"I think she can be nasty and cruel," she said, "but, in a collar, she will doubtless be kept well in her place."
"From what you know of her," he asked, "do you think she could be guilty of the enormities and crimes commonly charged against the Tatrix of Corcyrus?"
"No, Master," she said, happily.
"Mistresses sometimes have different relationships to their serving slaves, or friends, than they do to others," said Ligurious. "It is well known that great crimes can be committed by individuals who are, to others, kindly and affectionate."
"And," said Drusus Rencius, "that a man who is a wrathful master to one woman may be little better than the obsequious pet of another."
"Perhaps," said Ligurious, angrily.
"You know that this is the woman whom you served, Susan," said Drusus Rencius, indicating me, "for you are familiar with her, and have no difficulty in recognizing her. What I am suggesting is that you do not really know that she was the true Tatrix of Corcyrus. You suppose she was because that is what you were told, and for certain other reasons, such as others took her also for such, and you saw her performing actions which, you supposed, only the Tatrix would perform, such things as holding audiences with foreign dignitaries, and such."
"Yes, Master," said Susan.
"But is it not possible," he asked, "that she might have been reputed to be the Tatrix, and might have done such things, without being the true Tatrix?"
"Yes, Master," Susan granted, eagerly.
"Do you regard it as likely, Susan," asked Miles of Argentum, "that that woman was the Tatrix of Corcyrus?"
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Do you regard it as extremely likely?" he asked.
"Yes, Master," she whispered.
"Do you doubt it, really, at all?" he asked.
"No, Master," she sobbed. She put down her head.
"Remain here, Susan," said Miles.
"Yes, Master," she said.
"I call my next witness," said Miles of Argentum, "located in Venna by my men, and brought here, Speusippus of Turia."
To my amazement Speusippus was conducted forward. He seemed cringing and obsequious in the presence of such a noble assemblage. No longer, now, did he seem as detestable to me as he once had. Too, I was now a slave and a thousand times lower than he. Too, it was he who had taken my virginity. Too, I now realized that my femaleness had shown his maleness too little respect. I was a woman. Yet, in spite of that, I had not properly related to him. I had not shown him the deference which, in the order of nature, it was proper for my sex to accord to his. He was a member of the master sex; I was a member of the slave sex.
"You were, several months ago, were you not, found guilty of certain alleged commercial irregularities in the city of Corcyrus, and banished for a time from the city?"
"Yes," said Speusippus.
"As the reports have it," said Miles, "you were marched naked from the city, before the spears of guards, a sign about your neck, proclaiming you a fraud."
"Yes," said Speusippus, angrily.
"Who found you guilty, and pronounced this sentence?"
"Sheila, the Tatrix of Corcyrus," said Speusippus.
"Is she who was the Tatrix of Corcyrus in this room?" asked Miles of Argentum.
"Yes," said Speusippus.
"Would you point her out for us?" asked Miles.
Speusippus, unerringly, came to my side. He pointed to me. "This is she," he said.
"Thank you," said Miles. "You may now go."
"I had her in my grasp," cried Speusippus, "but she escaped. The reward should have been mine!" This reward had originally been one thousand pieces of gold. It had later been increased to fifteen hundred pieces of gold.
"It is not my fault if you could not hold a slave," said Miles.
"She was not then a slave," said Speusippus. Then he turned to me, with hatred. "But I got something from you, you slut," he said. "I took your virginity away!"
"Am I to understand," asked Miles of Argentum, "that you are confessing to the rape of a free woman, one who was even a Tatrix?"
Speusippus turned white.
"May I speak, Masters?" I asked.
"Yes," said Claudius.
"After he had captured me," I said, "I presented myself to Speusippus of Turia naked and as a slave, and begged for his use. As a true man he could not do otherwise than to have me."
Speusippus looked wildly at me.
"Very well, Speusippus of Turia," said Miles of Argentum, "you may go."
"Forgive me, Master," I said to Speusippus of Turia. "I muchly wronged you. I was stupid and cruel. I showed you too little respect. I now beg your forgiveness, as a woman, now a slave."
"You seem much different now from before," he said.
"I have now learned that I am a female," I said. Then I put my head down and did obeisance to his maleness, kissing his feet.
He crouched down and lifted my head. He looked into my eyes. "Fortunate is the man who has you under his whip," he said.
