"We present to you, Master," said one of two slaves, conducting a woman before my table, "a female."
The two slaves then removed their hands from the woman's arms, and deferentially knelt, on either side of the woman, who remained standing.
I indicated that the two slaves might leave and they did so. I then indicated that the woman might kneel, and she did so. There was a tiny, sensuous rustle of bells.
"You are belled," I said.
"Yes!" she whispered.
"Have you seen yourself?" I asked. "Did they show you to yourself?"
"Yes!" she said.
She might have been a paga slave. She had been made up, with slave cosmetics. On her forehead, suspended on a small tiny golden chain, there was a pearl droplet. About her neck, which wore no collar there were wound several necklaces, some dependent upon her even to her belly. On her upper left arm was coiled a serpentine armlet. Her body was ill concealed, clothed, if such be the word, in a bit of open-sided, diaphanous slave silk, suitable for a casual lifting aside. It was a slave garment, and would have well mocked the modesty of even a bond girl. As her thighs were bared, it could easily be seen that there was no brand there. How absurd, how incongruous this seemed! Her thigh seemed to cry out for the brand.
"Have you ever worn slave silk before?" I asked.
"No!" she said. "Of course not!"
"Some free women," I said, "purchase it secretly, and wear it in the privacy of their own compartments, sometimes weeping with need and sleeping at the foot of their own bed."
"How could you know such a thing?" she asked.
"From slavers," I said, "some of whom have caught the women there."
"I wanted to do that," she said, "but I lacked the courage."
"No matter," I said.
" 'No matter'?" she asked.
"No," I said, "A slaver could always put you in it, if he chose."
"Of course," she said.
"How do you like the feel of it on your body?" I asked.
"It is like nothing," she said, "and yet, frighteningly, something."
"Does it stimulate you?" I asked.
"Yes," she said, "terribly so, far more so than I had ever anticipated it could."
"You are very beautiful in it," I said.
"Thank you," she said.
"You will note that it can be easily lifted aside."
"Yes," she said.
"Can you imagine what it would be if it were lifted aside?"
"Yes!" she said. "Every bit of me is alive! Even now my skin is flaming!"
"Do you know the perfume you wear?" I asked.
"It is a slave perfume," she said.
"Yes," I said. It was a heady perfume. It made me wish to reach across the table, seize her, and throw her upon it, and then, there, on that small, smooth, hard surface, put her to my pleasure, ravishing her publicly. "Do you know its name?" I asked.
"No," she whispered. She was, after all, a free woman.
"It is a well-known Cosian perfume," I said, " 'The Chains of Telnus'."
"I see," she whispered.
"Cosian masters sometimes enjoy putting women of Ar, their slaves, in it."
"You speak of it as though it were a collar," she said.
"In a sense, it is," I said.
"I cannot help it," she said. "It, too, like the silk, excites me!"
"That is its intention," said I, "woman of Ar."
"Doubtless there are many slave perfumes," she said.
"Yes," I said, "hundreds."
"I never thought to be put in one," she said.
"But you now are in one," I said.
"Yes," she whispered.
I surveyed her, as a master might have a slave.
"You regard me, boldly," she said.
"Your current appearance calls for candid, detailed perusal," I said.
"As might that of a slave," she said.
"Yes," I said.
On her left ankle was an anklet, locked, on which was affixed a row of tiny slave bells. Her wrists wore bracelets, and two of these, sturdy bracelets, one on each wrist, were locked in place and equipped with snap rings, permitting them to be joined together.
I smiled.
How widely she had spread her knees before me.
"Slave girls did this to me," she said. "They made me up in this fashion. They garbed and adorned me!"
"I ordered you prepared," I said.
"I see," she said.
"You are extremely attractive," I said.
"Thank you," she whispered.
"They did an excellent job with you," I said.
"Take me to an alcove!" she begged. "Please take me to an alcove!"
"The free woman," I inquired, "begs to be taken to an alcove, in a paga tavern?"
"Yes!" she said.
I looked about the main room, carefully. I did not see any of the fellows who had been in the vicinity of the small camp earlier, those who had presumably followed me from the area of the temporary camp to the tavern.
"Yes!" she said.
I pointed to the paga goblet on the table. I had hardly touched it.
Quickly, with a tiny sound of bells, and the small sounds of the necklaces and bracelets, the girl reached for the paga goblet. Then, kneeling there before me, her knees widely, piteously, opened, clad in a bit of slave silk, she kissed and licked deferentially, humbly, at the goblet. Then, head down, her arms extended, she proffered it to me.
I took it from her and barely touched it to my lips. I did not wish, this night, to have my reflexes slowed.
I placed the goblet on the table.
"I have served you," she whispered. "I now wish to serve you further."
"Stand," I said.
Immediately she complied.
I left the paga goblet on the table and put a tarsk bit beside it. I then stood behind her, drew her wrists behind her back, and, by means of the snap rings on the two locked bracelets, fastened them there. I then took her by the upper left arm and conducted her to an alcove, where I thrust aside the leather curtain.
She stood there for a moment, terrified, regarding the small, lamp-lit interior, with its various accouterments and furnishings. Then I flung her to the furs. She turned about, on one side, and then the other, half sunk in the furs, looking about. On the wall to the left, as one entered, were various paraphernalia, in ordered arrangements, cuffs, chains, shackles, whips and such. She sat up in the furs, and, moved back, pushing back, frightened, as far as she could, until she had her back against the back wall. There she looked about herself, as well. To her left and right were two rings, suitable for fastening a woman's hands back and against the wall, should she be either sitting or kneeling, either facing the wall or the curtain. There was a similar pair of rings higher in the back wall to which she might be fastened standing, either facing the wall or curtain. There were several other rings about, too, here and there, mostly on the floor, permitting various arrangements such as the spread-eagling of the slave. There was also a holding ring in the wall to the right, as one entered, about two feet from the floor, probably as a utility in case one wished to have more than one girl in the alcove. On the other hand, there were enough rings about to accommodate more than one without this addition.
"I assume you have never been in an alcove like this before," I said.
"No!" she said.
"In a place such as this," I said, "women strive well to please men."
She looked about herself, frightened.
"Do you doubt it?" I asked.
"No!" she said.
"And would you," I asked, "strive well to please men in such a place?"
"Yes!" she said. "Yes!"