She lifted one fair limb, her left arm, from the foam, and washed it slowly with her right hand, regarding it approvingly.
Like many frigid women she was incredibly vain of her beauty. Did she not understand that it, and she, were biologically meaningless, if not seized in the arms of a master?
"How rude and despicable men are, Judy," she said.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
Often, in the bath, for some reason, she would speak of men and her contempt for them.
"Today," she said, "in the market, I saw a man beating a slave girl, tied to a ring. It was terrible."
"Yes, Mistress," I said. I wondered what the girl had done. I supposed she had been displeasing. I had not accompanied her today to the market. I had been left at home, chained to the ring at the foot of her couch.
"Afterwards," she said, "the miserable girl covered his feet with kisses."
"Terrible, Mistress," I said. I supposed the girl was attempting to placate her master, and express her gratitude, her joy, at his reassertion of his dominance over her.
"Yes, terrible!" said the Lady Elicia of Ar, my mistress, of Six Towers.
"Too," she said, "my errand took me, inadvertently, near the Street of Brands."
"Oh, Mistress?" I asked. Sometimes, when she went on errands, I did not accompany her.
"There," she said, "I saw a chain of girls, stripped, in the open, men looking upon them. Disgusting!"
"Yes, Mistress," I agreed.
She lifted one leg, her right, gracefully from the water. Foam and water fell from it. Her toes were pointed. Her leg was shapely.
"Do you think I am beautiful, Judy?" she asked.
"Yes, Mistress," I said. She often asked me this.
"Truly?" she asked.
"Yes, Mistress," I said. It was indeed true. My mistress was an incredibly beautiful young woman. She was clearly more beautiful than I.
"Do you think that men might find me pleasing?" she asked.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"Do you think," she laughed, as though jesting, "that I would bring a high price?"
"Yes, Mistress," I said. She had asked me this sort of thing before. I had answered her truthfully before, and I answered her truthfully now. I wondered at her curiosity concerning such matters. I had no doubt that Elicia Nevins, on the block, naked, under the auctioneer's whip, would sell for at least a piece of gold.
She finished washing her legs, one after the other, dreamily.
I heard the small noise that I had been waiting for, for several days.
She reclined in the tub, easing her lovely body gently lower in the water, closing her eyes. The water, the multicolored foams of beauty, were about her chin. Then she sat a bit more upright in the tub, the water and foam about her shoulders. She opened her eyes and looked up at the ceiling.
"What is it like being a man's slave?" she asked.
"Mistress will soon know," I said.
She turned about and then, suddenly, first seeing him, cried out, startled.
"Who are you!" she cried.
"Are you the lady Elicia of Ar, of Six Towers?" he asked.
"I am she!" she cried.
"I charge you," said he, "in the name of the Priest-Kings of Gor, with being an agent of Kurii, and as such subject to the penalties connected therewith."
"I do not understand a word you are saying," she cried.
He drew forth from his tunic a folded yellow paper, closed with a seal and ribbon. I saw, on the yellow paper, stamped upon it, in black ink, large, the common Kajira mark of Gor. "I have here," he said, "a bill of enslavement, signed by Samos of Port Kar. Examine it. I trust you will find that all is in order." He threw the paper to the tiles.
"No!" she cried, frightened, trying to cover herself. Then she cried out, "Tellius! Barus!"
"Your minions," said the man, "will be of little service. It is understood they are of Cos. They are already in the custody of the magistrates of Ar."
"Tellius! Barus!" she screamed.
"You are quite alone, Lady Elicia," he said. "There are none to hear your screams."
He was tall and strong, clad in a warrior's scarlet. At his belt there was a long leash, looped.
"Emerge from your bath," said he, "and prepare to accept slave bonds."
"No!" she cried. Then she cried out to me, "Run, Judy! Fetch help!"
"Do not," said the man.
"Yes, Master," I said. I looked at the Lady Elicia. "Forgive me, Mistress," I said. "I am a slave girl who has been commanded by a man." I knelt to one side.
"Bitch! Bitch!" she cried.
"Yes, Lady Elicia, my Mistress," I said.
She spun in the tub, agonized, covering herself, to face the tall guest.
"There is some mistake!" she cried. "Leave me! You intrude in a lady's compartments!"
"Emerge from your bath," said he, "to accept the bonds of a slave."
"Never!" she cried.
"Are you a virgin?" he asked.
"Yes," she said, angrily.
"If I must fetch you in the water," he said, "you will be taken in the water."
"Bring me my robe," she said.
He went to the robe on the couch, but, instead of handing it to her, he examined it, lifting it to the light. In one sleeve, in a tiny, narrow sheath, he found a needle, which he held up. Then he approached the bath. She shrank back, frightened. He washed the needle, dried it on a towel and replaced it in the sheath. I had not known the sheath and needle were there, so cunningly had they been concealed in the weaving.
He looked at her.
I had little doubt the needle had been poisoned, probably with Kanda.
"You have disarmed me, Warrior," she said. "Will you now, please, hand me my robe."
He threw the robe to the side of the room. She looked at it, crumpled at the side of the room.
"Please," she said. "I am rich. I can give you much gold."
"Stand in the bath," he said. "I would see your hands above your head."
"You intrude upon my privacy!" she cried.
"Soon," he said, "you will have no right to privacy."
"My modesty!" she cried.
"When you are a slave," he said. "you will not be permitted modesty." This was true.
"Have mercy, Warrior!" she cried.
"Obey, or be lashed," he said.
Elicia Nevins stood in the tub, and lifted her hands over her head, in an attitude of surrender.
The guest regarded her, casually, openly, at length, with the appraisal of a master.
She shook with fear, seen by a Gorean warrior.
The warrior then went to the side of the tub, crouching near what had been the side to her right. She stepped back in the water, away from him. He brushed back the foam. Carefully he examined the wall of the tub. In moments he had retrieved the tiny dagger which lay there, in its small compartment, concealed behind a tile. He cleaned the poison from the side of the dagger, dried it with a towel, as he had the needle, and then threw it to the side of the room, where lay her robe, which he had earlier discarded. I had not known of the existence of either the compartment or the small, poisoned weapon which it concealed.
Elicia stood in the water, on the far side of the large, sunken tub, her hands lifted.
"Free me!" she said. "I will pay you much."
He regarded her.
"I will give you enough to buy ten slave girls in my stead!" she said.
"But they would not be Elicia Nevins," he said.
She shook her head, haughtily. She still wore the colorful towel about her head.
"Would you care to examine the bill of enslavement?" he asked.
"If I may," she said.