“It is my understanding,” said the Lady Bina, “that she is a likely collar slut.”
“Mistress!” I protested.
“Is it not true?” asked the Lady Bina.
“I cannot help what I have become,” I said. “I am collared!”
“You were always a collar slut, Allison,” said Astrinax. “It is merely that you were not always in a collar.”
“I do not understand why he would not accept her,” said the Lady Bina.
“She is not hard on the eyes,” said Lykos, regarding me. “She has nice legs, and ankles.”
“Perhaps her hair,” said the Lady Bina.
“It is muchly grown out now,” said Lykos, “and there are many slaves whose hair is no longer.”
“And it will grow, of course,” said Astrinax.
“Stripped and shackled she would be block ready,” said Lykos.
“What, then?” asked the Lady Bina.
“Let us hear from Allison,” said Astrinax.
“I may speak?” I asked. I did have a general permission to speak in the domicile, but, under the circumstances, I thought it well to inquire.
“Do so,” said the Lady Bina. “You must have views on the matter.”
“I certainly do!” I cried.
“Speak,” said the Lady Bina.
“Noble Desmond of Harfax” I said, “has never had the least interest in the slave, Allison. His supposed interest in her was feigned, in order to better spy on Lord Grendel, whom he suspected of subversive designs. The slave, Allison, was no more than a means to an end, a possible source of information, a pretext by means of which he might obtain a proximity to Lord Grendel, to which end he joined Lord Grendel’s expedition to the Voltai. It is thus not surprising, given the denouement of the expedition, that he should cease to maintain the deceit of interest in a slave. She was no longer of value to him.”
“You see him, then, as a liar, a fraud, a hypocrite?” asked Astrinax.
“Certainly, Master,” I said. “And what may be less clear is that the slave, Allison, had been long aware of his transparent machinations. He fooled her not at all. She easily saw through his childish programs, and secretly despised him all the while. It thus came as no surprise to her that he would not contact the Lady Bina with respect to the slave, Allison, to bid for her, to accept her even as a gift, even to inquire after her. This is precisely what the slave anticipated.”
“I see,” said Lykos.
“Moreover,” I said, “Desmond of Harfax is despicable, so shameless that he has not even acknowledged his duplicity to his fellows. He is a petty, sly, crass fellow who, without leave, without gratitude, has slipped away somewhere, with no word of thanks, no token of the least gratitude, to those with whom he shared miseries and perils, those without whom he may well have perished unnoted in the Voltai. He has not even had the dignity, and kindness, the courtesy and thoughtfulness, to attend this dinner. I assure you, it is a great joy to me that he would not accept me, even as a gift. Muchly do I rejoice in my good fortune. Let it be known to all that that pleases me. It is my greatest fear that I might be owned by him. I would strive to be the worst possible slave to him! I despise the shameless, ungrateful, hypocrite, and fraud, Desmond of Harfax! I loathe him, I hate him! He is thief of trust, a promoter of pretense. He is conniving, base, and worthless! He is a monster! He is ignoble, and without honor.”
“Thank you, Allison,” said the Lady Bina, glancing briefly toward the door to her sleeping chamber.
“I did not think him such a scoundrel,” said Astrinax.
“Nor I,” said Lykos.
I shrugged, and looked down.
“Let us address ourselves to our feast,” said Astrinax.
Jane and Eve made to rise to their feet, to serve.
“Hold,” said the Lady Bina, smiling. “Allison has recently brought a package from the shop of Amyntas. Let us see what it contains.”
Lord Grendel produced the small sack from a pouch at his harnessing, and the Lady Bina undid the knot. “It is the signature knot of Amyntas,” she said. “Yes,” she said, “it is a deck of cards, all doubtless in proper order.” She placed the sack on the table, beside her plate. Lord Grendel then, also from his pouch, handed her a folded sheet of paper, which the Lady Bina opened. “Allison will help us,” she said. “She is illiterate, of course, but she recognizes cards by the designs, and she is quite adept at arranging them.”
“Should we not eat?” I said.
“Let us first see what we have here,” said the Lady Bina.
She then began to read the list of cards from the card sheet, and, as the deck was in order, the cards easily located, I quickly put the cards in the order called for by the card sheet.
“Good,” said the Lady Bina. “Here is the message.”
Astrinax and Lykos were smiling, which did not make me easy.
Moreover, I remembered the differences attendant on my last visit to the shop of Amyntas, at which visit I had received the sack just opened.
This recollection did little to assuage my lack of ease.
“Oh, look!” said the Lady Bina, brightly. “There is something additional in the sack.” She drew forth from the sack two coins. They were clearly not copper, but silver.
“Two,” said Astrinax.
Lykos looked at me. “That seems about right,” he said.
“Here is the message, Allison,” said the Lady Bina, holding one side of the deck toward me. “It is simple, it is short, it is in clear Gorean. Would you like to try to read it?”
“I cannot read, Mistress,” I said.
“It has to do with you,” she said.
“I cannot read, Mistress,” I said.
“Astrinax?” said the Lady Bina, handing the deck to him.
“‘As agreed,’“ read Astrinax, “‘here are two silver tarsks, for full and clear title to the barbarian slave currently known as Allison, the property of the Lady Bina of Ar, resident in the house of Epicrates, pottery merchant, of Ar.’“
“Mistress?” I said.
“You have been sold, Allison,” said the Lady Bina.
“To Amyntas, of Ar?” I said.
“Not at all,” she said.
“To whom then, Mistress?” I said.
“It is written there, clearly,” said the Lady Bina.
“To whom, Mistress?” I begged.
The Lady Bina looked to Astrinax.
“To Desmond of Harfax,” he said.
I looked about, wildly, from face to face.
“Sold?” I said.
“He did not want you as a gift,” said the Lady Bina. “He wanted you to know that you were bought and paid for as the animal, the property, you are. He thought that would help you to better understand that you are a slave, that you not only could be bought and paid for, but that you were bought and paid for. Coins have changed hands and now you are his.”
“He has bought me?” I said.
“Yes,” she said.
“I have been purchased?” I said.
“As might be a tarsk,” she said, “or any other form of animal.”
“He now owns me?”
“Yes,” she said.
“Oh, Mistress!” I cried, elated.
