'You are welcome here,' said Mirus, weakly.
'Forgive me, old friend, for thrusting you aside in Brundisium,' said Hendow. 'I was a fool.'
'How did you find us here?' asked Mirus.
'I was following Borko,' said Hendow. 'Then I heard a scream.' That would have been Tela' s scream. Others, too, of course, might have heard that scream. 'Masters, let us away!' said Tupita.
'Your sword is bloody,' observed Mirus.
'I met one who disputed my passage,' said Hendow.
'Let us away, please, Masters!' said Tupita.
'Kneel,' said Hendow to her, with terrible, savage authority.
Immediately Tupita knelt, and was silent.
Hendow came toward me, and crouched down before me. 'Good Borko,' he said. 'Good Borko!' the sleen pushed his snout against him, and licked his bared arm. Hendow touched me on the side of the head, with extreme gentleness. 'Are you all right?' he asked.
'Yes, Master,' I said.
'They have you well secured,' he smiled.
'As befits a slave, Master,' I said.
'There are others about,' said Mirus. 'There were six men here, and three strange beasts, not sleen.'
'Somewhere,' said Tupita, 'there is a slave wagon. Another three men are said to be there.'
'I saw no slave wagon,' said Hendow.
'You finished a man?' said Mirus.
'It would seem so,' said Hendow. 'His head is gone.'
Then there are still five about, at least,' said Mirus, 'and the beasts, they are most dangerous.'
'There are side to be three at a slave wagon, Master,' said Tupita. 'Can you fight?' asked Hendow. 'It would be like old times, before the tavern.' 'I can be of no help to you,' said Mirus. 'It is hard to see. I am weak. I think I have lost much blood. I can hardly hold my sword. I fight to retain consciousness.'
'I have no intention of leaving you here to die,' said Hendow. 'Better that we would perish together.'
'No,' said Mirus. 'Better that only one die.'
'I will not leave you,' said Mirus.
'Do but one thing for me, before your departure,' said Mirus.
'I am not leaving you,' said Hendow.
'Put the fangs of Borko to that slave,' said Mirus, indicating me, 'or, if you wish, slay her for me, with your sword.'
'Beloved Mirus!' said Hendow.
'She betrayed me to the chains of Ionicus!' said Mirus.
'False! False!' cried Hendow in fury.
'It is true,' said Mirus. 'I swear it by our love,'
'Is this true?' asked Hendow of me, incredulously.
'Yes, Master,' I wept.
'She was a lure girl!' cried Tupita. 'Must we not obey, as we are slaves!' 'It seems,' said Hendow, 'that there is one here whose neck might well be consigned to the sword.'
'Yes,' said Mirus.
'Have you the strength to strike?' asked Hendow.
'I think so,' said Mirus.
'You would prefer, surely, to do this deed yourself,' said Hendow.
'Yes,' said Mirus, rising unsteadily to his feet. He gripped the sword again with two hands. I did not know if he could stand for more than another moment. 'Very well,' said Hendow. 'Strike Tupita.'
'Tupita?' asked Mirus.
Tupita shrank back, small, where she was kneeling in the grass.
'Yes,' said Hendow. 'I caught a thief, to whose lair I was led by Borko. He spoke quickly, after only his legs were broken. Tupita stole Doreen, duping her into leaving the house, she thinking she was still first girl, and intended to sell her, using her price to secure tarn passage from Brundisium in the guise of a free woman. she is, thus, a runaway slave. Moreover, I now put sword claim upon them both. Dispute it with me, if you will. I further learned from the thief they were both sold in Samnium. I spared his life, as he was cooperative. He is now doubtless, with his fellows, stealing other women. It was in Samnium I again picked up the trail. Borko and I have followed it for weeks. We lost it many times, but, each time, managed to find it again. Most recently we found it on the Vitkel Aria, south of Venna. Thus, you see, had it not been for Tupita, for her running away, for her betrayal of a sister in bondage, for her willingness to assume the habiliments of a free woman, in itself a great crime, this slave would not have been in Argentum, to lure you. if one is covered with guilt here, surely it is Tupita. Accordingly, I now give you my permission to strike her.'
'No!' cried Mirus.
'Perhaps both should have their necks to the sword,' said Hendow.
'No!' cried Mirus. He put himself between Hendow and Tupita. 'Run!' he said to Tupita. 'Run!'
'Remain on your knees, slave,' said Hendow, in a terrible voice. 'Before you could run two steps I would put Borko on you.'
Tupita remained where she was.
'Why did you feel Hendow?' cried Mirus to Tupita.
'You were no longer there!' she wept. 'You had been sent away. You were gone! I was consumed by hatred for Doreen, because of whom Hendow dismissed you. I decided to sell her, and show you all, escaping from Brundisium.'
'But you did not escape, did you?' asked Hendow.
'No, Master!' she wept.
'You are now obviously a slave, collared, half naked, kneeling in the grass, fearing for your life!'
'Yes, Master,' she said.
'Even had you made your way from Brundisium, where would you have gone?' he asked. 'In what city or village would you expect your antecedents not to be inquired into? Where would you get your collar off? Would you still not wear a brand?'
She sobbed.
'Is there escape for such as you?' he asked.
'No, Master,' she wept. 'There is no escape for such as I.'
'Why would you have done such a thing?' asked Mirus, not taking his eyes off Hendow. I did not think Mirus could long remain on his feet.
'Do you not understand?' she wept. 'I did it because of you!'
'Absurd,' said Mirus.
'I did not want to be without you,' she wept.
'Little fool,' he said.
'Too, I was jealous of Doreen. O thought you cared for her!'
'Certainly I found of her of interest,' said Mirus, 'as I have many slaves, but she, though, perhaps more beautiful than most, was never more to me, really, and I know that now, and have for a long time, than another wench whom I might, from time to time, for an Ahn or so, to the tune of my whip, if I pleased, put to my pleasure in an alcove.'
'Oh, Master!' she breathed.
'But what are such things to you?' he asked.
'Do you not understand, Master?' she sobbed. 'Though you scarcely know I exist, though you may despise or hate me, though you might scorn me or laugh at me, I am your love slave!'
He seemed startled.
'Yes,' she cried. 'I am you love slave! I have known this from the first time you put me to your feet! If you weighted and wrapped me with a thousand chains and a thousand locks they could not hold me more helplessly than the love I bear you! Alas, I have confessed! Kill me now, if you will!' she put down her head, sobbing.
'If you will not put her to the sword,' said Hendow, 'it seems, then, I must do so.'
