Elizabeth was looking at me. Then she turned to Kamchak. To my astonishment, she asked, 'Could I, too, be taught?'
'Why?' he asked.
She looked down, blushing.
'She is only a barbarian,' said Aphris, 'All knees and elbows she could never learn.'
'Hah!' laughed Kamchak. 'The Little Barbarian does not wish to become second girl in the wagon!' He gave Eliza- beth's head a rough, affectionate shake. 'You will fight for your place! Excellent!'
'She can be first girl if she wishes,' sniffed Aphris. 'I shall escape at the first opportunity and return to Turia.' 'Beware of the herd sleep,' said Kamchak.
Aphris turned white.
'If you attempt to leave the wagons at night they will sense you out and rip my pretty little slave girl in pieces.' 'It is true,' I warned Aphris of Turia.
'Nonetheless,' said Aphris, 'I will escape.'
'But not tonight!' guffawed Kamchak.
'No,' said Aphris acidly, 'not tonight.' Then she looked about herself, disdainfully at the interior of the wagon. Her gaze rested for a moment on the kaiila saddle which had been part of the spoils which Kamchak had acquired for Tenchika. In the saddle, in their sheaths, were seven quivas. Aphris turned again to face Kamchak. 'This slave,' she said, indicating Elizabeth, 'would not give me anything to eat.' 'Kamchak must eat first, Slave,' responded Elizabeth. 'Well,' said Aphris, 'he has eaten.'
Kamchak then took a bit of meat that was left over from the fresh-roasted meat that Miss Cardwell had prepared. He held it out in his hand. 'Eat,' he said to Aphris, 'but do not touch it with your hands.'
Aphris looked at him in fury, — but then smiled. 'Certainly,' she said and the proud Aphris of Turia, kneeling, bent for- ward, to eat the meat held in the hand of her master. Kamchak's laugh was cut short when she sank her fine white teeth into his hand with a savage bite.
'Aiii!' he howled, jumping up and sticking his bleeding hand into his mouth, sucking the blood from the wound. Elizabeth had leaped up and so had I.
Aphris had sprung to her feet and ran to the side of the wagon where there lay the kaiila saddle with its seven sheathed quivas. She jerked one of the quivas from its saddle sheath and stood with the blade facing us. She was bent over with rage.
Kamchak sat down again, still sucking his hand. I also sat down, and so, too, did Elizabeth Cardwell.
We left Aphris standing there, clutching the knife, breath- ing deeply.
'Sleep!' cried the girl. 'I have a knife!'
Kamchak paid her no attention now but was looking at his hand. He seemed satisfied that the wound was not serious, and picked up the piece of meat which he had dropped, which he tossed to Elizabeth, who, in silence, ate it. He then pointed at the remains of the overdone roast, indicating that she might eat it.
'I have a knife!' cried Aphris in fury.
Karochak was now picking his teeth with a fingernail. 'Bring wine,' he said to Elizabeth, who, her mouth filled with meat; went and fetched a small skin of wine and a cup, which she filled for him. When Kamchak had drunk the cup of wine he looked again at Aphris. 'For what you have done,' he said, 'it is common to call for one of the Clan of Torturers.' 'I will kill myself first,' cried Aphris, posing the quiva over her heart.
Kamchak shrugged.
The girl did not slay herself. 'NO,' she cried, 'I will slay you.'
'Much better,' said Kamchak, nodding. 'Much better.' 'I have a knife!' cried out Aphris.
'Obviously,' said Kamchak. He then got up and walked rather heavily over to one wall of the wagon and took a slave whip from the wall.
He faced Aphris of Turia.
'Sleep!' she wept. She threw back her hand with the knife to rush forward and thrust it into the heart of Karnchak but the coil of the whip lashed forth and I saw its stinging tip wrap four times about the wrist and forearm of the Turian girl who cried out in sudden pain and Kamchak had stepped to the side and with a motion of his hand had thrown her off balance and then by the whip dragged her rudely over the rug to his feet. There he stepped on her wrist and removed the knife from her open hand. He thrust it in his belt. 'Slay me!' wept the girl. 'I will not be your slave!' But Kamchak had hauled her to her feet and then flung her back to where she had stood before. Dazed, holding her right arm, on which could be seen four encircling blazes of scarlet, she regarded him. Kamchak then removed the quiva from his belt and hurled it across the room until it struck in one of the poles of the frame supporting the wagon hides, two inches in the wood, beside the throat of the girl. 'Take the quiva,' said Kamchak.
