"The Ubara of Ar," he said.
"And a female?"
"Yes, Mistress," he said.
"You are a man," she said. "When you arranged this meeting, surely you must have had hopes."
He put his head down.
"And you, shameful, arrogant slave, have presumed far above your station. I should have you boiled in oil!"
He kept his head down.
"But I am prepared to be merciful," she said.
"Mistress?" he asked, looking up.
"I am prepared to extend to you the extraordinary and inestimable privilege," she said, "of entering upon the same couch with me."
He looked at her.
"Yes," she said.
"I am unworthy!" he said.
"Are the sluts, thrown by the hair of their masters' couches any the more worthy?" she asked.
"No, Mistress," he said.
"Do not concern yourself then with such matters," she said.
"But so much honor!" he said.
"Do not consider it," she said.
"But I am only a slave," he said.
"That is know to me," she said.
"I have a master!" he said.
"Of course," she said.
"And mistress does this of her own free will?" he said.
"Yes," she said.
He was silent.
She gestured to the furs beside her. "I invite you to share my couch," she said. He hesitated.
"I am lying here before you," she said, " 'slave naked', as you vulgar men might say. Do you dally, handsome Milo?"
"Mistress invites me to share her couch?" he asked.
"Yes," she said.
"Mistress is then preparing to couch with me?"
"I am not only preparing to couch with you," she said. "I am prepared to couch with you." She then knelt on the couch, and back on her heels.
I glanced to Tolnar, the magistrate. He nodded.
"You may approach me," she said. She extended her arms, opened to him, as she knelt. "Come, handsome slave," said she. "Come, couch with me!"
I threw the lever, releasing the net.
It fell over her beautifully.
She screamed in surprise and fear, as its toils dropped about her. She tried to spring to her feet on the couch, clawing at it, but fell. Milo, doubtless practiced in the matter, expertly brought it together and whipped it about her and, in an instant, on her belly on the couch, she was helpless in its folds. Almost instantly, too, Marcus entered the front room, followed by Tolnar and Venlisius. I had remained for a moment or two at the observation portal. Then I, too, followed by Lavinia, entered the room. Although she may have been aware of my movement, that of another man entering the room, she did not, in her consternation, and in her attention to Marcus and the magistrates, before her, really look upon me, or recognize me. I was then in back of her, with the bracelets and linked shackles. Milo, his work done, stood now to one side. "What is the meaning of this!" she cried, on her belly, turning her head to the right, lifting it from the furs, squirming in the toils of the net.
I, behind her, gathered the net more closely about her, jerking her legs more closely together, wrapping the net more closely about them. A naked woman, on furs, netted, helpless, is quite lovely.
"Sleen! Sleen!" she wept. She lifted her head, as she could, from the furs, looking at the magistrates who, in their robes, with their fillets, with their wands of office, regarded her. "Sleen!" she screamed at them. They did not strike her. She did not seem to realize that she had now become a slave. "Release me!" she demanded. "Release me!"
"What was your name?" inquired Tolnar. "We shall wish it for the records."
"I am Talena!" she cried. "I am Talena, Ubara of Ar! Down on your knees before me! I am Talena, Talena! Ubara of Ar! I am your Ubara!"
"You may, of course, attempt to conceal your former identity," said Tolnar. "At this point it is immaterial."
"I am Talena!" she cried.
"Perhaps you might think to delude a poor slave," said Tolnar, "but we are free men."
"Fools!" she wept.
"What was your name?" he asked.
"My name is Talena!" she said. "I am Ubara of Ar!"
"You would have us believe that Talena of Ar is a sensuous tart in need of sexual relief, a mere chit who would condescend to keep a rendezvous so shameful as this?"
"I am Talena!" she cried, squirming in the net. "Release me! I shall scream!"
"That would be interesting, if you are Talena," said Tolnar. "You would then choose to publicize, it seems, your whereabouts. You would choose to be discovered naked and netted, before magistrates, in a room in the Metallan district, having been prepared to couch with a slave?"
She threw her head down, angrily, on the furs. "I am Talena," she said. "Release me!"
"What is more pertinent to our purposes," said Tolnar, "is your legal status, or, in this case, it seems, your former legal status."
"Release me, fools," she said.
"What was your legal status before you entered this room?" asked Tolnar. "I was, and am, a free woman!" she said.
"Of Ar?" he asked.
"Yes!" she cried, angrily.
"That is the crux of the matter," said Tolnar. He glanced to Venlisius, who nodded.
"Do you doubt that I am Talena?" she demanded of Tolnar.
"Surely you must permit me to be skeptical," he smiled.
"I am she!" she cried. Then she looked wildly at Milo. "You know me!" she wept. "You can attest to my identity! You have seen in the Central Cylinder! So, too, had that slut of a slave!"
"Stand," said Tolnar to Lavinia, who immediately complied.
"Please, Milo," begged the netted beauty, helplessly, pathetically, agonizingly, "do not lie! Tell the truth!"
He looked at her.
"Please Milo," she begged. "Tell them who I am!" How much she felt then dependent upon him, how much in his power! How different this was from her former mastery of him! How terrified she was that he might, for one reason or another, lie to the magistrates, putting her then before them as no more than a common, captured, compromised female.
"Who was she?" asked Tolnar of Milo.
"Talena, Ubara of Ar," said Milo.
"Ah!" she wept in relief.
Tolnar and Venlisius exchanged glances. They did not much relish this development.
"Release me, you sleen!" wept Talena, struggling futilely in the net.
"And you?" asked Tolnar of Lavinia, who was looking on the netted captive, indeed, a prisoner of the same cords which, months before, had held her with such similar perfection.
"Master?" asked Lavinia.
"Who was she?" said Tolnar.
"That, too, is my understanding," said Lavinia. "Talena, of Ar."
"Release me!" demanded the captive.
"What difference does it make," asked Marcus, "if, indeed, she is Talena of Ar?"
"Fool!" laughed the netted captive.
"From the legal point of view," said Tolnar, "it makes no difference, of course."
"Release me!" she said. "Do you think I am a common person? Do you think you can treat one of my importance in this fashion! I shall have Seremides have you boiled in oil!"
"I am of the second Octavii," said Tolnar. "My colleague is of the Toratti."
"Then you may be scourged and beheaded, or impaled!" she wept.
"You would have us neglect our duty?" inquired Tolnar. He was Gorean, of course. "In this case," she snapped, "you are well advised to do so."
"That is quite possibly true," said Tolnar.
"The principle here, I gather," said Marcus, "is that the Ubara is above the law."
"The law in question is a serious one," said Tolnar. "It was promulgated by Marlenus, Ubar of Ubars."
"Surely," said Venlisius to the netted woman, "you do not put yourself on a level with the great Marlenus."
"It does not matter who is greater," she said. "I am Ubara!"
"The Ubara is above the law?" inquired Marcus, who had an interest in such things.
"In a sense, yes," said Tolnar, "the sense in which she can change the law by decree."