"Would you care to be transported over long distances in this fashion," I asked, "perhaps often in darkness?"
She regarded me.
"Doubtless it might be uncomfortable in such a barge, if the shutters were closed," I said.
She moved her head a little, and her hands.
"You might also note that even if the windows were unshuttered," I said, "they are set well above the eye level of an occupant of one of these benches. On the other hand, from the deck, which is on a higher level, one can easily look down, and within."
She squirmed, helplessly.
"Do you think the slaves kept in such devices can escape?" I asked.
"No," she said.
"And do you think you might escape?"
"No," she said.
"Do not hurt yourself on the wood," I said.
She looked at me.
"To struggle in such devices, if you were a slave," I said, "might earn you a lashing."
Tears came to her eyes.
"Presumably your master would not wish you to risk marking yourself, as that might lower your value."
"I see," she said, bitterly.
"Too," I said, "if you were a slave, presumably you would not wish to mark yourself either, for various reasons."
She looked at me.
"Such might mar your beauty," I said, "and slaves, like other women, are vain of their beauty."
"Some are so proud of it," I said, "that perhaps they should be lashed for it."
She shuddered.
"Also," I said, "if a slave mars her beauty, she may then be less likely to be purchased by an affluent master."
"I understand," she said.
"Many women," I said, "prefer light duties in a rich man's house to heavy labors in a low-caste hovel."
"I suppose so," she said.
"Too," I said, "many would rather be a handsome master's perfumed pleasure slave, his treasure, than a drunken brute's kettle-and-mat girl."
"Yes," she said.
"A strange response from a free woman," I observed. She looked to the side, her chin held high by the boards. "You are probably one of the very few free women," I said, "who have ever sat upon such a bench."
"You put me here!" she said.
"You were curious to know what it would be like," I said. "Why?"
"Nothing," she said.
"Many free women are curious about such things," I said, "what it would be like to wear chains, to be subject to a whip, to have a master, such things."
She did not meet my eyes.
"That is because they are slaves," I said.
"I am a free woman!" she said. "I am a free woman!"
"Do you regard your present restraints as improper?" I asked.
"Yes," she said, "as I am a free woman!"
"But yet you find them exciting," I said.
She looked at me, startled.
"It is an easy enough matter to determine," I said.
She shrank back, as she could.
"But for slaves," I said, "I suppose you would regard them as proper enough."
"Yes," she said, uncertainly.
"As I recall, you have little sympathy for slaves."
"None, of course," she said.
"Because they are slaves?"
"Yes," she said, "of course."
"And they are totally other than you?" I asked.
"Yes," she said.
"But if you were a slave," I said, "such things would be quite fitting for you?"
"I am not a slave!" she said.
"But if you were," I said, "you would regard your susceptibility to such things, your subjection to such things, as quite suitable, as quite desirable, perhaps even proper and imperative?"
"Yes!" she said.
"Where are you going?" she cried.
"Hunting," I said.
"You cannot leave me here, like this!" she cried. I smiled.
"Do not go!" she said. "I beg you not to go!"
"I shall be back," I said, "probably in a few Ahn."
"What of me?" she said.
"You will remain where you are," I said.
"What will I do?" she asked.
"You will sit there," I said, "and think."
"Come back!" she cried.
I turned, by the door. "Release me!" she cried. "You are quite pretty," I told her.
"You can do this to me?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Release me!" she cried. "No," I said.
"I shall scream!" she said.
"I could always gag you," I reminded her.
She made an angry noise.
"On the other hand," I said, "you are an intelligent woman. I will thus leave the matter to your common sense. In the first place there is probably no one around to hear you. At least I hope not. In the second place, if there is anyone around to hear you, it would almost certainly be rencers, and then, I suspect, it would be back to the pole with you."
I thought that she might, even in the moonlight, have turned a shade paler.
"Accordingly," I said, "I would not make too much of a fuss, if I were you."
She moaned.
"You cannot be too downcast," I said, "for I note that your chin is high. If it were any higher you could probably not see me leave at all. You could presumably note only the nature of the ceiling."
"Are you truly going to leave me here, like this?" she wept.
"Yes," I said.
25 Ina Begs to be First My Feast
"I did not know that it was you," she whispered.
"It is," I said.
It was now daylight.
She was beautiful in the stocks, though she must have suffered discomfort.
"I have brought down two small gants," I said, "with stones."
I had, as I had intended, in addition to bringing down the gants, reconnoitered the neighborhood. As I had thought I might, I had found, here and there, evidence of the retreat of the men of Ar, the remains of campfires, discarded gear, and such.
I put down the gants on the bench, near her, in one of the other places. There are five places on each bench. There is a center aisle. There are five benches on each side. There are, about the sides of the cabin, various rings. By means of such rings, and chains, of course, an indefinite number of girls, well beyond those in the fifty places on the benches, could be transported. Though it is not practical in the delta, such barges, too, could be tied together, and towed. Many slave barges, of course, carry no more than fifteen or twenty girls.
I looked at her. How well she was held in the stocks.
Conscious of my eyes upon her she sucked in her belly and straightened her body, as she could.
Yes, she was quite beautiful.
"I hope my captor finds me pleasing," she whispered.
"Perhaps, for a free woman," I said.
She did not ask me where I had been, or why I had taken so long. She knew enough not to do so. Such impertinence can be a cause for discipline.
"I think we can have a small fire for the gants," I said. "I think we can set it in here, on a plate. There will be little smoke, and what there is will be randomly distributed, escaping various windows. I do not think it will be detectable."
She did not ask to be released from the stocks. I took it that in the several Ahn I had been gone various things, as I had expected, even though she was a free woman, had become clear to her.
She made a small noise, of need.
That interested me. I had left her in the stocks primarily for her instruction, and not for her arousal.
She looked up at me. I saw in her eyes that she now indeed understood some things which might not have been clear to her before, primarily that her subjection to my will was uncompromising and absolute.
"You sit where doubtless many slaves have sat," I said.
She made another small noise, of need.
"You do not sound like a free woman," I said. "You sound like an amorous slave."
"In the first Ahn," she said, "I was angry. I even struggled a little, but please do not beat me for it!"
"Not this time," I said.
"Then later, as I realized I must await you here, where you had put me, and as you had put me, and for as long as you wished, I began to have strange feelings."