She whimpered, once.

  "Good," I said.

  One whimper signifies "Yes," and two signifies "No." This arrangement, at any rate, was the one which Marcus had taught to Phoebe long ago, quite early in her slavery to him, at a time when she had been much more often kept bound and gagged then now.

  Marcus then snapped his fingers that she should rise.

  She leaped to her feet.

  We turned our steps once more toward our lodging. Phoebe hurried behind. Once she tried, whimpering, to press herself against her master. She looked up at him, tears in her eyes, her hands tied behind her, the tunic between her teeth. She feared that she might have now, because of her earlier behavior, lapsed in his favor. Too, compounding her misery, was doubtless the fact that Marcus, in his casual usage of her, had done little more than intensify her needs, the helpless prisoner of which, as a slave girl, she was. He thrust her back. we then continued on our way, Phoebe heeling her master. I heard her gasp once or twice, and sob. She was now, I was sure, much more aware, in her own mind, of what it was to be a slave. I do not think, then, she thought of herself any longer, really, as a woman of Cos, or even one who had once been of Cos, but rather now as merely a slave, only that, and one who had perhaps, frighteningly, to her trepidation and misery, failed to be fully pleasing. I did not doubt that later, when we had reached the room, and she was unbound and freed of the gag, that she would crawl to Marcus on all fours, the whip between her teeth, begging. Too, though he loved her muchly, I did not doubt but what he would use it on her. She was, after all, his slave, and he, after all, was her master.

  9 The Plaza of Tarns

  "She," said Talena, Ubara of Ar, "she is chosen"

  The woman uttered a cry of anguish.

  There were cheers, and applause, the striking of the left shoulder, from the crowd standing about the edges of the huge, temporary platform, the same which had earlier served near the Central Cylinder for the welcoming of Myron, in his entrance into the city.

  The woman, held now by the upper left arm, by a guardsman, was conducted to a point on the platform, erected now in the Plaza of Tarns, a few feet from a rather narrow, added side ramp, where she was knelt, to be manacled. This smaller, added ramp would be on the left side of the platform, as one would face it. My own position was near to, and rather at the foot of this ramp, such that I would be on the right of a person descending the ramp. Talena, with certain aides and counselors, and guardsmen and scribes, was on a dais, it mounted on the surface of the platform, a few feet away, rather to its left, as one would face it. There was a similar added ramp on the other side, by means of which the women, barefoot, and clad at that point in the robe of the penitent, would ascend to its surface.

  The manacles were closed about the wrists of the kneeling woman, one could clearly hear the decisive closure of the devices, first the one, then the other. She lifted them, regarding them, disbelievingly.

  "Have you never worn chains?" asked a man.

  First with one hand and then the other, suddenly, frenziedly, first from one wrist, and then from the other, sobbing, she tried to force the obdurate iron from her wrist.

  Then, again, she lifted the manacles, regarding them, disbelievingly.

  "Yes, they are on you," laughed a fellow.

  "You cannot slip them," said a man.

  "They were not made to be slipped by such as you," said another.

  There was much laughter.

  The woman sobbed.

  "Do not blubber, female," said a man. "Rejoice, rather, that you have been found suitable, that you have been honored by having been chosen!" the woman, then, conducted by another fellow, with an armband, signifying the auxiliary guardsmen, the first fellow, a uniformed guardsman, returning to the group on the platform, was conducted down the ramp. She was knelt before me. "Wrists," I said. She lifted her chained wrists. I then, by means of the chain, pulled her wrists toward me. I inserted the bolt of a small, sturdy, padlocklike joining ring through a link in the coffle chain. This would hold it in a specific place on the chain, preventing slippage. I then snapped the ring shut about her wrist chain. She looked up at me, coffled.

  "On your feet, move," said another auxiliary guardsman.

  She rose to her feet and moved ahead, to the first line scratched in the tiles of the plaza. There were some one hundred such lines, each about four or five feet apart, marking places for women to stand. As she moved ahead, so, too, did others. Beyond these hundred spaces the chain moved to the side, and was doubled, and folded back upon itself, again and again, in this fashion keeping its prisoners massed., different lines facing different directions, and all in the vicinity of the platform.

