"Yes," said Mincon. "He appreciates finding someone who listens gladly to his poetry."
"Gladly?" I asked.
"He has already composed a poem this morning," said Mincon. "He considers it a humorous poem. It is a jolly teasing of folks who sleep late."
"Hurtha is composing such a poem?" I asked.
"Yes," said Mincon. "Too, aside from adventure, and such, I think he regards himself as being on Alar business."
"What is that?" I asked.
"He plans on scouting out the territories of Ar, to see if they are worth seizing by Alars."
"I think he does not quite understand what is involved," I said.
"True," said Mincon.
"I will pick up Feiqa," I said.
"Your things are over there," said Mincon.
In a few moments I was descending the outside steps of the Semnium, Feiqa heeling me, carrying my pack.
"Tal Rarius!" called Hurtha, heartily.
"Tal Rarius!" I said to him.
"Greetings," said Boabissia.
"Greetings," I said to her. She seemed to me very pretty this morning, smiling, in the long Alar dress. I think she was wearing it a little differently. I think she had corded it a bit more snugly. Clearly the delights of her figure were more evident now within it. Perhaps I should speak to her about that. She might not realize what that sort of thing might do to men, how it might stimulate and effect them, particularly strong men. Ever since we had set her out for the fellows at the wagon camp, making some coppers on her, a subtle change had seemed to come over her, indeed, a sort of transformation was becoming more and more evident every day. She seemed to be becoming more radiant, and female. I noted she even wore the yellow metal disk on her neck, on its thong, a bit more snugly than she had before. The thong was looped twice about her neck now.
"I wish you well, all of you," said Mincon.
We bade him farewell.
"Even you, pretty, enslaved Feiqa," he said.
"Thank you, Master," she said. "And I, too, wish you well."
Mincon then motioned to a guard. The man approached. Mincon spoke to him as though we might be strangers, unknown to him, just emerged from the Semnium. "Put these civilians with the others," he said. "Usher them forth, with the others, from the city."
"Move," said the guard, going behind us, prodding us with his spear. "Over there. Get over there, with the others."
"Do not resist," I said to Hurtha.
"Very well," he said, agreeably.
"Oh!" said Feiqa, suddenly. The guard apparently, for his amusement, touched her with his spear blade, probably putting it between her legs and moving it upward, brushing it against the interior of her thigh.
As we passed another guard she cried out, again, softly. He had apparently lifted her brief skirt with the blade of his sword, considering her. Then we were with the larger group.
"Master," said Feiqa.
"Yes," I said.
"Let it be you," she said.
I regarded her. I saw that the attentions she had received had much aroused her, the merciless weapon metal of men about her legs and belly. Her needs were much upon her. She had passed the night alone, a checked item, awaiting a morning pickup, on a holding chain. Such attentions as she had received, particularly when they literally touch the body, are sometimes called the caresses of the master's steel.
She shuddered, facing away from me, hearing the draw of my steel. She stood very straight. She was quite pretty. I waited for a few moments, and then touched her, and then, after a time, lifted her skirt, that she could feel the air upon her, and then, after a longer time, when I was pleased to do so, let it fall. "Please, Master," she begged. "Perhaps tonight," I said. "All right," said a voice. "Now, move, all of you! I resheathed the steel and, with Hurtha and Boabissia, now again followed by Feiqa, moved along with the throng down the Avenue of Adminius toward the great gate of Torcadino.
"How terrible it must be to be a slave," said Boabissia, "and to have to submit to whatever men choose to do to you."
I did not respond.
"Don't you think so?" she asked.
"What do you have in mind?" I asked.
"Like having your body touched with their steel," she said, "as poor, dear little Feiqa."
"I did not realize you were so solicitous for her," I said.
"She is a sweet little slave," said Boabissia, condescendingly.
Feiqa, behind us, made a tiny, angry noise. She had been, of course, at one time, before being collared, a free woman of high station, of the city of Samnium. This word, incidentally, is, in effect, the same word as "Semnium', although in the western coastal dialects it is commonly pronounced as I have given the spelling here. Its original meaning is apparently "Meeting Place," and its application to a building, or a hall for the meeting of councils, is, it seems, a later development. In Feiqa's opinion, of course, Boabissia, having come from the Alar camp, was little better, if any better, than a simple barbarian.
"Did you say something, Feiqa?" I asked.
"No, Master," she said, quickly, humbly. She did not want to be beaten. "The touching of the naked body of the slave with steel," I said, "helps her to understand that she is subject to the master in all things, totally."
"I suppose you are right," said Boabissia.
"Conceive of it touching your body," I said, "particularly as you might have to wait for it, expecting it, and knowing it was to come, and that you had to submit to it, the cool, cruel touch of it, the caress of it, and as you might be bound, or chained.
"Yes, perhaps," said Boabissia, uneasily. "Sometimes slaves oil much more quickly after such a touch," I said. " «Oil' she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"What a horrid expression," she said.
"Not at all," I said. "It is an intimate, wonderful, exciting, succulent expression. Her body is being prepared for use."
" "Use'! " she said.
"Of course," I said. "She is a slave."
"That is true," granted Boabissia.
"And the intimate and exciting odors attendant upon such oilings, those of the helplessly aroused female, prepared for the master's use, are quite stimulatory to a male."
"Doubtless," she said.
"And so," I said, "it is not uncommon that after such a touch, the caress of the master's steel, that the slave, cognizant then of her utter helplessness and the master's power, and her complete dependence upon his mercies, that she is totally and absolutely under his domination, yields to him quickly and lusciously."
"I see," she said. Momentarily she trembled.
We continued to move along the Avenue of Adminius. There were some two or three hundred of us. We were some two-thirds of the way, or so, back in the group. This seemed to me a good position. I thought it possible that any guards who might have the duty of supervising our exit from the city, or perhaps the duties of inspecting or searching us, might, given the numbers involved, be somewhat lax or a bit less diligent in their efforts by the time we reached them, and we were not so far back that, the guards perhaps perking up, the end of the group in sight, we might find ourselves the target of some burst of compensatory ardor. We were now beyond the lines of suspended bodies outside the Semnium. I was not sorry to leave them behind me.
We continued to move slowly along the avenue, toward the great gate. I saw a naked slave girl kneeling to one side, at the side of a building, on the stones, her hands chained behind her to a slave ring. About her neck hung a sign on which was written, "Free for Use," As our eyes met she swiftly lowered her head.
"Keep moving," said a guard.
Such women had apparently been put out as a municipal convenience, and to help keep order in the city. She might also, of course, have been put out for punishment, but, given the current conditions in the city, that seemed unlikely. "What a slut," said Boabissia.
"A pretty one," I said. "And free for use, too."