a moment, she was as stripped as the others. She was then dragged toward the door. There the light was better. “The mark of Treve!” cried a slave, pointing to the thigh of the held slave.
So, I thought, she is branded. I knew little of Treve, other than the fact that it was reputedly a bandit city somewhere in the vastness of the mighty Voltai mountains, far to the south.
“I hope masters burn a dozen brands into her leg,” said a slave.
“Yes,” said another.
“Let her alone,” I said. “Please let her alone.”
The slaves then went about their ways. She who had been gowned then crept back into the darkness of the kennel, and lay on the planks, her head down on her arms.
A slave approached me. “Are you all right?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“The gate is opening!” called a girl.
“Keep back,” said the guard.
Four men entered, two bearing small boxes, and two, together, bearing a long chain with collars.
“What is it?” asked a girl.
“A coffle chain,” said a girl.
“We are going to be moved!” said a slave.
“Is the ready banner down?” called another.
“I cannot see,” said a slave.
“What is in the boxes?” called a girl, from the kennel doorway.
“I do not know,” said a girl, from the clearing.
“I can see through the gate!” called a girl. “Across the river! I cannot see the ready banner! It is down!”
“Get back!” ordered the guard. There was a snap of his whip.
“The ship departs tomorrow!” cried a girl, frightened.
“Back, back!” said the guard. I heard the snap of his whip, twice more. “Into the kennel!” he said. There was another snap of the whip, and the slaves who were in the clearing, hurried back into the kennel. They left the door open, and were clustered just inside, looking out.
“I do not want to sail to the farther islands,” said a girl. “It is too late in the season. Thassa will not permit it.”
“I have heard the World’s End,” said another.
“That is absurd,” said another. “That would be madness.”
“I do not want to go to the World’s End,” said a girl.
“We will go where we are taken,” said another.
“Have no fear,” said another. “That cannot be the destination.”
“The men are going,” I heard. “The guard is closing the gate.”
“To the feed trough!” called the guard.
The slaves then hurried to the trough, with the exception of she who had been gowned, who remained prone on the planking inside the kennel, to the left of the door, and one other, who lingered by me. “I will bring you something,” she said.
“Thank you,” I said.
The slaves were crowded at the trough. They were permitted to use their hands. After a time she who had volunteered to feed me entered the kennel. She carried the small, simple bowl which had been earlier carried by the slave who had been gowned. She held it to my mouth that I might feed, and, with a finger, as I could not do so, wiped what had clung to the bottom and sides of the bowl into my mouth.
“Thank you,” I said.
She then returned the bowl to the feed trough in the clearing, and returned.
“I am very grateful,” I said.
“You did not want Ubara hurt,” she said. “Why?”
“She is a slave,” I said.
“Do not expect her to be grateful,” she said.
“I do not,” I said.
“I do not know why Ubara is as she is,” said the slave.
“Perhaps she was once free,” I said.
“So, too, were we all,” said the girl. “There are no bred slaves here, save that we are women.”
“You think that women are born slaves?” I said.
“We are not complete until we are the slaves of our masters,” she said.
“Even Ubara?” I asked.
“She fears greatly that for which she most longs,” she said.
“Do you think she would make a good slave?” I asked.
“She is very beautiful,” she said.
“But surely more is required,” I said.
“She has not yet learned her collar,” she said.
“I see,” I said.
“Men can teach it to her,” she said.
“I have learned my collar,” I said.
“But you ran away,” she said.
“I now know my collar,” I said, “and want it, and love it.”
“Even though you will be despised by free women?” she asked.
“Let them be themselves,” I said, “and let us be ourselves.”
“They are the mistresses,” she said.
“Why do they hate us so?” I asked.
“It is we whom men strip and collar, and bind, and buy and sell, and raid for, and capture, and put to their feet, and want,” she said.