Witness of Gor (85 page)

"I could not read the orders," I said, "but I saw them, and the seals.”

The orders, bearing the seals, had been delivered to the pit master.

"Rejoice!" I said. "Your sojourn here, in this damp, dismal place, in this cell, behind these bars, will soon be done. You will soon be returned to your native city and your accustomed mode of life.”

She put her head down on the mat, and sobbed.

"Do not cry," I said. "This is what you have longed for, this is what you have waited for, this is what you have lived for, what you have hungered for, your freedom, your liberty!”

She wept.

"What is wrong?" I asked.

"Better a chain in a poor man's kitchen," she said.

"What?" I said.

She looked up at me. "You know I am not a free woman," she said.

"You are a free woman!" I assured her. "You must be!”

"Why?" she asked.

I did not know what to respond to her.

"I want to be helpless," she said. "I want to be owned!”

"Lady Constanzia!" I protested.

"Do you not understand?" she asked. "I want, with all that I am, with everything that I am, to love and serve, holding back nothing, ever! I want to give all!”

I was silent.

"Surely you understand these things, Janice," she said.

"I am only a collared slave," I said. "I have no choice in such matters!”

"Fortunate Janice!" she wept.

"Hist!" I said. "I think I hear the approach of the guard. Hasten! Don the robes of concealment!”

"No," she wept.

"You must!" I said.

"No," she said. "Whip me, if you wish, as a slave.”

The guard's footsteps came closer.

I seized up her robes of concealment and flung them over her as though they might have been bedclothes.

I then knelt before her, putting my hands out. "Please, Master!" I said. "Here is a free woman! She is not clothed. All is well. I will soon leave the cell!

Please do not look. Please do not compromise her modesty!”

But he did look, a little, particularly where one ankle emerged from beneath the robes.

But then he took his way away, continuing with his rounds.

"Thank you, Master," I said.

"Those were the happiest days of my life," said the Lady Constanzia, "with him, in his power, in a collar and the rags of a slave.”

I kissed her, trying to comfort her.

"I will never see him again. I will never see him again," she wept.

I picked up the plate, with the untouched food, and left the cell, locking it behind me.

TWENTY SEVEN "May I speak, Master?" I asked.

"Yes," said the pit master.

I was following him in the corridors, on his morning rounds, the day following the events recently recounted.

"The strangers sought an entrance to the tunnels," I said.

"It would seem so," he said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Who knows?" he said.

"Master knows," I speculated.

"Are you insolent?" he asked, not looking back, continuing to move before me, with those short, irregular steps.

"No, Master," I said. "Forgive me, Master! I beg not to be beaten!”

TWENTY EIGHT "Is this the Lady Constanzia?" asked the fellow behind the high desk, looking down upon us.

"Yes, your honor," said the pit master.

"Bring her forward," he said. He was, as I understood it, an officer in the business court, that under the jurisdiction of the commercial praetor, subject, ultimately, to the high council.

The Lady Constanzia, clad in new, rich, ornate robes of concealment, fully hooded and veiled, was conducted forward, between two guards, from the pits. There were also, in the lofty, circular, sunlit room, the light coming through high, narrow windows, dust motes visible within it, two guards of the court. A broad, scarlet marble circle was before the high desk of the praetor's officer, and the Lady Constanzia was conducted to its center, the guards then withdrawing, moving back, several feet, leaving her there, alone, on the circle. She seemed small there, even tiny, before the high desk. The pit master, as indicated, was also in the room.

I, too, was there. Indeed, it was I who, in my office as keeper for the state of the free woman, had led her here, she leashed and back-braceleted on the way. Though it might be thought demeaning to a free woman to be in the keeping of a slave, it was also thought to be less compromising to her modesty than to be led by a male. Having such in the keeping of a female, too, of course, is likely to be safer than entrusting them to a male who, after all, particularly if irritated or provoked, might be tempted to do far more to her than compromise her modesty.

The slave, too, of course, is much more subject to supervision and control than a free man. She may, for example, for any lapse, or putative lapse, be easily put to punishment. Within the entrance to the court the Lady Constanzia had been freed of the leash and bracelets. One of the guards had inserted these within his pouch. I knelt back, and to the side, on the left side of the room, as one would face the desk. I wore a clean, modest tunic. My hair had been washed and brushed. It had also been tied back, behind my head. In this fashion it was perhaps less distractive, less luxurious and slavelike. But it also, of course, accented my collar.

To the left of the praetor's officer, to our right, as we faced him, below him, on the floor level, on a bench, behind a table, was a court's clerk.

"You are the Lady Constanzia, of the city of Besnit?" inquired the praetor's officer.

"I am," she said.

"You have been the object of a ransom capture," said the praetor's officer.

"Yes, your honor," she said.

He then addressed himself to the court's clerk. "There is no difficulty as to the matter of her identity?" he asked.

"No, your honor," said the clerk. "Her fingerprints tally with those taken shortly after her delivery to Treve by the abductors.”

"Have the agents of the redemptor accepted her as the Lady Constanzia?”

inquired the praetor's officer.

"They have, your honor," said the clerk.

"In virtue of interrogations and such?”

"Yes, your honor.”

"There is the matter of the slipper.”

"It is here," said the clerk. He produced a tiny, jeweled, muchly embroidered slipper. It might have cost more than many slaves.

