I wondered if he would have her sent to his rooms. The decision' was his. She was a slave.
'As the house opens to the public at the tenth Ahn,' said Hermidorus, 'perhaps I should now take you to the office of Publius, who wished to greet. you before you left the premises.' The tenth Ahn is the Gorean noon.
'Splendid,' said Drusus Rencius.
We were then making our way upward from some of the lower pen areas.
I had not realized the complexities of a slaver's house, and this house was not an unusually large one. We had seen the baths and the sales yard, which is also used for exercise; we had seen various holding areas, ranging from silken, barred alcoves for superb pleasure slaves, through cells and cages of various sorts more fit for medium-priced women, to incarceration chambers that were little more than grated pits or gloomy dungeons, areas in which a slave might be terrorized to find herself placed; other holding areas, ranging from good to bad, were no more than a ring position, in a wall or on a floor; we also saw kitchens, pantries, eating areas, some with mere troughs or depressions in the floor, storage areas, guard rooms, offices, and places for the keeping of records; there were also a laundry and an infirmary; too, there were rooms where such subjects as the care and dressing of hair, the application of cosmetics, the selection and use of perfumes, manicure and pedicure, and slave costuming were taught, and even rooms where inept women, usually former members of the upper castes, could be instructed in the small domestic tasks that would now be expected of them, small services suitable for slaves, such as cleaning, cooking and sewing. Certain areas of the house, however, I was not shown, presumably because I was a free woman, such as the lowest pens, the branding chamber, the discipline room, and the rooms where girls were taught to kiss and caress, and the movements of love.
'I will be good! I will be good!' I heard a girl cry, from within a low, steel, rectangular box, shoved against the side of the passage, presumably that it would not be in the way. I stopped, startled. It had not occurred to me that a girl could be held within those small confines. Indeed, in the half-darkness of the lamp lit passage I had hardly noticed the box It was about four feet long and three feet wide, with a depth of perhaps eighteen inches. It was of steel and opened from the top. In the lid, at each end, there was a circle, about five inches in diameter, of penny-sized holes. It was locked shut, secured by two flat, steel bars, perpendicular to its long axis, padlocked, in front, in place. 'I will be good!' wept the girl, from within.
'It is a slave box,' said Hermidorus.
'I beg to be pleasing, Masters!' cried the girl, from within.
'Surely she must be a very tiny woman,' I said, horrified, to Drusus Rencius. 'She is the former Lady Tais of Farnacium,' said Hermidorus. 'Her house name is Didi. She is, as I recall, a normal-sized slave.'
'The box is so small,' I said.
'It is supposed to be small,' said Drusus Rencius.
'But consider the cramping, the tightness, the girl's helplessness,' I said. 'Those are among its purposes,' he said.
'But it is so small!' I protested.
'It is not really so small,' he said.
I looked at him.
'It would be, for example,' he said, 'more than large enough for you.' 'I will obey lovingly and with total perfection, Masters,' averred the woman from within the box. 'I beg only to be permitted to be fully and totally pleasing to my Masters!'
'Come along,' said Hermidorus.
We then, once again, followed him.
'I beg to be pleasing!' cried the woman from within the box. 'I beg to be permitted to be totally pleasing!'
'She is almost ready to leave the box,' said Hermidorus 'Let me see the license on her,' said Publius. 'I see,' he smiled, surveying the scrap of paper given to him by Drusus Renelus, 'the' Lady Lita.' He looked at me. 'A pretty' name,' he said.
I thought so, too.
He smiled at me, as though amused by the name. I did not understand this. 'It is not her true name, of course,' said Publius to Drusus Rencius. 'Of course not,' said Drusus Rencius.
'Doubtless, in the circles in which you travel, Lady Lita,' said Publius to me, 'it would not do for your friends to know how you were brought half naked and braceleted into a slaver's house.'
I looked away from him. I did not deign to respond to such a remark.
'It would be quite a scandal doubtless,' he said, 'and make a quite good story in the telling.'
I looked away, loftily, still braceleted.
'Here, Lady Lita,' he said, 'let us stand you in the light, where we can get a better look at you.' He conducted me to a pool of light, at the foot of a shaft of light, falling from a high, barred window.
I stood there, and the men stood back, looking at me.
'She is very pretty,' said Publius. ''Lita' would be a good name for her.' 'I think so,' said Drusus Rencius.
I stood there, being inspected. I had been afraid that Publius, when he bad been conducting me to the pool of light, and placed me here, might have touched me. I could not have prevented it, in such a brief garment, with no nether closure, my hands braceleted helplessly behind my back, but he had not done so. Had he done so, of course, my condition of arousal would have been made humiliatingly and embarrassingly evident to him. I hoped that my need was not somehow evident, subtly so, in my appearance and behavior, Perhaps through body cues. I hoped, too, they could not smell 'Kneel down here, Lady Lita, in the light,' said Publius.
I knelt down, in the pool of light. I kept my knees closely together. I was confused, and frightened. I was kneeling before men.
'Are you sure she is free?' asked Publius.
'Yes,' said Drusus Rencius.
'Interesting,' said Publius. He then walked slowly about me, looking at me, and, then, again, stood a few feet before me, looking down at me.
'Look at her,' he said.
'Yes?' said Drusus.
'Closely,' said Publius.
'Yes?' inquired Drusus.
'Do you not see?'' asked Publius.
'What?' asked Drusus.
'She has the softness, the femininity, the look of a slave about her,' he said. 'I assure you,' smiled Drusus, 'she' is far from a slave.'
'I do not think so,' said Publius. 'I think she is a natural slave, and would train superbly to the collar.'
Drusus threw back his head and laughed at the absurdity of this thought. I myself did not find it so amusing.
'Does anyone know she is here?' asked Publius.
'No,' said Drusus.
'Why do we not then enslave her?' asked Publius. 'No, Lady Lita,' he said, 'do not rise to your feet.' I had almost leapt up. My wrists wildly, suddenly, had jerked against the bracelets. They had not yielded, of course. They were not made to yield. I knelt back then, in the light, on my heels.
'It would not be difficult,' said, Publius. 'We could transport her from the city. Then, elsewhere, when she is suitably branded, and her neck is locked in a proper collar, when she' is fully and inescapably a slave, absolutely rightness, and in your power, we might make test of the matter.'
'This woman is not a slave,' said Drusus Rencius.
'A silver tarsk says she is,' laughed Publius.
'How are things in Ar?' asked Drusus Rencius. 'I have I not been there for a long time.'
'I will get the paga,' said Publius. The men then drank, and spoke of small things while I knelt in the light, braceleted, and was seldom, I think in their mind or attention. Once I noticed that my knees had opened somewhat, without my really thinking about it. I quickly closed them. I hoped no one had noticed. I wondered if I was a slave. Publius thought so, and he was a slaver. He had been willing to put a silver tarsk on the matter. I looked at Drusus. Something in me seemed to say, 'You lose your tarsk, Drusus Rencius. She is a slave.' Then I hastily thrust such a horrifying thought from my mind.
