by John Norman
Aemilianus laughed.
The results of this investigation, I gathered, might prove to be inconclusive. We heard the sound of chain and saw the "first of the two females to be fetched forth."
It was she in the improvised hood.
She was led forth, before us, in her small steps, by a hand on her left arm. Then she was sat on the deck, before Aemilianus.
She sat there, hooded. I do not think she was sure, actually, where she was, except that she had presumably been conducted further aft, or if anyone were about.
She sat there for a moment, listening. We were silent.
No longer wore she the leather collar, with its leash. No longer were her hands thonged behind her.
But she was in sirik.
The metal collar was fastened on her throat. From it a long chain, dangled downward. To this chain, near her waist, was attached another chain, terminating at each end with a wrist ring, into which rings her wrists had been placed and locked. At the end of the chain dangling from the collar, to which the wrist-ring was attached, was an ankle-ring chain, terminating at each end with an ankle ring, into which her ankles had been placed and locked. The neck chain was rather long and if she were to stand some of it would have lain upon the deck. The device permits of numerous adjustments. As it was now adjusted, her wrists had some twelve inches of play, her ankles some fourteen inches of play. The smallness of her steps had been a function of the current adjustment of her ankle chaining.
She sat on the deck. She felt the ankle rings and the chain between them, and the neck chain, and then, with each hand, she tried to slip the wrist ring from the opposite wrist. She could not, of course, begin to do so. She was exploring the device. Then she put her hands on the neck chain and moved up it, with her fingers, and pulled it against its staple on the collar. Then she felt the staple, jerked the chain again against it, and convinced herself that it was well secured there. Then she felt, wonderingly, the collar itself. It was well on her, and locked. She seemed puzzled, and frightened.
The device had been only put on her a few moments ago. This was the first time, I gathered, that she had worn slave chains.
She probably had no idea how beautiful she looked in them.
Although she could now reach her hood and gag, given the length of the neck chain, which permitted her to lift her chained wrists to her head, she did not, of course, do so. She would not dare to so much as touch them, let alone remove them. She was not unfamiliar with Gorean disciplines.
"Kneel," said Aemilianus, gently.
Swiftly she knelt.
She began to tremble. The chains made small sounds.
I gathered that she did not know before whom she knelt. Also, interestingly, absurdly, it seemed that she was not altogether sure of her condition and status, obvious though it must be to anyone who looked upon her.
Aemilianus made a small sign to Calliodorus.
"You may put your head to the deck," said Calliodorus.
The girl did so, putting her palms to the deck.
"You may raise it," he said.
She raised her head. She was then kneeling as before, amongst us.
"Free her mouth," said Calliodorus.
I crouched beside the girl and undid the hood and pushed it up, and fastened it then as a half hood on her. In this way the effectiveness of the hood as a blindfold had not been compromised, for even an instant. I then untied the gag strips from the back of her neck, and pulled away the gag. I then, carefully, delicately, removed the mass of sopped wadding from her mouth. I put it on the deck beside her, heavy and sodden, with the rest of the gag. In this way these things were at hand, and her mouth might then, at our convenience, if we wished, be restored swiftly to its former condition of helpless closure. "You are not branded," observed Calliodorus.
"No! No!" she cried eagerly.
"Do you wish to live?" he inquired.
"Yes!" she said, fervently.
"Are you, or have you ever been, a woman of Ar's Station?" he asked. "Yes!" she said.
"How, came it then," he asked, "that you were in bonds on the piers, leashed and thonged, hooded and gagged?"
"An escaping prisoner did such things to me," she said. "Hooded, I was not recognized. Gagged, I could not make my plight known."
"Do you know what happened yesterday on the piers?" he asked.
"I have only a very imperfect understanding of what occurred," she said. "Twice on the piers I fainted, and was unconscious. I was awakened by the kicks of free women and conducted helplessly aboard this vessel."
"What do you think occurred on the piers?" he asked.
"Ships came to the piers," she said, "and I think that many on the piers, including myself, were embarked aboard them."
"Cosian ships?" he said.
"I do not know," she said, miserably. "There were Cosian ships about." "But surely you have learned much since you were brought on board," he said. "I was kept with women," she said, "who were ordered to silence." "What do you think was the fate of the women who brought you on board?" he asked.
"I do not know," she said.
"Do you think they were with you last night, similarly ordered to silence?" "I do not know," she said.
"What have you heard on the ship?" he asked.
"Little," she said. "I have heard men conducting the business of the ship." "Have you perhaps formed some conjectures as to the origins of these men?" "Yes," she said.
"On what basis?" he asked.
"On their speech," she said.
"Their speech?" he asked.
"Their accents," she said.
"Does my speech have an accent?" asked Calliodorus, interested.
"Yes," she said.
"Ah," he said. He, like most people, was not accustomed to thinking of his own speech as having an accent.
"And what is my accent?" he asked.
"I make it out to be Cosian," she whispered.
"And what of the accents of the men?" he asked.
"The same," she said.
"In whose power are you then?" he asked.
"In the power of Cosians!" she said, suddenly, now sure of it.
"You may speak," he said.
