"No, Master," I said. "No!"
"It is a long time since you tortured me as a free man," he said.
"Forgive me, Master," I begged.
"Doubtless you have been less successful at that sort of thing since being collared."
"Yes, Master," I sobbed. I was now a slave.
He spun me about, rudely, and thrust me towards the door. "What are you going to do with me?" I sobbed.
"I will see that you safely reach the slave quarters of your master, Miles of Argentum," he said.
"I was not the Tatrix of Corcyrus!" I said.
"Tonight," said he, grimly, "a determination will be made on that matter."
"Yes, Master," I sobbed.
33
The Inquiry;
The Outcome of the Inquiry;
I am the Slave of Miles of Argentum
The dancers had now scurried away with a jangle of bells. The musicians were quiet. The floor, between the tables, was cleared. The feast slaves had drawn back, behind the tables. At these tables were Claudius, the Ubar of Argentum, and members of the high council. There were numerous other dignitaries there, as well, both from Argentum and from other cities. Miles of Argentum was there, and Drusus Rencius, and Ligurious. Interestingly enough, Aemilianus of Ar, who had once been my master, was there, and Publius, who had been the house master in the house of Kliomenes, in Corcyrus. Hassan, the Slave Hunter, I noted, however, was not present. Toward the back of the room, at one of the lesser tables, there was a hooded guest, a medium-sized man. I did not know who it might be. He was much too small to be Hassan. I was naked, in slave chains, behind a beaded curtain. I would be produced when Miles of Argentum, my master, wished it. Because of my proximity to the narrow, linear spaces between the beading, I had little difficulty in seeing well into the hall. The guests, on the other hand, given the closeness of the beading and their greater distance from it, could detect my presence there only with difficulty, and, even then, presumably, they would be able to tell little other than the fact that the individual there, as might be discerned from the vaguely detectable form, was a stripped or scantily clad female, probably a slave.
"It is now time," said Claudius, the Ubar of Argentum, "to come to the major business of the evening. Let the golden sack be brought forth."
Two soldiers, from a side room, dragged the golden sack across the floor and put it before the central table, that table where sat Claudius, the members of the high council and other significant guests. At this table, too, sat Ligurious, Miles of Argentum and Drusus Rencius.
"This feast," said Claudius, "is one of victory, one of triumph. Months ago the unprovoked aggression of Corcyrus, seeking the silver of Argentum, was repelled. Further, to ensure our security, and to prevent a repetition of this form of aggression, we fought our way to, and through, the gate of Corcyrus itself. There, abetted by the people of that city, we defeated the forces of the Tatrix of Corcyrus and overthrew her tyrannous regime."
There was Gorean applause at this point, the striking of the left shoulder with the palm of the hand. Even Ligurious, I noted, politely joined in the applause.
"The ties of Corcyrus with Cos have now been severed," said Claudius. "She, now, like Argentum, is a free ally of glorious Ar."
Here there was more applause.
"And fortunate is this for her," said Claudius, "for Ar, as she has demonstrated, stands by her allies!"
Again there was applause.
"As her allies stand by her!" he added.
There was more applause.
Ar, of course, had substantial land forces. She had, doubtless, the largest and best-trained infantry in known Gor. The land forces of Cos, on the other hand, were probably not superior to those of a number of Gorean states, even much smaller in their populations than the island Ubarate. These balances tended to be reversed dramatically in sea power. Cos had one of the most powerful fleets on Gor. The sea power of Ar, on the other hand, was negligible. It consisted largely of a number of ships on the Vosk River, largely wharfed at Ar's Station.
"The villainess in this matter, the culprit, the instigator of these hostilities, was Sheila, the cruel and wicked Tatrix of Corcyrus."
"Yes, yes!" cried several men.
"She was captured in Corcyrus but, en route to Argentum, escaped. A great search was organized and conducted. A handsome reward was posted. Still, for months she eluded us. Then Hassan, the Slave Hunter, he of Kasra, consented to take up her trail. Her days of freedom were then numbered. In Ar, not two weeks ago, she fell to his bracelets."
