Donna, and Chanda, and Marla, too, came to the line in the dirt. Slave Beads stifled a sob.
Marlenus, who has seen his city threatened by a league of cities in the time of Pa-Kur, doubtless views with disfavor the rise of the Salerian Confederation. To be sure, at this time, it is relatively weak. A Ubar, however, must think ahead. On the other hand, it is commonly suspected the major threat of the Salerian Confederation is not to Ar's security, but to her ambitions, in the person of Marlenus. The great margin of desolation which once flanked Ar on the north, just south of the Vosk, has not been maintained. It was a long wall of wilderness, an empty, unpopulated, desertlike area without water and beneficient vegetation a thousand pasangs deep. Wells were poisoned and fields burned and salted to prevent the approach of armies from the north. Now, however, in the last years, it has become green. New wells have been dug, peasants have moved into it. This, said to be a plan to bring more arable land under cultivation, is generally viewed as being an opening of this territory to large-scale military passage. It is even being stocked with. game and wild bosk. It retains now of its old character only its name, the Margin of Desolation. We had had no difficulty in traversing it, on the great road leading south to Ar. As the Margin of Desolation, no longer an artificially maintained cruel wilderness, has flowered, it has been said the eyes of Ar have been turning north. Indeed, some claim the Salerian Confederation has grown as well as it has because the cities of the north fear the possible imperialism of Ar, Whatever be the truth of these intricate geopolitical matters, it seems clear that Marlenus, for whatever reason, does not see fit to encourage the growth of the Salerian Confederation.
Eta joined us at the line. I looked at Slave Beads. Her cheeks were tear-stained. Like the rest of us she was barefoot. There was dirt about her ankles.
Clitus Vitellius, my master, was a captain of Ar. It had been his charge, I supposed, doubtless placed upon him by Marlenus of Ar, Ubar of that city, to prevent or disrupt the imminent alliance forming between Fortress of Saphronicus and the Confederation of Saleria, an alliance to be confirmed and sealed in the companionship of Thandar of Ti, youngest of the five sons of Ebullius Gaius Cassius, of the Warriors, Administrator of Ti, of the Salerian Confederation, and the Lady Sabina, the daughter of Kleomenes, high merchant of Fortress of Saphronicus.
In a bold coup had my master carried off the merchant's daughter. In a diversion, in which I had figured, he had struck the camp, seized the girl and, apparently, took flight, leaving the beginnings of a trail. In short order the warriors of the retinue had set forth upon this trail, whilst it was still hot and fresh. They safely removed by their own action from the environs of their camp, my master had then returned to the camp, to seize as well the dowry and beauteous maids of the Lady Sabina, Lehna, Donna, Chanda and Marla. We had been coffled by the left wrist and hurried into the night, on the track of the two wagons in which the Lady Sabina's dowry, divided, had been placed. Less than a pasang from the camp we had come to a small tree. The Lady Sabina, in her robes of concealment, stood with her belly to this tree, her wrists fastened about it, locked in the steel of slave bracelets. Her veils lay about her shoulders. Her head was concealed in a slave hood, buckled under her chin. The construction of this hood was such that it served not only as blindfold but gag as well, the wadding being sewn to the inside of the hood, and it being held in place by laces, emerging through eyelets, tying behind the back of the neck. Such hoods are often used in the abduction of women, either slave or free. Their efficiency and convenience mandates their use, regardless of the legal or social status of the girl on whom they are placed. I had noted that her gloves had been pulled down over her fingers, that the steel of the slave bracelets close on the wrist itself. Experienced captors, for greater security, seldom place bonds over clothing. Hose would be removed, or pulled down, for example, before a girl's ankles would be tied. A guard was with the Lady Sabina, to protect her in the event of the arrival of prowling sleen. Her retinue was, even now, hurrying down a false trail in the opposite direction. An open wrist ring stood at the head of our coffle chain, the place in the line before Lehna.
My master had unbuckled and unlaced, and pulled away, the stiffing, degrading hood. Beneath it, of course, the Lady Sabina had been face-stripped. She turned her face away, that we be unable to look upon it. My master, to my pleasure, simply took her by the hair and turned her face brazenly to all of us, exposing and baring it to all of us for our full gaze. She twisted but, hurt, could not turn her face away. He held it before us, letting us savor it, for a full Ehn. Then, after an Ehn, he released her hair. She sobbed. She regarded us, angrily. But no longer did she try to hide her face. It was pointless now to do so. My master had not seen fit to tolerate her game of modesty. She had been face-stripped, publicly.
