I could see him now, dimly, in the shadows, as my eyes adjusted to the light. He was standing near the door. He was a large man. "Head down," he said, "palms on the floor."
I immediately assumed this position. The voice sounded familiar, but I could not place it. It sounded, too, somewhat tense or feigned. I wondered if that were its natural sound, or if it were being disguised.
I heard steps coming around behind me. Then, from behind, my head was pulled up, by the hair.
I now knelt, with my back straight. My tunic, then, the tunic of Miles of Argentum, that brief, trim tunic, of brown, trimmed with yellow with the plunging neckline, and slit at the sides to the rib stripped away from me, from the back.
My hands then, with two loops of a thong, were tied be-hind me.
"Master?" I begged. Then I could not speak. A heavy wadding was thrust into my mouth and secured there with a folded strip of cloth, drawn deeply back between my teeth, knotted tightly behind the back of my neck. was then turned about and put on my back before my captor, on the tiles at the foot of the dais on which reposed the throne of Argentum.
I squirmed in terror. I uttered muted, tiny sounds.
"Yes," said he. "it is I, Ligurious, once first minister of Corcyrus." I looked up at him, in terror.
"I, and two others," he said, "escaped the raid in Ar." I recalled I had heard swordplay, and the crashing of glass. "I see that you are now a branded, collared slave," he said. "It is appropriate. That is not the major or primary reason you were brought to Gor, but it was the minor or secondary reason You were destined, from the beginning, if not for the impaling spear, then, eventually, for the collar."
I looked up at him, terrified, over the gag, naked and helplessly bound before him.
"You are a natural slave," he said. "Perhaps you know that by now. The brand and collar are perfect on you. You are a thousand times more beautiful as a slave than you were as a free woman."
I squirmed, his bound prisoner.
"I wonder how you escaped from the camp of Miles of Argentum," he said. "You certainly upset our plans in that particular. We had not even considered the possibility of such thing. But it seems that now the former Miss Collins of Earth may yet prove useful in our plans."
I uttered tiny, helpless sounds.
"I have not been captured," said Ligurious, "nor have I entered the palace surreptitiously. I am here of my own will. I return for immunity I have volunteered to give evidence for the state of Argentum in the identification of the Tatrix of Corcyrus. Who would know her better than I? My two retainers, those two of all the others who have remained faithful, and with me, those who escaped with me from the house in Ar, have been entered into the palace in the guise of envoys from distant Tuna. As I will have my business here, So too, will they have theirs. There is some dispute, you see, a to who is the true Tatrix of Corcyrus, she who is eve now suspended in the golden sack near the ceiling in this very room, or yourself, helpless now before me on the tile Witnesses will give testimony. Drusus Rencius, for example has come here from Ar. He will doubtless identify you as the true Tatrix, as he did before. We saw to it that he, like several others, knew only you as the Tatrix. Similarly I had had clothing smuggled out of Corcyrus, clothing which you wore. This will be presented to Claudius, the Ubar, and the high council, as the clothing of the Tatrix of Coreyrus, it will be identified as the former wearer of the clothing, course, by sleen. The work of Claudius and the high council of course, will be made somewhat easier by the fact the when the golden sack is opened at the banquet it will be Occupied not by the true Sheila, but by you, her dupe and double. We will not encounter objections by Hassan, the Slave Hunter, as he will not appear at the banquet. My two men will see to it that he is detained. Similarly, objections will not be encountered by Miles of Argentum. He will receive formation, purportedly from Hassan, that he had the wrong girl and that you, as he now recognizes, are the true Tatrix Accordingly he has placed you in the sack and, in his embarrassment, and fearing a loss of honor, has left the palace, ta mg the other girl with him, she then to be consigned to sor suitable slavery or other. In this fashion we expect Miles Argentum to be satisfied. He, in any case, is convinced, you probably know, that it is you, and not the other woman who is the Tatrix. This, of course, is because we saw to it that he, like certain others, would know only you as the Tatrix. He will identify you as the true Tatrix, for be knows you as such, with the same conviction as Drusus Rencius, and others. All this is in accord with our plans. And, of course, I too, shall identify you as the true Tatrix. You may depend on it. Meanwhile, of course, the true Sheila will be concealed in my quarters, later to be smuggled from the palace in the guise of a free woman, that of a companion of one of my retainers, supposedly an envoy from Tuna. The slave brought in with him in this role, put back in proper slave garb, has already been sold to an officer in the palace guard. He could not resist the superb price on her."
There were tears in my eyes. I pulled futilely against the thongs on my wrists. You are very pretty, as a slave," he said, regarding me, musingly, his hands on my ankles. He moved my ankles, tight in his grip, slowly, widely apart. I could not prevent this. Then angrily, he closed them. "No," be said. "It would be too long much like her." Then, with a loop of thong, he crossed my ankles and tied them together. I could not rise to my feet now. He then looped a thong from my ankles to a slave ring near the foot of the dais. I could not now even squirm from my place. "Doubtless she will be naked in the sack," he muttered to himself, "as naked as a slave. The in-human beasts will have done that to her.' I must try not to look at her more than is necessary.".
He then, quickly, rose from my side and went to the side of the room. He loosed the rope there, that rope going up to a ring in the ceiling, and then down to the sack.
I fought frenziedly to free myself. I could not do so.
Hand by hand, he lowered the golden sack to the tiles. He then opened it and drew forth from it the vulnerable, quivering body of a naked woman. She looked wildly at him. She was bound head and foot. She was gagged.
"They have put you in a collar!" he said. "How dare they have done this!" She struggled to kneel to him. I do not even know if he, in his agitation, realized this. The collar, of course, was the collar of Hassan. He had put it on her in Ar, and had apparently never removed it.
"No!" cried Ligurious. "The beasts! The beastsl They have put your fair thigh under the iron!"
I recalled that Hassan, in Ar, had informed her that the' would make a stop first, before proceeding to his lodging That stop, I now realized, must have been the shop of metal worker.
There the slave mark would have been burned into her thigh. It would already be on her, thus, when shi was carried over his threshold, naked and on his shoulder, a slave.
The hands of Ligurbious fumbled at the cords on he ankles, and then on her hands. He was sweating. She knelt frightened, her back to him.
"What have they done to you!" he cried. "What have they done to you!" She knelt with her back to him, her head down, frightened.
Could he not see what they had done to her?
She was not the same woman he had known. He had known a cold, supercilious, arrogant woman, one who had been petulant and harsh, one who had been cruel, severe an~ demanding, an imperious and haughty slut. This, now, was not she. There were many differences. For example, she knelt now rather than stood, and she was now naked, rather than regally robed and bedecked. Too, of course, on her neck, now there was a locked, close-fitting, steel slave collar, and on the thigh, of course, might be found a certain, meaningful mark one apprising all who might find it of interest of her status that it was bond.