we each had trousers and a jacket. The jackets, belted, came to our thighs, and had hoods. We also had a shawl and blanket. Our feet were wrapped in thick cloths, and our legs, over the trousers, boot-like, were similarly swathed.
“Look at me,” I had laughed, so clad, the cloth worker not about, and had said to Janina, turning about, “I am a free woman!”
She, too, ascertaining the cloth worker was not about, had laughed. There were no free women in Shipcamp, unless they might be of the Pani.
Even to joke about being a free woman might garner a slave a lashing. Surely she should know better.
But today was warm, and we were tunicked.
Our necks were encircled with light metal collars. We could not remove these, as they were locked on us. They were “dock collars,” which indicated the sphere of our activities and where we would be chained at night.
I looked across the Alexandra which, at this point, was some one hundred yards in width. The fragment of ice was downstream, turning in the current. I did not know for certain what lay across the Alexandra, but I did know there were two or three buildings there, and something which was palisaded. Occasionally longboats crossed the Alexandra, to and fro. It was said supplies were kept there, across the river, and that, within the palisade, in log kennels, certain special prisoners, or special slaves, were kept. I knew little of this. It did seem clear that they, sooner or later, if there, would be boarded on the ship. One conjecture had it that they were female slaves of such astounding beauty that it would be inappropriate to house them with more common stock. Others said that they were kept separate because they were so beautiful that their presence would cause disruption in the camp, that men would kill one another for them. I found this hard to believe. It was hard to suppose that there would be women there more beautiful than, say, Relia, and some of the others about.
I looked up, at the mighty ship.
It must have been long in the making. It was already in the water, moored against the wharf, when I arrived. Some of the other girls had seen the chocks smote away, and witnessed its descent to the water. Much of the building dock within which it had been constructed had been dismantled, but one could note, here and there, several remaining ribs of what had been the supporting framework and some timbers of the slide leading to the river.
Workmen busied themselves near me. One fellow carried coils of rope on his shoulder.
I looked up, again, at the ship.
There was apparently still much to do, matters having to do with interior work, and decking, the hanging of the giant rudder, the fixture of masts.
“There is water to be fetched,” said Janina.
“Yes,” I said, and adjusted the strap of the flattened bota on my shoulder.
Shipcamp was a large enclave. It lay at the eastern end of what was usually called the “Eastern Road,” though, I think, it tends to veer southeast. I do not think it as large as Tarncamp. Certainly not as many men were housed here. Tarncamp housed a small army. Too, it had its nearby training field, where I and others had witnessed the exercise in which waves of tarn riders had flown against an array of targets. Shipcamp, though garrisoned with its mercenaries, was less a training and housing facility than a shipyard. It contained several workshops and open-sided sheds. Carpenters were here, and sawyers, rope weavers, sail makers, fitters, riggers, and smiths. Mariners, too, were about. The camp was mostly on the northern shore of the Alexandra. The larger, northern camp was narrow, some half of a pasang in length, along the river, and probably no more than two hundred yards in width, extending back toward the forest. There was very little on the southern bank of the Alexandra, some two or three buildings, and the mysterious palisaded area.
I had been here several days.
The journey from the cold, stony beach of Thassa, brushed by the wind, to Tarncamp had taken the better part of four days, and the similar journey from Tarncamp to Shipcamp had been much the same. One supposes unencumbered men might have made the journey in less time, but women, and wagons, would take longer.
I know little or nothing of what is being done here. I suppose that is appropriate, and to be expected, as I am