Magicians of Gor (63 page)

“Possibly,” mused Lavinia.

“Indeed,” I said, “it is possible that you would bring a higher price.”

“I?” exclaimed Lavinia.

“Yes,” I said. “And do not forget to keep your knees properly positioned.”

“Yes, Master!” she said, delighted, hastily readjusting the position of her

knees.

“Do you really think I compare in beauty?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said. Indeed, I thought it might be interesting to see both in slave

silk, hurrying about, barefoot, perhaps belled, fearing the whip, striving to

serve well, hoping to found pleasing by masters.

(pg.371) “Thank you, Master!” she said.

“Continue,” I said.

“As you recall,” she said, “I had just been permitted to glimpse the beauty of

the Ubara.”

“Yes,” I said.

“Why did she show herself to me?” asked Lavinia.

“I suppose,” I said, “because she was jealous of you, and wished, in a sense, to

awe you with her own beauty.”

“I thought so,” said Lavinia. “What a vain creature!”

“She is a female,” I said.

“Yes, Master!” said Lavinia.

“Like yourself,” I said.

“Yes, Master!” laughed Lavinia. “Well, I assure you, Master, she was successful

in her intent for I could not even speak for a moment. This pleased the Ubara

certainly. She saw that I was much impressed with her beauty.”

“That your awe was genuine,” I said, “was much in your interest.”

“Do you truly think my beauty compares with hers?” asked Lavinia.

“Certainly,” I said, “assuming, say, that you were both on the slave block, that

you were both chained to a ring, that you were both serving, and so on.”

“Then it truly compares with hers,” she said, “as female to female, as beauty to

beauty?”

“Yes,” I said.

“ ‘Surely the Lady Ludmilla,’ I said to the Ubara, when I could gather my wits

and speak, ‘could not begin to compare in beauty with Mistress!’ ”

“Again you were on dangerous ground,” I observed.

“Perhaps, Master,” smiled the slave.

“ ‘She is every bit as beautiful as I,’ she said.

“That makes sense,” I said.

“Well, then, Master,” she smiled, muchly pleased, and readjusted her veil, and

told me that I would be admitted to her presence immediately any time of the day

or night.”

“Excellent!” I said.

“But I was to approach, and be exited from, an inconspicuous side gate, no more

than a postern.”

I nodded.

“She then clapped her hands, recalling the guards. She spoke to them briefly,

primarily, I gather, pertaining to her policies with respect to my access to her

presence. In a few moments, I was again in the passageways outside the audience

chamber, hooded, and double leashed. I was freed of the hood and (pg. 372)

leashes outside the gate, this time the main gate, by means of which I had

entered.”

“Of course,” I said, “as you had entered through the gate this time.”

“Yes, Master,” she said.

“You are now the go-between in an intrigue, my dear,” I informed her.

Just then the twelfth bar rang.

She looked up, frightened.

“It is late now,” I said. “We must be on our way.”

I rose to my feet and indicated that she should do so, as well,. She had already

donned the livery intended to resemble the state livery of Ar, and I had earlier

put on her neck the collar designed to resemble a state collar. Indeed, I had

even a few days ago, stopped a state slave, to check her collar. “RETURN ME TO

THE WHIP MASTER OF THE CENTRAL CYLINDER” read the legend on the collar. I picked

up the small cloak she had worn, and put it about her shoulders. I smiled to

myself. It was much like a fellow helping a young lady on with her cloak, or

coat. Yet what a difference there was here. I could do what I wanted with her. I

owned her. We then, I first, she following behind at an interval, left our small

room, in the insula of Torbon on Demetrios street, in the Metellan district. I

was pleased, for my own purposes, at any rate, that state slaves in Ar were no

longer belled, a consequence of the misguided and unsuccessful policies of Cos,

to devirilize, and thus make more manageable, the men of Ar. Thus that the

slave, Lavinia, beneath the cloak, was in state livery, you see, would not be

suggested to any in the streets outside.

22
   
My Plans Proceed

“The door opens, Master!” said Lavinia.

“I shall draw back,” I said.

We were behind the great theater, near one of its rear entrances. Lavinia well

knew the portal. There were various folks about, mostly coming and going,

workmen, bearers of burdens, and such. One fellow was drawing a two-wheeled

cart, loaded with basketry. There were loungers in the vicinity, as well,

interestingly, among them, some free women, in habiliments suggesting

diversities of caste, and one level or another of (pg. 373) affluence. Two

palanquins, too, set down, the carrying slaves about, were behind the theater,

their curtains partly parted.

“It is he!” said Lavinia.

She backed against the wall, her head, clutching the note, at her breast.

I walked back, casually moving away. I would stay in the vicinity, not really

far away, but not so close that I might hear what transpired. I doubted that

converse would flow unimpeded if one were within clear earshot.

A few yards away I turned to observe. Lavinia was where I had left her. She

seemed rooted to the spot. Her heart, for whatever reason, I suspected, must be

rapidly palpitating. I, could see the suggestion of agitation, if not of terror,

in the heaving of her bosom. She clutched the note. I trusted that it would not

be crushed and soiled in that sweet sweaty little palm of hers.

The fellow, with two others, had emerged from the rear portal.

Lavinia did not move.

I was curious to observe this small encounter, but I had come mainly to protect

her, if it seemed necessary. I was not certain as to how her approach, and

overture, might be received. She was, after all, even though in the seeming

livery and collar of a state slave, still only a slave. Too, she might be

remembered from the days of her freedom, when her person had been sacrosanct and

inviolate, and her will selfish and imperious, and this might earn her some

abuse, perhaps to assuage lingering resentments, accrued from formerly endured

affronteries, or perhaps merely, for the agent’s amusement, to remind her of her

present vulnerability and station, of her change in condition, that it was not

now she who was to be pleased but rather that now it was she who must please.

