"You have been found guilty of treason against your city, and are under sentence of impalement, " said Aemilianus. "Do you gainsay either of these assertions?" "No," she said.
Aemilianus turned to Marsias, who lay nearby, wounded, reclining on one elbow, on a pallet. "Marsais," said he, "have you the strength to carry out the sentence?"
The man nodded.
"Do you, Lady Claudia," asked Aemilianus, "regret your treason?" "Keenly," she said.
"For you were apprehended," he said.
"Yes," she said. "But it goes much beyond such simplicities."
"Speak," he said.
"I have learned," she said, "in the cell, and in the arms of a man, what I am, truly. I forsook the softness and the reality of my being for ambition and cruelty. I had not understood earlier what it was to be a woman, or the joys, and meaning, of service and love. I sought power when I, rightfully, should have been subject to it, reveling in helplessness, submission and love. I did great wrong in seeking, one such as I, to interfere in the destiny of states, which is not my province. I have brought pain to myself and others. I am pleased only that my acts, as far as I know, had no consequences seriously deleterious to my city or her citizens."
"You accept the justice of your impalement?" he asked.
"Yes," she said, "as I am a free woman. But I think it would be more appropriate if I were fed to sleen."
"Such things are for slaves, he said.
"Yes, Commander," she said. "Look over there," he said, indicating the former Lady Publia, chained and prone. "That is a slave," he said.
"Yes," said Lady Claudia.
"Are you like her?" he asked, scornfully.
"Yes," she said.
The former Lady Publia, so helpless, looked at her, gratefully, with tears in her eyes.
"No, you are not," said Aemilianus, "for you are free."
"But I envy her," said Lady Claudia. "She is at least free to be what she is, and wholly, but I am not."
The slave, frightened, moved a little in her chains. The links made a tiny sound on the deck, near her ankles. Looking about, I saw that more than one man would have been interested in having her.
"Has a suitable spear been prepared?" asked Aemilianus.
"I have seen to it," said Marsias.
"Let her garments be removed," said Aemilianus.
It took but a moment to pull the rags back, and down, from her body. It would take another moment or so to remove them completely, for them to be cut or torn from her, as they were now held on her by the chaining of the sirik, that of her wrists. Men's eyes glistened. I heard soft whistles, the intakings of breath, small, almost inadvertent gasps, and other tributes, somewhat more vulgar, things such as small clicks and the smackings of lips, to her beauty, noises which would generally be expected to great the revelation of he beauty of a slave, rather than a free woman. She blushed, and yet was proud. I am sure, of her beauty. She did have superb slave curves. I did not doubt that what she would bring a good price in a slave market. Her entire body gloriously made clear a luscious hormonal richness and an exquisite femininity. She was a beautiful woman. The rags then had been cut from her and thrown to the side. She knelt then before us, beautifully. Many men, including myself, struck our left shoulders in applause.
There was little doubt that Aemilianus himself was impressed with her.
I think that any man might have been impressed with her, whether he found her a free prisoner on the deck of the Tais or in some slave market, chained on a bench, awaiting a buyer. "You could have been a bred slave," he said.
"In a sense I am a bred slave," she said, "for I am a woman."
"The spear is ready," said a man.
"Let her chains be removed," said Aemilianus, "and her hands tied behind her. Use a belly thong."
With the belly thong, presumably her hands would be tied closely, tightly, at the small of her back. This is an excellent, general tie. It is seldom, however, if ever, used in impalements. Apparently Aemilianus had call for the tie, in this context, as an act of mercy. He did not want her to be able to get her fingers on the spear which, in their futility and helplessness, might delay, or deepen or prolong the agony of impalement.
"May I speak?" I inquired.
One fellow, with a thong, and the key to the Lady Claudia's locks had already stepped forward. When I spoke, he halted, and stepped back. I assumed he would remove the Lady Claudia's wrist rings first, then affix the belly thong on her, fastening her hands behind her back, tightly, and then, and then only, remove the ankle rings and the collar, the remainder of the sirik. Such, at any rate, would have been a common Gorean manner of proceeding.
"Of course," said Aemilianus.
"In the cell, yesterday morning," I said, it seemed a long time ago now, "I gathered that my fate was not to be inextricably linked to that of Lady Claudia, that you had perhaps not convinced yourself, and quite properly, of my guilt in the matter of espionage."
"true," said Aemilianus. "I was not sure of you, what you were, or why you did what you did. There are still many things I do not understand, for example, about the military actions, and inactions, of the past months."
"Much would become clear," I said, "if you were willing to entertain the possibility of treason in Ar, treason in high places, treason of profound character and enormous scope."
"Only days ago," said Aemilianus, "that would have seemed unthinkable." "But it is not so unthinkable now?" I asked.
"No," said Aemilianus. "Clearly Ar's Station was abandoned, and presumably therewith the Vosk, and its basin, surrendered to Cos."
"My general sympathies," said Calliodorus, "as will be understood, are with Cos in these matters. Certainly I have no love for Ar. But if Cos thinks to hold sway upon the river I think, then, she has not reckoned with Port Cos, nor with the river towns themselves. We on the river will welcome neither the septered emissaries of Lurius of Jad nor Marlenus of Ar. Too, in the Vosk League, to which Port Cos is party, we have the nucleus of a vehicle for our alliance, a vehicle for common action if not common governance."
"Ar looks not with favor upon the Vosk League," said Aemilianus. "She sees in it the possibility of another Salerian Confederation."
"She did not admit Ar's Station to join the league," said Calliodorus. "It was thought by many in Ar, seemingly Marlenus among them," said Aemilianus, "that entry into the League would appear to accept the principle that Ar was but one power among others on the river, and not the sole mistress of the waterway, as she would be. Cos may have acted more judiciously in the matter, thinking that Port Cos might dominate the league, and that she, in turn, might exercise her own control over it, and that she, in turn, might exercise her own control over it, through the might of Port Cos."
"If such were her intent, and I do not doubt it," said Calliodorus, "she misjudged the interests, the pride and temper of Port Cos. Though we have close ties, historical, cultural and political, with Cos, we are, unlike Ar's Station, a sovereign polity in our own right. We are in all ways institutionally and legally autonomous."
"Yes?" said Aemilianus, returning his attention to me.
"It had not pleased me," I said, "that this woman," and here I indicated the Lady Claudia by placing my foot against her, and thrusting her forward, so that she fell to all fours in he chains on the deck, "was to be impaled." "It was the justice of Ar's Station," said Aemilianus.