The Usurper Read Online Free PDF Page A

implicitly expected in, and prescribed for, the free woman. The tunic the girl wore had clearly identified her as a slave, as did the collar on her neck, but the tunic had been clean, well-pressed, tasteful, and relatively modest, as such garments go. Indeed, it had fallen below her knees. Her arms, of course, had been bare. That is common in slave garments. In a sleeve a knife might be concealed. I wager, had thought the Lady Publennia, that that single, simple rag is all she has on. And in this wager the Lady Publennia would have been successful. The slave is often denied certain forms of undergarments, particularly those which might have a nether closure. They are for free women. The slave is to be conveniently at the disposal of the Master, at any time he might be inclined to make use of her. She is, after all, a slave. The fellow who had exited with the slave had lost something like seventy-five darins . The Lady Publennia, that evening, had lost more than a thousand.
    The Lady Publennia again, in the mirror, regarded the light, simple chain fastened on her neck. Yes, she thought, it is attractive, and she had little doubt but what, if a man should look upon her in such a device, that it would be she, she herself, who would be seen.
    She thought of the barbarian, remembered well from the Narcona , he, Ottonius, for whom a small dagger was to lie in wait, laden with its venom, not unlike the fang of a viper.
    Who would bring her the dagger?
    What would be her opportunity to strike?
    Presumably, even now, a hoverer was being readied to transport her safely, swiftly, after the deed, to Venitzia, whence the shuttle would carry her to the waiting Narcona , in orbit, and then she would be wafted away, presumably to Lisle, the Narcona ’s port of registry, or another world, to bask in new riches, exult in renewed station, and revel in the perquisites of power, accompanying wealth like a golden shadow.
    She flushed with anger.
    How furious she was that he had put her, a free woman, even of patrician stock, to the polishing of his boots, and had then taped her mouth shut, and tied her, for the night, unused, at the foot of his bed!
    He was a barbarian, not even of the honestori !
    How she hated men, and what they could do to women, if they pleased!
    She recalled the brunette.
    â€œPerhaps he will find you of interest,” had said the brunette.
    â€œâ€˜Of interest’!” she had exclaimed, angrily.
    How horrifying that would be for a free woman! But is a free woman not a woman, and, if her freedom were torn from her, like her clothing, and she were put to her knees, naked, in the shadow of a whip, with a marked thigh, and that lovely, light, locked chain on her neck, with its pendant disk, would she be different? I do not think so. She, too, would now be a slave, a property, merely another stimulating sexual object.
    Bring me the dagger, someone, she whispered to the mirror.
    She thought of her slave, small, exquisite, red-haired Nika, whom she thought was awaiting her, in a tiny, dingy room in Lisle. As she recalled the slave in the gambling palace, and had been muchly displeased with her, she decided that, upon her return to Lisle, Nika would do nicely as a proxy for that other slave, and would receive the switching which she was in no position to administer to the other, a switching Nika would long remember. Her other slaves, many highly trained in a variety of domestic tasks, the dressing of free women, the marketing and preparation of food, the care of garmenture, the singing of songs to the lyre, and such, one even a specialist in the carving of meat to music, she had disposed of, one by one, in various markets, but she had retained Nika, who would have marketed for the fewest darins . A free woman, and certainly one of station, requires at least one slave, even in the throes of near destitution. We mentioned earlier that the Lady Publennia frequently beat Nika, and had speculated that that might have been