I then lifted her by the arms to a kneeling position and put her a bit from me on the sand. I then reclined, on one elbow, some grass about, to rest. I regarded her. She struggled a little, then looked at me, angrily. "I am helpless," she said.
"We must rest now," I said.
"And where am I to rest?" she asked.
"Not in the open," I said.
"Where then!" she said.
"Over there!" I said, "in that grass."
"And have you not forgotten something?" she asked.
"Perhaps," I said. "What?"
"How am I to get there?" she asked, ironically.
"On your knees, inch by inch," I said.
"You are the sort of man who masters a woman, are you not?" she said.
"Go rest now," I said. "We shall be leaving in a few Ahn."
I watched her make her way inch by inch to the destination I had set for her, and then, there in some grass, fall to her shoulder. I saw her, through the grass, lying tied in the sand, regarding me.
I then rested.
In a few Ahn I awakened.
Shortly thereafter I removed the raft from its hiding place, readied it, putting it half afloat, and made various preparations for departure. I then went to my fair captive and she awakened as I freed her ankles from her wrists. Aside from this, however, she was still bound hand and foot. I put her over my shoulder, her head to the rear, as a slave is commonly carried, and carried her to the raft. I sat her down on the rear of the raft, its forward end half afloat. I then picked up a short, buckled strap, cut from the harness I had worn in drawing the raft through the marsh. I wrapped this four times about her neck, closely, and buckled it shut. I then lifted up one end, the loose end, of a long strap, also part of the harness I had worn in drawing the raft through the marsh, and tied it about the four turns of the strap on her neck. In this way the interior strap, given the pull of the lead strap, could not close on her throat. Similarly, the pressure of the lead strap, if it were transmitted to the turns of the neck strap, as in a slave leash on a girl front-led, would be at the back of her neck, not at the throat. The other end of this strap I had already fastened securely to the rear of the raft. All these things I had done earlier, as part of my preparations for departure.
From the pack I had taken from the island which had been occupied by the men of Ar, in the time of the flies, I took a dry, flat biscuit. I began to feed.
"I am hungry," she said.
I gave her part of the biscuit. I put this in her mouth, bit by bit. In this fashion is a slave sometimes fed. I would hunt and fish when the opportunity presented itself. The delta is rich in resources.
"I am thirsty," she said.
"At this point in the delta," I said, "the water is drinkable."
"The rencers gave me water," she said. "They brought it to me in a dipper."
"And where do you think they obtained it?" I asked.
"Oh," she said.
I looked at her, in the light of the moons, sitting on the rough raft, her ankles crossed and bound, her hands tied behind her, in her improvised collar, on its strap.
"I think I shall rest, if I may," she said.
She then lay down, on her side, on the raft. She moved her body in such a way that there was little doubt of her femaleness, the lovely, cunning she-sleen.
I then thrust the raft fully into the marsh. She observed me, facing me, lying on her side, as I did this, I in the marsh. I then climbed aboard the raft. I bent to her ankles, freeing them of the binding fiber. "Thank you," she said. She stretched her lovely legs. "What are you doing!" she said, suddenly. I lifted her up and dropped her into the marsh, behind the raft. She went under the surface but, in a moment, got her feet under her and came to the surface, wading, sputtering. "What is the meaning of this!" she cried, angrily.
"Why should I pole your extra weight?" I asked, picking up the pole.
"But I am a female!" she said.
She stood there in the water to her waist, the strap going up to her collar.
"I told you," I said, "that you would follow, bound, on a strap."
"No!" she said. "You cannot be serious!"
I thrust the pole down into the mud and propelled the raft forward, and about.
"You cannot be serious!" she said. "Oh!"
I looked back and saw her following, on her strap.
"No, please!" she said.
I did not respond to her.
"There are dangers in the marsh!" she said.
"Keep a sharp lookout," I advised her.
"I do not weigh very much!" she wept.
"True," I said. To a man she was little more than a handful of slave.
"Permit me to ride," she begged.
I did not respond to her.
"Please, please!" she said.
I continued to pole the raft, silently.
"You are strong," she said. "It can make little or no difference to you!"
I did not respond to her.
"It is not because of my weight, is it!" she cried.
"No," I said.
"Why, then?" she cried. "What do you want? What must I do? What must I be?"
I did not respond to her.
"Why?" she wept. "Why?"
"You will learn to be humble and obedient," I said.
"I am humble and obedient," she assured me. "I am humble and obedient!"
"We shall see," I said.
She began to cry.
We continued on.
After a few Ehn she suddenly said, "Wait!"
I stopped the raft.
"We are not going north, are we?" she asked.
"No," I said. "We are going south." I had wondered when she would notice that.
"I thought you were going north," she said.
"I changed my mind," I said.
"But Ar is to the south!" she said.
"So, too," said I, "is Brundisium, and Torcadino, and a hundred other cities."
"You are not going to turn me over to the men of Ar!" she cried.
