"Lavinia!" he cried, in fury.
"Recently purchased," I said.
"The lewd little baggage!" he said.
"A fellow, whom I gather from others is your slave," I said, "has apparently seduced her."
"Impossible!" he said.
"You know this Lavinia?" I asked.
"I am sure it is the one!" he said. "I should have sold her out of the city as a pot girl months ago!"
"They have apparently been seeing one another," I said. That was true enough, of course, as Lavinia, in the garment resembling that of a state slave, and in what seemed to be a state collar, had been in contact several times with the slave, carrying verbal messages, and arranging the details of the putative assignation of this morning. Too, of course, she had been similarly in contact with the Ubara, only in that role, of course, in a collar purporting to be that of the house of Appanius.
"I cannot believe that!" said Appanius, angrily.
"Why are you here?" I asked.
"You!" he cried. "It was you who sent me the message of this morning?"
"Yes," I said. "I have followed him. They meet somewhere around here. I am not sure where."
"If this is true," cried Appanius, "I know where!"
"Your slave should be disciplined," I said.
"It is your slave who should be disciplined!" he said. "Mine is innocent!"
"Mine is only a female slave," I said.
"Only a female slave! Only a female slave!" he exclaimed. "That is exactly it! She is a female slave! They are all the same. They all have hot little bellies and can't help themselves. They are always licking and kissing and begging! And that Lavinia is one of the worst! She is a seductrix, I tell you. They are all seductrices!"
"I have heard that it is your slave who is a seduction slave!" I said.
"Who has said that?" he cried.
"I have heard it said secretly in the city," I said.
"It is false!" he said. "False!"
"Nonetheless," I said, "it is your slave who is at fault."
"No," he said. "I know your Lavinia. It is she, the lewd little baggage, who is at fault!"
"She is only a female," I said.
"But a female slave!" he said. "Whip them and chain them, I say! Keep them in the kitchens and laundries, in the fields, put to labors as is fit for the little beasts! Keep them from honest men! Let honest men be protected!"
"At any rate," I said, "it seems they have been seeing one another."
"It cannot be!" he said.
"Your slave, it seems, has been carrying on a shameless affair with her."
"That cannot be," he said.
"I have seen him," I said. "He is a big, handsome fellow. Why could it not be?"
"He would not betray me!" he said.
"I do not understand," I said.
"I trust your little slut is on slave wine," he said.
"Of course," I said. "I have not chosen, at least as yet, to have her mated."
"You should keep her shackled," he said.
"To protect her from your slave?" I asked.
"Do you know who my slave is?" he asked.
"He is known in Ar?" I asked.
"Somewhat," said Appanius.
"I am not from Ar," I said.
"I gathered that," he said. "Were you from Ar you would know that a slave of my slave's quality could not be interested in the least in a meaningless little pot girl."
"You are sure of it?" I asked.
"Certainly," he said.
"Yet you have come here, with men," I said.
"That his innocence may be proved," he said.
"Is that why your men carry staffs and chains?" I asked.
"You are an insolent, surly fellow!" he cried.
"Beware, Appanius," said one of his retainers. "He is of the police."
"We could make a clear determination on this matter," I said, "if we could only locate them."
"You do not know where your slave is," he said, scornfully.
"How should I know where she is?" I asked.
"If you kept her at home in close chains, so she could hardly wriggle, and fastened to a ring, you would know," he said.
"And so, too," said I, "you would know the location of yours, if you had kept him in his cell!"
"It was your mistake," he said, "to let a slut like Lavinia off her chain!"
"What of you," I asked, "letting your fellow wander about Ar like a vulo cock?"
"My slave is innocent, honest and trustworthy!" he said.
"And that is why you have brought men, and staffs and chains?" I asked.
"Sleen!" cried Appanius.
"Caution, Appanius," said one of his retainers. He was not unaware, as apparently was his employer, of Marcus, behind them, his hand on his sword. Marcus, I conjectured, could probably cut through the neck vertebrae of two of them before they could break. Also he could probably apprehend at least one of them, assuming they started off in different directions, as would be in their best interest. I, on the other hand, might hope to catch up to the other one, after dropping Appanius where he stood. If I had had to wager on the matter I did not think any of them would escape. The staff, except in the hands of an expert, is not a weapon to put against the blade.
"At any rate," I said, "I trailed Lavinia to this area, and I saw your slave about, too, and then, somehow, it seemed they disappeared."
"You did not actually see them together?" he asked.
"No," I said.
"Then they are not together!" he said.
"I am sure they are together," I said.
"No!" he said.
"It seems both just disappeared," I said.
"Do you not think they might not be, separately, of course, in nearby buildings?" asked Appanius.
"How could that be?" I asked. "Slaves do not just walk into buildings without some business there. Too, folks do not just welcome strange slaves into their houses, greeting them and inviting them to share their kettles. And I would assume they had no money to bribe free persons for a room, for their clandestine rendezvous. Certainly Lavinia had no money."
"Have you counted your coins lately?" asked Appanius.
"Have you counted yours?" I asked.
"My slave has spending money," he said.
