I hoped to arrive by nightfall.
37 Near the Cosian Camp
"Thigh," I said.
The dark-haired woman turned immediately to her side, exposing her left thigh to me. There was a chain on her neck, run to a stake near the wagon. A small copper bowl was beside her.
"Thigh," I said, to the other woman, also dark-haired, but smaller. With an exciting, sensuous movement she exhibited her thigh. She was confined as was the other. Beside her, too, on the ground, was a small copper bowl.
"Ephialtes!" I called.
A brunet in a brief, yellow slave tunic looked about the wagon. She saw me and immediately knelt, seemingly frightened, though for what reason I could not guess. "Master!" she called.
In a moment Ephialtes, the sutler, came about the wagon, from the other side of it, where they were cooking, where they had their small camp.
"Tarl, my friend!" said he. We clasped hands, then embraced.
"It is good to see you, my friend," I said.
"How have you been?" he asked.
"Very well," I said, "and yourself?" "Excellent," said he.
"Splendid," I said. "How is business?"
"One tries, desperately, to make a living," he said.
"There is gold thread on your tunic," I said.
"Yellow thread," he said. "Your pouch seems full," I said. "Tarsk bits," he said.
"I think your fortunes have improved," I said.
"If that is so," he said, "I think you have made your contributions to such matters."
"And the needs of the troops of Cos," I said.
"Of course," he said.
"These are excellent times for a sutler," I said, "what with the numbers of men about, and the success of Cos."
"I speculate those with the troops of Ar are doing less well," he said.
"Some have probably brought their goods to Brundisium," I suggested.
"It is true." he whispered.
Wagons, of course, might be painted different colors. Accents could be feigned, and so on. Sutlers were, on the whole, fellows of business, and could scarcely be blamed for seeking favorable markets.
Ephialtes glanced down at the two women on the ground, chained by the neck to stakes on this side of the wagon, the copper bowls near them.
"Amina," said he, "Rimice, surely you recognize Tarl, our friend, to whom you owed your redemption from the Crooked Tarn?"
I saw by the fear in their eyes that well did they recognize me.
"Then, obeisance!" snapped Ephialtes.
Immediately, with a rustle of chain, they knelt, the palms of their hands on the ground, their heads to the dirt.
"Normally at the stakes," he said, "they are not permitted to rise even to their knees."
"Of course," I said.
I glanced at them, in their positions of obeisance.
"They look well, branded," I said.
"I hope you do not mind," he said.
"Of course not," I said. "It improves a female, considerably."
"I think so," he said, glancing at the girl in the yellow tunic, who put her head down, quickly. I did not know what she was frightened of.
"I gave you carte blanche with the women," I. said. "You might have sold them, anything."
"I sold Temione to the proprietor of a movable paga enclosure," he said.
"Perhaps she is in the vicinity?" I asked.
"Not now," he said. "She was purchased by a courier of Artemidorus, a fellow named Borton, and was led away in his chains."
"I have heard of him," I said.
"I think that I never saw a slave so grateful as she, and yet one who seemed at the same time so much in terror for her very life," he said.
"I understand," I said. I recalled the night in the paga enclosure. Doubtless Borton had a few scores to settle with the lovely Temione. I did not think she would be likely, in his ownership, to forget she was in a collar.
"You yourself, I gather," he said, "sold Elene and Klio near Ar's Station."
"Yes," I said.
"Liomache," he said, "I also sold near Ar's Station, even before Temione, to a Cosian mercenary, whom she had apparently, months before, at the Crooked Tarn, tricked and defrauded."
"Excellent," I said. I did not doubt but what Liomache, too, would be in little doubt that her lovely neck was encircled with a slave collar.
"Amina and Rimice," he said, "I have been using as rent slaves."
"I see," I said.
"Stake position," said Ephialtes to the two women. Immediately they both lay down, with a sound of chain. It is not unusual to forbid a rent slave, during her use times, when chained at a stake, to rise even to her knees.
"Perhaps we should discuss what is to be done with Amina and Rimice," I said.
The two lovely women, formerly debtor sluts, now slaves, looked up at us, in fear.
"Perhaps you would care to come around the wagon then," said Ephialtes.
"Of course," I said. One seldom discusses what is to be done with slaves in front of them. They may always learn later what was decided pertaining to them.
Ephialtes turned about.
"By the way," I said, "there was, as I recall, one more female."
"The one you brought with you from the Crooked Tarn," he said, turning about, "she in the condition of captive, assigned the status of full servant?"
"Yes," I said.
"The pretty Cosian, from Telnus?"
"Yes," I said.
"Phoebe," he said.
"Yes," I said. "Have you sold her?"
"No," he said.
"Do you still have her?" I asked.
"Yes," he said.
I was extremely pleased to hear this. Indeed, it was one of the reasons I had come to the vicinity of Brundisium.
"Where is she?" I asked.
"In the wagon," he said.
"Why?" I asked.
"It is safer," he said. "Too many of the men want her. I am afraid she might be stolen."
"You have not been using her, like Amina and Rimice, then, as a rent slave."
"No," he said.
"But surely you have had her branded and collared?" I said.
"No," he said. "Why not?" I asked.
"She was not a debtor slut," he said.
It is common on Gor for female debtors to be enslaved, the proceeds from their sales going to satisfy, insofar as it is possible, their creditors.
"But she is a captive," I said.
"True," he said.
"And is she not needful and ripe for bondage?" I asked.
"Quite," he said.
I had known this about Phoebe for a long time, of course, even from the time she had first knelt before me, at the Crooked Tarn.
"And when a woman is needful and ripe for bondage, is it not cruel to deny it to her?" I asked.
"I suppose so," said Ephialtes.
"Why, then," I asked, "did you not extend to her the mercy of the collar and whip?"
"I expected you to return, and rather before now," he said, "and thought you might see to such details, if it pleased you."
"I see," I said.
"She is, after all, a free woman, and your captive, not mine."
"True," I said.
"So I thought it best to dally in the matter, waiting for you."
"I understand," I said.
"Before you turned her over to me," he said, "you must have started slave fires in her belly."
"Perhaps," I said.
"She has often been in agony," he said.
"And was not satisfied?" I asked.
"No," he said. "And it has often been necessary to chain her hands behind her back, to a belly rope."
"And you did not, even then, imbond her?" I asked.
"No," he said.
"At any rate," I said, "it is not as though she were a full slave, and knew the helplessness of the full slave's arousal."
"True," he said.
"That can come later," I said.
"Of course," he said.
It amused me to think of the lovely Phoebe under a condition of such need.