I went to the table at the side of the couch and lifted up the decanter of wine. I then stood near the slave and poured the wine out, upon her. She jerked under the thin, chill stream, awakening, discovering herself chained. "Who dares!" she cried.
I handed the decanter to Marcus, who put it to the side.
"You!" she cried, lying on her side, turning her head, looking up at me. "Is it truly you?"
"On your knees, slave girl," I said, lifting her to her knees.
"It is you!" she cried, wildly, now kneeling.
"Your name is "Talena'," I said. "That is the name I have put on you."
"Sleen!" she said. She could not rise to her feet, as she was back-braceleted, with her ankles shackled closely to her wrists.
"Lavinia," I said. "Come here, and kneel beside the new slave."
Lavinia obeyed, but with obvious uneasiness.
"She-sleen!" cried the new slave.
Lavinia kept her eyes straight ahead.
"Sleen!" cried the slave, Talena, to Milo.
"I was a seduction slave," he said to her. "I obeyed my master."
"Sleen! Sleen!" she cried.
"Beware," I said to Talena, "you are addressing a free man."
"You are free?" she said to Milo.
"Yes," he said. "I am free."
"Impossible!" she cried.
"No," he said. "Now it is I who am free, and you who are the slave."
"Slave?" she cried. "How dare you, you sleen!"
"Now we have the two slaves kneeling side by side," I said, "Both well exposed to view, both suitably slave naked."
Talena tore at the bracelets.
"You may chafe your wrist," I warned her.
"Sleen!" she wept.
"One is mine and one is yours," I said.
"Yes," said Milo.
"I now offer you an even trade," I said. "If you wish, you may have this female, whom I have decided to call "Talena," and I shall have your Lavinia."
Talena looked suddenly, disbelievingly, at me, and then, as suddenly, wildly at Milo. "Accept me!" she cried. "Accept me! I will make it worth your while! I will give you thousands of gold pieces. I will reward you with villas! I will give you a hundred beautiful women as slaves. If you wish I will give you boys! I will give you high posts in Ar!"
"No," said Milo.
"Surely you do not prefer a naked slave to me?" she cried.
"But you, too, are a naked slave," he said.
"But you think me the most beautiful woman on all Gor!" she said.
"No," he said.
"But you said such things!" she said.
"Did you believe me?" he asked.
She regarded him, in helpless rage.
"Who is more beautiful than I?" she demanded.
"Lavinia," said he.
"Master!" breathed Lavinia, radiant.
"That slave!" cried Talena.
"That other slave," he said.
"Preposterous!" cried Talena.
"It is she who is the most beautiful woman on all Gor," he said.
"Master jests," laughed Lavinia.
"To be sure," he granted her, "I have not seen all the women on Gor."
Lavinia laughed, delightedly.
"But of those I have seen," he said, "it is she who is the most beautiful!"
"Really, Master," said Lavinia, shyly, chidingly.
"It is true!" he said.
"But at least I will do?" she asked.
"Yes," said he, softly, "you will do, beautiful slave."
"I love you, Master!" she cried.
"Am I not beautiful?" demanded Talena.
"You are not unattractive," said Milo.
"Not 'unattractive'!" she said.
"No," he said.
"I am beautiful!" she said.
"You would probably bring your master a satisfactory selling price," he said. "Thousands of gold pieces!" she said.
"For your femaleness alone, in chains?" I asked, skeptically.
"Of course!" she said.
"Are you trained?" I asked.
"Of course not!" she said.
"Probably you would go for something in the neighborhood of two or three silver tarsks," I said. That seemed about right, given the condition of the current markets.
"Absurd!" she said.
"Remember," I said, "they are only buying a female, and what you are good for."
"Sleen!" she said.
"Milo had best be on his way," said Marcus.
"Yes," I agreed.
"You would truly prefer this chit of a slave to me?" asked Talena of Milo, unbelievingly.
"Yes," said Milo.
"To the other chit of a slave," I said.
"Yes," said Milo.
"Sleen!" said Talena.
"Another has been chosen over you," I said.
She looked at me, in rage.
"Do not be distressed," said Lavinia to her. "We are only slaves, and men may look upon us, and pick us, and sort amongst us, as they please. In another time, in another place, their choices might be different."
"She-sleen!" hissed Talena.
"We must go," said Milo.
"I am unclothed, Master," said Lavinia.
"Dress," I said. "Take the garments you wore here, and those, too, of the former Ubara of Ar."
Talena looked at me in anger.
"Consider them paid for with moneys from the gold piece returned to me," I said. "Excellent," said Milo.
Lavinia scurried to gather up garments.
"Do not neglect the tunic with the disrobing loop!" Milo called to her.
"Yes, Master!" she laughed, snatching it up.
"It would probably be good for her to disguise herself as a free woman," I said. "Yes," agreed Milo. He pointed to the garments near his feet, which had been removed earlier by the former Ubara. Lavinia, from the side of the couch, hurried to them, and fell to her knees, to sort through them. This put her, again, of course, on her knees, at Milo's feet. She looked up at him, happily, in her place. Then she bent again to her work.
"There is a purse here!" she said.
"It is mine!" cried Talena.
"It is heavy," said Lavinia.
"Give it to your master," I said.
He regarded me.
"Keep it," I said.
"It is mine!" said Talena.
"Slaves own nothing," I said. "It is they who are owned."
Milo dropped the purse inside his tunic. Some numerous coins, of smaller denomination than gold pieces, I thought, might be useful to him. "And do not forget this," I said, lifting up the small, capped leather capsule on its thong which the former Ubara had worn about her neck, which contained the compromising note, which had given her such power over him when he was a slave. "My thanks!" said he.
Talena struggled a little, helplessly, futilely.
The capsule disappeared in his tunic.
"And what of the note you received?" I asked. "I trust that it was destroyed."
"It was too beautiful to destroy," he said. "I tied a thread about it and inserted it between two stones at the theater. I can retrieve it by the thread."
"Do so," I said.
"I will not leave it in Ar," he said.
"Lavinia composed the note, and wrote it out," I said.
"I had gathered during the events of the morning," he said, "that it had not been written by Talena of Ar."
"By that slave over there?" I asked.
"When she was Talena of Ar," he said.
Talena looked away, angrily.
"I am pleased to learn," said Milo to Lavinia, "that you did the note."
"I am pleased, if master is pleased," she said, shyly.
"It is beautiful," he said.
"I meant every word of it," she said, looking up at him.
"It was exquisite," he said.
"In it," she said, "I poured out my heard to you. I bared my thoughts, my dreams, my hopes, my feelings, my emotions, my heart, to you. I made myself naked before you. I put myself at your feet, at your mercy."
"It was like the letter of a slave girl to her master," he said.