'You many now kiss my feet,' she informed me.
My fists clenched. Her eyes flashed.
I did so. I was afraid of her. The other girls about laughed. And so I called them Mistress. I wanted to be free of them all!
I was miserable.
But two girls I did not address as Mistress, Ute, who did not wish it, and Lana, in whose case, for reasons of her own, Inge did not insist upon it. I wanted to get swiftly to Ar, and to be sold, to be free of them all! I wanted to begin my new and pleasant life.
I looked at Ute. 'Ute,' I said.
Ute turned in the strap, from picking berries.
'Yes, El-in-or?' she said.
'When will we reach Ar?' I asked.
'Oh, not for many days,' she said. 'We have not yet even come tot he Vosk.' The Vosk is a great river, which borders the claims of Ar, on the north. Ute then returned to her picking of berries. Neither she nor the guard were watching, so I stole some more of her berries for my bucket. Two I had placed in my mouth, carefully, that no sign that I had tasted them be evident. I looked up. The sky was bright and blue, and the white clouds scudded swiftly by. I was wearing a camisk. I was out of the pens, out of the slave wagon. The air was warm and clear. I was not particularly displeased.
Moreover, I had had an opportunity to be revenged on Verna, before whom I had demonstrated my superiority and lack of fear.
It had happened five days out of Ko-ro-ba.
The Merchants have, in the past few years, on certain trade routes, between Ar and Ko-ro-ba, and between Tor and Ar, established palisaded compounds, defensible stockades. These, where they exist, tend to be placed approximately a day's caravan march apart. Sometimes, of course, and indeed, most often, the caravan must camp in the open. Still, these hostels, where they are to be found, are welcome, both to common merchants and to slavers, and even to travelers. Various cities, through their own Merchant Law, legislated and revised, and upheld, at the Sardar Fairs. The walls are double, the interior wall higher, and tarn wire is strung over the compound. These forts do not differ much, except in size, from the common border forts, which cites sometimes maintain at the peripheries of their claims. In the border forts, of course, there is little provision for the goods of merchants, their wagons, and such. There is usually room for little more than their garrisons, and their slaves. I hoped I would not be a slave girl in a distant border fort. I wanted to reside in a luxurious city, where there would be many goods, and sights and pleasures. I wanted to wear my collar in great Ar itself.
Five days out of Ko-ro-ba, we had stopped at one of these Merchant Fortresses. Inside the interior wall, girls are sometimes permitted to run free. They cannot escape, and it pleases them.
One wagon at a time, for a given interval, Targo permitted his girls, in wagon sets, to enjoy freedom of movement. How I ran inside the large fortress. Then I cried out, 'Lana! Lana!'
'What?' she asked.
'Look!' I cried.
Over against one long wall of the stockade was the camp of the huntsmen of Marlenus. They had left Ko-ro-ba after us, but they had traveled more swiftly. Lana and I, and some of the other girls, ran to look at the cages of sleen and panthers, and the trophies. Lana laughed at the cages of male slaves. She and I went to them, with others, too, to taunt them.
We would come close to the cages, and when they would reach for us, we would jump back.
'Buy me!' I laughed.
'Buy me! Buy me!' laughed the others.
One of the men reached his hand for Lana. 'let me touch you,' he begged. She looked at him, contemptuously. 'I do not permit myself to be touched by slaves,' she said. She laughed scornfully. 'I will belong to a free man, not a slave.'
Then she walked away from him, as a slave girl, taunting him.
He shook the bars in anger.
'I, too,' I informed him, 'will belong to a free man, not a slave.' Then I, too, walked away from him, showing him the contempt of a slave girl. I heard him cry out with rage, and I laughed. We looked, too, at the sleen and the panthers, and the skins, and the great, captive hith.
Verna's girls, the fifteen of them, stripped, were housed, crouching and kneeling, in small, metal cages. We threw dirt on them, and spat at them. I was particularly pleased to abuse the blond-haired girl, who had held my leash in the forest. I found a stick and poked her through the bars.
