“Recently enough,” he heard.
“She has been in the pens?” asked another, one of those I did not know.
“She has not been outside them since her arrival,” said a man.
That was true. I had little, if any, idea of the nature of the world to which I had been brought.
“Are you interested in her?” asked one of the men I knew, one from the house.
“Have her stand, and turn,” said a man.
I heard the snapping of fingers.
Quickly I rose to my feet, and turned, before them.
“Interesting,” said a man.
“Clasp your hands behind the back of your head,” said a fellow from the house.
I complied.
“Arch your back,” said another.
My left foot was now slightly advanced. I was bent backwards, by back arched. My hands were clasped behind the back of my head.
“Yes,” said another. “Interesting.”
“Belly,” said the fellow who had first spoken to me.
Instantly I returned to my belly, as I had been before, my head turned to the left, my arms back, down at my sides, my hands turned so that my palms, their softness, faced up, exposed.
The new fellows, those who were strangers in the house, I gathered, were not to be shown more, not without having requested it, it seemed, not without having, in effect, committed themselves to some degree, in virtue of the expression of some explicit, rather more tangible, interest. Those of the house were skilled in what they were doing.
“Perhaps we should look at others.” Said one of the fellows I did not know.
“We have items from various cities, and from villages and districts, brought in from time to time, requisitioned, and such,” said the fellow from the house. “We have an excellent item from Besnit, blond, whose hair comes to her ankles.”
“It must be an outworlder,” said a stranger, impatiently, he who seemed to be first among those I did not know.
“That was my understanding,” agreed the fellow from the house.
“But there must be other outworlders,” said one of the strangers, rather lightly.
“Yes, we still have several,” said a fellow from the house. “As you recall, you looked upon them last night, by lamplight, while they slept, in their kennels. This one, as I understand it, was your choice.”
I lay there. I had not realized that I, and the others, had been looked upon last night, while we slept. There is, of course, no way to prevent that.
“You have seen the papers,” said one of the fellows of the house to someone. “You have seen the reports. You have spoken to the teachers, and trainers.”
“They have other outworlders,” said the cautions fellow, one of the strangers.
“We do not have as many as we did,” said a fellow of the house. “They tend to be distributed about. We get only our share. Too, of those we receive, we normally have orders for several. Some we ship without training, to other houses and such. You must understand that, over the past few years, as their value has come to be more generally recognized, such items have become more popular.”
“And more expensive,” observed a stranger, irritably.
“Sometimes,” it was admitted.
“Are you sure you want an outworlder?” asked one of the fellows of the house.
“Yes,” he was told.
“Given your specifications,” said the fellow from the house, first among those of the house, “I really think this item is your likely choice.”
There was a silence.
“You must understand,” said the fellow from the house, first among them, “that your specifications are not easy to fulfill. If an item is reasonably skillful in the language it is not likely to be ignorant of the world, and, if it is ignorant of the world, it is less likely to be adept with the language.”
“This one is intelligent?”
“Quite so, subject of course, as made clear, to her origin, and what she is.”
“Let us consider others,” said the cautious fellow.
“We have seen them. We have examined their papers, and which,” said the stranger who, I took it, was first among them.
“We have several items in stock,” said the fellow from the house, who was first among those of the house. “You may examine them, if you wish, more so than you have already done. Nonetheless I really think that this item is the one best for your purposes. It should well satisfy your needs. I conjecture that it should do quite nicely.” He added, “I am quite familiar with our current inventory.”
“You could examine items at another house,” said another fellow of the house.
There was silence.
“Are you interested only in an item which satisfies the criteria you have made clear to me?” asked he who was first of those of the house.
“I do not understand,” said a man.
“I might, with your permission,” said the first fellow, “mention that this particular item has certain qualities to recommend it, should you be interested in them, beyond being intelligent, an outworlder, having developed, in a short time, a modest command of the language, and being ignorant of political intricacies.”
“Other qualities?” asked a fellow.
“Other then those which are quite evident to your senses, other than those which you could detect by merely laying eyes upon her,” said the fellow from the house, first among those of the house.
There was laughter.
I lay there, before them.
“Are such things also of interest to you?” asked he who was first among those of the house, first, at any rate, among those present.
