behind the small table. She knelt there, making herself comfortable, and adjusting her robes.
There was silence in the room.
The Lady Florence then signaled to the musicians, and they began to play.
And Melpomene danced before me.
'If you are not pleased with her, Jason,' said the Lady Florence, 'let me know, and I will have her slain before morning.'
Melpomene turned white, for her very life had then been placed in my hands.
'Yes, Mistress,' I said.
'Please find me pleasing,' begged Melpomene. 'Please, Master!'
My face was expressionless. I stood regarding her, arms folded. I looked at her. I remembered her well from that night in Venna, in her house, when I had lain chained at her mercy, subject to her pleasure and abuse.
'Please find me pleasing, Master,' she begged, dancing naked before me.
'I will not find you pleasing unless you are pleasing,' I told her. It was true.
She moaned. The music began to swirl and flame. Piteously, and more piteously, she danced her beauty before me.
'Do you find her of interest, Jason?' asked the Lady Florence.
'The slave is not without interest,' I said.
Suddenly a look of joy came into the eyes of Melpomene, as she sensed that she might be spared, and then, as suddenly, a look of astonishment, as though she could not understand what was occurring within her, and then, suddenly, a look of heat and passion.
'See the flanks move,' said Tenalion to Ronald.
'Note the belly,' said Ronald.
'Excellent,' said Tenalion.
'Slut! Slut!' cried the Lady Florence.
The music became ever more wild and primitive.
'Slave!' cried the Lady Leta.
'Slave!' cried the Lady Perimene.
I smiled. There danced now before me an aroused slave girl, eager to please her Master.
The music suddenly stopped and Melpomene fell to her knees, putting her head to my feet.
'Has her dance pleased you, Jason?' asked the Lady Florence.
'Yes, Mistress,' I said.
'Beast,' she said.
'Yes, Mistress,' I said.
'Pamela,' cried the Lady Florence, 'bring love furs!'
'Yes, Mistress,' she said.
'Tenalion,' said the Lady Florence. 'May I trouble you to shackle my little Melpomene by the ring?'
'Of course, Lady Florence,' said Tenalion. He smiled. The Lady Florence and Melpomene were of quite similar height and weight. The Lady Florence might have been an eighth of a port taller.
Melpomene rose to her feet and stood by the ring, head down, while Pamela spread the love furs on the tiles between the tables. While she stood there Tenalion snapped an ankle ring on her left ankle. It had a chain loop. He then took the length of chain he had used before and snapped one end of it about the chain loop on her ankle ring. The other end of it he snapped about the slave ring set in the tiles. The lovely slave then stood there, shackled in place.
'You remember, Jason,' said the Lady Florence, 'when after your victory over Kaibar, of the stables of Shandu, I ordered that you not be given a woman.'
'Yes, Mistress,' I said.
'But I told Kenneth,' she said, 'that I would later find a slut for you, and that I had a slut in mind.'
'I remember, Mistress,' I said.
'This is the slut,' said the Lady Florence, indicating Melpomene.
'Yes, Mistress,' I said.
Melpomene stood at the edge of the love furs. She looked down at them.
'To the furs, Slave,' I told her.
Melpomene looked up at me, frightened.
With the back of my hand I struck her to the furs.
She looked up at me from the furs where she half lay, half knelt. There was blood at her mouth.
'When you are ordered to the furs, move swiftly,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
The two women, the Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene, gasped with pleasure. I sensed that they wished that it had been they, and not Melpomene, who had been struck to the furs for their raping.
'I see that you well know how to handle a slave girl, Jason,' she said.
I shrugged. I looked at the Mistress. I thought that she herself might make some man an excellent slave.
'Melpomene,' said the Lady Florence to her new slave, who was now kneeling on the love furs, 'when you were a free woman and dared to steal my silk slave for your pleasure, did you kiss him?'
'Of course not, Mistress,' she said. 'I was a free woman. I would not put my lips to the body of a slave.'
'Recline on the love furs, Jason,' said the Lady Florence. I did so, dropping aside the half tunic I wore. The Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene drew in their breath with pleasure.
'Melpomene,' said the Lady Florence, 'you understand that you are now no longer a free woman but only a slut of a slave.'
'Yes, Mistress,' said Melpomene, quickly.
'Furthermore, you understand that Jason is no longer a silk slave, but only a stable slave, a lowly stable slave.'
'Yes, Mistress,' said Melpomene.
'Kiss his body,' said the Lady Florence, 'every inch of it.'
'Yes, Mistress,' sobbed Melpomene.
'Begin at the extremities,' said the Lady Florence.
'Yes, Mistress,' said Melpomene.
The Mistress then clapped her hands. 'Pamela, Bonnie,' she said, 'begin now to serve the eighth course of our supper.'
'Yes, Mistress,' they said.
In time my body had been covered with the kisses and tears of the new slave.
It was then that the Mistress, pausing in her meal, looked at me and said, 'Congratulations on your victory over Kaibar, of the stables of Shandu.'
'Thank you, Mistress,' I said.
'You have had various other victories, too, I gather,' she said.
'Yes, Mistress,' I said.
'I have heard that, some two weeks ago, you became the local champion.'
'Yes, Mistress,' I said.
'That was by defeating Gort, of the stables of Miles, was it not?' she asked.
'Yes, Mistress,' I said.
'I heard of that,' she said. 'Miles is one of my rejected suitors,' she said. 'Your victory over his champion gave me great pleasure.'
'Thank you, Mistress,' I said.
'Enjoy her,' said the Mistress, indicating Melpomene, the shackled slut at my side.
'Thank you, Mistress,' I said. I took Melpomene and threw her to her back beneath me, on the furs. The Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene cried out with pleasure.
I looked down into the eyes of Melpomene. She looked up at me, and then she lifted her lips softly, delicately, to mine. 'Enjoy me, Master,' she whispered.
