"Doubtless," he granted me, indulgently.

I wondered what it would be like to be owned, and to have to call a man "Master." But, of course, owned, it would be quite suitable and proper for one to do so, for he would be, in fact, in such a situation, one's Master. My mind was racing. How could it be that I had called Drusus Rencius "Master"? How inadvertently, how naturally, it had slipped out. I wondered if I were actually a proud, free woman, as I thought, or was something else, perhaps only a slave. "If Lady Sheila is ready," he said, "perhaps we should leave now." I put up my head.

I reminded myself that I was not really, in a sense, braceleted. Oh, I wore the steel. It was locked on me, and well, but I was the Tatrix of Corcyrus. I could order Drusus Rencius to remove it from me at any moment I wished, and he would. Thus, in that sense, it was not truly on me. I did shudder, for a moment, at the thought of what it would be to be truly in such bonds, but then I hastily dismissed such fearful and unsettling thoughts from my mind.

"Lady Sheila?" he asked.

"Yes," I said. "Let us go."

He then opened the door and, holding me by the left arm, conducted me from the room.

8 I Have Been in the House of Kliomenes; The Room in the Inn of Lysias; War

"Perhaps now," said Drusus Rencius, "you have a better idea of the nature of the pens."

I could not even answer him, accompanying him back through the alleys to the inn of Lysias. I feared that my bead might begin to swirl, that I might lose consciousness. I was scarcely aware of my surroundings, of where I was or what I was doing, or even of my feet touching the ground. I felt ligbt-headed. I was trembling. I was filled with wild, turbulent emotions I would never have believed that women could be subjected to such domination. I hoped that Drusus Rencius could not smell my arousal.

"Leading position," said Drusus Rencius.

I put my head down to his waist and he fastened his left hand in my hair. "Tal, Citizen," said Drusus Rencius to the fellow passing us in the Hall. He soon released my hair and I again straightened up. I was following him, generally, a little behind and on his left. It seemed appropriate that I, in my disguise, might seem to heel him, as though I might be a mere slave. It seemed to me that he had held my hair more tightly than be had needed to, when we had passed the stranger. I still wore the slave bracelets. He had declined to remove them when we had left the house of Kliomenes. In his steel, heeling him, occasionally being put into leading position by him, I felt much in his power. "Did you enjoy the pens?" asked Drusus.

"Please do not make me speak," I whimpered. I was terribly conscious of the heat in my body, and the absence of a nether closure in my garment. Had Drusus Rencius so much as snapped his fingers I think I might have thrown myself to my back in the alley, begging for his touch.

"This is the house of Kliomenes," had said Drusus Rencius, climbing the stairs to the narrow, heavy iron portal, recessed some feet back, at the end of a narrow tunnel, in the wall. It was on the street of Milo. Above the entrance to the tunnel, and on its right, in the wall, hanging from an iron projection, was a narrow, blue-and-yellow banner. I followed Drusus Rencius carefully, that I might not fall. "This is one of the better, and more respectable of the slave houses in Corcyrus," he said. "That is one of the reasons that I have selected it for your visit, that your sensibilities, those of a free woman, not be excessively offended."

"I see," I said.

"On the other hand, do not expect it to compromise overly much with its women. Such would be a violation of the ethics of the slavers. Its women, you will find, all things considered, are held rather close to the standards of slave perfection."

"I see," I said.

He beckoned and I joined him in the narrow tunnel leading to the door. I regarded the iron door, apprehensively.

"There are truly slaves in there?" I asked.

"Of course," he said. "If you enter, you will be, probably, the only free woman in the house, unless there is a new girl in there, in chains, awaiting, say, the iron and the collar."

"Oh," I said.

"Do you wish to enter?" he asked.

"Yes," I said.

"You are a woman, and it is the house of a slaver," he said.

"I will enter," I said.

He then struck on the iron door. He then thrust me in front of him, so that I, in the tunnel, was between him and the door.

There was a small, rectangular, "iron observation panel, now shut, in the door. I felt the stone of the tunnel beneath my feet, the steel holding my wrists helplessly behind me.

The observation panel slid back. I saw eyes looking at me, and then, beyond me, at Drusus Rencius.

The panel slid shut with a click.

I wanted to turn and run. I could not do so, of course, because of the walls of the tunnel, and Drusus Rencius behind me.

"They are expecting us," said Drusus Rencius, sensing my sudden terror. I heard chains and bars behind the door, bolts being freed.

Then the door swung open. "Enter," said a pleasant enough looking young man in the threshold. I entered, followed by Drusus. Beside the young man there was a guard, too, within. I heard the door, with its various devices, being refastened behind me. We were in a tiny torchlit room. Only a few feet before us was another door, also iron, similar to the outside door.

"Bracelet check," said the young man to me, pleasantly.

"Turn your back to him, and lift your wrists," said Drusus Rencius.

I did this and the young man quickly, expertly, checked the bracelets. They were locked on me. I was helpless.

I then turned again, to face the interior door.

I cried out, startled.

The guard, crouching beside me, had taken my left ankle in his left hand and run his right hand beneath my foot.

"No," said Drusus Rencius, deterring the guard, "there is nothing taped to her instep, nor is there anything else of the sort for which you might be searching concealed about or in her body or hair. She is to be exempted from slave search." I then realized, shuddering, just how thorough slave search might be. The guard looked at the young man, who nodded. The guard then stood up.

The young. man then tapped a complex signal on the inner iron door. In a moment I heard it being freed of its fastenings. It then swung open and we, the young man, Drusus Rencius and myself, were admitted to the corridor beyond.

The guard there refastened the door and then took his place on a stool behind a small table.

"We need a pass and a license," said the young man to the guard.

I looked at Drusus Rencius.

"The license is only a formality," he said. "No free woman, unless a capture, may proceed beyond this point unless she is in the charge of a free man who is responsible for her and has a current license for her. This is a device to control the movements of free women in the house and a precaution against the attempted escape of slave girls pretending to be free women."

"Here is your pass," said the young man, handing a small disk to Drusus Rencius. It was not unlike one of the ostraka used as tickets or tokens for admission at the theater or other such events. The guard, meanwhile, was writing something down on a small, rectangular form. I had little doubt what it "And here," said the young man, taking the form from s, the guard and handing it to Drusus Rencius. confirming my speculations, "is your license for the female." I was a woman.

Accordingly, I had to be licensed in the house of Kliomenes.

How humiliatingl The Goreans have a saying, "There are only two kinds of women, slaves, and slaves." I pulled at my wrists. They were well held in the bracelets.