The girl shook with fear.
'Take it,' ordered Kamchak.
She did so.
'Now,' he said, 'replace it.'
Trembling, she did so.
'Now approach me and eat,' said Kamchak. Aphris of Turia did so, defeated, kneeling before him and turning her head delicately to take the meat from his hand. 'Tomor- row,' said Kamchak, 'you will be permitted after I have eaten to feed yourself.'
Suddenly Elizabeth Cardwell said, perhaps unwisely. 'You are cruel'
Kamchak looked at her in surprise. 'I am kind,' he said. 'How is that?' I asked.
'I am permitting her to live,' he said.
'I think,' I said, 'that you have won this night but I warn you that the girl from Turia will think again of the quiva and the heart of a Tuchuk warrior.'
'Of course,' smiled Kamchak, feeding Aphris, 'she is superb.'
The girl looked at him with wonder.
'For a Turian slave,' he added. He fed her another piece of meat. 'Tomorrow, Little Aphris,' said he, 'I will give you something to wear.'
She looked at him gratefully.
'Bells and collar,' said he.
Tears appeared in her eyes.
'Can I trust you?' he asked.
'No,' she said.
'Bells and collar,' said he. 'But I shall wind them about with strings of diamonds that those who see will know that your master can well afford the goods you will do without.' 'I hate you,' she said.
'Excellent,' said Kamchak. 'Excellent.'
When the girl had finished and Elizabeth had given her a dipper of water from the leather bucket that hung near the door, Aphris extended her wrists to Kamchak.
The Tuchuk looked puzzled.
'Surely,' she said, 'you will lock me in slave bracelets and chain me tonight?'
'But it is rather early,' pointed out Kamchak.
The girl's eyes showed a moment of fear but then she seemed resolved. 'You have made me your slave,' she said, 'but I am still Aphris of Turia. You may, Tuchuk, slay Aphris of Turia if it pleases you, but know that she will never serve your pleasure never.'
'Well,' said the Tuchuk, 'tonight I am pretty drunk.' 'Never,' said Aphris of Turia.
'I note,' said Kamchak, 'that you have never called me Master.'
'I call no man Master,' said the girl.
'I am tired tonight,' said Kamchak, yawning. 'I have had a hard day.'
Aphris trembled in anger, her wrists still forward. 'I would retire,' she said.
'Perhaps then,' said Kamchak, 'I should have sheets of crimson silk brought, and the furs of the mountain larl.' 'As you wish,) said the girl.
Kamchak clapped her on the shoulders. 'Tonight,' he said, 'I will not chain you nor put you in the bracelets.' Aphris was clearly surprised. I saw her eyes furtively dart toward the kaiila saddle with its seven quivas.
'As Kamchak wishes,' she said.
'Do you not recall,' asked Kamchak, 'banquet ofSaphrar?' 'Of course,' she said, warily.
'Do you not recall,' asked Kamchak, 'the affair of the tiny bottles of perfume and the smell of bask dung how nobly you attempted to rid the banquet hall of that most unpleas- ant and distasteful odor?'
'Yes,' said the girl, very slowly.
'Do you not recall,' asked Kamchak, 'what I then said to you what I said at that time?'
'Nor' cried the girl leaping up, but Kamchak had jumped toward her, scooped her up and threw her over his shoulder. She squirmed and struggled on his shoulder, kicking and pounding on his back. 'Sleep!' she cried. 'Sleep! Sleen! Sleen!'
I followed Kamchak down the steps of the wagon and, blinking and still sensible of the effects of the Paga, gravely held open the large dung sack near the rear left wheel of the wagon. 'No, Master!' the girl wept.
'You call no man Master,' Kamchak was reminding her. And then I saw the lovely Aphris of Turia pitched head first into the large, leather sack, screaming and sputtering, threshing shout.
'Master!' she cried. 'Master! Master!'
Sleepily I could see the sides of the sack bulging out wildly here and there as she squirmed about.
Kamchak then tied shut the end of the leather sack and wearily stood up. 'I am tired,' he said. 'I have had a diffi- cult and exhausting day.'
I followed him into the wagon where, in a short time, we had both fallen asleep.
