"Here Is Life!" the vendor cried. "Fresh life from new planets! Young
slaves, with the hot blood surging through their veins! And all
yours--yours for the asking, going for the price you set yourselves!"
He struck a note on a silver gong. "Look at this next wench--a warm and
vibrant thing, my friends, throbbing with life and spirit! What am I
offered for her?"
The woman on the block was Venusian, a weary, fading creature with the
sucking tube and ear-stalks of the _Transmi_. Her eyes were veined with
weeping, her sagging face shadowed with fear and fatigue.
"Come! Make the first bid!" cried the vendor. "Who'll start it? Do I
hear five hundred?"
"Fifty," called a voice from the rear of the crowd.
"Fifty! Do you seek to insult me? She's worth five hundred if she is a
_xi_--"
"You mean, you insult us, vendor," the bidder retorted caustically. "A
fool can see that the life runs low within her. She would not last the
night."
"Fifty!" cried the vendor. "I'm offered fifty, friends. Who'll raise it
to sixty?"
No one spoke. After a moment, the vendor struck the silver gong again.
"Sold to Callan at fifty!" He pushed the Venusian down the steps. "Get
on with you, woman...."
An attendant pushed Shane forward, heavy with irons. "An Earthman,
vendor--"
The vendor struck the gong. "An Earthman, my friends; a fighting
man--powerful, surging with life in spite of his wounds. Who'll start
it--?"
Coldly, Shane swept the auction room with his glance.
Here, in front, on one side, were the slaves--a motley assortment,
dragged to this final degradation from a dozen far-flung planets.
One by one, they were thrust upon the block, exposed to the ghoulish
appraisal of the crowd that filled the room.
The crowd. A crowd of silver men and women, with gleaming hair and
violet eyes and pale, translucent skins. A hundred hungry-eyed, avid
brothers and sisters of _Shi_ Kyrsis.
* * * * *
Even the room itself was strange. The materials resembled nothing known
anywhere in all the void. The lush decor followed an alien theme.
"This man is good for long-time use!" exhorted the vendor. "See the
strength of him--the fire and vigor! You cannot pass him by...."
A door to Shane's right opened. A woman came in, a silver woman.
_The_ woman.
Kyrsis.
An old man close to the block called eagerly, "I'll give a hundred,
vendor!" in a thin, cracking voice.
"A hundred I'm offered! Now who'll make it a hundred and fifty? No one
can afford to let this strong man go at a mere hundred--"
"Hundred and ten!" someone shouted.
Kyrsis turned. For the first time, her eyes met Shane's, and she
stopped suddenly, staring as if paralyzed.
"Hundred twenty!"
"Hundred thirty!"
"Do I hear a hundred forty? Surely no fine, strapping fighting man can
go for less--"
"Two hundred," Kyrsis said.
"Two hundred! The Lady Kyrsis bids two hundred--"
"Two fifty, vendor!" cried the old man by the block.
"Three hundred," came back Kyrsis.
"Do I hear three fifty--?"
"With his wounds, he is worth no more than three," the old man mumbled.
"Three twenty-five then! Do I hear three twenty-five?"
"Three ten--"
"Three fifty," echoed Kyrsis.
The vendor paused and looked about. "Three fifty is bid...." He struck
the gong. "Sold to the Lady Kyrsis for three fifty."
Shane left the block, strode to the silver woman's side; and for
a moment they stood there in vibrant silence, alone in the crowd,
duelling with their eyes.
Then Kyrsis asked: "What dark fate brought you here, _Gar_ Shane? When
I last saw you, you were hewing a path through the _Malya_ horde at the
arena...."
"And you were in the prisoners' cage." The Earthman ignored the strange
tremor in the silver woman's voice. His words were clipped. "Talu and
I escaped and fled Amara in a flyer. But one of Quos Reggar's slavers
sucked us in and brought us here."
"The slavers came to rescue Reggar," Kyrsis said. "They swept Amara
clean." She looked down, breathing deep as if to still some inner
tension. And then: "Talu was with you? They brought her here--?"
"--and put here aside. Her hair was cropped, so they knew she already
had a master." Shane laughed harshly. "Me--I'd worn no yoke, so they
sent me to the block."
"Then ... let us go. I have already done my other buying." The tremor
in Kyrsis' voice was stronger, now--a sort of undercurrent of strange
excitement.
"Your 'other buying'--?"
"A few young slaves to ... to train for household use." The silver
woman's fingers trembled, cold as ice, upon Shane's arm. "Come! Let us
go now--quickly--"
* * * * *
She led Shane out, through other rooms, where other vendors hawked
their wares, and other slaves stood shamed or sobbing, bared to the
eager, weirdly-lusting eyes of the silver people.
Then they reached a sort of transit station, and an attendant brought a
car of a type Shane had never seen before, and they got in.
Three frightened children, a _Malya_ boy of perhaps twelve and two
_Chonya_ girls even younger, huddled at the back, their dark eyes big
with panic.
"Your slaves, Lady Kyrsis?" Shane asked coldly. The barb in his voice
would have slashed through the scales of a _zanth_.
The silver woman kept her eyes on the controls. The car hurtled off
through a tube-like passage. She did not answer.
Then the car halted. They got out--Shane, Kyrsis, children--and entered
rooms, rooms luxuriously furnished in the alien style of the silver
people.
"And now?" Shane inquired thinly.
