“But I am not mad,” she said.
“No,” said the beast, “but you do not understand these things, at all.”
“How so?” she asked.
Once again I wondered about her background, her seeming lack of socialization, and such. How could she understand so little? Might it not have been better if she had undergone some frustrations and disappointments? Had she no sense of her place, or her limitations, or that limitations even existed? Did she think that only a dozen or so individuals might be involved, as in a tiny village? Ar was profound and complex, socially and economically. Her population consisted of hundreds of thousands of citizens. Most did not even know one another. What were her antecedents? What had been her experiences? Again, from what sort of world had she derived? It was as though she had been told of something important and precious, say, a particular jewel, and had decided she would have it. Did she not know that a jungle, formidable and dangerous, exacting and competitive, existed in the streets of Ar, a jungle which, as in many communities, for all its reality, was invisible?
“A Ubar, a great lord, a potentate,” said the beast, “does not companion casually or lightly. There are slaves for that sort of thing, hundreds, scattered about in various pleasure gardens. He companions to forge alliances, protect borders, acquire cities, extend dominions, obtain access to trade routes, a port on the shores of Thassa. You are unknown, and unconnected, you bring no cities or armies into his grasp, no fleets, or cavalries of tarns. You do not even have a Home Stone.”
I knew little of Home Stones, at that time.
Nor would I be permitted one, as I was a slave. Sleen, kaiila, verr, and such, other animals, too, have no Home Stones.
“I see,” said the Lady Bina. “Things would then be difficult.”
“A Ubar might companion a Ubara from another city, a coveted city, one of wealth and power, or companion the daughter of another Ubar, of such a city, such things.”
“I see,” she said, not pleased.
As I knelt in the background, inconspicuous but at hand, I saw that the Lady Bina was not so much dissuaded of her astonishing ambition, as convinced that its realization might be less easily achieved than hitherto anticipated.
“Occasionally,” said the beast, “a Ubar may companion the Ubara of a captured city, forcing companionship, however unwelcome, upon her, making of her free spoils, so to speak, thereby, as she is then companioned, entitling himself legally to the wealth of her treasury and the allegiance of her subjects. In such a case she may sit beside him, on a throne, within her fine robes, chained.”
“I suppose,” said the Lady Bina, “he may do this severally.”
“No,” said the beast, “for one may have but one companion, at one time.”
I had no doubt, of course, that a Ubar, or, indeed, any person of means, might have several slaves.
“What if a second Ubara is conquered?” asked the Lady Bina.
“You are thinking of companioning?” asked the beast.
“Yes,” she said.
“Then the Ubara of less consequence,” he said, “will be demoted to bondage, and then kept, or put up for sale, or such.”
“But surely,” she said, “companioning is not always involved in such matters.”
“Certainly not,” he said. “The conqueror holds rights to all in virtue of the right of conquest, in virtue of war rights. The usual ensuance in such matters is that the conquered Ubara will be marched naked in the triumph, chained to the stirrup of the victor’s tharlarion or kaiila, after which she, and the women of her court, similarly paraded, will serve naked at the victory feast, during which they will be enjoyed, and after which, in the morning, they will be lashed and fitted with their collars.”
“I see,” she said.
“Accordingly,” said the beast, “abandon your unrealistic ambition.”
“Perhaps if I presented myself at the Central Cylinder,” she said.
“I would not do so,” said the beast. “You lack a Home Stone.”
“So?” she said.
“You might be collared,” he said. “Sometimes unauthorized women are rounded up and held for bidding, house biddings, thence to be distributed amongst the various slave houses of the city.”
“I suppose there are others of wealth and power,” she said, “other than Ubars, in a city such as this.”
“Doubtless,” said the beast.
“But,” she said, “I think a throne would be nice.”
“Perhaps,” said the beast.
The Lady Bina then cast me a glance, which made me uneasy. That night, when the beast was absent, the Lady Bina summoned me to her.
She entrusted to me a message, which was written in black ink on cheap rence paper, in simple block letters, at that time almost childishly formed letters, as she, for all her dexterity and intelligence, was still far from adept in Gorean. Certainly she was not yet the mistress of cursive script.
I had learned from the laundry troughs that a lady’s notes, having to do with her small secrets, private exchanges, intrigues, affairs, arrangements, assignations, rendezvous, and such, were generally carefully crafted, written in a tasteful, dainty script, usually on small sheets of fine linen paper, or parchment, subtly scented, and attractively sealed. There would be no doubt that their authors were women of refinement, breeding, sensitivity, taste, and intelligence. Surely much thought went into these things, well beyond the delicacy of the message itself. After all, the ink, the paper, or parchment, the script, the perfume, the seal, and so on, are, I suppose, in their way, a part of the message itself. Do they not themselves convey much without a word being spoken? In content the letters were often carefully ambiguous, designed to seem to promise much but guarantee little. I supposed the Gorean free woman was entitled, as with her veils and concealing robes, to balance concealment with revelation, mystery with the hint of possible abandon, even rampant disclosure.
A Gorean saying, seldom heard in the presence of free women, has it that beneath the robes of every free woman there is a naked slave.
These notes, of course, are commonly carried about by the woman’s slaves, often concealed within their tunics.
Discretion is of the essence.
And then one hears about it at the laundry troughs.
I had no doubt that many a fellow’s breath came faster, and his heart beat more rapidly, when he received such a note.
“May I inquire, Mistress,” I asked, “the content of the note which I am to carry?”
At that time I did not realize how unwise was such a question. Happily, at least at that time, the Lady Bina lacked many of the habits, dispositions, and responses of the Gorean free woman.
“Certainly,” she said. “I am proposing myself to be Ubara of Ar.”
“I see,” I said. “Is Master Grendel to be informed of this?”
“No,” she said. “He might not approve.”
I did not doubt that.
“You will leave in the morning,” she said, “at dawn, as though on a common errand. Indeed, I will give you two tarsk-bits and you may later purchase some larmas which we may press for breakfast.”
“Yes, Mistress,” I said.
In that way, I supposed, my true mission, that of import, might be judiciously veiled.
“Now,” she said, “relieve yourself, and we will chain you for the night.”
“I need not be chained, Mistress,” I said. “I will not run away.” Indeed, where would one run? By noon I had little doubt but what I would be returned, bound, on a leash, to the house of Epicrates.
“I suppose not,” she said. “But the Lady Delia has told me that a slut like you belongs on a chain.”
“Yes, Mistress,” I said.
I knew that males commonly kept their girls chained at night, usually to the foot of their couch, where they might be conveniently at hand, if desired in the night. In larger houses, girls were sometimes slept in their cages, perhaps to help them keep in mind that they are animals, and thus suitably caged.
The Lady Bina, perhaps on the advice of the Lady Delia, chained me so that my mat would lie across the threshold, at the height of the stairs. My left ankle was chained on one side of the portal and my right wrist on the other side. In this way an intruder would have to pass me, indeed, step over me, and, in this passage, would be likely to be discovered. The left ankle is the ankle most commonly chained, probably because most masters are right-handed. Too, it is the ankle most often fitted with bells or an ankle ring, presumably for the same reason. And I was right handed. Master Grendel slept on the roof. Were I a slaver, or a raider, I do not think I would have cared to have my tarn alight in his vicinity.