Henry looked quickly toward the portal.

She looked over her shoulder, too. Frustration crossed her lovely features.

"I would serve you!" she said.

"Serve me?" he said.

"Surely master knows what to do with a slave," she said.

He threw her then to her back on the tiles. "Spread your legs, slave,"

he said.

"Yes, my master!" she said, delightedly.

I heard another sound behind the portal. The clerk, I gathered, had returned. The pit master, with the two pit guards, and I, of course, were waiting for him.

"Shameless," said the pit master to me, regarding the pair, she in his arms, on the scarlet circle.

"Yes, Master," I said, happily.

"Yet doubtless he should try the s.l.u.t out," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"I wonder how she will do as a slave," he said.

I considered the pair. She was gasping in his arms, head back, eyes closed.

"Excellently, I conjecture, Master," I said.

"She looks well, naked, in her collar," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"She belongs in it," he said.

"Yes, Master," I said.

"Ai! Aiiii!" cried Henry.

"Oh, my master! My master!" cried the slave.

Then she wept, pulling at the binding fiber, "I cannot hold you! I cannot hold you!"

He then knelt beside her, and lifted her to a half-sitting position in his arms.

Her head and hair were back, hanging down. Her body was gorgeous with color, a mottled scarlet tapestry. Her nipples were tightly pointed.

"It seems you will do as a slave," he said.

"I desire only to serve and please my master," she said.

He gasped, trying to regain his breath. He put her to her back on the scarlet circle. He, kneeling, looked down upon her.

"I love you," he said.

"And I love you, my master," she said.

Then suddenly, without warning, he seized her ankles and thrust them cruelly apart.

"You are a slave," he reminded her.

"Yes, Master," she said. "Do with me as you will."

"Ah!" she cried.

It took him longer with her this time, and, then, in a few minutes, he stood up, unsteadily.

She looked up at him. "The slave would be grateful if her master were pleased with her," she said.

"The master is pleased with her," he said.

"The slave is grateful," she said.

The portal leading from the chamber opened and the clerk stepped through, taking in, in a glance, the slave, naked on the tiles, and her master standing over her. He did not seem surprised.

"Sir," said he. "The court must conduct further business."

"We are leaving," said Henry, he of the house of William, in Harfax.

The clerk withdrew, presumably to return shortly.

She stretched a little, and lifted one knee, rather saucily, rather provocatively, I thought.

"Do you think that I may do as a slave, truly?" she asked.

"It is possible," he said.

"And how do I compare to your Tuta?" she asked.

"There seems little to choose between you," he said.

"But how could I compare with her?" she asked. "I am too unlike her!"

"Not as unlike as you think," he said.

"I am only as a moon to her sun," she pouted, "only as a tarskbit, and a shaved one, to her gold."

"Perhaps it was a mistake to remove your gag," he said.

"In your mind, compared to her, I could be only as nothing," she said.

"Be silent," he said.

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Master?" she asked. For he had drawn a knife from his robes.

"Kneel," he said.

She did so.

He then went behind her and cut the remains of the outer robe of concealment away from her bound wrists.

"What are you doing?" he asked, for she had lifted her bound wrists out, away from her body, lifting them up, toward him.

"Are you not going to sever the binding fiber?" she asked.

"What is wrong with it?" he asked. "Does it not bind you perfectly?"

"It does bind me perfectly," she a.s.sured him. "I am quite helpless in it."

"Then," said he, "it will remain as it is, until I might be pleased to remove it."

"Oh," she said.

"Do you understand, Constanzia, Tuta-Constanzia?" he asked.

"Yes, Master," she said. "We understand."

The leash still dangled from her neck.

"On your feet," he said.

She struggled to her feet.

He took the leash and drew her to him, quite closely. He then regarded her, about a foot from him, he holding her there, by the leash.

"You have served well in quick usages," he said. "We will see later how you do when put to service for Ahn at a time."

"I know nothing!" she said, in alarm. "I have not been lovetrained!"

"I will train you to my tastes," he said.

"Whip-train me," she whispered.

"The training of such as you is always subject to the whip," he said.

"Good," she said.

I recalled, as undoubtedly she had, as well, his often-remarked observation, early in their acquaintance, that she was in need of whip-training. Now, it seemed that that deficiency would be remedied. It would be attended to.

She inched closer to him. She was now almost touching him, looking up at him.

"And as what shall I be trained?" she asked.

"As a pleasure slave, of course," he said.

"You dare?" she asked. "You dare do that to she who was once the Lady Constanzia of Besnit?"

"Certainly," he said.

"Why?" she asked.

"Because that is the way I want you," he said.

"You are a beast," she said.

"I am a man," he said.

"But what of my will in these matters?" she asked.

"You have no will in these matters," he said. "You are a slave. Your will is meaningless; it is nothing."

This was true. The will of the slave did not count. The will of the master was all.

"But would I be a good pleasure slave?" she asked.

"I will see to it," he said. "And you will be not only a good pleasure slave, but, I a.s.sure you, you will be a perfect pleasure slave."

"I see," she said.

"Then you are serious," she said. "I, the former Lady Constanzia of Besnit, am to be a pleasure slave, and you will train me as such."

"Yes," he said.

"I see," she said.

"Did you ever doubt it?" he asked.

"No," she smiled.

"Is it not the sort of training you want?" he asked.

"It is the sort of training I beg!" she said, suddenly, delightedly, earnestly. He then crushed her to him.

I had realized, of course, for some time, that there was not only a slave in the Lady Constanzia of Besnit, but a pleasure slave. It had been obvious, for some time, that she wanted desperately to submit herself to the mysterious visitor to Treve, to submit herself in the most perfect and complete way a woman can submit herself to a man, to be his ardent, devoted, helpless pleasure slave.