“I hear horns,” said Otto, and he lowered Astubux good-naturedly to the floor of the rush-strewn hut. “I am not yet familiar with their signals,” he said. “Tell me their meaning.”
“Do not attend to the horns,” said Astubux. “Rather prepare for the coming of the Drisriaks.”
“What is the meaning of the horns?” asked Otto.
Axel listened for a moment.
“Prisoners,” he said. “Prisoners have been taken.”
“What more?” asked Otto.
“Three women, and a man,” said Axel.
CHAPTER 19
Otto sat alone in his hut.
Outside, beef roasted on a spit.
Beer, in drinking horns, was being passed about.
From where he sat, Otto could hear, clearly, the blows of a smith’s hammer.
The huts of the chieftain’s village, within the palisade, tended to circle about a rather large open space. It was larger than was required for the huts in the chieftain’s village itself, and served as a place of assembly for not only the occupants of the chieftain’s village, but of the several nearby Wolfung villages as well. It was in this open place that Otto, that being the name he had taken for himself, as we have learned, had been lifted upon the shields, to the clamor and acclaim of the Wolfungs. Too, the palisade of the chieftain’s village was the stoutest of any of the villages, and his village, in case of need, was intended as a bastion of defense and a refuge for the Wolfungs for miles about. There were also supplies stored in the capital village, so to speak, which might alleviate the hunger of a great many people, in case of the failure of local croppage, or in the unlikely event of a siege conducted by men armed similarly to themselves. To be sure, a single blast from a Telnarian rifle would have blown the gate away. There was, at one point within the palisade, a deep well, which, within living memory, had never gone dry, even in the late summer. The largest hut, but primitive, as well, was the chieftain’s hut, which had only recently been reoccupied. Its floor was strewn with rushes, but there were rolled skins and furs there, which might also, if one wished, be spread upon the floor. The roofs were thick, and thatched. The walls of most of the huts were of daub and wattle, but the walls of the chieftain’s hut were made of timbers and roughly hewn planking. The interior area of the chieftain’s hut, the roof supported by several posts, gave an area with a diameter of some fifty feet. It could house then, in council, the high warriors of the Wolfungs. Others, women, retainers, and such, could wait outside. There were also, within the palisade, and within the palisades of other villages, as well, coops, stables and pens for domestic animals, which we shall call, for purposes of convenience, chickens, cattle, sheep and pigs, such terms being sufficiently appropriate for our purposes. Many of these were gathered in at night. Some cattle, in particular, milch cows, as we shall call them, were housed with families, in their own huts. There were also, here and there, cages, mostly quite small, with thick iron bars. The Wolfungs had their smiths, you see, who attended to their metalwork, in particular, the forging of weapons, spearblades, and such. There were also other devices, such as log kennels and chaining logs.
“My chieftain,” said Astubux, appearing at the entrance to the chieftain’s hut.
Otto then rose to his feet and went outside, to the open place.
He lifted his hand to the Wolfungs, who cried out upon seeing him, who raised drinking horns and spears in salute.
Janina, who was now clad in the long, loose garb of a Wolfung woman, hurried to kneel beside him.
“Here,” said Astubux, gesturing toward the large chair, on a wooden dais, set up a few feet from the fire, where the chieftain was to have his seat. Across the back of the chair was flung the pelt of a forest lion. Skins of this beast, too, were strewn on the platform.
Otto took his seat, and indicated that Janina, his slave, should kneel beside the seat, on its left.
She hurried to do so.
The officer of the court, the salesgirl and Oona, the woman in the pantsuit, knelt near a post in a hut, not far from the gate. It was dark in the hut but, clearly, outside, there were festivities. They could see, through the chinks in the daub-and-wattle siding of the hut, the flickering of a fire, the light of torches being carried about, such things. They could see bodies, too, like shadows, passing back and forth, the men in rough tunics of pelts, the women in their long dresses, of some plain cloth. There was an excellent reason why the three women knelt near the post. They had been roped to it, closely, by the neck. Their hands were still bound behind their bodies. The three women and the ensign, prisoners, had arrived in the village in the late afternoon. They had been immediately separated, the women put in this hut and the ensign taken elsewhere. Although the officer of the court would scarcely have admitted this to herself, she, and we may speculate the others as well, had been dismayed at the special selection, the special treatment, exhibited in this matter, at their being totally separated from the ensign. This keeping them together, without the ensign, did much to impress upon them, and quite acutely, that they were women. It made them, somehow, feel far more helpless and vulnerable than might otherwise have been the case. They were now merely captured women.
Two large Wolfung females then entered the hut, one bearing a lamp.
The one without the lamp removed the ropes from the prisoner’s necks. Then she untied their hands.
She indicated that they should precede her out of the hut. In a moment they were conducted between numerous men and women into the vicinity of a large fire, and knelt down before a rude dais, on which a chair had been set.
The officer of the court shrank down, and put her head down, for, to her consternation, her astonishment and horror, she recognized the figure in the chair.
She lifted her head a little and looked about. She and her fellow prisoners were the object of much attention, of both the men and women.
She gasped.
She saw Janina beside the great chair. She was kneeling there. How fitting for a slave! She hoped that Janina would not recognize her.
Where was the ensign, the young naval officer? He was nowhere in sight. She hoped he had not been killed.
She knew barbarians thought little of death. They lived with it. They were familiar with it. She remembered what had been done by the Ortungs on the
But she, and the insolent, vain salesgirl, and Oona had not been killed, at least not yet.
That could have been done at the capsule.
It would have been easy enough there.
What did that mean?
Please spare me, she thought. I will do anything!
“You!” said the barbaric figure; in regal pelts, sitting on the chair, pointing.
The officer of the court thought she might die, but she realized, then, that it was not at her that he had been pointing.
“Stand,” said the chieftain, “and come closer.”
The salesgirl, in the slacks and jacket, these garments now foul with sweat and dirt, trembling, stood up.
She approached the dais.
“What is your name?” he asked.
“Ellen, milord,” she said.
“Free women,” he said, “will be killed. Slaves, if found acceptable, may be spared, at least for a time.”
He regarded her.
“Do you understand?” he asked.
“Yes, milord,” she said.
“What are you?” he asked.
