“I am going to check,” he told her. “I cannot represent you as something you are not, despite your beauty. If you are a truly a virgin I will get a much higher price for you than if you are not. What is your name?”

“Shifra,” she told him. “I am called Shifra.”

He nodded. The name meant beautiful, and it certainly fit her. Calling to his men he untied her. “Put her on the blanket and two of you secure her arms. The other two of you, spread her legs wide for me,” Lenya said. When his men licked their lips and leered at his instructions Lenya continued. “She says she is a virgin. If she is then she will bring us a much, much higher price at the slave market in The City, you fools. We will make so much coin off of her that you will all be able to spend at least two nights at the Pleasure House of Maeve Scarlet,” he told them with a grin. “Now get the girl on her back so I may examine her.”

“What if she isn’t a virgin?” one of his men asked.

“Then we shall all take pleasures with our little Shifra tonight, my lads, but I hope she has not lied, for the Pleasure Women at Maeve Scarlet’s are exceptionally well trained and always welcoming of a hardworking man.”

As they brought her down onto the blanket Shifra began to struggle wildly, sobbing and begging them not to harm her. But she was a dainty girl and no match for the big men holding her prisoner. They quickly had her secure, both of her arms pinioned to either side and her legs spread wide. The tears pouring from her eyes and her little cries of distress would have moved a stone cliff.

Lenya knelt by the girl. He pulled her skirts up, revealing the snow-white skin beneath and a mound of tight red-gold curls clustered upon her mons. He looked admiringly. No doubt about it, she was prime goods. Now if only she spoke the truth. He pressed a single finger past her plump nether lips. Shifra sobbed and begged him to stop. His finger found her passage and he pushed it slowly into her. Shifra shrieked her distress. Lenya’s finger reached the barrier of her virginity. Quickly he pulled his finger back and out lest he damage that barrier. He looked up smiling broadly at his men. “She is as pure as the driven snow, my lads. Our fortune is made! Now release her,” he said.

Shifra curled herself into a tight little ball, weeping with her shame.

Lenya stood up. “Remember,” he said to his men. “I will cut the balls of any of you who touches her and make you eat them roasted,” he threatened. “Drop another blanket over her. I will be sleeping next to her tonight.”

The other slavers knew their leader well enough to know he was not jesting with them so they said nothing more. Two days later they arrived at The City. Shifra was taken to a public bath to be scrubbed. Lenya left his men there while he went to an open market to seek a more attractive garment in which to display his treasure to the slave master. Presentation was, he knew, half the battle when selling a piece of choice merchandise. Finding what he sought, he returned to the bath to find Shifra almost ready. He gave the garment to the bath mistress. “For the girl Shifra,” he told her.

“She’s a real beauty, Lenya,” the bath mistress told him. “Where did you find her? I’ve done an extraspecial job with her. I hope you’ll remember me when you get your price.” And she smiled, showing several broken and blackened teeth.

“Have I ever forgotten you?” he replied.

“Aiiii, but this girl is truly valuable,” the bath mistress said.

“I will not forget you,” he repeated. “Now finish up. I am in a hurry to get to the slave market. The auctions begin at noon. I’ve been looking forward to an evening or two at Maeve Scarlet’s.”

The bath mistress cackled and then disappeared back into the baths. She returned a short while later with Shifra, who was now garbed in a pale-green gown of sheerest silk through which her lush and rosy body could be just faintly seen. The skirt of the gown was narrow. One of her beautiful rounded shoulders was bare as were her arms. Her long red-gold hair had been washed and now flowed loose down her back to her buttocks. Her feet were shod in a pair of simple sandals.

“Here she is,” the bath mistress said, pleased. “You have an eye for the right costume, Lenya.” Then she lowered her voice. “I have given her a cup of Razi so that she will not be so frightened or struggle.”

Lenya pressed double the amount he would have usually paid the bath mistress into her hand. “And there will be more later,” he told her.

“You are generous beyond measure, but come back before you and your men go to Maeve Scarlet’s,” she chuckled.

“I will,” he responded with a grin. Then he took Shifra by the hand. “Come now, my beauty, and let us see the excitement you will cause.” He led her to a waiting litter, for he would not walk her to the slave market now that she was ready. He followed along as the two bearers hurried through The City’s crowded and noisy streets. Finally they gained the slave market and Lenya hurried to find the slave master who, seeing him first, called out to the slaver.

“Lenya! Rumor has it that you have found a treasure for me to auction today. You are in luck, my friend! If the girl is what she is said to be I will sell her in the private chamber rather than here in the open market. I get a much better clientele for choice merchandise there,” the slave master explained. He walked to the litter and drawing back the curtains, was stunned by the violet eyes that looked back at him. Reaching into the litter he handed the girl out, then slowly walked about her nodding. “I have not had anything this fine in years,” he said admiringly. “Where did you find her? And are there more of them?”

“I doubt it,” Lenya said with a chuckle. “We came upon her picking flowers in an open meadow on the forest’s edge. We had passed a hut where an old woman lived. Shifra said it was her home and her grandmother.”

“In the forest?” the slave master said. “But she has not the look of Forest Folk.”

“She is probably Midlands born, but the hut was poor, which means the farm from which the old woman came was probably bought up or confiscated by the emperor some years ago. She says she’s an orphan. Do you really care?” Lenya asked.

“Is it too much to ask if she is a virgin?” the slave master said hopefully.

Lenya grinned. “I verified it myself. The maiden’s barrier is there. I did not damage it, knowing its value.”

