The Totems of Abydos (29 page)

“Of course, of course,” said Brenner, sweating.

“With one such as you I am safe.”

“Of course,” Brenner granted her.

He heard the rustle of the sheet. He also sensed that she had changed her position. “There,” she said. “That is better.”

He looked upon her, and gasped. She had moved a little, and now, where she had earlier knelt, half sat, half knelt, her weight much on her right thigh and the palms of her hands. The sheet had been put on the floor about her, in a circular pattern. In this fashion it contrasted with the dark boards of the floor, and the scarlet of the silk. As she was positioned, her left thigh was bared, a consequence of the draping of the silk doubtless, which silk, it seemed, doubtless inadvertently, like the sheet, was arranged flowingly, and beautifully, one might even have thought, did one not know better, artfully.

“It seems,” said Brenner, angrily, “that you choose to torture me.”

“You are of the home world,” she said. “Surely, in virtue of your conditioning, how I am, or might appear, does not matter. In virtue of your conditioning you cannot see me as what I am, a woman.”

“It seems you wish to be seen as an object,” he said.

“A woman,” she said.

“An object!” he said.

“An object of desire, I trust,” she said.

Brenner was silent, angry.

“A woman, the whole woman,” she said, “wishes to be seen as an object of desire.”

“You are sexual,” he said, angrily.

“Is that a reproach?” she asked.

He did not answer.

“Yes,” she said. “I am sexual! I do not deny it any longer. I am tired of denying it. I am tired of pretending to be what I am not.”

“You must keep such weaknesses to yourself,” he said.

“That is no more a weakness than the fact that I can think, that I can feel, that I breathe, that my heart beats.”

“Then it is an ugliness,” said Brenner.

“No!” she said. “No more than those other things, no more than thought and feeling, no more than breathing and the beating of the heart!”

Brenner regarded her.

“It is not ugly,” she said. “It is beautiful!”

Brenner did not respond to her.

“Do you find me ugly?” she asked.

“No,” said Brenner.

“I am pleased,” she said.

“Doubtless many men have put you well to their purposes,” he said, angrily.

“Yes!” she said. “They have! And I have served them well, or to the best of my ability, and sometimes in terror!”

“I see,” said Brenner.

“They get what they want from me,” she said. “They take it, if they wish.”

“Doubtless the zard also uses you,” said Brenner.

“Certainly women of our species figure in the perversions of many other species, as you must suspect,” she said.

“I see,” said Brenner, bitterly. He did not doubt but what certain aliens could simply take the women of his species away from the men of his species, and use them as they wished. The men of his species, it seemed, were on the whole quite weak. They could not even keep their own women for themselves. On the other hand, he did not think that aliens would attempt that on the occasional strong worlds where his own species was dominant. On such worlds, as he understood it, men of his species kept their women for themselves.

“But the zard does not so touch me,” she said. “It is not that he is kind, or noble. It is just that he is not interested in such things. In this fashion he is a quite normal zard. He is not a pervert. Surely you are aware of the rareness of interspecific attraction.”

“Yes,” Brenner admitted. This rareness was to be expected, of course, given genetic selections.

“Do you think you would feel attracted to a female zard?”

“I do not think so,” said Brenner. He had once seen one, on Naxos, at a spaceport, or he thought he had seen one.

“It is the same sort of thing,” she said.

Brenner nodded.

“Would you like me better if I had scales, bulging eyes, and a tail?”

“No,” said Brenner. To be sure, this was not the answer required by his conditioning program, which was that it would not make a difference. This had to do with the equivalence of life forms, and such.

Brenner regarded her. He did not doubt but what beauty might be species relative, for example, that he and the zard might not agree on the nature of feminine charms, but that did not mean that it did not exist, either for him or for the zard. Fruit does not become unreal because there is more than one variety. Certainly Brenner found the young woman before him extremely beautiful. Indeed, she seemed to him, now, to be the most beautiful female he had ever seen. And he did not think that he was isolated in this sort of thing. Even men on Naxos, he was sure, with their rifles and whips, would agree. And even many other life forms, he was sure, though they might not find her of sexual interest, might recognize that she was an unusually lovely specimen of a human being, and would be more marketable than otherwise on that basis.

“Consider the scandalous silk you wear,” said Brenner, angrily. “It is the sort of thing in which a slave might be put. In such silk it seems you belong upon an auction block!”

“We might ascend a block in such silk, or more,” she smiled, “but it is not likely it would be upon us when we left the block.”

Brenner regarded her.

“I have been upon such a block, on Damascus,” she said, “when my contract was sold.”

She changed her position, to kneel. She arranged her silk. Then she again looked up, at Brenner.

“On the block, though we were free women, instant and perfect obedience was required of us,” she said, “even as it is of slaves.”

“Did you not demur?”

“No,” she laughed, “or at most once, briefly.”

“Oh?” asked Brenner, interested.

“They have whips,” she said.

“Not sophisticated electronic devices?”

“No,” she said. “On Damascus, as on many worlds, they are very traditional.”

“I see,” said Brenner.

“But the whip is very effective,” she said, “perhaps in its primitive simplicity and meaning even more so than more complex electronic devices. We understand the whip.”

“‘We’,” asked Brenner.

“Females,” she said. “At least once we have felt it.”

“I see,” said Brenner.

“Yes!” she laughed.

“Did you demur?” he asked.

“I did not really need to feel the lash,” she said, “but I was curious about it and so once I was hesitant. Then, instantly, I felt the lash. I did not know it could be like that. Then, I assure you, I was hesitant no longer. Too, to be sure, I was stung by the laughter from the buyers, the onlookers, and such.”

