the baby up, that was fine, but if she wanted to come back and live the free life at Barna's house, she couldn't bring it with her. "This is where we get 'em, not where we keep 'em!" Barna said, to a shout of approval from his men.
Soon after Pulter and the accountant arrived, a new girl was brought to the household, with a little sister from whom she refused to be parted. Very beautiful, fifteen or sixteen years old, Irad had been taken from a village west of the forest. Barna was immediately smitten with her and made his claim on her clear to the other men. Whether she was already experienced with men or simply had no defenses, she submitted to everything with no pretense of resistance, until they told her she must let her little sister be taken away. Then she turned into a lion. I didn't see the scene, but the other men told me about it. "If you touch her I'll kill you," she said, whipping out a thin, long, unexpected knife from the seam of her embroidered trousers, and glaring round at Barna and all of them.
Barna began to reason with her, explaining the rules of the household, and assuring her that the child would be well cared for. Irad stood silent, her knife held ready.
At this point, Diero interfered. She came forward and stood beside the sisters, putting her hand on the little girl's head as she cowered against Irad. She asked Barna if the girls were slaves. I can imagine her mild, unemphatic voice asking the question.
He of course proclaimed that they were free women in the City of Freedom.
"So, if they like, both of them can stay with me," said Diero.
The men who first told me the story thought that Diero had at last become jealous, Irad being so young and so beautiful. They laughed about it. "The old vixen has a tooth or two left!" one of them said.
I didn't think it was jealousy that moved her. Diero was without envy or possessiveness. What had made her intervene this time?
She got her way, to the extent that she went off with the child that night to her rooms. Barna of course took Irad with him for the night. But whenever he didn't call for her, Irad stayed with little Melle in Diero's rooms.
When the women of Barna's house were all together, I was often daunted by the sheer power of their youthful femininity. I got my revenge as a male by feeling contempt for them. They were healthy, plump, mindless, content to lounge about the house all day trying on the latest stolen finery and chattering about nothing. If one or another of them went off to have a baby, it made no difference—there was no end of them, others just as young and pretty would arrive with the next convoy of raiders.
Now it occurred to me to wonder about this endless supply of girls. Were they all runaways? Did they all ask to come here? Were they all seeking freedom?
Yes, of course they were. They were escaping from masters who forced sex on them.
Was Barna's house any better than whatever they'd escaped from?
Yes, of course it was. Here, they weren't raped, they weren't beaten. They were well fed, well clothed, idle.
Exactly like the women in the silk rooms at Arcamand.
I cringe, remembering how I cringed when that thought first came to me. I am ashamed now as I was then.
I thought I was keeping and cherishing Sallo in my memory, but I had forgotten her again, refused to see her, refused to see what her life and her death had shown me. I had run away again.
I had a hard time making myself go see Diero, then. For several nights I went into town to talk with Venne and Chamry and their friends. When I finally did visit Diero's rooms, my shame kept me tongue-tied. Besides, the little girl was there. "Of course Irad is usually with Barna at night," Diero said, "but then I get to sleep with Melle. And we tell stories, don't we, Melle?"
The child nodded vigorously. She was about six years old, dark, and extremely small. She sat next to Diero and stared at me. When I looked back, she blinked, but went on staring. "Are you Cly?" she asked.
"No. I'm Gav."
"Cly came to the village," the child said. "He looked like a crow too."
"My sister used to call me Beaky," I said.
After a minute