Had she no slave in the cellars of her heart? Had she no concept as to where her true happiness might lie? "Yes," she said, "to the very highest of castes-saving only that of the Initiates, of course."

The Initiates, as I understood it, were celibate, or putatively so.

"Oh, yes! He would come back!" she said. "He was smitten with me! But I would not so much as glance at him now, I reclining in my palanquin. Let him tremble. Let him suffer! The palanquin seemed a st.u.r.dy sort. It was he, of course, who would close its shutters. 'Doubtless you will bring a high ransom,' he said.

'What?' I said, turning quickly toward him. The doors of the palanquin swung shut. I heard two bolts slide into place. It suddenly seemed extremely quiet in the palanquin. I rose to my knees and pounded on the door. I could hear my pounding very clearly but could hear little or nothing from the outside. I was suddenly extremely frightened.

The palanquin lifted. It began to move. I lost my balance. I wept. I recovered my balance.

I cried out. I scrambled about the palanquin, pounding on the sides, the ceiling, the surface of the couch.

It continued to move. I did not know to whence it was being borne. I was wild inside it, like a trapped animal. I called to the bearers. It seemed they could not, or would not, hear me. I screamed, my cry wild in the palanquin, reverberating within it, hurting my ears. But such a cry, I suddenly suspected, might not even be audible outside the palanquin. I tore away the hangings inside the palanquin. Behind them was iron. It was doubtless layered, insulated, and baffled. Outside, visible from the outside, would be the lacquered wood of the palanquin, it giving no hint as to what was inside. I lunged, and pressed, against the shutters of the door.

They were, too, beneath the silk, torn away, of iron. Their construction was doubtless the same as, or comparable to, the construction of the sides. They were closed, and locked. I put my fingers to the margins of the shutters. They were fitted closely into heavy linings of leather. I could not begin to move them. I flung aside the cushions of the palanquin. I tore aside the coverlets. I thrust back the mattress.

The flooring, too, was of iron.

I tore the silk from the ceiling. It, too, was of iron. In it, as in the walls, were tiny baffles, doubtless such as to admit air, but soften, or preclude, the exit of sound waves. I knelt on the floor, pressing upward. I could budge nothing. I screamed again. I called out. I threatened. I promised rewards. I cajoled!

The palanquin continued to move. It turned from time to time. Perhaps we were in lesstraveled streets now, side streets. I grew hoa.r.s.e with calling out. I could now scarcely speak.

The finger tips of my gloves, and the palms of them, were worn and soiled from pressing the hard surfaces about me. My gloves were expensive. They would be ruined.

They were even torn at the knuckles. And my knuckles within them, and the sides of my fists within them, hurt, from my pounding on the sides, the floor and ceiling of the palanquin.

It turned again, and continued to move. I thrust down the mattress and the coverlets, twisted as they were, and knelt on them, and pounded them, in frustration, in futile rage. I then, exhausted and miserable, threw myself to my stomach upon them, weeping."

"Go on," I said.

"I was in an iron box," she said, "being carried away."

"You were helpless," I said.

"For the first time in my life," she said. "The palanquin was apparently later placed on a wagon, doubtless covered over, and thusly was I removed from the city.

I eventually fell asleep and, doubtless Ahn later, I awakened. The palanquin must have been removed from the wagon.

The doors opened, and a voice said, 'Come forth.' I crept to the edge of the palanquin, to the threshold.

It was dark outside. I was in some sort of ruined barn. I could see through its sides, and roof. We were somewhere in the country. The moons were full. A rope was dropped over my head and drawn closely about my neck. By its means I was drawn from the palanquin. One man then stood behind me, he who held the rope by means of which I was kept in place. I was then, other than for the fellow behind me, standing before my captors.

There were, altogether, six or seven of them. He who had lured me to the shop was there, and still masked. It was he who was most prominently before me. It was he, it seemed, who was first among them. 'What is the meaning of this?' I demanded. 'You cannot get away with this!' I cried. 'You will pay for this!' I cried. 'Release me!' I demanded. 'Keep your mouth shut,' he said. He said that to me, a free woman! 'I will do as I please!' I said. 'Do you wish to keep your clothing?' asked one of the men.

