I looked at Sheila. She was weeping with joy at his feet, kissing them, and his ankles and legs. "I love you, Master," she wept.

"So I captured her and made her a slave, mine," said Hassan.

"It was never your intention, then, to deliver her to us?" asked a member of the high council.

"No," said Hassan. "Had that been my intention I would not have removed her virginity from her and enslaved her."

"Had you never any doubts on this matter?" asked a man.

"Had I any," smiled Hassan, "they disappeared the instant I saw her. I knew then I would keep her for my own slave."

"But why did you bring her here?" asked a man.

"That you might see her humbled and helpless, and for my own glory," said Hassan.

"It is pleasing to see the former Tatrix of Corcyrus as a humbled slave," said a man.

"Yes" said Hassan.

"What if we take her from you?" asked a man.

"You will not do so," said Hassan. "That would be theft"

"But what of her crimes?" asked a man.

"Those were the crimes of a free woman," said Hassan. "She is no longer a free woman. She is now only a slave."

"I love you, my master," whispered the slave, her head at his feet.

"Sheila," said Hassan.

"Yes, Master," she said, lifting her bead.

"You may continue your obeisances and services in the privacy of my chambers," he said.

"Yes, Master," she said. She rose to her feet, her head humbly lowered. "Conduct her to my quarters," said Hassan to a soldier, he who held the key to her chains, "and chain her to the slave ring at the foot of my couch." The soldier glanced to Claudius, and then nodded. "Come, Slave," he said. "Yes, Master," she said, and was conducted from the room.

It has been an interesting evening," said Hassan, lifting his hand to the assemblage. "I wish you all well!"

We, too, wish you well, Hunter," said Claudius.

"Hail, Hassan!" called a man.

"Hail, Hassan!" called others.

The men rose from about the tables, saluting and applauding Hassan. He, lifting his hands, and turning, waving to them, took his leave from the hall. I think he was eager to begin the instructions of a slave.

Men, then, in twos and threes, began to take their leave. Menicius stood before me. He put out his hands and I lifted my chained wrists to him. He took my hands and turned them over, looking at the snug wrist rings locked on them.

"If I had my tools," he said, "I could have these off of you in a matter of Ehn."

I looked up at him, startled. I knew, of course, that he was of the metal workers.

"But without a key, or such help, you are absolutely helpless in them, aren't you?" he asked.

"Yes, Master," I said.

He smiled.

"You!" I said. "It was you who freed me in the camp of Miles of Argentum!" "Once," he said, "you spared my life, in Corcyrus. It seemed only fitting, then, that I might, if it were within my power, grant you some small favor In return." "But how could you have gained entrance into the camp," I said. "And there were two of you."

There was another, as well, one who must have had influence, one who must have been trusted, one who must have been more highly placed.

I saw Drusus Rencius looking at me.

"You," I whispered. "It was you!"

"Perhaps," he said.

"But you are an officer of Ar," I said. "How could you do such a thing?" He looked at me, angrily. "I know you," he said. "Whatever might be your frailties, your weaknesses, your pettinesses, your cruelties, I could not believe you were guilty of the crimes of the Tatrix of Corcyrus. Such things I could not believe were In you. Thus, I did not free the Tatrix of Corcyrus. Rather, to prevent a miscarriage of justice, I assisted in the escape of an innocent woman. In this sense I could even regard my act as having been performed in the line of duty."

"You did not know, truly," I said, "that I was not the Tatrix, nor that I could not be guilty of such crimes. Indeed, in Corcyrus, you even identified me, explicitly, as the Tatrix!"

His face clouded with anger.

"Your motivations were more complex," I said, "and deeper, and more painful and more cruel. I was not within your province to determine my innocence or guilt. That responsibility was that of Claudius, the Ubar of Argentum, and the high council. In no way was it incumbent on you to risk your commission, your future, your honor, your life, on what must at best have been little more than a remote possibility."

He regarded me with fury.

My heart leapt with joy. "You love me!" I whispered. "You love me!" I feared for a moment he might strike me. But he did not do so. I was another man's slave.

"I love you, Master!" I wept. "I have loved you from the beginning, when I first met you!"

He regarded me, wildly. Then be sneered, "Lying slave!"

"No, Master!" I protested. "I love you! I do love you! I love you with my whole heart!"

"What is going on here?" asked Miles of Argentum, coming over.

"Nothing," said Drusus Rencius

Menicius was smiling.

Miles of Argentum took the key to my chains from the soldier who had held it. He freed me of those stern impediments, so suitable for the confinement of women such as I slaves.

"Slave," said he.

"Yes, my master," I said.

"Go to the quarters of my women," he said.

"Yes, my master," I said and, tears in my eyes, fled to the quarters of his women.

34 Ligurious Is Served By Two Slaves

I lay naked on the couch of Ligurious, in the palace in Argentum. His touch had already reduced me, more than once, to a quivering slave.

"Wine," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said, and struggled up, turning. fetched him the goblet from a small, low table near the couch and, in a moment, after kissing the goblet, head down, kneeling, arms extended, proffered it to him. He sipped a bit of the wine, a Ka-la-na of Ar, and then returned the goblet to me. I kissed it again, and then replaced it on the table. With a gesture he indicated that I might once again crawl onto the couch. This was the last evening Ligurious was to spend In Argentum.

In the morning he was to receive safe conduct from' the city. I had been assigned to serve him tonight, in accord with the generosity of Gorean masters. Another girl, too, was to serve him, but I did not know who she was.

There was a knock at the door.

"Kneel, and grasp your ankles," he said.

I did so. I was then helpless, bound by his will.

He went to the door and opened it A slave was there. She was. naked., her hands were behind her back. About her neck, tied, was a key, doubtless to her bracelets, and a whip. There' were' two guards at the portal, but they were those who had been guarding it. The girl had apparently come alone through the hails to the portal, obediently, as I had. Ligurious indicated that she should enter. She did, and he closed, and locked, the door behind her.

He freed her of the bracelets and tossed them, and the key, to the side. He then removed the whip from about her neck. He regarded her. Their eyes met.

There was a long moment of silence.

"Kneel, Slave," said Ligurious, defining the relationship between them. "Yes, Master," she said.

"Is that the fashion in which I have my women kneel before me?" he asked. "Forgive me, Master," she said, and put her head down to the tiles before him, the palms of her hands flat on the floor.

"Lift your head," he said. She did so.

"Kiss the whip," he said. "Again, lingeringly!"

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Now lick and kiss it," he said. "Yes, Master," she whispered.

He then hurled the whip from him. It slid back across the tiles, until it stopped, at the door.

"Fetch," he said.