Several other women were then passed over.
Then a slim woman took her place gracefully before the Ubara.
"Claudia Tentia Hinrabia, Lady of Ar," read the scribe.
A stir, a thrill of recognition, coursed through the crowd. Men pressed more closely about the platform. "Claudia!" said men. "The Hinrabian!" said others. I myself moved closer to the platform, pressing even against it. Claudia Tentia Hinrabia was the daughter of a former Administrator of Ar, Minus Tentius Hinrabius. She had figured as a pawn in the dark games of Cernus of Ar, to bring down the house of Portus, his major economic rival in the city. Later, the machinations of Cernus had brought him even to the throne of the Ubar, which he held until his deposition by Marlenus of Ar. Claudia, at the time of the deposition of Cernus, had been a slave in his house. Marlenus, upon his return to the throne, had freed her, even arranging for her support at state expense. For several years, she had been a resident of the Central Cylinder. She was the last of the Hinrabians.
Claudia, with a toss of her hair, freed her hair of the hood. She had long black hair, swirling and beautiful. It cascaded behind her. I remembered it that way from the house of Cernus, the first time I had seen her. When I had seen her later in the house of Cernus, it had been much shorter, as, in the intervening time, he had had it shaved off, and then, later, it had regrown somewhat. In her freeing herself of the hood she had, too, bared her face. She, as the others, had not been separately veiled. I well remembered the dark eyes of the Hinrabian, and the high cheekbones.
She then, gracefully, slipped the robe of the penitent back from her shoulders, letting it drop behind her.
"Ahhh," said several men.
She was slimly beautiful. She stood very straight before her Ubara, it seemed defiantly, it seemed insolently.
"See her," said a man to others.
Claudia smiled. She knew that she was unusually beautiful, even on a world where beauty is not rare.
Talena seemed displeased.
To be sure, if she were stripped and put beside the Hinrabian, I did not think she would need to fear, or much fear, the comparison.
Claudia looked up at Talena, on the dais.
"You will choose me," she said.
"Perhaps, if you are suitable," said Talena, in fury.
"You have waited long for this day," said Claudia, "to have me, the daughter of Minus Tentius Hinrabius, in your power, your rival."
"I," said Talena, "am the daughter of Marlenus of Ar!"
"You are not!" cried Claudia. "You are disowned. You have no more right to the throne of Ar than a sleek, pretty little she-urt!"
"Treason!" cried men. "Treason!"
"Your father sent men to the Voltai, to seek out and destroy Marlenus of Ar!" cried Talena.
"I do not deny that my father was enemy to Marlenus of Ar," said Claudia. "That is well known, and so, too, at the time, were many in Ar!"
"Cernus!" cried Talena.
"Yes," said Claudia.
"To whom you were a slave!" said Talena, scornfully.
"She-urt!" cried Claudia.
"Turn about, slowly," said Talena.
Men gasped.
Angrily, Claudia complied. Then she again faced Talena. "I stood higher in the Central Cylinder than you," she said. "I was the daughter of a former Administrator of Ar! You were nothing, a disowned disgrace, rescued from the norht. They brought you back in a sheet, with not even a tarsk bit to your name, and dishonored. No longer had you even citizenship! Because of what you once had been, the daughter of Marlenus of Ar, you were permitted to live in the Central Cylinder. But you were kept hidden there, sequestered, that you not bring further embarrassment upon Marlenus of Ar and the city! Do not compare yourself with me. You are nothing! I am the daughter of Minus Tentius Hinrabius!"
"Do not listen to her, beloved Talena!" called a man.
"You are an upstart," said Claudia. "You are a Cosian puppet!"
"I am your Ubara!" cried Talena.
"You are a Cosian puppet!" said Claudia.
"Treason!" cried men.
"You even wear Cosian garments!" cried Claudia.
"In this fashion we may demonstrate our respect for Cos, out gratitude to her, our friendship with her," said Talena.
"Dance on their strings, puppet!" screamed Claudia.
"Perhaps it is you will dance," cried Talena, "and as a slave, before my officers!"
"And I would do so more excitingly than you!" said Claudia.
I rather doubted that. To be sure, Talena was not trained. I supposed that both might look quite well, in a jewel or two, writhing as slaves before strong men. "Slave! Slave!" cried Talena.
"Marlenus of Ar freed me of bondage!" said Claudia.
"I am not Marlenus of Ar!" cried Talena.
"He treated me with honor," she said, "and gave me support and residence!"
"I am not he," said Talena.
"Nor are you, disowned and disgraced, any longer his daughter!" cried Claudia. "Treason!" cried men.
Talena turned to the crowd. "Should this woman's caste, and her lofty birth, and that she was the daughter of an administrator, permit her to shirk her duties to the state?"
"No!" cried men. "No!"
"To the state of Cos?" inquired Claudia.
"Treason!" cried men.
"Do you think you should be shown special privileges?" asked Talena.
This took Claudia aback.
"Hah!" cried a fellow. "Look, she is silent!"
Claudia, of course, was of high caste, and a member of the aristocracy. Gorean society tends to value tradition and is carefully structured. Accordingly, it would never have occurred to her that she was not, in fact, in virtue of her position, entitled to customary privileges. Such privileges, of course, in theory at least, are balanced by duties and demands far beyond those devolving on others. The Cosians, as many conquerors, made a point of enlisting class jealousies in their cause, utilizing them to secure their ends, for example, the replacement of a given aristocracy, or elite, with one of their own, preferably in as covert a fashion as is possible. This had to do with structure in human society, without which such society is not possible.
"Do you think you are better than other women of Ar?" asked Talena.
"I am better than at least one," said Claudia. "Talena, who would be tyraness of Ar, save only that her Cosian masters will not permit her such power!"
"Treason!" cried men. "Kill the Hinrabian! Death to her! Let her be impaled! Weight her ankles!"
"And at night, do you serve your masters in the furs?" inquired Claudia. It seemed that Talena might swoon at the very thought of this. She was supported by two of her aides.
"Death to the Hinrabian!" cried men.
A guardsman behind Claudia had his sword half drawn from its sheath.
"No! No!" cried Talena to the crowd. "Do not cry out so, against a woman of Ar!"
"Merciful Talena!" wept a man.
The guardsman sheathed his sword.
The crowd was then silent.
"I regret that I cannot," said Talena, "despite my love for you, exempt you from your duties to the state."
"Hail Talena!" wept a man.
"Nor in this matter treat you differently from other women of Ar."
"Glory to Talena!" cried a man.
"For I, too, have my duties to perform, for I am Ubara,"
Here the Plaza of Tarns rang with the cheering of men.
"Be done with your farce!" cried Claudia. "Here I am before you, naked and in your power! Have you not waited for his moment? Is my name not first on your list? Relish the triumph! Do with me as you will!"
"My decision will be made," said Talena, "as it would be in the case of any other woman of Ar. You will be treated with absolute fairness."
Talena then seemed to ponder the matter of Claudia, assessing her fittingness to be included among items to be accorded to Cos, in atonement for, and it reparation for, the crimes of Ar.
"Turn about, again, my dear, slowly," said Talena, musingly.
Men laughed.
Once again the Hinrabian turned slowly before her Ubara, as might have an assessed slave.
Talena then seemed to hesitate. She turned to her advisors as though troubled, as though seeking their council. Would the Hinrabian be suitable, did they think, as a conciliatory offering, or a partial reparation payment, to the offended Cosians? Would she be acceptable? Would she be adequate? Or would such an offering insult them, or offend them, in its lack of worth, in its paltriness? I smiled. I did not doubt what their opinion, that of men, would be, in the case of the lovely Hinrabian.