"Thank you, Master," I whispered. He then kissed me, rose to his feet and hurried away.
"Slave!" snarled Drusus Rencius, looking angrily at me.
"Yes, Master," I said. "I am a slave."
"Let it be noted," said Miles of Argentum, "that the witness unhesitantly identified her as Sheila, the former Tatrix of Corcyrus."
"It is noted," said Claudius.
"He, too," said Drusus Rencius, "could have been mistaken in this matter!"
There was some laughter from some of the members of the high council, and from some of the others about the tables.
"I call now my fourth witness," said Miles of Argentum, "Ligurious, former first minister of Corcyrus. He, if no one else, should know the true Tatrix of Corcyrus. I now ask him to make an official identification in the course of our inquiry. Ligurious."
Ligurious unhesitantly pointed to me. "I know her well," he said. "That is Sheila, who was the true Tatrix of Corcyrus."
"Have you further witnesses, General?" asked Claudius of Miles.
"Yes, noble Claudius," smiled Miles, "one more."
"Call him," said Claudius.
"Drusus Rencius," said Miles.
"I?" cried Drusus Rencius.
Men looked at one another, startled.
"Yes," said Miles. "You are Drusus Rencius, a captain from Ar, are you not?"
"Yes," said Drusus Rencius, angrily.
"The same who was on detached service to Argentum, and was engaged in espionage within the walls of Corcyrus?" asked Miles.
"Yes," said Drusus Rencius.
"I believe that while you were in Corcyrus," said Miles, "one of your duties was to act as the personal bodyguard of Sheila, the Tatrix of Corcyrus."
"I was assigned the post of guarding one whom I at that time thought was Sheila, the Tatrix of Corcyrus," said Drusus Rencius. "I no longer believe that she was the true Tatrix. I think that I, and many others, including yourself, were confused and misled by the brilliance of Ligurious, Corcyrus's first minister. She was used as a decoy to protect the true Tatrix. In effecting this stratagem she was educated in the identity and role of the Tatrix, in which role, occasionally at least, she performed. The success of this plan became strikingly clear after the fall of the city. She fell into our hands and, as the supposed Tatrix, was stripped, chained and caged. The true Tatrix, meanwhile, eluded us, escaping in the company of Ligurious and others."
"Ligurious?" asked Miles.
"Preposterous," said Ligurious.
"Is the woman whom you believed to be the Tatrix of Corcyrus, and whom you testified in Corcyrus was the Tatrix, before the very throne itself, in this room?"
Drusus Rencius was silent.
"As you may have noted," said Miles, "Publius, the house master of the house of Kliomenes, of Corcyrus, is in the room. I think that he, with the practiced eye of his profession, skilled in the close scrutiny and assessment of females, can render a judicious opinion as to whether or not she whom you brought
to the house of Kliomenes, she whom you were guarding, is or is not in the room."
"How did you know of this?" asked Drusus Rencius.
"In the search for the Tatrix," said Miles, "the records of hundreds of slave houses were checked, to see if a woman of her description might have been processed. In this search, in the records of the house of Kliomenes, we found entries pertaining to your visit there with a free woman, purportedly a Lady Lita. Descriptions of this 'Lady Lita' were furnished by several members of the staff. There was no difficulty with these descriptions. They were splendidly clear, and usefully and intimately detailed, even to conjectured shackle sizes, just as one would expect of descriptions of a female in a slave garment. The descriptions tallied, of course, with those available of the Tatrix of Corcyrus."
"I did not know," said Publius, rising to his feet, "that it was for such a purpose I was invited to Argentum. As Miles of Argentum knows, I am the friend of Drusus Rencius. I will not testify in this matter."
"You can deny, of course," said Miles of Argentum to Drusus Rencius, "that she whom you took to the house of Kliomenes was the same woman you were guarding as the putative Tatrix. In that fashion, even if Publius can be encouraged to testify, his testimony could do no more than confirm that she here chained is the same as she whom you then brought to the house of Kliomenes. You can still deny that she who is here chained is she whom you then took to the Tatrix of Corcyrus."
Drusus Rencius was silent.
"We have, of course, independent identifications."
"We do not require the testimony of Drusus Rencius in this matter," said Claudius.
"I do not refuse to testify," said Drusus Rencius.
Men looked at one another.
