Then, still kneeling, she raised her hand, head back, insolently to her hair, to remove from it one of the ornate pins, its head carved from the horn of a kailiauk, that bound it.

Again a thong, this time that on her right wrist, prohibited, but only for an instant, the movement, but inches from her hair.

She frowned. There was laughter.

At last, sometimes immediately permitted, sometimes not, she had removed the pins from her hair. Her hair was beautiful, rich, long and black. As she knelt, it fell back to her ankles.

Then, with her hands, she lifted the hair again back over her head, and then, suddenly, her hands, by the thongs were pulled apart and her hair fell again loose and rich over her body.

Now, angrily, struggling, she fought to lift her hair, again but the thongs, holding apart her hands, did not permit her to do so. She fought them. The thongs would permit her only to wear her hair loosely.

Then, as though in terror and fury, as though she now first understood herself in the snares of a slave, she leaped to her feet, fighting, to the music, the thongs.

The dancing girls of Port Kar, I told myself, are the best on all Gor.

Dar and golden, shimmering, crying out, stamping, she danced, her thonged beauty incandescent in the light of the torches and frenzy of the slave bells.

She turned and twisted and leaped, and sometimes seemed almost free, but was always, by the dark thongs, held complete prisoner. Sometimes she would rush upon one man or another, but the others would not permit her to reach him, keeping her always beautiful female slave snared in her web of thongs. She writhed and cried out, trying to force the thongs from her body, but could not do so.

At last, bit by bit, as her fear and terror mounted, the men, fist by fist, took up the slack in the thongs that tethered her, until suddenly, they swiftly bound her hand and foot and lifted her over their heads, captured female slave, displaying her bound arched body to the tables.

There were cries of pleasure from the tables, and much striking of the right fist on the left shoulder.

She had been truely superb.

Then the men carried her before my table and held her bound before me. "A slave," said one.

"Yes," cried the girl, "slave!"

The music finished with a clash.

The applause and cries were wild and loud.

I was much pleased.

"Cut her loose," I told the men.

The did so and, swiftly, like a cat, the girl ran to my chair, and knelt at my feet. She looked up, streaked with sweat, breathing heavily, her eyes shining.

"Your performance was not without interest," I said to her.

She put her cheek to my knee.

"Ka-la-na!" I called.

A cup was brought. And I took her by the hair and held back her head, pouring the wine down her throat, some of it running down her face and body under the slave collar and its bells.

She looked up at me, her mouth stained with wine. "Did I please you?" she asked.

"Yes," I said.

"Do not send me back to your men," said begged. "Keep Sandra for yourself."

"We shall see," I said.

"Sandra wants much to please Master," she said.

Wily wench, I thought.

"You used Sandra only once," pouted the girl. "It is not fair." She looked up at me. "Sandra is better than Midice," she said.

"Midice," I said, "is very good."

"Sandra is better," wheedled the girl. "Try Sandra and see."

"Perhaps," I said. I gave her head a rough shake and permitted her to remain kneeling at the arm of my chair. I saw other slave girls, serving at the tables, cast looks of hatred and jealousy on her. Like a satisfied cat, she knelt beside my chair.

"The gold, Captain," said one of my treasure guards.

I had arranged a surprise for my retainers on this night of feasting and victory.

He lifted, heavily, to the dais on which my chair and talbe sat a heavy leather sack filled with golden tarn disks of double weight, of Cos and Tyros, of Ar and Port Kar, even of distant Thentis and remote Turia, far to the south. He placed the sack beside my great chair. Few, saving those immediately near me, saw it there.

"Send for the slave girl from Tyros!" I called.

There was laughter from the tables.

I held out my paga goblet, but it was not filled. I looked about, angrily.

I called out to a pa.s.sing slave girl. "Wher is the slave Telima?" I demanded.

"She was here but a moment ago," said a slave girl.

"She went to the kitchens," said another.

I had not given her permission to leave.

"I will serve you paga," said Sandra.

"No," I said, holding the paga goblet away from her. I addressed myself to one of the slave girls. "Have Telima beaten," I said, "and sent to my side. I would be served."