There was applause.
"He then saw fit to bring her to us in his own inimitable fashion, in a wagon, like a common girl, tied naked in a slave sack."
There was laughter.
"This time," laughed Claudius, "she did not escape!"
There was more laughter. I saw Ligurious smile.
"It is now time," said Claudius, "to have Sheila, the former Tatrix of Corcyrus, presented before her conquerors, to await their pleasure!"
There was applause.
"Ligurious," said Claudius, turning to him.
Ligurious rose, and walked about the table, to stand before it, and near the sack.
"Many of you know me," said Ligurious, "if only by reputation, as the former first minister of Corcyrus. What many of you may not know is that I was also the secret leader of the resistance in Corcyrus to the rule of Sheila, the Tatrix. For months within her very government I strove to dissuade her from endeavors hostile to the great state of Argentum. I attempted to assert a persistent influence in the directions of harmony and peace. Alas, my efforts were frustrated, my counsels were ignored. The best that I could hope for was to prepare the way for the victorious forces of Argentum, which I managed to do. You may recall the ease with which you took the city, once the great gate was breached."
Drusus Rencius was smiling.
"In this time, of course, I was often in close converse with the Tatrix. In my efforts to convince her of the futility and madness of her policies I was in almost constant proximity to her. I think it may well be said that there is no man on Gor better qualified than I to recognize her, or to identify her for you."
"Thank you, noble Ligurious," said Claudius. "Now," said he, "let Sheila's captor, the noble Hassan, of Kasra, have the honor of presenting her before us, that she may await our pleasure."
It was quiet.
Men looked about.
"Where is Hassan?" asked Claudius.
"He is not here," said a man.
Ligurious looked down, smiling.
Claudius shrugged. "He is perhaps indisposed," he said. "Let the sack be opened!"
Ligurious looked about himself, pleased. He scarcely bothered to note the opening of the sack, and the drawing forth of its helpless, gagged, bound, stripped occupant. She was knelt then, bound hand and foot, naked and gagged, before Claudius and the council.
Ligurious looked about. "Yes," he said, "I know her well. There is no doubt about it." He pointed at the kneeling figure, dramatically, but scarcely looking at her, directing his attention more to the audience. "Yes," he said, "that is she! That is the infamous Tatrix of Corcyrus!"
She uttered wild, tiny, desperate, muted sounds, shaking her head wildly. How well Goreans gag their prisoners and slaves, I thought.
"Do not attempt to deny it, Sheila," said he, scarcely noting her. "You have been perfectly and definitively identified."
She continued to make tiny, desperate, pleading noises. She continued to shake her head, wildly. Tears flowed from her eyes.
Ligurious then, perhaps curious, regarded her closely. Even then, for a time, I do not think he recognized her. I think this was because of our very close resemblance, and, too, perhaps, because he found it almost impossible to believe that I was not the woman who had been drawn forth from the sack, who now knelt helplessly before Claudius and the council. Then, suddenly, he turned white. "Wait!" he cried. He crouched down, then, and took the woman's head in his hands. Her
eyes looked at him wildly, filled with tears. "No!" he cried, suddenly. "No! This is not she!"
"I thought," said Claudius, "that you identified her as Sheila, perfectly and definitively."
"No, no!" said Ligurious. He was shaking. There was sweat on his forehead. "I made a mistake! This is not she!"
"Then where is she?" asked Claudius, angrily.
"I do not know!" said Ligurious, looking wildly about.
"Hassan, of Kasra!" called the feast master, from near the door, announcing the arrival of Hassan in the hall.
"I am sorry I am late," said Hassan. "I was temporarily detained. I was attacked by two men. They are now outside my quarters, where I put them, tied back to back. Their arms and legs are broken."
"See that the assailants of Hassan are taken into custody, and attended to," said Claudius.
"Yes, Ubar," said two soldiers, and swiftly left the room.
I saw Sheila, at the appearance of Hassan in the hall, immediately put her head down to the tiles. Hassan trained his women perfectly.
