SOLVED. Adult Fantasy collection about a freed slave given an astrolabe by his mistress as a memento. [s]

[Dave]

1) short story fantasy collection. 2) publication time range is questionable.... but roughly 1980-2000 3) remembered plot: Young male slave is taken out of a quarry/mine on the whim of a noblewoman as a plaything. Eventually he is left to his own devices and wanders around the palace looking for food, where he comes to the attention of other powerful nobles. After this his mistess chooses to free him to remove him from this dangerous political situation. She gives him an astrolabe as a memento.

[Becca]

'The Tale of Gorgik', the first story in Tales of Nevèrÿon by Samuel R. Delaney looks like a match

[Dave]

Thx Becca! That's the one! Out of curiosity, did you know that straight away, or did you track it down?

[Becca]

I searched "slave" + "astrolabe" on archive.og because I thought it wouldn't be a common combination, and luckily there was a copy there

[Kris]

Glad you found your book, Dave.

Tales of Nevèrÿon (book 1) of the Return to Nevèrÿon series by Samuel R. Delany - Becca's find.