The Totems of Abydos (21 page)

“It is nothing,” said Brenner. “The accident was trivial. It was of no importance, and it was as much, or more, my fault than yours.”

“But I did not behave well!” she said.

This interested Brenner, that she should even consider the matter as to whether or not she had behaved well. Certainly the women of the home world, or the typical women of the home world, never concerned themselves with such things. To be sure, this woman was not on the home world, but on this world, and was under contract, apparently to the proprietor of the bar. Brenner gathered that there might be sanctions on the behavior of such women, those on this world, or at least those under contract on this world. She was not, of course, a slave. He did not doubt, of course, that the sanctions placed on a slave for behaving well might be quite severe, and even extreme.

“You did not expect to see me tonight,” said Brenner, “or to find yourself where you are now.”

She put down her head, not responding to this. Her hair was dark brown, and glossy. Doubtless it had been washed, and brushed and combed, before she had come to the floor tonight. He considered that dark, glossy hair, and the compact, sweet curves of her in the silk. Her entire body had been washed, he did not doubt. Her feet, which had been in the mire earlier, were clean, except for some dust on the soles. On her left ankle, which seemed the place for such things, there was a chain and disk. It was similar to, but of a different construction from that which the maids in the hostel had worn. Brenner liked her chain and disk better. The chain was black-enameled, as was the lock, and the disk was larger. Indeed, he liked her better than the maid at the hostel. He was glad he had not remained at the hostel. Then he put such a horrid thought from his mind.

She looked up at him.

Brenner found the bar very hot. It was not merely that he was emotionally disturbed by the proximity of the young woman, but the temperature was objectively hot. Zards tended to like warm temperatures, even very warm temperatures, and accordingly tended to keep their dwelling areas, places of business, and such, quite warm. Even the girl, who wore almost nothing, would presumably have felt the temperature to be quite warm, perhaps even too warm.

Brenner sniffed the air. He could not place the aura, but he liked it. He had barely sensed it before. It was quite subtle.

He was not certain of its source, but he suspected it. Had he thrust his mouth and lips to the girl’s throat its source would have been clear to him.

“It is perfume,” she said. “I have a better upstairs.”

“It is a substance you put upon your body?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said.

“You are apparently intended to be found delightful by many senses,” he said.

“Yes, sir,” she said.

“I think you may go now,” said Brenner.

“Please be kind to me,” she said.

Rodriguez laughed, and she looked at him with fear.

“I have no intention of being unkind,” said Brenner.

“I am sorry!” she said. “I am sorry I behaved badly!”

“No apology is necessary,” said Brenner. “As I told you it was as much, or more, my fault than yours.”

“Please forgive me!” she said.

“No forgiveness is necessary,” said Brenner.

“I do not want to be tied naked to a post in the back yard!” she said.

“How is that done?” asked Brenner.

“My hands are tied behind my back,” she said, “and I am roped to it by the neck!”

“Excellent,” said Rodriguez.

She cast him a glance of fear, as at one who knew the handling of women.

“Barbarous,” said Brenner, disbelievingly.

“Do you want me to remove my silk?” she asked, looking up at Brenner.

The thought of seeing her so, then with only the appurtenance on her ankle, the chain, the lock, and disk, almost made Brenner scream with joy.

“No!” he said. “No!”

She looked back, fearfully, at the zard, but the creature did not look up.

“Remove the chain,” said Brenner.

“I cannot do that,” she said.

This pleased Brenner exceedingly, that she could not remove that device.

At this point the other woman, the blonde, the waitress, or whatever we might wish to call her, she who had seemed to share some secrecy with Rodriguez, emerged from the back, bearing a large tray, steaming with food.

Brenner was famished.

The blonde set the tray on one table, a serving table, and then, carefully, in a certain order, set another table. She glanced back once at the zard, but he paid her no attention. Then she gave Rodriguez a look of secretive confidence which he received impassively and declined to return. In a few moments the other table was prepared, complete with napkins, utensils, drinks, a nail wash and such. These arrangements were traditional with zards. Also, it might be mentioned that zards tended to use females of various species, including their own, for such services. It might also be mentioned that such females must in serving serve the males first and the females second. They are forbidden to do otherwise, and disagreements as to this sort of thing will elicit an invitation from the management for disgruntled patrons to depart. Zard restaurants were not common on the home world.

“Sirs,” said the blonde, turning to face them.

The table was prepared.

Rodriguez brought his glass of Heimat to the table, and Brenner followed suit, with his cooler. The girl who had been at Brenner’s feet, he noted, followed him, as though he might represent some sort of security for her, to the table. There were two rings set in the floor, one on either side of the table. These made Brenner nervous. Their purpose was not clear to him. One was a bit in front of him to his right, and the other was similarly situated with respect to Rodriguez, to his right, who took his place across from him.

