"What interest would Belnar have had in such a thing?" I asked.

"None, really," he said, wincing, the blade at his throat. "He acted in obedience to the will of another, one more powerful than he."

"What other?" I asked.

"Lurius," he said. "Lurius of Jad, Ubar of Cos!"

"Lurius?" I said.

"Yes!" he cried. "Don't kill me!"

I withdrew the blade from his throat, and he shuddered in his bonds. I had not even thought of gross Lurius, he of Jad, he who was ubar of Cos. Once, long ago, I had sacked a treasure fleet bound from Tyros to Cos, intended for Lurius. Too, at that time, I had taken and chained naked at the prow of my flagship, as a trophy of my victory, the lovely young Vivina, who was being brought to Telnus, the capital of Cos, to be entered into companionship with him, then to be his royal consort. In Port Kar, then, later, I had had her collared, and locked beneath the slaving iron. She was not the preferred slave of Henrius, a captain in Port Kar.

"Why has Lurius acted in this matter only now?" I asked.

"I do not know," said Flaminius, frightened.

It had to do, I was sure, with new movements in the politics of cities. It had to do, I supposed, not only with me, personally, but with Port Kar, as well. To be sure, Lurius had a long memory.

"I am naked and bound," said Flaminius. "You cannot kill me in cold blood!"

"I can," I said.

He regarded me with horror.

"If the semantics of the matter trouble you," I said, "you may regard it as an execution."

"On what grounds!" he cried.

"For treason to Ar," I said.

"I am at your mercy," he said. "Spare me!"

"I may consider doing so," I said.

"Please him!" cried Flaminius to Yanina. "Please him!"

I felt Yanina's tongue, and lips, at my feet. "I desire to do so," she said.

"Slut!" cried Flaminius.

I looked down at the girl rendering her submission at my feet. I sheathed my sword.

I held Yanina in my arms, before Flaminius. I looked down into her eyes.

"You well tricked us," she said. "How you had me thinking myself so clever! What you had out of me, what you made me do! How shameless and wanton I had to be! How you let me think that I was beguiling you, that I in a desperate fashion was buying time for rescuers to appear. Buy you had all, all, and no rescuers appeared!"

"The slaves owes such, and more, to any master who commands her," I said.

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Rescuers might have appeared," I said. "It was merely that I did not expect them to do so."

"What would you have done, if they had arrived?" she asked.

"I would have left," I said.

"So simply?" she said.

"Yes," I said. "Do you question me?"

"No," she said. "Yanina does not question Master."

I took the heavy padlock in my fingers, that under her chin, that which held the chain on her neck. I flipped it, and let it fall back. She could feel its weight drag against the chain. "It holds me well," she said.

I put my head down, and kissed her, and her lips met mine, yielding, in the unmistakable softness, and submission, and gratitude, of the owned slave.

"Slave!" snarled Flaminius.

"I began, Master, this morning," she whispered to me, "pretending, but somewhere, I am not sure where, surely by this afternoon, I realized that I was no longer pretending. I realized more than anything, to love and serve men, and to please them wholly and selflessly, as a slave her masters."

I then, gently, to the fury of Flaminius, took her, as she gasped, and clutched, and thanked me.

"You yield well," I told her.

"Hateful slut!" cried Flaminius. "Despicable slave!"

"I am a girl on a chain," she smiled. "Is it not appropriate that I so yield?"

"It is," I said.

"And if I did not yield well," she asked, "would you whip me, or have your menials do so?"

"Under certain circumstances, and in certain contexts," I said, "of course."

"You have taught me much," she said.

"Perhaps," I said.

"You know you have spoiled me forever for freedom," she said.

"Oh?" I said.

"I know wan my collar," she said. "I love it. I want to serve, and love. It is what I am."

"You re a female," I said.

"yes, Master," she said. "But even did I not desire it, men would see to it that I know served choicelessly, and with perfection, would they not?"

"yes," I said.

"That is what I desire," she said.

"It is late," I said. " mist now take my leave from the city."

She began to tremble in my arms.

"What is wrong?" I asked.

"Not that I have yielded to you, and now that I have learned my slavery, you will not kill me, will you?"

"Perhaps not," I said.

"But you have something else in mind for me, don't you," she asked, "something appropriate for what I now am, a slave?"

"Perhaps," I said.

"But Flaminius you might kill," she said.

"Yes," I said.

"No!" cried Flaminius, sitting naked before the bars, his back to them, his wrists tied back to them of either side of his body.

I rose to my feet and donned my garments, and retrieved the sheath, with the belt and sword. It was now late. The moons were out. I came back and stood before Flaminius.

"No!" he said. "Do not kill me, please!"

I glanced down at the girl. She way lying on her belly, on the furs, the heavy chain padlocked about her neck, over her collar, the other end of it fastening her to the foot of the bars. Moonlight and a tracery of shadows, from the lattice of a window, was on her body.

"I give her to you!" cried Flaminius. "I do not want her! She is only a slut and a slave!"

"Do you do so, freely," I asked, "without obligation on my part, your gift having no pertinence to what now may, or may not, be done to you?"

"Of course!" he said. "Of course!"

"I accept your gift," I said. The girl gasped at my feet. I now owned her.

"Kneel," I said to her, "to hear my will with respect to you."

Swiftly she knelt before me, trembling, straightening her body.

"Hear this, too, Flaminius," I said.

"Yes," he said. "Yes!"

"She is to be delivered to my holding, the holding of Bosk of Port Kar, in Port Kar," I said.

"Yes," he said.

"And she is to be delivered in the following fashion," I said.

"Yes?" he said.

"She is to be drugged with Tassa powder," I said, "and packed in a barrel with parsit fish."

"It will be done as you wish," said Flaminius.

It was in this fashion that she had smuggled me, and several others, out of Port Kar. She would now be returned to the city in the same fashion, only as a slave.

"Do you object, Yanina?" I asked.

"No, Master," she said.

"If this is not done," I said to Flaminius, "I will not be pleased. Think, too, that someday, somewhere, we might meet again. Consider even the possibility that I, displeased, might come to seek you out."

"The matter will be attended to," said Flaminius, "I assure you, exactly according to your instructions."

"You may kiss my feet, slave," I said.

Swiftly Yanina put her head down, and did so.

I then left. "Untie me, Slave!" I heard, behind me. "The knots are too tight, Master," she wept. "I cannot undo them." "Chew through the thongs, then" he said, "Hurry! Hurry!" "Yes, Master!" she wept. "Yes, Master!" I heard the movement of her chain on the tiles. Outside, in the garden, off in the distance, on one of the bridges, I saw some men approaching. They had not yet seen me. I did not even know if they would. I looked at the slender, swaying tarn wire. I took the small, flanged metal wheel, with its protruding axlelike spindle, from my pouch. I also put the thick leather gloves on my hands.