"There is no safety," she said.
Down on the lower walkway we looked back to the battlements over the gate. It did look as though the former Lady Publia were on the spear.
The towers were now but thirty yards away. There was no way their discharge, their rushing, armed effluxes could be stayed by the men here.
"If she is rescued," said Lady Claudia, looking back at the lovely, nude figure, seemingly mounted upon the impaling spear, "doubtless she will deny she is a slave."
"But even so," I said, "she would still be a slave, and would know it in her heart."
"Yes," said Lady Claudia.
The slave cannot free herself. She can be freed only by an owner. The condition of slavery does not require the collar, or the brand, or an anklet, bracelet or ring, or any such overt sign of bondage. Such things, as symbolic as they are, as profoundly meaningful as they are, and as useful as they are for marking properties, identifying masters, and such, are not necessary to slavery. They are, in effect, though their affixing can legally effect imbondment, ultimately, in themselves, tokens of bondage, and are not to be confused with the reality itself. The uncollared slave is not then a free woman but only a slave who is not then in a collar. Similarly a slave is still a slave even if her brand could be made to magically disappear or, if she has been a made a slave in some other way, if she had not yet been branded. Indeed, some masters, somewhat foolishly, I think, dally in the branding of their slaves. Indeed, some, perhaps the most foolish, do not brand them at all. Such girls, however, when they come into the keeping of new masters, usually discover that that oversight is promptly remedied.
"The slave who lies about her slavery," I said, "is not thereby the less a slave. It is only that she is then a lying slave."
"I have heard that bondage is difficult to conceal," said Lady Claudia. "That is particularly so," I said, "if one has been a slave for a time. It can be given away in many ways, by the movements of the body, by certain timidities, and deferences, dispositions to kneel, slips of the tongue, and such. Slavers, and others, it is well known, can often pick out a slave from among women all clad in the Robes of Concealment, by simply having her walk, or speak, or by looking in her eyes. She is then disrobed, the brand revealed, and given over for punishment."
She looked up at me.
"I spoke of legal bondage, of course," I said. "Perhaps you meant natural bondage, that of the woman who is by nature a slave?"
She looked down.
"That," I said, "is independent of the proprieties of legal bondage, of course." "Yes," she whispered.
"To be sure," I said, "that condition of the natural slave, like that of the legal slave, can be difficult to conceal, particularly under certain stimulus conditions. It need not remain, however, simply a guilty secret locked in the heart of a frustrated, unfulfilled free woman, not yet in the keeping of her master. It can be shown by such things as her profound psychological dispositions to selflessly serve and love, her desire for, and response to, male domination, her understandings of chains and the whip, the quickening, deepening and intensification of her sexuality under conditions of bondage, her happiness and fulfillment when she finds herself placed in her proper relationship to the male, her joy in fulfilling her biological role, her joy in obedience, submission and love, her elation in knowing herself owned and mastered, subdued and conquered, a condition manifested in acts as disparate, and yet strangely akin, as the tying of her master's sandals and slave writhings in the furs, being forced to thrash helplessly in the orgasmic ecstasies he chooses to impose upon her."
She trembled.
"There are women who understand such things," I said.
"All women understand such things," she said.
"Perhaps," I said. "I do not know."
Again she trembled.
"But we were speaking of the former Lady Publia," I said. "She now knows herself a slave, having said the words. Too, she knows that she, a slave, can be freed only by a master. What will she make of these things? That, I take it, is your question?"
"Doubtless she would pretend she had never said the words," she said. "That she would, in one way or another, attempt to conceal her true condition?"
"Yes," she said.
"Perhaps," I said. "But, of course, she would still, in her heart, know the truth, that she was a slave."
"Yes," she said.
"And that only a master could free her?"
"Yes," she said.
"Surely it might be difficult to live with such a hidden truth," I said. Perhaps it, irrepressible, insistent within her, might finally require some resolution. She must then take action. She might turn herself over to a praetor, hoping for mercy, as she had surrendered herself. Or perhaps she might solicit some person to make active claim upon her, such a claim, after certain intervals, superseding prior claims. Although there are various legal qualifications involved, which vary from city to city, effective, or active, possession is generally regarded as crucial from the point of view of the law, such possession being taken, no other claims forthcoming within a specified interval, as conferring legal title. This is the case with a kailla or a tarsk, and it is also the case with a slave. In such a case, presumably the woman would expect the master who has then put claim on her to free her. That would presumably be the point of the matter. Otherwise she could simply submit herself to him as an escaped or strayed slave. Thus, in this fashion, she could reveal her hidden truth, thereby alleviating her acute mental conflicts, and her sufferings, attendant upon its concealment, and by another, as she has no legal power in the matter herself, be restored to freedom. To be sure, there are risks involved in this sort of thing. For example, when she kneels before him, his slave, perhaps he will then simply order her to the kitchen or to his furs. No promise made to her has legal standing, no more than to a tarsk. In this way, she, ostensibly seeking her freedom, may find herself plunged instead into explicit and inescapable bondage, and will doubtless, too, soon find herself properly marked and collared, to preclude the possible repetition of any such nonsense in the future.
"Yes," whispered Lady Claudia, not taking her eyes off the small figure suspended on the spear, on the battlements over the gate. I looked over the wall. The towers had now stopped, aligned, some twenty yards or so from the wall. They would overtop it. When they advanced, they would do so, together.
"You had best go now," I said.
"I do not want to leave you," she said.
"When the towers spill their troops onto the wall," I said, "I do not thing they will be stopping to make slaves. Go, hide. Perhaps later, when the citadel is burning, when resistance is ended, when the blood lust has to some extent lessened, you may receive an opportunity to strip yourself for captors." "What of her?" she asked, pointing to the former Lady Publia.
"The slave?" I asked.
"Yes," she said.
"She is already stripped," I said.
"True!" she laughed.
"You had best leave," I said.
"You never intended to impale her, did you?"
"Not on the spear of execution," I said.
"I see," she said.
"Unless perhaps she might prove displeasing or in some way uncooperative." "I understand," she said.
"There are, however, many other forms of impalement quite suitable for such as she," I said.
"Doubtless!" she laughed.
"And for you," I said.
"Yes," she said, "for me as well!"
"Go," I said. "The towers will advance at any moment."
"Why did you let us believe you would impale her?" she asked.
"Surely the genuineness of her terror added to the effectiveness of our disguises," I said, "as did you own authentic concern."
"You manipulated us as women and slaves!" she said, her eyes flashing. "And you are a clever woman," I said, "biding your time here against my will." "I am a free woman," she said. "I think I shall remain here, by your side." "Free woman or no," I said, "I wish I had a slave whip. I would teach you docility and compliance quickly enough."