"Is anything wrong?" I asked Lavinia.
"I will try to be pleasing to my master," she said.
"I am sure of it," I said.
"It seems she knows that whip," he said.
"She has at least heard of it," I said. "With it on your wall, I have little doubt she will prove to be a most excellent slave, particularly if she has once felt it. It is an excellent tool. You can buy one for as little as one or two copper tarsks."
"You are going to come into some money," I said.
"I do not understand," he said.
"You are well advised to leave Ar," I said.
"Undoubtedly," he said.
"For this," I said, "you should have money."
"But alas," smiled Milo," I have no money."
"Here," I said, "are ten pieces of gold." I counted them out, into Milo's hand. He looked at me, disbelievingly. I had already given fifteen pieces to Tolnar and Venlisius each. They had upheld the laws of Ar and preserved their honor. They would also file the papers, and several certified copies of them, in various places, and, by courier, with certain other parties, official and unofficial, in various cities. It would be next to impossible, for, say, Seremides, to recover them all. I retained my copies, of course. Both Tolnar and Venlisius, with my concurrence, thought it wise to remove both themselves and their families from Ar. Fifteen gold pieces each was a fortune. It would enable them to relocate with ease and reestablish themselves much as they might wish, wherever they might wish. At the time Boots Tarsk-Bit had obtained the Home Stone of Ar's Station I had had something like ninety gold pieces left from the one hundred gold pieces I had obtained in the north. I had given Boots half of these, forty-five gold pieces, and had retained the other forty-five. I had then given fifteen each to Tolnar and Venlisius. I had now given ten to Milo, and had retained five. Five pieces of gold, in its way, incidentally, is also a fortune on Gor. One could live, for example, in many cities, though not in contemporary Ar, with its press on housing and shortages of food, for years on such resources.*" *Although it is not my policy to include Cabot's marginal notes, jottings, etc., which are often informal, and apparently written at different times, in the text of his accounts, I think it would not be amiss to hypothesize certain approximate equivalencies here. To be sure, much seems to depend on the city and the particular weights involved. For example, a "double tarn' is twice the weight of a "tarn. It seems there are usually eight tarsk bits in a copper tarsk, and that these are the result of cutting a circular coin in half, and then the halves in half, and then each of these halves in half. An analogy would be the practice of cutting the round, flat Gorean loaves of sa-tarna bread into eight pieces. There are apparently something like one hundred copper tarsks in a silver tarsk in many cities. Similarly, something like ten silver tarsks would apparently be equivalent, depending on weights, etc., to one gold piece, say, a singer "tarn. Accordingly, on this approach, the equivalents, very approximately, and probably only for certain cities, would be eight tarsk bits to a copper tarsk; one hundred copper tarsks to a silver tarsk; and ten silver tarsks to a gold piece, a single tarn. On this approach there would be, literally, 8,000 tarsk bits in a single gold piece. a€“J.N.
"Permit me," said Milo, "to return one of these gold pieces to you."
"Why?" I asked.
"You paid a tarsk bit for me," he smiled. "Thus I would not wish you to lose money on the arrangement."
"He learns honor, and generosity, quickly," I said to Lavinia.
"He is my master," she said.
I showed the coin to Marcus. "You see," I said to him, "I have made a considerable profit."
"You should be of the merchants," he assured me.
The new slave, she in the bracelets and shackles, lying on her side, chained by the neck, to the ring, near the couch, made a tiny sound.
I put the gold piece back in my wallet.
"You should leave," said Marcus to Milo.
"But a moment," I said.
I looked down at the new slave, whom I had decided to call "Talena', which slave name was also entered on her papers, in the first endorsement, as her first slave name pertinent to these papers, and by means of which she could always be referred to in courts of law as, say, the slave who on such and such a date was known by the name "Talena. This did not preclude her name being changed, of course, now or later, by myself, or others. Slaves, as other animals, may be named, or renamed, as the masters please. Indeed, if the master wishes, they need not be named at all. She made another small sound, like a tiny moan of protest. She stirred, a little. I saw her hands twist a little, behind her, her wrists locked in the bracelets.
I went to the table at the side of the couch and lifted up the decanter of wine. I then stood near the slave and poured the wine out, upon her. She jerked under the thin, chill stream, awakening, discovering herself chained. "Who dares!" she cried.
I handed the decanter to Marcus, who put it to the side.
"You!" she cried, lying on her side, turning her head, looking up at me. "Is it truly you?"
"On your knees, slave girl," I said, lifting her to her knees.
"It is you!" she cried, wildly, now kneeling.
"Your name is "Talena'," I said. "That is the name I have put on you."
"Sleen!" she said. She could not rise to her feet, as she was back-braceleted, with her ankles shackled closely to her wrists.
"Lavinia," I said. "Come here, and kneel beside the new slave."
Lavinia obeyed, but with obvious uneasiness.
"She-sleen!" cried the new slave.
Lavinia kept her eyes straight ahead.
"Sleen!" cried the slave, Talena, to Milo.
"I was a seduction slave," he said to her. "I obeyed my master."
"Sleen! Sleen!" she cried.
"Beware," I said to Talena, "you are addressing a free man."
"You are free?" she said to Milo.
"Yes," he said. "I am free."
"Impossible!" she cried.
"No," he said. "Now it is I who am free, and you who are the slave."
"Slave?" she cried. "How dare you, you sleen!"
"Now we have the two slaves kneeling side by side," I said, "Both well exposed to view, both suitably slave naked."
Talena tore at the bracelets.
"You may chafe your wrist," I warned her.
"Sleen!" she wept.
"One is mine and one is yours," I said.
"Yes," said Milo.
"I now offer you an even trade," I said. "If you wish, you may have this female, whom I have decided to call "Talena," and I shall have your Lavinia."
Talena looked suddenly, disbelievingly, at me, and then, as suddenly, wildly at Milo. "Accept me!" she cried. "Accept me! I will make it worth your while! I will give you thousands of gold pieces. I will reward you with villas! I will give you a hundred beautiful women as slaves. If you wish I will give you boys! I will give you high posts in Ar!"
"No," said Milo.
"Surely you do not prefer a naked slave to me?" she cried.
"But you, too, are a naked slave," he said.
"But you think me the most beautiful woman on all Gor!" she said.
"No," he said.
"But you said such things!" she said.
"Did you believe me?" he asked.
She regarded him, in helpless rage.
"Who is more beautiful than I?" she demanded.