'More, Master?' inquired the slave in bluish gauze, in the gleaming collar, kneeling behind me and to my left.
'Yes,' I said.
With a serving prong she placed narrow strips of roast bosk and fried sul on my plate.
'Enough, Girl,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
There were seven musicians, who furnished the music for the dancers, a czehar player, their leader, two kalika players, three flutists and a kaska player. Tasdron kindly had brought these fellows from his tavern. Too, with him he had brought a girl, the former Earth girl, Peggy, who was one of his slaves. She was in a brief, white tunic, and collar. She hovered in his vicinity, waiting upon him. I noted, however, that she could hardly take her eyes from the mighty Callimachus. Tasdron and I had, together, agreed on the pertinence of her presence at the feast.
There was then a swirl of music and the dancers had finished. We well applauded them. They had been superb. They stood before us in their blue silk and golden collars, their heads down. Then, smiling, to another swirl of music, they turned and hurried from the room, going to the kitchen, where their master would be waiting for them. They were barefoot. There were golden bangles on the left ankle of each.
In the kitchen they would be stripped of their costumes, which were not to be soiled. They would then kneel and be fed by hand. When they were finished they would be put naked in slave cloaks and, fastened together in throat coffle, conducted back to their holding cages near the spice wharf. Tomorrow, at noon, on the same ship on which their master had booked passage, they were to be shipped to Port Cos, and from thence, via Turmus, eventually to the island of Cos, in some city of which, probably Telnus, they would be put up for sale. The musicians now played unobtrusively in the background.
'She is a pretty one,' said Glyco, indicating the slave in bluish gauze, barefoot and bare-armed, who was deferentially serving us. She put down her head, blushing. 'You have been commended,' I said to her. 'Thank you, Master,' she said to Glyco, kneeling, head down. 'A girl is grateful, if she has been found pleasing by a free man.'
'What is her name?' asked Glyco. 'I have not yet given her a name,' I said. 'I see,' said Glyco. 'You may continue your serving,' I said to the girl. 'Yes, Master,' she said.
'I propose a toast,' said Aemilianus, rising.
'A toast,' we called. Shirley hurried about, making sure there was wine in the goblets. Callimachus drank water, but he permitted a drop of wine to mix in the water, that the ceremony of the toast might be one in which he fully shared. Wine, incidentally, is often mixed with water in Gorean homes. This is primarily because of the potency of many Gorean wines. The wines I was serving, however, were such that, sensibly, they could be served undiluted. An alternative with the potent wines is to serve very small amounts of them. We stood. The musicians stopped playing.
'To the Vosk League!' said Aemilianus, commander of the naval forces of Ar's Station.
'To the Vosk League!' we said, fervently.
Two of the men at the table had been signatories to the treaty of the Vosk League, solemnly signed under festive canopies on the wharves of Victoria yesterday at the tenth Ahn, Glyco, who had signed on behalf of Port Cos, and Tasdron, Administrator of Victoria, who had signed on behalf of Victoria. In all, nineteen towns had become members of the League, Turmus, Ven, Tetrapoli, Port Cos, Tafa, Victoria, Fina, Ragnar's Hamlet, Hammerfest, Sulport, Sais, Siba, Jasmine, Point Alfred, Jort's Ferry, Forest Port, Iskander, Tancred's Landing and White Water.
'To Ar's Station!' said Callimachus, lifting his goblet to Aemilianus.
'To Ar's Station!' we said.
'I am grateful to you all, for your generosity,' said Aemilianus. 'I regret only that I was not permitted to sign the treaty on behalf of Ar's Station.'
Well did we know his bitterness in this matter. Envoys from Ar, though present at the signing of the treaty, extending felicitations to the league, and commending its intent, had refused to permit Ar's Station to become a party to the signing of the document. Though this was a great disappointment to Aemilianus, and to others of Ar's Station, who had fought with us, it came generally as no surprise on the river. Ar had had difficulties enough with the Salerian Confederation, to the east, not to welcome the formation of a new league along the Vosk. And, surely, such a league would prove detrimental to Ar's ambitions on the Vosk and in the Vosk basin.
Port Cos, of course, had had no similar difficulties in joining the league. She was an independent town, and sovereign in her own right. Interestingly, envoys neither from Cos herself nor from the Salerian Confederation attended the formation of the league. They would wait, it seemed, to see whether or not the league became an effective, practical political reality upon the Vosk. If it did, that would be time enough, we supped, for them to concern themselves with it.
'To Port Cos!' said Tasdron, lifting his cup.
'To Port Cos,' said we all, and that toast was well drunk.
'To Victoria!' said Glyco, reciprocating the honor that Tasdron had shown his city.
'To Victoria!' we said, and well and heartily drunk, too, was this toast. Downing it, I found, startled, that there were tears in my eyes.
'What is wrong?' asked Callimachus, smiling.
'It is smoke,' I said, 'from the lamps.'
'No,' he smiled, 'it is because Victoria is your city.'
'Aemilianus!' I said, huskily, that I might drive this emotion from me.
'Yes?' said he.
'I have been meaning for days to give you a gift, one I have been saving for you.'
'Oh?' he asked.
I looked at Shirley. 'To his feet, Slave,' I said.
Swiftly Shirley, startled, putting down the wine, knelt before Aemilianus.
'I took her from Reginald, captain of the _Tamira_,' I said.
'That is known to me,' said Aemilianus.
'Do you like her?' I asked.
'Yes!' said Aemilianus.
'She is yours!' I said.
Swiftly the slave put down her head and began to kiss the feet of Aemilianus. 'My Master,' she said, acknowledging him as her new master.
'My thanks!' said Aemilianus.
'It is nothing,' I said. 'She is only a slave.'
'She is worth at least ten silver tarsks,' speculated Tasdron. This heartened me, for Tasdron was quite skilled in the assessment of female slaves. As the owner of a paga tavern, he had bought and sold many, of course. It was a form of merchandise with which he was quite familiar. It seemed to me not impossible, upon reflection, that the voluptuous Shirley, put upon the block, exhibited by a skilled auctioneer, might bring the very fine sum of ten silver tarsks.
There was applause for me about the table, the striking of the left shoulder in Gorean fashion. One of the nicest gifts one can give a man, of course, is a beautiful woman.
'But, mercifully,' I said, 'let her continue to serve. You may then take her home with you tonight when you go.'
'Very well,' he grinned.
I threw him a narrow, eighteen-inch black strap. 'This is for when you take her home with you tonight,' I said.
'Thank you,' he said. When he left tonight, of course, she would not be wearing a collar, and, presumably, she would be stripped. The strap would be useful in tying her hands behind her back. There would be no danger, of course, of her being mistaken for a free woman. She would continue to be well marked as a slave by her brand, which was small and fine, and burned deeply into her left thigh.
'Where are you supposed to be now, Girl?' asked Aemilianus.
'In the kitchen, I think, Master,' she said.
