One of the guards then good-naturedly drew the slave away by the hair and threw her stumbling, with a jangle of slave bells, back into the crowd.

"No!" called another girl, from the side, kneeling, in brief purple silk, lifting small pinioned wrists. "The Golden Shackles! The Golden Shackles!"

I could smell her perfume from where I stood.

I touched my collar. It was a state collar. My work lay in the depths.

These others were slaves, it seemed, of a quite different sort from me. Yet we were all slaves, and all owned, in effect, by men.

"Perhaps," called the raider.

Doubtless there were many establishments in the city, I thought, that would be only too willing to a.s.sist men such as these in the disburs.e.m.e.nt of their riches.

The treasure was now muchly a.s.sorted, muchly tallied. Already some of it was being carried to the warehouses.

I saw a tarn, now disburdened of its loot, surrendered by its rider into the care of a tarnkeeper, who would conduct it to its cot.

Water bags were visible near one of the warehouse doors.

Captives stirred in their chains.

Some of the crowd, now that bulk of the treasure had been exhibited, began to leave.

I wondered if some of the raiders might go this night alone to the temples, to place there a private offering, no Initiates about. They might stand there alone and give thanks to the world, or the fates, or the Priest-Kings, that they had returned. One controls so little, if anything, of one's own fate. The mystery exists. The Initiates, I suspect, understand it as little as anyone else. It is only, I think, that they pretend to do so. That is how they make their living, by the most demeaning and grievous of all lies.

But others, many others, I suspected, perhaps simpler men, or perhaps more intellectually insouciant or robust fellows, would conduct themselves otherwise, joyously frequenting the taverns, prowling the streets with torches, making loud the night, indulging in riotous thankfulness. They had returned, to laugh, to sing, to drink, to hold yet another slave in their arms. These would be neither the soldiers of Priest-Kings nor the foes of Priest-Kings. They would be rather fellows who had chosen to go their own way. They would respect the mystery, but would not much concern themselves with it. Enough to spill a few drops from the first cup, a libation, honoring Priest-Kings, or perhaps, in the name of PriestKings, for what is involved here may have many names, what might hold sway over both men and Priest-Kings, the fates, the mystery. Ask no more then of men such as these than that of which they might be held responsible, ask of them only the sternness of their will, the loyalty of their heart, the skill and readiness of their steel. These things they might pledge and give. As for the rest, let the fates, or the mystery, or whatever it might be, be as it would.

But still others, I supposed, might return quietly to their compartments, to be greeted there by their kneeling slave, to be feasted by her and then, later, in the light of the lamp of love, to recollect, and cherish her, in the furs.

Several of the other tarns, disburdened of loot, had also, now, been conducted from the docking area.

More people had now left.

The guards had relaxed their lines. Some individuals went now to greet personally the raiders. Then, some of the raiders, together with friends, left the area.

I saw the belied slave, she in the scarlet silk, leashed by one of the raiders. It was thusly she would lead him to the tavern of Fabius. He was taking no chances on her slipping away from him when he arrived there. The girl in purple silk was between two other raiders. Her small wrists were pinioned before her.

They had her on a double leash.

Sometimes superb slaves are sent forth to solicit for the taverns but then, when one arrives there, they hurry away, to find more customers. These two, however, or' their leashes, would not be likely to do so.

These two who solicited would, it seemed, also serve and, I suspected, profoundly. The taverners might not like this, the time, indeed, perhaps the entire night, of a skilled soliciting slave being spent in service, hut I did not think they would object. Men such as these, once they have a girl on their leash, are seldom crossed with impunity. I saw some of the captives watching the two girls being led away, leashed. I wondered if they realized that such a fate might, in time, be in store for them.

I saw two officers beginning to examine the lines of captives. One had a grease pencil. They were followed by a scribe with a tablet, who made jottings as they proceeded down the line.

Information pertaining to captives and slaves, their dispositions, and such, is sometimes marked on their bodies. The upper surface of the left breast is often used for this. The pertinent information, displayed in this manner, so conveniently and prominently, is easily read. The left breast is used, I a.s.sume, because most men are right-handed. A similar consideration may illuminate the general custom of branding on the left thigh. The brand, in such a location, is more ready to the hand of a right-handed master.

Some dock workers, three of them, were picking up water bags, those which had been placed near one of the warehouse doors. It seemed they would water the captives before they were marched to the pens.

I did not doubt but what their flight had been a long and dry one. Too, it is interesting how watering a captive will improve her appearance.

Probably they wanted them watered before marching them down the barred corridors. Wholesalers sometimes congregate outside such corridors, leading down into the pens, looking in through the bars, forming conjectures as to the value of the catch.

I stepped a little forward. The guards did not seem to care now.

I walked a bit down the line which would have marked the front of the crowd.

Two of the guards walked away, conversing among themselves.

"Here, slaves!" I heard a fellow call.

It was the vendor of apricots. Quickly I and some four or five others sped to him, to kneel at his feet. He was in an excellent humor. I gather his business had prospered this afternoon.

"Please, Master," we begged. "Please!"

He pointed to his feet, and we crowded, one against the other, to lick and kiss them.

"Up!" he said.

We straightened up.

"Here is one for you," he said, "and one for you, and one for you!"

"Thank you, Master!" we cried. Such things are precious to us.

"Shameless s.l.u.ts!" cried a free woman, one of the captives, in one of the coffles. She had beautiful blond hair. She was probably vain of it. The officers and the scribe had already pa.s.sed her point in the line.

