was, as, each night, would put it somewhere after I had been locked in the trunk. There was no clothing of a free woman in the camp as far as I knew. It was a camp of free men and slaves.
I made my way eastward, gasping, and walking and running, on the Argenturn road, back toward the Viktel Aria. I did not think they would expect me to keep to the road. Yet, of course, on it, I could make my best time. Too, I did not think they would expect me to retrace the route to the Viktel Aria. Not only would this bring me into areas of greater population concentrations but, too, it would take me closer to, Ar.
This would be almost as bad from my point of view, they would suppose, as moving toward Argentum itself. They' would expect me, I supposed, to follow the stream, wading in it, and then, a few pasangs later, strike out northward. Speusippus would recall that I had, on my knees, begged him not to take me to Ar.
I hurried on.
An additional reason for keeping to the road was that I thought, on the hard, wet surface, it might be more difficult to follow my sign, if sleen were later used. Also, of course, my sign would be confused, or I hoped it would, with that of other travelers. To be sure, there were no sleen at the campsite and Speusippus might not be able to rent one for days. By that time, especially with the rains, it might be impossible, even for such fine, tenacious hunters as sleen, to follow my scent. Too, I did not think he would have anything that would be particularly useful for setting sleen on my trail. I had deliberately left the blanket in the trunk.
It would bear not only my own scent but that of numerous other women as well. The tunic I had worn, too, bad been worn by others, presumably slaves, before me. Also, in the evening I had washed it thoroughly and, not donning it, handed it humbly to Speusippus before I had entered the trunk, presumably to be locked helplessly in it.
It was becoming more cloudy. I felt a few drops of rain.
Speusippus might not even rent sleen. By the time he could do so, he would recognize, as a rational man, that the scent presumably would have faded. Too, he had little of practical value in giving such beasts the initial scent. Too, it is expensive to rent sleen, and Speusippus, who was a poor man, might even lack the means to do so. It is much more expensive, for example, to rent a sleen than a slave. Sleen are often rented by the Ahn. Slaves are commonly rented by the day or week. One of the greatest advantages I had, I thought, was that Steusippus, being an intelligent man, would presumably keep the secret of my identity. It would do his coin box little good if I fell to the chain of some burly huntsman from the foothills of the Voltai. Besides, who would believe that he had ever had the Tatrix of Corcyrus in his keeping? They would surely think him mad. if authorities should search for me, I was sure it would be only as the girl of Speusippus, a runaway slave named Lita.
It now began to rain more heavily. I welcomed the rain, hoping it would diminish and wash away the scent my body and bare feet might be leaving behind me. There was another reason I was retracing our steps on the Argentum road. Yesterday I had seen another open slave wagon, a long, wide wagon much like I had seen a few days ago. It, too, had contained several girls, their individual neck chains strung to a common central chain, their hair cropped as insolently short as mine. The similarity of the two wagons and the chaining arrangements suggested that a single company was involved. I had made inquiries. These were girls of the sort sometimes referred to as female work slaves. It is a very low form of slave, indeed, perhaps the lowest. Seldom can they aspire even to the status of the kettle-and-mat girl. They do not bring high prices. They are usually sold in multi- item lots in cheap markets and are usually purchased to be used in such places as the public kitchens or laundries, and the mills. From these applications, they are sometimes referred to, naturally enough, as 'kitchen girls,' 'laundry girls,' 'mill girls,' and so on.
These particular girls, it had been conjectured, had been obtained from markets in the north, where prices are often cheaper. They were now being brought south and cast, probably, from their shearing, for work in the mills. It was my hope that I could make secret 'contact with these women, and obtain food, and perhaps advice, from them. I was naked, ignorant and illiterate. I was little better off than when I had escaped from the yard of the inn several days ago. Surely they would feed me, and be kind to me. Even though I was far superior to them, as I was free and they were mere slaves, it was my hope that they would be kind to me in my need. We shared a common sisterhood in the sense that we were all ultimately helpless women on a world where men had never relinquished, their sovereignty.
Toward morning the rain stopped and I, fearful of discovery as it grew lighter, left the Argenturn road.
22 The Wagon; Caught!
'Please, do not make any noise,' I whispered.
'Who is there!' said the woman, frightened. I heard the movement of a chain. 'Please be quiet,' I whispered. 'I will not hurt you.'
'What is going on?' whispered another woman. I heard the movements of bodies, of chains.
'Be quiet, please,' I said. I had crawled over the side of the slave wagon. I had lowered myself, in the darkness, to the interior. I felt the wood of the wagon bed, beneath a blanket, or blankets, beneath my knees. The wagon, unhitched, was drawn among some trees. Two tharlarion were tethered nearby. Also a few yards away there was a tent.
'Please be quiet,' I whispered. I lowered myself to my belly in the wagon. I did not wish to risk my upper body being seen over the side of the wagon.
Although the wagon was normally open when on the road it was now, on this night on which it had rained off and on, rigged with a temporary, now-partially-rolled-up cover. The cover consisted of a tarpaulin sewn about long poles on two sides. This cover was placed over a frame which consisted of five poles; two of these poles, braced, crossed and tied together near the top, were at the front of the wagon; a similar pair was fixed at the back of the wagon; between these two pairs of poles there lay, across them, parallel to the long axis of the wagon, like a ridgepole, a fifth pole. The tarpaulin, then, was laid over this long pole and held in place by its own two poles, resting against the sloping sides of the crossed poles at the front and back of the wagon. The tarpaulin was rolled up and tied about its poles in such a way that there was a gap of about a yard between itself and the side of the wagon. huc 'Please,' I begged. I lay on my stomach in the wagon. My body was wet; my feet were muddy.
'Who are you?' whispered a woman.
'I am one who is hungry, and in desperate need of help,' I said 'But we are naked slaves,' said a woman.
'And we are chained,' said another.
'Give me some food,' I begged. 'I must have foodl' I had not eaten in more than twenty Ahn, indeed, since I had received a feeding from Speusippus, and a rather sparing one, on the evening preceding my escape. He had on the whole fed me intelligently, but seldom generously. It seemed to be his intention, through diet and exercise, in so far as he could, to see to it that my body became as shapely as that of a pleasure slave.
'There is no food in the wagon,' said a woman.
I moaned in misery.
'Our food is measured out to us in small, exact quantities,' said a woman, 'and then we must, under supervision, consume it entirely.'
'There must be food,' I said.
'There is food within the tent,' said a woman, 'but the drivers are there, and it is kept locked up.'
'You must help me,' I said. 'I am as sheared as you.'
'What can we do?' asked a woman.
'You had best flee,' said another.
'I do not know what to do, or where to go,' I sobbed.
'Who are you?' asked a woman.
'I am a free woman,' I said.
I heard a reaction, a shrinking back in the chains.
'Do not be afraid,' I said. 'I will not hurt you. Too, do not kneel, please.' 'You are not a free woman,' said a
