"And it was thus you came to the fields," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"And how did Milo respond to all this?" I asked.
"Imperturbably," she said. "I was, after all, only a female."
"Do you think that Milo finds you attractive?" I asked.
"Master?" she asked.
"That he would like to strip you, collar you and throw you to the furs at his feet, there to vent his lust upon you, his slave?"
"I do not know if his drives are that strong, Master," she said.
"Would you object?" I asked.
"No, Master," she said. "It had always been my hope that I might prove attractive enough to provoke such desire. I am a slave girl. I live to be the obedient, grateful, vulnerable object of such lust and power. I have always dreamed of it. I wish to be choiceless, to be overpowered and made to serve!"
"Milo must have exhibited some interest in you, or seemed to exhibit some interest in you," I said, "if only during the period of your seduction, when you were being trapped."
"Yes," she said, "then."
"But after you were in the house as a slave, collared, scantily clad, utterly vulnerable?"
"No, Master," she said.
"He never asked for you to be brought to him?"
"No, Master."
"Why do you think that is?" I asked.
"I am insufficiently beautiful," she said.
"Did he call for other women?" I asked.
"I do not know, Master," she said.
"Did you not see names written on the call boards in the kitchen?"
"No," she said.
"Interesting," I said.
"One of the girls, another one of we three who had been trapped by Milo, claimed to have been with him, but it was proven that she had lied. She had been chained in the stable that night. The house master found out about it and she was whipped, before us all."
"As far as you know, then," I said, "none of the girls of the house were put with Milo."
"As far as I know, not," she said.
"But surely there would be no cause for secrecy about such a matter," I said. "I would not think so," she said.
"Milo was important in the house," I said. "He is famous. He is of great value to Appanius."
"Certainly, Master," she said.
"It would make sense then," I said, "to suppose that a girl would be sent to him, at least once in a while."
"Perhaps, Master," she said.
"So much is done even for quarry slaves," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"But as far as you know this was never done?"
"Not as far as I know," she said.
"And if it had been done," I said, "it is my speculation that you would have heard of it, such gossip flowing quickly through the corridors of such a house."
"I suppose so," she said.
"If Milo had requested a girl, do you think he would have received one?"
"I would suppose so," she said, puzzled.
"Perhaps he did not request one," I said.
"Master?" she asked.
"Possible Milo does not find women attractive," I said.
"Master?" she asked.
"Nothing," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Are you a virgin?" I asked.
She laughed. "How long can a slave remain a virgin, Master?" she asked.
"Whom have you served?" I asked.
"Mostly men in the house, on the staff," she said, "those who wanted me for the night. We are free to them, you know. I was muchly cuffed at first. I was clumsy. I knew so little."
"You are more accomplished now?" I asked.
"One learns quickly under the whip," she said.
"And in the fields?"
"Mostly the whip masters," she said. "But twice I was tied to a stake, for the field slaves."
I noted that her knees had moved a little further apart, probably unconsciously, or without really thinking about it, after she had said this. In such ways can a slave, sometimes not even conscious of what she is doing, or fully conscious of it, beg. I glanced at Marcus, and he smiled. He, too, had noticed the tiny movement.
"May I speak, Masters?" she asked.
"No," I said.
She put her head down.
"Have you experienced slave arousal?" I asked "Master?" she asked, looking up.
"Have the slave fires been lit in your belly?" I asked. She was, after all, a relatively new slave, and had been a house slave, apparently primarily consigned to domestic duties, serving table and such, and was now a field slave, whose primary services would presumably lie in such labors as the carrying of water and the hoeing of suls. It was not as though she had been in the attentive and exacting ownership, for example, of a particular master, who would see to the summoning forth and cultivation of these intimate, exquisite, exigent latencies which once initiated seem to blossom and grow of their own lovely, imperious will, which cannot be suppressed or silenced, and which make a girl so much their prisoner, more so than collars and chains.
"Sometimes," she said, "I sense their beginnings in me."
"How do you feel about them?" I asked.
"I love them," she said, "but I am afraid of them."
I nodded. Well she might be.
"May I speak?" she asked.
"Very well," I said.
"Who are you?" she asked. "Are you men of my master, Appanius?"
Perhaps she thought we had come from her master, to question her. But surely, too, our armbands should have suggested to her that our origins, and intents, were not indigenous to the house of Appanius.
"No," I said.
"You are not slavers, are you?" she asked.
We did not speak.
"Please tell me!" she begged.
"It is not in that modality that we have come," I said.
"You are members of the caste of slavers!" she said.
"No," I said.
"But you are slavers!" she said.
"Do not concern yourself with the matter," I said.
"Yes, Master," she said.
The distinction, of course, is between belonging to the caster of slavers and being a slaver. Whereas members of the caste of slavers are slavers, not all slavers are members of the caste of slavers. For example, I am not of the slavers, but in Port Kar I am know as Bosk, and he known as many things, among them pirate and slaver. Too, both Marcus and myself were of the warriors, the scarlet caster, and as such were not above taking slaves. Such is not only permitted in the codes, but encouraged by them. "The slave is a joy and a convenience to the warrior." Neither of us, of course, was a member of the caste of slavers. It, incidentally, is sometimes regarded as a subcaste of the merchants, and sometimes as an independent caste. It does have its own colors, blue and yellow, whereas those of the merchants are yellow and white, or gold and white.
"Have you come to collect taxes?" she asked. "Have you come from the levies?"
"No," I said. Her questions were doubtless motivated by our armbands. It was not unknown in recent months in Ar and her vicinity for properties of various sorts, including such as she was, to be taken for taxes. Too, of course, there might have been new requisitions from Cos, or even from the camp of the pokemarkos, calling for new levies of women, both free and slave.
"You are not going to carry me off are you?" she asked.
"Curiosity is not becoming in a kajira," I said.
"Forgive me, Master," she said. She squirmed in agitation. It would not be difficult, of course, to carry her off. In a matter of moments we could have done so with impunity. In a matter of moments she could have been ours, gagged, hooded and bound. There are a great many ways in which a girl may be carried captive by a mounted warrior, and many saddles have been designed with the accommodation of such a prisoner in mind. Some of these arrangements are quite simple and others are complex. Perhaps the simplest is to have the girl mounted before you with her hands tied to a ring before her body. Some of the more complex involve saddle cages and nets. A reasonably common arrangement, and that with which our saddles were equipped, involves paired rings, one on each side of the saddle. With this arrangement the usual technique is as follows: The girl's hands are tied are tied before her and then tied, in turn to a ring on the left side of the saddle. When she is thusly fastened, her hands up, tied together and fastened to the left saddle ring, she is lifted up and put over the saddle, on either her back or belly, as pleases the captor, after which her ankles are fastened together on the other side, then, of course, also lashed to the ring there, the second of the pair of rings, that on the right side of the saddle. In this arrangement the girl is quite safe, protected against the danger of a fall. She is also, of course, completely helpless.