"Spare me!" she suddenly begged. "Spare me, noble Cosians!" She clasped her hands together piteously, holding them forth toward Calliodorus and Aemilianus. "Spare me!" she wept. "Take pity on a female!"
The men were silent, observant.
Their silence must have been disconcerting to the girl. She indicated her beauty, as she could, with her chained hands.
"I think that I am not unattractive," she said, piteously, desperately. "See? See? And it is my hope that my face, too, should you be pleased to look upon it, may be found not unattractive!"
"Do you seek to interest your captors?" he asked.
"Yes!" she said.
"As a female?" he asked.
"Yes!" she said.
"Say it," said he.
"I seek to interest my captors," she said, "as a female!" "What have you have of us?" he inquired.
"My life!" she wept.
"On what condition?" he asked.
"Any of your election," she said.
"Absolute bondage?" he asked.
"Of course!" she said, unhesitantly.
"Even to Cosians?" he asked.
"Certainly!" she said.
"Why should Cosians accept you as a slave?" he asked.
"Ia€”I do not understand," she faltered.
"Do you think it would be in their interest to accept you as a slave?" he asked. "I do not understand," she said.
"Do you think you would prove to be of any value to them as a slave?" "I would strive desperately to be of value," she said.
"Perhaps you should be bloodied and thrown overboard to river sharks." "No!" she wept.
"Do you think that just any woman can make a satisfactory slave?"
"I do not know," she said, "but I beg the opportunity to try!"
"You would serve Cosians then?" he ask
ed.
"Yes!" she wept.
"Belly," he said.
She slipped to her belly on the deck, her hands up, beneath her shoulders. She lifted herself a little from the deck, lifting her head, still half concealed in hood, to Calliodorus and Aemilianus. Her lips were lovely, and trembling. "Go to your back," said Calliodorus.
She lay on her back.
Suddenly she lifted one knee, and pointed her toes. She had realized then, suddenly, that something was being done to her analogous, in its small way, to putting a girl through slave paces. She tried her best to be appealing. "To your belly, again," said Calliodorus.
He had hardly spoken before she was on her belly, as before. Quick was she, she would show him, to obey.
"Kneel," he said.
She returned to her kneeling position. "Of what are you worthy, female?" he inquired.
"Only to be a slave," she said.
"Speak," he said.
"I beg the inestimable honor and privilege of being made an absolute slave," she said.
"To Cosians?" he asked.
"To any man," she said.
It irritated me that she had spoken as she had to them for it was as if she were not already a slave, and an unconditional, categorical and absolute slave. She had not even addressed the men as "Master." Clearly she suspected, or hoped, and nothing had as yet occurred to gainsay this suspicion or hope, that they did not know she was already a slave, that she had only yesterday spoken self-irreversible words of self-enslavement on the upper battlements. She did not know, of course, that I was also on board.
"Unhood her," said Calliodorus.
I stepped back, so that the slave could not see me.
Then the slave was blinking and crying, and rubbing her eyes with the backs of her fists.
Then, having managed to adjust somewhat to the light, and managing to achieve some grasp of her surroundings, and seeing in the midst of what men she knelt, she looked about herself wildly, in consternation.
"Is this the behavior typical of the women of Ar's Station?" smiled Calliodorus, glancing at Aemilianus.
"Say more simply it is the behavior typical of women," smiled Aemilianus. "Commander," begged the girl.
"You are aboard the Tais, a warship of Port Cos," said Aemilianus. "You have had the honor of conversing with her captain, my former comrade in arms, and friend, Calliodorus."
"Port Cos!" she said.
"Yes," he said.
"That accounts for the accents," she said.
"Precisely," he said.
"It is true," said a man, "her face is not unattractive."
She blushed.
"I understand nothing of what is going on," she said to Aemilianus. "Ten ships of Port Cos, and fifteen others," said Aemilianus, "entered the harbor of Ar's Station yesterday afternoon, shortly before what would presumably have been the last attack of Cos on the piers. These twenty-five ships neutralized what forces of Cos could be brought to bear at that point and succeeded in evacuating the piers."
"Then we are among friends," she said.
"Most of us," said Aemilianus.
"Why am I in chains?" she asked.
"Slave chains," said Aemilianus.
"Why am I in slave chains?" she asked.
"Do you not know?" he asked.
She was silent, wondering feverishly, doubtless, how much he knew.
"My commander can see," she then said, lightly, "that the only collar I wear is a portion of my chaining, and that I am not branded."
I stood rather behind her, my arms folded. My face must have appeared somewhat severe. Certainly I was angry. Though she had not explicitly claimed to be free, it seemed clear that she was hoping to be taken as such.
"Perhaps," she said, "my chains may not be removed, and I may be given suitable raiment, that of a free woman, that I may take a place among my free sisters." She had certainly worded that carefully, I thought. She had not said "my place," which might suggest she had a right to it, but "a place," which was compatible with it merely being a place she took, with or without title, so to speak. "You are on trial," he said.
She looked at him, startled, aghast.
"Or," said he, "if you are a slave, you are being given a small hearing." "I do not understand," she said.
"Perhaps you do," he said.
"On what charges?" she asked.
