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.I had traveled for the last fewdays in the vicinity of the troupe of Boots, but not really with it.We hadtraversed the woods of Clearchus, Boots losing little time in the business,without incident.He had, this afternoon, at the edge of the woods, for localvillagers, given his first performances since the fair, from which, as we hadanticipated, he had been duly expelled, that following from various complaintslodged with the page 175fair s board of governance by a certain free woman, the Lady Telitsia ofAsperiche.He had also, given the supposed gravity of his offenses, been finedthree silver tarsks and publicly flogged.He had not been in a good mood that evening.Such things, of course, are notthat unusual in the lives of players.Worse, perhaps, two of his company hadjoined another troupe, taking advantage of an opportunity at the fair, thefellows who commonly played the comic father and the comic pedant.Boots wasnow trying to make do with his Chino and Lecchio, two other fellows, his Binaand his new golden courtesan. Things were so bad that he had, thisafternoon, actually interspersed his dramatic offering with what were more inthe nature of variety or carnival acts.One must make do as one can.Fortunately his Chino was an accomplished juggler and his Lecchio wasexcellent as a comic tight-rope walker.Boots himself was very skillful in thematter of slight-of-hand and magic.Indeed, his dilapidated, oval-roofed wagons seemed a veritable repository forall sorts of wondrous paraphernalia, much of it having to do with matters ofillusion and legerdemain.This multiplicity of skills, incidentally, is notall that uncommon with players.Most of them, too, it seems, can do thingslike play the flute or kalika, sing, dance, tell jokes, and so on.They aregenerally versatile and talented people.Boots s player, incidentally, the kaissa player, the surly, masked fellow,called usually the monster in the camp, remained, too, with the troupe.Heremained, as far as I could tell, from what I had heard this afternoon,consistently and insolently adamant to Boots s please that he manage to lose agame once in a while, if only for the sake of business, or, at the least, makean effort to play a bit less well.Nonetheless, even as it was, he did makesome contribution to the welfare of the troupe.His kaissa games, for what itis worth, usually brought in a few coins.There was something I wanted to talk with him about, sometime. Please, Master, whimpered the girl. Are you ready? I asked. Yes, yes, yes! she said, tensely. Yes what? I asked. Yes, Master! she said, helplessly, tensely. Very well, I said. You may yield. Aiii! she screamed, wildly, inarticulately, in release, in relief, in animalgratitude.Then she cried, Oh! Oh! and thrashed beneath me. Oh! she cried. Oh! She clutched me, desperately.Her legs, with a rattle of the chain, locked about me. Oh! she cried.HerPage 113 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlfingernails dug deeply into my back.page 176Then again she could speak. I yield me! she cried. I yield me to you,Master! I am yours! I am yours, yours, yours! Oh, yes, I am yours, yours. Sheclung then to me, sobbing and gasping.Iheard the chain on her ankle. Your yielding, I said, was satisfactory for a new slave. She looked at me wildly, and then moaned softly, continuing to clinghelplessly to me. There are, of course, I said, infinite horizons and varieties of suchresponses, ranging from ravishings in which the slave, by one means oranother, is driven almost to the point of madness by the pleasures inflictedupon her, ravishings in which the master, in his cruelty, and despite herwill, forces her relentlessly and helplessly to, and beyond, ecstasy, givingher no choice but to accept total sexual fulfillment, to putting herhelplessly to lengthy and gentle services, warm and intimate, in which herslavery and condition are well brought home to her. Sometimes, too, I gather, she whispered, the slave must serve in varietiesof manners regardless of her desires of the moment or will. Of course, I said. she is at the master s disposal, completely, for all forms of work andduties. Yes, I said. She is to be diligent and obedient in all things, she said. Yes, I said. That, too, she whispered, is rewarding and gratifying. Really? I said. Yes, she whispered. Very much so. Interesting, I said. The being of the slave, like the being of the master, she said, is atotality. I lay on my back, looking up at the ceiling of the tent.She was right, ofcourse.These things are totalities, modes of being.Too, I knew, from my ownexperience, that nothing fulfills maleness like the mastery.He who would be aman must be a master.he who surrenders his mastery surrenders his manhood.Iwondered what those who flocked like sheep to their own castration received inrecompense for their manhood.I supposed it must be very valuable.But it thiswere so, why did they feel it necessary to shrill so petulantly at others,those who scorned them and had chosen different paths?I could hear Boots outside the tent.He was a few yards away, around thecampfire with Chino and Lecchio. Lamentations! cried Boots. Surely we areruined! Surely we shall all starve!page 177There are not two copper tarsks in the coin kettle! What hope is there thesedays for artists such as we! That the skilled and famous company of BootsTarsk-Bit, actor, promoter and entrepreneur, that company whose performancesare commanded by high cities and ubars, the finest theatrical company on allGor, should be forced to resort to mere carnival acts, that itshould have to stoop to jugglery and somersaults, to mere tricks andillusions, to entertain village bumpkins, solid, noble fellows though they maybe, is almost too much to bear.What shall be our fate first, I wonder, tomerely starve in simple dignity or to perish in shame from such humiliation? You are wrong about at least on thing, Boots, said Chino. Can it be? asked Boots. Yes, said Chino. There are more than two copper tarsks in the coin kettle. Oh? said Boots.Page 114 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlI heard coins shaking in a metal kettle. Listen, said Chino. There is atleast a silver tarsk s worth here. Are you sure? asked Boots. Count it yourself, said Chino. Yes, said Boots. Ah! Ah, yes.I did not realize my skills with magic werestill that mysterious and baffling.Very good.Excellent, excellent.Excellent, indeed! You did well also, of course, Chino, my friend, and you,too, Lecchio.Well, it is as I always say, a bit of variety is a good thing.And one cannot always be too serious about art, you know.Upon occasion oneshould take a respite form even high drama.Too, excessive significance is notalways good for the digestion.Also, we still need a Brigella, anddesperately.I think, accordingly, that it will not be amiss if, uponoccasion, particularly in somewhat less enlightened and more remote locations,we intermix a dash of legerdemain and prestidigitation, as well as a bit ofcarnival hilarity, prankery, and such, the sort of things that you folks aregood at, with our nobler offerings.To be sure, we will still remainfundamentally true to the theater, for we are primarily, when all is said anddone, serious actors.Too, our reputation depends on it.What do you think? Iam glad that you agree. I lay on my back, looking up at the ceiling of the tent.I felt the girl scheek against my thigh.Iremembered when she had been the free woman, Rowena of Lydius, whom I hadfirst seen in the house of Samos.How proud she had been! She was now acontented slave, a girl who had been named Rowena at a man s thigh
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