“Are they not always of interest? Asked a fellow.
There was more laughter.
“More importantly,” said one of the strangers, “should she not be such as to appear plausibly to have been purchased for the typical reasons for which such an item might be obtained?”
“Yes,” mused another man.
“I assume you,” said the fellow from the house, “that she could be excellently, and judiciously, purchased for just such typical reasons.”
“She fulfills such criteria, independently?”
“Assuredly,” said the fellow from the house.
“Let her perform,” said he who, I took it, was first among the strangers.
“Prepare,” said he who was first among those of the house.
I rose lightly to my feet, and turned, and, head down, put my hand to my left shoulder. I was unclothed, of course, but had I been silked the disrobing loop would have been at the left shoulder. I had learned how to remove the silk gracefully. Now, of course, I must merely pretend to do so. I moved my hand as thought loosening the disrobing loop, and then, gracefully, stepped away from the silk which had supposedly fallen about my ankles. I then, facing the strangers, the new comers, knelt before them, in position of obeisance, my head down to the floor, the palms of my hands on the floor, too.
“She looks well in such a position,” said a man.
“They all do,” said another.
I had known, of course, for years, even before puberty, that such deferences, obeisances, and such, were owned to men, but I had never expected, except perhaps in dreams, to find myself in my present position, one in which I was subject to, and must have in accordance with, such appropriatenesses.
“Begin,” said he who was first among those of the house.
I rose to my feet, and, obedient to the injunction under which I had been placed, began to move. I moved first before one man and then another. I began, of course, with he whom I immediately sensed was first among the strangers. I sensed this from his position, central and prominent among them, and from the nature of his gaze upon me, which I could meet only for an instant. I moved before the men, first before one and then before another, approaching, withdrawing, sometimes as if unwilling, or shy, sometimes almost as if daring to be insolent or rebellious, but not quite, or not really, of course, for if such things are misunderstood one may quickly feel the lash. It is more as thought a token challenge were offered but one which is clearly understood as, and its presented as, no more than that, for one knows that even such tokens may be swept away, and crushed, and one may find oneself suddenly upon one’s knees, in one’s place, cringing in terror, in the rightful servitude of one’s nature. And then there is a sensuousness which can be taunting, in effect, a challenge to one’s conquest, and a sensuousness which is taunting in another respect, an invitation to partake of proffered raptures. And there are the movements of petition, of pleading, of begging. There are movements of these, and of many other sorts. Some of these movements I had been taught. Others, in effect, were known to me from long ago. I had, in secrecy, practiced them, before mirrors, when alone. I had found them somehow in the piteous recesses of my needs, had drawn them forth as though from an ancient knowledge. I had wondered who it was sometimes that I could have known such things. Had I moved thusly long ago, in a former life, before a prince of some royal house on the Nile, before some caliph in his cool, white palace abutting the slow waters of the Tigris, in the house of some oligarch overlooking the Tiber? Or were these things locked in the very cells of my body, in the mysteries of genes and chromosomes, a part of my nature, selected for, over thousands of generations? Perhaps, thusly, such as I had, at times, writhed naked and piteous at the feet of some primitive hunter, before his fire, that he would not use the heavy stone in his hand, that I might be permitted to live. How I would have been prepared to accept, the relish, eagerly, gratefully, the harsh terms which he might decree! And here, too, it seemed, in this place, new revelations had come to me of my nature. Here, away from my own world, with its confusions, its lies, its contradictions, its asceticism, its hatred, its envy, its resentment, its pervasive negativities, it seemed as though for the first time I could be what I truly was, without pretending to be something else. Here for the first time I felt I could be me, not some other. Had I so moved in Thebes or Memphis, or Damascus, or Baghdad, or Athens or Rome? I did not know. But if I had, here, in this place, such possibilities seemed much more real to me. It was as though I were suddenly in touch with a thousand possible lives, ones which I might have lived, ones which, surely, I could have lived. Or if these things lurked in the beauties of biological heritage, here at any rate, it seemed such an inheritance, such a heritage, might, at last, be spread forth in the light, a treasure no longer concealed, denied, in dank vaults, but put forth to gleam in public view, to be honestly what it was, to be admired, to be prized, to be used.