And when they’d protested over and over that they couldn’t handle another thing, Ruddygore signaled the end to it. Finally he got up and said, “Joe, why don’t you take Irving down and show him around? I suspect he’d enjoy the games room in particular. We’ll speak in a little while.”
Joe nodded, glad to have an excuse to walk some of this off and knowing already that he was going to regret this overindulgence later, but knowing, too, that it was worth it.
Ruddygore watched them go, then gave a signal. An elf in household livery appeared almost instantly.
“Has the girl finished eating?”
“Yes, sir. She ate pretty good.”
“Very well. Give me five minutes and bring her to my study.”
The elf bowed and vanished.
Ruddygore’s study was smaller than the great halls, but it was no tiny room. It couldn’t be, since, among other things, it had to hold the complete Books of Rules. They rose there, from floor to ceiling, in custom-made, built-in bookcases, covering every wall and allowing only for the door. A sturdy ladder on rails mat would hold even the sorcerer’s great bulk went completely around the place. Ruddygore studied the seemingly identical thick, red-bound volumes for a moment, then pulled the ladder around, got up to one particular shelf, and pulled down a volume. He checked to see that it was the right one, then went over to his desk, fished around in a crowded drawer, and came up with a small case from which he removed a brilliant lavender jewel whose one outstanding feature was that it was totally flat on one side. He placed the jewel on the book, his hand on both, and concentrated.
It was a convenient gimmick for looking up things in a hurry or impressing others that you knew everything in all those books. For a while, perhaps a couple of hours unless he used it again, he did know every single word in that one book. It would fade, of course, but he didn’t want to retain it. An intelligent man didn’t know everything, he simply knew how to look everything up quickly and efficiently.
There was a knock at the door, and he said, “Come in.” The door opened, and Tiana walked in, hesitantly. The elf closed the door from the outside, leaving them alone.
Ruddygore settled back in his chair and she stood in front of his desk. He didn’t offer her a seat because he knew, particularly now, that she could not do so alone in his presence.
“I am really sorry,” he began. “I was preoccupied. I’d spent all that time with the djinn, which is an unnerving experience for anyone, then the quick hustle out, and all those loose ends to attend to—I should have thought to safeguard you before you returned.”
“My lord, it is not anyone’s fault but mine,” she responded. “My ego blinded me. Even so, with this build I could hardly have been an Amazon warrior. Joe belongs out and free to do what he does best. Given this body, there is nothing much else I could have become when I chose to go with him.”
“But you still had the romantic view of it all, didn’t you? It is only now, when all the strings are finally tied, that you realize all the implications of it, and it is very hard on you.”
“Yes, my lord. Very hard.”
“You do know why the system exists here. I know you do. I ran into an Earth phrase that catches the very essence of life: ‘There is no such thing as a free meal.’ Somebody always pays. You live in a hot climate, you have bugs upon bugs and tropical diseases. You live in a house and you have high costs. Live in a flat and you have horrible and noisy neighbors. Every positive has negatives. To be in the upper classes means to be virtual prisoners, unable to see and do anything you really wish, dressing thus and so, attending this and so, and having a totally regulated life. If everyone were rich and nobody had to work, there’d soon be no one to maintain the roads, guard the wealth, build the buildings and tear them down, cook the food, grow and crush and age the wine, and so on. Money is meaningless in itself. It gains its meaning from the blood, sweat, and toil, the labor, materials, services, and skills that it took to get us things.”
“Yes, my lord. I understand this.”
“Earth has a dynamic system, ours is relatively static. The Rules and the laws under them guarantee inequality without much change, but we accept it as the price for the meal. Here, no one is involuntarily unemployed or homeless against his or her will. Here the system provides the basics to everyone, and in the process we have rid ourselves of many of the social tensions, the hatreds, prejudices, and fears, that bring out the worst in Earth society. That was built-in the moment the Founders decided upon the supremacy of magic over technology. Tell me—did you mink slavery was so bad, so evil, when you were on the other side of it?”
“In truth I did not, my lord. Not really.” It is not dishonorable… “But also, in truth, I did not wish ever to become one.”
“Well you are and you will probably remain one. In a sense, you’re lucky. Your master is your husband, if not in law, then in fact; and, since you both still bear the infection of the were, you at least get to be somebody and something else every full moon. You may be the only slave who gets three days off a month.”
“I know,” she said quickly. “But it is the other twenty-seven days that I dread.”
“It’s still driving you nuts.”
“Yes. Some of it, anyway. The fact that I could not even eat a meal with all of you, or that he is no longer my husband nor I his wife. Even the common women have some sort of lives of their own. We met one with a cafe, and there are others who do other things, even help plant the fields. A slave, on the other hand, exists only to serve a master. It is my sole activity and interest. To serve him. When he was short of money, I did not hesitate to sneak away and sell my body to two crude and filthy men I chanced upon. On my own—but to serve him. And not just him. It was all I could do to keep from jumping up and doing the dishes in the kitchen.”
“That’s what a slave does. It’s not like slaves of war or conquest. I could, however, make it easier on you. Easier for you to adjust to and accept this.”
“Yes, my lord, but I—I don’t know. If that were to happen, the last of me would be gone, like the last of him finally went when he was the nymph. And I fear, too, the loss of whatever love or affection he still feels for me.”
“Oh, it wouldn’t be like that. You’d still be you. You just wouldn’t be in as much agony. It would be a little thing to help you and to help him. If he loves you now, it wouldn’t change. But it might make it easier on him, too. He feels for your situation. I see that he does. And the both of you may have to go into some danger ahead. If that happens, I want you unhesitatingly at his side.”
He got up and came around the desk and stood in front of her. His enormity made her seem and feel even smaller than she was.
“Are you willing?”
“I—I guess so. We’ve always trusted you.”
“Do so now. Just clear your mind, relax, and do not resist me.” He waited a moment, then put his huge hand on her forehead and the top of her head. She swayed, then he let go and she caught her balance, blinked, and frowned. “I—I do not feel any different.”
“You won’t,” he told her. “But you’ll sleep better and worry less. Now go, and my man will show you where your quarters are. You can get unpacked and get things ready. We’ll have a busy time coming up.”
She bent a knee and bowed slightly. “Thank you, my lord.”
The door opened, although he hadn’t given a signal, and the elf in livery was there to take her away. “See that the boy is kept amused and bring up the mercenary,” he called to the elf, who nodded and shut the door.