the captors, but they did not attack with them. It seems they were guests, with the sleen, in the camp of the captors. Apparently the sleen escaped. It is fortunate for you it was recovered.”
I did not think it likely that the captors were from Shipcamp. I had seen none of them before. Indeed, I was not sure they had even known of the existence of Shipcamp. The two who had been with the sleen, on the other hand, must be from Shipcamp. I had been the quarry of their sleen. Their relationship to the captors, if any, was not clear to me. I suspected they might have fallen in with one another in the forest.
I had not even obtained a good look at the sleen’s use master, let alone his fellow, as by the time of his arrival, I was kneeling, bent down, my head to the dirt, my hands over my head, expecting the momentary attack of the sleen. I had not even raised my head, so terrified I had been, when the beast had been withdrawn, and had begun to feed, and I had lost consciousness.
“You may only be whipped,” said Tula.
“You are very pretty to be put to leech plants or fed to sleen,” said Mila. “Men hate to lose a pretty slave. They have many uses for them.”
“Too, you are a barbarian,” said Tula. “That is clear from your accent. And barbarians are stupid. It might be thought you did not know any better.”
“This time,” said Mila, meaningfully.
“And allowances might be made for you,” continued Tula.
“Once,” said Tula.
“Who were with the sleen?” I asked.
“Those two, across the camp,” said Tula.
Tula and Mila helped me to my feet, for I still felt unsteady.
“What is wrong?” asked Tula.
“Are you going to faint?” asked Mila, anxiously, tightening her hold on my arm.
“No,” I said. “No!”
“Do you know them?” asked Tula.
“One,” I said.
“Is he your master?” asked Tula.
“No,” I said, “he is not my master, and I am not his slave!”
“I only asked,” said Tula.
“You could do worse,” said Mila. “Look at those arms, the hands, the shoulders, the power, the virility of that body.”
“He could break one of us in two,” said Tula.
“He could nurture, protect, and master a slave,” said Mila. “I would be well pleased if his coin could take me off the block.”
“Not I!” I said.
“I would love to crawl naked and collared at his feet, cleaning them with my tongue, any time,” said Mila.
“Not I!” I said.
“Surely he is handsome,” said Tula.
“Not at all,” I said.
“I cannot even look at him,” said Mila, “without feeling my bondage.”
“It is he whom I fled,” I said.
“Then he is your master,” said Tula.
“No, he is not!” I said.
“Then you know he is your master, and you want him as your master!” said Mila.
“No, no!” I said.
“He is not the sleen master,” said Tula. “Thus he must have hired the sleen and its master.”
“You were the beast’s quarry,” said Mila.
“He came to seek you!” said Tula.
“Perhaps,” I said, off-handedly.
I feared I might fall, seeing him here, in the camp, so close, only some yards away.
Then I stood very straight, and stiffly.
“He is an oaf,” I said. “But, yes, doubtless he has come to seek me.”
“So far through the forest, and its dangers,” said Tula.
“He must want you very much,” said Mila.
I swelled with pride. Had it not been my knees, and not those of Tula and Mila, which Genserich or Aeson had forced apart, so that I must kneel in the position of the most owned and desirable of slaves, the pleasure slave? How vulnerable is a woman so positioned! And I had been unable to subdue or ignore the feelings which I had experienced, being so placed, so as a slave, before a man. How can one help being heated, and excited? How can one help being aware of the changes in one’s body, the readiness of one’s belly?
“Perhaps,” I said.
“But why, then, has he not put you in his bracelets?” asked Tula.
“I do not know,” I said.
“I do not understand,” said Mila. “He has paid you no attention. He has not even looked in our direction. I am not sure he knows you are in the camp.”
“Could there be no other reason you were sought?” asked Tula.
“Perhaps,” I said, falteringly. I suddenly realized that I might have been sought simply as a fled slave, only that. I was well aware of the security within, and about, Shipcamp, the guards, the prowling larls, and such. It seemed