"Perhaps," I said.
"No!" she cried.
"But you are of Ar," I said.
"I betrayed Ar!" she said.
"But surely that would not be known to them," I said.
"I was on the staff of Saphronicus," she said. "I have been an observer for Talena, of Ar. Those who have been in the delta will now have no doubt of the treachery to which they have been subjected."
"Probably not," I said.
"And they know me!" she wept.
"I would suppose so," I said.
"Do not turn me over to men of Ar!" she said.
"Do you not think they would like to have a Cosian spy in their power?"
"Do not turn me over to them!" she begged.
"I think you will learn to be humble and obedient," I said.
"Yes," she said. "I will! I will!"
"But perhaps the men of Ar would not recognize you," I said.
"Captor?" she asked.
"As you are naked, and in bonds," I said, "you might even have difficulty proving your identity, even if you wished to do so, that you are the Lady Ina."
"But then they might see me only as a woman naked and in bonds," she cried, "and treat me accordingly!"
"Yes," I said.
She uttered a profound moan.
"I could, of course, turn you over to Cosians," I said.
"You would not dare!" she cried.
"Come along," I said, poling the raft forward.
"Oh," she said, in misery, wading, hurrying after me.
"That might be interesting," I said, "considering your accent."
"No!" she wept.
"You could always explain to them, in chains at their feet, how you were actually a Cosian spy."
"They would never believe me!" she said. "They would think me a liar, one trying to improve her condition or obtain favorable treatment."
"I would think so," I said.
"And I might be severely punished, or slain!" she said.
>
"To be sure," I said, "it would be a protestation which I do not think you would care to make twice to the same master, or even twice to any master."
She moaned.
"Too," I said, "even if they believed you, I think you might learn that the average Cosian is no more fond of spies, of whatever side, than the average fellow of Ar."
"What would they do to me?" she asked.
"I do not know," I said, "but I do not think that I, if I were you, would care to wear my collar in their domicile."
"My only hope," she said, "would be to fall into the hands of those who know of me and my work."
"I would think that extremely unlikely," I said.
"But it is possible!" she said.
"Even so I would not entertain too sanguine a hope for deliverance from such a quarter," I said, "as your usefulness to Cos is presumably now at an end, their objective accomplished in the delta."
"They would not free me?" she said.
"I would not think so," I said.
"But what then would they do with me?" she asked.
"I do not know," I said. "Perhaps keep you, perhaps give you to someone, perhaps sell you."
"But I am privy to much information," she said. "I am the confidante of the Lady Talena of Ar!"
"Is she treasonous to Ar, as you?" I asked.
"Yes!" she said.
I turned about and looked at her.
"Archly treasonous," she said. "Why are you looking at me like that? Do not kill me!"
I then returned to the poling of the raft.
"You will be regarded as the suborned spy," I said. "Lady Talena will be above suspicion. By now she will have been dissociated from you."
"That may not be so easy," she said. "I am privy to much information."
"I see," I said.
She laughed.
It interested me that she did not seem to understand that those who had been her paymasters might now regard her as a danger to their party.
"On the other hand," I said, "perhaps I should merely turn you over to anyone, say, fellows from Brundisium."
"But to them," she said, "I would be only a woman of Ar!"
"Yes," I said, "and merely another woman of Ar."
"What would be my fate?" she asked.
"You have a short, meaty, sexy little body," I said. "Perhaps you would become a dancer in a tavern in Brundisium."
"I do not know how to dance," she said.
"Under the whip, women learn quickly," I said.
I heard the water splash a bit as she struggled, futilely, with her bonds. Then she was again following.
"Why are you upset?" I asked. "You know you wish to dance naked, or scantily clad, in a collar and chains before men."
"Oh! Oh!" she said, angrily. But she did not deny my words.
"Perhaps you would prefer to be sold for sleen feed," I said.
"No!" she cried.
"Probably," I said, "like many women of Ar, and Ar's Station, you would be shipped overseas to Cos or Tyros, or another of the islands."
"And there?"
"Who knows?" I said. "Perhaps a scribe would buy you to clean his chamber and keep his papers in order."
"What?" she said.
"You can read, can you not?" I said.
"Yes!" she said.
"And to serve him in other ways," I said.
"Scribes," she said, in disappointment, "are weak."
"Not all of them," I said, "as you might discover under his whip."
She moaned, and gasped, stumbling in the water.
"Or," I said, "you might be purchased by a tradesman or artisan, to share his mat and kettle."
"I," she said, scornfully, "the Lady Ina!"
"No," I said, "only then Ina, or Tula, or whatever your master might be pleased to call you, only a slave."
"Oh!" she said, angrily.
"And you might be pleased then to have so high a station," I said.
"Doubtless," she said.
She followed behind, quietly, for an Ehn.
"And," said she, "could I dance even for such masters?"
"It would doubtless be required of you," I said.
I heard her gasp, softly.
