her into the canoe. I did not immediately release her. She turned her head back, over her left shoulder. 'Did you see it,' she asked, 'on the rock, he danced her naked!' 'Of course,' I said. 'She is only a slave.' 'Yes, Master,' said the blond-haired barbarian. 'Like yourself,' I said. 'Yes, Master,' she said. I then thrust her ahead of me, to her place. 'Take your plane, Slave Girl,' I said. 'Yes, Master,' she said. We then lifted our paddles and lent our strengths to the task at hand.
Once she looked back at me. But my stern gaze warned her to direct her attention again to her work and the river.
I smiled to myself. I saw that the slave girl in her was now well ready to be released. This very night, I thought, she would beg explicitly for her master's touch.
34
The Blond-Haired Barbarian Dances; What Occurred In The Rain Forest Between A Master And His Slave
'Watch out!' I said.
The tarsk, a small one, no more than forty pounds, tasked, snorting, bits of leaf scattering behind it, charged.
It swerved, slashing with its curved tusks, and I only man. aged to turn it aside with the point of the raider's spear I carried, one of four such weapons we had had since our brief skirmish with raiders, that in which we had obtained our canoe, that which had occurred in the marsh east of Ushindi. It had twisted hack on me with incredible swiftness.
The blond-haired barbarian screamed.
I thrust at it again. Again it spun and charged. Again I thrust it back. There was blood on the blade of the spear and the animal's coat was glistening with it. Such animals are best hunted from the back of kaiila with lances, in the open. They are cunning, persistent and swift. The giant tarsk, which can stand ten hands at the shoulder, is even hunted with lances from tarnback.
It snuffled and snorted, and again charged. Again I diverted its slashing weight. One does not follow such an animal into the bush. It is not simply a matter of reduced visibility but it is also a matter of obtaining free play for one's weapons. Even in the open, as I was, in a clearing among trees, it is hard to use one's spear to its best advantage, the animal stays so close to you and moves so quickly.
Suddenly it turned its short wide head, with that bristling mane running down its back to its tail. 'Get behind me!' I called to the girl. It put down its head, mounted on that short, thick neck, and, scrambling, charged at the blond-haired barbarian. She stumbled back, screaming, and, the animal at her legs, fell. But in that moment, from the side, I thrust the animal from her. It, immediately, turned again. I thrust it again to the side. This time, suddenly, before it could turn again, I, with a clear stroke, thrust the spear through its thick-set body, behind the right foreleg.
I put my head back, breathing heavily.
Pressing against the animal with my foot I freed the spear.
I turned to the blond-haired barbarian. 'Are you all right?' I asked.
'Yes,' she said. There was blood on her left leg, on the outside of the leg, about six inches up from the ankle.
I crouched down beside her. 'Give me your leg,' I said.
I looked at the leg. She sat on the floor of the rain forest, Her leg felt good in my hands.
'Is it serious, Master?' she asked.
'No,' I said. 'It is nothing. It is only a scratch.' She had been fortunate.
'It will not leave a scar, will it?' she asked.
'No,' I said.
'That is good,' she said. She leaned back in relief, bracing her body on the palms of her hands. 'I want to be pretty,' she said, 'both for myself, and for my master, or masters.'
'You are pretty,' I said. 'Indeed, in the past few weeks, you have become even beautiful.'
'Thank you, Master,' she said. She looked at me. 'I'm yours, you know,' she said.
'Of course,' I said.
'Yet you have not taken me since Schendi,' she said.
'That is true,' I said.
'You made me yield well to you there, and as a full slave,' she said.
I did not speak.
'And when you threw me on my back, head down, over your sea bag, and raped me with such brutal dispatch I well learned that I was no longer a free woman.'
'It is a useful lesson for a slave girl to learn quickly,' I said.
'And I remember the girl I saw there, briefly in the mirror. She was so beautiful.'
'Yes,' I said.
'But she was so beautiful she could be only a slave.'
'Yes,' I said.
'But I am an Earth woman,' she said. 'I could not dare to be that girl.'
I smiled. Did she not realize that she had seen in Schendi, in those brief moments, the slave she had for so long concealed within herself, that she had seen then, frightened, scarcely daring to recognize her, her own self? What cruelties could men inflict upon women, I wondered, which could half compare with those they inflict upon themselves.
She leaned forward, and examined the wound on her leg.
'It is superficial,' I said. 'It will not scar.'
'I have a slave's vanity, don't I?' she asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'Is it permissible?' she asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'Good,' she said.
She continued to look at the wound on her leg.
'I do not think I could stand to bring a lower price than Tende or Alice,' she said.
'What a slave you are,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'Have no fear,' I said. 'Your value on the sales block has not been reduced.'
'Thank you. Master,' she said.
I then rose to my feet and walked a few yards away, to a fan palm. From the base of one of its broad leaves I gathered a double handful of fresh water. I returned to the girl and, carefully, washed out the wound. She winced. I then cut some leaves and wrapped them about it. I tied shut this simple bandage with the tendrils of a carpet plant.
'Thank you, Master,' she said. She reached up and put her arms about my neck. I took her hands and, slowly, pulled them from my neck. I put them to her sides. She looked at me. I cuffed her, snapping her head to the right. 'Master?' she asked.
'Next time,' I said, 'stay behind me.'
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'Stand, Slave,' I said.
'Yes, Master,' she said.
It had been this morning, shortly before noon, that we had surmounted the height of the falls, that almost on the summit of which Kisu, in the face of the distant, oncoming forces of Bila Huruma, had danced a naked slave called Tende.
I went over to the slain tarsk.
