opportunity to discipline her. How successful, too, had been her placatory efforts with her master! How indulgent he was! Was he not too easy with his slaves? Did he not spoil them? It seemed now she could do as she pleased with impunity. What had she to fear? She had won!
'There is one other thing,' said Boots.
'Yes, Master?' she said.
'Regard the monster,' he said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
She looked at the «monster». He, hooded, garbed in black, tall, straight, his arms folded, was, too, looking upon her. She was a nasty little female, but she was a pretty one, too; that could not be denied.
'Until further notice,' said Boots, 'your use is his.'
'No!' she screamed, wildly. 'No! No!'
The other slaves, and even Lady Yanina, gasped, and shrank back in horror.
'No, Master, please!' cried Bina.
'You will cook, sew and wash for him, and perform for him all the other duties of the female slave. You will be to him in all things as his own slave. You will serve him in all ways, intimate or otherwise, and perfectly, as he may wish or direct.'
'Please, no, Master!' she wept.
'It has been said,' said Boots.
'Thank you,' said the player.
'It is nothing,' said Boots.
'Do I also have full discipline and whip rights over her?' asked the player.
'Of course,' said Boots.
'Good,' said the player, approvingly.
The girl put her head in her hands and began to sob, hysterically.
'Go now, slave, to the wagon of your use master,' said Boots to the girl, 'and close yourself inside, awaiting him.'
'Yes, Master,' she wept and, springing up, hurried to the player's wagon. The other girls looked after her, with horror. None of them, I think, had expected that her punishment would be so grievous.
'The rest of you females,' said Boots, clapping his hands sharply, 'get back to your work!'
Swiftly the girls scattered from his sight, seeking various labors. Even the Lady Yanina fled from his sight, as promptly as though she, too, might have been only a common slave.
'I will need her, of course, for the performances,' said Boots to the player. 'I hope that is understood.'
'Of course,' said the player.
'Do you think little Bina now knows she is a slave?' asked Boots.
'Yes,' I said. 'I think she now knows it well.'
Boots then turned away, making his way back to his wagon.
'Congratulations,' I said to the player.
He shrugged.
'You are pleased, surely?' I said.
'I have never even had a woman,' he said.
'Try them,' I said. 'I am sure you will enjoy them.'
'Perhaps,' he said.
'They make splendid recreations,' I said.
'Perhaps,' he said.
'They are absolutely delicious properties,' I said. 'They are the loveliest thing a man can own.'
'What has she to do with Kaissa?' he asked.
'Very little, I would suppose,' I said.
'In my life, hitherto,' he said, 'I have been concerned primarily with Kaissa.'
'Perhaps you could broaden your interests,' I suggested.
'What shall I do with such a woman?' he asked.
'For most practical purposes,' I said, 'she is yours. I would do with her, then, if I were you, whatever I pleased.'
'That seems a splendid suggestion,' he said.
'You know the sort of woman she is,' I said. 'Make her grovel, and crawl, and be perfect for you.'
'I will,' he said.
'Are you strong enough to punish her?' I asked.
He looked across the area of the camp to his wagon. He looked at the door of the wagon, reached by climbing the flight of steps at the back of the wagon. The door was now shut. The girl would be behind it, awaiting him.
'Yes,' he said.
13 Nim Nim
I clutched the bars of the narrow cell window, looking out onto the courtyard. I stood on a table which I had dragged to the side of the wall, in order to be able to look out. Behind me, on his straw, crouched the small, narrow-shouldered, spindle-legged representative of the urt people.
'I had warned you,' had moaned Boots, in his camp, 'but you would not listen!'
Five days ago I had been returning to the camp of Boots Tarsk-Bit, coming back from a nearby village where I had gone to fetch Sa-Tarna grain, from which the girls, back at the camp, using stones and flat rocks, sifters and pans, would produce flour. This was somewhat cheaper than buying the flour directly, for then one must pay the cost of the peasant women's work or that of its millage. I carried the sack across my shoulders. It was not heavy. It weighed only a little more than an average female. I had been surprises to see Lady Telitsia running towards me down the road. She flung herself to her knees before me. 'Run, Master,' she had cried. 'Run! There are men at the camp, come looking for you!' 'Who are they?' I asked. 'What do they want?'
Then, it seemed in a moment, while she cried out in misery, high tharlarion, some twenty of them, thundered suddenly about me, the earth shaking, dust rising in billows about me. I was encircled. 'Hold!' cried a man. 'Do not move!' Crossbows, in the hands of surrounding, shifting riders, aligned themselves upon me. A great billowing cape, like a flag, swirled behind their leader. I had seen the cap before. I had seen the man before.
'Manacle him,' said Flaminius, he in the service of Belnar, Ubar of Brundisium.
Men leaped to the ground. The sack of Sa-Tarna grain was dragged from my shoulders. My hands were pulled behind me. I felt them clasped in steel manacles. One end of a long chain leash was tossed to one of the men near me. I felt it locked about my neck. Flaminius looped the other end of the leash twice about the horn of his saddle. 'We meet again, Brinlar,' he said, 'or is it Bosk, of Port Kar?'
'I am Bosk, of Port Kar,' I said.
I saw several of the men look uneasily at one another.
'He is manacled and leashed,' said Flaminius to his men. Then, again, he looked at me. 'We took you as easily as a slave,' he said.
I pulled at the manacles. I could not elude them. They were made to hold men, even warriors.
'We saw the fat fellow of the acting troupe speak to the slave,' he said. 'later we saw her slip from the camp. It was easy to suppose that it was her intention to warn you. Then we needed only to follow her, and, indeed, the naked, pretty little slut led us immediately, unerringly, to you.'
'Forgive me, Master,' moaned Lady Telitsia.
'It was our original intention to wait for you in the camp, surprising you there,' said Flaminius. 'Obviously this worked out much better. For example, it has saved us the problem of trying to conceal the tharlarion, the presence of which might have aroused your suspicions.'
'Doubtless it would have,' I said.
'Please, forgive me, Master,' wept Lady Telitsia.