“Who were the auctioneers, the brokers?”

“On Damascus, zards, of course,” she said.

“But they would presumably have, as it seems you have earlier suggested, little or no interest in your movements, your posings, and such—such things I presume being expected of you on the block—”

“Yes,” she said. “As contract women we were well put through our paces.”

Brenner looked at her.

“There were men of our own species in the house, of course,” she said, “buyers, and assistants to buyers, and such, who would help to appraise us.”

“I see,” said Brenner.

“It seems you find the vending of my contract of interest,” she said, shyly.

“Were you appraised highly?”

“I think so,” she said. “But I am not even sure of the value of the units involved, their relationship to the Commonworld credit, and such.”

Brenner nodded.

“I did not bring as high a price as she whom your friend now doubtless has well at his pleasure,” she said.

“The blonde woman?” said Brenner.

“Girl,” she said.

“Your contracts were vended in the same sale?”

“Yes,” she said.

“Was she struck?”

“Three times,” she said.

“It seems she was less quick than you, to grasp what was required of her.”

“Perhaps,” she said.

“Perhaps she is less intelligent than you,” said Brenner.

“Perhaps,” she said. “I do not know. But in the end she obeyed as quickly and perfectly as the rest of us.”

“The rest of you?”

“Yes,” she said, “all of us who were being exhibited, whose contracts were being sold.”

“I see,” said Brenner.

“Perhaps you would have enjoyed seeing her perform—naked,” she said.

“Perhaps,” said Brenner.

“As she doubtless is for your friend now,” she said.

“Perhaps,” said Brenner.

“Perhaps you would have found it amusing,” she said.

“Perhaps,” he said. To be sure, he would have been, he did not doubt, much more interested in seeing the brunette perform. He looked at her. She put down her head, and blushed, beautifully, all of her body that was not covered with the silk.

“I think that on many worlds your contract might have fetched a higher price than hers,” said Brenner.

“On the worlds of which I suspect you speak,” she laughed, “I gather that it would be we, indeed, ourselves, and not our contracts, which would be vended.”

“Perhaps,” said Brenner.

She smiled.

“On such worlds, as I understand it,” he said, “they buy the female, and that is what they are really interested in, the female, and the female female, so to speak, she who is most female, biologically, hormonally, emotionally, and such. That is what they are out to acquire, what they are bidding for, what they covet and desire, what they truly want, the real female, the female female, so to speak.”

She smiled.

“How truly frightful, how truly dreadful—for that sort of woman, the true female, for the female female, so to speak,” said Brenner.

She put down her head. “Perhaps not,” she said.

“You were exhibited—on a block,” he said.

“Yes,” she said. “On Damascus.”

He regarded her. He found her face very beautiful, so softly rounded, with the dark eyes, looking up at him, questioningly, and the dark hair, so soft and glossy, framing the exquisite features, and the whiteness of her throat and shoulders, and arms, the sweetness of her breasts within the silk, the bared midriff, the rounded latitudes of her belly, the silk low on it, the hips flaring before being captured by the silk, her left thigh bared, the right under the spread silk, and, behind her, her calves, the ankles, the chain and disk on the left, her small, white feet.

“Do you wish to see what they made me do, how they made me stand and pose?” she asked.

“No!” he said. Then he said, “How?”

“Like this!” she said, delightedly, leaping to her feet. “The bed shall be the surface of the block!” she said. “It is soft, and will not give me the best of footing, but it will provide the required elevation. You will get the general idea of matters.”

“I am sure of it,” said Brenner. How could he have asked ‘How?’ he asked himself. But how could he not have asked ‘How?’ he asked himself. “Retain your silk!”

“Do you think such things are permitted to us on the block?”

“Retain it,” said Brenner.

“I shall do so,” she laughed. She seized up the sheet from the floor, and hurried to the other side of the bed.

“There are many ways in which these things may be done,” she said. “In our case, we were chained together by the neck in the waiting area, and our hands were braceleted behind our backs. We came to the block one by one, after being freed, one at a time, from the chain and bracelets. Covered with a sheet we are conducted to the surface of the block.” She flung the sheet over her head and body and crept carefully to the surface of the bed, on which she stood, upright. “Various details, then, pertinent to ourselves, and our contracts, are brought to the attention of the crowd. After this the sheet is lowered to reveal our head and face, the nature of our hair and such. At this point bidding begins. Then, little by little, cunningly, as the bids continue, the sheet is rearranged. I assure you we do our best to keep it about us. First our ankles and calves are revealed, and then our shoulders. Then the sheet is raised so that our legs are well revealed. Following this it is lowered to our hips. Then it is removed from us altogether, and cast aside, to be used by the next girl.” She then illustrated this matter, taking her time in doing so, for example, folding, and rearranging the sheet, first freeing her head and hair of it, then lifting it to reveal her calves and ankles, and so on. She even held herself motionless at times, as doubtless she had been commanded to do, that bidders might not be rushed in their assessments. Too, she behaved as though she had been turned about, doubtless that the diverse perspectives of her might adequately displayed. To be sure, she was, beneath the sheet, silked, not nude as doubtless would have been the case upon the block. On the other hand, Brenner, as she had anticipated, had little difficulty in grasping the general idea of matters. “It is at this point,” she continued, having cast the sheet aside, “that one of the auctioneer’s helpers produces a whip. The mere sound of this, when it is snapped, encourages in us a desperate desire to do whatever is required of us. We have been coached, and have been well rehearsed, of course. We know the various movements, the postures, the attitudes, and such, required of us, and the commands appropriate to their elicitation.”