Kyrsis' breathing was fast and shallow, her face even more pale than
before. She spoke too rapidly, in a ragged, uneven voice. "You are
weary, Shane, so weary. You must rest now. Here--let me take off your
shackles. There is a room here you will like--a quiet room...."
She unlocked the cuffs on his wrists and tossed them aside, then led
him swiftly to an adjoining sleep chamber. Foam-soft cushioning a foot
thick blanketed a dais along one wall, big enough for a dozen men. A
lingering perfume filled the air. Soft lights cast a silvery glow. From
somewhere came faint strains of elfin music.
"Rest here, Earthman," the silver woman said softly. "Rest until I call
you...."
For a moment her icy fingers touched his cheek. Then she left the room,
closing the door behind her.
Shane stared after her, a frown furrowing his brow. After a moment, he
stepped to the door, tried the handle.
It was locked.
* * * * *
Shane's frown deepened. He rubbed a grimy hand across his cheek where
the cold of Kyrsis' fingers still lingered; finally turned to a more
thorough inspection of his quarters.
As he pivoted, light glinted on the glass-like surface of the wall that
flanked the door--caught a vague flicker of movement.
Shane moved on across the chamber with no sign that he had seen it.
An alcove held a radiation bath. The Earthman stepped into the cubicle
and flipped the switch, luxuriating under the warm tingle of the
molecular bombardment. Slowly, the sweat and dirt and grime faded from
his body, the dried blood washed away. The worst of the weariness left
his muscles. His bones almost stopped aching.
Refreshed, he snapped off the radiation and, leaving the cubicle, drank
greedily from a crystal bubbler set beside it.
Now he went back to the sleeping chamber. His eyes flickered over the
spot in the wall beside the door.
The surface showed blank and dead as the rest.
Shane grinned sourly to himself; crossed the room and tried the door
once more.
It was still locked.
The Earthman hesitated. Then, grimly, he braced one foot on the casing
beside the lock, gripped the handle, and threw his full weight on it.
Inside the lock, something snapped. The handle twisted askew.
Again Shane tugged, his muscles swelling with the strain.
The broken handle pulled from its socket. Inserting a forefinger in the
hole, Shane manipulated the lock, pulled back the bolt.
The door swung open.
Shane stepped outside. He glanced at the wall behind the spot where he
had seen the movement.
* * * * *
A picture hung there. Lifting aside, he found a small, hinged panel.
Opening it, he discovered that a lens set behind the shiny coating of
the inner wall enabled him to survey the entire sleep chamber.
Again, the sour grin twisted Shane's lips. Swiftly, he strode through
the silence, checking the other rooms. He found them empty, all but
one. Its door was locked.
The Earthman drew back a moment.
A picture hung a few feet to one side of the locked door.
Shane stepped over to it and lifted it from the wall.
It concealed another peep hole. Shading his eyes, the Earthman peered
through the lens.
Kyrsis was within ... Kyrsis and one of the captive _Chonya_ girls.
The silver woman held the child upon her lap. She was talking to
her--smiling, squeezing the chubby hands. Her manner was gentle, tender.
Yet under it all, somehow, hung a weird, unholy note--grotesque,
obscene.
Some of the fear had left the child's eyes now. She smiled wanly ...
nestled, not quite so tense, in the silver woman's arms.
Kyrsis' eyes closed. Her lips parted, and Shane knew that she was
singing as she rocked the child.
The child's lips drooped. Trustingly, the small arms half-embraced the
silver woman. The tired head rested on Kyrsis' breast.
The child slept.
Now new emotions came to Kyrsis' lovely face ... strange passion--a
horrid anticipatory glow. Her nostrils flared. Her violet eyes grew
large, gleamed with fires older than time itself. She cradled the
child. Ever so tenderly, yet with a terrible air of strain, her parted
lips sought the girl's.
Shane stood frozen, breathing hard, tight in indecision's grip.
The child moved languidly in Kyrsis' arms--restless, not struggling,
and for a moment the silver woman straightened, sucked in air. Then,
again, she pressed her lips against the girl's.
Shane cursed beneath his breath and turned towards the door.
But even as he did so, Kyrsis rose, the child still in her arms. The
silver woman's face was serene now, ethereally beautiful, unmarred by
any trace of strain. Gently, she laid down the still form of the child.
Then, coming erect again, she moved towards the door.
Shane slid the picture back into place and stepped out of sight in the
adjoining room.
* * * * *
The door to the room in which Kyrsis had been, opened and closed. The
silver woman passed down the hall, out of sight.
Tense, silent, Shane made for the room from which she'd come.
The door was unlocked now. Swiftly, he slipped inside and stepped
to the couch where the _Chonya_ child still lay, so very still. He
touched the soft hand. Lifted it with trembling fingers.
Behind him, the door-latch clicked.
Shane turned.
Kyrsis stood watching him. "You come unannounced, Earthman," she
murmured coolly.
"I came in as you left," Shane said, and of a sudden his hands, his
voice, his whole body, were shaking uncontrollably, gripped in a
paroxysm of surging fury. "I saw you here, with the child! Do you hear
me? I saw you--!"
"So...?" Kyrsis' face was still calm, the violet eyes unfathomable.
The veins at Shane's temples stood out, throbbing. With a tremendous
effort, he brought his voice under a semblance of control.
He said: "This child is dead!"