"No, Master," I moaned. "Of course not!"

"I have discussed your work schedules with him," he said. "You will be worked hard for some five Ahn a day. Your tasks will be such things as laundering, scrubbing floors, and working in the kitchens. These seem suitable tasks for the former Tatrix of Corcyrus. Do you not think so?"

"Yes, Master," I moaned. "Oh, Master!"

"You respond well," he said. "I always thought you were a slave." "Yes, Master," I sobbed.

"During most of the day," he said, "you will have the run of the palace and the grounds."

"Yes, Master," I said.

32 The Throne Room

The throne room in the palace at Argentum was now cool and dark. I entered, fearfully, a slave girl frightened to be in such a place. It had a lofty ceiling. I walked barefoot on the tiles to the vicinity of the dais and throne. I turned, suddenly, fearfully, as the door closed behind me. I could not see, in the shadows, who had shut it.

"Master?" I asked. I knelt, not knowing what else to do. This was the afternoon of the day of the great feast, that for which, purportedly, feast slaves had been brought even from Ar. No longer now, of course, was I a feast slave. I was now a work slave and pleasure slave owned by Miles of Argenturn. Tonight, at the feast, I was to be presented naked and in chains to Claudius, the Uber of Argentum, and the council. I looked up, toward the ceiling. Suspended there, some forty feet from the floor, on a long rope, almost lost in the shadows, was a golden sack. The sack, weighted, hung heavily on the taut rope. Sometimes, with a creak of rope, it swung slightly. I was reminded of an almost immobile pendulum.

I heard a sound in the shadows, near the door. I looked quickly in that direction.

I could see nothing in the darkness.

"Master?" I called.

A girl had told me that I was to report to the throne room. She was conveying this message on behalf of a free man. She did not recognize him. Ile had seemed important, authoritative. As she had hesitated to obey him, in relaying his message, so, too, I would not hesitate to obey him, in complying with it. Neither of us could guess his office or status. That he was within the palace, however, a free man, clearly suggested to us his possession of some privilege or power. As we were slaves, we obeyed. The man had been described to me by the girl, who had seemed shaken by her encounter with him, merely as one who was obviously a natural master of women such as we, slaves.

I could see him now, dimly, in the shadows, as my eyes adjusted to the light. He was standing near the door. He was a large man. "Head down," he said, "palms on the floor."

I immediately assumed this position. The voice sounded familiar, but I could not place it. It sounded, too, somewhat tense or feigned. I wondered if that were its natural sound, or if it were being disguised.

I heard steps coming around behind me. Then, from behind, my head was pulled up, by the hair.

I now knelt, with my back straight. My tunic, then, the tunic of Miles of Argentum, that brief, trim tunic, of brown, trimmed with yellow with the plunging neckline, and slit at the sides to the rib stripped away from me, from the back.

My hands then, with two loops of a thong, were tied be-hind me.

"Master?" I begged. Then I could not speak. A heavy wadding was thrust into my mouth and secured there with a folded strip of cloth, drawn deeply back between my teeth, knotted tightly behind the back of my neck. was then turned about and put on my back before my captor, on the tiles at the foot of the dais on which reposed the throne of Argentum.

I squirmed in terror. I uttered muted, tiny sounds.

"Yes," said he. "it is I, Ligurious, once first minister of Corcyrus." I looked up at him, in terror.

"I, and two others," he said, "escaped the raid in Ar." I recalled I had heard swordplay, and the crashing of glass. "I see that you are now a branded, collared slave," he said. "It is appropriate. That is not the major or primary reason you were brought to Gor, but it was the minor or secondary reason You were destined, from the beginning, if not for the impaling spear, then, eventually, for the collar."

I looked up at him, terrified, over the gag, naked and helplessly bound before him.

"You are a natural slave," he said. "Perhaps you know that by now. The brand and collar are perfect on you. You are a thousand times more beautiful as a slave than you were as a free woman."

I squirmed, his bound prisoner.

"I wonder how you escaped from the camp of Miles of Argentum," he said. "You certainly upset our plans in that particular. We had not even considered the possibility of such thing. But it seems that now the former Miss Collins of Earth may yet prove useful in our plans."

I uttered tiny, helpless sounds.

"I have not been captured," said Ligurious, "nor have I entered the palace surreptitiously. I am here of my own will. I return for immunity I have volunteered to give evidence for the state of Argentum in the identification of the Tatrix of Corcyrus. Who would know her better than I? My two retainers, those two of all the others who have remained faithful, and with me, those who escaped with me from the house in Ar, have been entered into the palace in the guise of envoys from distant Tuna. As I will have my business here, So too, will they have theirs. There is some dispute, you see, a to who is the true Tatrix of Corcyrus, she who is eve now suspended in the golden sack near the ceiling in this very room, or yourself, helpless now before me on the tile Witnesses will give testimony. Drusus Rencius, for example has come here from Ar. He will doubtless identify you as the true Tatrix, as he did before. We saw to it that he, like several others, knew only you as the Tatrix. Similarly I had had clothing smuggled out of Corcyrus, clothing which you wore. This will be presented to Claudius, the Ubar, and the high council, as the clothing of the Tatrix of Coreyrus, it will be identified as the former wearer of the clothing, course, by sleen. The work of Claudius and the high council of course, will be made somewhat easier by the fact the when the golden sack is opened at the banquet it will be Occupied not by the true Sheila, but by you, her dupe and double. We will not encounter objections by Hassan, the Slave Hunter, as he will not appear at the banquet. My two men will see to it that he is detained. Similarly, objections will not be encountered by Miles of Argentum. He will receive formation, purportedly from Hassan, that he had the wrong girl and that you, as he now recognizes, are the true Tatrix Accordingly he has placed you in the sack and, in his embarrassment, and fearing a loss of honor, has left the palace, ta mg the other girl with him, she then to be consigned to sor suitable slavery or other. In this fashion we expect Miles Argentum to be satisfied. He, in any case, is convinced, you probably know, that it is you, and not the other woman who is the Tatrix. This, of course, is because we saw to it that he, like certain others, would know only you as the Tatrix. He will identify you as the true Tatrix, for be knows you as such, with the same conviction as Drusus Rencius, and others. All this is in accord with our plans. And, of course, I too, shall identify you as the true Tatrix. You may depend on it. Meanwhile, of course, the true Sheila will be concealed in my quarters, later to be smuggled from the palace in the guise of a free woman, that of a companion of one of my retainers, supposedly an envoy from Tuna. The slave brought in with him in this role, put back in proper slave garb, has already been sold to an officer in the palace guard. He could not resist the superb price on her."