"You wish to see me ruined?" he said.
"Yes!" she said.
"Thank you, gracious lady," he said.
She spun about, and with a movement of her robes, lifting them a bit from the dust, took her leave. She had on golden sandals. Boots Tarsk-Bit and myself, as she left, considered her ankles. I did not findem bad, and I suppose Boots Tarsk-Bit did not either. They would have looked well in shackles.
"It seems I am ruined," said Boots Tarsk-Bit to me.
"Perhaps not," I said.
"How shall I make even enough money to clear my way form the fair?" he asked.
"Sell me, Master," said the Brigella, kneeling on the stage, radiant, flushed and excited. There were several fellows, some five or six of them, standing before the stage, some of them leaning forward with their elbows upon it. Any one of them, I supposed, as I had conjectured earlier, would be capable of handling her superbly. Gorean men do not compromise with their slaves; the girls obey, and perfectly. She knew she was valuable; how straight she knelt; how proud she was, naked and in her collar.
"What am I offered?" asked Boots, resignedly.
"Two silver tarsks," said a man.
"Two?" asked Boots, surprised, pleased. The girl cried out with pleasure. That is a high price for a female on Gor, where they are plentiful and cheap.
In a few moments the Brigella, her small wrists braceleted behind her, had taken her way from the area, eagerly heeling, almost running to keep up with him, her new owner, a stalwart, broad-shouldered, blond-haired fellow. The first thing he had done after making her helpless in his bracelets had been to pull the small, circular adhesive patch from her left thigh. she wore the common Kajira brand, the tiny staff and fronds. She had gone for five silver tarsks.
"A splendid price on her," I congratulated Boots.
He stood there, dangling her collar in his right hand. "I am ruined," he said, glumly. "whatever shall I do without a Brigella?"
"I do not know about your Brigella," I said, "but I think I might be able to help you with another of your problems."
"Do I not know you from somewhere?" asked Boots.
"We met some days ago, briefly, in Port Kar," I said.
"Yes!" he said. "The carnival! Of course! You are a captain, or officer, are you not?"
"Sometimes, perhaps," I said.
"What do you want of me?" asked Boots, warily.
"Do not fear," I smiled. "I am not in hire to pursue you, nor am I interested in collecting bills."
"I fear," said Boots, "that I may be indebted to you in the matter of five silver tarsks in Port Kar. I have them here." He held out his hand with the five silver tarsks, accrued by moments earlier form the sale of the Brigella.
"It was six, not five," I said.
"Oh," said Boots.
"If I had anything to do with them," I said, "to which I do not admit, of course, let us consider them merely as copper-bowl coins, coins such as might be gathered in the pursuit of your normal activities."
"But six silver tarsks," he said.
"You may consider them, if it makes it easier for you," I said, "as a gratuitous contribution to the arts."
"I accept them, then, in the name of the arts," said Boots.
"Good," I said.
"You have no idea how that arrangement assuages the agonies of conscience with which I might otherwise have been afflicted." said Boots.
"I am sure of it," I said.
"Thank you," said Boots.
"It is nothing," I said. "Happy carnival."
"To be sure," he said. "Incidentally, did you enjoy the show?"
"Yes," I said.
"I wonder if you forgot to express your appreciation," asked Boots, rather apologetically.
"No," I said.
"It was an excellent performance," he said.
"Here is another copper tarsk," I said. "That makes three."
"Thank you," he said.
"You are quite welcome," I said. I watched the tarsk disappear somewhere in his robes.
"Now," he said, "as I recall you were mentioning that you might be able to help me with some problem."
"Yes," I said. "As I mentioned, I do not think I can help you with your Brigella problem, at least certainly now, but I think I do know where you might be able to get your hands on a splendid candidate for a 'golden courtesan. "
"A slave?" asked Boots.
"Of course," I said.
"Can she act?" asked Boots.
"I do not know," I admitted.
"My girls must double as tent girls," he said.
"About her potentiality as a tent girl," I said, "I have no doubt."
"My girls, you understand," said Boots, "are not ordinary girls. They must be extraordinarily talented."
"She is blond, and voluptuous," I said.
"That will do," said Boots.
"You could always teach her to act," I said.
"That is true," said Boots. "And fortunately I am a master teacher. And if she should prove sluggish in her lessons, I will unhesitantly encourage her with the whip."
"Exactly," I said.
"Where is she?" he asked.
"One advantage to getting her," I said, "is that I think that she, being a relatively new slave, may be fairly cheap. I doubt that she would cost you, at the most, even given her beauty, more than two silver tarsks. You would then have three silver tarsks left over."
"Where my I find this slut?" he asked.
"She is for sale, I believe, at this very fair," I smiled.
"This is the Fair of En'Kara," he said. "There are thousands of girls for sale here, in the care of hundreds of owners."
"I know the very platform on which stripped, and in her collar and chain, she awaits her first buyer," I said.
"Perhaps you would be so good as to impart this information," said Boots.
"It would probably be difficult for you, by tomorrow evening, by which time, I gather, you may be taking y our leave from the fair, to locate her."
"Particularly," said Boots, "if we are attempting to get in an extra performance or two.
"Precisely," I said.
"What do you want?" asked Boots.
"You have a fairly regular itinerary in your travels, do you not?" I asked.
"Sometimes," said Boots, warily. "Sometimes not. Why?"
"Surely you have some notion of your plans for the next few months," I said.
"In what way?" asked Boots.
"You have some notion of the villages, the towns, the cities you plan to visit," I said.
"Perhaps," said Boots.
"I am interested particularly in one given city," I said, "a port on the coast of Thassa, one south of the Vosk's delta."
"Yes?" he said.
"Brundisium," I said.
"She is a staunch ally of Ar," he said. "We will be visiting her late in the summer."
"Good," I said.
"Why?" he asked.
"I am interested in joining your company," I said.
"What could you do?" he asked.
"Odd jobs, heavy work," I said.
"Security at Brundisium is very tight," he said. "They have become, in the last two years, for some reason, very suspicious of strangers. It is difficult to get access into the city, other than her closed-off wharves and trading places."
"A troupe such as yours might do so, however," I speculated.
"We have performed in the main square," he admitted, "once even in the courtyard of the palace itself."
"Let me join your company," I said.
"You are merely interested in obtaining admittance to Brundisium," he said.
"Perhaps," I said.
"Where might I get my chain on this female," he asked, "she whom you think might be found acceptable as a 'golden courtesan'?"
"Among the hundred new slaves of Samos of Port Kar," I said, "chained on the Shu-27 platforms in the southwestern sections of the Pavilion of Beauty."
"Has she a name?" asked Boots.