I had supposed this, of course, for I had seen that none were collared. 'Oh,' said the first woman, as I checked her flanks.
'Do not carry on,' I said. 'You had probably been out here at least since this afternoon, and have probably been touched by several men.'
I detected no brands on her, at least in the two most favored Gorean brand sites. They were probably, as they claimed, free women.
'Redeem me,' she begged. I saw that above and behind the head of each, thrust over nails driven into the logs, were small rectangles of oilcloth.
I turned one over and, in the next flash of lightning, read the numbers on its back.
'What is your name?' I asked the first woman.
'I am the Lady Amina of Venna,' she said. 'I was visiting in the north, and forced to flee at the approach of Cosians.'
'You redemption fee,' I said, 'is forty copper tarsks, a considerable amount.' I had read this amount on the back of the oilcloth rectangle.
'Pay it!' she begged. 'Rescue a noble free woman from jeopardy. I will be forever grateful.'
'Few men,' I said, 'would be content with gratitude.'
She shrank back, frightened, against the rough surface.
'My bill is only thirty tarsks,' said the second woman, a blonde. 'Redeem me!' 'Mine is thirty-five!' said the third woman.
'Mine is only twenty-seven!' cried the fourth woman.
'Mine is fifty,' wept the last of the five women, 'but I will make it well worth your while!'
'In what way?' I asked.
'In the way of the woman!' she said, brazenly.
There were cries of protest, and anger, from the others.
'Do not sound too righteous,' I said to the first four prisoners at the wall. 'We are free women!' said the first woman.
'You are all debtor sluts,' I said.
The first woman gasped, startled, so referred to, and the second and third woman cried out in anger. The fourth whimpered, knowing what I had said was true. The fifth was silent.
I recalled that the porter, when I had come to the outer gate, at the height of the bridge over the moat, seeing that I was not a female, had made me show money, and a considerable amount of it, before he had admitted me. This was probably because of the crowding at the inn, and perhaps inflated prices, in these unusual, perilous times. Women, I had gathered, on the other hand, would not be required to show such money. This, of course, was presumably not so much because such a challenge might be thought to be demeaning to a free woman, as, perhaps, that women on Gor, in a sense, are themselves money. They are, or can be, a medium of exchange, like currency. This is particularly true of the slave, of course, who, like other goods, or domestic animals, has an ascertainable, finite value, whatever free persons are willing to pay for her. Women such as these, those at the wall, would be surrendered by the management of the inn for the equivalent of their unpaid bills. T hey would then be in the power of their 'redeemers,' any who might make good their debts. Lacking such a «redemption» they might then themselves, sooner or later, sold as slaves. In this way the inn usually recovers its money and, not unoften, turns a profit. Particularly beautiful specimens of impecunious guests are sometimes kept by the inn itself, as inn slaves.
'Please do not refer to us in such a fashion,' said the first woman. 'In what fashion?' I asked.
'As you did,' she said.
'Surely the prices at the inn are posted. Or are available upon inquiry,' I said.
She was silent.
'Did you not know that you had not enough money?' I asked.
They were silent.
I tightened my grip on the first woman, thrusting her back more tightly against the logs.
'Yes! Yes!' she gasped. 'I knew!'
'We all knew!' said the second woman.
'We are free women!' said the third woman. 'We expected men to be gentlemen, to be understanding, to take care of us!'
'We counted on the kindness of men!' said the fourth woman.
'They will do anything for free women!' said the second woman.
I laughed, and they shuddered in their chains, against the wall. It was still raining, but the force of the storm had muchly subsided. I released my grip under the chin of the first woman.
'Do not laugh!' begged the first woman. 'In short,' I said, 'you entered the inn, and remained here, in spite of the fact you had not the wherewithal to meet your obligations, expecting perhaps you might somehow do so with impunity, that your bills would perhaps be simply overlooked, or dismissed by the inn in futile anger, or that eager men could be found to pay them, doubtless vying for the privilege of being of service to lofty free women.'
'Would you have had us spend the night on the road, like peasants?' demanded the third woman.
'But these are hard times,' I said, 'and not all men are fools.' The third woman cried out with anger, shaking her shackles. She was well curved, and diet and exercise could much improve her. I thought she might bring as much as sixty copper tarsks in a market. If that were so, and the inn sold her for that much, they would have made then, as I recalled, some twenty-five copper tarsks on her.
'When you discovered you had not the price of the inn's services,' I said, 'you might have asked if you might earn your keep for the night.'
'We are not inn girls!' cried the second woman.
'It is interesting that you should think immediately in such terms,' I said. 'I had in mind other sorts of things, such as laundering and cleaning.'
'Such tasks are for slaves!' said the fifth woman.
'Many free women do them,' I said.
'Those tasks are for low free women,' she said, 'not for high free women such as we!'
'Yet you are now at the wall, in shackles,' I said, 'and have upon you not so much as a veil.'
'Nonetheless,' said the second woman, 'we are high free women, and women such as we do not earn our keep.'
'Perhaps women such as you,' I speculated, 'will soon, at last, find yourself doing so.'
'What do you mean?' she cried.
'Are there others like you inside?' I asked the first woman, the Lady Amina of Venna.
'Only one,' she said, 'she who owed the most. She was kept inside. There was not a shackle ring for her here.'
'Why should she who owed he most be kept inside, and we, who owe less, be shamefully chained here, in plain view, and exposed to the elements?' asked the fifth woman.
'Perhaps she who is inside has already begun to earn her keep,' I said. The fifth woman shrank back against the logs.
'My arms ache,' said the second woman.
'Have other free women entered the court, since you have been fastened here?' I asked the first woman, the Lady Amina of Venna.
'Yes,' she said, 'and have seen us here. Some of them then, after visiting the keeper's desk, doubtless those with insufficient funds, left the inn.' 'There seems a point then in having you chained here,' I said, 'aside, of course, from such things as having you brought to the attention of fellows who might redeem you and making clear the inn's disapproval of attempted fraud, namely, that you might serve as a warning to other free women, women who might otherwise have been tempted try similar tricks.'
'If we are not redeemed, what will be done with us?' wailed the fourth girl. 'Surely you can guess,' I said.
'No! No! No!' she cried, in misery.
'Redeem me!' begged the fifth girl. 'I will make it worth your while, handsome fellow.'
