'Go to the kitchen,' said I, 'Kettle Slave.'
Telima turned and, in the stained tunic of re-cloth, left the room, as she had been commanded.
The music grew more wild.
'Where now,' I demanded of Midice, 'is your insolence, your contempt!' 'Be kind!' she cried. 'Be kind to Midice!'
The music grwe even more wild.
And then Ula, bolding before Clitus, tore from her own body teh silk she wore and danced, her arms extended to him.
He leaped to his feet and carried her from the room.
I laughed.
Then Thura, to my amazement, though a rence girl, dancing, revealed herself similarly to the great Thurnock, he only of the peasants, and he, with a great laugh, swept her from her feet and carried her from the room.
'Do I dance for life?' begged Midice.
I drew the Gorean blade. 'Yes,' I said, 'you do.'
And she danced superbly for me, every fiber of her beautiful body straining to please me, her eyes, each instant, pleading, trying to read in mine her fate. At last, when she could dance no more, she fell at my feet, and put her head to my sandals.
'Find me pleasing,' she begged. 'Find me pleasing, my Master!'
I had had my sport.
I sheathed the blade.
'Light the lamp of love,' I said.
She looked up at me, gratefully, but saw then my eyes. Her test was not yet done.
Trembling she fumbled with the flint and steel, to strike sparks into the moss bowl, whence by means of a Ka-la-na shaving the lamp might be lit.
I myself thre down, in one cornver, near a slave ring, the Furs of Love. The musicians, one by one, each with a silver tarsk, stole from the room. An Ahn later, perhaps a bit more than an Ahn before dawn, the oil in the lamp of love had burned low.
Midice lay against me, in my arms. She looked up at me, and whispered, 'Did Midice do well? Is Master pleased with Midice?'
'Yes,' I said, wearily, looking at the ceiling. 'I am pleased with Midice.' I felt empty.
For a long time then we did not speak.
Then she said, 'You are well pleased with Midice, are you not?'
'Yes,' I said, ' I am well pleased.'
'Midice is first girl, is she not?'
'Yes,' I said, 'Midice is first girl.'
Micide looked at me, and whispered. 'Telima is only Kettle Slave. Why should she have an armlet of gold?'
I looked at her. Then, wearily, I rose to my feet. I drew on my tunic, and looked down at Midice, who lay there with her legs drawn up, looking at me. I could see the glow of the dim lamp on her collar.
I buckled about me the Gorean blade, with its belt and scabbard.
I went into the kitchen.
There I found Telima sitting against the wall, her knees drawn up, her head down. She raised her head and looked at me. I could see her barely in the light of the coals of the cooking fore, now a flat, reticulated pattern of red and black.
I slipped the golden armlet from her arm.
There were tears in her eyes, but she did not protest.
I unknotted the binding fiber about her throat, and took from my pouch her collar.
I showed it to her.
In the dim light she read the engraving. 'I belong to Bosk,' she said. 'I did not know you could read,' I said. Midice, Thura, Ula were all, as is common with rence girls, illiterate.
Telima looked down.
I snapped the collar about her throat.
She looked up at me. 'It is a long time since I have worn a steel collar,' she said.
I wondered how she had, whether in her escapte or afterwards in the islands, removed her first collar. Ho-Hak, I recalled, still wore the heavy collar of the galley slave. The rencers had no had the tools to remove it. Telima, a clever girl, had probably discovered and stolen the key to her collar. Ho-Hak's collar had been riveted about his throat.
'Telima,' said I, thinking of Ho-Hak, 'why was Ho-Hak so moved, when together we spoke of the boy Eechius?'
She said nothing.
'He would know him, of course,' said I, 'from the island.'
'He was his father,' said Telima.
'Oh,' I said.
I looked down at the golden armlet I held in my hand. I put it on the floor and then, with the pair of slave bracelets I had removed from Midice, following her dance, I secured Telima to the kitchen's slave ring, fastened in its floor. I braceleted the left wrist first, passed the chain throught the ring, and then braceleted the right wrist. I then picked up the golden armlet, and again regarded it.
