Hair incidentally, is not used for the application of such things as waxes or varnishes, because of the difficulty of removing such substances from the hair. Such a mistake could necessitate a shearing and a lowering of the market value of a girl for months. For similar reasons, a girl's hair, even within a cloth, if it is still on her, is seldom used for such purposes as buffing and polishing. Hair is common, of course, as a stuffing for pads used for such purposes, for example, for tile purposes of cleaning, buffing and polishing. I was pleased to see the odious Speusippus turned about by guards and dragged from my presence. How pleased I was, too, to see the awesome strength of men serving my purposes.
I lay on my back, on the great couch, in the hot Corcyrus night.
Some things I did not understand. Even Susan, who knew much more of Gor than I, did not understand them.
In my audiences, and public appearances, for example, and even in the court, I appeared without the veils common to tile Gorean free woman. I knew the veils, and Susan had instructed me in their meanings, arrangements and fastenings, but, publicly, at least, I seldom wore them. This omission seemed puzzling to me, from what I had learned of Gor, particularly in the case of a free woman of so lofty a station as a Tatrix, but I saw no real reason for objecting, particularly in the warm weather of Corcyrus. Indeed, Susan's being so scandalized, and her reservations about sending me forth unveiled from my quarters, she once of Cincinnati, Ohio, seemed to me exquisitely amusing. I did try to explain the matter to her, as Ligurious had explained it to me, when I had asked him about it. The important difference between myself and other free women, of high station, was precisely that, that I was a Tatrix and they were not. A Tatrix, Ligurious had informed me, has no secrets from her people. It is good for the people of a Tatrix to be able to look lovingly and reverently upon her. "Yes, Mistress," had said Susan, her head down. I had wondered if Ligurious was being candid with me. At any rate, there was little doubt that the features of their Tatrix had now become well known in Corcyrus, at least to many of her citizens. Indeed, only this morning I, unveiled, in a large, open, silken palanquin, borne by slaves, Ligurious at my side, had been carried through the streets of Corcyrus, behind trumpets and drums, flanked by guards, through cheering crowds. "Your people love you," had said Ligurious. I had lifted my hand to the crowds, and bowed and smiled. I had done these things with graciousness and dignity, as I had been instructed to do by Ligurious. It had been a thrilling experience for me, seeing the people, the shops, the streets, the buildings. It was the first time I had been outside the grounds of the palace. The streets were clean and beautiful. The smelt of flowers was in the air. Petals had been strewn by veiled maidens before the path of the palanquin. "It is good for you to appear before the people," bad said Ligurious, "given the trouble with Argentum."
"What is the trouble with Argentum?" I had asked.
"Skirmishes have taken place near there," be said. "Look," he said, pointing, "there is the library of Antisthenes."
"It is beautiful," I said, observing the shaded porticoes, the slim, lofty pillars, the graceful pediment with its friezes.
"What is the problem with Argentum?" I asked.
"This is the avenue of Iphicrates," I was informed.
The people at the sides of the street did not seem surprised that my features were not concealed by a veil. Perhaps it was traditional, I gathered, as I had been informed by Ligurious, that this was the fashion in which the Tatrix appeared before her people. At any rate, whatever might have been the reason, the people, reassuringly, from my point of view, seemed neither scandalized nor surprised by my lack of a veil. If anything, they might have been saluting me, as though for my courage.
At one point the retinue passed five kneeling girls. They were barefoot and wore brief, sleeveless, one-piece tunics Their heads were down to the very pavement itself. They wore close-fitting -metal collars and were chained together, literally, by the neck. I gasped. "Do not n-find such women," said Ligurious. "They are nothing. They are only slaves." I was shaken by this sight. My heart was pounding rapidly. I could scarcely breathe. It was not outrage which I felt, interestingly, nor pity. It was something else. It was a state of unusual sexual excitement, and arousal. "Smile," suggested Ligurious, himself lifting his hand graciously to the crowd. "Wave."
I controlled myself, and then, again, favored the crowd with my attentions, with my smiles and countenance.
At one time, later, we passed by a set of low, broad, recessed-from-the-street, cement steps or shelves. Behind these levels, these shelves or steps, there was a high cement wall.
There were several women, perhaps ten or eleven, on these steps or shelves. Most were white but there were at least two blacks and, I think, one oriental. Each was naked, absolutely.
Too, chains ran from heavy rings to their bodies, to perhaps a lovely neck, or a fair wrist or ankle. They were fastened in place, literally, on the cement shelves. As the retinue passed, they oriented themselves to the street and knelt, their h ads down to the warm cement. There were more rings than there were women on the shelves, and there were rings, too, set at various heights, in the wall behind the shelves. These rings, too, however, like many of the shelf rings, were not being used. There was ail apparatus at one side, like a canopy wrapped about poles, but it, too, was not now in use.
I looked at the women, naked, kneeling, their heads down, chained on the shelves.
"More slaves," explained Ligurious.
Again I fought for breath. I clutched the side of the palanquin to steady myself.
"What is wrong?" he asked.
"Nothing," I said. "Nothing."
"It was only an open-air market," he said, "a small one.
There are several such in Corcyrus."
"A market!" I said.
"Yes," He said.
"But what is bought and sold there?" I asked. I recalled the naked, chained' beauties.
"Women," he said.
"Women!" I said.
"Yes," he said.
"I see," I said. How matter-of-factly he had put thatl Such markets, clearly, like other sorts of markets, were a common feature of Gorean life.
"Bow, and wave," he suggested.
Again I lifted my hand to the crowds. Again I smiled forth from the palanquin. But I began to tremble. I had seen owned, displayed human females, women who were merchandise, women who were literally up for sale.
"Put them from your mind," said Ligurious. "They are nothing, only slaves." How terrifying, how horrifying, I thought, to be such a woman, one at the mercy of anyone who has the means to buy her. What a horrifying and categorical thing it would be, I thought, to be subject to sale.
"Hail Sheila, Tatrix of Corcyrus!" I heard.
"The people love you," said Ligurious.
On this world, I said to myself, a woman could be literally owned by a man. She could be as much his, literally, as a shoe or a dog. I fought the feelings within me. I strove' against them. I tried to force the memory of the women chained on the shelves from my mind. I could not do so. I moaned. Then I could no longer deny to myself that I was aroused sexually, helplessly and terribly. The crowds, from time to time, surged closer to the palanquin. The guards, flanking the palanquin on both sides, pressed them back with the sides of spears. Among these guards, though he did not have a spear, was Drusus Rencius. He had been assigned to me, some weeks ago, as my personal guard. Behind the retinue, following it, came soldiers. Some of these had canvas sacks slung about their shoulders. From these sacks, from time to time, they would fling coins, and bits of coins, to the street. This was, I thought, a nice gesture. The people would scramble for these coins. It seemed they found them very precious. I continued to smile and wave to the crowd. From time to time, too, I stole a glance at Drusus Rencius. He, however, walking beside the palanquin, had eyes only for the crowd. Outside, perhaps, I seemed charming and benign. Inside, however, almost uncontrollable emotions raged within me. On what sort of world was this that I found myself I I had not known a woman could be so aroused! Again I looked at Drusus Rencius, and the others, guardsmen of Corcyrus. I wondered what it would be like to be owned by a man such as one of those. The thought almost made me faint with passion. I had no doubt they well knew bow to teach a woman her slavery. I would be kept by them by the lash, if necessary. "Is anything amiss, my Tatrix?" inquired Ligurious.