"The charges, if you are a free woman," he said, "are several, such as the intent to deceive with respect to caste, the jeopardizing of fellow citizenesses by disgarding traditional concealments and modesties, to your own advantage in the event of the taking of the city, for example, going barefoot and baring your calves, and such, and a lack of patriotism, as evidenced by having refused to cut your hair, to supply needed war material to your compatriots." "But you can see, Commander," she said, suddenly lifting her hands to her head, "that my hair has been cut, and shortly, too!" She rubbed her hand over the brush of hair on her head.
"It is our understanding that your hair was shorn only yesterday, and against your will, in a cell in the citadel, by an escaping prisoner."
"Surely you do not believe that, Commander," she said.
"Lady Claudia, the traitress, and an undisputed free woman," he said, "is in our power. Shall she be brought forward to testify as tot he circumstances in which, and the time at which, your hair was shorn?"
"No, Commander," said the girl.
"You do not dispute what I have said then?" he asked.
"No, Commander," she said, defeated.
"It is also believed that you carried much gold with you, in your purse, presumably, again, to improve your chances of persuading victorious Cosians to spare you, resources incidentally much beyond the reach of most women of Ar's Station, thus, again, supplying you with an advantage over them. Is this disputed?"
"No, Commander," she said. She knew, of course, that Lady Claudia could testify as to the presence of the gold in her purse. Indeed, interestingly, although this was not known to the girl, that very gold had been used after the fall of the gate to assist in the escape of Aemilianus and his colleagues to the piers. I had scattered it behind mercenaries, to clear a passage.
"You have not charged me," she said, "with not wearing robes of concealment." "In Ar's Station," he said, "as in Ar, robes of concealment, precisely, are not legally obligatory for free women, no more than the veil. Such things are more a matter of custom. On the other hand, as you know, there are statutes prescribing certain standards of decorum for free women. For example, they may not appear naked in the streets, as may slaves. Indeed, a free woman who appears in public in violation of these standards of decorum, for example, with her arms or legs too much bared, may be made a slave.
"There was no crime then," she said, "in my appearing in public as I did, even though, say, I wore but a single layer and my calves, ankles and feet were bared."
"Whether the degree of your exposure was sufficient to violate the codes of decorum is a subtle point," said Aemilianus, "but I will not press it." "Surely may low-caste girls go about with only as much, or even less, she said. "But you are of the Merchants," said Aemilianus, smiling.
"A low caste!" she said.
I smiled. The Merchants often maintain that they are a high caste, and should, accordingly, be included in the councils of high caste. Now, however, it seemed she was eager to accept that, and stress that, the Merchants was not a high caste. The traditional high castes of Gor are the Initiates, Scribes, Builders, Physicians and Warriors.
"I do not press the point," said Aemilianus.
"And if I dressed in such a manner that my caste would not be clear," she said, "it is no more than many women do upon occasion. Surely such women even reserve the caste robes and colors for such things as formal occasions, and some even for ceremonial functions."
"True," said Aemilianus.
"I do not think then I should be held accountable under the charge of attempting to deceive with respect to caste," she said. "For example, I engaged in no busine
ss under false pretenses, and I never claimed explicitly to be of a caste other than my own." It seemed to me that she did have a point here. The legal problems connected with intent to deceive with respect to caste, of course, problems of the sort which presumably constitute the rationale of the law, usually come up in cases of fraud or impersonation, for example, with someone pretending to be of the Physicians. "And, too," she continued, "if conquering Cosians should have seen fit to take me for a simple, low-caste maid, I see no reason why the laws of Ar's Station should now be exercised against me. What would be the point of that, to protect Cosians from a mistake which they never had the opportunity to make?"
"You hoped by your mode of dress, and such," said Aemilianus, "to conceal that you were of a caste on which vengeances might be visited, and thus to improve your chances of survival."
She tossed her head, and the chain dangling from her collar moved in its staple. "I am not a man," she said. "Indeed, I can barely lift, let alone wield, the weapons of men. I have nothing of their strength. I have nothing of their power. I am other than they. I am a woman. I am something quite different from a man. I think that I am entitled, then, to attempt to secure my survival as best I can, and in my own way."
"In the way of a female?" asked Aemilianus.
"Yes!" she said.
"In doing what you did," he said, "in going barefoot, in baring your calves, in not having your hair shortened, in carrying gold and such, you arrogated to yourself considerable advantages over other women in Ar's Station." "It is every woman for herself," she said. "It is not my fault if other women were not as clever as I. It is not my fault if they did not judiciously bare their bodies, and design themselves clothing such as might appeal to a conquering invader. Too, it is not my fault if they lacked the gold wherewith to sweeten a petition to foes for the collar. Am I to be blamed, too, for being more beautiful than many women of Ar's Station, for I am certain that I am, and for thus having some additional unfair advantage over them?"
"Why did you not donate your hair to the defense of the city?" asked Aemilianus. "I did not want to," she said.
"Why not?"
"It was pretty," she said, angrily.
"And?" he asked.
"I thought I would be more attractive with it," she said, angrily. "I thought if I were captured by Cosians, I would be more likely to be spared, if it was not cut."