The slave master reached out to squeeze one of Shifra’s breasts. Gasping, the girl drew back like a scalded cat, her eyes wide with shock. The man chortled. “I shall want a thirty per cent commission,” he said.

“Do not be greedy,” Lenya scolded him. “This maid will sell in less than five minutes and the only reason it will take that long will be because the bidding will be hot and heavy. I will give you ten percent.”

“Twenty,” the slave master replied.

“Fifteen and not a coin more,” Lenya responded.

“Agreed!” the slave master said. “And you are just in time, for the private auction is beginning first. Come in and you may view the proceedings. I will sell the girl last, however, in order to get a fair price for the rest of my merchandise but do not fear. There are only five others. Top quality is difficult to come by these days.”

Lenya saw Shifra led away and he settled down to watch the auction. Two girls were quickly auctioned off to Pleasure Houses. A third to a wealthy magnate. There was a faint stirring in the audience behind him but Lenya did not bother to turn about. The remaining two slave girls were sold. Then the slave master stepped forward.

“My lords,” he said. “I have less than an hour ago received for sale a virgin of such incomparable beauty that it will be many years before I receive such a slave again.” He clapped his hands and Shifra was led out to be placed in the center of a small raised dais. “Young, my lords. Untouched. Rare.”

“And expensive,” said a voice in a group of men to appreciative laughter.

The slave master joined in their laughter. “Aye, my lords, expensive.”

“Let us see what it is you really offer,” another voice called.

The slave master nodded to Shifra and reaching up she undid her gown, letting it fall to her feet. Slowly, carefully she pirouetted about as she had been told to do and she heard the whispering sighs from the men gazing up at her. They admired the small round breasts with the berry nipples. The admired her lush thighs and her plump buttocks.

The slave master allowed them to look their fill and then he said, “What am I bid for this piece of perfection, my lords?”

Lenya held his breath waiting. Would he gain five thousand coins for her? Six?

“I bid fifty thousand gold cubits,” a voice called from the audience.

“Fifty thousand,” the slave master said as if it were a mere opening bid. His heart was hammering against his rib cage. “I am bid fifty thousand. Who will bid sixty?” He looked about the chamber. “Come my lords, will no one else bid for this rare beauty?”

The room remained silent and so the slave master brought down his small gavel. “Fifty thousand gold. The slave girl Shifra is sold to our gracious and glorious emperor, Gaius Prospero, for fifty thousand gold cubits.” The gavel hit the slave master’s podium with a loud thunk. “Done for fifty thousand gold cubits!”

It was only then that Lenya dared to turn about. And there was the emperor himself. He was staring intently at Shifra. No wonder no one else had dared to bid against him, he thought. But then, had the emperor not bid, neither he nor the slave master would now be rich men. He almost laughed aloud. He was done with slaving, he decided in that moment. After today nothing he did would compare with this.

A servant of the emperor made his way to the slave master and gave him a scrip with the emperor’s seal upon it. “Bring this to the treasury at your convenience. You will be paid there. Send the girl to the emperor’s home in the Golden District at once.”

Then he turned and departed.

“We do not have the gold?” Lenya said nervously.

“I will put today’s open auction in the hands of my son,” the slave master said. “You and I shall go immediately to the treasury, my friend, and collect our payment. I trust no one, especially not the emperor. The girl shall not leave this place until we have our coin.”

Lenya nodded and together the two men hurried to the large treasury building, a new structure located just inside the gates of the Golden District. Showing the scrip with the emperor’s seal they were permitted entry. An officious clerk peered suspiciously at the paper and then without a word called for his superior who in turn called for the assistant treasurer who looked at the scrip.

Then he said, “How do you wish this paid out, sir?”

“In a lump sum,” the slave master said.

“No,” Lenya interjected. “Pay him his seven thousand five hundred coins. The remainder you will transfer immediately to Avram the Goldsmith in my name.”

“You bank with Avram?” The slave master was surprised.

The assistant treasurer turned to the slave master. “Sir?”

“Do as he says,” the slave master told him. “He is Lenya the Slaver. The merchandise was his. I will take my commission and go.”

“Have my monies transferred now,” Lenya told the assistant treasurer. “I am going to Avram to get the coin I will need to pay my men.”

“I am curious,” the slave master said while the paperwork for the transfer was prepared. “What do you pay your men?”

“They will each get five percent of my profit,” Lenya answered. “It is usually two percent of our sales. But I have never before gotten such a sum for a bevy of slaves, let alone one girl. I’m not a greedy man. My men have all been loyal and with me a long time. I shall retire to a small villa in the Coastal Kingdom now and take a wife.”

“Here is your record of the transfer of funds,” the assistant treasurer said, handing the papers to Lenya.

“Good day to you then,” Lenya told them and he was gone from the treasury.

“What did you sell for him?” the assistant treasurer asked the auctioneer, curious.

“A slave girl-an extraordinarily beautiful slave girl. The emperor purchased her,” the slave master said. “Fifty thousand gold coins. Not even the legendary Lara earned that sum for Gaius Prospero.”

The treasurer handed the slave master a heavy bag of coins. “You shall have an escort back to your establishment,” he said. “Courtesy of the emperor, sir.”

“Thank you,” the slave master nodded. He must be quick. The slave girl Shifra must be delivered immediately now that she had been paid for in full. He hurried from the treasury with the two armed mercenaries. When he returned he discovered that a litter had been sent from the emperor for his new purchase. His assistant, afraid to refuse a royal transport, had already sent the girl along. The slave master did not chide the man. He was actually relieved to be rid of Shifra now. Someone that beautiful was bound to cause trouble sooner or later.