releaser.'
'Oh,' I said. I knew this, of course. Susan had told me.
When*a female slave is given the releaser she knows that she may soon expect to be hooded, and bred.
'Could it not be sweetened?' I asked.
'I have chosen that you drink it as it is,' be said, 'as it is normally drunk.' 'You would have the Tatrix of Corcyrus drink unsweetened slave wind?' I asked. 'Shall we return to the palace?' he asked.
'I will drink it,' I said. I was a bit irritated with Drusus Rencius. Clad as I was before him, he had seemed to become much more domineering, much more aggressive with me, than he had before. Something in me resented this, but I felt something else, something deeper within me, how deep I did not know, excited and deeply moved, responding to it.
'Do you wish help in drinking it?' he asked.
'How could you help me drink it?' I asked, puzzled.
'The female is put on her knees,' he said. 'The man crouches behind her. Her head and body are bent back. Her nostrils are pinched shut. The liquid is then poured into her mouth. Before she can breathe, she must swallow. In this way even a frightened or stubborn girl, early in her bondage, learns that she must, if her master wishes it, accept nourishment.'
'What if she keeps her mouth closed, her teeth clenchedT' I asked. 'What if she chooses to expel the nourishment later?'
'A mouth may be forced open,' he said. 'Too, it is difficult to induce gagging if the hands are tied behind one.'
'I see,' I said.
'To be sure,' he said, 'this method, for its best results, requires two men. Do you wish help?'
'No, thank you,' I said. 'I shall manage very nicely by myself.' I then, grimacing, forcing myself, a little at a time, and then, desperately, tears in my eyes, hurrying, in great swallows, downed the foul beverage. 'Very good,' be said.
I thrust the soft leather flask back to him. Gasping, half choking, I wiped my mouth with the back of my forearm.
'Go stand there,' he said, pointing to a place near the door, 'facing me.' I went to where he had indicated and turned, then, facing him.
He tossed the soft flask to the top of the chest, atop his cloak, which I, earlier, bidden, had folded and placed there.
'Why did you make me drink unsweetened slave wine?' I asked.
'Stand straighter,' he said.
I stood straighter.
'Why did you make me drink unsweetened slave wine?' I asked.
He looked me over, casually, not hurrying, from my head to my toes, and then, slowly, back.
'It was fitting,' he said.
I gasped. The arrogance of himl
'What do you have therel' I said.
He had removed a pair of light bracelets, joined by about five inches of light chain, from his pouch.
'Slave bracelets,' be said. 'Turn around, facing the door, your hands behind your back.'
Almost numbly I did so. I heard him approach me. Then he stood behind me, quietly, not moving. Perhaps be was looking at me. Then, suddenly, I felt the two bracelets flung about my wrists, striking them, encircling them and snapping shut.
I was suddenly very frightened.
I tried, tentatively, behind my back, to separate my bands.
They could move only to the ends of their short chain.
'You are braceleted,' he said.
I leaned against the door, terrified, almost fainting, using it for support. I was breathing deeply. My heart was pounding.
I was braceletedl He was busying himself elsewhere in the room. I do not think he noted my condition.
How helpless I felt, braceleted.
In a moment he had returned to my vicinity, by the door. I now straightened my body. I was struggling to regain my composure.
'You braceleted me easily,' I observed, lightly.
It, is not hard to bracelet a woman,' he said.
It had been done so casually, so expertly, with apparently so little thought. Too, it had seemed to me to happen very suddenly, very decisively. In one instant I was free, and in the next I was held helplessly, the prisoner of bands and a chain. I was still shaken, perhaps even visibly so, with the enormity, of what had been done to me. I had been made helpless.
'You have braceleted other women, haven't you?' I askedL He had done it so easily, so nonchalantly.
'Yes,' he said. I hated those other women. I tried again to separate my wrists. I could not do so, of course. How short, how strong, seemed the chain that held them in proximity to one another. Suddenly I felt very weak. I, like the other women before me, perhaps women who were mere slaveas, wore the steel of Drusus Rencius.
'We shall leave now,' he said.
'Yes, Master,' I said. 'Oh!' I said. 'I did not mean that Forgive me! It slipped out. I did not mean it.'
'Do not worry about it,' he said. 'It is difficult for a woman clad as you are, and braceleted, not to think of a man as her master.'
'Thank you, Drusus,' I said. 'You are very kind. Such a mistake, as you might imagine, is very embarrassing.'
'Doubtless,' he granted me, indulgently.
I wondered what it would be like to be owned, and to have to call a man 'Master.' But, of course, owned, it would be quite suitable and proper for one to do so, for he would be, in fact, in such a situation, one's Master. My mind was racing. How could it be that I had called Drusus Rencius 'Master'? How inadvertently, how naturally, it had slipped out. I wondered if I were actually a proud, free woman, as I thought, or was something else, perhaps only a slave. 'If Lady Sheila is ready,' he said, 'perhaps we should leave now.' I put up my head.
I reminded myself that I was not really, in a sense, braceleted. Oh, I wore the steel. It was locked on me, and well, but I was the Tatrix of Corcyrus. I could order Drusus Rencius to remove it from me at any moment I wished, and he would. Thus, in that sense, it was not truly on me. I did shudder, for a moment, at the thought of what it would be to be truly in such bonds, but then I hastily dismissed such fearful and unsettling thoughts from my mind.
'Lady Sheila?' he asked.
'Yes,' I said. 'Let us go.'
He then opened the door and, holding me by the left arm, conducted me from the room.
8 I Have Been in the House of Kliomenes; The Room in the Inn of Lysias; War
'Perhaps now,' said Drusus Rencius, 'you have a better idea of the nature of the pens.'
I could not even answer him, accompanying him back through the alleys to the inn of Lysias. I feared that my bead might begin to swirl, that I might lose consciousness. I was scarcely aware of my surroundings, of where I was or what I was doing, or even of my feet touching the ground. I felt ligbt-headed. I was trembling. I was filled with wild, turbulent emotions I would never have believed that women could be subjected to such domination. I hoped that Drusus Rencius could not smell my arousal.
'Leading position,' said Drusus Rencius.
