slave girl! But what chance had a slave girl for revenge? She was only slave. I cut down at the suls, viciously. I thought of the strange dream I had had, in which I, naked and collared, kneeling on tiles in a beautiful room, as though in a palace, had been strangely commanded to bead a necklace. 'Who commands me?' I had asked. 'You are commanded by Belisarius, Slave Girl,' was the response. The response, somehow, had seemed oddly fitting, expected, though I had known no Belisarius. 'What is the command of Belisarius, the slave girl's master?' I had asked. 'It is simple,' had said the voice. 'Yes, Master,' I had said. 'Bead a necklace, Slave Girl,' had said the voice. 'Yes, Master,' I had said. Then my hands had reached toward the strands of thread on the table, and toward the cups of tiny beads. Then I had awakened. I had not understood the dream. Bran Loort had been near the bars of the cage. He had startled me. 'I am going to be first in Tabuk's Ford,' whispered Bran Loort. 'When I am first,' he said, 'Melina will give you to me.' He had then slipped away from the bars. I had huddled in the straw, trembling. Today, I had thought that I was sold, and perhaps had been, but I did not know. Tup Ladletender, I knew, had left the village without me. I had been sent to the fields. Melina had purchased something from Ladletender, a packet, containing a powder or medicine. I was to say nothing. Bran Loort would fetch me, I had been told. I was to remain in the fields until then. I understood little of this.
I cut down at the suls. I was to say nothing.
I was alone in the fields.
I lifted the heavy hoe, with the stout staff and great metal blade, again and again. It was terribly hot work, and hard. My hack hurt. My hands hurt. My muscles ached. I worked hard, very hard, for I was a peasant's girl. Such girls are not treated gently if they do not do full work. I did not wish to be whipped.
The sun was sinking.
My tunic was soaked with sweat. My feet and legs were black with dirt and sweat.
The rope collar clung and scratched about my throat.
I stood upright, in pain. I was too slight a girl for peasant work. I held the hoe, breathing deeply, my head back.
How I had wanted Tup Ladletender to purchase me, to take me from the labors of the fields. I would have been willing to be anything he had wanted at the post, anything to interest him, anything to escape Tabuk's Ford, but he and Melina, in their cleverness, had manipulated me in such a way that I was unable to be anything but what I was, an Earth-girl slave whose passions put her helplessly at the mercy of men. Willing to be a whore, I had been forced to be naturally myself, a slave girl, more helplessly a whore than any whore could be. A slave girl must be at least a whore, and a marvelous one at that. Being a whore is but a small step in the direction of being a slave girl. But I did not care. I would have done anything to escape Tabuk's Ford. A slave girl owns nothing. She has nothing to offer a man but her service and her beauty. She has nothing with which to pay but herself. That is the way men want it.
I was sure that Tup Ladletender had found me appealing.
I did not know if he had bought me or not.
I bent again to my arduous labors.
Suddenly I straightened myself. 'Bran Loort!' I cried.
He stood a few feet from me, a coil of rope in his hand. My hands clutched the handle of the hoe.
He looked at me.
I flung it down. A girl dares not raise a weapon against a free man. Some girls have been slain, or had their hands cut off, for so much as touching a weapon.
'I have come to fetch you, Dina,' he said.
I looked about. There was another peasant lad on my left. He, too, carried rope. I turned quickly. Four others were behind me. Another was on my right. Two others, too, appeared, behind Bran Loort. One of them carried, too, a coil of rope.
There was nowhere to run.
'She is the clever girl who eluded us in the game of girl catch in the village,' said one of the lads.
'Greetings, clever girl,' said another.
'Greetings, Master,' I said to him.
I extended my wrists, crossed for binding, to Bran Loort. 'You are going to take me to my master,' I said.
He laughed.
I drew back my wrists. I looked about, fearfully. The boys approached more closely, closing about me.
I spun and ran, but fled into the arms of one of the young males, who roughly threw me back to the center of the circle. I tried again to break the circle and was again caught and flung again to its center. They were now close about me.
I extended my wrists, crossed, to Bran Loort. 'Bind me,' I said, 'and take me to my master.'
He smiled.
I trembled, and shrank back before him, almost into the arms of one of his brawny young cohorts.
'Are you going to rape me, Bran Loort?' I asked.
'And more,' said he.
'Thurnus will not be pleased,' I said.
'Tonight,' he said, 'you will belong to me.'
'I do not understand,' I said.
'Tonight,' he said, 'you will be a feast and a festival to us, Dina.'
I trembled.
'Hold her,' said Bran Loort.
Two boys held my arms.
'Ankle-leash her, both ankles,' he said. This was done. I stood before them, ropes on my ankles.
'Put your arms at your sides,' said Bran Loort, 'out a bit from your body.'
I did so.
I then stood before them, double wrist-leashed, ropes placed knotted on my wrists. The ropes on my wrists and ankles, serving as leashes, were cut from the coils of rope brought to the field. The remainders of the coils swung in the hands of Bran Loort and one of his cohorts. I knew I might be beaten with them.
'You will obey,' said Bran Loort.
'Yes, Master,' I said.
'Remove your kerchief,' he said.
I lifted my leashed wrists and pulled away the kerchief, shading my head, freeing my hair.
'Pretty,' said one of the boys.
'Tear the kerchief,' said Bran Loort.
'Please,' I said. I did not wish to destroy the kerchief. It. like the girl, Dina, whom I was, belonged to my master. Dina was responsible for it. The master might not be pleased if it were torn or soiled. Dina might be beaten.
'Tear it,' said Bran Loort. I, with difficulty, tore the kerchief, the boys amused at my weakness.
'Drop it upon the ground and, step upon it, grinding it into the dirt,' said Bran Loort.
I did so, with the heel of my leashed foot. I was sure now that I would be beaten upon my return to the village.
I looked at the boys. I realized, suddenly, I had more to fear from them than from the swift switch of an angry Thurnus or Melina. Their eyes terrified me. My limbs were leashed. I stood alone among them, their prisoner.
I knew I must please them.
'Are you docile and cooperative?' asked Bran Loort.
'Yes, Master,' I whispered.
'Strip,' he said.
'Yes, Master,' I said. I reached to pull the coarse, brief tunic over my head. I hoped they would be soon done with me.
But my hands, held by the ropes on my wrists, could not reach the bottom of the tunic. My fingers struggled to reach it, but an inch from its wool, clinging about my thighs. I tried again to seize the tunic but was prohibited by the ropes from doing so. I looked at Bran Loort in alarm, in protest.