My master stepped to where she might more clearly see him, in the moonlight.
"Who are you!" she said.
He did not respond to her.
"I am the Lady Sabina of Fortress of Saphronicus," she said. "Beware!"
The veils, by a man behind her, were lifted from about her shoulders, and dropped to the ground.
"Return my veils," she said.
The veils lay fallen, gently, upon the ground.
"I am the Lady Sabina of Fortress of Saphronicus," she said.
My master did not speak to her.
"Who are you!" she demanded. "You wear no insignia on your tunics. Who are you?" She pulled at the slave bracelets. The chain scraped at the bark. "Beware my wrath!" she said.
My master gave a sign and a man, from behind, lifting her feet, one by one, slipped her sandals from her. She then stood barefoot, her small feet in the crushed leaves and twigs at the foot of the tree. She shuddered. She was a rich, spoiled girl. I supposed she had never been barefoot out of doors before.
"Who are you?" she whispered. No longer was she arrogant. She was now afraid. Commonly slaves go barefoot.
"Your captor," said my master, speaking to her for the first time.
"I will bring a high ransom," she said.
He put his thumb under her chin, and pushed up her head. She was, the veils gone, a delicately featured, beautiful girl. Her head was up, painfully high, his thumb under her chin. She had a lovely throat. He was perhaps considering in what sort of collar it might look best. Her hair was dark. I could not tell its color in the light. The Lady Sabina, I supposed, was more beautiful than I, but I did not think she was more beautiful than her maids. As a slave, she. would be less than they, on most blocks.
"Keep me for ransom, Warrior," she said, frightened. I think she knew her face and throat were being assessed, as might have been those of a slave.
He removed his thumb from under her chin.
"It would be irrational not to keep me for ransom," she said. "My ransom will be far higher than any price you could realize on me in a market."
This was surely true, though it was true, too, she was quite beautiful.
"Surely," said she, "you did not attack my retinue merely to carry off a girl to wear your collar."
"No," said my master. "There is, of course, the matter of the treasure dowry."
"Of course," she said. She now breathed more easily. "You are common bandits," she said. Then she said, "You have done well, stout fellows. Your loot is valuable. The dowry is immense and rich. And I, too, in ransom, will bring you much, more even than the dowry you have so boldly taken. But return to me now my veils, and my sandals, too, for my ransom surely will be less if it understood my modesty has been so grievously compromised. Your boldness, for the honor of my name and the security of your skim, may remain our secret."
"The Lady Sabina is generous," said my master.
"I ask only," said the Lady Sabina, "that you not let me fall into the hands of those of Ar."
"Ah, Lady," said my master, "there, you see, lies your true value."
"What do you mean?" she inquired apprehensively.
"We have a long trek ahead of us," said my master.
"We must move through brush, and woods, and over fields. You must be attired for such a journey in a more practical fashion."
"What are you going to do?" she cried.
He slipped her gloves from her fingers.
"What are you going to do!" she cried.
"We have a long journey ahead of us," he said.
He then, with his knife, to her horror, cut away her cumbersome robes of concealment, until she was clad only in the last of her undergarments. He then ripped the sleeves from the undergarment, and they hung about her wrists, loose, kept from falling by her wrists and the slave bracelets confining her at the tree. "Sleen!" she cried. "Sleen!" He then, too, with his knife, and ripping, in a ragged circle, about her legs, above the knees, shortened the undergarment. Her calves might now be seen. They were pretty. "Sleen!" she cried. He then, upon this outburst, casually ripped away a large piece of the garment, stripping her to the thighs and, on the left side, when he discarded the piece of material, to the hip. Her outburst had earned her only more exposure. She was now as leg stripped or more than Donna, Chanda and Marla, Lehna, who had been stripped for her switching at her mistress's hands in the camp, and I, who had been stripped by the captain at the camp, were nude. The Lady Sabina, I noted, had lovely legs. She seethed at the tree. She pulled at the bracelets, tearing at the bark of the tree.
"I think now," said my master, standing back, regarding the girl, and his work, "that that constitutes a far more practical traveling costume than the robes of concealment for a long, overland journey afoot. Do you not agree, Lady Sabina?"
"My clothing," she said, "return it to me." She tried to be stern.
He, upon this remark, casually, from an inch or so below her left armpit ripped the garment open to an inch or so above her left hip. The line of her left breast, seen from the side, and the sway of her left hip, were lovely.
