EXTRACT FOR
Agent Of Cern
(Sablesword)

I nodded. They were bringing out the first girl for auction. She was a medium girl: Medium height, medium build, medium complexion, and medium pretty ??" by Cernian standards. She was nude, of course, except for her chains, and her skin glistened with the usual coat of slave oil. She smiled at us as she stepped onto the block. I nudged Edmond. "Bid!" I whispered. He grinned at me, but remained stubbornly silent. 



He kept silent as the rest of the coffle was brought forward and sold, one by one. Some were taller and some shorter, some lighter and some darker, some leaner and some curvier, some larger and some more petite. They were all beautiful. Aqua vita gave them the natural beauty of good health, and if a girl needed a stronger elixir for skin blemishes or hair problems, she could beg her master for it. And the master would cheerfully provide: Who would want to own a plain slavegirl when with a little effort one could own a pretty one?



In the Four Empires, where alchemy was less advanced, slavegirls make heavier use of ordinary cosmetics. Here in the Island Kingdoms they used very little: A girl would wear a touch of perfume and might use a bit of lip gloss, but hardly ever anything else. The slaves on the block, of course, only wore slave oil. But that was enough. It pleased and excited the girls to be on the auction block, even through the soothing effects of the slave oil. They displayed their beauty proudly, projecting to the audience. I saw Edmond lick his lips a few times, especially when the short blonde cutie was brought out to be bid on. But he still kept silent. 



The slave dealers put eleven girls in each coffle, with the last girl customarily being the one the dealers judged to be the most beautiful. In this chain, the eleventh girl was a milk-chocolate-skinned dryad with exceptional breasts and a luscious mane of wavy black hair. She wore special gilded chains, and the gold shone beautifully against her skin. Even by Cernian standards, she was absolutely gorgeous. The audience "oohed" appreciatively, and she smiled, white teeth flashing. 



Perhaps I should explain here that the skin tones I'd seen so far in Cern ranged from creamy white (like Belzac's Orane and Beauregard's red-haired Fioe) to copper-brown (like Lieutenant Quennel and his Ninette). Light skin was more common than dark (due to immigration from the Ularian Empire), but most, like my own Luce, fell somewhere in between. Ebony skin, I learned later, did exist but was extremely rare. In any case, Cernians had the same sort of mild and idiosyncratic preferences for skin color that they had for hair or eyes: One might prefer dark beauties in the same way that another liked redheads. I was the one who had neuroses about it. 



The auctioneer started to describe how the girl on the block had been imported, at great expense, from exotic Ixa-ongo. The girl turned her head and stuck her tongue out at him. Everyone laughed. 



"All right," the auctioneer said, laughing along with us. "She's really from the Lescord Commune; Cernian born and bred. But her ancestors did come from Ixa-ongo. Now, will you gentlemen be pleased to start the bidding?"



The bidding was vigorous. Even Edmond put in a bid, and so, to my surprise, did Albert from the Bergmark embassy. He sat a few rows in front of us, hiding under a hat, and I hadn't noticed him until he made his bid. But the offers quickly rose far above Edmond and Albert's bids, until the girl was sold for an even 400 sceptres. It was an extraordinary price, but then she was an extraordinary slavegirl.