"No," said the other.
Beside me, Bina trembled.
"They are the delegation of the Salerian Confederation," said the first.
"Their leader?" asked the other.
"Thandar of Ti," said the first.
I now well understood the agitation of Bina. Thandar of Ti, of the Warriors, of the four cities of the Salerian Confederation, was the fifth son of Ebullius Gaius Cassius, of the Warriors, Administrator of Ti, high officer of the Confederation. At one time a girl, the Lady Sabina, the daughter of a merchant, Kleomenes of Fortress of Saphronicus, high merchant of that city, had been pledged in Companion Contract to this Thandar of Ti. Raiders had struck the companion caravan, acquiring its riches and carrying off the Lady Sabina, and others. To guarantee the frustration of the Companion Contract and to prevent the alliance of Fortress of Saphronicus with the Salerian Confederation, the Lady Sabina had been reduced to slavery. She had been made worthless in the affairs of state. The alliance of Fortress of Saphronicus and the Confederation of Saleria had never taken place. Bad blood now existed between them.
"How beautiful he is," breathed Bina. Never had Thandar of Ti and the Lady Sabina of Fortress of Saphronicus, as far as I knew, looked upon one another. Their companionship had been an intended match of state.
Bina, Slave Beads, gazed upon the powerful, wondrous Thandar of Ti.
"He is handsome," I said.
"My ears are pierced," wept Bina. "My ears are pierced." Never, now, if ever, could she have hoped to be companion to such a man.
Thandar of Ti, and his fellows, some five of them, ordered from Busebius, who stood eagerly about them. They would have more than paga. They would be fed, and have wines.
The presence of the august visitors, except perhaps by the slaves, was forgotten.
Thandar of Ti looked in our direction. We knelt, two beautiful slave girls, lowly pierced-ear girls, paga slaves. It was a great honor for girls such as we that a man such as Thandar of Ti would even deign to cast a glance upon us.
Thandar of Ti looked away.
I smiled to myself at the irony of the situation.
In looking upon one of us, upon one of two lowly, exquisite slaves, he had been looking upon she who had once been the Lady Sabina, of Fortress of Saphronicus, once intended to sit regally at his side, gloriously robed, his free companion.
There were tears in the eyes of Bina.
Thandar of Ti, I noted, was very handsome.
"You have little paga left," I said. "My flask is full. I will serve them."
"More than one must serve them," said Bina. "Please, Teela."
"He is quite handsome," I said. "I will be enough."
"I wish to serve him," said Bina simply.
"I will serve him," I said.
"Do you think he will buy you?" asked Bina.
"I do not know," I said, "perhaps."
I rose lightly to my feet. Bina quickly followed my example.
Busebius hurried toward us. He gestured to us, and to four of the other girls. He gathered us about him. We were excited. "You six will serve," he said, indicating the men on the dais. Two of the girls cried out with pleasure, to be selected. "Go swiftly to the room of preparation," he said. "Garb yourselves as the hunter's catch." I was startled. The guests must be important indeed. We hurried to the room of preparation. Busebius went to give orders to the men in the kitchens.
We must serve the initial wines swiftly, with the matched breads and cheeses.
We tore aside our silks in the room of preparation. We freshened our perfumes and adjusted our make-up. We must be soft, and perfumed and luscious.
Busebius thrust his head into the room of preparation. "Earrings," he said, "jewelry!" Then he disappeared again.
"I do not want to wear earrings," wept one girl.
"Put them on, Slave," I snapped. I did not want to be beaten for one of us who was not pleasing.
I fastened golden loops in my ears, and slung necklaces about my throat. I slipped on an armlet.
Beside me, Bina placed earrings, unprotestingly, on her ears.
"Do you, too, not weep to put on earrings?" I asked her.
"No," she said, "I am a pierced-ear girl." The earrings, I noted, jeweled droplets, were very beautiful upon her.
I reached into a chest for hunters' netting. It is a stout cording, used to net medium-sized game. Its mesh was spaced at some two horts, about two and a half inches.
Cunningly we twisted netting about us, from our throats to our brands, high upon our thighs. We garbed ourselves as "the hunter's catch."
We looked in the mirror. Several of us gasped. Seldom had we seen such exciting girls.
"Hurry!" said Busebius, again appearing at the entry to the room of preparation. We knew then the wines, and the matched breads and cheeses, were ready.
"Teela, wait," said Bina.
The other girls left the room of preparation. "We must hurry," I said.
"I know what you intend, Teela," said Bina. "And it is not proper."
"I do not understand," I said. How could she know what I had in mind.
Bina stood between myself and the door.
"Get out of my way," I said. "Do you want us to be beaten?" I looked at her, angrily. "Do you fear," I asked, "that your Thandar of Ti will find me more pleasing than you?"
"No," she said, "Teela, I do not. I am not a free woman. I do not fear your slave competition. I know that I am beautiful and I can compete with you as a slave girl for any man."
I sniffed.
"But you have more in mind, Teela. I know you. You are not Gorean. You do not understand these things."
I looked at her, in fury.
"Failing to please him more than I, failing to interest him in your purchase," she said, "it is your intention to tell him who I was."
I looked at her, startled. How could she have known my plan.
"You think then he will free me, and free you, for having told him this truth."
I did not speak to her.
She turned her head from side to side. "My ears are pierced, Teela," she said. "You will only do him dishonor if you show him my present state."
"Don't you want to slip your collar?" I asked. I seized the close-circling steel on my throat. "Do you want to wear this?" I cried. "Do you want to be a slave, at the complete mercy of men!"
"I will not do dishonor to Thandar of Ti," she said. "I will serve him, not known to him, lovingly, as only what I am, a lowly paga slave."
"You are mad," I said.
"I am Gorean," she said.
"This decision," I smiled, "we will let Thandar of Ti make. We will let him decide."
"No, Teela," she said. "I have decided it."
"Get out of my way," I said.
"No," she said.
"Look," I said. "Even if he likes me, and buys me, I will tell him who you are, a little sooner or a little later, if only to gain our freedoms."
"I know you would, Teela," said Bina.
"I have your interest, too, at heart," I said.
"I am sure you do," she said. "But you do not understand us. You do not understand Goreans."
"I want to be free," I snapped.
"Look at yourself in the long mirror, Teela," said Bina.
I did so, and saw there a marvelous girl, soft and perfumed, branded; she wore a bit of netting, and jewelry; she wore earrings; she was collared.
"What do you see there?" asked Bina.
"A slave girl," I said.
"Do you think a girl such as you, so soft and beautiful, with your slave reflexes, can ever be anything but a slave on this world."
"No," I said, bitterly.
"And your ears are pierced," she said.
I tossed my head. "I know," I said. That in itself I knew would be enough to keep me a slave on Gor.
I would always be a slave on Gor.
"Abandon then your mad plan to reveal my former identity to Thandar of Ti," said Bina.
"No," I said.
She looked at me, angrily.