as her left thigh was held by strong men, branded by the hand of Thurnus, caste leader of the village of Tabuk's Ford. She screamed wildly, branded, and, her thigh released, cleanly marked, moaned and twisted on the wood. Her head was then shaved. Then she wept, her head back, softly moaning, held in place by the heavy beams, forgotten, as men and women returned to their feasting.
At Thurnus's right hand sat Tup Ladletender. On Thurnus's left sat the free woman, Sandal Thong, whom he had earlier this afternoon freed. She, with the two sleen, had boldly aided him in circumventing the concerted attack of Bran Loort's cohorts when they had been individually bested. The feast was served by the village slave girls, Radish, Verr Tail and Turnip among them. I was not forced to serve. I lay near the rack on which the newly branded slave lay secured. After a time she was quiet. I could not conjecture the nature of her thoughts. It did not matter. They could only be those of a slave. She the proud, former mistress, was now no more than I, only another slave, at the full mercy of men.
She was now no more than I, nothing.
I looked upward, and saw dark clouds in the sky, racing across the faces of the moons.
There was a sense of moisture in the air.
This pleased me.
Thurnus, at the feast, stood up. He lifted a goblet of paga. Tup Ladletender,' said he, 'by the rite of the claws of sleen, is my brother. I lift my cup to him. Let us drink!' The villagers drank. Tup Ladletender rose to his feet. 'You have shared with me tonight your paga and your kettle,' said he. 'I drink to the hospitality of Tabuk's Ford.' There was a cheer. The villagers, and Thurnus, and Ladletender, drank. 'And, too, this night,' said Ladletender, 'I drink to one with whom I do not share caste but that which is stronger than caste, the blood of brotherhood, Thurnus, he of Tabuk's Ford.' There was another cheer. The villagers, all, drank. Thurnus stood up again. 'I ask this free woman,' said he, indicating Sandal Thong, 'for whom I muchly care, to accept me in free companionship.' There was a great cry of pleasure from the villagers.
'But Thurnus,' said she, 'as I am now free do I not have. the right to refuse?'
'True,' said Thurnus, puzzled.
'Then, noble Thurnus,' said she, evenly, calmly, 'I do refuse. I will not be your companion.'
Thurnus lowered the cup of paga. There was silence in the clearing.
Sandal Thong gently lowered herself to the ground, and lay on her belly before Thurnus. She took his right ankle in her hands and, holding it, pressed her lips softly down upon his foot, kissing it. She lifted her head, tears in her eyes. 'Let me be instead your slave,' she said.
'I offer you companionship,' he said.
'I beg slavery,' she said.
'Why?' he asked.
'I have been in your arms, Thurnus,' she said. 'In your arms I can be only a slave.'
'I do not understand,' he said.
'I would dishonor you,' she said. 'In your arms I can behave only as a slave.'
'I see,' said he, caste leader of Tabuk's Ford.
'The love I bear you, Thurnus,' she said, 'is not the love of a free companion, but a hopeless slave girl's love, a love so deep and rich that she who bears it can be only her man's slave.'
'Serve me paga,' said Thurnus. He handed the goblet to Sandal Thong.
She took it and knelt before him, head down, proffering him the goblet. Though she was free, she served as a slave. Villagers gasped. Free women cried out, scandalized.
Thurnus set aside the cup.
'Have rope brought, and collar me, Thurnus,' she said. 'I am yours.'
'Bring rope,' said Thurnus.
Rope was brought.
Thurnus took the rope, and regarded the girl.
She looked up at him.
'Collar me,' she said.
'If I collar you,' he said, 'you are again a slave.'
'Collar me, Master,' she said.
Thurnus wrapped the rope twice about her throat, and knotted it.
Sandal Thong knelt before him, his slave. He seized her in his mighty arms and crushed her to him, raping her lips with the master's kiss, mighty in its lust and possession of the collared she, and she clutched him, helplessly, crying out. Her head was back, her lips were parted. He had begun to tear the tunic from her with his teeth. 'Carry me from the light of the fire, Master,' she begged. 'But you are a slave,' he laughed. He tore the garment from her and threw her between the feast fires. She looked up at him, her eyes wild with the passion- submission of the eager slave girl. 'As master wills I' she cried, throwing her head and hair back in the dirt. He leaped to her and, between the feast fires, did lengthy ravishment upon her. Her cries must have carried beyond the palisaded walls.
When he returned to his place at the feast she crawled to his feet, his slave, and lay there, daring sometimes to touch him delicately on the thigh or knee with her fingers.
The feast continued late.
The clouds gathered further in the sky, and I smelled moisture. The moons were darkened by the skudding billows of vapor.
I think that I may have fallen asleep by the rack, from my exhaustion and the pain of the beatings and rapings that I had endured.
But it was still dark when I awakened. I awakened to the clear snap of slave bracelets on my wrists. I looked up. I looked into the eyes of Tup Ladletender. I regarded my wrists. They were confined in inflexible steel. 'Get up,' said he, 'little vulo.' I struggled to my feet. I stood there, my wrists closely cuffed before me, not more than an inch apart. 'You are mine now, little vulo,' he said.
'Master?' I asked.
'Yes,' he said. 'You are mine now.'
'Yes, Master,' I said.
I felt very strange. So simply had I changed hands.
I looked about. The feast had finished, and most of the villagers had returned to their homes. Some lay about, near the embers of the fires.
We stood near the rack on which the new slave, she who had been the free woman, Melina, lay captive. Thurnus was nearby, and Sandal Thong, and Radish, Verr Tail and Turnip.
'I name you Melina,' said Thurnus to the confined slave.
'Yes, Master,' she said. He had much shamed her by giving her in slavery the name she had borne as a free woman. She wore it now as the cognomen of a slave.
'May a slave speak?' she asked.
'Yes,' said Thurnus.
'Why have you had my head shaved?' she asked.
'To return you as a shamed slave to the village of your father,' said he.
'Please keep me, Master,' she said.
'Why?' he asked.
'That I may please you,' she whispered.
'Strange words from one such as you,' he scoffed.
'I beg to be kept to please my master,' she said.
'Have you been bereft of your wits by the brand,' inquired Thurnus.
'I only wanted to be the companion of a district leader,' she said.
'You are now anyone's slave to whom I give or sell you,' he said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'I did not move to become district leader,' said Thurnus, 'for it was your urging and intent that I do so. Had I sought the position it would have seemed to all that I did so for your ambition and to avoid the lashing of your tongue.'
She squirmed on the rape-rack, confined by the beams, in misery.
