'I suppose you are right,' said Boabissia.
'Conceive of it touching your body,' I said, 'particularly as you might have to wait for it, expecting it, and knowing it was to come, and that you had to submit to it, the cool, cruel touch of it, the caress of it, and as you might be bound, or chained.
'Yes, perhaps,' said Boabissia, uneasily. 'Sometimes slaves oil much more quickly after such a touch,' I said. ' «Oil' she asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'What a horrid expression,' she said.
'Not at all,' I said. 'It is an intimate, wonderful, exciting, succulent expression. Her body is being prepared for use.'
' 'Use'! ' she said.
'Of course,' I said. 'She is a slave.'
'That is true,' granted Boabissia.
'And the intimate and exciting odors attendant upon such oilings, those of the helplessly aroused female, prepared for the master's use, are quite stimulatory to a male.'
'Doubtless,' she said.
'And so,' I said, 'it is not uncommon that after such a touch, the caress of the master's steel, that the slave, cognizant then of her utter helplessness and the master's power, and her complete dependence upon his mercies, that she is totally and absolutely under his domination, yields to him quickly and lusciously.'
'I see,' she said. Momentarily she trembled.
We continued to move along the Avenue of Adminius. There were some two or three hundred of us. We were some two-thirds of the way, or so, back in the group. This seemed to me a good position. I thought it possible that any guards who might have the duty of supervising our exit from the city, or perhaps the duties of inspecting or searching us, might, given the numbers involved, be somewhat lax or a bit less diligent in their efforts by the time we reached them, and we were not so far back that, the guards perhaps perking up, the end of the group in sight, we might find ourselves the target of some burst of compensatory ardor. We were now beyond the lines of suspended bodies outside the Semnium. I was not sorry to leave them behind me.
We continued to move slowly along the avenue, toward the great gate. I saw a naked slave girl kneeling to one side, at the side of a building, on the stones, her hands chained behind her to a slave ring. About her neck hung a sign on which was written, 'Free for Use,' As our eyes met she swiftly lowered her head.
'Keep moving,' said a guard.
Such women had apparently been put out as a municipal convenience, and to help keep order in the city. She might also, of course, have been put out for punishment, but, given the current conditions in the city, that seemed unlikely. 'What a slut,' said Boabissia.
'A pretty one,' I said. 'And free for use, too.'
'I wish they would not put them out like that,' she said.
'Do you object to public drinking fountains?' I asked.
'No,' she said. 'But that is different.'
'Oh?' I asked.
'Yes,' she said. 'Men are beasts, and seeing such women may get ideas. Perhaps free women would be less safe.'
'The existence of such women on Gorean streets, particularly in times of stress,' I said, 'tends to keep free women safer.'
She was silent.
'It is true,' I said.
'Perhaps,' she said.
'Few men will trouble themselves to steal a dried crust of bread, perhaps even at great personal risk, if a free banquet is set forth before them. To be sure, some men are unusual.'
'I am not a dried crust of bread,' she said, irritably.
'It is only a figure of speech,' I said.
'I am not a dried crust of bread,' she said.
'You are a free woman,' I said.
'If I chose to be, if I were in the least interested in that sort of thing,' she said. 'I could prove to be a quite tasty pudding for a man.'
' 'Tasty pudding'? ' I asked, pleased to hear her speak in this way. 'Yes,' she said.
'That is a common misconception of untrained free women,' I said. 'They think themselves attractive and skilled, when they know little of attractiveness and almost nothing of skill.' 'Skill?' she asked.
'Yes,' I said. 'There is more in pleasing a man than taking off your clothes and lying down.'
'Perhaps,' she said, irritably.
'Indeed,' I said, 'sometimes you do not take off your clothes, and you do not lie down.'
'I see,' she said, angrily.
'Perhaps you could get lessons from Feiqa,' I said.
'Oh, no, please, Master!' cried Feiqa, fearfully. 'Please, no!'
I smiled. I did not think, under the circumstances, it would be necessary to beat her. It had, after all, been a joke on my part, a capital one. To be sure, not everyone appreciates my splendid sense of humor. Boots Tarsk-Bit had not always done so, as I recalled.
'That would be absurd,' said Boabissia, angrily.
'Yes, Mistress!' said Feiqa, quickly.
'To be sure,' I said to Boabissia, 'you are in somewhat greater danger than many free women for you have not chosen to veil yourself.'
'Alar women do not wear veils,' she said. 'They are an artifice of civilization, fit rather for perfumed girls who would be better off in collars.'
'You are not an Alar woman,' said Hurtha.
'I grew up with the wagons,' she said, angrily.
'That is true,' he admitted, it seemed almost reluctantly. I supposed if Hurtha had encountered Boabissia under somewhat different circumstances his relationship to her would have been considerably different, for example, if he had bought her in a slave market. Her background with the wagons had perhaps, rightly or wrongly, inhibited him somewhat, I feared, keeping him from viewing her as what she essentially was, a rather juicy possibility for a female.
'You do want to be safe, don't you?' I asked Boabissia.
'Of course, of course,' she said, irritably.
'Then perhaps you should not object to the occasional chaining out of slaves.' I said.
'Perhaps,' she said.
'And perhaps you should veil yourself.' 'Nonsense,' she said.
'But you do want to be safe?' I asked.
'Of course,' she said.
'Then veil yourself,' I said.
'No,' she said.
'Well, perhaps it does not matter,' I said.
'Why is that?' she asked.
'You are probably right,' I said.
'What do you mean?' she asked.
'You are probably not pretty enough to interest anyone,' I said.
'Nonsense,' she said. 'I am beautiful. And men would pay a high price for me.' Hurtha roared with laughter.
Boabissia turned about and glared at him. I was pleased she no longer possessed her dagger.
'Do not laugh,' I laughed.
I, too, then, I fear, had she been armed, might have had to defend myself. 'You are stupid, both of you,' she said, 'like all men. You simply do not know what to make of free women.'
