He had hardly spoken before she was on her belly, as before. Quick was she, she would show him, to obey.
"Kneel," he said.
She returned to her kneeling position. "Of what are you worthy, female?" he inquired.
"Only to be a slave," she said.
"Speak," he said.
"I beg the inestimable honor and privilege of being made an absolute slave," she said.
"To Cosians?" he asked.
"To any man," she said.
It irritated me that she had spoken as she had to them for it was as if she were not already a slave, and an unconditional, categorical and absolute slave. She had not even addressed the men as "Master." Clearly she suspected, or hoped, and nothing had as yet occurred to gainsay this suspicion or hope, that they did not know she was already a slave, that she had only yesterday spoken self-irreversible words of self-enslavement on the upper battlements. She did not know, of course, that I was also on board.
"Unhood her," said Calliodorus.
I stepped back, so that the slave could not see me.
Then the slave was blinking and crying, and rubbing her eyes with the backs of her fists.
Then, having managed to adjust somewhat to the light, and managing to achieve some grasp of her surroundings, and seeing in the midst of what men she knelt, she looked about herself wildly, in consternation.
"Is this the behavior typical of the women of Ar's Station?" smiled Calliodorus, glancing at Aemilianus.
"Say more simply it is the behavior typical of women," smiled Aemilianus. "Commander," begged the girl.
"You are aboard the Tais, a warship of Port Cos," said Aemilianus. "You have had the honor of conversing with her captain, my former comrade in arms, and friend, Calliodorus."
"Port Cos!" she said.
"Yes," he said.
"That accounts for the accents," she said.
"Precisely," he said.
"It is true," said a man, "her face is not unattractive."
She blushed.
"I understand nothing of what is going on," she said to Aemilianus. "Ten ships of Port Cos, and fifteen others," said Aemilianus, "entered the harbor of Ar's Station yesterday afternoon, shortly before what would presumably have been the last attack of Cos on the piers. These twenty-five ships neutralized what forces of Cos could be brought to bear at that point and succeeded in evacuating the piers."
"Then we are among friends," she said.
"Most of us," said Aemilianus.
"Why am I in chains?" she asked.
"Slave chains," said Aemilianus.
"Why am I in slave chains?" she asked.
"Do you not know?" he asked.
She was silent, wondering feverishly, doubtless, how much he knew.
"My commander can see," she then said, lightly, "that the only collar I wear is a portion of my chaining, and that I am not branded."
I stood rather behind her, my arms folded. My face must have appeared somewhat severe. Certainly I was angry. Though she had not explicitly claimed to be free, it seemed clear that she was hoping to be taken as such.
"Perhaps," she said, "my chains may not be removed, and I may be given suitable raiment, that of a free woman, that I may take a place among my free sisters." She had certainly worded that carefully, I thought. She had not said "my place," which might suggest she had a right to it, but "a place," which was compatible with it merely being a place she took, with or without title, so to speak. "You are on trial," he said.
She looked at him, startled, aghast.
"Or," said he, "if you are a slave, you are being given a small hearing." "I do not understand," she said.
"Perhaps you do," he said.
"On what charges?" she asked.
"The charges, if you are a free woman," he said, "are several, such as the intent to deceive with respect to caste, the jeopardizing of fellow citizenesses by disgarding traditional concealments and modesties, to your own advantage in the event of the taking of the city, for example, going barefoot and baring your calves, and such, and a lack of patriotism, as evidenced by having refused to cut your hair, to supply needed war material to your compatriots." "But you can see, Commander," she said, suddenly lifting her hands to her head, "that my hair has been cut, and shortly, too!" She rubbed her hand over the brush of hair on her head.
"It is our understanding that your hair was shorn only yesterday, and against your will, in a cell in the citadel, by an escaping prisoner."
"Surely you do not believe that, Commander," she said.
"Lady Claudia, the traitress, and an undisputed free woman," he said, "is in our power. Shall she be brought forward to testify as tot he circumstances in which, and the time at which, your hair was shorn?"
"No, Commander," said the girl.
"You do not dispute what I have said then?" he asked.
"No, Commander," she said, defeated.
"It is also believed that you carried much gold with you, in your purse, presumably, again, to improve your chances of persuading victorious Cosians to spare you, resources incidentally much beyond the reach of most women of Ar's Station, thus, again, supplying you with an advantage over them. Is this disputed?"
"No, Commander," she said. She knew, of course, that Lady Claudia could testify as to the presence of the gold in her purse. Indeed, interestingly, although this was not known to the girl, that very gold had been used after the fall of the gate to assist in the escape of Aemilianus and his colleagues to the piers. I had scattered it behind mercenaries, to clear a passage.
"You have not charged me," she said, "with not wearing robes of concealment." "In Ar's Station," he said, "as in Ar, robes of concealment, precisely, are not legally obligatory for free women, no more than the veil. Such things are more a matter of custom. On the other hand, as you know, there are statutes prescribing certain standards of decorum for free women. For example, they may not appear naked in the streets, as may slaves. Indeed, a free woman who appears in public in violation of these standards of decorum, for example, with her arms or legs too much bared, may be made a slave.
"There was no crime then," she said, "in my appearing in public as I did, even though, say, I wore but a single layer and my calves, ankles and feet were bared."
"Whether the degree of your exposure was sufficient to violate the codes of decorum is a subtle point," said Aemilianus, "but I will not press it." "Surely may low-caste girls go about with only as much, or even less, she said. "But you are of the Merchants," said Aemilianus, smiling.
"A low caste!" she said.
I smiled. The Merchants often maintain that they are a high caste, and should, accordingly, be included in the councils of high caste. Now, however, it seemed she was eager to accept that, and stress that, the Merchants was not a high caste. The traditional high castes of Gor are the Initiates, Scribes, Builders, Physicians and Warriors.
"I do not press the point," said Aemilianus.
"And if I dressed in such a manner that my caste would not be clear," she said, "it is no more than many women do upon occasion. Surely such women even reserve the caste robes and colors for such things as formal occasions, and some even for ceremonial functions."
"True," said Aemilianus.
"I do not think then I should be held accountable under the charge of attempting to deceive with respect to caste," she said. "For example, I engaged in no business under false pretenses, and I never claimed explicitly to be of a caste other than my own." It seemed to me that she did have a point here. The legal problems connected with intent to deceive with respect to caste, of course, problems of the sort which presumably constitute the rationale of the law, usually come up in cases of fraud or impersonation, for example, with someone pretending to be of the Physicians. "And, too," she continued, "if conquering Cosians should have seen fit to take me for a simple, low-caste maid, I see no reason why the laws of Ar's Station should now be exercised against me. What would be the point of that, to protect Cosians from a mistake which they never had the opportunity to make?"