"We proceeded from my villa to my house in Venna," continued the Lady Florence, speaking lightly with the Lady Melpomene.
"I, too, have a house in Venna," she said.
"I did not know, with the state of your finances, that you had managed to retain it," said the Lady Florence. Venna is a small, exclusive resort city, some two hundred pasangs north of Ar. It is noted for its baths and its tharlarion races.
"Do you come often to shop in Ar?" asked the Lady Melpomene.
"Twice yearly," said the Lady Florence.
"I come four times yearly," said the Lady Melpomene.
"I see," said the Lady Florence, sweetly.
"I can afford to," said the Lady Melpomene.
"Do not permit me to detain you from your shopping," said the Lady Florence.
"I would not stay too long in Ar," said the Lady Melpomene.
"I do not think there will be trouble," said the Lady Florence.
"There was talk in the baths at Vonda," said the Lady Melpomene. "It is feared there will be an attack by Ar. Already troops have skirmished south of the Olni."
"Men are barbarians," said the Lady Florence. "They are always fighting."
"If hostilities should break out," said the Lady Melpomene, "it might not be well to be a woman of Vonda caught in this city"
"I do not think there will be trouble," said the Lady Florence.
"You may risk a steel collar if you wish," said the Lady Melpomene. "I am leaving Ar tonight."
"We are leaving in the morning," said the Lady Florence.
"Excellent," said the Lady Melpomene. "Perhaps I shall see you in Venna"
"Perhaps," said the Lady Florence.
"And perhaps you will let me enjoy your slave," said the Lady Melpomene.
"Perhaps - for a fee," said the Lady Florence, coldly.
"A fee?" asked the Lady Melpomene.
"Sixteen tarsks," said the Lady Florence. "The pitiful price which you could not afford to pay for him."
Sixteen tarsks was actually a high price to pay for a male silk slave. Most would go from four to six tarsks.
"I wish you well," said the Lady Melpomene.
"I wish you well," said the Lady Florence.
The Lady Melpomene then clapped her hands. "Proceed!" she called to the draft slaves, those bearing upon their shoulders the poles of her palanquin.
In a moment or two they had proceeded down the street.
"What a hateful woman," said the Lady Florence. "What a pretender she is! How I despise her! Her fortunes are mined. She is almost penniless. If she does retain a house in Venna she is sure to lose it soon. How bold she is, even to dare to speak with me. She is probably in Ar trying to negotiate a loan, or sell the house in Venna, if indeed she still owns it. Even the palanquin and slaves are rented! She does not fool me! How I hate her! I hate her! Did you see how sweetly she spoke to me? But she hates me, too. Our families have been enemies for generations."
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"She even bid against me for you," said the Lady Florence. "Would a friend have done that?"
"I do not know, Mistress," I said.
"No," said the Lady Florence.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"And she had the nerve to ask for your use," said the Lady Florence. "I will share you only with those women who please me."
"Yes, Mistress," I said. It is a common Gorean hospitality to offer the use of one's slaves to guests, if they should find them attractive. The Lady Florence of Vonda, she to whom I belonged, could give or assign me, as any slave she owned, to whomsoever she pleased. She had, however, at least thus far, kept me for herself. Sometimes when there were guests at her villa southwest of Vonda I was kept locked in my kennel.
"This way, Jason," she said. "I wish to purchase veil pins at the shop of Publius. Then I wish to proceed to the avenue of the Central Cylinder, to examine the silks in the shop of Philebus."
"Yes, Mistress," I said. I proceeded down the street in the direction indicated, leading the tharlarion by its reins. Small saddle tharlarion are generally managed by snout reins. The huge war tharlarion are commonly guided by voice signals and the blows of spears on the face and neck. Draft tharlarion are harnessed, and can be managed either by men, or usually boys, who walk beside them, or by reins and whips, controlled by drivers, men mounted in drawn wagons.
We passed a woman in the street, a woman of Ar, followed by a silk slave. He looked at me. I suppose he was wondering what I had cost.
A slave girl passed, a short-legged beauty, clad in a gray rag, chewing on a larma fruit. She spit against the wall as I passed.
"Do not mind her, Jason," said the Lady Florence.
"No, Mistress," I said. But I wished I could have gotten my hands on her.
"Such girls are unrefined," she said.
"Yes, Mistress," I said. But the girl had had good ankles.
"Stop here, Jason," she said.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"You will tether the tharlarion, Jason," said the Lady Florence.
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"When you have finished with that," she said, "you will return here, and wait for me."
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
The sun was high now, and it was past noon. We were stopped now before the shop of Philebus, which specializes in Turian silk. This shop is located on the great avenue of the Central Cylinder, which is more than four hundred feet wide, an avenue used in triumphs, dominated by the Central Cylinder of Ar itself, which stood at one end of it. There are many trees planted at the sides of this avenue, and there are frequent fountains. It is a very beautiful, and impressive, avenue. I was pleased to look upon it. Shops on this avenue, of course, if only because of the rents, are extremely expensive.
She glanced to the looped chain at the side of her saddle.
"Does Mistress wish to chain Jason, her slave?" I asked. If she wished this I would fetch her the chain, when I had tethered the tharlarion. There were slave rings, a foot or so from the sidewalk, in the front wall of the shop of Philebus. Such rings are common in public places on Gor. A slave girl, sitting, her hands bound before her body with cord, by a shortened neck-leash, was chained at one of these rings. At another, also sitting, fastened there by a two-loop fitting, running to a collar ring, was a silk slave.
"No, Jason," she said. "You may drink from the spillings of the fountain while I am inside"
"Yes, Mistress," I said. "Thank you, Mistress"
The fountain had two levels, a great bowl and, lower, near the walk level, a shallow bowl. From this shallow bowl slaves might drink.
The Lady Florence looked up at me. I could not read her expression. "Perhaps you will like what I will buy," she said.
"I am certain that I will, Mistress," I said. I was not lying. She had, I had learned, exquisite taste.
She swiftly turned and went into the shadowed, cool recesses of the shop.
"She did not chain you," said the male silk slave to me.
"No," I said.
"What did you cost?" he asked.
"Sixteen tarsks," I said.
"That is not much," he said, puzzled.
"Of silver," I said.
"Liar," he said.
I shrugged.
I led the tharlarion into a small, sanded, sunny area near the shop of Philebus, looping its reins twice about a tharlarion ring there. As I tethered it, it could reach water, from a run from the nearby fountain. These tharlarion rings are quite similar to slave rings. Indeed, the only real difference between them is their function, the one being used to tether tharlarion and the other slaves. They have this in common, of course, that they are both animal rings.