"Oh," I said.
"When the alarm rang," said Ulafi, "Chungu returned to the ship."
"You were the fellow in the garb of the metal workers," said Ulafi.
"Yes," I said.
"When the assailants were brought to the praetor's desk, too," said he, "it was seen that their wrists had been bound with capture knots."
"I see," I said.
"Such knots are tied by a warrior," he said.
"Perhaps," I said.
"Why are you bound for Schendi? asked Ulafi.
"If you knew me not of the metal workers," I asked, "why did you permit me to mark the blond-haired slave?"
"I wished to see what you would do," he said.
"You risked a badly marked thigh on the girl," I said.
"The mark was perfect," said Ulafi.
"Thus you see," said I, "that I am truly of the metal workers."
"No," said Ulafi. "I knew you were not of the metal workers. Thus I saw that you were truly of the warriors."
"Should I have blurred the brand?" I asked.
"That would have been a shame," said he, smiling.
"True," I grinned. All men like a well-marked girl.
"Too," said he, "that would have shown, had you done poorly, that you were not of the metal workers."
"Might I not have been a slaver, or one who did work with them?" I asked.
"Perhaps," said Ulafi, "but that would not have well fitted in with the dispatch with which the assailants were handled, or the knotting on their wrists, or, indeed, with your general mien, how you walk and sit, and look about yourself, your eyes, how you handle yourself."
I looked out to sea. The three moons were high abeam. The sea was sparkling.
"Was it important to you to leave Port Kar when you did?" asked Ulafi.
"I think so," I said.
"Why did you choose to voyage to Schendi?" he asked.
"Are there not fortunes to be made there?" I asked.
"In Schendi," said Ulafi, "there are fortunes and there are dangers."
"Dangers?" I asked.
"Yes," said Ulafi, "even from the interior, from the ubarate of Bila Huruma."
"Schendi is a free port, administered by merchants," I said.
"We hope that it will continue to be so," he said.
"As you have suspected," I said, "I am of the warriors."
Ulafi smiled.
"Perhaps there are some in Schendi," I said, "with whom I might take service."
"Steel can always command a price." said Ulafi. He made as though to turn away.
"Captain," I said.
"Yes," said he.
I indicated the blond-haired barbarian in her cage, a few yards forward of the mainmast. It was chained, at four points, to cleats in the deck, that it not shift its position overmuch in rough weather. A folded tarpaulin lay near it, with which it could be covered. Sasi's cage had similar appointments.
The girls relieved themselves during the day, when ordered to do so.
"I am curious about the blond-haired slave," I said. "On the wharf, the slaver, Vart, said that he had gotten a silver tarsk for her." I looked at Ulafi. "Surely such a girl, a wench of only average beauty, a tense, tight girl, awkward and clumsy, one untrained, new to the collar, one who can hardly speak Gorean, a barbarian, is worth, at best, only two or three copper tarsks."
"I can get two silver tarsks for her," said Ulafi.
"Her hair and coloring is rare in Schendi?" I asked.
"Such girls, and better, are cheap in Schendi," he said. "Do not forget that Schendi is the home port of the black slavers."
"How then will you get two silver tarsks for her?" I asked.
"She is on my conditional 'want' list," said Ulafi.
"I see," I said. That seemed to me intelligent on the part of Kur agents. They must have known that she would be sailing from Cos to Schendi. This trip, particularly because of the depredations of pirates from Port Kar, is a hazardous one. It then made sense that provisions would be made to retrieve her in a Port Kar market should she be taken and enslaved. Doubtless a similar arrangement had been made with some Schendi merchants in Tyros and perhaps in Lydius or Scagnar.
"Why are you giving her slave training?" I asked.
"She is a slave," said Ulafi. "Why should she not receive slave training?"
"True," I said. I smiled. "Who is your client?" I said.
"Is it worth a copper tarsk to you?" he asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Uchafu," he said, "a slaver in Schendi."
I handed him the copper tarsk.
"Is Uchafu an important slaver?" I asked.
"No," said Ulafi. "He usually handles no more than two or three hundred slaves in an open market."
"Does it not seem strange to you," I asked, "that Uchafu should offer two tarsks for such a girl."
"Yes," he said. "Obviously he is conducting the transaction at the behest of another."
"Who?" I asked.
"I do not know," said Ulafi.
"I would pay a silver tarsk to know," I said.
"Ah," said Ulafi, "I see you have business in Schendi that you have hitherto concealed."
"A silver tarsk," I said.
"It pains me," said Ulafi, "but I must confess I do not know. I am sorry."
I looked at the girl. She was lying in the cage, on her side, turned away from us.
"She is pretty, isn't she?" asked Ulafi.
"Yes," I said.
We watched the girl. She lay there, quietly. She ran the index finger of her right hand idly, slowly, up and down, on one of the bars near her face. She seemed lost in thought.
"Yes, a pretty slave," said Ulafi.
"Look," I said.
The girl, very delic5tely, lifted her head a bit from the metal floor of the cage and, with her tongue, furtively, touched the bar. Then she again touched the bar, delicately, licking it, with her tongue.
"She is beginning to suspect that she may be truly a slave, said Ulafi.
"Yes," I said.
"She is beginning to learn her collar," he said.
"Yes," I said.
The girl then lay there quietly again, her head resting on her left arm, it lying, flat, elbow bent, beneath her on the sheet-metal floor of the cage. Her face, and lips, were near the bar. The small fingers of her right band touched the bar, near its base.
"Have you not noticed the improvement in her," asked Ulafi, "since the beginning of the voyage?"
"Yes," I said. "Her movements have become less constricted. She is no longer as clumsy or tight as she was. She is becoming less inhibited. She is becoming more beautiful." These things were true. She was being taught her slavery.
"I wonder who it is who has placed her on order," he said.
"I do not know," I said. "I would like to know."
"I, too, am curious," he said.
Ulafi then turned away from me. He walked down the deck, toward the stern castle.
"I again looked out to sea. I sensed then that the girl, Sasi, was near me. She knelt lightly beside me, to my left. She put her head down. I felt her tongue, soft, at my ankle. She licked and kissed at my ankle and leg for a few Ehn.
"May I speak?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
She looked up at me. "I beg training, Master," she said.
"Crawl to my blankets, beside the sea bag," I told her.
"Yes, Master," she said. Head down, she crawled to the blankets, and lay there.
The blond-haired girl now knelt in her cage. Her fists were on the bars. She was watching me.
I joined Sasi on the two blankets. She lay there, quietly, in her collar. But as soon as I touched her she lifted her lips to mine, and squirmed and sobbed.
I was pleased. The branded she of her was mine.
"You train well, little slave," I said.
"Please do not stop touching me, Master," she begged.