She snapped and snarled at me, like an animal, and reached, clawing, through the bars for me, but I was too quick for her.
I poked her again and again, and threw dirt on her, and laughed.
'Look!' said Lana.
I left the blond-haired girl.
We stopped before Verna's cage.
There were some of the huntsmen about, but neither Lana nor I feared them. They were not, we noted, much interested in what we did.
That gave us courage.
'Greetings, Verna,' said I, boldly.
She was no longer manacles, but she was, I noted, securely confined in the cage. The cage itself was now hung from a pole, rather like a high trophy pole. Its floor was about six inches off the ground.
I looked up at her.
She looked down at me.
I would have preferred to have looked down upon her, but she was a taller woman than I, and, of course, the cage was suspended somewhat off the ground. 'Perhaps you remember me?' I asked.
She looked at me, saying nothing.
'It was I, incidentally,' I informed her, 'who, in Ko-ro-ba, first cried out to the slave girls to strike you. It was I who instigated their attack.' She said nothing.
'It is to me,' I informed her, 'that you owe that beating.' Her face was expressionless.
I still held the stick with which I had poked the blond-haired girl, she who had held my leash in the forest.
I struck out with it, upsetting the pan of water in her cage, emptying it. The water ran over the small, circular floor of the cage, and some of it dripped out, falling to the ground.
Still Verna made no move.
I walked about the cage. Verna could not watch both myself and Lana. She did not turn to follow me. Behind the cage I reached in and stole the food she had in the cage, two larma fruit lying, split, on its metal floor. I bit into one and tossed the other to Lana, who, too, ate it.
When we had finished the fruit, Lana and I discarded the skin and seeds. Verna still watched us, not moving.
I was angry.
Suddenly I struck at her with the stick, and she flinched, but did not cry out. Lana threw dirt on her.
Then I seized the cage and, on its chain, spun it about. The chain twisted, and then the cage turned. Lana and I, laughing, spun the cage back and forth, and when I could I struck Verna through the bars. We struck her, and spat on her, and threw dirt on her.
There were huntsmen nearby but they did not restrain us. We had much sport. Then we let the cage hang still. Verna had her eyes closed. She held the bars. She swallowed.
After a time she opened her eyes.
We, for some minutes more, continued to abuse her, with sticks and dirt, and our spittle and our insults. She made no response.
I was not afraid of her. I had never been afraid of her.
Then we heard one of Targo's guards calling us. It was time for us to be returned to our wagon, and for another set of girls to be freed, to enjoy the liberty of the compound. I gave Verna another blow with the stick.
'Can't you say anything?' I screamed. I was infuriated that she had not cried out, that she had not groveled, that she had not wept for mercy.
We heard the guard call again.
'Hurry,' said Lana, 'or we will be beaten!'
I gave Verna one last blow, a stinging stripe across the shoulder, with the stick.
'Can't you say anything?' I screamed at her.
'You have pierced ears,' she said.
I cried out in anger, and turned, throwing away the stick, and ran back to the wagon.
I threw another berry into the bucket.
'Ute,' I said.
Ute turned again, to regard me.
'Speak to Inge,' I said to her. 'Tell her not to be cruel to me.' I did not wish to address the girls of the chain as Mistress.
'Why do you not speak to her yourself?' asked Ute.
'She doesn't like me,' I said. 'She would beat me.'
Ute shrugged.
'She likes you, Ute,' I pressed. 'Speak to her for me. Ask her not to make me call the other girls Mistress. I do not wish to do so. They are only slaves!' 'We are all slaves,' said Ute.
'Please, Ute,' I begged.
'All right,' said Ute. 'I will ask her.'
Ute then turned away, and continued to pick berries. It was now late in the afternoon. We were perhaps a pasang and a half from the distant wagons. From the hill