  "It angers me," said a fellow nearby, "that these women should complain. It is as simple enough duty to perform, and a worthy enough act, as female citizens, given the guilt of Ar, her complicity in the wicked schemes of Gnieus Lelius, to offer themselves for reparation considerations.

  "Few enough are chosen anyway," said a fellow.

  "Yes," said another, angrily.

  "Are all burdens to be borne only by men?" asked a man.

  "What of the work levies and such?" said another.

  "Yes," said another.

  "And the taxed and special assessments," said another.

  "True," said a fellow.

  "They are citizens of Ar," said another. "It is only right that they, too, pay the price for our misdeeds."

  "And theirs," said another.

  "Yes," said a fellow.

  "They supported members of councils, and members to elect members of councils," said a man.

  "Yes!" said another.

  "Look at noble Talena," said a man. "How bravely she performs this duty."

  "How onerous it must be for her," said a man.

  "Poor Talena," said a fellow.

  "She, too, it might be recalled," said a man, "appeared in public barefoot, in the garb of a penitent, prepare to offer herself to save Ar."

  "Of course," said a man.

  "Noble woman," breathed a man.

  Auxiliary guardsmen do not wear helmets. I had, accordingly, covered my head and, loosely, the lower portion of my face with a scarf, rather in the manner of the fellows in the Tahari. This fitted in well with the motley garbs of auxiliary guardsmen who, on the whole, had little in common except that they were not of Ar. Regular guardsmen of Ar were, as I have suggested, fellows of Ar under Cosian command, or, often, Cosians, in the uniform of Ar. Too, as mentioned, there were regulars of Cos in the city, and, at any given time, various mercenaries, usually on passes. Some mercenaries, it might be mentioned, had been transferred into the auxiliary guardsmen. Some others, discharged, had enlisted in these units. A good deal of the sensitive work in Ar, work which might possibly produce resentment, or even enflame resistance, was accorded to auxiliary guardsmen. Their actions, if necessary, could always be deplored or disavowed. If necessary, some units might even be disbanded, as a token of conciliation. Such units are, after all, difficult to control. In this I saw further evidence of attention on the part of Myron, or his advisors, to the principles and practices of Dietrich of Tarnburg. A similar device, incidentally, though not one employed by Dietrich of Tarnburg, at least to my knowledge, is to recruit such forces from the dregs of a city itself, utilizing their resentment of, and their hatred for, their more successful fellow citizens to constitute a vain, suspicious and merciless force. This force then may later be disbanded, or even destroyed, to the delight of the other citizens, who then will see their conqueror as their protector, not even understanding his use of, and sacrifice of, such instrumentalities as the duped dregs of their own community, first making use of them, then disposing of them.

  "No," said Talena, "not her."

  A guardsman, on the surface of the platform, before the dais, draped the robe of the penitent about the shoulders of the woman before Talena. He did this deferentially. She was shuddering. Another guardsman quickly ushered her to the rear and down the large ramp at the rear of the platform. She would now return home.

  "No, Talena!" called a fellow from the crowd, a few feet away.

  Talena regally turned her head in his direction.

  "Be silent!" said a man to he who had called out.

  "Hail, Talena!" called a man from the vicinity of the fellow who had called out before.

  "Glory to Talena!" called another.

  "Glory to Talena!" cried others.

  She then returned her attention to her duties on the platform.

  "How merciful is Talena," said a fellow.

  "Yes," said another.

  At a gesture from one of the guardsmen on the platform, another woman in a white robe came forward, leaving the long line behind her, one extending across the platform to the small ramp on the other side, down the ramp, across the far side of the Plaza of Tarns, and thence down Gate Street, where I could not see its end.

  "Lady Tuta Thassolonia," read a scribe.

  Lady Tuta then, unaided, removed her robe and stood before her Ubara. Then she knelt before her.

  Men gasped.

  She knelt back on her heels, her knees spread, her back straight, her head up, the palms of her hands on her thighs.

