"Good night, Tenalion," she said, angrily. "I wish you well."
"And good night, too, to you, Lady Florence," he said. "And I, too, wish you well."
Then he spoke to the slave. His voice was quite different when he spoke to the slave from what it had been when he had spoken to the free woman. After all, he was then addressing himself to one who was only a bond girl. "Go to the back entrance, Melpomene," he said. "My wagon is there. Beg the driver to lock you in the slave cage."
"Yes, Master," she said. Suddenly she put her lips, and then the side of her head to the side of my knee. I felt her kiss, and then her tears.
"Slave!" cried the Lady Florence.
"Yes, Slave, Mistress," said Melpomene. Then, head down, she crawled from the hall on her hands and knees. She had not been given permission to rise. The chain, fastened to her collar, dragged behind her.
"I wish to thank you for a lovely evening," said the Lady Leta.
"It was marvelous, simply exquisite," said the Lady Perimene.
Tenalion and Ronald, his man, took their leave. Ronald, in one hand, carried the slaver's case, with its chains, and rings, and bracelets and collars, with him.
The two women, the Lady Leta and the Lady Perimene, too, took their leave.
As they left, I heard the Lady Perimene say to the Lady Leta, "But who would not be a slave in the arms of such a brute?"
The Lady Florence signaled that the musicians might leave. Pamela and Bonnie knelt at one side of the room, waiting for permission to clear.
"I should get the slave back to the stables," said Kenneth. "It is late."
"Of course," said the Lady Florence.
I turned away.
"Oh, Jason," she said.
I turned about.
"You did well tonight," she said. "I am very pleased."
"Thank you, Mistress," I said. Again I turned away.
"Oh, Jason," she said.
"Yes, Mistress," I said, turning again to face her.
"It is nothing," she said. "Nothing." She looked at me. She seemed angry. "Go," she said. "Get out!"
"Yes, Mistress," I said.
"You may clear," I heard her tell Pamela and Bonnie.
I glanced about once before leaving the room. I saw Pamela and Bonnie attending to the tables. The Mistress stood alone in the room. Suddenly, angrily, she picked up a plate and flung it across the room. Pamela and Bonnie kept their heads down, pretending not to notice. Angrily the Mistress left the room.
"Come along, Jason," said Kenneth. "Yes, Master," I said.
23 A GIRL IN THE TUNNEL
I stood in the absolute darkness of the tunnel. It was the central tunnel of that network of tunnels under the lands of the Mistress, by means of which various buildings, such as storage sheds, the incubation shed, certain of the stables, and the nursery, are connected.
My back was sore. Twice this week had I been beaten, and well.
Last night, while chained by the neck in my stall, I had received two visits, one from Taphris and one from Kenneth.
"Do you see now the power I have over you?" had asked Taphris.
"Yes," I had said, miserable in the straw, lying on my stomach, sick.
"I have the favor of the Mistress," said Taphris. "I can have you beaten when and as I wish."
"It is true," I admitted.
"Will you meet me now in the tunnel?" she had asked.
"No," I told her.
She stood at the open end of the stall, beyond my reach. She was angry. "I see that tomorrow," she said, "you will seize Claudia in your arms, crush her to you and rape her lips with the kiss of the Master."
I looked at her.
"It will be only my inadvertent discovery of your indiscretion," she said, "and my crying out that forced the separation of you guilty, discovered slaves."
"And I will be beaten again," I said.
"Of course," she said.
"I see," I said.
"Will you meet me now in the tunnel?" she asked.
"No," I said.
"Very well," she said.
I was silent.
"Are you not curious as to my designs on you?" she asked.
"What are they?" I asked.
"I wear a collar," she said. "I am a slave. I must obey. But I would be Mistress!"
"Mistress?" I asked.
"I will have you, when I wish, in the secrecy of the tunnels as my own silk slave," she said. "There you will obey me, and do as I command."
I was silent.
"I find your body not disagreeable, Jason," she said.
"I see," I said.
"Too, you are a strong, powerful man. I hate such men. You are the sort of man in whose arms a woman could weep herself slave. I hate such men! It will be especially delicious to break and humble you."
"I see," I said.
"Meet me in the tunnel," she said.
"No," I said.
"Very well," she said, and turned about and left.
I stood in the absolute darkness of the tunnel, waiting.
I heard nothing.
"I saw Taphris sneak from the barn," had said Kenneth, when he had come to see me in my stall yesterday evening.
"Yes, Master," I had said, struggling to my knees, the chain on my neck. I did not wish to be slain for disrespect.
"Do not bother to kneel," said Kenneth, crouching at the end of the stall.
I had then sat in the stall, in the straw.
"How is your back?" asked Kenneth.
"Sore," said I, grinning. "Barns belabored it well."
"We had no choice," said Kenneth. "Taphris was watching." Kenneth looked at me. "Taphris was here," he said. "What did she want?"
"Nothing," I said.
"Speak," he said.
"She wants me to meet her in the tunnel," I said. "She wishes to force me to be her silk slave."
"The she-sleen," laughed Kenneth. "What did you say?"
"I refused," I said.
"Doubtless she will then have you beaten again," he said.
I shrugged. "Doubtless," I said.
"This sort of thing could spoil you for the bouts," he said. "Too, more grievously, it is needless and irrational. It interfere with proper discipline." Kenneth took from his belt a flask, which he handed me. "It is wine," he said.
"Thank you, Master," I said, and drank some swallows of the beverage. It was a Ta wine, from the Ta grapes of the terraces of Cos. Such a small thing, in its way, bespoke the intimacy of the trade relations between Vonda and Cos. In the last year heavy import duties had been levied by the high council of Vonda against the wines of certain other cities, in particular against the Ka-la-nas of Ar.
I handed back the flask to Kenneth.
"I am scarcely master any longer in the stables," grumbled Kenneth. "It is not just you. Taphris interferes in many ways. The men may not train as long or well for the bouts now. The stable sluts live in terror of her, fearing that because of her false reports they might lose their ears or feet. Even Barns and myself must watch our step." Kenneth threw back his head and finished the wine. He then hung the flask again at his belt. He then stood up. "Every day she grows prouder, and bolder and more insolent," he said.
"She is determined to have her way," I said.
"But she is a collared slave," he said.
I shrugged.
"I think we must find a way to remind our little Taphris of what she is," he said.
I looked up at him.
"Tomorrow," said he, "meet her in the tunnel, near the junction between the central tunnel and the side tunnel to Storage Shed Four, at the fifteenth Ahn."
"Master?" I asked.
"I have a plan," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said.
I stood in the absolute darkness of the tunnel, waiting. I heard nothing. It was near the fifteenth Ahn. The junction to the side tunnel, also in pitch blackness, to Storage Shed Four was to my right.
Then, from several yards away, I heard, soft and light, the movement of bare feet on the central board, that guide board set in the floor of the tunnel.