"Yes, Master," whispered Lavinia.
"See!" said Appanius.
"Yes," I said.
"Forgive me, Master!" said Lavinia to me.
"Do you doubt her guilt now?" asked Appanius.
"No," I said.
"It is I who am wholly guilty," said the male slave.
"He spoke without permission," I said. "Also, in the light of your point, he has lied."
Appanius then, as Lavinia wept, struck the male slave twice more with his staff for speaking without permission, and twice again, for lying.
He moaned in the net, beaten.
"Get him out of the net," said Appanius, angrily, "and chain him."
In a moment the male slave lay on his stomach on the furs, chained, hand and foot. A heavy collar, too, was locked on his neck. To this was attached a chain leash. He was then drawn from the couch and put on his knees, at the feet of his master. Lavinia, still under the net, knelt to one side on the couch. I went to her and extricated her from the net, dropping it to the side. She then, frightened, wide-eyed, knelt near me.
"Master?" she asked, looking up.
"Be silent," I said.
"My Milo, my Milo!" wept Appanius, looking down at the much-beaten slave. "The most beautiful slave in Ar! My beloved slave! My beloved Milo!"
"He has betrayed you," said one of the retainers.
"How could you do it?" asked Appanius. "Have I not been good to you? Have I not been kind? Have you wanted for anything? Have I not given you everything!"
The slave kept his head down. I think he was sick, and I did not much blame him. He had taken a fearful beating. His back and shoulders were covered with welts. I did not think that anything had been broken. I wondered if he had ever been beaten before. Perhaps not. I myself had doubtless been responsible for a few of those blows, but then they had been appropriately administered. His behavior, after all, had contained errors.
"He is an ungrateful slave," said another of the retainers.
"Send him to the fields," said one of the retainers.
"Sell him," said another.
"Make him an example to others," said the first retainer.
"We can find you a better, Appanius," said another.
"One even more beautiful," said one.
"And one with appropriate dispositions," said another.
"And he, too, if you wish, can be trained as an actor and performer," said another.
Marcus looked at me, puzzled. He did not really follow this conversation. I did not react to his look.
"What shall I do with him?" asked Appanius.
"Let all your slaves learn that they are your slaves," said one of the retainers.
"Speak clearly," said Appanius.
"Rid yourself of him," whispered the fellow.
"Yes," said another.
Appanius looked down at the chained slave.
I now had some understanding of the jealousy of the retainers for the slave. The slave had doubtless enjoyed too much power in the house, too much favor with the master. They were eager to bring him down.
"How?" asked Appanius.
"He has been unfaithful to you," said a retainer.
"He has made a fool of you, with a woman," said another.
This remark seemed to have its effect with Appanius.
"If this gets out, you will be a laughing stock in Ar," said another.
I doubted this. It is natural enough for a male slave to have an eye for female slaves, and it is not unusual for a female slave to occasionally, say, find herself taken advantage of by such a fellow. To be sure, it is much more dangerous for a male slave to accost a female slave than for a free man to do so. Unauthorized uses of female slaves are almost always by free men. They have little, or nothing, to fear, for the girls are only slaves. The masters, if they are concerned about such things, may put the girls in the iron belt, particularly if they are sending them on late errands, or into disreputable neighborhoods.
Appanius seemed to be becoming angry.
I looked at the slave. His hands were manacled closely behind his back. The chains on his ankles would hardly permit him to walk. The chain leash dangled to the floor, where it lay in a rough coil.
"So, Milo," said Appanius, "you would make of me a laughing stock?"
"No, Master," said the slave.
"One can well imagine him laughing about how he betrayed you with a woman," said one of the retainers.
"It will be the whip, and close chains for you, Milo!" said Appanius.
"No," said one of the retainers. "Let him serve as an example to all such slaves as he!"
"Yes!" said another retainer.
"Let it be the eels!" said another.
"Yes!" said the fourth.
"No!" screamed Lavinia. "No!" She leaped to her feet and ran to Milo, to kneel beside him, holding him, weeping. She turned then to Appanius. "No, no, please!" she wept. "No! Please!"
I took her by the hair and threw her back, away from Milo, to the floor, where she scrambled to her knees and, tears in her eyes, frantic, regarded us.
Many estates, particularly country estates, have pools in which fish are kept. Some of these pools contain voracious eels, of various sorts, river eels, black eels, the spotted eel, and such, which are Gorean delicacies. Needless to say a bound slave, cast into such a pool, will be eaten alive.
I looked closely at Appanius. He was white-faced. As I had suspected, he was not enthusiastic about this proposal.
"It must be the eels," said the first retainer.
"Nothing less will expunge the blot upon your honor," said another.
"What blot?" said Appanius, suddenly, lightly.
The retainers regarded him, speechless.
"What is it to my honor," asked Appanius, "if I have been betrayed by an ungrateful, worthless slave? It is scarcely worth noting."
"Appanius!" said the first retainer.
