"Lout!" called the free woman.
"Yes, noble lady?" said Boots, coming forward.
"Your plays are insulting to free women!" she cried. "I have never been so insulted in my life!"
"Have you seen them all?" asked Boots. "There are more than fifty."
"No," she said. "I have not seen them all!"
"We cannot perform them all without a full company, of course," said Boots. "I am short-handed at the moment. I do not even have a golden courtesan. There are frequent changes in the repertory, of course. We make up new ones, and sometimes we feel it best, temporarily or permanently, to drop out old ones, ones that do not then seem as good or which do not seem to play as well any longer. One improvises about given ideas or themes, and then, performance by performance, a play is built. To be sure, much always remains open to invention, to innovation, to constant revision, to impromptu spur-of-the-moment contributions, and so on. One must always be ready, too, to capitalize on such things as local color, current happenings, the current political situation, popular or well-known figures, the prejudices of a district, and so on. Local allusions are always popular. They can occasionally get you in trouble, of course. One must be careful about them. It would not do to be impaled. You seem highly intelligent. Perhaps you could help us."
"Do you think that all free women are no better than slaves!" she cried.
"I would suppose that women are all pretty much of a muchness," said Boots.
'Oh!" she cried in fury.
"Take yourself," he said. "How would you look stripped and in a collar, and under a whip? Do you think you would behave much differently, then, than any other slave? Indeed, have you ever stopped to think about it? Have you ever wondered, secretly perhaps, whether or not you might have what it takes to prove to be even an adequate slave?"
"I am a free woman," she said, icily.
"Forgive me, Lady," said Boots.
"I will, before nightfall, and you may depend upon it," she said, "lodge my complaint with the magistrates. By tomorrow noon, you will be closed, forbidden to perform at the fair."
"Show us mercy, Lady," said Boots, "we are a traveling company, a poor troupe in desperate straits. I have had to sell even my golden courtesan!"
"I do not care," she said, "if you must sell all your sluts!"
"The Fair of En'Kara is the greatest of all the fairs," he said. "It comes but once a year. It is important to us! We need every tarsk-bit we can make here."
"I do not choose to show you mercy," she said, coldly. "Too, I shall see to it that you are fined and publicly whipped. Indeed, if you are not gone from the fairgrounds by tomorrow evening, I shall also see to it that your troupe is disbanded, and that your goods, your wagons, your clothes, your sluts, everything, is confiscated!"
"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.