"Yes Master," said the girl, speeding away.

Sandra looked down, angrily, pouting.

"Do not fret," I said to her, "or I shall have you beaten as well."

"It is only, Master," said she, "that I wish to serve you."

I laughed. She was indeed a wily wench.

"Paga?" I asked.

She looked up at me, suddenly, her eyes bright, her lips slightly parted. "No,"

she said, "wine."

"I see," I said.

There was a rustle of chain and the Lady Vivina, to the pleasure of the tables, was conducted before me.

I heard a movement at my side and saw that Telima now stood again where she had before. There were tears in her eyes. I did not doubt taht she now had four or five welts on her back from the switch of the kitchen master. The thin rep-cloth tunic provides little protection from the kitchen master's switch. I held out the paga goblet, and she refilled it.

I looked upon the Lady Vivina.

All attention was upon her. Even several of the slaves, about the edges of the room, behind the tables, had gathered to look upon her. I saw the slave boy, Fish, among them.

I regarded the girl before me. She had been chief among my prizes.

This afternoon I had presented her, with her maidens, in the chains of slave girls, together with portions of the treasures of the treasure fleet, and accountings of the balance thereof, before the Council of Captains of Port Kar.

They had been beautiful, in silver throat coffle, their wrists bound behind their backs in golden slave bracelets, kneeling as pleasure slaves among the jewels, the piled gold, and the heaps of silk and kegs of spices. She who was to have been the Ubara of Cos was in the city of Port Kar only booty.

"Greetings Lady Vivina," said I to her.

"Is that the name you will choose to know me by?" she asked.

This afternoon, after returning from the Coucil of Captains, I had had her marked and collared.

Now, aside from her collar and brand, standing before me, she wore only slave bracelets.

She was very beautiful.

"Remove the bracelets," I told the man who had conducted her before me.

He did so.

"Unbind her hair," I said.

He did so, and her hair fell about her shoulders, and there was a cry of pleasure from my men.

"Kneel," I told her.

She did so.

"You are Vina," I told her.

She dropped her head, acknowledging the name I had given her. Then she looked up. "I congratulate Master," said she. "It is an excellent name for a slave girl."

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I am Vina," she said.

"What are you?" I asked.

"Slave," she said.

"What are your duties, Slave?" I asked.

"Master has not yet informed me," she said.

I looked upon her. I had also had her maidens marked and collared, following the meeting of the Council of Captains. They were now chained within my holding. I had not yet decided on their dispostion. Perhaps I should distribute them among my officers, or give them to my men. They might serve as prizes in games or as inducements to serve me better, that one might be received as gift in token of good service. Also I had toyed with the idea of opening a paga tavern in the center of the city, the most opulent in Port Kar, perhaps, called the Tavern of the Forty Maidens. There were few in Port Kar who would not be eager to patronize such as as establishment, that they might be served by the high-born beauties of Tyros.

But now my attention was on the girl Vina, once the Lady Vivina, once to have been the Ubara of Cos, now only female slave in the house of Bosk, he of Port Kar.

"What garments shall be brought for you?" I asked.

She looked up at me.

"Shall it be the tunic of a house slave?" I asked.

She said nothing.

"Or," I asked, "should I call for the bells and the silk, and the perfumes, of a pleasure slave?"

She smiled. "I a.s.sume," she said icily, "that I will be used as a pleasure slave."

From the sack at the side of my chair, that filled muchly with gold, I drew forth a small piece of folded, wadded cloth. I threw it to the girl.

She caught it, and looked at it. "No!' she cried.

"Put it on," I told her.

"No, no!" she cried in fury, leaping to her feet, holding the piece of cloth.

She turned to flee, but was ringed by my men. She turned again to face me, holding the cloth. "No!" she said in rage, "No!"

"Put it on," I told her.

Furiously she drew on the garment.

There was great laughter from the tables.

The Lady Vivina stood before me clad in the garment of a Kettle Slave.

"In Cos," I told her, "you would have been Ubara. In my house you will be Kettle Slave."

Enraged, red with shame, her fists clenched, in the brief garment of the Kettle Slave, the Lady Vivina stood before us.