as, the hold hatch back, I drew her into the light, from the ladder to the open deck.
“Steady,” warned Tyrtaios.
“A vulo!” said a fellow.
“Prepare to disembark,” called the captain.
“She was loaded at Brundisium,” said a fellow.
Men crowded toward us.
The slave from Asperiche shivered, concealing herself, as she might, behind me.
“Now!” called the captain.
“Ho!” called Tyrtaios. “Over the side!”
But the men did not move.
“Who is the first to disobey?” inquired Tyrtaios.
None seemed ready to claim this distinction.
“Who concealed her?” demanded a fellow, glaring at me.
“I,” I said. Then I said to the slave, “Step away from me, back, to the left, and side.”
Instantly she obeyed.
The fellow’s blade had already departed its housing.
“I give you permission to kill him,” said Tyrtaios to me.
The exchange was extremely brief, and the fellow reeled back, grasping his slashed arm, the blade lost on the deck.
“Ahh,” said several of the men.
“Master,” breathed the girl from Asperiche, shuddering.
“Why did you not kill him?” asked Tyrtaios, interested.
“Had his blade been more dangerous,” I said, “it would have been done.”
Tyrtaios turned to the men. “Who hesitates to obey?” he asked.
He received no response.
“Over the side,” said Tyrtaios, and, one by one, they went to the rail, and leapt into the water.
When the fellow who had attacked me went to the rail, grasping his bleeding arm, Tyrtaios, with a brief stroke of his blade, cut the spinal column at the back of his neck.
“Why did you do that?” I asked.
“Even though a blade be weak,” he said, “a knife in the dark can be dangerous.”
“I suspect there was little risk of that,” I said.
“I have need of you,” he said. “It is a risk I chose not to take.”
“You now have one less man,” I said.
“But better discipline amongst the others,” he said.
“You did not allow him the opportunity to defend himself,” I said.
“You saw his skills,” he said. “Why prolong matters?”
“I see,” I said.
“In the future,” he said, “do not expect me to do your work.”
“I will not,” I said.
Tyrtaios then sprang over the rail, plunging into the restless, waist-high water. He paused only long enough to clean his blade, and then waded ashore. Men poured over the rail after him, and about him, making their way to the shore.
I gathered the slave into my arms, stepped to the rail, and leaped into the water.
It took only a few moments to wade ashore.
Two men, Pani, in their short, unusual robes, white, with red sashes, each with two swords thrust within the silk, one with the strange banner, waited for us by the trees.
“Where are we going?” I asked one of the Pani, he who did not carry the banner.
“Tarncamp,” he said.
I noted that the ship had already departed.
Chapter Eleven
From the coast, it took four days, through the forest, to reach Tarncamp.
Although my burden was not heavy, it seemed to become so, as we trekked on, Ahn after Ahn. My arms began to ache. I was sweating. I became more and more conscious of the loop of rope on my neck, holding me in place. After a time, even the tunicked slaves began to stumble.
“Burdens down, rest,” was the command we longed to hear.
We were not draft tharlarion, not pack kaiila!
But slaves often function as porters, as beasts of burden. This is particularly so within cities, where distances are short. It is not unusual to see burdened slaves in the vicinity of markets, docks, loading platforms, warehouses, granaries, and stables. We are cheaper than men. Among the peasants it is not unknown for us to struggle against our harness, dragging our master’s plow. As the slave is owned, she, as any other animal, may be put to any purpose the master pleases. Indeed, some men enjoy treating us so, putting us to manual labor, even when there is no need. It is useful as a discipline, and, surely, it reminds us that we are slaves. And even lighter labors may serve this purpose. What slave has not scrubbed floors, naked, in shackles?
How weary I was, in my place, carrying my burden!
Surely it was not for this that I had been taught in the house to cook, clean, launder, and sew, to tie a tunic, to move with grace, to speak as a slave, to kneel, belly, lick, and kiss, to eat and drink from pans, to gratefully receive scraps from a master’s hand, to apply cosmetics, to fetch a whip or slippers in my teeth, to bedeck myself with beads and armlets, to wear bells, to beg in a hundred