Never had I seen the customarily impassive Slaver so elated as on this night, following the sales in the Curulean. The feast was set late in the hall of Cernus and the wine and paga flowed freely. The girls chained at the wall for the amusement of his guards clutched drunkenly, ecstatically, at those who used them. Guards stumbled about with goblets in their hands. The Warriors of Cernus sang at the tables. Roasted tarsks on long spits were borne to the tables on the shoulders of nude slave girls. Girls still in training, unclothed as well, served wine this night of feasting. Musicians wildly, drunkenly, picked and pounded at their instruments.
Hooded, stripped to the waist, chained, I had been beaten from one end of the room to the other with sticks.
Now, unhooded, but chained, I knelt bloody before the dais of Cernus.
A few feet from me, wretched, dazed, chained like I before the dais of our master, knelt Elizabeth Cardwell, her only garment the chain of Cernus, with its medallion of the tarn and slave chains, about her throat.
To one side, to my dismay, I saw Relius and Ho-Sorl chained. Near them, kneeling, her wrists and ankles bound with slender, silken ropes, knelt Sura, head forward, her hair touching the floor.
The doll which she had so loved, which she had had from her mother, which she had attacked me with the slave goad at the kill point, lay on the tiles before her, torn asunder, destroyed.
'What is their crime?' I had asked Cernus.
'They would have freed you,' laughed Cernus. 'The men we apprehended after severe fighting, trying to cut their way to you when you lay in the dungeon. The woman tried, with paga and jewels, to bribe the guards.'
I shook my head. I could not understand why Relius and Ho-Sorl would make my cause theirs, nor why Sura, though I knew she cared for me, would so risk her life, now doubtless lost. I had done little to deserve such friends, such loyalty. I felt now in my plight that I had betrayed not only Elizabeth, and the other girls, and the Priest- Kings, but perhaps allies even unknown to me, among them perhaps Relius, Ho-Sorl, Sura, others. How overcome I felt, with fury, with rage, with helplessness. I looked across to Elizabeth, the chain of Cernus looped about her neck, staring numbly, woodenly, down at the tiles of the hall, half in shock.
I had failed them all.
'Bring Portus!' called Cernus.
The Slaver who had been chief competitor to the House of Cernus was brought forward, doubtless from the dungeons of the Central Cylinder of Ar, on order of its Ubar, Cernus, once of the Merchants, now of the Caste of the Warriors.
Portus, half wasted now, his skin hanging about his frame, was brought, manacled, stripped to the waist, to the square of sand.
His manacles were removed and a naked hook knife was thrust in his trembling hand.
'Please oh mighty Cernus!' he whined. 'Show mercy!'
The slave whom I had originally seen victorious in the sport of hook knife sprang to the sand and began to stalk Portus.
'Please, Cernus!' cried Portus as a long line of blood burst open across his chest. 'Please! Please! Caste Brother!' he cried, as the slave, swift, eager, laughing, struck him again and again, with impunity. Then Portus tried to fight but, weakened, unskilled, clumsy, he stumbled about, being again and again streaked with blood, no cut mortal. At last he fell into the sand covered with blood at the feet of the laughing slave, quivering, whining, unable to move.
'Feed him to the beast,' said Cernus.
Whimpering, Portus was dragged from the sand, leaving blood across the tiles, and was taken from the hall.
'Bring the Hinrabian!' called Cernus.
I was startled. The entire Hinrabian family, in caravan, had been ambushed, months ago, shortly after leaving the vicinity of Ar enroute to the desert city of Tor. It was assumed the entire family had been destroyed. The only body not recovered had been that of Claudia Tentia Hinrabia, who had been originally the unfortunate victim of the intrigues of Cernus, the means whereby was brought about the downfall of the house of Portus.
I heard, far off, a weird scream, that of Portus, and a wild, savage cry, almost of roar.
Those in the hall trembled.
'The beast has been fed,' said Cernus, chuckling, drinking wine, spilling some of it down his face.