Another laughed. 'I am a free woman,' I whispered. The fellow in the mask, whom I had foolishly taken as a smitten swain, seemed to be regarding my figure, in the moonlight.

Shadows fell across me from the ruins of the barn. Doubtless he was free and could respect me, as I was free, as well. But it made me uneasy, to see him look at me, regarding me in the moonlight, in the shadows, from head to toe. 'Whatever the ransom you wish,' I a.s.sured him, 'it will be paid, promptly.'

'Let us strip her,' said one of the brutes, 'and have her serve us, keeping her as a slave, until the ransom is paid. None will know. And she, in her vanity, will never speak of what was done to her.' I could not move, for the rope on my neck. 'No,' said another, 'and if she dared to do so, she would doubtless be remanded to the pens, for sale outside the city.' I trembled. You can well imagine my terror, at the thought of being at the mercy of such beasts! Can you imagine? I, a free woman, to be kept as a slave? I am not such! The thought of it was unconscionable! I wavered. I almost fainted at the thought. 'You see, said one of them, 'she desires so to serve!' 'No, no!' I cried. They laughed. How could they so misunderstand my responses? 'You would oil, juice and gush, naked, your beauty in chains,' said another.

'No!' I cried. 'You would hasten to serve, once having felt the lash,' said another. I almost swooned.

'No, no,' I murmured, scarcely able to speak. 'Interesting,' mused their leader. Did he, too, misunderstand my responses? 'I am a free woman!' I cried. But then I drew back, in terror, for he in the mask, their leader, had produced a knife. But I did not want to press back against he behind me, either. I stood where I was, frightened, the rope on my neck. Then I did shrink back, for the knife approached me. "Please!" I protested. I felt its point move through my robes, their layers. Its point was at my lower abdomen. Then, with a quick lateral motion, I crying out a little, it opened a slit in my robes, perhaps a mere hort or two in width. 'Keep your hands to your sides,' said the leader of my captors. The knife, its point, was within my robes. Then it directed itself toward me. I felt the point press lightly, twice, against my lower abdomen.

"Please!" I wept. The point came forward a little. I pressed back, against the captor behind me, literally against him, I was pinned against him. by the point of the knife. My head was up, from the rope on my neck. 'Does she have a belly?' asked one of the men.

'Oh!' I said. I winced. 'It would seem so,' said their leader, he in the mask. The men laughed. 'Is it a pretty one?' asked a man. 'Let us see,' said another. 'Hands at your sides!' I was sternly warned by the leader. I felt the knife turn within my robes, its blade upward. From the manner in which it had earlier parted my robes I knew it was extremely sharp. With one upward diagonal movement I had little doubt it could part my garments, with one stroke revealing me from my lower belly to my throat. I sobbed. I tensed. The knife was removed from my garments, and sheathed. I quickly put my hands over the tiny rent in my robes, and then adjusted them, that it would be covered.

One of the men uttered a sound, as of disappointment. 'Hands to your sides,' my captor reminded me. I put my hands again to my sides. The rent was now well concealed, as I had adjusted the robes. 'The value of a slave can only be adequately ascertained when she is utterly bared,' said my captor, 'but the value of a free woman, one for whom a ransom is requested, is often the better preserved the more her modesty is respected.' 'True,' said a man.

Unaccountably I was angry. 'Keep your hands to your sides,' said my captor, again. I complied.

I then felt a broad band of leather put about me. It was quite snug, and it was buckled behind me. Within it, my arms were helpless. It also had, as I later learned, a ring in the back, by means of which I might be attached to various objects, such as other rings or stanchions. I then stood before them, in this confinement. The rope was still on my neck.

'What ransom shall we ask for you?' inquired my captor. 'I am priceless,' I said.

'Nonetheless,' said he, the beast, 'we shall think in terms of a finite amount.' 'Armies will search for me!' I said. One of the men laughed. 'But doubtless there will be a search,' said another. 'Have no fear, lady,'

said my captor. 'We have a place in mind for you, an excellent place, one for your safekeeping, where no one will ever find you."

