed, I would not have been surprised, had she surrendered herself at Ar's Station, claiming immunity, or such, that she would have quickly found herself, if, indeed, she were not slain, in the lowest of slaveries, as would seem fitting for her."

"I see," I said. It was, of course, as I had supposed it would be.

"Her slavery, thus," he said, "will presumably be either simple, and uncompromised, or excessively cruel, an uncompromised."

I nodded.

"But inasmuch as the crimes of the free woman are seldom held against the slave, for the slave has her own concerns, and fears, such as whether or not she is sufficiently pleasing, and so on, I would expect it to be simple, and uncompromised."

"I think you are probably right," I said. Many theorists regard reduction to slavery as wiping the slate clean, so to speak. The woman is then thought, in effect, to be beginning lift anew, but now as a mere property, a mere animal. To be sure, her past status and deeds do remain a part of her history, even if she is now only an animal. Thus, at least for a time, a maser might relish the consideration that his abject slave was once perhaps a haughty free woman, or such. But, in time, it is likely that their relationship, mercifully, as such things fade into the past and tend to be forgotten, will become a simpler one, that merely of master and slave.

"In my uses of the former Lady Claudia, in the cell," I said, "I sometimes gave her the use name of "Chloe'."

"A Cosian name," observed Calliodorus.

"She had declared for Cos," I reminded him.

"Did the use name help her to dissociate herself from the proprieties which she might have thought appropriate to a Lady Claudia? he asked.

"I think it helped," I said. Certainly a woman's sexual relationship to a man is often improved when she begins to think of herself as having a quite different relationship to him than the one in which she has been accustomed to think of herself. The change of name can help in this matter. No woman, of course, takes her former name into slavery. In her reduction to bondage she loses that name. Even if the same name, in one sense, should be put on her as a slave, it is not the same name in the crucial sense; it is not now a legal name to which one has title in one's own right. It is a slave name. In this sense, the name "Claudia' as the name of a free woman is a quite different name from the name "Claudia' as the name of a slave. The slave name, for example, can be changed at a master's whim. This loss of the old name, incidentally, and the susceptibility to being named, and the new name, if the master decides to give her a name, and such, although they are simple, legal consequences of the name of reduction to bondage, are also, I think, psychologically useful in helping her understand that she is now a slave, and that she is now radically and absolutely different from what she was. Too, I think that such things, a new name, for example, showing her that she is now in a new reality, and so on, can help her make the transition more smoothly into bondage.

"'Chloe' is an excellent name," he said. "I have known several slaves with that name."

"Do you think," asked Aemilianus of Calliodorus, "that "Claudia' is too fine a name for a slave?"

"I think it is an excellent name for a slave," he smiled.

"You would," smiled Aemilianus. I supposed that Aemilianus might think that Cosian names might be better for slaves, whereas Calliodorus might tend to approve more of names more typical of the south, say, those of Venna or Ar. I myself thought there was much to be said for both, and, indeed, for many other sorts of names, as well. Many Goreans, incidentally, as is well known, regard Earth-girl names as slave names. Aemilianus's slave, for example, who was Gorean, was named "Shirley."

"I think there is little difficulty in the matter, in any event," said Calliodorus, "whether it is a fine name or not, as she now wears it as a slave name."

"I think you are right," said Aemilianus. "What do you think?" he asked me. "I agree," I said. "It is now a mere slave name." Too, of course, it might easily be changed. In the odysseys of her bondage, her name would doubtless be changed many times.

"I wonder what will become of her," I said.

"She is curvaceous," said Calliodorus. "Perhaps she will be sold to a paga tavern."

That was a possibility. I hoped that eventually, however, she might come into the keeping of a single master, to whom she would be a love slave. I thought that there was something in the slave now called «Claudia» a precious, vulnerable, yearning love slave.

"Aemilianus, my friend," said Calliodorus.

"Yes?" said he.

"It will take us some days to reach Port Cos," said Calliodorus. "Would you mind if, tomorrow morning, the two slaves, Claudia and Publia, were made available to the crew?"

"Of course not," said Aemilianus.

"We will chain them by their necks to a ring in the deck, aft," said Calliodorus. "That way, if they are too initially dismayed, they will not be able to throw themselves overboard."

"By nightfall," said Aemilianus, "I do not think they would want to throw themselves overboard."

"I do not think so," said Calliodorus. "Too, aft, they will be out of the sight of free women."

"Use them as you please," said Aemilianus.

"My lads left Port Cos in a hurry," said Calliodorus, "and we did not know if there would be fighting, or not. Thus we did not include among our supplies any women for slave use."

"No explanations are necessary," said Aemilianus. "Too, if their masters do not object, you may avail yourself of any of the other slaves, there are a few, I believe, whom you embarked at Ar's Station, including, of course, my Shirley." Shirley shrank back, a little. To be sure, even though she was the preferred slave of Aemilianus, her use could be handed about as easily as that of the lowest collar sluts on board, Claudia and Publia.

"I thank you for your generosity," said Calliodorus, "and I am sure that the other fellows of Ar's Station would be every bit as generous, but I think that after what you have been through, we would prefer, in all gentleness and courtesy, to let such slaves, including your Shirley, recollect in detail the pleasing of their own masters, perhaps amidships."

Shirley cried out with joy, looking upon Aemilianus.

"As you will," he smiled.

"And I think," said Calliodorus, "that the more extensive services then to be rendered by Claudia and Publia will be useful in helping them to comprehend more quickly and clearly the nature of their new condition." "Undoubtedly," smiled Aemilianus.

"I wonder if I might ask an additional favor of you," said Calliodorus. "Name it," said Aemilianus.

"When we enter Port Cos," he said, "I would like to do so in such a way as to make clear from afar that there is cause for rejoicing, that our business has been successfully conducted and that festivities are in order."

