Lady Fulvia, it seemed, could not speak. She looked up, frightened, at her Ubara.
"Surely you regret the crimes of Ar," said Talena. "Else why would you have come here, as a penitent?"
Lady Fulvia put her head down.
The women, of course, had been ordered to report. Indeed, they had been ordered to report yesterday afternoon to the great theater, from whence, to their surprse, they had been transported in cage wagons, actually locked, to the Stadium of Blades more than a pasang away. Beneath the stands of the Stadium of Blades were numerous holding areas, suitable for wild beasts, dangerous men, criminals, and such. In such areas, the women, having been checked, arranged and counted, were incarcerated for the night. They had also, at that time, been given the robes of penitents, that they might spend the night in them. They had then, this morning, been transported to a location on Gate Street, in the vicinity of the Plaza of Tarns. Some women who had failed to report to the great theater were brought later that evening to the Stadium of Tarns by guardsmen, both regulars and auxiliaries. I myself, with some other auxiliaries, had brought in two of these women. One we had had to tie and leash, almost like a rebellious slave girl, save that slave girls are seldom rebellious more than once.
"Surely you wish to do your best to expiate the crimes of Ar?" said Talena to the kneeling woman.
Her interlocutor was silent.
"Are you not eager to atone for the crimes of Ar, to make amends for her inquities?" asked the Ubara, kindly.
Lady Fulvia was silent.
"Do you not wish to do what you can to set these things right?" asked the Ubara. Silence.
"Speak, you slut!" cried a man from the side, angrily.
"Please!" cried Talena, holding forth her hand. "Desist, noble citizen! You speak of a free woman of Ar!"
"Yes, my Ubara," said Lady Fulvia.
"You do not wish to be selfish, do you?" asked the Ubara.
"No, Ubara," she wept.
"And is this sacrifice we ask of you, in the name of the city, and its Home Stone, any more than that which I myself was prepared to make?"
"No, my Ubara," wept the Lady Fulvia.
Talena, with a small, reluctant, almost tragic gesture, indicated that lady Fulvia might be taken to the side.
"Next," called a scribe.
The small wrists of Fulvia, now kneeling near me, her knees about at my chest level, on the platform, were locked in manacles. In another moment she was pulled down the ramp and knelt before me. She seemed numb, in shock.
"Wake up," said a fellow.
"The cut of the whip is excellent for waking them up," said a man.
I added her to the chain with a joining rope.
She looked at the ring, and the chain to which she was now attached.
"And when they awaken they find themselves in their place," said another. "Yes," said another.
"Stand, move," said the auxiliary opposite me.
"I would like to have her," said a fellow.
"She will go to a Cosian," said a fellow, bitterly.
"I wonder if the women of Cos are so desirable," said another.
In my opinion, though I did not speak, not having been addressed, they were. I had, from time to time, used, rented or owned various women of Cos, or former women of Cos. I had found them superb. Phoebe, of course, had been Cosian. What the women of Ar and those of Cos have in common, of course, despite their numerous political, cultural and dialectical differences, is that they are all females. Stripped in a slave market it is hard to tell the difference, one from the other. But this is true of all women. Any woman, properly mastered, makes an excellent slave.
"No," said Talena, again. She had now, in the three or four Ehn which had passed since the selection of the Lady Fulvia, rejected four women. I gather that this may have been to compensate, before the crowd, for the selection of the Lady Fulvia, to indicate that in spite of the Lady Fulvia's concerns and protests, how very few women, actually, all in all, were being selected.
Talena seemed then prepared to dismiss another woman, for she had her hand half lifted, as though, with the customary small gesture, to do so, when one of her counselors, a Cosian, near her, in the uniform of a high captain, bent quickly toward her, his eyes glinting on the female in question, she standing before the Ubara, the robes of the penitent about her ankles. I saw the female stiffen, suddenly, almost in disbelief. At the same time a guardsman seized her from behind by the upper arms. She moved a little bit but found herself helpless in his grasp. Then, as she gasped, her arms were pulled back a little, rather behind her, this accentuating her figure.
"You are chosen," said Talena.
The woman uttered a small noise, as of disbelief or protest, but was quickly conducted to the place of manacling.
In what the Cosian had said to the Ubara I had made out the expression "slave curves'.
Manacles were put on the woman.
I saw the Cosian's eyes still on her as she was manacled. I suspected she would not long remain on the chain, after I had added her to it. When she was before me, having descended the ramp and being knelt in place, I considered her. Yes, she had excellent slave curves. She would doubtless soon learn that those curves were such as would be muchly exploited by masters. Then I had added her to the chain, and she had been ordered to her feet, and moved to the next position. "No," said Talena, again and again.
I began to suspect then that the quotas, whatever they might be, had perhaps been reached for the day. But then another woman was selected, and subsequently manacled and, in due course, added to the coffle.
Several other women were then passed over.
Then a slim woman took her place gracefully before the Ubara.
"Claudia Tentia Hinrabia, Lady of Ar," read the scribe.
A stir, a thrill of recognition, coursed through the crowd. Men pressed more closely about the platform. "Claudia!" said men. "The Hinrabian!" said others. I myself moved closer to the platform, pressing even against it. Claudia Tentia Hinrabia was the daughter of a former Administrator of Ar, Minus Tentius Hinrabius. She had figured as a pawn in the dark games of Cernus of Ar, to bring down the house of Portus, his major economic rival in the city. Later, the machinations of Cernus had brought him even to the throne of the Ubar, which he held until his deposition by Marlenus of Ar. Claudia, at the time of the deposition of Cernus, had been a slave in his house. Marlenus, upon his return to the throne, had freed her, even arranging for her support at state expense. For several years, she had been a resident of the Central Cylinder. She was the last of the Hinrabians.
Claudia, with a toss of her hair, freed her hair of the hood. She had long black hair, swirling and beautiful. It cascaded behind her. I remembered it that way from the house of Cernus, the first time I had seen her. When I had seen her later in the house of Cernus, it had been much shorter, as, in the intervening time, he had had it shaved off, and then, later, it had regrown somewhat. In her freeing herself of the hood she had, too, bared her face. She, as the others, had not been separately veiled. I well remembered the dark eyes of the Hinrabian, and the high cheekbones.
She then, gracefully, slipped the robe of the penitent back from her shoulders, letting it drop behind her.
"Ahhh," said several men.
She was slimly beautiful. She stood very straight before her Ubara, it seemed defiantly, it seemed insolently.
"See her," said a man to others.
Claudia smiled. She knew that she was unusually beautiful, even on a world where beauty is not rare.
Talena seemed displeased.
To be sure, if she were stripped and put beside the Hinrabian, I did not think she would need to fear, or much fear, the comparison.
Claudia looked up at Talena, on the dais.