  "It seems you are a slave," said Talena.

  "I have always been a slave, Mistress," said Lady Tuta.

  Talena turned to one of her counselors, and they conferred.

  "Are you a legal slave, my child?" asked one of the counselors, a scribe of the law.

  "No, Master," said the woman.

  "You are then a legally free female?" asked the scribe.

  "Yes, Master," she said.

  "It is then sufficient," said the scribe to Talena.

  "You are chosen," said Talena, graciously.

  "Thank you, Mistress!" said the woman.

  Cheers commended the decision of the Ubara.

  Another of Talena's aides, or counselors, one in the garb of Cos, then spoke to Talena, shielding his mouth with his hand.

  Talena nodded, and he then addressed himself to the kneeling woman.

  "Rise up," said he, in a kindly fashion, "and do not address us as Master and Mistress."

  She rose up.

  "Do you wish, as a free female, before you join your sisters to our right, to say anything?"

  "Hail, Talena!" she cried. "Glory to Talena!"

  This cry was taken up by hundreds about. Then she was conducted to the side, to be manacled.

  "It will be a lucky fellow who will get her," said a man.

  "She is already a slave," said another.

  "She will train speedily and well," said another.

  "I would like to get my hands on her," said a fellow.

  "She will go to some Cosian," said another.

  The woman was then drawn to her feet by an auxiliary guardsmen and conducted down the ramp.

  The auxiliary guardsman on the other side of the ramp, then, who was working with me, said to her, "Kneel, slut."

  She knelt.

  "You were rich, were you not?" he asked her.

  "Yes," she said.

  "Yesa€”what?" he said, angrily.

  "Yes, I was rich!" she said, frightened.

  "Do not strike her," I said to the fellow. "She is not yet a slave."

  "She is a slut of Ar," he said.

  "Yes," I said.

  He lowered his hand.

  "Wrists," I said to her.

  She lifted her chained wrists, and I attached her to the coffle with a joining ring.

  "Why is he angry with me?" she asked.

  "It might be wise to accustom yourself, even though you are legally free now," I said, "to addressing free men as «Master» and free women as "Mistress."

  "He is only an auxiliary guardsman," she said.

  "He is a man," I said, "and you are female."

  "Yes!" she said.

  "You see the fittingness of it?" I asked.

  "Yes," she said.

  "You used such expressions on the platform," I said.

  "But to my Ubara," she said, "and to men of high station."

  "Accord such titles of respect to all free persons, even the lowliest of free persons," I said, "for you will be more beneath them than the dirt beneath their sandals."

  "Forgive me, Master," she said to the other fellow. "Forgive me, Master!" He regarded her, his arms folded, somewhat mollified.

  "It seems the slut of Ar learns rapidly," I said.

  "Get up," he said to her. "move!"

  "Yes, Master," she said. Then she looked back. "Thank you, Master," she said. The line moved to its next position.

  I them put the next woman on the chain, and she, too, was ordered to her feet, and moved to the next position.

  "Nor she," said Talena of another, who had been announced. "Nor she," said she of another.

  As I have mentioned, there were scribes on, or near, the dais with Talena. Lists were being kept, and referred to. One list, for example, had the names of the women upon it, in the order in which they ascended the platform. It was from this list that one of the scribes announced the names. Another list, presumably a duplicate list, was kept as a record of the results of Talena's decisions. The most interesting lists, however, seemed to be lists referred to as the various names were called. There were at least five such lists. Three of them, I think, are worth mentioning. One of these was held by a member of the High Council. Another was held by a Cosian counselor. Another was held by one of Talena's aides, at her side.

  There was suddenly a scuffle near the far ramp and a guardsman seized a woman who had suddenly turned about and attempted to run.

  "Bring her forward," said Talena.

  The guardsman, who now had her well in hand, holding her from behind, by the upper arms, literally lifting her off the surface of the platform, carried her forward, before Talena. The woman's small bared feet were five inches off the wood. She was held as helplessly as a doll. The guardsmen then put her down. "Strip her," said Talena.