"Do as you wish," said Aemilianus.

"I will, then," he said, "with your permission, deck the ship with flags, and bunting and banners, and put prominently the flag of Ar's Station on the port stem line, and fly that of Port Cos on the starboard stem line."

"How is it," asked Aemilianus, "that you have a flag of Ar's Station on a ship of Port Cos?"

"One can never tell when such things might be useful," smiled Calliodorus. "And do you noble fellows of Ar's Station not carry flags of Port Cos, and perhaps of other towns, as well, in your vessels, perhaps in the chests in your stern castles?" That was a likely place to stow such paraphernalia. There it would both be out of the way, and yet handy.

"Perhaps," smiled Aemilianus.

"Dear friend," smiled Calliodorus.

Calliodorus bent down and clasped the upraised hand of Aemilianus. I had gathered that, long ago, these men had seen action together, probably on the river.

Calliodorus stood up.

There was, incidentally, one flag of Ar's Station on board, which had been brought from Ar's Station itself, but that flag, large, rent, faded and tattered, was not the one, or ones, under discussion. It had been there, staunch and defiant, throughout the siege. It had been brought to the Tais by the young man to whom I had entrusted it, the friend of the young crossbowman. He had given it to Aemilianus, who had, in turn, given it into the keeping of Surilius, his aide. I had little doubt that that flag was very precious to those of Ar's Station. They would be very careful as to what lines on which it might be affixed.

"But, dear friend," said Aemilianus, "is there not one touch else that might be in order, to indicate a successful voyage?"

"I was thinking of asking about it," smiled Calliodorus.

"Hang then in chains, at the prow!" said Aemilianus.

"Good," grinned Calliodorus.

The slave girl, as Claudia and Publia would come to learn, had thousands of uses. And one of them, surely, is that of a display object. It is common for masters to be very proud of their girls and to desire to show them off. indeed, one of the reasons for slave garb, aside from such things as its identificatory role, its stimulatory nature, both to the master and slave, its instructive role, and such, is its capacity to display the girl beautifully. Just as a man of Earth might be proud of his pictures, or his dogs or horses, so, too, a Gorean can be proud of his slave, or slaves. Some men like to travel with a naked slave afoot beside them, chained by the neck to their stirrup. Some rich men enjoy having lovely slaves, sometimes strings of them, follow them, chained by the neck, the leads of the chains fastened to slave bars at the back of their palanquins. In this case, Calliodorus was apparently interested in displaying two beauties, a pair of exquisite slaves, at this prow. Certainly they, suspended naked in their chains would enhance his entry into the harbor at Port Cos.

"I must be about my duties, my friend," then said Calliodorus to Aemilianus. "Rest."

Most of the men about had, by now, drifted away.

Calliodorus stopped for a moment, as though he wanted to say something more to Aemilianus, but he then seemed to think the better of it. He then climbed the steps behind Aemilianus, to the helm deck. I looked after him.

"He wanted to issue warnings," said Aemilianus, smiling.

"Warnings?" I asked.

"Yes," said Aemilianus. "He is a good fellow."

I gathered that it would be inopportune to inquire further into this matter, at least at the moment. But surely there could be little, or nothing, to fear now, at least for free persons.

"Commander," said I.

"Yes, Warrior," he responded. "I thank you for your mercy in the case of the former Lady Claudia." "Was it mercy?" he asked.

"I think so," I said.

"Well," he said, "her treacheries, however heinous and grievous, considered in the light of grander and more insidious designs, seemed paltry."

"And doubtless were," I said. "Is that why you spared her?"

"I spared her primarily," he said, "because you wished it."

"I am grateful," I said. "Too, I think she will make an excellent slave." "I am sure of it," he said.

"Even Calliodorus thought she was born for the collar," I said.

"She and Publia," said Aemilianus.

"Yes," I said.

"I think he was right about both," he said.

"I think so, too," I said.

"My friend," he said.

"Yes," I said, startled.

"You said to her," he reminded me, "that you had no intention of imperiling your life for her."

"Yes," I said.

"Yet I think had I not spared her," said he, "that you would have drawn your sword on her behalf."

"I said what I did," I said, "because I knew it would not be necessary to imperil my life for her."

"How could you know that? he asked.

"Because Aemilianus, and those like him," I said, "are honorable men." "You were counting on that? he asked.

"Yes," I said.

"And had we not, in your opinion, behaved honorably? he asked.

"Then I would have drawn my sword," I said.

"I thought so," he said.

"I am sorry," I said.

"Even were I other than I am," he smiled, "I do not think I would have wanted you to draw your sword against us." I did not respond.

"Particularly over a woman," he said. He held out his hand to Shirley, and she came quickly to kneel beside him and took his hand, and lifted it to her lips, kissing it, softly.

"Of course," I said.

"And in particular," said Aemilianus, "one who was soon to become a mere slave." "Of course," I said.

Shirley, holding and pressing her lips to the hand of Aemilianus, looked up at me.

I smiled. Swords are often drawn on Gor over women, and particularly over lovely slaves. Women are prizes, perfections and treasures. It is no wonder that men fight over them with ferocity.

Wars have been fought to recover a stolen slave.

I then, quietly, withdrew from the presence of Aemilianus, permitting Shirley to attend him.

I went forward. In doing so I passed some slaves and masters, amidships. How beautiful were the slaves in their collars and brief tunics. I then proceeded farther forward, taking my way beside free women, and some children, and climbed to the tiny bow deck, forward of the stern castle, immediately behind the prow. I stood there, and looked down the river. I could see the advance ships some quarter of a pasang, or so, ahead. I wondered what the warnings of Calliodorus, if Aemilianus had read him aright, might have been about.