"Jealous?" I asked. "Treachery?"

"My thoughts, exactly," said Appanius. The retainer, I saw, was not only a retainer, but an able courtier. Those fellows have a talent for telling important people what they wish to hear. To be sure, such fellows have occasionally been responsible for the downfall of Ubars, and themselves, because of their desire to protect the throne from unwelcome truths. Serenity has reigned in more than one royal residence while a country's borders crumbled. I myself, however, was about ready to strike the fellow. I was plunged into despair.

"Come with me," said Appanius. "Move quietly."

"Of course," I said, through gritted teeth.

I glanced at Marcus.

He smiled.

This made me angry. Did he not realize that my plans might now, in a moment, be destroyed?

I turned back, to pound on the door, but he took me firmly by the arm and we followed Appanius and his retainers back down the street, until we turned left, and made our way through an opening between two buildings.

25 Bracelets and Shackles

"So," shrieked Appanius, "this is how you betray me!"

Lavinia had screamed when the net had descended, and the slave with her had cried out in dismay.

An instant or so before I had seen the face of Appanius grow livid with rage at the observation portal and he had seized at the wooden lever and thrown it, dropping the net with its weights over the couch. Almost at the same time, weeping with misery and rage, he had rushed into the front room, his staff raised, followed by his four retainers, all seemingly sharing their employer's wrath and indignation, as befitted such fellows. I myself had not had an opportunity, nor had Marcus, of utilizing the observation portals, of which there were two, the first of which had been commanded by Appanius, and the second by his chief retainer. I had not, accordingly, been able to see what was going on in the front room.

Almost instantly however I, Marcus behind me, had rushed to the front room. There clinging together, terrified, helpless, entrapped in the toils of the net, threatened by the staffs of Appanius and his retainers, were the slave and Lavinia.

"Treacherous, treacherous slave!" wept Appanius.

I saw the two slaves within the heavy toils of the net, the reticulated pattern of cords close about them. He kept his arms about her. Both were naked.

"Treacherous slave!" screamed Appanius.

Marcus looked at me, and grinned. He was not surprised at this. I, on the other hand, was. It had been my anticipation that Lavinia would have to do all this by herself, get her clothing off and cling to him, presumably by the door, he fully clothed, and hope to convince Appanius that their presence together was by mutual arrangement, and indicative of mutual interest and desire. On the other hand, I found her in the center of the room, on the couch itself, in his arms. Saving for being on a couch instead of on furs on the floor she might have been any alcove slut in a paga tavern. The short cloak and tunic had been hastily removed. The cloak had apparently been slipped off, and dropped behind her, to reveal her shoulders and tunic. The position of her tunic suggested she had dropped it, doubtless by means of the disrobing loop, about her ankles, and then stepped from it. I suspected she had then entered his arms, and that he had then, a little later, lifted her up and carried her to the couch.

"You have betrayed me!" wept Appanius.

Marcus looked at me, puzzled. I shrugged. If I had been wrong about one thing, it seemed to me only fair if Marcus might be wrong about another.

"Traitorous slave!" wept Appanius.

Lavinia's body was a mass of contradictory colorations. Appanius but moments before it had been red with excitement, love and yielding, and had then, in the sudden surprise and shame of her discovery, flushed scarlet, blushing literally from head to tow, and then, almost instantly later, in the tumult, had begun in terror to drain of color, she suddenly realizing that she was now a discovered slave, a vulnerable, caught girl, apprehended in a situation of great compromise by a man such as Appanius, her former master. Once before, as I understood it, for so little as timidly touching a certain slave she had been sent to the fields. Now she had been discovered naked in his arms.

"How could you have done this to me?" wailed Appanius.

Lavinia's nipples were still erected. They were very lovely.

"How could you do this to me?" begged Appanius.

The male slave did not respond to these questions.

I thought that Lavinia was exquisite, naked, collared, in the net. I had once told her she could make a rock sizzle. Surely that was true.

"How! How!" demanded Appanius.

Lavinia was very exciting in the net. I felt like pulling her out and using her myself.

"Surely it is not hard to understand," said Marcus. "She is very pretty." I did not think that this was a judicious remark on his part, but then who am I to judge?

"Master, no, Master!" cried the male slave.

Appanius then, with a cry of rage, seizing his staff with both hands, struck down with it, smiting the male slave on the shoulder. He then, again and again, struck him, about the back and shoulders.

The female slave began to sob and it seemed she would try, within the net, to put her body between that of the male slave and the lashing staff, but he turned her forcibly, away from the staff, holding himself over her, sheltering her. I found this of interest. Seven or eight times the slave received heavy blows from the staff. In a moment there were long, dark welts on his body. There were the only marks on his body. I gathered he might have been a pampered slave. Appanius then seemed to realize that he was sheltering the girl and, angered by this, he rushed about, to strike, too, at her, but, again, the fellow turned, in the net, sheltering her. "No!" he said. As Appanius, crying out again with rage, again attempted to circle about, so that he could strike the girl, the fellow became tangled in the net and could no longer protect her. "It is my fault!" he cried. "I am to blame!" he cried. "Do not strike her!" he begged. Appanius then, in fury, jabbed at Lavinia, and she cried out, hurt. "No!" wept the fellow. "Do not hurt her!" Appanius drew back the staff again to thrust at Lavinia, but then I managed to get my hands on it, and held it back, away from the slaves. Appanius could not wrest it from my hands. He sobbed with frustration. His retainers neither used their staffs to punish the two slaves nor came to the assistance of their employer. I think this might have been because of their sensing the mood of Marcus, that he was more than ready to spill blood. Indeed, although they would not know this, it was even his plan to leave the city this evening. "You see," I said to Appanius. "I was right."

"She seduced him!" screamed Appanius.

"Nonsense," I said, though to be sure a candid observer might have admitted that there might be some sense to Appanius' asservation.

"Appanius!" said the male slave.

"Do nor dare speak my name to me," he wept, "slave!"

"Forgive me, Master!" said the slave.

I released the staff of Appanius, as the slave had dared to address the master by the master's name. To be sure, he might have become accustomed to doing so in the past but that was no excuse for permitting such boldness in the future. It was time the slave learned his condition, and was taken in hand.

Five times then the master struck the slave, and tears pressed from between the eyelids of the punished slave.

"Please, Master," wept Lavinia, "do not let him so strike him!"

"Did you not hear?" I asked. "He used the master's name to him. He is to be beaten as an errant slave."

"Mater!" she wept.