"Let me then repeat my question," said Miles of Argentum. "Is she whom you believed to be the Tatrix of Corcyrus, she whom you identified as the Tatrix in Corcyrus itself, before the very throne of Corcyrus, in this room?"
"Yes," said Drusus Rencius.
"Would you please point her out?" asked Miles.
Drusus Rencius pointed to me. "That is she," he said.
"Thank you," said Miles.
"The matter is done," said a man.
"In making this identification," said Drusus Rencius, "I do no more than acknowledge that I was once the dupe of Ligurious. Can you not see? He is making fools of us all!"
Ligurious looked down, as though grieved by some irresponsible and absurd outburst.
"By the love I bear you, and by the love you bear me," said Drusus Rencius to Miles, "hear me out. That woman is not the Tatrix! She sat upon the throne! She appeared in public as the Tatrix! She sat in court as the Tatrix! She conducted business as the Tatrix! She was known as the Tatrix! But she was not the Tatrix!"
"Let us not ignore the evidence," said Miles of Argentum. "The evidence, some of which you yourself have presented, clearly indicates that she is the Tatrix. What sort of evidence would you wish? How do we know, for example, that you are really Drusus Rencius, a captain from Ar? Or that I am Miles, a general from Argentum? Or that he is Ligurious, who was the first minister in Corcyrus? How do we know anyone in this room is who we think? Perhaps we are all victims of some elaborate and preposterous hoax! But the question here is not one of knowledge in some almost incomprehensible or absolute sense but of rational certainty. And it is clear beyond a doubt, clear to the point of rational certainty, that that was the Tatrix of Corcyrus!"
There was applause in the room.
"I recall an earlier witness," said Miles of Argentum, "my slave, Susan."
"Master?" she asked, frightened.
"In your opinion, Susan," he asked, "did the shorter-haired slave, she kneeling there in chains, she whom you served, regard herself as Sheila, the Tatrix of Corcyrus."
"Yes, Master," whispered Susan, her head down.
I, too, put my head down before the free men, the masters. It was true. I had regarded myself as Sheila, the Tatrix of Corcyrus. Indeed, even now, there was a painful ambiguity in my mind in this matter. I supposed that, in a sense, I was a Sheila, who had been a Tatrix in Corcyrus. I was, I supposed, one of the two Sheilas, who, in their different ways, had been Tatrix there. I knew, of course, that I was not the true Sheila, or, at least, the important Sheila, the Sheila in whom they were particularly interested. I, too, in my way, had been a mere dupe of Ligurious.
"She herself," said Miles of Argentum, "regarded herself as the Tatrix of Corcyrus. She accepted herself as that! She did not deny it or dispute it! Why not? Because that is who she was!"
"No!" cried Drusus Rencius.
"Why do you think she was not the Tatrix of Corcyrus?" asked Miles.
"I do not know," cried Drusus Rencius. "I just know!"
"Come now, Captain," said Miles, patronizingly.
"I know her," said Drusus Rencius, angrily. "I have known her from Corcyrus. She is petty, and belongs in a collar, and under the whip, but she is not the sort of woman who could have committed the enormities and outrages of the Tatrix of Corcyrus. Such things are not in her!"
"Has the good captain from Ar," inquired Miles, "permitted the glances, the smiles, the curvaceous interests of a woman to sway his judgment?"
"No," said Drusus Rencius.
"I think you have succumbed to the charms of a slave," said Miles.
"No!" said Drusus Rencius.
"She has made you weak," said Miles.
"No!" said Drusus Rencius.
I looked at Drusus Rencius. I was only a naked slave, and in chains. How could I make such a man weak?
"The evidence is clear," said Miles of Argentum to the Ubar, Claudius, to the members of the high council, to the others in the room. "I rest my case." He then pointed to me. "Behold she who was the Tatrix of Corcyrus!"
There was much applause in the room. Drusus Rencius turned angrily away. He stood to one side, his fists clenched.
"That is not the one whom the sleen selected," said Hassan.
Drusus Rencius spun about. "True!" he said.
"May I speak?" inquired Ligurious.
"Speak," said Claudius.
