did, and being what she was, a slave, was the deepest and most wonderful thing in her being, and she reveled in it, and loved it! She had wanted only the clear understanding that she must now surrender to it, that she was now truly a slave. She was elated in the harness.
'There!' said the keeper, pointing out a fellow with the coiled whip. She swung about. 'Am I pretty, Master?' she cried. 'Will you bid upon me?' 'Bid upon me!: cried Publia to him. 'I need a collar and a man!'
'There is another,' said the keeper.
'Perhaps it will be you who will own me?' called Claudia to him.
The forward lines were cast to fellows on the pier. Ina moment they were made fast to mooring cleats.
There was much cheering, and waving, and calling out, between the pier and the railing. Drums and pipes on board the Tais sounded. A plank was being run out to the pier. The following ships in the flotilla, scarcely less resplendent than the Tais herself would, in moments, in turn, take their own berths.
'What manner of slaves are those?' called a fellow on the pier, apparently, by his garb, a Cosian, to the keeper on the bow deck. 'Are they common slaves?' 'They are as common as you will have them!' shouted back the keeper. 'They are not branded, are they?' asked the fellow. 'They are not collared!' 'Such details will be soon attended to,' laughed the keeper.
I did not doubt it. Goreans are efficient about such matters. For an instant Publia, startled, and Claudia, frightened, stopped writhing in the harnesses. It was, after all, their own branding and collaring of which the men were speaking! 'Move,' growled the keeper.
Then again they moved, frightened, obedient slave girls.
There was laughter from the pier. 'Wriggles!' called out a slave girl to them.
'Squirm! Squirm, Kajirae!' called out another.
'Do you not know how to squirm?' laughed another girl.
'How is it that these two are at the prow?' called another fellow.
'They squirm well,' said a man.
'Writhea€”writhea€”more slowly,' said the keeper to them.
'Aiii!' cried a man.
'How is it that these two are at the prow?' called the fellow again. 'Stop,' said the keeper to the two slaves. Motionless were they then, their arms high, their bodies beautifully elongated, stretched out, suspended from the outjutting beams in the shackles and harness.
'Beautiful!' cried a man.
The keeper then, with his coiled whip, in two expansive gestures, one to port, one to starboard, indicated, and called attention to, the lineaments of the figures of the two lovely slaves. 'Can you not guess?' he asked the fellow who had asked the question.
'Yes!' said the fellow.
'Are they not worthy to be at the prow?' asked the keeper.
'They are!' called out more than one man. And they were worthy not only because of the beauty of their figures, so well displayed, but because of their facial beauty as well.
I saw a slave girl in her skimpy tunic, scarcely a rag on her, nuzzling a fellow, rubbing her face and head against his left shoulder. She was trying to distract him from the suspended slaves. She was urging a consideration of her own not inconsiderable charms upon his attention.
'But perhaps, too, there is another reason!' hinted the keeper.
'Oh?' asked his questioner.
'This one was call 'Publia, ' said the keeper, 'and this one 'Claudia. ' As he said these names, he reached out, and, in turn, Publia first, flicked each of them with the whip. At this touch, even as light and playful as it was, each of them recoiled in dread. Both had now felt the whip at one time or another, indeed, Claudia only a moment ago. There was more laughter. 'They were both free women of Ar's Station,' continued the keeper. 'Publia dressed in such a way that her caste, that of the Merchants, would be concealed.'
A Cosian merchant in the crowd cried out in anger.
'And that none would know she was wealthy!' said the keeper.
'She is not wealthy now!' cried a man.
'Let her now serve the wealthy!' called out a well-dressed fellow.
'Or serve a master of low caste,' called out a fellow in the garb of the metal workers, 'with the same or greater perfections than would be required of her in a high house!' I smiled. A great deal, indeed, is expected in low-caste domiciles of slaves who were formerly of high caste. To be sure, they no longer have caste then, of any sort. Even the lowest of castes is then undreamt-of heights above them, for in such houses they are only animals.
'She was determined to survive the fall of Ar's Station, whatever might prove to be the fate of her sisters in the city,' said the keeper.
There were cries of anger.
'Thus, by such means as provocative dress and habiliments, baring even her calves, hoping then to be taken for a lowly, beautiful, meaningless maid, by even refusing to cut her hair on behalf of the city's needs, an act by means of which she hoped to appear more attractive to strong men, more attractive than might her sheared sisters, and a lack which, incidentally, as you can see, has been made up upon her, and by carrying gold with her, not shared with her sisters, with which she hoped to bribe captors to spare her for a nose ring and cord, she gave great attention to the readying of herself for a Cosian master.' There was much laughter.
'And thus,' said the keeper, lifting the whip, 'we think it is only appropriate that her planning not have gone for naught. It is to a Cosian, some Cosian, that she will be sold!'
Men, hearing this, slapped their thighs with pleasure. Slave girls, too, laughed.
'I am a Cosian!' called out a fellow. He, to be sure, did not wear the habiliments of Cos.
'Perhaps, then,' said the keeper, 'yours will be the collar she will wear!' 'Perhaps,' he laughed.
'And this one,' said the keeper, indicating Claudia, 'betrayed her compatriots, declared for Cos and took Cosian gold for treason!'
'But she is a slave now?' called a man.
'Yes,' said he keeper.
'Traitress!' cried a fellow, angrily, one in the habiliments of Cos. Claudia looked wildly at the keeper. He nodded. He would permit her to speak. 'I regret what I did!' cried Claudia. 'And I am only a slave now! Please have mercy on a slave!'
'She, too,' said the keeper, 'it to be sold to a Cosian.'
'Traitress!' cried a Cosian. 'Traitress!' cried another.
'perhaps I will buy you!' cried another. 'The whips in my house lash hard!' 'I will try to be pleasing, Master!' she wept.
It was very hard to hear now. The drums and pipes aboard the Tais were sounding. There was other music, too, here and there, from the piers, greeting other ships. There was much shouting, and calling, and raillery, between the piers and ships.
Aemilianus, pausing now and then to wave to the crowd, and partly supported by Surilius, and most of those with him were conducted back from the bow deck. Calliodorus, I suspected, had now left the stern castle and was awaiting his friend, Aemilianus, amidships. Aemilianus, who had commanded at Ar's Station, it seemed, would be the first to disembark. I, and some others, including the young warrior, Marcus, remained where we were. In a few moments, then, to drums and pipes, and cheers, I saw Aemilianus, unsupported, but obviously weak, make his own way down the gangplank. Behind him were Calliodorus and Surilius. Aemilianus and Calliodorus, and other officers, were embraced by several fellows wearing medallions of office at the foot of the gangplank.
Following this official party, so to speak, the refugees of Ar's Station disembarked, a few clutching tiny bundles containing meager belongings, and some of their other belongings following timidly, on their own bare feet. Much of the crowd, in a few Ehn, then, had followed the procession of officials and officers, and refugees, and properties, from the wharf. Oars were inboard, stowed. Oarsmen and sailors now, save for a watch, weapons and sea bags over their shoulders, entering upon their leaves, and other fellows, their service now discharged,
