"I think there is at least one thing more," I said.
"What is that?" she asked.
"May I inspect Lady Yanina?" I asked.
"Inspect me?" she asked.
"Yes," I said. "Bosk is not a fool. He may be dismayed, or become suspicious, if he detects even the least inaccuracy or imperfection in your disguise."
"Turn away," she said to her men.
They did so.
"Look," she said to me, opening her robe. her body, now clad in slave silk, was incredibly lovely. She would doubtless, as I had earlier thought, bring a high price in a slave market.
"It is as I feared," I said.
"What is wrong?" she asked.
"You have a lining beneath the silk," I said.
"Of course!" she said.
"Remove it," I said.
"Brinlar!" she protested.
"Do you think a master would be likely to permit such a thing to a slave?" I asked.
"But I am not a slave," she said. "I am a free woman!"
"But supposedly you are brining bosk here, to serve him as a slave," I said.
She looked at me.
"Do you think he would not note so glaring a discrepancy in your costume?" I asked.
"Look away," she said.
I saw the wine slosh from the flagon I had brought into the goblets of the men.
"You may now look again," she said.
"Ah!" I said.
"I am more naked than naked," she said.
"Mistress is quite beautiful," I said. There was no doubt about that slave market price.
"It must be somewhere near the eighteenth Ahn," I said. "I think it is time for Mistress to go to the alcove." I turned her about and conducted her to the alcove. "Lie down there," I said, pointing to the furs. She did so. She looked well at my feet.
"Doubtless Mistress has arranged a signal wit her men," I said.
"It is quite simple," she said. "I shall merely cry out. They will then rush forward and seize Bosk of Port Kar. In moments, then, he will be stripped and in chains, my helpless prisoner."
"I see," I said.
"Do you think he will come?" she asked.
"Be assured of it." I said. "He will be here."
"But perhaps he will be suspicious," she said.
"Have no fear," I said. "He trusts me. He trusts me like I trust myself."
"What are you doing?" she asked, trying to draw back. I had taken her left ankle in my left hand. It was helpless in my grip.
"Completing your disguise," I said. I took the ankle ring, heavier than was necessary for a female, from the side of the alcove, on its chain, and, with my right hand, clasped it, locking it, about her left ankle.
She jerked at it. "I am chained!" she said.
"Yes," I said.
"Where is the key?" she asked.
"Just outside, on its hook," I said. I had made this determination earlier in the day, in scouting the inn, before she and her men had arrived.
"Can I reach it from where I am?" she asked.
"In no way," I said.
She looked at me, frightened.
"Do not be afraid," I said. "Your men are just outside."
"Yes," she said. "Yes." she examined the ring and the chain, her hands on the chain, frightened, fascinated. She looked up at me. "I'm chained," she said, "truly chained."
"Your men are just outside," I reminded her.
"Yes," she said.
"Is this how you intend to receive Bosk of Port Kar?" I asked.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"The first moments may be crucial," I said. "You will wish to disarm his suspicions. What if he does not immediately put aside his weapons?"
"I do not understand," she said.
"Lie more seductively, Lady Yanina," I said. "Think slave."
"Brinlar!" she said.
"That is better," I said.
"Your hands!" she said.
"Part your lips slightly," I said. "Look at a man as a slave, feel your helplessness, feel burning heat between your thighs."
"you are posing me as a slave!" she said.
"You are not the first woman who has lain chained in this alcove," I said.
"But they were slaves!" she said.
"Most of them, probably," I said, "but perhaps not all."
She looked at me, frightened.
I rose to my feet.
"What time is it?" she asked.
"It must be quite near the eighteenth Ahn," I said.
"What are you going to do now?" she asked.
"I am going to withdraw from the alcove," I said, "I shall draw the curtains behind me."
"Then I must simply wait," she said, "wait for a man!"
"Yes," I said, "it would seem so."
She squirmed angrily.
"Many women have done so, of course," I said, "particularly women in such places, in such a bond."
"Of course," she said, angrily.
"And many of them," I said, "would not have known who it was who would come through the curtains, only that they must serve him, and exactly according to his dictates, and marvelously."
"Yes!" she said, angrily.
"You are very beautiful," I said. "Slave silk and a chain become you."
"Oh!" she said.
"It is difficult to conjecture how beautiful you might be, if you were truly a slave."
"Do you think I would be a beautiful slave?" she asked.
"yes," I said.
"I thought I might be," she said, cuddling down in the furs, "but let men despair, for I shall never be a slave."
I then withdrew from the alcove, closing the curtains behind me. I heard a small sound of the chain, from within, as she moved her ankle.
I conjectured that it must now be about the eighteenth Ahn. Flaminius, probably with his men, would be arriving in the neighborhood of the nineteenth Ahn. This did not give me a great deal of time for all I wished to do. I looked about the inn. The Tassa powder which I had placed in the wine had already, mostly, taken its effect. One of the Lady Yanina's men lifted his head from the table, looking at me groggily, and then tried to rise to his feet. His legs failed him and he sprawled back, over the bench, and then, half catching himself, slipped to the tiles of the inn floor. I had had little difficulty in locating the Tassa powder. It had been contained among the belongings of the lady Yanina. I had discovered it on my first full day as her servant, while tidying her tent. It had been contained in a small chest of capture equipment, such as weighted slave nets, ropes, hoods, gags and manacles. Similarly I had had access to the general stores of the camp, that I might more conveniently wait upon and serve her and her guards. With the aid of the lamp taken from the table, about which the guards now lay sprawled, I soon located, in one of the farther alcoves, what I was looking for.
I then returned to the table about which the guards lay and replaced the small lamp on its surface. The things I had taken from the alcove I put to one side. I then went to the curtained threshold of the alcove wherein lay the Lady Yanina. I jerked apart the curtain.
"Brinlar!" she said, startled, drawing back on the furs, her legs under her, with a movement of chain, against the back wall of the alcove.
I regarded her.
"You startled me," she said.
I did not speak.
"Is he here?" she whispered.
"yes," I said. "He is here."
"Where?" she asked, in a whisper.
"Just outside the alcove," I said. "I suggest you compose yourself. I suggest you prepare yourself for him. I suggest you invite him to your arms."
"Yes," she whispered, frightened. "Yes."
I stepped back a bit, as though to yield the threshold, that it might admit the entrance of another.
The Lady Yanina now lay seductively on her side. She was quite beautiful in the slave silk, and the chain, in the light of the tiny lamp. She gathered together her powers of concentration. Then she extended one hand. "I love you, Bosk of Port Kar," she called, softly. "I have loved you from the first moment I saw you. At the very thought of you I am helpless and weak. Do not be dismayed that someone whom you do not know and whom you have perhaps never even seen is madly in love with you!" I have fought my passion for you! But it has conquered me! I am yours!"