  This was done, and the woman was flung to her knees before the Ubara of Ar. "Mercy, my Ubara!" cried the woman, lifting her hands, clasped, to Talena.

  "What is your name, child?" asked Talena.

  "Fulvia!" she wept. "Fulvia, Lady of Ar!"

  "We are all ladies of Ar," said Talena.

  "Mercy, Ubara!" she wept, lifting her clasped hands. "Spare us! Spare your sisters of Ar!"

  "Alas, my child," cried Talena, "we are all guilty. All of us are implicated in the iniquities of the infamous Gnieus Lelius. Why had we not adequately opposed him? Why did we follow his heinous policies?"

  "You opposed him, beloved Ubara!" cried a man. "You tried to warn us! You did what you could! We would not listen to you! It is we, the others, who are guilty, not you!"

  This sort of cry was taken up elsewhere in the crowd, as well. There were numerous protests concerning Talena's apparent willingness to accept, and share, the guilt of Ar.

  "No," cried Talena. "I should have acted. Rather than witness the shame of Ar. I should have plunged a dagger into my own breast!"

  "No! No!" cried men.

  "It would have been a tiny, if futile, symbolic gesture," she cried, "but I did not do it. Thus I, too, an guilty!"

  Roars of protest greeted this remark on the part of the Ubara. I saw several men weeping.

  "You chose to live, to work for the salvation of Ar!" cried a man.

  "We own everything to you, beloved Ubara!" cried another.

  "And now," said Talena, "in spite of all, and the most outrageous provocation, our brother, Lurius of jad, Ubar of Cos, has spared our city. The Home Stone is safe! The Central Cylinder stands! How shall we make amends to our Cosian brother? What gift would be great enough to thank him for our Home Stone, our lives and honor? What sacrifice would be too much to express our gratitude?"

  "No gift would be too great!" cried men.

  "No sacrifice would be too great!" cried others.

  "And now, my child," said Talena to Lady Fulvia, "do you begin to understand why you have been requested to come here this day?"

  Lady Fulvia, it seemed, could not speak. She looked up, frightened, at her Ubara.

  "Surely you regret the crimes of Ar," said Talena. "Else why would you have come here, as a penitent?"

  Lady Fulvia put her head down.

  The women, of course, had been ordered to report. Indeed, they had been ordered to report yesterday afternoon to the great theater, from whence, to their surprse, they had been transported in cage wagons, actually locked, to the Stadium of Blades more than a pasang away. Beneath the stands of the Stadium of Blades were numerous holding areas, suitable for wild beasts, dangerous men, criminals, and such. In such areas, the women, having been checked, arranged and counted, were incarcerated for the night. They had also, at that time, been given the robes of penitents, that they might spend the night in them. They had then, this morning, been transported to a location on Gate Street, in the vicinity of the Plaza of Tarns. Some women who had failed to report to the great theater were brought later that evening to the Stadium of Tarns by guardsmen, both regulars and auxiliaries. I myself, with some other auxiliaries, had brought in two of these women. One we had had to tie and leash, almost like a rebellious slave girl, save that slave girls are seldom rebellious more than once.

  "Surely you wish to do your best to expiate the crimes of Ar?" said Talena to the kneeling woman.

  Her interlocutor was silent.

  "Are you not eager to atone for the crimes of Ar, to make amends for her inquities?" asked the Ubara, kindly.

  Lady Fulvia was silent.

  "Do you not wish to do what you can to set these things right?" asked the Ubara. Silence.

  "Speak, you slut!" cried a man from the side, angrily.

  "Please!" cried Talena, holding forth her hand. "Desist, noble citizen! You speak of a free woman of Ar!"

  "Yes, my Ubara," said Lady Fulvia.

  "You do not wish to be selfish, do you?" asked the Ubara.

  "No, Ubara," she wept.

  "And is this sacrifice we ask of you, in the name of the city, and its Home Stone, any more than that which I myself was prepared to make?"

  "No, my Ubara," wept the Lady Fulvia.

  Talena, with a small, reluctant, almost tragic gesture, indicated that lady Fulvia might be taken to the side.

 

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