thighs flamed. I felt wet.'
The mother kissed her, and caressed her hair, softly, soothingly.
'I am a terrible person,' said the girl.
'Such feelings are perfectly natural,' said the mother. 'Do not be ashamed of them. They tell you what you are. It is not wrong to be what you are. It is good to be what you are, exactly what you are, whatever it may be.'
'Have you ever had such feelings?' asked the girl.
'Yes,' said the mother.
'What can possibly be their meaning?' asked the girl, frightened.
'It is simple,' said the mother.
'What?' asked the girl.
'That we are females,' said the mother.
'Females?' said the daughter.
'Yes,' said the mother. 'Such feelings, of need and helplessness, are natural for us. Do not be afraid of them. They tell us what we are.'
'Are wea€”are we slaves, Mother?' asked the girl.
'Hush,' said the mother, quickly. 'One approaches; a guard.' Quickly they separated, each looking down. The mother rested now on her right thigh and hip, her hands on the floor of the Semnium, the girl on her left thigh and hip, her hands, too, on the Semnium's floor. They did not lift their heads. They did not wish to risk meeting the eyes of the guard, calling attention to themselves. They looked well in the collars, both affixed to the chain.
The woman near me, on the marble bench, grasped it more tightly. The padlock on her collar moved on the marble. The guard was removing her ankle shackles. He then sat her upright, and unchained her wrists. The ankle chain and wrist chain he left lying over the bench, in front of her. He then took her by the hair and drew her from the bench. He walked her, bent over, to a place on the chain. A second padlock was there, marking what had been her place. He knelt her there, and then opened the padlock on the chain. Without removing it from the chain he pushed its bolt through the ring on her collar and snapped it shut. She was again part of the chain. She lay down on the floor, in her place. The guard looked over the nearby women. None met his eyes. He was the same fellow who, earlier had brought in the newest arrival, bound and leashed, in the Semnium. '261,' he said.
'Please, no,' she said.
He regarded her.
'Master,' she said, putting her head down.
A young girl, near her, gasped, hearing her mother use this word to a man. 261 was freed from the chain. He sat her on the bench, straddling it.
'Please,' she said, 'do not. My daughter is near.' Then her ankles were shackled, the chain running under the heavy fixed-position bench. Then her wrists were enclosed in the wrist rings, the chain from them, too, running under the bench. He then put her down on the bench. She lay on it, on her stomach, her legs on either side of it. Her throat still wore the padlocked collar. The other padlock, that which had held the collar to the chain, he left on the chain. It marked the place to which she would be returned. He then left her. In a few Ahn it would be dawn. I had not slept well. I must make the decision soon, whether or not to carry certain letters. I gathered this couriership might be not without its dangers.
I glanced at the female on the bench. She was lusciously desirable. I put her from my mind.
I had reservations about taking Hurtha and Boabissia into danger. Even if they were willing, and informed, at least to the extent I was, I did not think I should permit them to accompany me. It might be too perilous for them, how perilous, of course, I did not know.
The female stirred on the bench. There was a tiny sound of chain. I forced the thought of her from my mind. She was excitingly desirable.
I had little doubt, however, that Hurtha would cheerfully come along, if asked, and perhaps if not asked, abounding with his customary indefatigable optimism whatever might be the odds. He had already complained, more than once, that his ax was getting rusty. This is an Alar way, I took it, of saying that it had not been used lately. That was perhaps just as well. If Hurtha came with me, however, it seemed that Boabissia should be left behind. If she were left behind, however, I did not doubt but what she would soon find herself in a collar. She was that attractive. I put the woman on the bench again from my mind. I wondered what Boabissia would look like on the bench, in such a predicament. Rather well, I supposed. I might slip from the city, without them, I thought. In that way I would not carry them into danger. That would be thoughtful on my part. If I did that, of course, I should speak to Hurtha and Boabissia. I wondered if I should slip from the city. I did not know what to do. It was hard to sleep.
'Oh!' said the woman on the bench, stiffening, my hand on her.
'Do not relax your body,' I said. 'Keep it tight against my hand.' She moaned.
'You are a free woman, are you not?' I said.
'Yes,' she said.
'You may relax your body,' I said.
Quickly she drew herself forward on the bench, frightened, an inch or so.
'Move back,' I said.
She moaned, and slid back a tiny bit.
'More,' I said.
She complied, fearfully.
'More,' I said.
She was now back where she had been before. 'I do not know where your hand is,' she said.
'It is here,' I said, lifting a finger, touching her.
'Oh!' she said.
'You look well in a collar, and chains,' I said.
'Please,' she said. 'Do not touch me.'
'Why,' I asked.
'My daughter is near,' she said.
'What is that to me?' I asked.
'She can see, she can hear! she whispered. 'Ohh!' She shuddered, caressed. 'You are a lusciously bodied female,' I said. 'Doubtless you will bring your seller a good price.'
'Ohh,' she said.
'When you were brought in,' I said, 'it seems your wrists were quite tightly bound behind you, more than with the customary tightness ample to keep a female in perfect custody.
'Sir?' she asked.
'You may call me Master,' I said.
'Master?' she said.
'The way you rubbed your wrists, that suggests you were not merely bound with customary tightness, but punishment bound.'
'Perhaps,' she said.
'Perhaps you had showed less than absolutely perfect deference to men?' I speculated.
'No, Master,' she said. 'I am not a fool.' 'I would guess then,' I said, caressing her, 'that the tie was intended to be an informative, or admonitory one, one from which you were to gather something of the meaning of your reduction in station.'
'Yes,' she said.
'Doubtless, then, you were formerly of some importance.'
'Yes,' she said. 'I was important.'
'Are you important now?' I asked.
'No!' she gasped.
'Are you sure?' I asked.
'Yes, yes!' she gasped.
'Who are you?' I asked.
'I ama€”261!' she said.
