The moons were full. The slave was pretty. It was late. We were one day out from Port Cos.
I then turned her, and lifted her, as I had Publia, holding her knees up, close to her belly. Her body, like Publia's, was a small, curvaceous delight. I then put her on her back, as I had Publia, on the coils of rope.
She turned her face away from me, that out eyes not meet.
"Look at me," I said.
She turned her eyes toward mine, reluctantly, but helplessly, commanded to do so. They were filled with tears. Her lip trembled.
"Surely," I said, "you have been richly used before now. This is not your first night at the ring."
"But I know you," she said.
"And do you think any man can be known as well as a slave knows her master," I asked, "or that any woman can be known as well as a slave is known by her master?"
"I do not know," she said.
"No," I said. "The relationship of master and slave is the relation of total, helpless intimacy."
"Yes, Master," she whispered, frightened.
"To be sure," I said, "the knowing of a master by his slave, and of a slave by her master, cannot occur immediately. It is a natural relationship, and thus like any other natural relationship, for example, between a sleen and its master, it will take time."
"Of course," she said.
"Do you have any questions?" I asked.
"How can a man who truly knows a woman treat her as a slave?" she asked. "It is easy," I said.
She regarded me, frightened.
"His knowledge even facilitates the matter," I said.
"Yes," she said, thoughtfully. "It would."
"There is even a special pleasure in doing so," I said, "in mastering, and commanding, she who is most intimately known."
"I understand," she said.
"Similarly," I said, "the nature of women, what they truly are, most deeply within themselves, apart from, and beneath the gross, accumulated encrustations of artificialities and conventions, which must be peeled away, to reveal the true woman, naked and loving, is important."
"I love men," she confessed, seeming scarcely daring to whisper it. "Are you ashamed of that? I asked.
"Should I not be? she asked.
"No," I said. "You are no longer a free woman. You no longer need to conceal your feelings. You may now openly and freely admit your interest in men and your love for them."
"The intimacies of which you spoke, the knowledges, the closeness," she said, breathlessly, holding to me. "Such things are at the discretion of the master, are they not?"
"Largely," I said.
"And not all masters grant them, do they?" she asked.
"Of course not," I said. I could not deny to her that some masters are heartless, that some are inflexible and cruel. And the coins of such men, of course, have as much buying power as those of anyone else. In fact, sometimes I have suspected that slavers enjoy throwing a girl who is still proud, or who has given them some difficulties, into such clutches. Sometimes after only a week in the power of such brutes a girl is almost willing to give her life to achieve a kind word, or a moment of intimacy. She is then ready to be a slave fully. The slave may be given more or less leash, as seems fitting, but she must always understand that it can be shortened at a moment's notice, and that the whip is always ready.
"How proud I was as a free woman!" she said, shuddering.
"You are no longer a free woman," I said.
"And even a moment ago," she said, "I, as a slave, dared to question your usage of me!"
"That is more serious," I said.
"How proud I was!" she exclaimed. "Punish me!"
"No," I said.
"I was not pleasing!" she said.
"Do not concern yourself with the matter," I said. To be sure, had I taken offense, I would have seen to it that she was much concerned with the matter. "In the cell, the day you escaped," she said, smiling, "do you remember how you lay over me, covering my body with your own."
"Yes," I said.
"I thought you were trying to protect me, like a gentleman," she laughed. "I was protecting you," I said.
"But you used me!" she laughed.
"Yes," I said.
"For behind!" she said.
"That was natural," I said, "as we were lying, as I was protecting you." "I was so surprised," she said.
"You were only a naA?ve free woman then," I said.
"But I was a free woman!" she said.
"True," I said.
"Yet you used me so, in spite of the fact that I was a free woman!" "Of course," I said.
"How could you dare to do so?" she asked.
"It was easy," I said.
"Undoubtedly," she said.
"Also you were convenient, in that position," I said.
"I see," she said.
I lay back, looking up at the stars. The sail was furled. We were using the current to proceed downstream. "I think you used me to relieve your tensions," she said.
"Oh?" I said.
"Yes," she said, chidingly, cuddling up to me. "I have heard men talking about such things. Some use their slave girls, before battle, to relieve their tensions. I think you used me merely to relax yourself before the door to the cell was opened."
"Merely?" I asked.
"Yes!" she pouted.
"Do not underestimate yourself," I said.
"Master!" she laughed, kissing me.
"On your stomach," I said.
She obeyed immediately, unquestionly. "I love being a slave," she said, "and serving!"
We heard a fellow stirring about, on the deck.
"It is my keeper," she said, clinging to me. "He will put me below, in the hold!"
"Yes," I said.
"Can you not keep me a little longer in your arms?" she asked, anxiously. "A moment longer," I said.
"Oh!" she said, softly.
Then I stood up, drawing my tunic about me.
She then half sat, half knelt, the chain depending from her collar, her head down.
I buckled the sword belt about me.
She looked up at me, reproachfully.
"Do you object?" I asked.
"No, Master," she said, quickly, kneeling. But her hands were on the chain depending from her collar. She drew on it a little. It was on her.
"How is she?" asked the fellow, coming up on us.
Immediately, before her keeper, she put her head down to the deck.
"Excellent," I said.
"Master," she said, timidly, not daring to raise her head, "may I speak?" "Yes," he said.
"Publia, slave, has told Claudia, slave, that we are to be put at the prow. May Claudia inquire of master if it be true?"
"It is true," he said. She raised her head a little, timidly. "May Claudia inquire how it is to be done?"
"We use a harness of chains and leather," he said. "The female is absolutely helpless, but is beautifully displayed."
"Does it hurt?" she asked.
"No," he said.
"I do not know hot to be displayed at the prow," she said.
"Do you not think the chains and leather will take care of that matter?" he asked.
"But I mean with respect to my own appearance," she said.
"You will be naked, of course," he said.
"Yes, Master," she said, in misery, teased.
The fellow laughed. "There are many different ways," he said. "Free captures are often encouraged to volubly bemoan their fate, to appear tragically sorrowful, to beg mercy and lenience, to cover their bodies with tears, and so on, as they are carried helplessly into bondage. This is amusing to the crowds at the piers. They are then marched through the streets, to the house of one slaver or another."
"Much depends," she said, "on who has contracted for captures in advance?" "Usually," he said.
"Seasoned slaves, on the other hand," he said, "usually appear pleased, even elated and joyful, and, if they do not appear so readily, they usually soon do so, once again encouraged. Sometimes the woman is required to appear proud, even contemptuous, for there are then fellows who will, so to speak, lie in wait for her at her sale, and bid high for her, hoping to bring her within the scope of their power, to get her, who was proud and contemptuous, into their collar. She will not remain proud and contemptuous for long. Other women are encouraged to appear terrified, or fearful. Fear in a woman is stimulating to a male and also to the female, making her more desperate to please, more eager to feel, more zealous to yield satisfactorily. These, and various other attitudes, may be required of women at the prow."