“I am still training her,” said Rurik.
“The whip and switch are useful in such training,” said the fellow.
“This slave lives in terror of both,” said Rurik. “I need only glance at the whip or switch and she strives ever more earnestly to please.”
“Is her training going well?” asked the fellow.
“Quite well,” said Rurik. “She is extremely intelligent, and well aware of the penalties for being found in the least bit displeasing.”
“She bellies, and licks, and kisses well?” said the fellow.
“Of course,” said Rurik.
“By now, she has doubtless felt the Master’s caress,” said the fellow.
“Yes,” said Rurik.
“That changes them,” said the fellow.
“Of course,” said Rurik.
“Women are pleasant in collars,” said the fellow.
“They belong in them,” said Rurik.
“What else are they good for, but to wear a Master’s collar?”
“True,” said Rurik.
“It is interesting how the collar brings a woman so alive, and renders them so needfully helpless.”
“Iron bands are not the strongest of bonds,” said Rurik. “You say you saw the daughters of the kings four days ago?”
“I understand the lamentable disagreements between the Larial Calasalii and the Larial Farnichi have been resolved.”
“Quite,” said Rurik.
“Larial VII is now a Farnichi world?”
“Within the empire, of course,” said Rurik.
“It is said that the Calasalii women now belong to Farnichi Masters.”
“Some, many, not all,” said Rurik. “But it is true that they were put in collars.”
“This slave?” asked the fellow.
“She may have been the last apprehended,” said Rurik.
“But she was of the Calasalii?”
“Yes,” said Rurik.
“It is always pleasant to enslave the women of the enemy, and enjoy them,” said the fellow.
“Yes,” said Rurik.
“My house,” said the turbaned fellow, “had difficulty dealing with the Calasalii.”
“Many did,” said Rurik.
“Perhaps the Farnichi might be easier to deal with.”
“Perhaps,” said Rurik.
“My house,” said the fellow, “is interested in an outlet on Larial VII.”
“Perhaps such might be arranged,” said Rurik. “What of the daughters of the kings?”
“Let us speak to the side,” said the fellow.
Rurik, quite willingly, followed the turbaned fellow to the side of the room.
“My delegation has done well here,” said the turbaned fellow. “We have sold plentifully and reaped much profit.”
“Splendid,” said Rurik. “May my house do as well. Tell me of the daughters of kings.”
“There are two,” said the merchant. “Their names are withheld, and those of the fathers.”
“Strange,” said Rurik.
“Both are young and beautiful,” said the turbaned fellow, “one is blond, and one dark. They were already, when we presented our goods, richly gowned and bejeweled. They seemed discriminating and astute in their judgment of women’s finery. Yet, oddly, they scarcely would bargain. Almost, we could name our own prices. Both seemed subdued, even apprehensive.”
“You do not understand these things?” asked Rurik.
“No,” said the fellow, “and that is why I speak softly, and to the side. Something, I fear, is amiss.”
“My curiosity is aroused, fellow merchant,” said Rurik. “What were their accents?”
“I make them out to be Telnarian,” said the fellow.
“Interesting,” said Rurik.
“They are the daughters of rich merchants, I conjecture,” said the fellow, “merchants who would barter their daughters’ beauty for lucrative trade relations with barbarian nations.”
“Quite possibly,” said Rurik, “but might they not be what, it seems, they are alleged to be, the daughters of kings, presumably barbarian kings, who wish to form alliances with other barbarian kings.”
“The accents?” said the fellow.
“The daughters of many kings are trained in languages, and certainly in imperial Telnarian. It is the common language in Telnaria, and in the provincial worlds, and the common second language in hundreds of border worlds, and many in the high barbarian houses are fluent in the tongue.”
“You are doubtless right,” said the fellow, “but, still, should the times of readying for marriage not be times of eagerness, of anticipation, and joy?”
“One would suppose so,” said Rurik.
“You have not yet been called to present your goods?” asked the fellow.
“It seems we are being held for later,” said Rurik.
“And some others, as well,” said the fellow.
“It seems so,” said Rurik.
“I trust you will make much profit,” said the fellow.
“Thank you,” said Rurik. “We shall hope so.”
“We shall contact Larial VII, to essay a mutually agreeable mercantile arrangement with the house of the Farnichi,” said the fellow.
“Do so, by all means,” said Rurik.
“One last thing causes me uneasiness, with respect to the daughters of the kings,” said the fellow.
“What is that?” asked Rurik.
“It is something I do not understand,” said the fellow.
“What?” said Rurik.
“In the reception chamber, there is a large, heavy metal ring, set in the floor.”
“So?” said Rurik.
“The daughters of the kings are chained to it,” he said, “each, by an ankle.”
53
“I am uneasy,” said Julian. “Why this delay?”
“Others wait, as well,” said Otto, looking about.
In the trading hall, where Julian, Otto, and Tuvo Ausonius waited, with their bolts of cloth and flat, lacquered boxes of jewels, were at least eleven other mercantile delegations, these, too, occupying benches arranged around large display tables.
One would be summoned from the trading hall, used for bulk trading, to the private, more exclusive selling chamber, the reception chamber, provided the preliminary ascertainments of abundance and quality, these made by agents, had been deemed satisfactory. This portion of the business had already been concluded satisfactorily, and our friends, and some others, were now waiting for an opportunity to bring their goods to the attention of buyers, presumably, in this case, the daughters of kings, selecting goods for a trousseau.
“Do you think we are taken seriously as gown-and-jewel merchants?” asked Tuvo Ausonius.
“Why not?” asked Julian.
“You would seem more in place on the bridge of an imperial cruiser,” said Tuvo, “and friend Ottonius might seem more at home on some leaf-strewn path in a dark forest, a bow in hand.”
“Rurik, then,” said Julian. “The house of the Farnichi is a great trading house.”
“Perhaps,” said Tuvo Ausonius.
“He even brought a slave with him,” said Julian.
“Doubtless as an accouterment to his disguise,” said Tuvo.
“Doubtless,” said Julian. “Still, some men are fond of their little beasts, and it is pleasant to have one at one’s feet.”
“I doubt that he would risk a valued slave in our desperate enterprise,” said Tuvo.
“One supposes he would not,” said Julian. “He is of the Farnichi, and the slave, as I understand it, was of the Calasalii. If so, she is fortunate not to have been thrown to dogs or wolves.”
“I know the slave,” said Otto. “Once, when she thought herself free, she tried to kill me.”
“Surely you are mistaken,” said Julian.
“No,” said Otto.
“In any event,” said Julian, “there is little point in worrying about that now, she now in a collar, and well at Rurik’s feet.”
“Do you not remember her, from Tangara?” asked Otto.
“From Tangara?” said Julian.
“From the wilderness camp,” said Otto.
“Surely she is not the one!” said Julian.
“You saw her, briefly,” said Otto.
“Yes!” said Tuvo Ausonius.
“She was soon marked and sold to Heruls,” said Otto.