"What is that?" I asked.
"In following me," he said, "I may have led foes to your location."
"That is possible," I said. "But if it is true, it is acceptable."
"How is that?" asked Ram.
"I think it is the desire of at least one other that I participate in an interview. I have come north, in a sense, responding to an invitation. If it is known where I am, the enemy may attempt to contact me here."
"Or kill you," he said.
"Yes," I said.
"Why would the Kur attempt to kill me?" asked Ram.
"Perhaps you are carrying information it did not wish me to receive," I said.
"In Lydius," he said, "Sarpedon, the tavern keeper, and several others, like myself, newly arrived from the wall, suddenly and without warning, tell upon Sarpelius and his henchmen." Sarpelius, I recalled, had been the heavy, paunchy fellow who had taken over the tavern from Sarpedon. He had worked with several others, who had functioned to impress workers for the wall.
"Sarpedon now has his tavern back?" I inquired.
"Of course," said Rant "Sarpelius and his men, before we sold them from the wharves as naked slaves, were persuaded to speak."
"Doubtless that was wise of them," I speculated.
"Their information was not so precious to them that they preferred to retain it in the face of death by torture," said Ram. "Sarpelius, for example, did not wish to be thrust feet first, bit by bit, into a cage of hungry sleen."
"It would not be pleasant," I admitted.
"But it seems, unfortunately, as minions, they knew little."
"What did you gather?" I asked.
"The one called Drusus, whom we knew at the wall," he said, "paid their fees and issued their instructions. Tarnsmen transported the workers, drugged, to the wall."
"What of the girls?" I asked. I remembered Tina and Constance. "They were not at the wall."
"We learned from Sarpelins, from what he had learned from Drusus, that there was a headquarters farther north, one which could be reached only in the late spring, summer or early fall."
"Perhaps it is at sea," I said. The sea, being frozen, would be impassable to shipping in the winter.
"Perhaps," he said.
"But, too," I said, "tarns, like most birds, will fly in the arctic only during those seasons."
"That is true," he said.
"I think the headquarters, however," I said, "must be at sea."
"Why is that?" asked Ram.
"If it were on the land," I said, "I think the red hunters, of one village or another, in their hunting, would have come across it. It would be, I assume, a large installation."
"I do not know," said Ram.
"Did you learn more?" I asked.
"We learned that it was to this mysterious headquarters that Drusus reported. Too, it is to that headquarters that, from time to time, choice slave beauties were taken."
"Such as Tina and Constance," I said.
"Yes," he said. "You see, I thought you might have known this and thus had come north to find Constance."
"You have come north then primarily," I said, "seeking Tina."
"Yes," he said.
"But she is only a slave," I smiled.
He reddened. "But she is my slave," he said, angrily. "She was taken from me, and I do not like that." He struck himself on the chest. "No one takes a slave from Ram of Teletus!" he said. "I will fetch her back, and then, if I wish, I will give her away, or beat and sell her."
"Of course." I said.
"Do not misunderstand me," he said, irritably. "It is not the girl who is important, for she is only a slave. It is the principle of the thing."
"Of course," I granted him. "Yet there seems much time and risk involved in recovering someone who is probably only a silver-tarsk girl."
"It is the principle of the thing," he said.
"Of course," I said.
"You seem very agreeable," he said.
"I am." I said.
"I think Tina is my perfect slave," he said, grinning. "I must have her at my feet. kneeling, in the shadow of my whip." He then looked, seriously, at me. "I hoped to join you in the north," said he. "Together we might seek out Tina and Constance."
"Who is Constance, Master?" asked Arlene.
"One who, like yourself, was once free," I said. "She is now a lovely slave. She might teach you much about being a woman."
"Yes. Master," said Arlene, putting her head down.
I was bringing her along slowly in her slavery.
"You, Slave," I said to Arlene, sharply. She lifted her head, quickly.
"Yes. Master." she said, frightened.
"Meat," I said.
She lifted the plate of boiled meat to us. Ram and I helped ourselves.
"What do you know about a headquarters in the north, Girl?" I asked her.
"Nothing," she whispered, "Master."
I took another piece cf meat. I regarded her. I put the meat in my mouth, and chewed it.
"I did not say to take back the plate, Girl," I said.
"Forgive me, Master," she said, holding it as she had. I continued to regard her. "I really know nothing, Master," she said. "Drusus brought moneys. He was my contact. I know nothing!"
I took another piece of meat.
"I supervised work at the wall. I thought myself then the superior of Drusus. I do not know where he came from or where he obtained what moneys he brought. I supposed, in truth, there were other operations or facilities on this world, but I did not know their location." Tears sprang into her eyes. "Believe me, I beg you," she said. "If there is a headquarters somewhere I know nothing of it. I beg you to believe me, Master!"
"Perhaps I believe you," I said.
She half fainted. I thought it true what she had said, not only from her asseverations and the fact that I had come to be able to read with facility her face and body in the months I had owned her, but from the general circumstances of the situation. When she had been free she had not, I was sure, recognized the carving of the head of a Kur for what it had been. I recalled her puzzlement, which I think was genuine, in the hall to the south, that which had formed her own headquarters near the now-broken wall. Too, I did not think that the Kurii would permit minor minions, such as she had been, though not understanding herself so, to know more than was absolutely necessary to perform their parts in their complex plans. Too, interestingly, it is difficult for a woman who is naked before a man to lie to him. Clothing makes it easier to lie. Naked, a woman is exposed not only physically to a man but, in a sense, psychologically, as well. She fears, psychologically, exposed as she is, that she can hide nothing, that he will see all, and detect all, that she is utterly open and vulnerable to him in all ways. This, for subtle and subjective reasons, having to do with psychology, makes it hard for her, when she is fully exposed to his scrutiny, to lie convincingly. She fears, somehow, he will know. And, actually, of course, there is something to her fear, indeed, a great deal. When she tries to lie there is a fear involved and this fear, in subtle ways, in subtle drawings back, in tensenesses, is manifested in her beautiful body, proclaiming it that of a liar. Many times a girl does not know how the master knows she is lying. At the slave ring, struck, she cries out in her misery. How could he have known? The answer is simple. Her body betrayed her. It told him. Too, slave girls seldom lie, for the punishments connected with lying can be extremely severe. A girl may be thrown alive to sleen for having lied. The severity of the possible punishments attendant upon falsehood in a slave tend, too, of course, to increase the fear of falsehood, and this fear then, felt deeply in the body, is all the more difficult to conceal. I would suppose that slave girls are among the most truthful of intelligent organisms, at least when stripped and confronted seriously by the master. They must be. Lying, serious lying, is not permitted to them This is not to deny, however, that petty lying, pilfering and such, where the master is not directly concerned or affected, is often tolerated, if not encouraged. That sort of thing is expected of slave girls. They are, after all, slaves. For example, when a former free woman, now enslaved, steals her first pastry from another girl, this is often smiled upon, and punished, if at all, quite lightly. The master is not displeased. It is taken as evidence that the girl is now learning to be a slave. Slaves do that sort of thing. The petty jealousies and resentments. that build up among girls make them easier to control The master, to whom they belong, though he will normally refrain from interfering in their squabbles, is, of course, if need be, the ultimate arbiter for all their disputes. He owns them.