The Tais moved with the current west on the Vosk. She led the main body of the flotilla westward. Ahead of us, in oblique formation, barely discernible, were four smaller galleys. These formed, as it were, an advance guard. Similarly, behind the main body of the flotilla, bringing up the rear, back a pasang or so, flying no colors, their markings concealed, were two galleys. One of these was the ship to whose captain I had spoken earlier, the Tina.
'Yes, Commander,' said a man.
Aemilianus sat on the deck, rather before the steps leading up to the helm deck and, above that, to the height of the stern castle, leading against a backrest of canvas and rope. Calliodorus of Port Cos, his friend, stood near him. beside him, too, stood his aide, Surilius. Marsias, too, and the fellows whom I had encountered in the cell earlier, and who had fought with us on the walkway, were there, too. The grizzled fellow, too, had asked to be present. These were wounded. Marsias and one other fellow were lying on pallets. The others of the wounded sat on the deck. The young man, Marcus, was there, too. It was he who had made it through to Port Cos and returned with the ships which had made possible the evacuation from the piers. Now, in spite of his youth, he stood high in these councils, those of the survivors of Ar's Station. Many others were there, too, several of whom had fought with me on the wall and elsewhere. Among them were the two young fellows who had served me so well on the wall, as my messengers, and had served well later, too, on the landing. Those who stood with us here, I gathered, stood high among the survivors of Ar's Station.
I looked about myself.
It was remarkable to see the difference in the fellows from Ar's Station, now that they had had some food and a decent night's sleep, though only stretched out on the crowded deck of a galley. It had been perhaps the first night's sleep many of them had had in weeks, not disrupted by watches or alarms.
The 'first of the two females' had not yet been fetched. They were arranging a special chaining for her. This would be the one in the improvised hood. I had had her hood pushed up yesterday evening and early this morning, though at neither time in such a way as to uncover her eyes, and, after having had her warned to silence, had had her gag removed, and had had her fed and watered. Though she would know that she was on a galley and moving with the current on the Vosk, thus west, she had no real idea as to where she was or what was to be done with her. She was being kept with other women, also ordered to silence, who, with one exception, were slaves. The voices she had heard about her, for the most part, naturally enough, given the crew of the Tais, would have had Cosians accents, or accents akin to them.
Yesterday afternoon, shortly after we had cleared the harbor at Ar's Station, I had drawn the mask of Marsias from my features, and had shaken my head, glad to feel the air of the Vosk about me, so fresh and clear.
'I thought it was you,' had said Aemilianus, weakly. 'It had to be you. your escape and that of the heinous traitress, Lady Claudia, became generally known after the recall of the troops from the citadel, in the retreat to the landing. We were informed of it by the good Marsias, and his fellow guardsmen. Too, there was no sword like yours in Ar's Station.'
'You might perhaps have joined with those of Cos,' had said a fellow, 'in the fighting. Why did you not do so?
'The wall needed defending,' I has said. 'One thing led to another.' 'Ad you not held the wall as long as you did,' had said Aemilianus. 'And had you not further delayed Cos at the gate, and on the walkway, the day would have been finished long before the arrival of Calliodorus.'
Several men had assented to this.
'It was nothing,' I had said.
Back by the port side of the stairs leading to the helm deck, a few feet from where Aemilianus sat, knelt Shirley, his beautiful blond slave. No longer was she so pale and drawn as before. Now she was considerably freshened by rest and food. Her blond hair which had been closely cropped, if not shaved, early in the siege of Ar's Station was now growing out. And, already, with the rest and food, her beauty gave hints of returning to a voluptuousness that brings high prices on a slave block, and can drive a master half mad with passion. Too, looking at her, I realized that Aemilianus, too, must be feeling much better, and much stronger. She was in chains. Though the girl loves the master with all her heart and would never dream of fleeing from him, absurd though such a dream might be on Gor, given the branding, the collaring, the closeness of the society, and such, she knows that she is upon occasion to be put in chains. In this act is symbolized his desire of her, that she is worth chaining and keeping. And in this act is symbolized his power over her. Despite their love, she is still his, and a slave.
Even the gentlest and kindest of masters has absolute power over the slave. She is no less owned by him that she would be by the cruelest brute on Gor. Elated and reassured then is the woman that she is chained, in this finding continuing evidence of her master's desire for her, his passion for her, his prizing of her, his determination to keep her for himself. And for her part, she rejoices that she is helpless to escape him, that she truly belongs to him, that she is truly his, legally and otherwise, and that she must, as she intensely desires to do, continue to live for service and love. It is not merely pleasant to own a slave, to dress her as you please, if you wish to permit her clothing, to have her at your bidding, to do with her as you please; it is exalting. The man who has not owned a slave has no conception of the maximums of sexuality, nor has the woman who has not been owned.
'How is my old friend Callimachus, commander of the forces of the Vosk League?' asked Aemilianus of Calliodorus. The body sovereign in the Vosk League, incidentally, at least as I understand it, is its High Council, which is composed of representatives from the member towns.
This Calliodorus, I gathered, then, whoever he was, would be the appointee of that council.
'Hard at work at his desk, attending to numerous administrative duties,' said Calliodorus.
'Doubtless he will also be certain to be publicly visible in Victoria,' smiled Aemilianus.
'As would you in his situation,' smiled Calliodorus.
'Doubtless he will be astonished to learn of yesterday's action at Ar's Station. 'Doubtless,' agreed Calliodorus. 'We may rest assured, of course, that he will conduct a careful investigation.'
Aemilianus laughed.
The results of this investigation, I gathered, might prove to be inconclusive. We heard the sound of chain and saw the 'first of the two females to be fetched forth.'
It was she in the improvised hood.
She was led forth, before us, in her small steps, by a hand on her left arm. Then she was sat on the deck, before Aemilianus.
She sat there, hooded. I do not think she was sure, actually, where she was, except that she had presumably been conducted further aft, or if anyone were about.
She sat there for a moment, listening. We were silent.
No longer wore she the leather collar, with its leash. No longer were her hands thonged behind her.
But she was in sirik.
The metal collar was fastened on her throat. From it a long chain, dangled downward. To this chain, near her waist, was attached another chain, terminating at each end with a wrist ring, into which rings her wrists had been placed and locked. At the end of the chain dangling from the collar, to which the wrist-ring was attached, was an ankle-ring chain, terminating at each end with an ankle ring, into which her ankles had been placed and locked. The neck chain was rather long and if she were to stand some of it would have lain upon the deck. The device permits of numerous adjustments. As it was now adjusted, her wrists had some twelve inches of play, her ankles some fourteen inches of play. The smallness of her steps had been a function of the current adjustment of her ankle chaining.
She sat on the deck. She felt the ankle rings and the chain between them, and the neck chain, and then, with each hand, she tried to slip the wrist ring from the opposite wrist. She could not, of course, begin to do so. She was exploring the device. Then she put her hands on the neck chain and moved up it, with her fingers, and pulled it against its staple on the collar. Then she felt the staple, jerked the chain again against it, and convinced herself that it was well secured there. Then she felt, wonderingly, the collar itself. It was well on her, and locked. She seemed puzzled, and frightened.
The device had been only put on her a few moments ago. This was the first time, I gathered, that she had worn slave chains.
She probably had no idea how beautiful she looked in them.
Although she could now reach her hood and gag, given the length of the neck chain, which permitted her to
