would have drawn me along like this. It was more like some shambling predator pulling a four-footed animal behind it, by a leg. In a moment it was at the bars, on the far side, away from the gate. Then to my amazement it drew me between the bars which, literally, it seemed, had been bent apart. Apparently it had not been admitted. It had admitted itself. It had apparently taken the bars in its paws, those bars which might well have confined men, let alone women, and bent them apart. Outside the bars, on the dirt, it lifted me in its arms and, half crouching, carried me into some trees. There in the darkness, alone with it, I began to whimper and struggle. I did not want to be taken from the camp, not now, not this way! It then put me down, on the dirt. I struggled at its feet, bound. I feared it would now, in this isolated place, eat me. But it lifted me up, by the back of the neck, to a kneeling position. Did I know what it was doing? I was not kneeling before it, a position appropriate for a slave! It then lifted me up again, a foot or so, such that I seemed really to be neither kneeling or standing. I was held by the back of the neck again, its grip, that of only one hand or paw, easily supporting my weight. I felt the dirt on the tops of my toes, as my feet now were, their soles exposed. i having been lifted up from a kneeling position. My knees were bent. It then, with its right paw, struck me. My head was flung to the side. I lost consciousness.
28 The Well
'Are you all right?' asked Tupita.
'Tupita!' I said.
'Yes,' she whispered, touching my forehead, soothingly. 'Rest. Do not try to rise. You were cruelly struck.'
'Where am I?' I asked.
'Look up,' she said.
I looked up, blinking against the light. Far above me, as at the end of some off, vertical tunnel, I could see a circular opening, perhaps some seven or eight feet across, and, across this, in open sockets, there was a peeled, rounded timber, about which a rope was wound. A few feet below this timber, attached to the rope, there dangled a bucket. Over the opening, too, there were the remains, mostly a frame, of what was once apparently a small arched roof. Through the remains of this roof I could see, framed in the wreckage, the blue sky, and, interestingly, in it, like tiny points, stars. The light of the sun not obliterating them from this perspective, one could see them, even now, in the daylight.
I rose to my knees, in the dried leaves and gravel. 'Tela!' I said. 'Tuka,' she whispered. Tela was kneeling a few feet from me. She still wore, soiled now, the tiny, thin rectangle of red silk she had worn in the tent of Aulus. It was all that Aulus, by custom, permitted women to wear in his tent, saving their collars.
'Are you all right?' I asked.
'Yes,' she whispered.
I kissed Tupita, and Tela.
'These,' said Tupita, indicating two other girls, sitting to one side, 'are Mina and Cara.' They wore the shreds of work tunics. On their ankles were shackles, separated by lengths of chain such that they might not run, but such that they also would constitute no inconvenience for guards. Iron, too, was hammered shut about their wrists, these bands linked by some eighteen inches of chain. 'These are the girls who were first stolen?' I said to Tupita.
'Yes,' she said.
'This is Tuka,' said Tupita to the two girls.
They nodded, hardly moving their heads. They were very quiet. Both seemed frightened, almost in shock.
'Greet her,' said Tupita.
'Greetings, Tuka,' whispered one. 'Greetings, Tuka,' whispered the other. They moved slightly. There was a small sound of chain.
'Mina,' I said.
She looked up.
'Did you see what took you?' I asked.
She shook her head.
'Cara?' I asked.
'No,' said Cara, shuddering.
'it was probably the beast, or beasts,' said Tupita. 'They do not know. They were struck unconscious, from behind, probably within moments of one another. I do not even know if they believe me when I tell them of the beast. Tela saw it though, at the tent of Aulus, after it had gagged her, before it put her to her belly and bound her. I, too, saw it, two days ago, but briefly in the darkness, when I was returning from the tent of Pietro Vacchi to the girl pen. It leaped out and seized me. Before I could cry out I was gagged. In another instant I was secured.'
'You were used in the tent of Pietro Vacchi?' I asked.
'Two days ago,' she said.
'You were freed from the chain,' I said.
'The men, or most of them, were freed,' she said. 'I, of course, and the girls with the other chains, must simply wait to see who our new masters will be.' 'Of course,' I said, 'we are kijirae.'
'Is there a beast?' asked Mina, of me.
'Yes,' I said.
'Did you see it?' she asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'Our food, loaves of bread, and fruit, is thrown down to us, at night,' said Tupita. 'Water, too, in the darkness, is lowered in the bucket. It is then withdrawn.'
'We are permitted to drink but once a day?' I said.
'Yes,' she said, 'so drink your fill.'
'How came I here?' I asked.
'Your wrists were bound together before you,' she said, 'and a doubled rope put through them. When you were within our reach, and we could hold you, the other end of the rope was dropped, and it was then withdrawn. We removed your bonds.' 'Of what nature was the bond?' I asked.
'Binding fiber,' said Tupita.
'Is it not strange that a beast would have such fiber?' I asked.
'It would seem so,' said Tupita.
'Of what nature is this place?' I asked, looking up.
'It is apparently an abandoned well,' said Tupita, 'but it had been changed in some respects.'
'How is that?' I asked.
'The bottom of the shaft, below us, is not open to the ground, to sand, or soft dirt, but filled, apparently for several feet, with large boulders. We cannot lift them. Even if we could there is no place to put them. The floor, in effect, is made of rock.'
I nodded. This place was no longer a simple well, even an abandoned one. It had now, for most practical purposes, been converted into a holding hole.' 'If there is such a beast,' said Mina, 'what does it want of us?' 'It is such a thing, doubtless,' said Tupita, 'which fed upon the aedile, outside Venna.'
'Then it may be saving us, to eat us,' whispered Mina.
'Perhaps,' said Tupita.
We shuddered. Clearly it was possible we were being kept for such a purpose. Indeed, this place might be, in effect, its larder.
'But, as far as we know,' said Tupita, 'no one has been taken from this place to be eaten.'
'It could be saving us for later,' said Mina.
'Mina and Cara were caught days ago,' said Tupita. 'Indeed, the recovery period is over where they are concerned. Anyone who came on them could now claim them.' To be sure, they remained, even now, the slaves of Ionicus, but this proprietorship was now such that, if the case arose, it must yield to a new claimancy. This point in
