woman.
'You are a runaway slave,' said another.
'If you were a free woman,' said another, 'you would not come to slaves. You would go to free persons!'
'I am hungry and miserable,' I said. 'I need help. I do not care whether you think I am slave or free.'
'She is not branded, I do not think,' said a woman. I pulled back. I felt hands checking my left and right thighs, the two most common brand sites for a Gorean slave.
'No, I do not think so,' said another woman, apprehensively.
'Some men do not brand their slaves,' said a woman.
'They are fools,' said another.
'Yes,' said another.
'But she is sheared,' said another, feeling my head.
'She must then be a slave,' said another.
'Some free women have themselves sheared, to sell their hair,' said another. 'I am a free woman,' I sobbed.
'She is naked,' said another woman.
'She doesn't even have a string on her belly,' said another.
I pulled back, angrily, from them. a,
'Free women do not run about the countryside naked, my dear,' said another woman.
'Nonetheless,' I said, 'I am a free womanl'
'Where are your clothes?' asked a woman.
'A man captured me,' I said. 'He took my clothesl He sheared my hair, too, for moneyl'
'Why didn't he keep you?' asked i woman.
'She must be ugly,' said one of the women.
'I am not uglyl' I said.
'Then why didn't he keep you?' asked the woman.
'I don't knowl' I said.
'You are a slave,' said a woman.
'Nol' I said.
'Liarl' said another.
'I am a free woman,' I sobbed. 'I am a free woman.
'If you are a free woman, and are not from this area,' said one of the slaves, 'I think you should flee. It is not safe for you here.'
'I do not understand,' I said.
'Surely it would not do for you to be caught here,' she said.
'No!' I said, frightened.
'Then I think you should flee, now, while there is still time.
'Where can I go?' I asked. 'Where can I run?'
'Anywhere,' said a woman. 'But hurryl'
'Why?' I asked.
'It is nearly time for slave check,' said a woman.
'Slave check?' I asked.
'Yes,' she said.
'It is too late!' whispered a woman.
I looked wildly about. Not feet away I saw a lantern approaching the back of the wagon. I quickly lay down, with.the others, huddled against them, as if asleep. I heard the wagon gate being lowered in the back. It swung down on its binges, striking against the wagon. I heard the boards of the wagon bed creak as they were subjected to additional weight. I sensed the light of the lantern in the wagon, under the tentlike tarpaulin, illuminating bodies.
I lay very still.
'Well,' said a voice, 'what have we here?' I felt a foot kick me. I turned about, blinking up into the light of the lantern, terrified.
'You have been caught, Slavel' said a woman near me, elatedly.
23 The Chain
'On your back,' said the man, 'and put your hands, palms up, where I can see them.'
I did so.
'Now cross your wrists, in front of you,' he said.
I did this and he, with one hand, grasped them both. In this grip I was held as helplessly as a child. He pulled me to my knees and, lifting the lantern, examined where I had lain.
He then put me again to my back and released my hands.
'I am unarmed,' I said. 'I have no weapons. I am utterly defenseless. Please be kind to me.'
'Durbarl' he called. He then hung the lantern from a hook on the ridgepole, beneath the damp, brown tarpaulin.
'I am not what you think,' I assured him. 'I am a free woman. I am not a slave. I am neither collared, as you can see, nor branded, as you may easily determine.'
'You are a free woman?' he asked skeptically.
'Yes,' I said. 'And I am desperately in need of help. It is my hope that you will be kind to me, giving me food and clothing, and money and guidance, so that I may return to my home in Lydius. That is on the Laurius river. The town Laura is east of it.'
'Is Lydius north or south of Kassau?' he asked.
'North,' I said.
'No,' he said. 'South.'
There was laughter from the women.
'Your accent,' he said, 'suggests that you might be from Tabor.' 'Yesl' I said, seizing on this. 'I am. My parents had arranged an unwanted companionship for me. I fled. I now want to go somewhere else.'
'Tabor is far away,' he said. 'Did you come all this way on foot?' 'Yesl' I said.
'That is amazing,' he said, 'for Tabor is an island.'
Tears sprang to my eyes. The women in the wagon laughed.
'What is going on?' asked a fellow coming up to the wagon, fastening a belt of accouterments about himself.
'See what we have here,' said the first fellow.
'Ah!' he said.
'She claims to be a free woman,' said the first fellow.
'Of course,' said the second.
'A man captured me,' I said. 'He took my clothes! He sheared my hair, for money!'
'If you are a free woman,' said the second man, he, I gathered, who was Durbar, 'what are you doing here, crawling about with slaves?'
'I was afraid,' I said.
'If you are truly a free woman,' said the first man, 'what were you afraid of?' 'You are right,' I said. 'I am a free woman. I should not have been afraid.' The two men laughed, and the chained women, as well. I looked about, at them, from face to face. I saw their amusement. I saw the collars and chains on their necks. How foolish I felt. I had again been tricked. obviously, in a situation like this, a free woman might have a great deal to fear.
