"Look at his body," breathed the Lady Leta.
"Where have you been keeping him, my dear?" inquired the Lady Perimene.
"He is a fighting slave, is he not?" inquired Brandon.
"I understand," said the Lady Florence, "that he has been upon occasion used in the stable bouts." Indeed, I was champion of the local stables, those within a perimeter of some fifty pasangs. Even Gort, of the stables of Miles, and Kaibar, of the stables of Shandu, had been unable to best me.
"This is Jason," said the Lady Florence, introducing me to her guests. "He is one of my less important stable slaves. He is, however, apparently not totally unattractive to certain sorts of low women."
The Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene laughed.
"According to my reports," continued the Lady Florence, "some of my stable sluts are half mad with passion for him."
"Imagine what it would be," said Tenalion, "if he were free, and they were his."
"I do not think I would mind being a slut in your stables, my dear Florence," said the Lady Perimene, "if I were to find myself at the mercy of such beasts."
"I deny him women, of course," she laughed.
"That could be dangerous, Lady Florence," said Tenalion, "unless he is kept closely chained."
"Except occasionally, of course," she laughed. She looked at Melpomene who, kneeling, in her collar, shuddered.
"Why do you limit his rations of love flesh?" asked Tenalion.
"It is my will," said the Lady Florence angrily, defensively.
"I see," said Tenalion. He smiled. He looked at the Lady Florence as though he had stripped her.
"Oh, I let him have a snack of love flesh upon occasion," she said, "if it suits my whim." My face was expressionless. I had not had a woman since I had had Telitsia in the training barn, the morning before she had been sold. "Indeed," laughed the Lady Florence, "I might let him have one tonight."
There was laughter.
"Jason," said the Lady Florence, "may I introduce one of my slaves to you, a new one. I call her Melpomene."
"Yes, Mistress," I said. I regarded Melpomene. She was visibly trembling.
"Do you remember Jason, Melpomene?" asked the Lady Florence, sweetly.
"Yes, Mistress," whispered Melpomene.
"Do you think she would make a suitable snack of love flesh for a fighting slave, Jason?" asked the Lady Florence.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"To his feet, Girl," snapped the Lady Florence. "Lick and kiss them!"
Melpomene fled to me. I felt her lips on my feet, and her small tongue.
There was laughter from the Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene.
"Now beg to dance for him," said the Lady Florence.
Melpomene lifted her head. There were tears in her eyes. I saw the collar on her throat, with its chain loop. "I beg to dance for you, Master," she said.
I glanced to the Lady Florence. Then I said, "You may do so."
Melpomene rose to her feet and backed away a few feet from me, and lifted her hands over her head, the wrists back to back. Her knees were flexed.
The Lady Florence regarded the slave, who, not moving, and afraid to meet her eyes, now held, trembling, one of the lovely attitudes of a dancing slave. Then, slowly, not hurrying, the Lady Florence returned to her place, behind the small table. She knelt there, making herself comfortable, and adjusting her robes.
There was silence in the room.
The Lady Florence then signaled to the musicians, and they began to play.
And Melpomene danced before me.
"If you are not pleased with her, Jason," said the Lady Florence, "let me know, and I will have her slain before morning."
Melpomene turned white, for her very life had then been placed in my hands.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"Please find me pleasing," begged Melpomene. "Please, Master!"
My face was expressionless. I stood regarding her, arms folded. I looked at her. I remembered her well from that night in Venna, in her house, when I had lain chained at her mercy, subject to her pleasure and abuse.
"Please find me pleasing, Master," she begged, dancing naked before me.
"I will not find you pleasing unless you are pleasing," I told her. It was true.
She moaned. The music began to swirl and flame. Piteously, and more piteously, she danced her beauty before me.
"Do you find her of interest, Jason?" asked the Lady Florence.
"The slave is not without interest," I said.
Suddenly a look of joy came into the eyes of Melpomene, as she sensed that she might be spared, and then, as suddenly, a look of astonishment, as though she could not understand what was occurring within her, and then, suddenly, a look of heat and passion.
"See the flanks move," said Tenalion to Ronald.
"Note the belly," said Ronald.
"Excellent," said Tenalion.
"Slut! Slut!" cried the Lady Florence.
The music became ever more wild and primitive.
"Slave!" cried the Lady Leta.
"Slave!" cried the Lady Perimene.
I smiled. There danced now before me an aroused slave girl, eager to please her Master.
The music suddenly stopped and Melpomene fell to her knees, putting her head to my feet.
"Has her dance pleased you, Jason?" asked the Lady Florence.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"Beast," she said.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"Pamela," cried the Lady Florence, "bring love furs!"
"Yes, Mistress," she said.
"Tenalion," said the Lady Florence. "May I trouble you to shackle my little Melpomene by the ring?"
"Of course, Lady Florence," said Tenalion. He smiled. The Lady Florence and Melpomene were of quite similar height and weight. The Lady Florence might have been an eighth of a port taller.
Melpomene rose to her feet and stood by the ring, head down, while Pamela spread the love furs on the tiles between the tables. While she stood there Tenalion snapped an ankle ring on her left ankle. It had a chain loop. He then took the length of chain he had used before and snapped one end of it about the chain loop on her ankle ring. The other end of it he snapped about the slave ring set in the tiles. The lovely slave then stood there, shackled in place.
"You remember, Jason," said the Lady Florence, "when after your victory over Kaibar, of the stables of Shandu, I ordered that you not be given a woman."
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"But I told Kenneth," she said, "that I would later find a slut for you, and that I had a slut in mind."
"I remember, Mistress," I said.
"This is the slut," said the Lady Florence, indicating Melpomene.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
Melpomene stood at the edge of the love furs. She looked down at them.
"To the furs, Slave," I told her.
Melpomene looked up at me, frightened.
With the back of my hand I struck her to the furs.
She looked up at me from the furs where she half lay, half knelt. There was blood at her mouth.
"When you are ordered to the furs, move swiftly," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
The two women, the Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene, gasped with pleasure. I sensed that they wished that it had been they, and not Melpomene, who had been struck to the furs for their raping.
"I see that you well know how to handle a slave girl, Jason," she said.
I shrugged. I looked at the Mistress. I thought that she herself might make some man an excellent slave.
"Melpomene," said the Lady Florence to her new slave, who was now kneeling on the love furs, "when you were a free woman and dared to steal my silk slave for your pleasure, did you kiss him?"