tatrix, Lara. To be sure, she herself apparently had some understanding of what it was to be a female slave. It seems it had once been taught to her. I had heard, incidentally, a few months ago, in Port Cos, from a Tharnan silver merchant, that Lara had abdicated. Perhaps her abdication was in the best interests of the city. I do not know. Doubtless it ended something of a political tension in the city, and I take it that Tharna now, under the governance of its councils, and its administrator, Kron, has at last achieved a commendable political consistency. As nearly as I could determine from the reports of the silver merchant Lara's abdication was not forced, nor even the result of extreme political pressures brought on her, but a voluntary act, one apparently regarded by her as being not only in the best interests of the city but in her own best interests as well. He did not know what had become of her. I would suppose that she is now merely another Tharnan woman, another slave. It is my hope that she is happy.
'Like the ost?' she asked.
'What?' I asked.
'Are they poisonous, the marsh moccasins, like the ost?' she said.
'They are quite poisonous,' I said, 'but their venom, as I understand it, does not compare to that of the ost.'
'Could I survive its bite?' she asked.
'Possibly,' I said. 'I do not know.'
'I do not think I shall attempt to essay the experiment,' she said.
'That is wise on your part,' I said.
'Do men ever throw women to marsh moccasins, or osts?' she asked.
'Perhaps free women,' I said, 'as a form of execution.'
'No,' she said, 'I meant slaves.'
What interest have you in slaves?' I asked.
'I was just curious,' she said.
'Anything may be done to slaves,' I said.
'Of course,' she said.
'Perhaps if they were not pleasing,' I said. 'But then it would be more likely that something less impressive would be done to them, perhaps dismembering them for sleen feed.'
'I see,' she said.
'Too,' I said, 'if even a slave's most secret thoughts harbor the least hint of recalcitrance, such an absurdity being inevitably revealed in subtle bodily clues and such, they might be summarily given to leech plants, cast to pond eels, thrown to sleen, such things.'
'But if they were pleasing?' she asked.
'And truly concerned to fulfill the complete requirements of their total slavery, internal and external?'
'Yes,' she said.
'I would not think so,' I said.
'Good,' she said.
'That would be a waste of female,' I said. 'How you put that!' she said.
I shrugged.
'Do I have some value, just as a female?' she asked.
'You mean, as might a slave?' I asked.
'Yes,' she said.
'Of course,' I said.
'Good,' she said.
'What?' I asked.
'Nothing,' she said.
She stretched out her legs, a little. She looked at them. She put her hands near her ankles. 'You know,' she said, 'I, too, think my ankles would look well in shackles.'
'They would,' I said.
'Indeed, I think I might look well as a whole in chains,' she said.
I was silent, poling the raft.
'Do you think they would be becoming on me?' she asked.
'Of course,' I said.
'Poor free women,' she said. 'They do not get to wear chains.'
'Not often, at any rate,' I said.
'I have seen you lustful men ogling slave girls in their chains,' she said, chidingly.
'It is one of the pleasures of the mastery,' I said.
'And I have seen some of those girls,' she said, 'how helpless and sensuous they are in their chains, helplessly their captive and yet at the same time using them to drive men mad with passion.'
'Oh?' I said.
'Yes,' she laughed, 'how they move in them, how they make them make those little sounds, and so on.'
'Where did you see such things?' I asked.
'On the street, here and there, now and then,' she said. 'Too, sometimes on an occasional shelf market.'
'You might see some good chain work on a shelf market,' I said.
'Chain work?' she said.
'Yes,' I said. 'Some women have an instinct, or a natural talent, for the use of their chains, but these instincts, or talents, are often honed by whip-masters.'
'You mean they learn to use their chains?'
'Yes, much as they might learn to drape tunics, to tie slave girdles, to wear slave strips, to use perfume, to apply cosmetics, and so on.'
'And to please a man!' she said.
'Of course,' I said.
'Well,' she said, 'whatever the reason, some of them are very beautiful in their chains.'
'Yes,' I said. 'Some girls wear their chains stunningly.'
'Do you think I would look well in chains?' she asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'Do you think they would suit me?' she asked. 'They would suit you very well,' I said. 'Do you think I would be beautiful in them?' she asked. 'All women are beautiful in chains,' I said. 'But do you think I would be particularly beautiful in them?' she asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'Even though I were a free woman?'
'If you were in chains,' I said, 'you would presumably no longer be a free woman.'
'I suppose not,' she said.
'It is nearly morning,' I said.
'It seems that slaves have various advantages over free women,' she said.
'What did you have in mind?' I asked.
'Not being thrown to marsh moccasins, osts, and such.'
'Presumably not,' I said, 'at least if they are pleasing.'
'And truly concerned to be pleasing, fully!' she said.
'Yes,' I said.
'They are not subject to execution,' she said.
'No,' I said, 'but they are subject to disposal.'
'True,' she said.
'And I do not know if there is much difference between being tied on a pole for tharlarion or simply being bound and thrown to them.'
'I suppose not,' she said.
'I can think of an interesting advantage the free woman has over the slave,' I said.
'What is that?' she said.
