your former master for what you have done?' he asked.
'No, Master,' said the slave. 'Not for what I have done.'
'I see,' said Appanius.
'But I beg your forgiveness, if I have hurt you,' he said. 'That was not my intention.'
'As I have not been hurt,' said Appanius, 'no forgiveness is necessary.'
'Yes, Master,' said the slave.
'I see that you are at last learning deference,' said Appanius.
'Yes, Master,' said the slave. 'Thank you, Master.'
Appanius then turned toward Lavinia. 'You are a pretty slut,' he said.
She threw herself to her belly before him, in terror. She looked well there, on the tiles, naked, the collar on her neck.
Appanius, then, with a swirl of his robes, exited. He was followed by two of his retainers. The other two lingered, momentarily. Among them was the first retainer. 'We have spoken among ourselves, the four of us,' he said. 'We will give you a silver tarsk for Milo.'
'You are very generous,' I said. 'That is a considerable profit for me.'
'You accept?' he asked.
'No,' I said.
'Why not?' he asked.
'There are free women in Ar,' I said, 'who would pay a thousand pieces of gold for him.'
The two retainers exchanged glances. It seemed I knew more of this fellow then they had understood.
'Could you have afforded that much, Lavinia?' I asked.
'No, Master,' she said. 'I could not have afforded that much.'
'Position,' I snapped.
Instantly Lavinia rose from her belly to her knees, placing herself in a position common among Gorean pleasure slaves, kneeling back on heels, back straight, head up, palms down on thighs, knees spread.
The male slave, gasped, seeing how beautiful she was, and how she obeyed. Perhaps then he sensed something of the pleasures of the mastery, what it can be to own a woman.
'Do you dare to look at a female slave?' I asked him.
'Forgive me, Master!' he said, lowering his head. Much had it doubtless cost him to avert his eyes from the beauty.
'What of ten thousand pieces of gold?' asked the first retainer.
'You have so much?' I asked.
'I think we can raise it, forming a company to do so,' he said.
'I do not think you could raise it in Ar today,' I said. 'Perhaps a year ago, or two years ago.'
'We have in mind contacting men in several cities,' he said, 'even in Tyros and Cos.'
'So much money would pay the mercenaries of Cos for a year,' I said.
'Perhaps,' he said. 'I do not know.'
'Not even Talena, in a golden collar, would bring so much,' I said.
'But she is a female,' he said.
Actually I thought Talena might bring that much, not as a common slave, of course, but perhaps in some situation of great dignity, as, say, a stripped, chained Ubara, being bid on in a private sale, perhaps by the agents of Chenbar, the Sea Sleen, Ubar of Tyros, and Lurius of Jad, Ubar of Cos. It was my intention, of course, to see to it that she would become such that it would be unfitting for her to be accorded this dignity.
'That is your price then?' asked the other retainer.
'He is not for sale,' I said.
'I see,' said the first retainer.
'You will not get more,' said the other.
'I do not expect to,' I said.
'Appanius would not sell him either,' said the first retainer to the other. 'But he did,' I reminded him, 'for a tarsk bit.'
The two retainers then, angrily, left. They left in the same fashion as had Appanius, and the other two, by the front entrance.
'What time do you think it is?' I asked Marcus.
'It is surely past the sixth Ahn,' he said. The fifth Ahn marks the midpoint of the morning, betwixt the Gorean midnight and noon, as the fifteenth Ahn marks the midpoint of the evening, between noon and midnight. There are twenty Ahn in the Gorean day, as time is figured in the high cities. These Ahn, in the high cities, are of equal length. In certain cities, interestingly, the length of the Ahn depends on the time of year. In these cities, there are ten Ahn in the day, and ten Ahn in the night, and, as the days are longer in the summer and shorter in the winter, so, too, are the Ahn. Correspondingly, of course, the Ahn are shorter in the summer night, and longer in the winter night. The day as a whole, of course, including both day Ahn and night Ahn, comes out to the same overall length as it would in one of the high cities.
I looked down at the male slave.
'You do not look well,' I said.
'I am sick, Master,' he said.
He had taken a splendid drubbing, to be sure.
'Do you think that what has occurred here this morning is unaccountable?' I asked.
'Master?' he asked.
'That this is all a matter of chance, and unexpected?' I asked.
'I do not understand, Master,' he said.
'It is not,' I informed him. 'You have been acquired as the result of a plan.' He looked at me, startled.
'You have been seduced,' I said, 'that you would be brought into circumstances of great compromise, circumstances the outcome of which would be to bring you to your present condition, as my slave.'
'Aii,' he wept.
'The female slave, of course,' I said, 'was acting under my orders.'
He looked at Lavinia.
'Have you received permission to look at her?' I asked.
Quickly he averted his eyes.
'You may look at her,' I informed him.
He turned to Lavinia, stricken.
'May I speak?' he begged.
'Yes,' I said.
'Do you not care for me?' he asked the slave.
'She had not received permission to speak,' I informed him.
Lavinia looked at me, pleadingly, her lower lip trembling. I would permit her to speak later.
'She is pretty, isn't she? I asked.
'Yes, Master,' he said, in misery.
'She is a seduction slave,' I said.
Lavinia sobbed, and shook her head. A tear coursed down her cheek.
'Are you not, Lavinia?' I asked.
'Yes, Master,' she sobbed.
'You should not object to this,' I informed the male slave.
'You yourself, often enough, if I am not mistaken, have acted in the role of the seduction slave. Surely it is only fair that the tables have now been turned, and that it is you, so to speak, who now finds himself in the net.'
He could not take his eyes from Lavinia.
'She acted under your orders?' he said.
'Of course,' I said.
He moaned.
'And is there not a rich joke her,' I asked, 'for, as I understand it, it was you who, as a seduction slave,