“Is everything satisfactory, sirs?” asked the blonde. To Brenner, it seemed, again, as though she might somehow regard herself as playing a role. He wondered if she might not be speaking more for the benefit of the creature in the back than for theirs. Certainly her posing of the question, its tone, and such, to those to whom the language was familiar at least, had failed to ring of authenticity. Again there seemed to be some secret between her and Rodriguez. She was certainly attractive, however, thought Brenner, with those long legs, with that long, blond hair, and the yellow silk, in spite of whatever real or imagined meretriciousness, or falseness, might be in her manner. Yes, thought Brenner, she was ravishing. The brunette who had been at his feet at the bar now knelt docilely to his right. The blonde, it seemed, scarcely took note of her. The brunette was shorter than the blonde. Both, within the parameters set by their diverse heights, were superbly curved, the blonde in a tall, spare, linear loveliness and the brunette, shorter, with a more compact lusciousness. Brenner supposed that the blonde, from her manner and such, regarded herself as the superior of the two. Also, he recalled she had been summoned first to the floor and, of the two of them, Rodriguez and himself, had addressed herself to Rodriguez, who would have been easily recognized as first between them. The zard had then, perhaps as an afterthought, summoned forth the brunette for Brenner. From Brenner’s point of view, however, he was not dissatisfied with the arrangement. As a personal matter he found the brunette far more exciting. If the blonde was ravishing, then the brunette was even more ravishing. The blonde, incidentally, was of a type which many men of the home world, those who dared to speak of such things, professed to admire. Perhaps this had to do with her height and linearity, which tended to be more masculinistic than feminine, or, at least, than typically feminine. In this fashion, Brenner supposed that it might seem to many men of his world to constitute a less dangerous object of consideration, triggering fewer induced guilts, aversions, and such, than would the frank and delicious consideration of the luscious forms of more statistically normal females. Herein, one might speculate, could be found certain consequences of the negativistic conditionings to which the males of the home world were subjected. To be sure it was possible that there might exist another appeal of such a form, as well, a more obscure appeal, to be sure, but one perhaps also connected, ultimately, at least for the most part, with the negativistic conditionings. At any rate, Brenner preferred the brunette. Also, as some sop to his preferences, and as a reassurance to his vanity, he recalled reading somewhere, in a footnote somewhere, into which the most meaningful materials were often inserted, that on the openly stratified worlds, on all of which it seemed there existed the institution of female slavery, that the shorter, more luscious females, such as the brunette, tended to bring the highest prices. Indeed, more linear women, such as the blonde, tended to be held in a certain contempt, and were often consigned to the most menial duties. To be sure, it was admitted that they could be taught to jump and thrash, and serve, as well as their more normal sisters.

“Kneel there,” said Rodriguez to the blonde, indicating a place to his right, at the ring.

She looked at him, startled, but did as he had said.

She looked well there. Her back, of course, was to Brenner.

“This stuff,” said Rodriguez to Brenner, shoving a bowl in his direction, “is home-world mush. You would probably like it. Here it is probably fed to the women.”

Brenner glanced to the brunette. She put down her head. He gathered that such gruel might indeed be a staple in her fare, and doubtless in that of the blonde. The zard would presumably feed them alike. Too, they would not be likely to thrive on the fare preferred by zards. They were, after all, of a different species.

“Are you going to eat that?” asked Rodriguez.

“What?” asked Brenner.

“That,” said Rodriguez, indicating a dish near Brenner. “It is of the flesh of animals.”

“No!” said Brenner.

Rodriguez pulled the dish over to himself.

Brenner was horrified.

Brenner picked up a spoon and put it to the gruel before him. Such material tended to be unpalatable and tasteless, unless seasoned with various condiments. Some individuals on the home world, moral individuals, insisted upon eating it without condiments, in atonement for past species crimes.

“Is everything satisfactory, sir?” asked the blonde, again, but now from her knees.

Rodriguez felt under the table, where there was, apparently, under the upper surface, a sort of shelving. Brenner heard the slide, and rattle, of metal. To his horror he saw Rodriguez draw forth what appeared to be, at first, a handful of chain within a metal circle. He freed a tiny object from its housing in this apparatus, and slipped this tiny object into his vest pocket. He then tossed the remainder of the assemblage to the floor, before the blonde.

“Put it on,” he said.

She looked down at it, disbelievingly.

Brenner now saw, that it was disarranged on the floor, that two objects were actually involved. There was a short chain, the first object, about a yard in length, with an opened clip lock at each end. At one end, this opened clip lock had been inserted through, and turned, but not closed about, a small, stout, rounded staple emerging at right angles from the flat, metallic circle, the second object. This metallic circle, about a quarter of an inch in thickness, and an inch and a quarter in height, had a hinge in the back, which permitted it to open. It also had a hasp in the front, hinged, which was apparently congruent with the staple.

“Surely you cannot be serious,” said the blonde.

Rodriguez looked at her.

“Ah!” she whispered. “Of course!”

Brenner looked back to the zard. He had lifted his head, on that rather long neck, when the metal had struck the floor.

“Of course!” she said, rather loudly, doubtless for the benefit of the zard.

Then, and Brenner gathered it was not the first time she had done this, she snapped the lower lock clip shut about the ring in the floor. She then placed the metal circle about her neck, adjusting it with both hands, the chain, held to the metal circle by the open lock clip, it inserted through the staple, dangling from it. She then removed the upper lock clip of the chain from the staple, closed the hasp over the staple, reinserted the lock clip through the staple, it now with the hasp behind it, in place, and clicked it shut. Brenner seized the edges of the table. There was a beautiful woman before Rodriguez, collared and chained.

“You are clever,” she whispered to Rodriguez. Again it seemed there was some secret between them.

Brenner wondered if she were mad. Did she not understand that she was chained, truly!

“Chain me,” whispered the brunette to Brenner.

“Never!” said Brenner.

“You must!” she whispered. “Please! He is watching!”

Brenner looked up, as discreetly as possible. It did seem that the zard was regarding them.

“Please!” begged the brunette.

Brenner felt under the table. There was, indeed, a shelf there, and his hand, groping about, encountered chain. Too, there was a curved, flat metallic surface there. He drew forth these objects. They were loosely connected, as they had been for Rodriguez, by a lock clip put through, and turned, but not closed about, a staple.