"Do you wish to buy a slave?" asked Appanius of me, as though lightly. But I saw that he was desperate in this matter. Indeed, I was touched. His problem was a difficult one. He wanted to save both his honor and the life of the slave. As outraged as he might be, as angry, as terribly hurt as he was, even as sensitive of his honor as I supposed he might be, he was trying to save the slave. I was startled by this. Indeed, it seemed he might care for him, truly. That development I had not anticipated. I had thought that things would have worked out much more simply. I had expected him to be outraged with Milo and be ready, in effect, to kill him, at which point I was prepared to intervene, with a princely offer. If he were rational, and the offer was attractive enough, as it could be, as I had a fortune in gold with me, I could obtain the slave. That is the way I had anticipated things would proceed. If Appanius would not sell Milo, then I could simply keep Appanius, and the others, with the exception of Milo, bound and gagged somewhere, say, in the pantry in the back, and use Milo, still the slave of Appanius, to achieve my objective in a slightly different fashion, one then merely involving two steps rather than one. If he would not sell Milo, certainly he would be willing to sell another, one who might, for a time at least, be too dangerous to acknowledge, too dangerous to free, too dangerous to keep.
"Perhaps," I said.
"I have one for sale," said Appanius.
"No, Appanius!" said the first retainer.
"He is cheap," said Appanius, bitterly.
"How much?" I asked.
"He is the cheapest of the cheap," said Appanius, bitterly.
"Do not sell him, Appanius!" said the first retainer.
"He is the most valuable slave in all Ar!" said another.
"To me," said Appanius, "he is worth less than the lowest pot girl."
"How much do you want?" I asked, warily. I had some forty-five pieces of gold with me.
"He is worthless," said Appanius. "He should be cast away."
"Throw him to the eels, Appanius," whispered the first retainer.
"No," said Appanius, "rather let him know my estimate of h
is worth."
"How much do you want?" I asked.
"A tarsk bit," said Appanius.
The retainers cried out with horror. The slave looked up, startled, trembling. Lavinia gasped.
"A tarsk bit," repeated Appanius.
The slave wept in shame, and jerked at the manacles in frustration. But he could not free himself. Well were his hands confined behind him.
"I think I can afford that," I said.
"That is the most valuable slave in Ar!" said one of the retainers.
"No," said Appanius. "It is the most worthless slave in Ar."
I removed a tarsk bit from my wallet and gave it to Appanius.
"He is yours," said Appanius.
The tarsk bit is the smallest-denomination coin in common circulation in most Gorean cities.
"You do not mind filling out certain pertinent papers, do you?" I asked. I had brought some sets of such papers with me.
"Common slave papers?" he asked.
"Yes," I said.
"It is not necessary," said one of the retainers.
"Not at all," said Appanius. "You do not have an appropriate collar at hand, I gather."
"No," I said.
"If I am not mistaken," said Marcus, "ink and a pen are in the back."
"Interesting," I said. To be sure, they had been here when we had scouted the compartments. Doubtless they had been used before, in the course of Appanius' acquiring new slaves. Slave papers, too, were in the back, although I had brought my own. Hoods, gags, ropes, and such, were in the back, too.
"Give me the papers," said Appanius.
I handed him a set.
"I will fill these out in the back, and you, Lucian, will witness them."
"Yes, Appanius," said one of the retainers, dismally.
"You will wish to bind him," said Appanius.
"No," I said. "If he attempts to escape, his throat will be cut."
"Remove his slave bracelet, and his chains," said Appanius to another retainer.
"Yes, Appanius," said the fellow.
"I foolishly neglected to have him branded," said Appanius.
"I have noted it," I said.
"As he is a cheap and common slave," said Appanius, "I would have him put under the iron before nightfall."
"I shall consider the suggestion," I said.
Appanius went to the back, to complete the papers.
The slave looked up at me while the retainer removed his chains, and the identificatory slave bracelet, of silver, which he had worn on his left wrist. The retainer also gathered up his clothing, the golden sandals, the purple tunic, the robe, with the hood. Such things I had not purchased. I had, however, anticipated such things, and had brought, among several other things, some suitable garments with me, from the insula of Torbon.
"To whom do you belong?" I asked.
"To you, Master," he said.
"Remain on your knees, slave," I said.
"Yes, Master," he said.
Lavinia looked wildly at me, and then at the slave. And he looked at her, and at me. They both knew that they were now of the same household. They both knew that they now belonged to the same master.
In a few moments Appanius and I had concluded our business. The papers had been signed, and witnessed.
Appanius, returned to the front room, looked down at the male slave. "Do you wish to beg the forgiveness of your former master for what you have done?" he asked.
"No, Master," said the slave. "Not for what I have done."
"I see," said Appanius.
"But I beg your forgiveness, if I have hurt you," he said. "That was not my intention."
"As I have not been hurt," said Appanius, "no forgiveness is necessary."
"Yes, Master," said the slave.
"I see that you are at last learning deference," said Appanius.
"Yes, Master," said the slave. "Thank you, Master."
Appanius then turned toward Lavinia. "You are a pretty slut," he said.
She threw herself to her belly before him, in terror. She looked well there, on the tiles, naked, the collar on her neck.
Appanius, then, with a swirl of his robes, exited. He was followed by two of his retainers. The other two lingered, momentarily. Among them was the first retainer. "We have spoken among ourselves, the four of us," he said. "We will give you a silver tarsk for Milo."
