“Step aside, girl,” said a woman’s voice, and I backed away, my head lowered. The free woman then dipped her pail into the water, and left.
Some free women are cruel to slaves.
I was pleased she had not switched me across the back of the thighs.
I dipped the second bucket into the water.
Men prefer us, I thought.
“Where is Lord Grendel?” the Lady Bina had inquired, unfastening the shackles which held me in place, across the threshold of the apartment.
“Is he not on the roof, Mistress?” I inquired, rubbing my right wrist. To be sure, it was light, and, by now, one would expect him here, below, in the loft, or apartment.
“No,” she said.
“I do not know, Mistress,” I said.
“It is not like him to be absent,” said the Lady Bina.
“No, Mistress,” I said.
I feared he had departed from the roof, after dark, after the curfew had sounded.
I feared there might have been another killing in the streets.
“I would be spoken to,” I said to the Lady Bina.
“To what end?” asked the Lady Bina.
“Things have been muchly different, of late,” I said.
She did not respond.
“There has been much reticence in the household,” I said.
“It has to do, I think,” said the Lady Bina, “with the curfew, the killings. Lord Grendel has been uneasy.”
“There is much unease in the city,” I said.
“That is clear in the streets, the markets,” she said.
“Something is out there, at night,” I said.
“Not always at night,” she said.
“May I speak?” I said.
“Surely,” she said.
“I do not understand Lord Grendel,” I said.
“How so?” she said.
“In the past,” I said, “he cleaned his own body, oiling the fur, washing it, brushing and combing it, with particular care, and, of late, he has had me much attend to him, sometimes an Ahn at a time, often concerning myself with such things.”
“You are grooming him,” she said, “cleaning the fur, and such. Have you encountered small forms of life in the fur?”
“No,” I said.
“Good,” she said. “He is a cleanly brute, and, for his kind, fastidious.”
“I do not understand,” I said.
“Pets,” she said, “are often used by his kind to groom their masters. Much is done with the fingers, and the lips, and teeth. The small forms of life, caught in the fingers, or between the teeth, are eaten.”
I felt ill.
“I am not a pet,” I whispered.
“Of course not,” she said, “or, at least, no more than any other slave is a pet.”
“Who is he, Mistress?” I begged. “Who are you?”
I expected to be told that curiosity was not becoming in a kajira, but the small, exquisite Lady Bina, despite her selfishness and vanity, her almost charmingly innocent lack of concern with the feelings and lives of others, was often pleasant, and communicative. Too, she was not natively Gorean. That, I thought, quite possibly, was relevant.
“There are metal worlds, large metal worlds,” she said, “like small planets, inhabited by Kurii, rather like Lord Grendel, though he is not truly Kur.”
“No?” I said.
“Lord Grendel,” she said, “is the result of an experiment, one which apparently did not turn out well.”
As far as I could tell, Grendel, or Lord Grendel, was Kur. I recalled he had identified himself as such, on the very evening he had brought me to the domicile, the first floor of which held the living quarters and shop of Epicrates.
“I myself,” said the Lady Bina, “was originally a Kur pet.”
“A pet?” I said.
“There is nothing wrong with being a pet,” she said. “Indeed, on the world once of Agamemnon, Eleventh face of the Nameless One, it was a great honor to be the pet of a Kur, particularly if one were only a human being, and not a female Kur, defanged and declawed, kept in chains and chastisable by the rod. I myself had the privilege of being the pet of Lord Arcesilaus, who now, as I understand it, is the Twelfth Face of the Nameless One, Theocrat of the World, that world. Pets are not taught to speak, but I learned to do so; the mechanical translators, and Lord Grendel, and some others, were helpful; and, after the dislocations of an insurrection, and the downfall of Agamemnon, Eleventh Face of the Nameless One, former Theocrat of the World, that world, learning of this world, a beautiful, natural world, not a small world and one of metal, and ships which might voyage here, I decided to embark, reach this world, and make my fortune here, in particular, becoming a Ubara, a ruler or consort of a ruler, of some great city — I had heard of Ar — or, possibly, of the planet itself.”
How naive she is, I thought.
Again I tried to envisage what might have been her socialization, her acculturation.
Then it occurred to me that, from what she had said, for most practical purposes, she had had little in the way of such customary amenities.
“You spoke of an experiment,” I said.
“Yes,” she said.
“It did not turn out well?” I asked.
“Apparently not,” she said.
“I do not understand,” I said.
“You should speak to Lord Grendel of that,” she said.
“Might he not kill me?” I asked.
“You could ask him, and see,” she said.
“I do not think I will do so,” I said.
“I do not think he would hurt you,” she said. “At most you would be well lashed, perhaps several times, over several days, and warned not to speak of it again.”
“You speak of Lord Grendel,” I said. “I gather, then, he was important on his world.”
“He came to be so,” she said. “Muchly so, in power and prestige, and, if he had been interested in such matters, and wished it, might have become so in wealth, as well.”
“Why then would he leave?” I asked. “Why would he give up so much?”
“To accompany me,” she said.
“To a new world, a strange world, an unfamiliar, perhaps hostile world?” I said.
“Yes,” she said.
“Forgive me, Mistress,” I said, “but why would he, so strange and different a form of life, do so?”
“I have never inquired,” said the Lady Bina. “He insisted on doing so.”
“Here,” I said, “he is feared, even loathed.”
“That is because he is not a true Kur,” she said. “The true Kur is beautiful, large, agile, proud, long-armed, glossy, wide-nostriled, with six-digited appendages, with a voice a larl might envy. Grendel has deformed paws, with only five digits, and the throat, and tongue, the oral orifice are different, and the eyes, too. He can even approximate human sounds.”
“I think,” I said, “he is devoted to Mistress.”
“I have never objected to his presence, despite his appearance,” she said. “He is useful to have about, and I am fond of him. He cannot help his ugliness. Too, I suspect his presence, like that of a pet sleen, would encourage
