'This way, Jason,' she said. 'I wish to purchase veil pins at the shop of Publius. Then I wish to proceed to the avenue of the Central Cylinder, to examine the silks in the shop of Philebus.'
'Yes, Mistress,' I said. I proceeded down the street in the direction indicated, leading the tharlarion by its reins. Small saddle tharlarion are generally managed by snout reins. The huge war tharlarion are commonly guided by voice signals and the blows of spears on the face and neck. Draft tharlarion are harnessed, and can be managed either by men, or usually boys, who walk beside them, or by reins and whips, controlled by drivers, men mounted in drawn wagons.
We passed a woman in the street, a woman of Ar, followed by a silk slave. He looked at me. I suppose he was wondering what I had cost.
A slave girl passed, a short-legged beauty, clad in a gray rag, chewing on a larma fruit. She spit against the wall as I passed.
'Do not mind her, Jason,' said the Lady Florence.
'No, Mistress,' I said. But I wished I could have gotten my hands on her.
'Such girls are unrefined,' she said.
'Yes, Mistress,' I said. But the girl had had good ankles.
'Stop here, Jason,' she said.
'Yes, Mistress,' I said.
'You will tether the tharlarion, Jason,' said the Lady Florence.
'Yes, Mistress,' I said.
'When you have finished with that,' she said, 'you will return here, and wait for me.'
'Yes, Mistress,' I said.
The sun was high now, and it was past noon. We were stopped now before the shop of Philebus, which specializes in Turian silk. This shop is located on the great avenue of the Central Cylinder, which is more than four hundred feet wide, an avenue used in triumphs, dominated by the Central Cylinder of Ar itself, which stood at one end of it. There are many trees planted at the sides of this avenue, and there are frequent fountains. It is a very beautiful, and impressive, avenue. I was pleased to look upon it. Shops on this avenue, of course, if only because of the rents, are extremely expensive.
She glanced to the looped chain at the side of her saddle.
'Does Mistress wish to chain Jason, her slave?' I asked. If she wished this I would fetch her the chain, when I had tethered the tharlarion. There were slave rings, a foot or so from the sidewalk, in the front wall of the shop of Philebus. Such rings are common in public places on Gor. A slave girl, sitting, her hands bound before her body with cord, by a shortened neck-leash, was chained at one of these rings. At another, also sitting, fastened there by a two-loop fitting, running to a collar ring, was a silk slave.
'No, Jason,' she said. 'You may drink from the spillings of the fountain while I am inside'
'Yes, Mistress,' I said. 'Thank you, Mistress'
The fountain had two levels, a great bowl and, lower, near the walk level, a shallow bowl. From this shallow bowl slaves might drink.
The Lady Florence looked up at me. I could not read her expression. 'Perhaps you will like what I will buy,' she said.
'I am certain that I will, Mistress,' I said. I was not lying. She had, I had learned, exquisite taste.
She swiftly turned and went into the shadowed, cool recesses of the shop.
'She did not chain you,' said the male silk slave to me.
'No,' I said.
'What did you cost?' he asked.
'Sixteen tarsks,' I said.
'That is not much,' he said, puzzled.
'Of silver,' I said.
'Liar,' he said.
I shrugged.
I led the tharlarion into a small, sanded, sunny area near the shop of Philebus, looping its reins twice about a tharlarion ring there. As I tethered it, it could reach water, from a run from the nearby fountain. These tharlarion rings are quite similar to slave rings. Indeed, the only real difference between them is their function, the one being used to tether tharlarion and the other slaves. They have this in common, of course, that they are both animal rings.
I looked at the tharlarion.
It stood there, placidly. It slid a transparent membrane upward, covering its eye, as a broad-winged insect crawled on its lid. The insect fluttered away. The Lady Florence owned many tharlarion. Her stables were among the most extensive and finest of any owned by a citizen of Vonda.
I returned to the area before the shop of Philebus.
I glanced again at the male silk slave sitting on the walk, fastened at the ring.
'Liar,' he said. I think he was angry that he, and not I, had been chained. I looked awav from him. The broad avenue was beautiful, with its width, its paving and fountains, the buildings, the trees, the central cvlinder in the distance. It was in that cylinder, as I understood it, that were housed many of the bureaus and agencies of Ar, many of the departments important to the functioning of the state; in it, too, met various councils; in it, too, were the private compartments of the Ubar of Ar, a man called Marlenus.
I leaned against the wall of the shun of Philebus. Most Gorean shops do not have windows. Many are open to the street, or have counters which are oven to the street. These shops are usually shuttered or barred at night. Certain of the shops, usually those containing more precious goods. Inch as that of Philebus, are entered through a narrow door. Not unoften, inside, there is an open court, with awnings at the sides, under which goods are displayed. There was, in the shop of Philebus, such a court at the back, whence goods might be taken to be viewed in natural light, should the customer wish.
I looked, idly, at the people on the avenue. It was not excessively crowded on this day of the week, nor at this hour; yet -there were ample numbers of shoppers and passers-by. Here and there there were borne palanquins, as richer individuals were carried about their business. Some light, twowheeled carriages passed, drawn by tharlarion. I saw, too, more than one bosk wagon, drawn by gigantic, shaggy, wickedly horned bosk. Their hoofs were polished; their horns were hung with beads. One of these wagons had a cover of blue and yellow canvas, buckled shut with broad straps. From within I heard the laughter of slave girls. A man followed the wagon, walking behind it, with a whip. In such a wagon the girls are commonly chained by the ankles to a metal bar which runs down the center of the wagon bed. I saw a girl lifting up the canvas a bit, and peeping out. I wondered if she were pretty. She belonged to someone. Then the canvas was pulled down, quickly. All the girls might be whipped, I supposed, for such a transgression. They were slaves.
I glanced to the slave girl who was, by the shortened neckleash, chained at one of the rings in front of the shop of Philebus. Her small wrists were secured before her body with cord, fastened with cunning knots. The cord, I supposed, had been woven about a core of wire. The knots were under the left wrist, to make it more difficult to reach them with the teeth.
She looked at me.
She wore a light, gray tunic, brief. I considered the lines of her thighs and calves.
'I am for free men,' she said, angrily. 'I am not for the likes of you, Slave.'
'Do you yield well in their arms, Slave?' I asked her.
She looked away, biting her lip.
I examined her body. It was exciting and attractive. I would not have minded owning her.
'I expect you yield well indeed, Slave,' I said to her.
She flushed crimson, from head to toe, at the ring. I saw that my speculation had been correct. I smiled to myself. Her shoulders shook with a sob.
I went to the fountain, which was only a few yards away, and, getting down on my hands and knees, putting my head down, from the lower bowl, from which slaves and animals might drink, satisfied my thirst.
I then returned to the shop of Philebus, to continue to wait for my mistress.
I looked up, hearing taro drums in the sky. A squadron of Ar's tarn cavalry, the stroke of their wings synchronized with the beat of the drum, passed by, overhead. There must have been some forty birds and riders.
