Girls hurried forward to serve masters.
I myself drew apart from the group then and went to the door at the side, that leading to one of the private dining areas. I knocked, lightly.
The door opened a crack, and then, fully, as I was admitted. "Welcome, Tarl," said Mincon, my friend from the Genesian Road, and Torcadino, "we have been expecting you."
41 She Will Serve Well
"May I speak?" she asked.
"Yes," I said. I had drawn the curtains behind me.
"You have been gone long," she said.
"Do you object?" I asked.
"No!" she said. "I must wait, patiently!"
I crouched beside her and removed the small chain that ran across her forehead, with the tiny ornament, the pearl droplet, and put it to one side. I then, too, lifted the necklaces from about her neck, putting them, too, to one side.
"You are stripping me for use?" she asked.
"To some extent," I said. I did not have, for example, the key to her anklet, on which the slave bells were located. Too, it can be pleasant to leave such things on a female in her use, bells, bracelets and such, whatever one pleases.
She looked up at me.
"I am going to remove the slave silk," I said.
"If I cry out too much," she whispered, "thrust it in my mouth."
"All right," I said. Sometimes a girl's hair is used for the same, purpose.
I then drew loose the disrobing loop of the silk, at her left shoulder, and drew aside the silk.
"Be pleased," she begged. "Be pleased!" "I am pleased," I said.
"I am ready," she whispered, intensely. I touched her, gently.
"Ai!" she exclaimed.
"You are indeed ready, female," I said.
"Use me," she wept. "Use me now, now!"
"I think, first," I said, "I will caress you a little."
"Please do not touch me now," she said. "Every bit of me is alive. I do not think I can stand it."
"You do not wish to be touched?" I asked.
"Just use me," she begged. "Just use me!"
"No," I said, "I am going to caress you a little."
"Oh!" she said, touched.
She lay back, in the chains, hot, flushed, tremblingly, piteously.
"It will be done with you as I please," I said, "not as you please."
"Yes, my captor," she whimpered. "Oh! Oh!"
"You leap and squirm well," I said.
She looked at me, resentfully. "Oh!" she said.
"See?" I said.
"Yes, my captor!" she exclaimed.
I then let her subside a little. One can always bring them back to where one wants them.
"Aii!" she said. "Please finish with me!"
"Not until I am pleased to do so," I said.
"It will apparently be as you wish, my captor," she moaned.
"Yes," I said.
"Oh," she said. "Oh!"
"Are you helpless?" I asked.
"Yes," she said, "I am helpless, and in bonds, and you are doing with me as you please!"
"Did you ever suppose you would be chained like this, and responding in a paga tavern, as you are?" I asked.
"No," she said. "No!"
"Did you ever dream you could be this helpless, and this hot?" I asked.
"No," she said. "No! No!"
I then, deeming that she well understood her position, put her to the first use.
42 We Will Return to Camp
"See," said Marcus, "what slaughter has been wrought in the alley?"
"What are you doing here?" I asked. I had just emerged with Ina, she now again in the brown, sleeveless, calflength garment, the bracelets, the hood and leash, from the rear entrance of the Jeweled Whip. "Wait," I said.
Marcus stood to the side, in the gray light, in the alley.
"Kneel here," I said to Ina, placing her facing, close to, the back wall of the tavern. "Purse your lips," I said. I then put her even closer to the wall. "There is a wall before you," I said. "You are quite close to it. Now lean forward, carefully, and, keeping your lips pursed, press them against the wall." She then knelt with her lips pressing against the inside of the slave hood, and, through the slave hood, against the wall. I then left her there and drew to one side, to confer with Marcus.
"I followed you, of course," said Marcus, "that I might render you assistance, for clearly you hoped to lure those who sought the female into sword trap."
"My friend," I said, "I had hoped not to involve you."
"That I should have been involved," said he, irritably, "seems to me manifest, if, indeed, I be truly your friend."
"I am sorry," I said. "I did not wish to bring you into danger."
"You accompanied me across the Vosk," he said. "You accompanied me in the works of espionage. You risked your life by waiting for me south of the Cosian camp. Had it not been for me you would not have been apprehended by Saphronicus, and taken into the delta. Yet, you would not then permit me, in turn, to assist you in a work of private war, when you stood in severe jeopardy."
"Do not be angry, my friend," I said. "I meant no diminishment either to our trust or your honor. If an honor has been tarnished here, it is surely mine, not yours."
"What did you expect to do?" he asked.
"In the darkness," I said, "one may fight against many, for he knows that he against whom he sets his sword will be a foe, whereas the many, meanwhile, lightening his work, will fight the many."
"And how many did you expect to encounter?" he asked.
"Four, perhaps five," I said, "those fellows who have been skulking about our camp."
"I have, in the light, this morning," said Marcus, "counted twenty-five bodies."
"Ai!" I said.
"And I think it would be well to depart from this area before guardsmen make their rounds," he said.
"You were following me, to aid in the fight?" I asked.
"Certainly," he said, "if an action ensued."
"Did you realize there were so many?" I asked.
"Yes," he said. "I saw them leave camp, like a swarm of needle flies."
"And yet you came ahead?"
"Of course," he said.
"You are indeed a brave man," I said.
"But my sword," said he, "never left my sheath."
"How did these fellows die?" I asked. I could see, here and there, bodies. The closest was a few yards away, the farthest, in view, more than a hundred yards away.
"Silently," said he, "the last man first, then the second to the last man, and so on, their throats cut."
"That explains why there was so little commotion in the alley," I said.
"You speak as if you know something of this," he said.
"I knew something of this sort had occurred," I said, "but not in this manner, nor to this extent."
"It seems you have allies other than a mere officer of Ar's Station," he said.
"As it turned out," I said.
Marcus regarded me.
"I saw someone yesterday on the Brundisium Road," I said. "He wore a wind scarf but I recognized his slave, and later in the retinue, another slave. I was confident I knew this person. Wishing to speak with him was one reason I came to Brundisium."
"And another was to lure the hunters of Ina into ambush?" he said.
"Yes," I said.
"But you said there were three reasons," he reminded me.
"The third," I said, "had to do with Ina herself, directly. I wished to ascertain certain data with respect to her, data which would presumably be important with respect to her disposition."
"And did you ascertain this data?" he asked.
"Yes," I said, "insofar as such things are possible with a free female."
"Tell me of these allies of yours," he said.
"I will not speak in great detail," I said, "but recognitions on the Brundisium Road were not exclusively my own. He whom I thought I recognized recognized me, as well, though he then gave no sign of it. He sent men back to locate me and invite me to his lodgings. They, however, saw me on the road and, it seems, followed me. Too, it became clear to them soon that I was being followed by others as well, doubtless the men you saw leave the camp."