I smiled to myself. Her protestations evidenced her newness to the collar. Did she not yet know that nay slave must do anything, and everything, at the merest suggestion of a master, at his merest word, even at his slightest gesture, or glance? That is something that most girls learn quite quickly.
I looked down at her.
'Yanina begs to please Master!' she whispered.
'Perhaps,' I said.
I rose to my feet. It was late in the afternoon. There was only some smoke over Brundisium now, and I gathered that the fires were now mostly under control. No one had come to the apartments. I had not expected them to, or at least not quickly. In this my own anticipations had proved sounder than those of Flaminius. There had been much for them to do elsewhere. Too, I suspected that the city captain had now assumed authority in the city, now that Belnar had been killed. Flaminius' power, I suspected, had largely been a matter of his closeness to the ubar, and his control of special projects, under the direction of the ubar. He was not, as far as I knew, a member of the city administration nor did he hold, as far as I could tell, any official position or rank in the army, or the civic or merchant guard, of Brundisium. He did have, presumably, through Belnar, connections with members of the high council of the city. Members of that council had doubtless been closely associated with Belnar in his various projects. no new ubar, as far as I could tell, had yet been appointed by the council. There had been, at least, no general ringing of bars such as might be expected to announce such an appointment. Had men arrived at the apartments, of course, they would have found them locked. They would then presumably leave. If they chose to enter, they would have had to break through doors. By that time, of course, I would have had time to take my leave, in the manner originally planned.
I glanced down to Yanina. She lay on her stomach, on some furs I had thrown before the barred gate. her hands, palms down, on the soft furs, were at the sides of her head. There was now a chain on her neck. I had found it in the apartments. It was some eight feet in length. It was padlocked about her neck, a heavy lock under her chin, and when I wished, as now, not wanting it for a leash or alternative tether, it was fastened by a similar lock about the bars of the gate, near its foot.
She had served well on it, for Ahn. On it she had, at my direction, assumed slave poses, and had been put various times through intricate slave paces. On it she had even performed placatory slave dances, dances of the sort in which the female tires to convince the male that she might perhaps be worth sparing, if only for the pleasure she might bring him. Too, of course, as it had pleased me, and in a variety of fashions, I had used her. Flaminius, however, it seemed, did not derive the same pleasure from this that I did. I now glanced to Flaminius. He was now sitting on the floor, back against the bars, his wrists spread, where I could see them, tied back against them, at junctures of vertical bars with a flat, supportive crossbar, some six inches from the floor. IN this fashion he could not bet up nor could he effectively use his feet. I had put him in this fashion, thinking it might be more comfortable for the fellow.
Flaminius, my prisoner, looked away, not wanting to meet my eyes.
I went to the side and removed a bowl from its padded, insulating wrap. Its contents were still warm. It was a mash of cooked vulo and rice. Earlier I had taken Yanina to the kitchen. There, under my supervision, on her chain, kneeling, she had cooked it. It was perhaps the first thing she had ever cooked. I had, too, once, later in the afternoon, taken her into a couple of rooms, where I had her tidy them up. I pleased me to see her, once the proud Lady Yanina, helplessly performing these small, domestic tasks. Being a slave is a whole way of life, involving a total modality of existence. There is a great deal more to it than simply serving a master on the furs.
'Eat,' I said to Flaminius, spooning some vulo and rice into his mouth. Then, in a bit, I took the bowl, the spoon in it, to where the girl lay. 'Kneel,' I said to her.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
I then took bits of vulo from the bowl and held them out to the girl. I also put some rice in the palm of my hand, from which she took it. I heard Flaminius gasp in anger. 'Do you object/' I asked. His slave, before him, was eating from the hand of another man. To be sure, we had all eaten earlier, as well. Then, however, I had had Yanina eat from a pan on the floor.
'No,' said Flaminius, hastily.
Yanina looked up at me. She had taken food from my hand.
'Are you sure you do not object?' I asked.
'No, no!' he said, quickly.
I then put the bowl aside. I also picked up my sword sheath, the belt wrapped about it, the blade housed in it.
I looked at Flaminius.
'Do not kill me,' he said, suddenly.
'By now,' I said, 'I believe the papers which I sought, those whose security you had hoped to guarantee, have left the city.'
'It does not matter,' he said, hastily.
'Once, long ago,' I said, 'when you sought to consign me to the mercies of urts, I questioned you as to certain matters. You informed me, as I recall, that you did not choose to answer my questions.'
He regarded me, frightened.
I drew the blade.
'Perhaps now,' I said, 'you will choose to answer them.'
'I know little about what transpires between Cos and Brundisium,' he said. 'It has to do with Ar. Too, negotiations have been conducted with secret parties in Ar, parties traitorous to that city.'
'Such as yourself?' I asked.
'Perhaps,' he said, fearfully. 'But what is that to you? Are you of Ar?'
'No,' I said. 'But I respect the Home Stone of Ar, as that of other cities.'
He shrugged.
'Your response,' I said, 'is unsatisfactory.' My blade was at his throat.
'You must have the secret papers,' he said. 'Otherwise you would not have sought the keys so diligently. Examine them. The answers you seek, or some of them, must be there!'
'An attempt was made on my life, in Port Kar,' I said. 'Were you responsible for that?'
'No,' he said. 'We only followed orders, through Belnar.'
'What interest would Belnar have had in such a thing?' I asked.
'None, really,' he said, wincing, the blade at his throat. 'He acted in obedience to the will of another, one more powerful than he.'
'What other?' I asked.
'Lurius,' he said. 'Lurius of Jad, Ubar of Cos!'
'Lurius?' I said.
'Yes!' he cried. 'Don't kill me!'
I withdrew the blade from his throat, and he shuddered in his bonds. I had not even thought of gross Lurius, he of Jad, he who was ubar of Cos. Once, long ago, I had sacked a treasure fleet bound from Tyros to Cos, intended for Lurius. Too, at that time, I had taken and chained naked at the prow of my flagship, as a trophy of my victory, the lovely young Vivina, who was being brought to Telnus, the capital of Cos, to be entered into companionship with him, then to be his royal consort. In Port Kar, then, later, I had had her collared, and locked beneath the slaving iron. She was not the preferred slave of Henrius, a captain in Port Kar.
'Why has Lurius acted in this matter only now?' I asked.
'I do not know,' said Flaminius, frightened.
It had to do, I was sure, with new movements in the politics of cities. It had to do, I supposed, not only with me, personally, but with Port Kar, as well. To be sure, Lurius had a long memory.
'I am naked and bound,' said Flaminius. 'You cannot kill me in cold blood!'
'I can,' I said.
He regarded me with horror.
'If the semantics of the matter trouble you,' I said, 'you may regard it as an execution.'
'On what grounds!' he cried.
'For treason to Ar,' I said.
