exclaimed Chino.
'Have you heard such songs?' inquired Petrucchio.
'In a hundred halls,' said Chino, 'about a thousand campfires.'
'Really?' asked Petrucchio.
'Surely you know them well?' asked Chino.
'Well, some of them,' said Petrucchio.
'Your modesty, then, and our time, they being so numerous and lengthy, forbid me recounting them to you.'
'Naturally,' said Petrucchio.
'We wish you well, noble captain,' said Chino, shaking Petrucchio's hand, warmly. 'I do not think we shall soon forget our chance encounter with the great Captain Petrucchio.'
'That is for certain,' said Lecchio.
'Few do,' Petrucchio admitted.
'May we have your permission to tell our children and our grandchildren about this?' inquired Chino.
'Yes,' said Petrucchio.
'Thank you,' said Chino.
'It is nothing,' said Petrucchio, as though it might really have been nothing, the bestowal of so priceless a right.
Chino took the switch from Lecchio, and lightly tapped Rowena on the shoulder with it. 'Lana,' he said, instructing her as to her new name. 'Yes, Master,' she said, trembling at the touch of the switch, accepting the name. 'Tana,' he said, tapping Lady Telitsia on the shoulder with the switch. 'Yes, Master,' she said, accepting the name. 'Bana,' he said, tapping Bina on the shoulder. 'Yes, Master,' she said, accepting the name.
Chino handed the switch back to Lecchio who used it, tapping the girls here and there, and brushing it against them for delicate adjustments, to line them up in an exact and careful order.
'Well,' said Chino to Petrucchio, after having satisfied himself with the quality of Lecchio's work, 'it is time to be on our way. It is time to herd these pretty little she-tarsks to market.'
'I hope you get good prices for them,' said Petrucchio.
'I am sure we will,' said Chino.
The girls, together, aghast, reproachfully, regarded Petrucchio.
'Come now, girls,' said Chino, 'we must be on our way.'
'Move, Lana!' said Lecchio, speeding her into motion with a swift stroke of the fierce, supple switch. 'Move, Tana!' said Lecchio, adding another stripe to her, as she, in her place, hastened to move past him. 'You, too, Bana!' said Lecchio, adding a swift, smart stripe to her, as well, as she, moaning, at the end of the chain, tried to hurry past him.
Chino and Lecchio, then, following the neck-chained girls, left the stage.
'I wish you well!' Petrucchio called cheerily after them. He then turned to the audience, twirling a mustache. 'And thus,' he said, 'concludes another of the adventures of Petrucchio, Captain of Turia. This has been the story of how Petrucchio penetrated the disguises of three clever female slaves, masquerading as free women, captured them, and returned them to their rightful bondage. IN it has also been told how he generously bestowed the slaves, asking nothing for himself, upon two needy wayfarers.'
Petrucchio then apparently looked into the distance. 'Oh! Oh!' he cried. 'Is that dust upon the horizon? Or is it perhaps my imagination? It could be a group of verr, browsing in the fields. But, too, perhaps, it is nothing. But, too, perhaps it is men from the warring towns, as reported by the cloth workers, intensely combing the hills the fields for harmless Turians. Perhaps I should teach them a lesson. But then again, perhaps it is nothing, a stirring of wind, or even only my imagination. I wonder in what direction I should go? I shall let my sword decide!' Here he seemingly closed his eyes and swung his word about in vast, eccentric circles. 'Very well, sword,' he said, opening his eyes. 'You have mad the choice. I must abide by it, however reluctantly. It is in this direction that we will seek new adventures, lands to be devastated, armies to be defeated, cities to subdue, noble free women to be protected and guarded on dangerous roads.' He then set out in the direction in which the sword had pointed. It was, of course, the direction exactly opposite that in which he had, but a moment ago, fearfully, thought he might have discerned a movement of dust in the distance.
