there would now be at least one more delka in Ar. In a few moments we were out on the streets. Even though such sights were not rare in Ar, in the past months, a free woman, leashed, in the custody of guardsmen or auxiliaries, presumably having been appropriated for levies, or perhaps merely having been subjected to irrevocable, unappealable seizure at an officer's whim, yet men turned to regard her as we passed. In spite of her youth she was well formed. In four or five years I had no doubt she would constitute an extraordinary luscious love bundle helplessly responding in a master's arms. A fellow made a quick noise with his mouth as he passed her. She lifted her head, startled, in the leash collar. The meaning of the sound would be unmistakable, even to a girl, signifying as it did the eagerness and relish which the mere sight of her inspired in him. her face was soft and lovely, gently rounded. Her hair was long and dark.
'She moves well,' commented Marcus.
'Yes,' I said.
'I think she has just begun to sense how men might view her,' mused Marcus. 'I think so,' I said.
'It is interesting,' he said, 'when a women first begins to sense her desirability.'
'True,' I said.
'And hers is such that a price can be put on it,' he said.
'Yes,' I said. Her desirability was so exciting that it could only be that of a slave.
'Look at her,' he said.
'Yes,' I said.
'She is ready for the block now.'
'Perhaps,' I said.
'I am sure she would perform well,' said Marcus. 'And if she were reluctant to do so, or hesitated for a moment, I am sure any lingering scruples would be promptly dissipated by the auctioneer's whip.'
'Undoubtedly,' I said. I had seen such transformations take place many times at the sales. It is not so much, I think, that the lash, in such a situation, as a punishment, changes the woman's behavior, that she obeys because she does not wish to be whipped, but rather that the whip convinces her that she is not free to be sensuous, sexual, marvelous creature which she is in herself and has always desired to be. In this sense the whip does not oppress the woman but rather liberates her to be herself, wild, uninhibited, free in a sense, even though she may be bound in chains, and sexual. To be sure, the whip is also used to punish women, and they do fear it, and mightily, for such a reason. Sometimes it is used too, of course, merely to remind them of what they are, slaves. 'How graceful she is,' he commented.
'Yes,' I said.
I suspected that a perceptive master might have a woman such as she trained in slave dance, that she might please him also in this way. I could imagine her, even now, in the floor movements of the slave dance. I wiped sweat from my brow. How beautifully walked the girl, how conscious now, how proud, how pleased, she seemed, in the abundance of her beauty, her desirability and power. How different she was from many of the free women we had seen earlier being led through the streets, piteous, overfed, stumbling creatures following behind on their leashes, their heads down, loudly bemoaning their fate. But even those, I suspected, given diet, exercise and training, could in time, be transformed into dreams of pleasure.
'Slave!' hissed a free woman to the girl. Then she was behind us. Her voice fraught with hatred.
'She thinks you are a slave,' I said.
'Yes,' laughed the girl, delightedly.
For some reason free women hate female slaves. They are often quite cruel even to those whom they themselves own. I am not certain of the explanation of this seemingly unreasoning, inexplicable hatred. Perhaps they hate the slave for her beauty, for her joy, her truth, her perfections, her desirability, her happiness. At the root of their hatred, perhaps, lies their own unhappiness and lack of fulfillment, their envy of the slave, joyfully in her rightful place in nature. In any event, this attack on the part of the free women, which happily had been only verbal, as they often are not, and the abused slaves in any event dare not protest or object, as they are at the mercy of free persons, was in its way a profound compliment. So beautiful and exciting was the girl that the woman had naturally assumed she was that most marvelous, helpless, lovely and degraded of objects, the female slave.
'Turn left here,' I said to the girl.
'Masters?' she asked, stopping.
'Left,' I said. As she was free I did not demur to repeat a command. Also, punishment for having to repeat a command is always at the option of the master. For example, a command might not be clearly heard, or might not be clear in itself, or might appear inconsistent with the master's presumed intentions. Whether punishment is in order or not is then a matter for judgment on the master's part. In this case, of course, as we were on Tarngate, at Lorna, she has every reason to question my direction.
'Masters,' said the girl, 'may I speak?'
'Yes,' I said.
'This is not the way to the district of Anbar,' she said. Perhaps she thought we were strangers, brought in as auxiliaries, and did not know the city. To be sure, there were many areas in Ar which I did not know.
'That is known to me,' I said.
'Where are we going?' she asked.
'We are taking you home,' I said.
'No!' she cried, aghast.
I regarded her.
'You are to take me to the loot area in the district of Anbar!' she said. 'When I was within the chest I heard it so said!'
'You are going home,' I said.
'We could sell her,' said Marcus.
'Yes!' she said. 'Sell me!'
'No,' I said. 'You are going home.'
She tried to back away but in an instant was stopped, the inside of the leash collar tight against the back of her neck. 'Perhaps you have forgotten that you are leashed, female,' I said.
She approached me and fell to her knees before me, the leash looping up to my hand. She put her head to the stones, at my feet. I think she then, better than before, understood her helplessness, and the meaning of the leash, and why I had put it on her.
'I thought you said you would not run away,' I said.
She lifted her head. 'I cannot run away,' she said. 'I am leashed!'
'Yes,' I said.
'I am in your power,' she said. 'You can do with me as you wish. I beg to be taken to the loot pits. I beg to be taken there, or sold?'
'No,' I said.
'Keep me then for yourselves!' she said, looking from me to Marcus, and back again.
'No,' I said.
'Surely you do not doubt that I am a slave, and need to be a slave!' she wept. 'I do not doubt that,' I said. 'But I think it is a bit early to harvest you.'
'Surely that is a matter of opinion,' said Marcus.
'True,' I granted him.
'Surely you have seen such slips of girls chained in the loot lines of conquered cities,' he said.
'Yes,' I admitted.
'They do no discriminate against them there, do they?' he said.
'No,' I said.
'And surely you have been pleasured in various taverns by such,' he said. 'Yes,' I said. 'Even though they do not yet have the full perfections of their femaleness upon them.'
'What scruple then,' asked he,' gives you pause?'
'She is rather young,' I said. 'Also we owe something to her father.'
'What is that?' he asked.
'He is a brave man,' I said.
