'Interesting,' she said.
'Before you,' he said, 'what man could not be a slave?'
'Flatterer!' she chided.
I smiled to myself. He had a nimble, flattering tongue. He was able in his work. Doubtless he had been of great value to Appanius, in many ways. Then I smiled grimly to myself. How susceptible was the chit to his blandishments. How little she understood of herself. Before what man, I wondered, should she not be a slave? Indeed, before any man, she, and other women, should be slaves.'
'My wrap!' she said, irritably.
He leaped to his feet and delicately, courteously, removed her outer cloak, with its hood. She had been well covered in it, from head to toe. He put this on a peg to one side.
'Your guards are without?' he asked.
'I have come alone,' she said. 'Surely you do not think me a fool?'
'No,' he said.
She brushed back the light inner hood and unhooked the collar of her robe. 'You will never believe the difficulty I had in escaping from the Central Cylinder!' she said. 'It is almost as though I were a prisoner there. Seremides is so careful! His spies are everywhere. Who knows who they are, or which of them is watching you at any given time? Whom can I trust? It is hard to leave without an escort of a company of guardsmen. What do they fear, I wonder. The people love me.'
'You are too glorious and marvelous to risk,' said Milo.
'Alas,' she said, 'sometimes I myself grow weary of the preciousness and dignity of my person. It seems it has always been thus. Long ago when I was a girl it was the same, and then, in my time of troubles, after the misunderstanding with my dear father, Marlenus, I was sequestered, and then, later, now that the war has been concluded to the mutual benefit of Ar and Cos, with victory for us both, thanks to the mercies of Cos, and the noble Lurius of Jad, and we have become allies with our former enemies, now our dearest of friends, the Cosians, it seems the same again.'
'Mistress is Ubara,' said he. 'Simply order them to desist from their attentions.'
'Of course,' she smiled.
The handsome slave regarded her, puzzled.
'But I eluded the guards,' she said. 'It was not really too difficult. They are men, and stupid.'
'How did Mistress outwit them?' asked the slave.
'As you will note,' she said, 'I wore a common street cloak and hood, secured for the occasion. A departure was arranged for a putative maid, supposedly one of my retinue, on personal business, and it was as such a one that I was passed through the guards.'
'Mistress is to be praised for her discretion and cleverness,' he said.
'Who will remove the veil of a free woman?' she laughed.
'Who, indeed?' inquired the slave, awed.
'And few,' she laughed, 'are even aware of the features of the Ubara!'
'True, wonderous Mistress,' he said.
She laughed.
'How grateful and humbled I am,' said he, 'that I, only a slave, at three suppers, was permitted to look upon them.'
'You dared to look upon me?' she asked.
'Forgive me, Mistress,' he cried. 'I had thought that perhaps it was for that reason that Mistress had lowered her veil.'
'It was warm, those evenings,' she said.
'Of course, Mistress!' he said.
'But, to be sure,' she said, 'I did fear that looking upon me, you might fall under my spell.'
She then, gracefully, reached to the pins at the left side of the veil and unpinned it. A moment later she had lowered it, gracefully.
'Aii!' said he, softly. 'What man could not fall under the spell of such a beauty?'
'Think you so?' she laughed, delighted.
'Yes!' he said. 'Surely Mistress is the most beautiful woman on all Gor!' I glanced down at Lavinia. She was kneeling on the floor, to my left. I thought her lip trembled, and a tear formed in her eye.
'I feel like a slave girl,' said the free woman, 'running about, sneaking here and there, to keep a rendezvous.'
Milo gasped. I conjecture he had just considered how exciting the female might be, if she were truly a slave, slave clad, slave collared, and such.
The Ubara looked at herself, in the mirror at the far end of the room.
'Sometimes I envy the meaningless property tarts,' she said, 'running about much as they please, here and there, in all their freedom, in their short skirts and collars. Sometimes I think that they have more freedom than I, that I, a free woman, indeed, one who is Ubara of Ar, am more slave than slave.'
'Do not even think so!' said Milo.
'It is true,' she said, dismally.
The male slave was silent.
The Ubara continued to regard herself in the mirror. I wondered how she saw herself, really, in that reflection. Did she see herself in the mirror as she now seemed, moody, and attired as befitted a woman of high caste, or did she see herself there otherwise, perhaps in a ta-teera or tunic, as men might choose to keep her.
'If I were a slave,' she said, 'and I were here, what do you think would be done with me?'
'Mistress is not a slave!' cried Milo, aghast.
'But, if I were?' she asked.
'And you were caught?' he asked.
'Of course,' she said.
'Mistress would be severely punished,' he said.
'Even though I am so beautiful?' she asked, skeptically.
'Especially so!' said he.
'Oh?' she said.
'Yes, Mistress,' he assured her.
'Interesting,' she said.
'But Mistress is not a slave!' he said.
'Lashed?' she asked.
'The least that might be done to Mistress,' he said, 'would surely be that she would be stripped, and tied, and lashed. Too, she might be bound, and subjected to the bastinado.'
The free woman shuddered.
'And I do not think that Mistress would err in such a fashion again,' he said. 'Perhaps not,' she said.
I glanced over at Tolnar, at the other observation portal. He looked over at me, and I returned my attention to the portal.
The Ubara, moving very little, was still regarding herself in the mirror. She seemed moody.
'Mistress?' asked the male slave.
'You do find me attractive, do you not?' she asked.
'Of course, Mistress!' he said.
'And do you not think other men might do so likewise?' she asked.
'Certainly, Mistress!' he said.
'Some think me the most beautiful woman in all Ar,' she said.
'You are surely,' said he, 'the most beautiful woman on all Gor!'
Near me Lavinia put down her head. A tear fell to the floor.
'And I am Ubara!' said the free woman.
'Yes, Mistress,' said the slave.
'A Ubara, too,' she said, 'is a woman, and I have a woman's needs.'
