'Yes,' I said.
'He went toward Venna,' she said.
'I know,' I said.
'He made no attempt to negotiate for me, or secure me,' she said.
'I am sorry,' I said.
'apparently your blood is of more interest to him than my love,' she said. 'You think he still desires to kill me?' I asked.
'I know he does,' she said.
I shuddered. I was helpless at the bottom of the shaft. Were he to come upon me here how could I escape? Perhaps he would lower the rope and bucket for the others, and not me? Perhaps he would throw great stones down upon me? Perhaps he would lower poisonous insects or snakes into the pit? Perhaps he would leave me here to starve?
Tupita then began to tear her tunic, about the hem.
'What are you doing?' I asked.
'I am going to give you some clothing,' she said, 'if you want it.' 'Your tunic barely covers you,' I said.
She had then torn a narrow strip from about the hem of the garment, and where the strip parted, tied the lengths together. 'This will give you a belt,' she said. She then tore down a part of her bodice.
'Tupita!' I protested.
'We will both be bare-breasted slaves,' she said. 'Are you former Earth women, ashamed of the beauty of your breasts?'
'No,' I said.
'Here,' she said, handing me the narrow strips, knotted together, taken from the hem of her skirt. 'Roll it. Twist it in your hands. It will be stronger. That is it. Good. Now tie it about your waist.'
I fastened this fragile, narrow, improvised cordlike belt of twisted and rolled cloth about me, knotting it at the left hip. It was a slip knot, such that masters might remove it at a tug.
'Here,' she said, handing me the strip of cloth she had torn from her bodice. I placed it carefully, gratefully, the loose end inside, next to my belly, over the rolled cloth. I smoothed it out.
'I see that you know how to insert a slave strip in a belly cord,' she said. 'Of course,' I said.
'Let us see you now,' she said, 'in your collar and cloth.' She inspected me. 'I gather you are a low slave,' she said, 'from the exposure of your bosom and the poor quality of the belt and cloth you wear.'
'Yes, Mistress,' I smiled.
'Yet you are pretty,' she mused.
'Thank you, Mistress,' I smiled.
'And the cloth you wear, aside from questions of its quality, is suitable,' she said, 'It is such that it may be easily pulled aside.'
'Yes, Mistress,' I said. The wearing of such cloths, and tunics, that may be removed with ease, and such, serves various purposes. For example, obviously it provides her some shielding. On the other hand, because of its precarious nature, and its dependence on a man' s permissions and indulgence, it also acutely increases her sense of possible exposure and vulnerability. Such clothing, then, tends to help remind her, and quite clearly, that she is a female slave. It also, of course, because of its nature, and in spite of what might be her wishes or desires in the matter, tends, on a deep psychological and physiological level, to be erotically arousing to her. It puts her more at the mercy of men. It is difficult to be dressed as a slave and not, in time, even if one is a free woman, come to feel, and desire, as a slave. Indeed, it is a not uncommon first step in the enslavement of a free woman merely to dress her as a slave.
'Am I ready to go out on the floor now?' I asked. The 'first girl' in a tavern often inspects her inferiors, before she permits them on the floor.
'I think now,' she smiled. 'But you would perhaps do in the hay for the rough pleasures of a drover.'
I laughed, and so, too, did Tupita, but then we looked about ourselves, at the sheer walls of the shaft about us, and up at the opening, doubtless wide enough, but from here, seemingly so small, seemingly so far above. I noticed again, oddly enough, yet interestingly, how one could see the stars from this place even during the afternoon.
We then sat down in the pit, on the dried leaves, on the gravel, quiet, subdued, our backs against the sides of the shaft.
We did not know what our fate would be.
'Is there one beast, or more?' asked Tela.
'We do not know,' said Tupita.
'We are kept in ignorance!' cried Tela. 'They do not let us know anything! We do not know where we are! We do not know the nature of our captors, or even their number! We do not know what they intend to do with us! They treat us likea€”likea€”'
'Like slave girls?' asked Tupita.
Tela looked at her, and struck her small fists on her bared thighs in frustration.
'Yes!' she wept.
'You are no longer the free woman, Lady Liera Didiramache of Lydius,' said Tupita. 'You are now Tela, a slave.'
'They treat us as they wish!' she cried.
'And so, too, do they with their tharlarion, their tarsks, and their other animals.'
'Yes,' she whispered, and I saw her draw back, frightened. But, too, in a moment, I saw her shudder, suddenly thrilled to the quick. Then she lay down, in her collar, and her bit of silk, at the side of the shaft, trembling, not meeting our eyes.
We were then very quiet, all of us.
We did not know what our fate would be.
We were slaves. We must wait to learn.
29 The Meadow
'Not enough! Not enough!' cried the small, twisted fellow, with the yellowish, sallow complexion, crouching down, his back to us, pointing to the blanket spread there on the ground. The entire right side of his face was a whitened mass of ancient scar tissue. The ear on the right side of his head had been half torn away. It was almost as thought the right side of his face had been abraided by some terrifying, fierce passage, by some swift, lengthy, terrible friction, as of being dragged over rock. So disfigured one might doubt if he dared consort with his own kind. He seemed obviously to be held in contempt by the five men who squatted near him, on the other side of the blanket. To the right of the blanket, on the ground, there was a pack, filled, it seemed, with trinkets, a peddler' s pack. The small man was, it seemed, a peddler, or one who was concerned, at least, to give that impression.
'If you disapprove of our offer,' said the leader of the five (382) men, a bearded fellow, 'return to Tharna, and there mine the difference.'
The small fellow sat back on his heels, angrily. 'Too, there was to be meat, much meat!' he said.
'Do not be stupid,' said one of the men squatting across from him. 'We have brought you a quarter of a dried tarsk. That is enough for you to chew on for a month.'
'It is not enough!' said the small fellow. 'We need more!'
Do you have a pen of sleen?' asked one of the men.
The small fellow did not answer. But then, after a time, he repeated, guardedly, 'We need more.'
'You can buy more with the silver,' said the man across from him, the leader of the five men.
The small fellow had two cohorts with him, who, like the others, were squatting down, but to our left. These felloes looked uneasily at one another.
'We are offering fifteen pieces of silver, fifteen solid, sound, unclipped silver tarsks,' said the leader. 'That is enough.'
'It was to have been twenty-five!' said the small man. 'Five for each!' 'We will give you three for each,' said