At this point she desisted in her discourse and I heard, in the darkness, an angry, futile rattling of bars. I also detected, again, the creaking of a chain, as though some object, suspended on it, might be swinging back and forth. I did not know in what sort of incarceration she was, of course, but I did not doubt, from what I knew of this world, that it would be effective. I also heard a churning below us, in the water. The sound must have excited the curiosity of something down there.

"He then put his hands to my head," she continued, "I helpless before him, confined in the broad band of leather, held in place by the rope on my neck. His hands were at my veil! 'No!' I cried. His hand removed the pins. He held the veil in place. 'No!' I begged. I was helpless! He could face-strip me at his pleasure! 'You did not care, as I recall,' he said, 'to lower your veil that even for an instant your features might be glimpsed.' 'No!' I sobbed. These words reminded me, of course of my own, in the shop. I was terrified. His hands were on my veil. He could remove it, in any fashion he might wish, at any time he might wish. 'If you do not wish your veil lowered,' said he, 'then let it be raised.' He then lifted my veil upward and bound it about my face. In moments, with the veil and other cloths, I was blindfolded. A cloth, too, over the veil, was drawn back between my teeth, deeply, and tied, within my hood, behind the back of my neck. I was thusly gagged. My hood then, too, was drawn forward, over my features, and tied beneath my chin. The rope remained on my neck. I was lifted from my feet, and sat upon the wooden floor. To my horror my hose and slippers were removed. 'She has pretty feet,' said a man. 'Like a slave,' said another. 'Yes,' said another. I drew back my feet, but a man crossed them, the right over the left. They were then lashed together, with the hose. 'The slippers are rich and intricately embroidered,'

said the leader. 'Doubtless there is not another such pair in the city. They will be easily recognized. They will serve as token that she is within our power.' Then said the leader to me, 'One whimper means "Yes,"

and two whimpers means "No." Do you understand?' I whimpered once. There is apparently a code in such things."

This was true. Such a convention was, as far as I knew, commonly observed on this world. At any rate I, who had been fitted with, and subjected to, and had learned to endure, a considerable variety of gags, and mouth bonds, in my training, was familiar with it. It had been taught me as early as my first gag. I understood, of course, that such things might well not be familiar to free women. To be sure, they are not stupid, no more than other women, and can be taught them quickly. Most slaves, after all, doubtless, were once free women. One interesting form of gag is being "gagged by the master's will," in which the woman is simply forbidden to speak, except, of course, for whimpers, in response to direct questions.

One may also be "bound by the master's will," in which case one must keep one's limbs in a given position. perhaps wrists crossed, at the back of one's head, as though they were literally bound, forbidden to separate them without permission. I do not know why one whimper is used for "Yes," and two for "No." It is probably because one usually thinks of such responses, for whatever reason, in terms of "Yes" and "No," rather than of "No" and "Yes." It does not seem to be correlated with the greater frequency of affirmative to negative responses to questions. For example, "Do you wish a blanket in your cell?" is likely to elicit a piteously affirmative response, whereas "Do you wish to be lashed?" is likely to elicit one which is earnestly negative.

"The rope was removed from my neck," she said. "I was then lifted in the arms of someone 'We expect you to be cooperative,' I was informed by the leader. His voice was from before me, so it was not he in whose arms I was held. 'If you are not cooperative, or choose to be troublesome,' he continued 'your clothing will be removed, and you will be lashed, as though you might be a slave. Do you understand?' I a.s.sumed he was bluffing, but with such a man, with such men, such beasts and brutes, I could not be sure. I whimpered once. 'Take her away,' said the leader. I sobbed, and whimpered, and struggled, but it was to no avail. I was later placed in a trunk of some sort, I think. I heard the latches fastened.

Indeed, I thought I heard, as well, the closing of four heavy padlocks. This was placed on a cart.

Several times I was transferred from one container or vehicle to another. I was ungagged only in darkness and then to be fed and watered. More than once I was aerially transported."

I, too, at least once, had been so transported. Well I recalled my helplessness, the whistling of the wind, the swaying of the basket. It would be by air, it seemed, in one fashion or another, one would most likely arrive at this place, this apparently remote aerie. She had claimed to be clothed. I supposed it true, but in the darkness I did not know. She must be fortunate.

