identify them.'I regarded her.
'They could tell very little about the tracks,' she said. 'One thing, however, was clear.'
'What?' I asked.
'It walked upright,' she said.
'That is unnatural,' I said.
'Is it so surprising,' she asked, 'that a beast might walk upright?' I looked at her.
'Or even that they should walk in power and pride?'
'I do not understand,' I said.
'Our masters, the beasts, the brutes, those who put us in collars, and make us kneel, those from whose largess we must hope they will grant us a rag, those whose whips we must fear, do so,' she said.
'Yes,' I breathed. 'They do!' Our masters, the magnificent beasts, so powerful, so free, so liberated and masculine, so glorious in their untrammeled manhood, so uncompromising with us, did so.
'But this thing, I think,' she said, 'is not such a beast, not a human beast, not a man in the full power of his intelligence, vitality and animality, but some other sort of beast, something perhaps similar somehow, but very different, too.'
'I would be afraid of it,' I said.
'I doubt that you could placate it with your beauty,' she said.'Am I beautiful?' I asked.
'Yes,' she said. 'I who was, and perhaps am, your rival, grant you that. You are very beautiful.'
'You, too, are beautiful,' I said, and then I added, suddenly, 'and doubtless much more beautiful than I!'
'I think that is not true,' she said. 'But it is kind of you to say it.' 'I am sure it is true,' I said.
'We are both beautiful slaves,' she said. 'I think we are (338) equivalently beautiful, in different ways. I think we would both bring a high price, stripped naked on a sales block. Beyond that it is doubtless a matter of the preferences of a given man.'
'You are kind,' I said.
'Did you betray me in the matter of the pastry?' she asked.
'No,' I said. 'Its absence was noted. Your presence in the vicinity was recalled. You were apprehended. In the lick of your fingers was revealed the taste of sugar.'
'I was whipped well for that,' she said, shuddering.
'I am sorry,' I said.
'How I hated you,' she said.
'I am sorry,' I said.
'I was first girl, and you were last kennel,' she said. 'Now we are both mere work slaves, both of us only common sluts on the black chain of Ionicus.' 'You are still first girl, of the two of us,' I said.
'That is true,' she smiled.
'But may I call you by your name?' I asked.
'Do not do so within the hearing of masters,' she said, 'for I did not wish to have to sleep on my belly for a week.'
'No!' I laughed. She could not read or write, but she was a beautiful, highly intelligent woman. too, since I had known her in Brundisium, and Samnium, I felt that a great change had come over her. I felt, too, that she had, in the last few days, come to have some concern for me. I was not altogether clear how that had come about. Perhaps it had to do with her pity for me, only a slave, one as helpless as she, but one in much greater danger here, because of her work for her former master, Tyrrhenius of Argentum. But it had to do even more, I think, with he who had been last on the chain, he who had once been second to my former master, Hendow, in Brundisium, Mirus.
'Perhaps we should rejoin the chain,' I said, uneasily.
She looked about herself. 'Yes,' she said. 'It is too lonely here.' I arose with difficulty and retrieved the cup, on its string which I put about my neck. I would wash it at the tank. Too, I again put the water bag on its strap, on my back.
'There is something else,' she said.
'What is that?' I asked.
'Two girls, too, have been stolen,' she said.
'Girls such as we?' I asked.
'Yes,' she said.
'Work slaves?' I asked.
'Yes,' she said.
'But not eaten?' I asked.
'Not as far as I know,' she said.
'Anyone could steal us,' I said.
She shrugged. 'I suppose so,' she said, 'except in so far as our masters protect their property.'
'The events are doubtless not connected,' I said.
'Probably not,' she said.
'Let us be on our way,' I said.
'Many in Venna,' she said, 'as I understand it, are alarmed at the killing, and the mysterious footprints. Some think it is an omen or warning. The archon is consulting augurs, to take the signs.'
I stood in the sand, waiting for her.
'They will concern themselves, surely, too, with legalities, and such,' she said. 'For example, those in the black chain who are not criminals, and for whom Ionicus does not have prisoner papers, will presumably be at least temporarily removed from the vicinity. That would mean many of the masters on our chain.' I nodded. This seemed understandable. The archon in Venna would be interested in putting his house in order before the taking of the auspices. He would doubtless regard it as politic, at least from the point of view of soothing possible apprehensions in his constituency, to become a bit more scrupulous about proprieties, at least in so serious a situation.
'Where will we go?' I asked.
'Probably not far, and only a week or so, until the signs are taken,' she said. 'Our chain will probably be used for clearing and deepening ditches at the side of the Viktel Aria south of Venna. We can return later. Things then will doubtless be the same as before.'
'How far south?' I asked.
'Probably not far,' she said.
'Beyond the defense perimeter?' I asked.
'Probably not,' she said. 'Why? Are you afraid of being stolen?' 'Not really,' I said.
'If I were you,' she said, 'I would want to be stolen. You do not belong in a work tunic. You should wear a string of silk and be kissing and licking at a man' s feet.'
I smiled. 'Do you not want to be stolen?' I asked.
'No,' she said. 'I would prefer, at least for the time, to remain with the chain.'
'I see,' I smiled.
She adjusted the water bag on her shoulder. It would be a steep climb out of the trough.
'If we are outside the defense perimeter or near its edge,' I said, 'is there not a danger that the chain might find itself under attack?'
'For what?' she asked. 'For deepening ditches?'
'I suppose it is silly,' I said.
'Men seldom make war on work chains,' she said.
'I am glad to hear that,' I said.
'It is not like we were working on siege trenches or repairing the walls of a beleaguered city,' she said.
'No, I suppose not,' I said.
'I am ready,' she said. 'Let us go.'
With difficulty, carrying the water bags, in our chains, we made our way up the sandy slope. I reached the top first and extended my hand to Tupita, who took it, and, with its help, pulled herself up, until she stood beside me.' 'You are bruised,' she said.
'It is nothing,' I said.