The praetor's officer nodded to the clerk and he carried the slipper to the Lady Constanzia, who took it in her hands, and looked upon it.

"Do you recognize it?" asked the praetor's officer.

"Yes, your honor," she said. "It is mine.”

"It matches with that brought by the agent of the redemptor?" asked the praetor's officer.

"Yes, your honor," said the clerk. He then took it back from the Lady Constanzia and returned to his desk.

"The court of the commercial praetor of the high city of Treve," said the praetor's officer, "accepts the prisoner as the Lady Constanzia of Besnit.”

The clerk made a notation on his records.

"You are now within the custody of the court of the commercial praetor of Treve," said the officer.

"I understand, your honor," she said.

"There is also the matter of a necklace," said the praetor's officer.

The clerk then produced, holding it out, a large, impressive necklace, with many strands, containing many stones. It was breathtakingly beautiful.

"Do you recognize the necklace?" asked the praetor's officer.

"It seems to be that which I selected in the shop of a jeweler in Besnit, before my abduction,”

she said.

"It is," he said.

"Yes, your honor," she said.

"And was it not to obtain such a thing that you went to the jeweler's shop?”

"It was, your honor," she said.

"Were you not careless of your safety?" he asked.

"Yes, your honor," she said.

"It was not wise, was it?" he asked.

"No, your honor.”

"And then you were captured?”

"Yes, your honor.”

"Why did you enter the shop?" he asked.

"To obtain such a thing, or things," she said. "I wanted such things.”

"But you were rich.”

"I wanted more," she said.

"Such greed," he said, "is unbecoming in a free woman.”

"Yes, your honor.”

"It would be more appropriate," he said, "in a slave girl.”

"Yes, your honor," she said.

"Destroy the necklace," said the praetor's officer to the clerk.

"Your honor!" cried the Lady Constanzia.

"It is paste," said the praetor's officer.

We watched as the clerk struck a tire-maker, one used to melt wax for seals, and set the flame to the necklace. The flames sped from paste stone to paste stone, and the whole was then dropped to the side, flickering and smoldering.

"Such things are seldom used in ransom captures," said the praetor's officer. "They are usually used in the luring of free women by slavers.”

We watched smoke curl upward from the necklace.

"It was kept on me until I came to this city, which I now learn, by your words, is Treve," she said. "I thought it a joke, that I should be made to wear it, that all might see me in it, and realize how it had been used in my abduction, and that I wore it, such a rich thing, but, captive, could not profit from it.”

"The joke," said the praetor's officer, "was richer than you understood.”

"Yes, your honor," she whispered.

"Do you know the identity of your redemptor?" asked the praetor's officer.

"Yes, your honor," she said. "They are my brothers.”

"Do you recall," he asked, "when you were first in your house, and mistress of your enterprises, a certain matter of business, from more than three years ago, conducted with the house of William, in Harfax?”

"Your honor?" she asked.

"There was the cashing of letters of credit in Besnit, from the house of William, in Harfax, letters the House of William had drawn on the street of coins in Brundisium, to be used in the purchase of ingots in Esalinus, these to be melted down in Besnit and there, in Besnit, to be formed into the wares for which she is famous, thence to be sent to the house of William, for resale through the house of William to the shops of Harfax and elsewhere, even as far away as Market of Semris, Corcyrus, Argentum, Torcadino, and Ar.”

The Lady Constanzia put down her head.

"The gold was fairly purchased at competitive prices," said the praetor's officer. "And the wares were made under the supervision of your house, and according to your specifications. But the wares were mismarked. Their gold content was not that agreed upon.

The wares were muchly debased from the original agreements. Your house made an excellent profit on the matter, retaining the extra gold for your own coffers. Testimony from a metal worker, one traveling from Besnit to Brundisium, one who had been engaged in the manufacture of the wares in Besnit, seeing such articles in Harfax, and noting them marked as they were, in a way he knew false, alerted the house of William. They had not hitherto conducted tests, as the reputation of your house, prior to your accession as mistress of its enterprises, had been faultless. The wares were recalled and remarked. Much did the reputation of the house of William suffer. In time the street of coins in Brundisium demanded repayment of its loans. The house of William was in jeopardy. Only two years later did it manage to recoup its losses, and to rebuild its fortunes. You may suspect that much bad blood then existed between your house and that of William, in Harfax.”

"Yes, your honor," she said.

"Do you know now," asked the praetor's officer, "who your redemptor is?”

"Surely," she said. "My brothers.”

"No," he said.

"I do not understand," she said, puzzled.

"It was naturally intended that your brothers, your own house, should be your redemptor,”

said the praetor's officer. "Naturally it was with such a redemption in mind that you were abducted for ransom.”

"They are not the redemptor?" she asked.

"Surely you were aware of delays in the matter of your ransom," said the praetor's officer.

"Yes, your honor," she said.

"Your brothers refused to pay," said the praetor's officer. "Indeed, from their point of view, why should they? They were now first in their house, and master of its fortunes. If you were to return they would be reduced, again, to second.”

Lady Constanzia looked up at him.

"Their sense of honor seems to be equivalent to your own," he said.

"They would seem to be the fit brothers of such a sister, and you the fit sister of such brothers.”