"Thank you, Master," she said.

"It is nothing," I said.

"Do not fret, Master," she said. "Even if you are not Milos, you are both strong, handsome, attractive men. Too, there is something different and special in you, something distinguishing you from many other men. It is the mastery. Women sense in men such as you, or can come suddenly to sense in men such as you, sometimes to their terror, their masters, and this makes you unbelievingly exciting and attractive to them. This puts you beyond compare with other men. Women then wish to kneel before you and serve you, to please you and love you. And that has nothing to do with the regularity or smoothness of one's features, which may characterize even weaklings."

"All men are masters," I said.

"I do not know," she said. "But that is what the woman desires, her master."

"Why were you on the couch when I entered the room?" I asked.

"He put me there," she said.

"Very well," I said. One might have expected her to have been put to the floor, on furs, at the foot of the couch, as she was a slave.

"The slave is returning," said Marcus.

"Of course," I said.

Lavinia gasped with relief. I recalled that she had been ready to die for him. Too, I recalled he had, to the best of his ability, attempted to shelter her from the blows of the irate Appanius. These things I found of interest. To be sure, I did not think I would encourage dalliance among my slaves. It might be interesting, of course, to keep them within sight of one another but in anguished separation.

In a few moments Milo had washed in the back and returned to kneel in the front room.

"Put your head down and extend your left wrist," I said to him.

He did so, and I locked a silver slave bracelet, resembling the one he had previously worn, on his left wrist. On this bracelet, in fine, tiny lettering, were the words, "I belong to Tarl of Port Kar."

I then threw him a common tunic, one of the things I had brought with me. "Put it on," I told him.

"Yes, Master," he said.

"What time do you think it to be?" I asked Marcus.

"It must be near the seventh Ahn," he said.

"The magistrates should arrive any moment," I said.

"Presumably they will come to the back," he said.

"I would think so," I said. Surely they would have been here often enough in the past. Too, it did not seem likely they would wish to be seen entering by the street door. They would be, as far as they knew, keeping their appointment with Appanius and his men. When they arrived, of course, they would discover that a change of plans had occurred, and that it would not be Appanius for whom they would render their services, but another.

"Are you looking at the female slave again?" I asked the male slave.

"Forgive me, Master," he said.

"Keep your head down," I said.

"Yes, Master," he said.

"I will explain to you in a moment what I wish you to do," I said.

"Yes, Master," he said.

"In the meantime," I said to Marcus, "let us readjust this net."

"Did you bring the bracelets, with linked shackles?" asked Marcus.

"Of course," I said.

26 A Free Woman; A Female Slave

"You may assist me with my wrap," she informed the handsome slave. "Your hand trembles," she smiled.

In the back room I tracked these matters by means of one of the observation portals. One of the two magistrates, he who was senior, Tolmar, of the second Octavii, an important gens but one independent of the well-known Octavii, sometimes spoken of simply as the Octavii, or sometimes as the first Octavii, deputy commissioner in the records office, much of which had been destroyed in a recent fire, was at the other portal. His colleague, Venlisius, a bright young man who was now, by adoption, a scion of the Toratti, was with him. Venlisius was in the same office. He was records officer, or archon of records, for the Metallan district, in which we were located. Both magistrates wore their robes, and fillets, of office. They also carried their wands of office, which, I suspect, from the look of them, and despite the weapons laws of Cos, contained concealed blades. I was pleased to hope that these fellows were such as to put the laws of Ar before the ordinances of Cos. I had requested that they dismiss their attendant guardsmen, which they had done. I did not anticipate that they would be needed. Whatever force, if any, might be required could be supplied by Marcus and myself. Similarly it seemed that Marcus and I could handle any other matters of the sort in which they might customarily have been utilized. Too, certain matters might prove sensitive, and I saw fit to limit the number and nature of witnesses.

"Must I remove my own wrap?" she inquired.

"No, no, Mistress!" said the male slave.

"Mistress?" she said. "It seems you have learned deference."

"Yes, Mistress," he said. He knelt quickly, trembling, his head down.

"It is not like you," she said.

"Forgive me, Mistress," he said.

"But I find it charming," she said. "And you look well, my dear Milo, on your knees."

"Thank you, Mistress," he said.

"But I do not understand this new deference," she said.

"What but deference," said he, "could be in order, before one such as you?"

"I think we shall get along very well," she said.

He was silent, kneeling before her, bent at the waist. He kept his head down. He trembled. I did not really blame him.

"It is as though, suddenly, it had been recalled to you, that you are a slave," she said.

"Yes, Mistress," he said.

I was pleased that his back had not been opened by the staff of Appanius. It would not have done, at all, if stripes of blood had appeared on the back of his tunic, soaked through.

"Interesting," she said.

"Before you," he said, "what man could not be a slave?"

"Flatterer!" she chided.

I smiled to myself. He had a nimble, flattering tongue. He was able in his work. Doubtless he had been of great value to Appanius, in many ways. Then I smiled grimly to myself. How susceptible was the chit to his blandishments. How little she understood of herself. Before what man, I wondered, should she not be a slave? Indeed, before any man, she, and other women, should be slaves."

"My wrap!" she said, irritably.

He leaped to his feet and delicately, courteously, removed her outer cloak, with its hood. She had been well covered in it, from head to toe. He put this on a peg to one side.

"Your guards are without?" he asked.

"I have come alone," she said. "Surely you do not think me a fool?"

"No," he said.

She brushed back the light inner hood and unhooked the collar of her robe. "You will never believe the difficulty I had in escaping from the Central Cylinder!" she said. "It is almost as though I were a prisoner there. Seremides is so careful! His spies are everywhere. Who knows who they are, or which of them is watching you at any given time? Whom can I trust? It is hard to leave without an escort of a company of guardsmen. What do they fear, I wonder. The people love me."

"You are too glorious and marvelous to risk," said Milo.

"Alas," she said, "sometimes I myself grow weary of the preciousness and dignity of my person. It seems it has always been thus. Long ago when I was a girl it was the same, and then, in my time of troubles, after the misunderstanding with my dear father, Marlenus, I was sequestered, and then, later, now that the war has been concluded to the mutual benefit of Ar and Cos, with victory for us both, thanks to the mercies of Cos, and the noble Lurius of Jad, and we have become allies with our former enemies, now our dearest of friends, the Cosians, it seems the same again."

"Mistress is Ubara," said he. "Simply order them to desist from their attentions."