"No doubt our fears are quite silly," I said.
"No, Mistress," she said.
"No?" I asked.
"No, Mistress," she said. "Our fears are fully justified. They are quite appropriate."
"Do you think he wants me?" I asked. I was terrified of Ligurious.
"I do not think so," she said.
"Why?" I asked, puzzled.
"If he wanted you," she said, "by now you would have been branded. By now you would be in his collar. By now you would have been chained naked at the foot of his couch.
By now you would have felt his whip. By now you would have learned to beg to serve him."
"Oh," I said.
"It is not that he does not recognize your beauty," she said.
"That any man could see at a glance."
"Oh," I said, somewhat mollified. I would have been outraged, or something in me would have been outraged, if I had not been thought worth a chain. I was sure I could prove to a man that I was worthy of a chain.
"His interest in you, merely, does not appear to be in that way," she said. "Too, of course, he has many beautiful women, and is a busy man."
"Many beautiful women?" I asked.
"Slaves," she said.
"More than you?" I asked.
"I am only one of his girls," she laughed, "and I am surely one of the least beautiful."
"How many slaves does he have?" I asked.
"He is an ambitious and abstemious man," she said. "He worked long hours in the service of the state. He has little time for the meaningless charms of slaves." "How many slaves does lie have?" I asked.
"Fifty," she said.
I gasped.
"Perhaps Mistress would like to finish her breakfast," said the girl. I knelt down before the small table, as I had been taught. I was trembling. Here, as I had just learned, one man might own as many as fifty women.
"Mistress is not eating," said the girl.
"I am not hungry," I said.
"Am I to report to my master, Ligurious," asked the girl, "that Mistress did not finish her breakfast?"
"No," I said. "No!"
"Every bit of it, please, Mistress," said the girl.
I nodded. I ate. I felt like a slave.
Then I had finished.
"Excellent, Mistress," said the girl. "I shall now dress Mistress. I will teach her the proper garments, and their adjustments, and the veils, and their fastenings. Then it will be time for her lessons."
"Lessons?" I asked, frightened.
"Yes, Mistress," she said.
"What, sort of lessons?" I asked, apprehensively.
"Lessons in language," she said. "Lessons in our habits and customs. Lessons in the details of the governance of Corcyrus."
"I do not understand," I said.
"Who are you?" she asked.
"Tiffany Collins" I said.
"No, Mistress," she said.
I looked at her, puzzled.
"Put that identity behind you," she said. "Regard it as being gone, as much as if you were a slave. Prepare to begin anew.
"But, how?" I asked. "What am I to do? Who am I to be?"
"That much I know," smiled the girl. "I know your new identity. My master has told me."
"What is it?" I asked.
"From this moment on," said the girl, "accustom yourself to thinking of yourself as Sheila, Tatrix, of Corcyrus."
"Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrus?" I said.
"Yes," said the girl.
"What is a Tatrix?" I asked.
"A female ruler," she said.
I looked at her, disbelievingly.
"It is a great honor for me," said the girl, "to serve the Tatrix of Corcyrus." I trembled, kneeling behind the small table. The brief robe of yellow silk did not seem much to wear. I was afraid of the world on which I found myself. "Who are you?" asked the girl.
"Sheila?" I said. "Tatrix of Corcyrus?"
"Yes," she said. "Please say it, Mistress. Who are you?"
"I am Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrus," I whispered.
"That is correct, Mistress," said the girl.
"I do not understand," I said. "I do not understand anything! I do not even know the name of the world on which I find myself."
"It is called Gor," she said.
4 A Night in Corcyrus
I awakened, sometime late at night. I had been dreaming in Gorean, the language spoken in Corcyrus, and, I had learned, in much of this world.
Jt Several weeks had passed since I had been brought here. In this time I had been immersed, for hours, for Ahn, a day in studies and trainings pertinent to my new environment. I was still muchly imperfect in many things, but there was little doubt in my mind, nor I think in that of my numerous teachers, that I had made considerable progress.
I lay nude, late at night, on the great couch. The night was warm.
Supposedly I was Sheila, the Tatrix of this city, Corcyrus.
I could still feel the effects of the wine I had had for supper. I do not think that it was an ordinary wine. I think that it was an unusual wine in some respects, or, perhaps, that it had been drugged.
I had had a strange dream, mixed in with other dreams. It was difficult to sort these things out.
In the past few days, gradually, I had been entered into the public life of Corcyrus, primarily in small things such as granting audiences, usually with foreigners, and making brief public appearances. Always, in these things, Ligurious, happily, unobtrusively, was at my side. Often, had it not been for his suggestions, I would not have known what to do or say. I Had even, the day before yesterday, held court, though, to be sure, the cases were minor.
"Let the churl be stripped," I had said, imperiously, "and a sign be put about his neck, proclaiming him a fraud. Then let him be marched naked, before the spears of guards, through the great gate of Corcyrus, not to be permitted to return before the second passage hand!"
This was the one case which I remembered the most clearly.
The culprit was a small, vile man with a twisted body. He was an itinerant peddler, Speusippus of Turia. I had found him inutterably detestable. A Corcyran merchant had brought charges against him. He had received a bowl from Speusippus which was purportedly silver, a bowl seemingly stamped with the appropriate seat of Ar. The bowl upon inspection, the merchant becoming suspicious as to the weights involved, had turned out to be merely plated. Further, since the smithies of Ar, those authorized to use the various stamps of Ar, will not plate objects without using relevant variations on the seal of Ar to, indicate this, the object was not only- being misrepresented but was, in effect, a forged artifact. This had led to a seizure and search of the stores and records of Speusippus.
Various other discrepancies were found. He had two sets of weights, one true and one false. Too, documents were found recording the purchase of quantities of slave hair, at suitable prices, some even within the city of Corcyrus itself. This hair, as was attested to by witnesses, had been represented to the public as that of free women, with appropriate prices being expected. Hair, incidentally, is a common trade item in Gorean markets. It is used for various purposes, for example, for insect whisks, for dusters, for cleaning and polishing pads, for cushionings, decorations and ropes, particularly catapult ropes, for which it is highly prized. It is not unusual, incidentally, for slave girls, particularly for those who may not have proved superbly pleasing, as yet, to discover that their hair, even while it is still on them, is expected, like themselves, to serve various lowly, domestic purposes. For example, when a girl, serving at a banquet, hears the command, "Hair," she knows she is to go to the guest and kneel, and lower her head, that her hair may be used as a napkin or wiping cloth, by means of which the free person, either male or female, may remove stains, crumbs or grease from his hands. Similarly a girl's hair, if sufficiently long, may be used for the washing and cleaning of floors. In this she is usually on her hands and knees, and naked and chained. The hair is used in conjunction with the soap and water, in the appropriate buckets, being dipped in, and wrung out, and rinsed, and so on.