Certainly most of the women I had seen brought here, when I was in the cell in the side of the mountain, had been brought here as stripped, or scantily clad, captives. Slaving, it seemed, was a part of the business of this place. On this world, as I have indicated, women count as loot.

Perhaps the women were then transported beyond the mountains, to far markets.

"Often did I recall," said she, "how they had spoken of having a place in mind for me, one for my safekeeping, one in which no one would ever find me!"

I heard her shake the bars in the darkness.

"Oh, yes!" she cried. "Here I am surely theirs! Here I need not fear rescue!"

I thought it true.

"Where is the ruby necklace?" I inquired. I thought it must be very pretty, and of great value.

"They left it on me, the sleen," she cried, "until I arrived here. It was their joke, I think, that I should wear, for all to see, hung about my neck, when I arrived here, what I had sought so avidly, so greedily, that with which they had baited their trap, that by means of which I had been snared, that in virtue of which I had come so simply into their power! But, their joke finished, it was removed from me before I was put here."

"You do not know where it is?" I asked.

"No," she said. "Perhaps it is now once again at its work. Perhaps, even now, it is being used to snare another."

"They are clever wretches!" she cried, suddenly. Again I heard the movement of what must be bars, shaken. She wept.

It seemed, indeed, she had been deftly, and cleverly, taken. The men here, it seemed, were not unskillful in diverse endeavors. Many businesses might be herein practiced. Certainly her acquisition, the arrangements, her transportation and such, spoke of a tried methodology, of some sort of experience or ac.u.men in such matters. I gathered that she was rich. Her ransom, I speculated, would be considerable.

It would doubtless be far more than she, or, I supposed, almost any woman, would be likely to bring on a sales block. If that were not the case, it seemed unlikely that the men here would be holding her for ransom.

Rather, they would simply sell her, perhaps individually, or in a lot, with others. She was, it seemed, a free woman. I myself, on the other hand, was the sort of woman who is most appropriately owned. I had known this, even on my old world. And here, on this world, I was owned.

To be sure, I would have preferred a private master. You might think, incidentally, that all of us would prefer to choose our own master, and not merely a private master, but an individual master, but that is not true. I think I would have preferred to choose my own master, but that is perhaps only because I remembered one from long ago, one before whom I had knelt even before my body had grown used to bonds of iron, one whom I had never forgotten, one whom I had failed to please, one whose whip I had kissed. But some of us, at least, would prefer not to choose our own master, but, rather, to have one imposed upon us, whom we must then, in the fullness of our bondage, willing or not, strive to please.

Indeed, had I not met a particular man, one I well remembered, I, myself, might have preferred this latter alternative. I did, of course, hope to have a kind master, or, at least, one as kindly as was compatible with the clear, strict relationship in which we stood to one another. I wanted to win the love of my master, whoever he might me. I asked only the opportunity to serve and love. I was waiting to serve and love.

But, in any event, it is not we who choose the masters. It is the masters who choose us.

"Hist!" she said, suddenly. "Someone is coming!"

I sat up, as I could, in the net, my hands bound behind me, my ankles crossed and tied. The net swung.

I heard nothing.

I saw nothing.

I was very still. I strained to hear. If she had truly heard something, her senses must have become considerably sharpened in this environment. To be sure, she might have learned, somehow, to detect and interpret the slightest of sounds in such a place. I did hear a stirring in the waters somewhere beneath. I had heard that sound before.

Then I thought I did hear something.

Something was approaching!

I became suddenly conscious, terribly so, of my helplessness and vulnerability. It was not merely that I was naked and bound, and helplessly the prisoner of a net. It was rather the inst.i.tutionalized helplessness and vulnerability, so complete, perfect and uncompromising, that was symbolized by my brand and collar. I was a slave.

I thought I saw a light, dim, far off.

What would be done with me? I recalled that the man in the chair had speculated that Dorna, the high slave, would not be displeased with my disposition. That recollection did not hearten me.

Closer grew the light.

"He is coming," whispered the woman from the darkness. I heard the slight creak of the chain.

It seemed to me that at least two were in the pa.s.sage, but it may be, I thought, that only one counted.

