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my winnings in my pouch, and tied it at my belt. I
could not recall if, or where, or when, I might have seen her. She was a not
unattractive slave.
Then I hurried out the door. I made my way rapidly toward the sales barn of
Lysander.
9
WHAT OCCURRED AT THE
SALES BARN OF LYSANDER
 This red-haired beauty," called the auctioneer, "is catch of Captain
Thrasymedes. She can play the lute."
There was raucous laughter. "How good is she in the furs?" called a voice.
The girl went for four copper tarsks.
"Have the girls of Kliomenes been sold?" I asked a fellow.
"Yes," said a fellow. I cried out with anguish. "Most," said another.
"Most?" I pressed him.
"Yes," he said, "I think there are others, taken near Lara."
"What am I offered for this blonde?" called the auctioneer.
"Weren't they sold before?" asked the first fellow.
"Not all, I think," said the second man.
I left their sides and pushed through the crowd, making my way nearer the
high, round, sawdust-strewn block.
"Watch where you are going, Fellow," snarled a man.
I stopped by the ready cage. Inside, sitting on a wooden bench, behind stout,
closely-
set bars, miserable, clutching sheets about themselves, some with glazed eyes,
sat some ten girls. I clutched the bars, from the outside, looking within. She
whom I sought was not there.
One girl rose from the bench, her left ankle pulling against the chain and
shackle that held her with the others, and dropped the sheet to her waist.
"Buy me," she begged, putting her hand toward me. I stepped back. "This is not
an exhibition cage," said an attendant, putting his
hand on my arm. "You may not loiter here." "Buy me," begged the girl, reaching
toward me. I
gathered that she, unlike several of the others, apparently, had had masters.
"Are these all the items that remain for sale?" I asked the attendant. "No,"
he said. "Are there girls of Kliomenes who remain to be sold?" I asked,
desperately. "I do not know," he said. "I do not have the manifests."
Miserably I turned about and went back to stand with the others, in the
vicinity of the block.
The blonde went for six tarsks.
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"And here," said the auctioneer, "we have another blonde. This one, like many
of the girls now in the ready cage, was free."
There was laughter. "Make her kiss the whip!" called a man.
"Down, Wench, and kiss the whip!" ordered the auctioneer. The girl knelt and
kissed the whip. There was more laughter. He then began to put her through
slave paces.
There were some two hundred men at the sale. Such sales occur frequently in
the various sales barns of Victoria, sometimes running for several nights in a
row. The spring and summer are the busiest seasons, for these are the seasons
of heaviest river, traffic and, accordingly, the seasons when Pirates, after
their raids, are most likely to bring in their loot.
Many of the men at the sales barn were professional slavers, from other towns
and cities, looking for bargains.
"Sold to Targo, of Ar!" announced the auctioneer. Manacles were then clapped
on the blonde and she was dragged from the block.
I was angry, for I did not even know if Miss Henderson was to be sold, or if
she had already been sold. If she had been sold she might even now, while I
stood about, helplessly, be being transported from Victoria, a slave,
anywhere. My fists were clenched. My palms were sweating.
The next two girls, brunettes, were sold to Lucilius, of Tyros. The next four
slaves were purchased by a fellow named Publius, who was an agent for a
Mintar, of Ar.
I waited, as the bidding grew more heated, and as more men entered the
building. Five times the ready cage was emptied and filled, and emptied, as
girls, freed of their shackles, were ordered to the block's surface for their
vending.
"Do none of these women interest you?" asked a man nearby.
"Many are lovely," I said. Indeed, had I not been waiting desperately,
miserably, for she whom I sought I might have been tempted to bid hotly on
several of them. To own any one of them would have been a joy and a triumph.
The man who has owned a woman or women, knows of what I speak. Perhaps even
those who have never owned a woman can sense, dimly, what it might be like. I
know of no pleasure comparable to the pleasure of owning a woman fully. It is
indescribably delicious; it is glorious; it fills one with joy and power; it
exalts and fulfills the blood. It teaches a male, in the thunderous currency
of intellect and emotion, what is the true meaning of manhood. Compared to it
the gratifications of pretense and denial, the insistence on subverting one's
blood and virility in the name of a false manhood conditioned by a demented,
antibiological society, are pallid indeed. Let those who can climb mountains
climb them; let those who cannot climb them console themselves denying their
existence.
"The brunette four sales ago," said the man next to me, "was she not superb?"
"Yes," I said. She had indeed been stunning. In this market, to her
indignation, she had gone for only fourteen copper tarsks. She had been sold
to an agent of Clark, of Thentis. The
next brunette, in my opinion, had been even more stunning. She had gone for a
mere fifteen copper tarsks. She had been sold to a Cleanthes of Teletus.
"Sold to Vart, of Port Kar! called the auctioneer, and a redhead was taken
from the platform.
"And here," called the auctioneer, "we have one of the catches of Kliomenes,
taken near Lara."
He tore the sheet away from the girl on the block, throwing it to the side.
She wore only her sales collar with her sales disk, on which was written her
lot number, wired to the steel.
"A cold, prissy little Earth slut," called the auctioneer, "and yet one not
without interest, as you can see." He bent her back, his hand in her hair,
exposing the bow of her beauty to the men.
There was a sound of pleasure from the crowd.
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"She is already branded," said the auctioneer, "but has served primarily as a
display slave, and not a use slave." He then turned her, still keeping his
hand in her hair, so that those on his left might better see her.
"Accordingly," he said, "she is not yet fully broken to the collar." There was
laughter from the crowd. He then turned her so that those on his right might
better see her. "In my opinion," said he, "it is now time for this girl to
learn the various, uses to which a slave can be put." "Yes!" shouted more than
one fellow. He then, as she gasped, bent her back a bit more, turning her
again toward her left, so that she was presented exquisitely to the men. "Does [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]