'You are a free woman,' I said. 'You are quite beautiful. Too, your hair is auburn.'
'Do you think I will bring a good price?' she asked.
'That is a slave's question,' I said.
She tossed her head, irritably.
'Yes.' I said, 'I think you will bring a fine price'
'Yes,' she said, bitterly, 'because men of Vonda, spurned suitors, will pay high for me.'
I laughed at her.
'Master?' she asked.
'Look at yourself,' I said. 'Do you truly think only a spurned suitor could find you of interest?'
'I do not know,' she stammered.
'You are superb slave meat, Lady Florence,' I said.
'Slave meat!' she said.
'Men seeing you will want you in their collar,' I said. 'They will pay high to take you from the block. As a free woman you are extremely beautiful. As a slave you will be a thousand times more beautiful.'
'I will try to please my masters,' she whispered.
'On your feet, Lady Florence,' I said. 'It is time to go to the camp of Tenalion.'
I went to the crest of the hill and stood among the trees. I could see the camp in the distance, with the blue and yellow canvas, the cages, pens and wagons. I could see a warrior, with a spear, leading a woman in. Her robes of concealment had been torn away to her waist. Her hands were bound behind her. A leash was on her throat. The girl was now standing beside me. 'Follow me,' I said, starting down the slope.
'Master!' she called.
'Yes,' I said, turning about, to look upon her.
'Have you not forgotten something?' she asked.
'What?' I asked.
'My leash,' she said.
'Come here,' I said. She stepped down the slope carefully, to stand before me.
'Do you wish to be led in on a leash?' I asked.
'Am I not to be a slave girl?' she asked.
I smiled, and unwrapped the leash from her throat. 'Yes,' I said. I then conducted her down the slope, leading the captive beauty, the Lady Florence, on her leash, towards the camp.
34 WE ENTER THE CAMP OF TENALION; I SELL THE LADY FLORENCE; I MUST NOW SEARCH FOR THE SLAVE, BEVERLY HENDERSON
We entered the camp of Tenalion.
There were some slave girls, in brief tunics, and collars, loose in the camp, performing various duties. They looked at the Lady Florence as I brought her in. They assessed her candidly, as a new girl. We passed between guards. I saw their admiring glance. This heartened me. They were slavers' men. They would have their pick of most of the girls in the camp, except for virgins. 'This way,' I told the Lady Florence, heading toward the center of the camp, where the assessment platform would be. 'Yes, Master,' she said. I heard the ringing of a metal worker's hammer on metal, where simple straps of iron were being curved about the necks of beauties, their beads and hair over the anvil, these serving as temporary collars. I smelled branding fires. I heard the sound of a girl being lashed. I saw girls in cages and, in places, I saw them, stripped, and crowded together, through the interstices of palings. 'Which way is the assessment platform?' I asked a man. 'That way,' he said. I heard the scream of a girl some yards to my left, who was being branded. 'I'm frightened,' said the Lady Florence. I took up some of the slack in the leash, until I dragged her about a yard behind me. I saw two warriors, one of Ar and one of Cos, enemy cities. They were talking about something or other. The camp of Tenalion was truce ground. At the feet of each, their heads down, stripped save for bonds of black leather, there knelt a girl. 'Into the slave wagon,' said a man, herding a set of girls in throat coffle. In another place I saw another slave wagon, the girls sitting in it facing one another. About their ankles were close-fitting ankle rings, joined by a short length of chain. The chains had been slipped beneath a long metal bar, set parallel to the wagon bed. A slaver's man then lifted the bar some two inches and dropped it in place, locking it in its socket. Another man was pulling down the canvas over the square frame mounted over the wagon. It would be buckled in place. This protects the merchandise from the sun and weather. Another slave wagon, empty, its canvas high on its frame, was entering the camp. 'Take her to the whipping post,' said a man to another slaver's man, who was holding a girl by the arm, her wrists tethered before her body. 'I did not mean to be displeasing!' she wept. I saw little evidence of actual training going on in the camp. I did, however, see, through the flaps of a tent, a girl on her back on the ornate rug being taught to move. She was being guided by a pointed stick.
'Take your place in line,' said a slaver's man, at the assessment platform.
I took my place in line, holding the Lady Florence close to me by her leash.
We heard the scream of another girl being branded. 'A good catch,' said the man in front of me, nodding at the Lady Florence.
'She is not without interest,' I said. I then regarded the short, luscious, dark-haired beauty kneeling beside him, on a short leash. 'She is superb,' I said, indicating his own catch.
'She is not without interest,' he shrugged. The girl looked up at me, as a slave.
The Lady Florence gasped. 'May I kneel, Master?' she asked.
'Of course,' I said.
Swiftly she knelt between me and the dark-haired girl.
'Your master is handsome,' said the dark-haired girl to her.
'Your master, too, is handsome,' said the Lady Florence to her.
'I am to be sold,' said the dark-haired girl.
'I, too, am to be sold,' said the Lady Florence.
I saw a blond girl, shackled and sobbing, being led past on a chain leash.
'I can give a man much pleasure,' said the dark-haired girl.
'I, too, can give a man much pleasure,' said the Lady Florence.
'I do not doubt it,' said the dark-haired girl. 'You are very beautiful.'
'You, too, are very beautiful,' said the Lady Florence.
'You, there!' said a voice, that of a slaver's man, approaching me. Behind him I saw Tenalion, stripped to the waist, on the assessment platform, paused in his labors, looking at me.
'You are Jason, the fighting slave, are you not?' asked the man who had approached me. He, too, like Tenalion, was stripped to the waist. He wore a blue-and-yellow wristlet. He carried a whip, coiled, in his right hand. I recognized him. He was Ronald. He had been with Tenalion in the house of the Ladv Florence, his man.
'I am Jason,' I said, 'the free man.'
'Jason,' called Tenalion, from the platform, 'bring your capture forward.'
I moved forward, drawing the Lady Florence to her feet behind me. Then, in a moment, trembling, she had stepped upon the assessment platform.
'You are free now, Jason?' asked Tenalion.
'Yes,' I said, standing below the platform.
Tenalion then turned to a bound, dark-haired woman who had been standing on the platform, her head down, her hair over her eyes. He thrust her from the platform. 'Ten copper tarsks,' he said to a scribe at a small table nearby, with papers and a box of coins. The scribe counted out ten copper tarsks to a fellow at the table. 'Brand her, common Kajira mark, strap-collar her and put her in Pen Six,' said Tenalion to one of his men. 'Yes, Tenalion,' said he; and took the woman by the hair and, bending her over, led her away.
Tenalion then turned to the other woman on the platform, the auburn-haired beauty who was