Of what use, I asked myself, would be my beauty, if beauty it was, or the helplessness of my s.e.xual reflexes, taken as a matter of course in a slave, in a place such as this? But doubtless I would be a.s.signed my duties!

The light came closer.

I did not even know my name! I had a name. One had been given to me by masters. But I did not know what it was. It was on my collar. I knew that. But I did not know what it was. Indeed, I could not even read.

Now I could hear tiny sounds, unusual sounds, in the approaching pa.s.sage.

I shuddered, waiting, bound in the net.

I recalled the girl from the surface, a slave, who had been whipped and sent, plunging, into the depths.

She was terrified. I had no doubt she would do her best to be found pleasing.

The light was now closer, and I could determine, clearly, that there were two figures in the pa.s.sage. The first was a woman, in a brief tunic. No more than a rag.

She was excellently curved. She was doubtless a slave. She carried a torch. I was not sure what was behind her. I did not even know, for certain, if it were human or not. It seemed a large, broad thing, but it had tiny legs. It walked bent over. I did not know if it could straighten itself or not. it less walked than shambled. It moved with small steps.

I blinked against the light. It was now bright, contrasting with the precedent darkness.

The woman continued to approach.

The thing, whatever it was, with its small steps, its lurching gait, came shuffling, shambling, behind her, snuffing, sniffing, and grunting. It was not, I surmised, human.

The woman stopped.

She now stood a few feet from me, behind a low wall. This wall was apparently circular. My net, I now discovered, was suspended almost over the center of what appeared to be a large, circular, well-like enclosure. The enclosure was perhaps some sixtyfive to seventy feet in diameter. The water, several yards below, was very dark. I saw that my net had some ropes attached to it, which extended to a wall behind the walkway where the woman stood, behind what appeared to be the exterior wall of the well-like structure. I heard a creak of chain to my right, and I looked there, quickly. It was from that direction that I had heard the voice of the free woman earlier. I gasped. There, a few feet to my right, there hung, suspended from a heavy chain, fixed in the ceiling, a narrow, conical-topped, cylindrical cage.

It was perhaps some six feet in height, and some two to three feet in diameter. In this cage, standing within it, veiled, in robes of concealment, was a woman. The arrangement of the veils suggested that they were merely tied about her features, and not pinned. Her robes of concealment seemed soiled and, at the hems, were torn. Her small hands grasped the bars of the cage. It was these she had, it seemed, futilely tested from time to time. She did not have gloves, which must have cost her modesty somewhat, but I did not find this surprising. From time to time, her wrists might have been corded before her, or behind her, and men on this world seldom, as I understand it, put bonds over such things as gloves or hose. They prefer on the whole, it seems, to place bonds upon, and to check and test their knots, the arrangement and such, on the bared limbs themselves. In this approach one obtains greater security, of course, as layers between the bonds and the flesh are avoided. I recalled her slippers had been, by her own account, taken from her to be used as evidence of her capture. Too, as I recalled, her ankles had been bound with her own hose. That sort of thing is not unusual. Indeed, the guards in the pens had said that free women were eager to oblige their captors, for they carried about with them, for the convenience of the captors, their own bonds, one stocking for the ankles, the other for the wrists. The free woman pulled her feet back, a little, more under her robes. She was doubtless terribly distressed that her feet were not covered. She was not, after all, a slave. Slaves, I might mention, are often kept barefooted.

"What is that on your neck?" suddenly cried the free woman. "I see it through the cordage of the net! It is glinting! It is a collar! You are a slave, a slave!"

I was too frightened to answer her. I had not told her that I was not a slave, of course. On the other hand, I had not corrected her misapprehension as to the matter. I hoped this would not count as lying.

We can be punished terribly for lying.

"Lying slave!" she screamed.

"No, Mistress!" I cried. "Please, no!"

"Oh, you are a well-curved slave!" she cried, angrily. I hoped she would not hold this against me. What could it matter to her, a free woman, if I might bring a good price on the block? "Deceptive, deceitful slave!" she cried.

"No, Mistress!" I said.

"Well-curved, lying slave!" she screamed.

"Forgive me, Mistress," I begged.

"Beat her! Beat her!" she called toward the walkway, that behind the wall.