I had received an apricot.

"Disgusting s.l.u.ts!" cried the free captive.

"Please, Master," I cried, "another. Another!"

He looked at us.

"Please!" we wheedled. We almost rose from our knees, so eager we were.

"Very well," he said.

"Thank you, Master!" we cried.

And each of us received another! How generous he was! He took the last apricot for himself, gripped it between his teeth, and held the basket upside down, shaking it twice.

"Thank you, Master!" we called after him, as he left.

"He should have thrown the last one amongst you," said the free woman.

"it would have been amusing to see you fight for it, you meaningless she-sleen."

"I wish he had," snapped one of our number, the largest, a broad-bodied girl in a coa.r.s.e repcloth tunic.

"I would have obtained it!" I supposed she might, indeed, have won the apricot in any such contest Indeed, even if she had not won it, she might have taken it away from whoever had won it, unless, of course, the master had prevented it. To us she was quite fearsome, but to a man, of course, she would have been as only another female, to throw to his feet.

"Do not speak back to me!" snapped the free woman.

The broad-bodied girl went to stand near the free woman, looking down upon her. The free woman was kneeling in coffle. She was neck-chained. Her wrists were shackled behind her. Her ankles, too, were shackled.

"Down on your knees!" cried the free woman.

"It is you who are on your knees," said the broad-bodied girl. I sensed she had little affection for free women.

But why should she? Why should any of us? Free women were our enemies. They seldom neglected an opportunity to be cruel to us. We were so helpless. They were so imperiously grand in their freedom. We muchly feared them.

"Do not rise up, Lady!" said one of our number, kneeling to the side.

"You will be lashed!"

"I, lashed?" she said, incredulously. But she did not rise up, despite the broad-bodied girl's provocation.

Perhaps she recalled what had happened to the girl in the other line, the other captive, who had done that.

"Yes, you, lashed," said the broad-bodied girl.

"You have two pieces of fruit," said the free woman. "Give me one!"

"No," said the broad-bodied girl.

"No?" said the free woman, stunned.

"No," said the broad-bodied girl, taking a goodly bite from one of the apricots.

"I command you to do so!" said the free woman.

"You are shackled, and you have a chain on your neck," said the broadbodied girl.

"I shall call one of the guards!" said the free woman. The power of free women, of course, rests ultimately on the might of men. In the end, though this is sometimes obscured by social arrangements, it is the men who are the masters. Were it not for men, free women would be as powerless as slave girls.

"Call them," said the broad-bodied girl, biting again into the apricot.

"Do not call them, I beg of you, Lady," said one of the girls, quickly.

"They will beat you."

"I am not a slave," said the free woman.

"They will not mind accustoming you early to the whip," said another.

"Your time of ordering people about is over," said the broad-bodied girl.

"But you may, in some years, become a first girl in some household,"

suggested one of the slaves in the vicinity.

"Do you beg water?" inquired one of the dock workers of a woman some places earlier on the coffle. "I am to be addressed as 'sir'."

"Yes!" she exclaimed.

"Yes, what?" he asked.

"Yes-sir," she said.

He looked down at her.

"Please," she said, "please, sir. I am very thirsty. Please, sirsirsirsir!"

"Put your head back and open your mouth," he said.

She then put her head back, and he inserted the spike of the water bag between her teeth.

He watered her, briefly. She wanted more. It was not given to her. I saw her tongue try to obtain each last drop, each residual moistness, from about her lips. He then went to the next woman.

"Do you beg water?" he asked. "I am to be addressed as 'sir'."

"Yes, sir," she said. She was then watered.

She was watered more liberally than the other woman. She had doubtless learned from the other's experience. Her belly would be nicely rounded. A similar effect is obtained when a woman is wrist shackled and must pull the chain of the shackles back tightly against her waist.

I had had to do this in the corridor of the pens, while kneeling, shortly after being ordered from the pitch-dark cell. It is "having one's belly beneath the chain." That is, of course, also a way in Gorean for referring to a girl's bondage. For example, "I am pleased to note that Lady So-andSo's belly is now beneath the chain." "Excellent! How long has her belly been beneath the chain?" and so on. A slaver's practice is often to put binding fiber, or binding leather, about a girl's waist, snugly, and tie her hands behind her back. This, of course, narrows her waist, rounds her belly, and contributes to the accentuation of the bosom.

This is not really a slaver's "trick" because it is obvious what is being done. It is, however, attractive.

Needless to say, a slave is never bound so tightly or cruelly that she might be injured.

It would be stupid to damage her in such a way; as it would reduce her value. This does not mean, however, that she may not be bound tightly. It is useful for a slave to occasionally know herself absolutely helpless.

It would be not only the second woman who had profited from the experience of the first woman, but the first woman, as well. Given the next opportunity to beg water, I had no doubt she would do so as a needful, suitably deferent suppliant. Nor would she forget the word 'sir'.

To be sure, that expression of respect would doubtless soon be changed for another, one even more appropriate, and indeed, required, for what she was soon to be.

"I must leave now," said the broad-bodied girl to the free woman.

The free woman, on her chain, in her shackles, looked up at her.

Suddenly the broad-bodied girl kicked her in the side and then, biting on the apricot, holding it in her mouth, took the free woman by the hair with both hands and jerked her head back and forth. The free woman cried out in misery, in pain.

The broad-bodied girl then took the apricot from her mouth and bit into it again.

The free woman looked wildly to the dock worker, a few women from her, for protection, for redress.