'It is strange,' I said, 'that a rence girl should have a golden armlet.' Telima said nothing.
'Rest,' said I, 'Kettle Slave, for tomorrow you will doubtless have much to do.' At the door of the kitchen I turned again to face her. For a long time, not speaking, we looked at one another. Then she asked, '-Is Master pleased?' I did not respond.
In the other room I tossed the golden armlet to Midice, who caught it and slipped it on her arm with a squeal of delight, holding up her arm, showing the armlet.
'Do not chain me,' she wheedled.
But, with the ankle rings, taken from her following the dance, I secured her. I put one ring about the slave ring near which she had served me, and the other ring about her left ankle.
'Sleep, Midice,' I said, covering her with the love furs.
'Master?' she asked.
'Rest,' I said, 'Sleep.'
'I have pleased you?' she asked.
'Yes,' I told her, 'you have pleased me.' Then I touched her head, moving back some of the dark hair. 'Now sleep,' said I, 'now sleep, lovely Midice.' She snuggled down in the love furs.
I left the room, going down the stairs.
I found myself alone in the darkness. It was about an Ahn, I conjectured, before daylight. I trod the narrow walkway lining the canal. Then, suddenly, falling to my hands and knees, I threw up into the dark waters. I heard one of the giant canal urts twist in the water somewhere beneath me. I threw up again, and then stood up, shaking my head. I had had too much paga, I told myself.
I could smell the sea, but I had not yet seen her.
The buildings lining the canals on each side were dark, but, here and there, in the side of one, near a window, was a torch. I looked at the brick, the stone, watched teh patterns and shadows playing on the walls of the buildings of Port Kar.
Somewhere I heard the squealing and thrashing of two of the giant urts fighting in the water, among the floating garbarge.
My steps took me again to the paga tavern where I had begun this night. I was alone, and miserable. I was cold. There was nothing of worth in Port Kar, nor in all the worlds of all the suns.
I pushed open the doors of the paga tavern.
The musicians, and the dancer, had gone, long ago I suppose.
There were not so many men in the paga tavern now, and those there were seemed mostly lost in stupor. Here and there lay among the tables, their tunics soiled with paga. Others lay, wrapped in ship's cloaks, against the wall. Some two or three still sat groggily at the tables, staring at goblets half-filled with paga. The girls, saving those who served still in the curtained alcoves, must have been somewhere chained for the night, probably in a slave room off the kitchen. The proprietor, when I entered, lifted his head from the counter, behind which hung a great bottle of paga in its pouring sling.
I threw down a copper tarn disk and he tilted the great bottle.
I took my goblet of paga to a table and sat down, cross-legged, behind it. I did not want to drink. I wanted only to be alone. I did not even want to think. i wanted only to be alone.
I heard weeping from one of the alcoves.
It irritated me. I did not wish to be disturbed. I put my head in my hands and leaned forward, elbows on the table.
I hated Port Kar, and all that was of it. And I hated myself, for I, too, was of Port Kar. That I had learned this night. I would never forget this night. All that was in Port Kar was rotten and worthless. There was no good in her. The curtain from one of the alcoves was flung apart. There stood there, framed in its conical threshold, Surbus, he who was captain of Port Kar. I looked upon him with loathing, despising him. How ugly he was, with his fierce beard, the narrow eyes, the ear gone from the right side of his face. I had heard of him, and well. I knew him to be pirate; and I kenw him to be slaver, and murderer, and thief; I knew him to be a cruel and worthless man, abominable, truly of Port Kar and, as I looked upon him, the filth and rottenness, I felt nothing but disgust.
In his arms he held, stripped, the bound body of a slave girl. It was she who had served me the night before, before Surbus, and his cutthroats and pirates, had entered the tavern. I had not much noticed her. She was thin, and not very pretty. She had blond hair, and, as I recalled, blue eyes. She was not much of a slave. I had not paid her much attention. I remembered that she had begged me to protect her and that I, of course, had refused.