"Is this the woman you captured in Ar?" asked Claudius, pointing to Sheila.
Hassan walked over to her, pulled her head up by the hair, and then, holding her by the arms, put her to her belly, and then turned her from one side to the other, examining her body for tiny marks.
"Yes," he said, "this is she."
The Gorean master commonly knows the bodies of his women. They are, after all, not independent contractual partners, who may simply walk away, but treasured possessions. They receive, accordingly, careful attention. Many women, indeed, are never truly looked at by a man until after they are owned.
The proprietary attention that men pay to their properties and the pleasure they take in them are matters of common knowledge.
This is no less the case with a lovely female than with a fine kaiila or a good sleen.
He then put Sheila again on her knees before the council.
"Do you believe her to be the Tatrix of Corcyrus?" asked Claudius.
"I believe that she was the Tatrix of Corcyrus," said Hassan, "yes."
"He has never seen her!" shouted Ligurious.
"She was identified by sleen," said Hassan.
"But from false clothing!" cried Ligurious. "She is not the true Tatrix of Corcyrus! But the true Tatrix of Corcyrus is here, somewhere! I am sure of it!"
"How do you know?" asked Claudius.
Ligurious looked down, confused. He could not very well inform the assemblage of the exchange he had attempted to effect earlier in the throne room. "I have seen her here in the palace, somewhere about," he said quickly. "It was she whom I thought was to be withdrawn from the sack."
"My Ubar," said Miles of Argentum, rising to his feet, "reluctant as I am to agree with the former first minister of Corcyrus, and doubtless one of the finest liars on Gor, I think it not impossible that he may have seen Sheila about in the palace, perhaps on her hands and knees scrubbing tiles in a corridor, the type of task to which it has amused me to set her."
Men looked about, wildly, at one another.
"With your permission, my Ubar," said Miles of Argentum. Then, suddenly, sharply, he struck his hands together twice. "Sheila!" he snapped. "Forth!"
Startled, frightened, I parted the beaded curtain with my chained hands and, with the small, measured, graceful steps of a woman whose ankles are chained, hurried to him. I knelt on the tiles before the table, before his place, my head down.
"Lift your head," he said.
I heard cries of astonishment.
"Go, kneel beside the other woman," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said.
"There," cried Ligurious in triumph, "that is the true Sheila, the true Tatrix of Corcyrus!"
"Do you not think you should examine her somewhat more closely?" asked Drusus Rencius.
Ligurious threw him a look of hatred and then came closer to me. He made a pretense of subjecting me to careful scrutiny. Then he said, "Yes, that is the true Sheila."
"Let them be identically chained," said Claudius.
Miles of Argentum gestured to an officer. He had apparently anticipated this request.
In moments Sheila, freed of the gag and cords, wore chains. We now knelt naked and identically chained, side by side, before Claudius, the Ubar of Argentum. Each of us had our wrists separated by some eighteen inches of chain. Each of us, too, had our ankles separated by a similar length of chain, only a little longer. Another chain, on each of us, ran from the center of our wrist chain to the center of our ankle chain. This central, or middle, chain was about three and a half feet in length.
"It is a remarkable resemblance," said Claudius, wonderingly.
"They could be twins," said a man.
"You can tell them apart," said a man. "One has shorter hair."
"That is not important," said another.
"There are other differences, too," said a man, "subtle differences, but real differences."
"Yes," said the man, "I see them now." That was he who had suggested that we might be twins. Had we been twins we, at least, would not have been identical twins. Fraternal twins, separate-egg twins, two boys, two girls, or a boy and a girl, are not likely to resemble one another any more closely than normal siblings, except, of course, in age.
"If you did not see them together, however," said a man, "it would be extremely difficult to tell them apart."
"Yes," said another.
"I submit, my Ubar," said Miles of Argentum, "that the woman on your left, she with the shorter hair, is she before whom I appeared in Corcyrus, when I brought, at your request, the scrolls of protest to that city."
"Are you certain?" asked Claudius.
