a number of purchases in the first and second phases of the sale. Their purses seemed deep. Certainly they had silver, and, in the third and fourth segment, even gold to spare. I do not think that one item, to this point, had gone unsold, fortunately for the item, for otherwise it might be whipped, though several, in the first and second segments, had gone cheaply, for copper, from twenty to eighty tarsks, copper tarsks. In Brundisium 100 copper tarsks is commonly valued at a silver tarsk. None had sold for less than twenty-forty copper, namely twenty copper tarsks, forty tarsk-bits. In Brundisium there are 100 tarsk-bits to the copper tarsk. In many cities, Ar, Besnit, Thentis, Ko-ro-ba, and such, the tarsk-bit is more valuable, there being most often eight or ten to a copper tarsk. I do not know the rates in Turia, nor in the islands. In Brundisium a day’s wages, for a docksman, is usually twenty to forty tarsk-bits. A free oarsman will usually command more. Some alleged the unusual buyers were Tuchuks, but others denied this. The shading of their skin and the cast of their eyes suggested Tuchuk blood, but they were not armed as Tuchuks, and seemed, too, in so far as such things might be ascertained, unfamiliar with bosk, kaiila, and the terrains of the south. Some said, too, they were taller than Tuchuks, and were more spare, more sedate, more studied, more formal, more withdrawn, more graceful, and perhaps more latently intense. Some, crossed in the streets, had proved more than capable of defending themselves, with their unusual softly curved blades, one long, one short. They had attracted attention, for their apparent wealth, for buying slaves and hiring ships, and taking men into fee, many of them refugees, armed mercenaries, escaped from Ar, given the sudden, devastating, bloody restoration of Marlenus, Ubar of Ar, sometimes spoken of as the Ubar of Ubars. These ships, it was said, would coast north. Their purpose was obscure. Some ships, returned, had disembarked supplies, soldiers, and slaves on the stony beaches bordering the northern forests.
The tiers were now half emptied. Men brushed past me, to climb the steps to the exits. Attendants, below and to the sides, waited to extinguish the torches. I could see four or five figures below, and at the side of the block, the left, as we faced it, at the foot of its stairs. These would be the last to be sold.
“Twenty, twenty, twenty?” called the auctioneer.
The item had been clearly identified as a first-sale barbarian. She was brown-haired and brown-eyed. Nothing special there. Auburn hair is usually prized in the markets. Had she been auburn she would doubtless have been placed in the third or fourth segment of the sale. Her measurements had been publicized. Such measurements include not only those for hips, waist, and bosom, but those for ankle, wrist, and throat, these relevant to wrist rings, ankle rings, and collar. Her progress in Gorean, to date, was proclaimed to be excellent. I was pleased. This bespoke high intelligence. Intelligence is a major criterion in terms of which we select slaves. Who would wish a stupid slave? The intelligent slave learns her master’s language quickly, learns swiftly how to please him, and perfectly, in all ways, and, being intelligent, is more likely to be in tune with her basic femaleness, and its profound needs. She is the first to lick and kiss the chains which bind her.
“Twenty, twenty, yes, twenty-five,” called the auctioneer. “Thirty, thirty?”
Not unexpectedly the slave was red-silk. Sometimes white-silkers cost more, though for no reason that seems clear. Who cares about such things in the case of a slave? Is the virginity of a tarsk or verr of interest? Who cares who is first to open them?
Then casually, unexpectedly, the auctioneer, behind the slave, his left hand in her hair, holding her head back a bit, gently, but firmly, with the blades of the coiled whip, subjected her to the “slaver’s caress.”
She shrieked with misery, and twisted, and leaped.
“Stop, stop!” she cried.
But the gentle touch, firm and implacable, was relentless. She rose to the tips of her toes, as though she would withdraw from the touch. Then she kicked out, wildly, protestingly, and would have lost her footing was it not for the hand in her hair. She tried to turn and face the auctioneer, but, as she was held, could not do so. She was then held before the tiers, facing them, squirming, helpless, sobbing.