"Then they could be anywhere," I said, angrily.
"No," he said. "He is too well known."
"Where then?" I asked.
"There is only one place!" he said.
His retainers exchanged glances, and nodded.
"Where is that?" I asked. To be sure, we were within ten yards of it, though of its front entrance, not its back entrance.
"That is," said Appanius, "there is only one place where my slave might be. I do not know where your slave is. She, the baggage, the chit, the tart, the wench, the use girl, might be slutting about anywhere, clutching at someone in a doorway, writhing on a discarded mat, squirming in an alley behind garbage containers, moaning in a dark corridor, who knows?"
"I wager," said I, "that if we locate your slave we will also locate mine."
"I know where mine would be," said Appanius, defensively. "He has gone to a place where he may study his lines in privacy."
"His lines?" I asked.
"He is an actor," said Appanius.
"Well," I said, "if he is currently studying lines, I have little doubt that they are those of my Lavinia."
"Sleen!" said Appanius. The fellows with him shifted, restlessly. Two of them glanced back uneasily at Marcus, much as they might have at a larl behind them.
"I think they are together," I said.
"No!" said Appanius. "That could not be!"
I shrugged.
"Follow me!" he said. He started for the street entrance of the room.
I trusted that Lavinia would have time to throw off her cloak and get at the disrobing loop on her tunic before the door could be opened. She could then fling her arms about the slave, protesting her love, and such. I had little doubt she could do this b
elievably.
At the street entrance of the room, however, Appanius stopped. It seemed he was considering something. "Open it," I said, "if this is the place." I certainly did not want them sneaking about to the rear entrance and coming on the two slaves without warning. That would not give Lavinia time to disrobe. If they were found yards apart, fully clothed, engaged in exchanging comments on the state of the theater in Ar under Cos, or something, I might as well forget my plans. I strode to the door, and raised my fist, to pound on it, and then, an Ihn or two later, I would kick it in.
"No," whispered Appanius, seizing my hand. We then, I rather disgruntled, stepped back a little, a few feet from the door.
"Yes, Appanius," said one of his retainers. "It would be better to go around to the back. In this fashion one may observe through the observation portals the front room."
"Observation portals?" I said.
"Thus," continued the retainer, softly, suavely, "one need not disturb him while he is reading his lines, as he undoubtedly is, and, more importantly, he will never know of our coming and going. Thus, he will never suspect that you might have been jealous, or ever suspected him of any unwonted treachery."
"'Jealous'?" I asked. "'Treachery'?"
"My thoughts, exactly," said Appanius. The retainer, I saw, was not only a retainer, but an able courtier. Those fellows have a talent for telling important people what they wish to hear. To be sure, such fellows have occasionally been responsible for the downfall of Ubars, and themselves, because of their desire to protect the throne from unwelcome truths. Serenity has reigned in more than one royal residence while a country's borders crumbled. I myself, however, was about ready to strike the fellow. I was plunged into despair.
"Come with me," said Appanius. "Move quietly."
"Of course," I said, through gritted teeth.
I glanced at Marcus.
He smiled.
This made me angry. Did he not realize that my plans might now, in a moment, be set awry?
I turned back, to pound on the door, but he took me firmly by the arm and we followed Appanius and his retainers back down the street, until we turned left, and made our way through an opening between two buildings.
25
Bracelets and Shackles
"So," shrieked Appanius, "this is how you betray me!"
Lavinia had screamed when the net had descended, and the slave with her had cried out in dismay.
An instant or so before I had seen the face of Appanius grow livid with rage at the observation portal and he had seized at the wooden lever and thrown it, dropping the net with its weights over the couch. Almost at the same time, weeping with misery and rage, he had rushed into the front room, his staff raised, followed by his four retainers, all seemingly sharing their employer's wrath and indignation, as befitted such fellows. I myself had not had an opportunity, nor had Marcus, of utilizing the observation portals, of which there were two, the first of which had been commanded by Appanius, and the second by his chief retainer. I had not, accordingly, been able to see what was going on in the front room.
Almost instantly however I, Marcus behind me, had rushed to the front room.
There, clinging together, terrified, helpless, entrapped in the toils of the net, threatened by the staffs of Appanius and his retainers, were the slave and Lavinia.
"Treacherous, treacherous slave!" wept Appanius.
I saw the two slaves within the heavy toils of the net, the reticulated pattern of cords close about them. He kept his arms about her. Both were naked.
"Treacherous slave!" screamed Appanius.
Marcus looked at me, and grinned. He was not surprised at this. I, on the other hand, was. It had been my anticipation that Lavinia would have to do all this by herself, get her clothing off and cling to him, presumably by the door, he fully clothed, and hope to convince Appanius that their presence together was by mutual arrangement, and indicative of mutual interest and desire. On the other hand, I found her in the center of the room, on the couch itself, in his arms. Saving for being on a couch instead of on furs on the floor she might have been any alcove slut in a paga tavern. The short cloak and tunic had been discarded to the side. There was no sign that either had been hastily removed. The cloak had apparently been slipped off, and dropped behind her, to reveal her shoulders and tunic. The position of her tunic suggested she had dropped it, doubtless by means of the disrobing loop, about her ankles, and then stepped from it. I suspected she had then entered his arms, and that he had then, a little later, lifted her up and carried her to the couch.
