bring fire wood, to cook, to fetch soft boughs for our bedding, to wash talmits, and polish leather? Do you not enjoy having your feet cleaned with their tongues?”
“One would have been enough,” said she who had spoken, she of the green-and-brown talmit.
“Do you wish to bear a burden yourself?” asked the leader.
“I am a free woman!” said the other, angrily.
“And what other pack animals would bear burdens for us?” said the leader.
“Two, then,” she said, “are enough!”
I was then kicked in the side.
“And with three, we might travel more swiftly,” said the leader.
“It is dangerous,” said the other. “Tie her for the beasts.”
“Consider her hair,” said the leader.
“It is filthy, and dirt, and flakes of leaves, adhere within it.”
“Suitably washed, groomed, and watered, she would be presentable,” said my captor.
“You want her selling fee,” said the other.
“I would share it,” said my captor.
“Consider her lineaments,” said the leader.
“Surely she is shapely goods,” said my captor. “Consider her shoulders, her arms, her forearms, drawn back, the neatness of her small wrists, nicely tied together, the narrowness of her waist, the sweet flare of her hips, the pleasantries of a modest but well-turned fundament, her thighs, the rounded calves, the trimness of her ankles.”
“This is not Brundisium, or Ar,” said she of the green-and-brown talmit. “They do not pay much on the beach.”
“They rob us,” said another Panther Woman, angrily, she who had been muchly silent.
The leader then crouched beside me, and pulled my head up and back, by the hair.
“You know gag signals, do you not, Vulo?” she said.
I made a tiny, plaintive sound. I doubt that it could have been heard more than a few feet away. One sound signifies “Yes,” two sounds, “No.” All slaves are taught this.
“Do you wish to live?” she asked.
I made instantly a tiny, pathetic noise, a single noise, one sound.
“Do you wish to be added to the rope?” she asked.
I made my small sound again, piteously.
“Do you beg,” she asked, “as the meaningless slave you are, to be added to the rope?”
Fervently, desperately, I made again a single, small, pleading sound.
“Put her on the rope,” said the leader, rising.
My captor took a length of the rope which fastened the other two slaves together, by the neck, and I felt it tied, and knotted, about my neck.
“Switch her,” said the leader.
Then I writhed, and squirmed, helpless and bound, on my belly, tears bursting from my eyes, muddying the dirt before me, under a lashing rain of supple leather. I could not cry out, for the cruelty of the gag, but tiny, startled, miserable sounds escaped me. I did not think they could have been heard more than a few feet away.
I was then untied.
“Kneel beside the others,” I was told.
I did so, painfully.
“Head down,” I was told.
I lowered my head.
“You are bound by the mistress’s will,” I was told.
I crossed my wrists before me.
I then knelt there, beaten, a rope on my neck, my head down, my wrists crossed.
“Welcome,” said the leader, “to the band of Darla.”
Chapter Thirty
“Your beast is excited,” I said to Axel.
“She was here, last night,” said Axel.
His beast, Tiomines, was scratching at the ground.
“What is he doing?” I asked.
“Scratching up scent, releasing it, fresh, into the air.”
“Better he should be following it,” I said.
“Be patient,” said Axel.
“Still,” I said.
“Be patient,” he said. “Do not annoy him.”
I had no intention, I assured myself, of annoying a sleen.
“He is playing,” said Axel, “he is enjoying himself, he is relishing, he is reminding himself of what a bright, glowing thing it can be, he is taking it more deeply into himself.”
The beast then lifted its head, growling.
If we came upon the prey, I trusted Axel could control the beast.
“I had expected to take her last night,” I said, “before dark.”
“No,” said Axel. “She had a start of several Ahn.”
“Sometimes,” I said, “the beast seems uncertain.”
“One loses the trail, one finds it,” said Axel. “It is like script on a page, easy enough to read, but one must find the page.”
“What if one cannot find the page?” I asked.
“The page is there,” said Axel. “We know that. So it will be found, sooner or later.”
“There are beasts in the forest,” I said.
“Of course,” said Axel.
“I would that we had had her roped yesterday,” I said.
“Surely you have no interest in this slave, save for the sport of the hunt, no more than in any other, save as prey?” he said.
“Certainly not,” I said.
“I think you want her crawling at your feet, on all fours,