"I anticipated some difficulty in the matter of the sleen," he said. "First of all, we must understand that the sleen are merely following a scent. They recognize a scent, of course, but do not know, in a formal or legal sense, whose scent they are following. For example, a sleen can certainly recognize the scent of its master but it, being an animal, does not know, of course, whether its master is, say, a peasant or a Ubar. Indeed, many sleen, whereas they will respond to their own names, do not even know the names of their masters. I am sure the type of point I am making is well understood. Accordingly, let us suppose we now wish a sleen to locate someone, say, a Tatrix. We do not tell the sleen to look for a Tatrix. We give the sleen something which, supposedly, bears the scent of the Tatrix, and then the sleen follows that scent, no differently than it might the scent of a wild tarsk or a yellow-pelted tabuk. The crucial matter then is whether the sleen is set upon the proper scent or not. Now fifteen hundred gold pieces is a great deal of money. Can we not imagine the possibility, where so much money is at stake, that a woman closely resembling the Tatrix, as this woman, for example, might be selected as a quarry in a fraudulent hunt. It would not be difficult then, in one fashion or another, to set sleen upon her trail. A scrap of clothing would do, a bit of bedding, even the scent of a footprint. The innocent woman is then captured and, later, presented in a place such as this, the reward then being claimed."
Claudius, the Ubar of Argentum, turned to Hassan. "Your integrity as a hunter has been impugned," he said.
All eyes were upon Hassan.
"I am not touchy on such matters," said Hassan. "I am not a warrior. I am a businessman. I recognize the right of Claudius and the high council to assurances in these matters. Indeed, it is their duty, in so far as they can, to protect Argentum against deception and fraud. Much of what Ligurious, the former first minister of Corcyrus, has told you is true, for example, about sleen, and thei
r limitations and utilities. These are, even, well-known facts. The crucial matter, then, would seem to be the authenticity of the articles used to provide the original scent. When I was in Corcyrus and I received from Menicius, her Administrator, clothing which had been worn by the Tatrix, I divided it into two bundles and had each sealed with the seal of Corcyrus. A letter to this effect, signed by Menicius, and bearing, too, the seal of Corcyrus, I also obtained. One of these bundles I broke open in Ar, and used it to locate and capture the former Tatrix of Corcyrus."
"She whom you claim is the former Tatrix," said Ligurious.
"Yes," said Hassan.
"Do you still have the second bundle, unopened, and the letter from Menicius, Administrator of Corcyrus, in your possession?" asked Claudius of Hassan.
"I anticipated these matters might be sensitive," said Hassan. "Yes."
Hassan was truly a professional hunter. I had heard the name 'Menicius' somewhere before, but I could not place it. He, whoever he might be, was now apparently Administrator in Corcyrus.
Claudius regarded Hassan.
"I will fetch them," said Hassan, rising to his feet.
"I, too, have clothing from Corcyrus," said Ligurious, "but it is authentic clothing, clothing actually once worn by the true Tatrix of Corcyrus."
"Please be so kind as to produce it in evidence," said Claudius.
"I will be back shortly," said Ligurious.
"Bring guard sleen and meat," said Claudius to one of the guards in the room.
In a few Ehn Hassan and Ligurious had returned. Too, but moments later, two sleen, with keepers, had entered the hall. The feast slaves and dancers shrank back against the walls. Such beasts are used to hunt slaves.
I, too, shrank back, fearfully, in my chains. I, too, was a slave.
"As you will note," said Hassan to Claudius and the high council, "the seal on this bundle has not been broken. Here, too, is the letter from Menicius."
The letter was examined. Claudius himself then broke the seal on the bundle and handed clothing to one of the sleen keepers. One soldier came and crouched down behind me, holding me from the back by the upper arms. Another so served Sheila, to my left. We were not to be permitted to move from our places. I saw one of the keepers holding the clothing beneath the snout of one of the sinuous, six-legged beasts. The specific signals between masters and sleen, signals which, in effect, convey such commands as "Attack," "Hunt," "Stop," "Back," and so on, are usually verbal and private. Verbality is important as many times the sleen, intent upon a scent, for example, will not be looking at the master. The privacy of the signals is important to guarantee that not just anyone can start a sleen on a hunt or call one away from it. The signals to which they respond, then, are idiosyncratic to the given beast. They are generally not unique, however, to a given man and beast. For example, in an area where there are several sleen and several keepers, the keepers are likely to know the signals specific to the given beasts. In this fashion any beast may be controlled by any of the associated trainers or keepers. These signals, too, are usually kept written down somewhere. In this fashion, if a keeper should be slain, or change the locus of his employment, or something along those lines, the beast need not be killed.
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