"Insolent sleen!" she cried. Then she shrank back, in terror. "No!" she said. My master's hands were at the collar of the garment.
"No!" she begged. He ripped it open, to two inches below her navel.
She regarded him with horror.
"Do you have any further objections to your traveling costume?" he inquired. His hands were now at the shoulders of the garment, whence it might be simply torn from her.
"No, Captor," she said.
He turned to us, and motioned us forward, the five girls in the coffle. We approached.
"You will note, Lady Sabina," said my master, "that the first wrist ring of the coffle is empty. It has been reserved for you."
He lifted the open wrist ring, on its chain.
"My ransom will be high," she whispered.
One of the men laughed. The girl regarded him, frightened.
"I ask only," she said, "that I not be permitted to fall into the hands of those of Ar."
"May I introduce myself, Lady Sabina?" inquired my master.
"Yes," she said.
He thrust the slave bracelet on her left wrist up. He placed the opened wrist ring about her left wrist, below the left slave bracelet.
"I am Clitus Vitellius," he said.
"No!" she cried.
I gathered from the way in which she had cried out that my master's name was not unknown upon this world.
"Not the captain of Ar!" she moaned.
"There are many captains in Ar, Lady Sabina," smiled my master.
She put her cheek against the bark of the tree. "Few such as Clitus Vitellius," she said.
I felt proud of my master. How marvelous to be the girl of such a man!
My master snapped shut the wrist ring about the left Wrist of the Lady Sabina. We were now chained to her, and she to us. She was now of the coffle, as were we.
"What are you going to do with me?" she asked.
"I am going to take you to my secret camp and there, under the iron, brand you a slave girl. You will then be taken to the city of Ar and, from an unimportant block, in a cheap market, sold to the highest bidder."
The girl pressed her cheek against the rough bark of the tree and moaned, and wept, staining the bark with her tears.
At a sign from my master the man who had been her guard freed her of the slave bracelets.
She now led the coffle.
"Am I not to be ransomed?" she said.
"You are too politically valuable to be ransomed," he said.
I recalled that the Lady Sabina was valuable indeed. Her companionship with Thandar of Ti, of the city of Ti, of the Salerian Confederation was to result in an alliance between Fortress of Saphronicus and the Confederation. The companionship, of course, was political. The Lady Sabina and Thandar of Ti, according to Eta, had never seen one another, the companionship being arranged by their parents and the councils of their respective cities. In such a companionship the Lady Sabina would have raised caste, and become one of the high ladies of Ti, and of the Confederation. She had been looking forward, it was well known, with enthusiasm to her attaining this high station.
"Accordingly," said my master, "it is expedient in the affairs of states that you be rendered politically valueless."
The Lady Sabina, at the head of the coffle, moaned.
As a slave she would indeed be politically valueless. She could be exchanged, or bought and sold, for whatever masters might wish. The slave is not a person before Gorean law but a rightless animal.
"Do not enslave me, Captain," she said. "Keep me and sell me to the Confederation. Free, returned to them, I will be worth immense riches to you. You and your men, if you return me to the Confederation, will become rich beyond your wildest dreams!"
"Do you ask me, Lady," inquired my master, "to betray Ar?"
She suddenly sank to her knees in terror before him. Would she be instantly slain? "No, Captain," she whispered.
"Considering your future status," said my master, "you may begin now to address free men by the title of `Master.' The experience and the practice will do you good."
"Yes," she said, "-Master."
"Behind you, Lady Sabina," said my master, "you will note a slave girl, Lehna."
"Yes, Master," she said.
"Earlier this evening," said my master, "you much and richly switched her."
"Yes, Master," said the Lady Sabina.
"Give Lehna a switch," said my master to one of his men. Lehna beamed. She was given a switch.
"Lehna," said my master, "should the Lady Sabina daily or in any way attempt to delay the coffle, it will be your charge to hasten her."
"Yes, Master," said Lehna. I did not envy the Lady Sabina.
"I am sorry I switched you, Lehna," said the Lady Sabina.
Lehna struck her savagely across the back with the switch, and the Lady Sabina, whose thin undergarment shielded her from the blow scarcely at all, cried out with misery. She could not believe the sting of the stripe. It was, I conjectured, the first time in her life she had ever been struck. "Lehna!" she cried.
"Address the girls as Mistress," ordered my master, standing over the kneeling free girl.
"Yes, Master," she said.
Lehna again, savagely, struck the kneeling girl. "Please, do not strike me, Mistress!" wept the Lady Sabina.
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