"But many fates could befall you," I said. "Perhaps yours would be a straw-filled pallet in a public kitchen or laundry, crawled to after a work day of fifteen Ahn."
"Surely I am too beautiful for that," she said.
"But are you amenable?" I asked.
"I can be very amenable," she said.
"And so, too," I said, "sooner or later, and usually sooner, become the other girls in the kitchens and laundries."
"I would prefer a more delicate, intimate and feminine service," she said.
"That is because you have the makings of a hot slave," I said.
"Please do not speak of me so!" she begged.
"That you are sexually responsive, and could become significantly so," I said, "is no cause for dismay, or embarrassment or shame. Rather you should rejoice that your body is so marvelously healthy and alive."
"But it puts me so much at the mercy of men!" she said.
"True," I said.
"But what if I were cold?" she said.
"You would not long be permitted to be so in a collar," I said. "Slaves must become hot, and learn to beg."
"I suppose slaves are proud of their responsiveness," she said, angrily, but with a note of keen interest in her voice.
"Well," I said, "they are not free women."
"But are they proud of their responsiveness?" she asked.
"Yes," I said, "and attempt to improve it even further."
"Disgusting!" she cried.
"They are not free women," I said.
"I suppose they have no choice," she said.
"It is part of what being a slave is," I said.
"Doubtless they have no choice," she said, seemingly as though distressed, but with an undercurrent of tenseness and excitement.
"They wish to improve themselves, and attempt zealously to do so," I said.
"But they have no choice!" she insisted, determinedly.
"True," I said. "They are given no choice. It is commanded of them. They must obey."
"They must become sexual?"
"Yes," I said, "whether they wish to or not. Indeed, they may be grievously punished, even slain, if they do not."
"Yes!" she said, eagerly.
"Surely you object, and feel grief for them, such piteous creatures, so abused, so forced, so helpless, so rightless, who must unquestioningly bend their collared necks, and wills, to the lust of imperious masters?" I asked.
"No," she said. "They are slaves. It serves them right. It is fitting for them. Anything may be done to slaves."
"But if you were a slave," I said, "such heat, such sexuality, too, could be commanded of you."
"I am not a slave," she said.
"But, if you were," I said.
"Well," she said, "yes, in such a case, I suppose I, too, would have to obey."
"And perform," I said.
"Yes," she said, "and perform."
I moved the raft south, through the rence, under the moons. I had decided to go in this direction after acquiring my fair captive. She reminded me, in a sense, of the war, and the things at stake. Too, it was in the south that my truer concerns of the moment lay, and I had determined to neglect them no further. It was in the south that Dietrich of Tarnburg stood at bay in Torcadino. And it was in Ar I had been betrayed. She reminded me, too, of a woman, a woman whose name was Talena, said once to have been the daughter of Marlenus of Ar.
"Captor," she called.
"Yes," I said.
"You were jesting, were you not," she asked, "about the possible fates that might befall me?"
"No," I said.
"I am a woman of Ar," she said. "What might I do in Cos?"
"Many things," I said. "You are pretty. Perhaps you could be chained to a ring in a Cosian brothel."
"That might do for a ti
me," she said, "but I think I would prefer a private master."
"Perhaps you might meet one in the brothel," I said, "among the patrons, and attract him, perhaps influencing him in virtue of the excellence your services, to make an acceptable offer on you to the brothel master."
"Perhaps," she said.
"It would be interesting to see you desperately attempting to render yourself worthy of his considerations."
"Doubtless," she said.
"Perhaps you might even win him away from his patronage of such places," I said.
"How?" she asked.
"By making his own compartments, in virtue of the diligence, delicacy and imagination of your services, more exciting than any public brothel."
"By making his home his own brothel?" she said.
"Yes," I said.
"His private brothel?"
"Yes," I said.
"I see," she said.
"There is also a thing called 'love,'" I said.
"Yes!" she said.
"But if this occurred, as is not infrequent, the slave being nothing, the master all," I said, "do you think you would no longer have to fear his whip?"
"Of course not," she said.
"You understand that you would still be held under perfect discipline?"
"Of course," she said. "I would be a slave."
"But then, on the other hand," I said, "aside from such possibilities, and still considering the question of a private master, you might find yourself under the tutelage of a whip master in a rich man's pleasure gardens."
"But I would be only one of many women there?" she said.
"Undoubtedly," I said. "Perhaps one of fifty, or a hundred."
"I think I would prefer to be the single slave of a single master," she said.
"Such things," I said, "would not be up to you."
"You are joking about these things, are you not?" she asked.
"No," I said.
"I am a free woman!" she said.
"I know," I said.
"What are you going to do with me?" she asked.
"First," I said, "I would like to get out of the delta."
"But if we are successful in that," she said, "what will you do with me?"
"We shall see," I said. "We shall see."
"Then I am totally at your mercy?" she said.
"Yes," I said.
"And you will do with me as you please, will you not?"
"Yes," I said.
She moaned, and followed behind, on her strap.
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