"You have betrayed me!" wept Appanius.
Marcus looked at me, puzzled. I shrugged. If I had been wrong about one thing, it seemed to me only fair that Marcus might be wrong about another.
"Traitorous slave!" wept Appanius.
Lavinia's body was a mass of contradictory colorations. Apparently but moments before it had been red with excitement, love and yielding, and had then, in the sudden surprise and shame of her discovery, flushed scarlet, blushing literally from head to toe, and then, almost instantly later, in the tumult, had begun in terror to drain of color, she suddenly realizing that she was now a discovered slave, a vulnerable, caught girl, apprehended in a situation of great compromise by a man such as Appanius, her former master. Once before, as I understood it, for so little as timidly touching a certain slave she had been sent to the fields. Now she had been discovered naked in his arms.
"How could you have done this to me?" wailed Appanius.
Lavinia's nipples were still erected. They were very lovely.
"How could you do this to me?" begged Appanius.
The male slave did not respond to these questions.
I thought that Lavinia was exquisite, naked, collared, in the net. I had once told her she could make a rock sizzle. Surely that was true.
"How! How!" demanded Appanius.
Lavinia was very exciting in the net. I felt like pulling her out and using her myself.
"Surely it is not hard to understand," said Marcus. "She is very pretty."
I did not think that this was a judicious remark on his part, but then who am I to judge?
"Master, no, Master!" cried the male slave.
Appanius then, with a cry of rage, seizing his staff with both hands, struck down with it, smiting the male slave on the shoulder. He then, again and again, struck him, about the back and shoulders.
The female slave began to sob and it seemed she would try, within the net, to put her body between that of the male slave and the lashing staff, but he turned her, forcibly, away from the staff, holding himself over her, sheltering her. I found this of interest. Seven or eight times the slave received heavy blows from the staff. In a moment there were long, dark welts on his body. These were the only marks on his body. I gathered he might have been a pampered slave. Appanius then seemed to realize that he was sheltering the girl and, angered by this, he rushed about, to strike, too, at her, but, again, the fellow turned, in the net, sheltering her. "No!" he said. As Appanius, crying out again with rage, again attempted to circle about, so that he could strike the girl, the fellow became tangled in the net and could no longer protect her. "It is my fault!" he cried. "I am to blame!" he cried. "Do not strike her!" he begged. Appanius, then, in fury, jabbed at Lavinia, and she cried out, hurt. "No!" wept the fellow. "Do not hurt her!" Appanius drew back the staff again to thrust at Lavinia, but then I managed to get my hands on it, and held it back, away from the slaves. Appanius could not wrest it from my hands. He sobbed with frustration. His retainers neither used their staffs to punish the two slaves nor came to the assistance of their employer. I think this might have been because of their sensing the mood of Marcus, that he was more than ready to spill blood. Indeed, although they would not know this, it was even his plan to leave the city this evening. "You see," I said to Appanius, "I was right."
"She seduced him!" screamed Appanius.
"Nonsense," I said, though to be sure a candid observer might have admi
tted that there might be some sense to Appanius' asseveration.
"Appanius!" said the male slave.
"Do not dare speak my name to me," he wept, "slave!"
"Forgive me, Master!" said the slave.
I released the staff of Appanius, as the slave had dared to address the master by the master's name. To be sure, he might have become accustomed to doing so in the past but that was no excuse for permitting such boldness in the future. It was time the slave learned his condition, and was taken in hand.
Five times then the master struck the slave, and tears pressed from between the eyelids of the punished slave.
"Please, Master," wept Lavinia, "do not let him so strike him!"
"Did you not hear?" I asked. "He used the master's name to him. He is to be beaten as an errant slave."
"Master!" she wept.
"Be silent, slave girl," I said.
"Yes, Master," she wept.
Twice more the staff fell on the male slave, who now shuddered in the net.
Appanius, too, interestingly, was weeping. He then raised his staff against Lavinia.
I held the staff. "No," I said. "Her discipline is mine."
"I should have sent her out of the city on the first night I owned her," he said, "after having cut off her ears and nose."
Lavinia shuddered in the arms of the male slave.
"She is not yours," I said. "She is mine."
"Seductrix!" he said to her.
She made herself as small as she could, in the net.
"If you had listened carefully," I said, "you would have heard your slave admit his guilt in this matter. Clearly he turned the head of my little Lavinia."
"Look at her!" cried Appanius. "See the sleek, curvaceous little thing, naked, in her collar! Do you truly think she is guiltless in this matter?"
"Perhaps she is a little to blame, or, at any rate, her wanton, owned slave curves."
"Look there," said Appanius. "See the wine, the sweets, on the table, there, beside the couch! Do you doubt that this has been arranged?"
"That is an interesting point," I said.
"Slut!" said Appanius.
"Yes, Master!" she said.
"These things," he said, "or the moneys with which they were purchased, did they come from the resources of your master?"
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