Turbus Veminius looked at me. Again I put my head down. If he wished me to come forward, he would summon me.
My hands were bound behind my back, with Gorean binding fiber. Slaves are sometimes sent on errands, thus secured. About my neck, on a leather string, was tied a small sack. It contained a note, and coins. I could not read the note, of course, for I was illiterate in Gorean. I Clad run my errands this morning, too, similarly bound and accoutered. I looked up. The attention of Turbus Veminius was now again elsewhere. He was straightening vials in one of the cabinets on the side. I moved my hands in the bonds. I shifted my position a little, kneeling now again in the background, aside, from the door. Twice earlier, too, I had been the only one in the shop but, still, I had not been waited on. Turbus Veminius and one of his fellows had merely spent those times engaged in conversation, pertaining to the tharlarion races. I had not objected, nor did I object now, of course. I did not wish to be kicked or beaten, or have a tag wired to my collar, which would be seen by my Mistress, saying perhaps 'This slave was impudent. I recommend twenty lashes.'
I thought again of the two slave girls who had been hurrying past, doubtless to arrive home in time to prepare their masters' meals and then to be ready, bathed, perfumed and in a bit of silk, kneeling, to greet him. I began to get a bit uneasy then on my own account. This night, I knew, I was to be ordered to the chamber of my Mistress. I did not think she would be pleased if I were late in returning to the house. I would not relish being whipped again, though presumably it would not be with the snake, nor being perhaps confined for another day in close chains.
'May I speak, Master?' I asked.
'No,' he said.
'Yes, Master,' I said. I glanced at the water clock. It was now shortly after the fifteenth Ahn.
'Ah,' said Turbus Veminius, as the Lady Kita, with her two guards, entered the shop.
'Is the perfume ready?' she asked.
Turbus Veminius handed her the vial. She removed the tiny cap and lifted it to her face, which was veiled. She in haled delicately through her nose. I saw the veil draw inward.
'What is the meaning of this?' she asked, horrified. 'Surely this is slave perfume!'
'No,' said Turbus Veminius, 'but it, by design, resembles it.'
'Surely you do not expect me to pay for this?' she asked.
'Only if you wish to, Lady Kita,' he said.
Her eyes, over her veil, were angry.
'You wished a perfume, did you not,' asked Turbus Veminius, 'to distract your companion from his slave sluts, did you not?'
'Yes,' she said.
'This perfume,' said Turbus Veminius, 'will remind him of what he has forgotten, that you are a woman.'
She looked at him, her body rigid with rage.
'But it, in itself,' he said, 'will do little to improve your situation'
'I do not understand,' she said.
'You are, I suspect,' said Turbus Veminius, 'a pretty little thing. If your companion bought you, naked and collared, in a market, he would doubtless prize you highly.'
'Turbus!' she cried, angrily.
'But as his companion you are too much taken for granted,' he said.
'It is true,' she suddenly sobbed.
'If you would improve your situation somewhat,' he said, 'I recommend that you learn the arts of the slave girl, and practice them with diligence'
'That would only improve my situation somewhat?' she asked, puzzled.
'Yes,' he said, 'for you would still be free, and no free woman, because she is free, can truly compete for the attention and affection of a man as can a slave girl.'
'Why?' she asked.
'I do not know,' said Turbus Veminius. 'Perhaps it is simply because the slave girl is a slave girl, truly, and is owned.'
'What then am I to do?' she asked.
'You could risk slavery,' he said, 'expose yourself to possible capture, walk the high bridges at lonely Ahn, picnic in the country, go to paga taverns alone, take dangerous sea voyages.'
'But what if I were caught, and enslaved?' she asked.
'You would then be a true slave girl,' he said, 'and would doubtless be taught, thoroughly, and more deeply and sensuously than you could ever hope to learn them as a free woman, for you would then be a slave, the arts of the female slave.'
'But I might never again come into the possession of my former companion,' she said.
'Presumably you would not,' he said. 'But presumably you would come into the possession of some man who truly wanted you, and who was willing to pay good money for you.'
'I brought a large companion price to my companion,' she said. 'Perhaps he wanted that more than me.'
'I do not know,' said Turbus, shrugging.
'He did,' she said, bitterly. 'He did.'
'Perhaps it would be just as well, then,' said Turbus, sympathetically, 'if you did not come again into his possession.'
She put her head down.
'The girl who is bought off the block,' said Turbus, 'knows that it is she herself, and only herself, who is desired. Nothing else, you understand, is being sold, only the girl.'
'Yes, Turbus,' she said. 'I understand.'
'I will take back this perfume,' he said. 'Obviously you will not want it.'
'No,' she said, quickly, lifting her head. 'I will take it.'
'The price is high,' he said, 'a golden tarn disk.'
'I will pay it,' she said, giving him the coin from a small, beaded purse she held in her hand.
She turned to leave, but then, again, turned to face him.
'Yes?' he asked.
'Do you sell slave perfume, true slave perfume?' she asked.
'We do not sell perfume for slave sluts in the shop of Veminius,' he said, sternly.
'Forgive me, Turbus,' she said.
'Try the shop of the Steel Bracelets,' he smiled. 'It is near the house of Hassan, on the Street of Brands.'
'Thank you, Turbus,' she said. She turned again, to leave.
'And do not let them overcharge you,' he called after her. 'Five two-hort vials should cost you no more than a copper tarsk!'
'Yes, Turbus' she said. 'Thank you. Turbus ' She stopped in the doorwav, but did not turn to face him. 'I wish you well, Turbus,' she said.
'I, too, wish you well, Lady Kita,' he said.
She looked up at one of the two large guards who stood beside her. Then she lowered her head. He was looking at her, with a curiosity and interest that must have been unsettling for her. She hurried then from the shop, followed by the guards.
Turbus Veminius looked at me.
'Approach, Slave,' he snapped, 'and lower your head.'
I hurried to him, and put my head down. He took the loop of leather, with its tiny sack, from my head.
'You are Jason,' he asked, 'the slave of the Lady Florence of Vonda?' He was looking at the note, extracted from the sack.
'Yes, Master,' I said.
'Her perfume was ready yesterday,' he said. He went to one of the cabinets. From the sack he took the coins. They were five silver tarsks. He put them in a drawer. He wrote something on the note, and then he put the