A slave girl was brought, a slim girl, in yellow Pleasure Silk, with short black hair, dark eyes, high cheekbones.
She ran timidly and knelt before the dais.
I gasped, for it was Claudia Tentia Hinrabia, once the spoiled daughter of a Ubar of Ar, now a rightless wench in bondage, not unlike thousands of others in Glorious Ar.
She looked about herself, with wonder. I doubted that she had been before in that room.
'You are the slave girl Claudia?' asked Cernus.
'Yes, Master,' said the girl.
'Do you know what city you are in?' asked Cernus.
'No, Master,' whispered the girl. 'I was brought hooded to your house.'
'By what men?' inquired Cernus.
'I do not know, Master,' whispered the girl.
'It is said you claim to be Claudia Tentia Hinrabia,' said Cernus.
The girl lifted her head wildly. 'It is true!' she cried. 'It is true, Master!'
'I know,' said Cernus.
She looked at him in horror.
'What city is this?' she asked.
'Ar,' said Cernus.
'Ar?' she gasped.
'Yes,' said Cernus, 'Glorious Ar.'
Hope sprang in her eyes. She almost rose to her feet. There were tears in her eyes. 'Ar!' she cried. 'Oh free me! Free me!' She lifted her hands to Cernus. 'I am of Ar! I am of Ar! I am Claudia Tentia Hinrabia of Ar! Free me, Master!'
'Do you know me?' asked Cernus.
'No, Master,' said the girl.
'I am Cernus,' said he, 'Ubar of Ar.'
She gazed upon him, thunderstruck. 'Noble Cernus,' she whispered, 'if you be my Master, free me, free me!'
'Why?' asked Cernus.
'I am Claudia Tentia Hinrabia,' she said, 'of Ar!'
'You are a slave girl,' said Cernus.
She looked at him in horror. 'Please, Ubar,' she wept. 'Please noble Cernus, Ubar of my city, free me!'
'Your father owed me monies,' said Cernus. 'You will remain my slave.'
'Please!' she wept.
'You are alone,' said Cernus. 'Your family is gone. There is no one to protect you. You will remain my slave.'
She buried her head in her hands, weeping. 'I have been in misery,' she wept, 'since I was stolen by the men of the house of Portus and enslaved.'
Cernus laughed.
The girl looked at him, not understanding.
'How could the men of Portus enter the Central Cylinder and carry you away?' he inquired.
'I do not know,' she admitted.
'You were hooded and abducted by Taurentians,' said Cernus, 'the palace guard itself.'
She gasped.
'Saphronicus, their Captain,' said Cernus, 'is in my hire.'
She shook her head numbly.
'But the House of Portus-,' she said. 'I saw the collar on a slave girl-.'
Cernus laughed.
He strode from the dais to stand over her.
'Stand, Slave,' said he.
The Hinrabian did so.
She regarded him with horror. He parted the Pleasure Silk and threw it from her.
He then took the heavy chain with its medallion from the neck of Elizabeth Cardwell and placed it about the throat of the Hinrabian girl.
'No! No!' she cried, throwing her hands to the side of her head, and fell screaming and weeping to her knees at the feet of Cernus.
He laughed.
She raised her horror-stricken eyes to him. 'It was you!' she whispered. 'You!'
'Of course,' said Cernus. He then took back from her his medallion and chain, and placed it about his own neck. He then returned to his place on the dais.
The room roared with laughter.
'Bind her arms and wrists tightly,' said Cernus to a guard.
This was done to the Hinrabian girl, who, stricken with horror, seemed scarcely able to move.
'We have another surprise for you, my dear Claudia,' said Cernus.
She looked at him blankly.
'Bring the pot wench,' said Cernus to a subordinate and the man, grinning, sped from the room.
'Claudia Tentia Hinrabia,' said Cernus to those assembled, while he quaffed yet another goblet of Ka-la-na, 'is well known throughout Ar as a most strict and demanding mistress. It is said that once, when a slave dropped a mirror, she had the poor girl's ears and nose cut off, and then sold the then worthless wench.'