IN a moment, smiling and bowing, all the actors had returned to the stage. Rowena, Lady Telitsia and Bina, freed of their chains, now had their collars bared. The scarves which they had worn about them were now knotted about their hips. They were knotting at the left hips, so that the opening was at their left thighs, were, on the thighs, could be seen the circular, adhesive patches they had worn during the play, those patches which, in the conventions of the theater, informed the audience that they were to be taken, for the purposes of the play, as free women, and not the slaves that they really were. Boots Tarsk-Bit leaped, too, to the stage, bowing to the audience, and, with expansive gestures, proudly displayed his actors. Petrucchio, stepping forward, received the most applause. Boots removed, one by one, the circular adhesive patches from the thighs of the girls, this baring their brands. The theatrical convention was now terminated. Once again the girls were revealed to be what they had actually been all the time, only female slaves.
'Thank you, generous folks, noble patrons, citizens of Brundisium, guests and friends of Brundisium!' called Boots. No copper bowls were passed. No coins rattled to the stage. The troupe had already received a purse of gold from Belnar, Ubar of Brundisium. As a reward for their part in my capture the Lady Yanina, as Boots had hoped, had arranged for their performances at the banquet. Boots had spoken to her of such a banquet, and of the 'finest entertainment.' He, of course, had had in mind his own troupe. 'Thank you! Thank you!' called Boots, blowing kisses to the crowd in the Gorean fashion, brushing them from the side with an open hand to the audience.
I looked to the table where reposed Belnar, Ubar of Brundisium. On his left hand sat Flaminius, who, it seemed, had not joined in the applause. Flaminius, as I had earlier noted, did not seem too pleased with the nature and progress of the evening. It was at this table, too, where sat Temenides, a member of the caste of players, one who stood among the high boards of Cos. At the right side of Belnar there was a vacant place. Since this evening was to be a great triumph for the Lady Yanina, celebrating her capture of me and her restoration to favor in Brundisium, I supposed that that place had been reserved for her.
'Present yourselves,' said Boots to Rowena and Lady Telitsia, thrusting them forward on the stage.
Rowena stood at the front of the low stage. She put her head back, her hands clasped behind the back of her head and arched her back, her legs bent. Then she put her arms down and back to the sides, her shoulders back, her breasts thrust forward. 'Who wants me?' she called. There was then much shouting and clashing of silverware on goblets. Men rushed forward and seized her bodily and carried her, lifted high among them, back to the tables. Then Lady Telitsia stepped to the front of the stage. She thrust her hip out to the left and put her hands high over her head and to the right. She looked down and to the right. 'I am not such a beauty,' she said to the crowd, plaintively. 'I am sure no one will want me.'
'Ask! Ask!' demanded dozens of men, laughing, pounding on the goblets and tables with utensils.
'Who wants me?' called out Lady Telitsia, laughing, vibrant and alive in her collar, a slave, the property of Boots Tarsk-Bit, her master.
'I do! I do!' cried more than a dozen men. There was a rush to the stage. Then Lady Telitsia, too, was seized from the stage and carried helplessly, held high above the heads of several men, others crowding about them, back to the tables. Rowena, gasping and writhing, crying out, the scarf torn from her, flung down among the tables, pressed back helplessly to the tiles, held down by the arms, kept in place, by two men, was already serving.
Bina, smiling, hung back, standing between Petrucchio and Chino. ON her left wrist she wore a slave bracelet. It had been put on her by the player. It signified that her use was his. I saw the player from Cos, Temenides, lean toward Belnar, and speak to him. He nodded. Temenides, then, rose behind the table. It was the table of the Ubar.
'Actor!' called Temenides to Boots, contemptuously, loftily.
'Yes, Master?' inquired Boots, pleasantly.
'What of her?' inquired Temenides, pointing to Bina.
'That is our Bina,' said Boots. Bina, finding herself the subject of the conversation of free men, instantly knelt. Her time with the player had clearly honed her slave responses. He had not had her use more than a day or