"Yes," said Ligurious. "That is true. She is Sheila, the former Tatrix of Corcyrus."
"That is not the one whom the sleen selected," said Hassan.
"I have witnesses who will identify her," said Miles. "I myself am the first such witness. She is Sheila, the Tatrix of Corcyrus."
"How do you know?" asked Drusus Rencius, rising to his feet.
I was startled. How dared he speak?
"The captain from Ar is out of order," said Claudius.
"Please let him speak, noble Claudius," said Miles.
"Is it your intention to speak on behalf of the shorter-haired slave?" asked Claudius.
"Yes," said Drusus Rencius.
There were cries of astonishment in the banquet hall. Even the feast slaves, in the back, girls such as Claudia, Crystal, Tupa and Emily, looked wildly at one another. I moved in my chains. I was thrilled.
"You may do so," said Claudius.
"My thanks, Ubar," said Drusus Rencius.
"Is it your intention to jeopardize our friendship, old comrade in arms?" inquired Miles of Argentum.
"That is no friendship, beloved Miles," said Drusus Rencius, "which can be jeopardized by truth."
"That is the woman whom I saw in Corcyrus when I carried there the scrolls of Argentum," said Miles, pointing to me. "That is she who was on the throne. That is she whom I captured after the fall of the city. That is she whom I had locked in the golden cage!"
"I do not dispute that," said Drusus Rencius.
"You grant, then, my case," said Miles.
"No," said Drusus Rencius. "I do not dispute that you saw her in Corcyrus, that you later captured her, that you had her placed in a golden cage, and such things. What I dispute is that she was the Tatrix of Corcyrus."
"The captain from Ar," said Miles, "has apparently taken leave of his senses. He is being foolish. Would he have us believe that the true Tatrix was off somewhere, polishing her nails perhaps, while someone else was conducting the business of state in her place?"
There was laughter. Drusus Rencius clenched his fists. He was a Gorean warrior. He did not take lightly to being mocked and chided in this fashion.
"My second witness," said Miles of Argentum, "is the woman who served her intimately in her own quarters, who bathed her and clothed her, and combed her hair, w
ho was to her as her own personal serving slave, now one of my own slaves, Susan."
Susan was summoned forward. How exquisite and beautiful, and well displayed she was, in the trim, tiny tunic that was the uniform of the girls of Miles of Argentum. We now wore the same collar. He owned us both.
She knelt before him, his.
"Is that the woman whom you served in Corcyrus?" Miles asked her, pointing to me.
Susan came over to me. "Forgive me, Mistress," she said.
"Do not call me Mistress, Susan," I said. "I am now as much a slave as you."
"Yes, Mistress," she said.
"Is that the woman whom you served?" asked Miles.
"It is, Master," she said.
The members of the high council and many of the guests looked about at one another, nodding.
"As this girl is the property of Miles of Argentum," said Claudius to Drusus Rencius, "you may move that her testimony be discounted or be retaken, under torture."
In Gorean courts the testimony of slaves is commonly taken under torture.
Drusus Rencius looked across the room to Miles of Argentum.
"I will withdraw her testimony," said Miles of Argentum. "If she is to be tortured, it will be at my will and not that of a court. In this, however, I make no implicit concession. I maintain that the truth which she would cry out under torture would be no different from that which you have already heard freely spoken."
"Well done, Drusus Rencius," said a man, admiringly.
I saw that Miles of Argentum did not wish to have Susan subjected to judicial torture, perhaps tormented and torn on the rack, even though it might validate her testimony and strengthen his case. But she was only a slave! Could it be he cared for her? I suspected it was true. I suspected that the little beauty from Cincinnati, Ohio, in his collar, had become special to him, that she was now to him perhaps even a love slave.
"I do not ask that her testimony be discounted or withdrawn," said Drusus Rencius, "only that it be clearly understood."
There were cries of astonishment from those about the tables.
"Susan," said Drusus Rencius.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Do you think this woman is wicked?" he asked.
Kajira of Gor Page 45