Too, she might be recalled, as well, from her days as a house slave in the house

of Appanius. There, of course, particularly as a new slave, she would have been

at the mercy of the men of the house, and, I supposed, of even the higher

slaves. They might have formed the habit then of treating her poorly, or venting

spite and frustration upon her. Accordingly, I would stay in the vicinity. I had

no objection to the fellow kicking her, or cuffing her about a bit, of course.

Indeed, such things are good for a slave. But I did not wish any serious injury

to be inflicted upon her. That might lower her price, for example.

But Lavinia had not moved from the spot!

Her immobility exasperated me, but, on the other hand, perhaps it was just as

well. Four or five of the several free (pg. 374) women who were about hurried

forward to throng about the fellow. Others hung back. The palanquins did not

move. Various veils, I thought, were not as carefully adjusted as they might

have been. the hem of more than one robe was lifted up a little as the women

hurried forward. Surely this was interesting, as the alley was dry. I detected,

at any rate, neither mud nor puddles in their path. Doubtless they wished in

their haste to avoid stirred dust, hoping to keep it from their robes. There

were some lads about also. Perhaps they had come to witness what revelations

might be betrayed by a subtly disarranged veil, or to see if one might not, if

sufficiently alert, and if one were so fortunate, catch a glimpse, perhaps no

more than a flash, of an ankle. To be sure, they might, as they wished, feast

their eyes on slaves.

I growled to myself in frustration. On the other hand, it would not have done

for Lavinia to rush up to the fellow, competing for his attention with free

women. That would have been extremely unwise, and even dangerous. She was in a

collar.

The fellow was very patient with the free women who clustered about him, as I

suppose it behooved him to be. They were very close about him, and some even

touched him. Their eyes shone as they looked up at him. Several could scarcely

speak. He was a tall fellow, and towered above them. I considered them in their

robes. They might make a group of lovely little slaves, I thought.

I looked over to Lavinia. She was standing so close to the wall that she might

almost have been attached to it by a fixed neck ring.

After a time the two men with the fellow, apparently with soft words, and

certainly with gentle gestures, began to suggest that the fellow be permitted to

continue on his way. The women did not seem much pleased with this. Some uttered

little noises of dismay, of protest. Surely they must have a few moments more to

cluster about him, to touch him, to utter their compliments. Was it so soon that

they were no longer permitted to bask adoringly in the warmth of that bright

smile? Then they drew back, standing behind, looking after him, longingly, as he

continued on his way.

I looked to Lavinia. Still she did not move!

More than one of the women left behind was not repinning her veil, almost as

though in embarrassment. How had it slipped so?

Then some of the more timid women who had not dared to approach the fellow

hurried to him, one after another, to be (pg. 375) along with him, if only for a

moment. He would smile upon them, and kissed the gloved hand of one.

He was proceeding on, heading in my direction. Lavinia was now well behind him.

I looked at her. Did she think she was chained to the wall there? I made a tiny,

almost imperceptible gesture. She moved a bit from the wall, as though to follow

behind the fellow and the others. At the same time one of the bearers of one of

the palanquins approached the fellow’s party and knelt, and indicated the

palanquin. Lavinia quickly moved back. I was now growing impatient, but, surely,

I would not want her to compete in these matters with the occupant of the

palanquin, who was doubtless a wealthy free woman. the palanquin, at any rate,

did not appear to be a rented one or its bearers rented slaves. It would be all

I would need for Lavinia to be beaten by the bearers and the not lost somewhere

in the dust of the alley.

I scuffed about for a time in the dust of the alley. The woman in the palanquin

must indeed be wealthy, or well-fixed, or something. The two men with the fellow

even withdrew so that he might converse with the palanquin’s occupant. I saw,

too, after a time, him bow his head and place to his lips the fingers of a

small, gloved hand extended between the curtains of the palanquin.

This probably did not please the occupant of the other palanquin. She,

incidentally, for I assumed it to be a she, from the décor, and style, and

closed nature, of the palanquin, had not only bearers with her, but one or two

free men as well. I wondered if the bearers of these palanquins, on behalf of

their mistresses, occasionally interfered with one another in the streets. I

supposed it not impossible. On the other hand, things seemed relatively

civilized this afternoon.

When the fellow then took to his way again this second palanquin, in a fashion I

though rather reminiscent of the investigatory movements of the nine-gilled

Gorean marsh shark, slowly, silently, and smoothly turned in his direction.

I made an impatient gesture to Lavinia.

How helplessly distraught was the beauty!

The fellow with his attendants passed me. Briefly did out eyes meet. Hastily did

they look away. In a few moments the second palanquin, too, had passed, nosing

after the fellow and his small party. Lavinia, then, timidly, left the vicinity

of the wall, and began to follow in the wake of the palanquin and its putative

prey. As she passed me I took her by the arm and pulled her to the side. “What

is wrong with you?” I said. “I await my opportunity, Master!” she said, looking

not at me, (pg. 376) but rather after the party down the street. I released her

arm. To be sure, there was no real point in being angry with her. She, a mere

slave, had had as yet no suitable opportunity to make her approach. I think

rather my being somewhat out of temper was the result of my fear that she might

bungle the matter, as simple as it was, because of some inexplicable emotional

upheavals or unrests, or, perhaps, it was merely that I was anxious for the

business to be successfully and expeditiously completed.

Lavinia, released, hurried away, to follow in the wake of the palanquin and its

putative prey.

I looked suddenly at a fellow nearby, which opportunity he seized to remark

interesting arrangements of tiles on carious nearby roofs. When he had completed