prescriptions, restraints, and frustrations, hate her so.
Mina looked up at Astrinax.
“What are you going to do with me?” she wept.
“Return you to your master, of course,” said Astrinax.
“No, no!” she begged.
She tried to spring up, but stumbled, shackled, and was then again on her knees before Astrinax.
“It is the law,” said Astrinax.
“Please, no!” she wept.
“We could keep her and sell her,” said Trachinos.
“Yes, yes!” she begged.
“No,” said Astrinax. “She is to be returned to her master. That is the law.”
The slave put down her head, shuddering, weeping.
“Have pity on her!” I said to Desmond of Harfax. “They will listen to you! Tell them! You cannot return her to beasts!”
“It is in accord with my plans,” he said.
“You are heartless,” I said.
“Much is at stake,” he said.
“Hide her!” I said.
“That is not practical,” he said.
“Please!” I said.
“She is a female slave,” he said. “She ran away. She is to be returned to her master.”
“I heard Master Lykos,” I said. “You hope to be welcomed, to incur favor, to generate good will, or such, by returning the slave!”
“Certainly,” he said. “Would you have us incur disfavor and generate ill will, thus jeopardizing our enterprise?”
“What enterprise?” I said.
I then found myself beneath the frown of a free person.
“Forgive me, Master!” I said.
“Would you have us release her here, into the mountains, to die?” he asked.
“Bind and leash the captive,” said Astrinax. “Then unshackle her.”
Desmond of Harfax approached Mina with a short thong. I saw Trachinos drop a widened leash collar about the head of the slave, and then adjust it to her neck. He grinned. Clearly it pleased the brute to do this. Many masters enjoy having slaves on their leashes. It certainly makes clear the relationship involved, both for he who holds the leash and she who is leashed. I wondered if she had ever been promenaded in Ar. Many masters, I supposed, would have been pleased to walk such a slave. She looked ahead, not meeting his eyes, frightened. He jerked the strap twice, against the leash ring. She whimpered. It was a tiny sound. It could scarcely be heard. Almost at the same time Desmond of Harfax drew her hands behind her, and thonged them together, snugly. This made me angry. I did not like to see him tie another woman’s hands behind her. Certainly a woman understands what it means to be tied by a man. It was I who wanted his thongs!
The slave now stood, leashed and bound, her head down.
Lykos crouched down, and removed her shackles.
I recalled that the former Lady Persinna of Ar had sold for more than I, considerably more.
“You are heartless,” I said to Desmond of Harfax. “You have tied her too tightly!”
I was suddenly cuffed, struck to the dirt. I looked up at him, frightened. The left side of my face stung, terribly.
“We leave,” said Astrinax.
“Proceed,” said Desmond of Harfax. “We shall join you shortly.”
I struggled to my knees, and watched our party proceed down the trail. Once Jane and Eve looked back at me, frightened. They were last in the march. Trachinos, who held the leash of the former Lady Persinna of Ar, was forward. This was, I supposed, that the leashed slave would be prominently displayed, to make it clear that she was not being concealed, or such. One might suppose, then, that our party would be amenable to returning her, now captured and helpless, to her rightful owner or owners. Astrinax and the Lady Bina were also forward.
I looked up, at Master Desmond.
“Why did you speak as you did?” he asked.
“I hate you,” I said.
“I find it difficult to understand you,” he said. “Perhaps it is because you are a barbarian.”
“Do you find it difficult to understand Jane and Eve?” I asked.
“No,” he said.
“They are barbarians,” I said.
“True,” he said.
“Why, then,” I asked, “am I so difficult to understand?”
“I do not know,” he said.
“I thought it was easy for a man to understand a woman who was in his collar,” I said.
“You are not in my collar,” he said.
I looked up at him, tears in my eyes. “Am I not?” I said.
“You are jealous of Mina?” he said.
“Perhaps if I were in a camisk,” I said, “you would find me more attractive.”
“Your tunic,” he observed, “conceals little.”
“Our party advances,” I said.
“Do not concern yourself,” he said.
“I loathe you, I hate you,” I said.
He looked down at me, thoughtfully.
“What are you going to do with me?” I asked.
“Perhaps bind you, hand and foot,” he said, “and leave you here, on the trail, for larls or sleen.”
“You cannot do that,” I said. “I am not yours! I belong to the Lady Bina!”
“I could do that,” he said. “But I would not do it.”
“Why?” I said.
“Because,” said he, “you are not mine. You belong to the Lady Bina. Too, you are in my care.”
“Yes, Master,” I said.
“I could, though,” he said, “give you a good lashing with my belt. I think you would profit from such a lashing.”
“I trust that you will not do so,” I said, uneasily.
“You said that you and Mina were sold together,” he said.
“Yes, Master, many months ago, in the Metellan district.”
“It is strange that she would have been sold in the Metellan district,” he said.
“How so?” I asked.
“She is quite beautiful,” he said.
“But not so strange that I would have been sold there?” I asked.
“She brought a higher price,” he said.
“Yes,” I said.
“Much higher?” he asked.
“Yes!” I said.
“I begin to see your concern,” he said.
“Master is perceptive,” I said. “Please do not strike a kneeling slave!” I said.
He lowered his hand, and I breathed more easily. I could still feel his former blow.
“You regard yourself as far inferior to her?” he asked.
“I merely, as a pitying slave,” I said, “dared to call attention to your cruelty, your heartlessness, the way you bound her wrists behind her.”
“It is merely the way one binds a slave,” he said. “It is not done with excessive cruelty. It is merely that a