"You are very generous," I said. "That is a considerable profit for me."
"You accept?" he asked.
"No," I said.
"Why not?" he asked.
"There are free women in Ar," I said, "who would pay a thousand pieces of gold for him."
The two retainers exchanged glances. It seemed I knew more of this fellow than they had understood.
"Could you have afforded that much, Lavinia?" I asked.
"No, Master," she said. "I could not have afforded that much."
"Position," I snapped.
Instantly Lavinia rose from her belly to her knees, placing herself in a position common among Gorean pleasure slaves, kneeling back on heels, back straight, head up, palms down on thighs, knees spread.
The male slave gasped, seeing how beautiful she was, and how she obeyed. Perhaps then he sensed something of the pleasures of the mastery, what it can be to own a woman.
"Do you dare look at a female slave?" I asked him.
"Forgive me, Master!" he said, lowering his head. Much had it doubtless cost him to avert his eyes from the beauty.
"What of ten thousand pieces of gold?" asked the first retainer.
"You have so much?" I asked.
"I think we can raise it, forming a company to do so," he said.
"I do not think you could raise it in Ar today," I said. "Perhaps a year ago, or two years ago."
"We have in mind contacting men in several cities," he said, "even in Tyros and Cos."
"So much money would pay the mercenaries of Cos for a year," I said.
"Perhaps," he said. "I do not know."
"Not even Talena, in a golden collar, would bring so much," I said.
"But she is a female," he said.
Actually I thought Talena might bring that much, not as a common slave, of course, but perhaps in some situation of great dignity, as, say, a stripped, chained Ubara, being bid on in a private sale, perhaps by the agents of Chenbar, the Sea Sleen, Ubar of Tyros, and Lurius of Jad, Ubar of Cos. It was my intention, of course, to see to it that she would become such that it would be unfitting for her to be accorded this dignity.
"That is your price then?" asked the other retainer.
"He is not for sale," I said.
"I see," said the first retainer.
"You will not get more," said the other.
"I do not expect to," I said.
"Appanius would not sell him either," said the first retainer to the other.
"But he did," I reminded him, "for a tarsk bit."
The two retainers then, angrily, left. They left in the same fashion as had Appanius, and the other two, by the front entrance.
"What time do you think it is?" I asked Marcus.
"It is surely past the sixth Ahn," he said. The fifth Ahn marks the midpoint of the morning, betwixt the Gorean midnight and noon, as the fifteenth Ahn marks the midpoint of the evening, between noon and midnight. There are twenty Ahn in the Gorean day, as time is figured in the high cities. These Ahn, in the high cities, are of equal length. In certain cities, interestingly, the length of the Ahn depends on the time of year. In these cities, there are ten Ahn in the day, and ten Ahn in the night, and, as the days are longer in the summer and shorter in the winter, so, too, are the Ahn. Correspondingly, of course, the Ahn are shorter in the summer night, and longer in the winter night. The day as a whole, of course, including both day Ahn and night Ahn, comes out to the same overall length as it would in one of the high cities.
I looked down at the male slave.
"You do not look well," I said.
"I am sick, Master," he said.
He had taken a splendid drubbing, to be sure.
"Do you think that what has occurred here this morning is unaccountable?" I asked.
"Master?" he asked.
"That this is all a matter of chance, and unexpected?" I asked.
"I do not understand, Master," he said.
"It is not," I informed him. "You have been acquired as the result of a plan."
He looked at me, startled.
"You have been seduced," I said, "that you would be brought into circumstances of great compromise, circumstances the outcome of which would be to bring you to your present condition, as my slave."
"Aii," he wept.
"The female slave, of course," I said, "was acting under my orders."
He looked at Lavinia.
"Have you received permission to look at her?" I asked.
Quickly he averted his eyes.
"You may look at her," I informed him.
He turned to Lavinia, stricken.
"May I speak?" he begged.
"Yes," I said.
"Do you not care for me?" he asked the slave.
"She has not received permission to speak," I informed him.
Lavinia looked at me, pleadingly, her lower lip trembling. I would permit her to speak later.
"She is pretty, isn't she?" I asked.
"Yes, Master," he said, in misery.
"She is a seduction slave," I said.
Lavinia sobbed, and shook her head. A tear coursed down her cheek.
"Are you not, Lavinia?" I asked.
"Yes, Master," she sobbed.
"You should not object to this," I informed the male slave. "You yourself, often enough, if I am not mistaken, have acted in the role of the seduction slave. Surely it is only fair that the tables have now been turned, and that it is you, so to speak, who now finds himself in the net."
He could not take his eyes from Lavinia.
"She acted under your orders?" he said.
"Of course," I said.
He moaned.
"And is there not a rich joke here," I asked, "for, as I understand it, it was you who, as a seduction slave, were responsible for first bringing her pretty little neck into the collar. Is it not only fitting then that it be she, now a slave, whom I used for your acquisition?"
"Yes, Master," he said.
"Doubtless she finds her triumph rich and amusing," I said.
"Please, Master, may I speak?" begged Lavinia.
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