I looked up at the high window. There was nothing in the room which made it possible to reach it, even to look out.
'They hardly feed me enough to keep me alive!' she exclaimed.
'You are probably fed as well as others in Ar's Station,' I said. 'Look,' she said. 'They took my hair!'
'In that way,' I said, 'they have seen to it that you have done your bit for Ar's Station.'
'The city must soon fall,' she said. 'We must then be rescued!' 'The citadel,' I said, 'can be held long after the walls. They would have time to deal with us.'
She put her head down, weeping bitterly.
'When are we fed?' I asked.
'At noon,' she said, lifting her head, looking at me, angrily.
'Do they make you perform for your food?' I asked.
She looked at me, in fury.
'I see that they did,' I said.
'No more,' she said. 'There is a woman warder now. The men were needed on the walls.'
'Full usage?' I asked.
'No,' she said, angrily, 'such things as dancing, and posing, before the panel. They never entered the cell.'
'Did you dance and pose well?' I asked.
'When I did not, I was not fed,' she said, bitterly.
'Still,' I said, 'you escaped easily.'
'Undoubtedly,' she said, bitterly.
'Did you enjoy dancing and posing?' I asked.
'Are you mad?' she asked.
'Perhaps,' I said. I smiled inwardly. I had noted a tiny movement about her, and a fleeting, frightened expression, before she had answered so belligerently. I saw that she was female.
I glanced toward the door.
'There is a woman warder?' I asked.
'Do not rouse your hopes,' she said. 'She does not enter the cell.' 'Who are you?' I asked.
'Claudia, Lady of Ar's Station,' she said.:Where were you caught?' I asked.
'On the parapet,' she said. 'I did not even know I was suspected until I felt the rope on my neck.'
I sat down in the straw, facing the door. 'Tell me of these things,' I said. 'Doubtless my story, in its way, is not much different from yours,' she said.
'Perhaps,' I said.
She spoke more freely, not under my eye.
'I did not receive the promotion and advancement which were my due here,' she said. 'I wanted even missions to Ar herself, but others were chosen in my place. How wrong this was!'
'Continue,' I said.
'I am a beautiful and brilliant person,' she said. 'Yet my perfections were insufficiently rewarded.'
'Perhaps you are only a pretty mediocrity,' I said.
'My talents were ignored,' she said, angrily.
I thought she might, if only latently, have excellent woman talents.
'Then the Cosians were upon us,' she said. 'We were all in fear of our lives. It became clear, after weeks, that Ar was not coming to our rescue. It would be everyone for himself. The clever must save themselves. I would be clever. Sometimes at night the women go to the parapets, to lower baskets with money, for food. Some women, as you probably know, particularly those without money, stripped themselves and lowered themselves over the wall, surrendering to the first Cosian they met, selling themselves into slavery for so little as a crust of bread or a handful of gruel.'
There was still food, though it seemed not much of it in the city. For example, even she, a caught spy, was still being fed. The women who did this, I suspected, lowering themselves naked over the wall, their bodies brushing and touching the stone in their descent, had had motivations deeper than hunger. Hunger, however, might have provided a convenient and excellent rationalization for their action. The nudity of the suppliants, of course, was only to be expected. Stripping themselves, baring their breasts, and such, is natural for female suppliants, before men. the nudity, too, would make clear their intent, and make it less likely that they might, in the darkness, be slain as mere fugitives. Nudity, too, makes it difficult to conceal weapons. For example, sometimes, when slaves are taken to Ubars, and such, they are stripped and wrapped in a scarlet sheet, if they are 'red silk,' and in a white sheet, if they are 'white silk.' They are then placed in the master's chambers, often through a panel in the door, the sheet remaining behind. A girl normally makes the journey only once in a white sheet, of course. Nudity, all in all, is not uncommon, in women surrendering to men. it is also not uncommon, of course, in slaves presenting themselves before masters.
'I see,' I said.
'But such was not for such as I,' she said. 'I had no wish to risk being hooded and chained in a crossing stall in Tyros, being used to breed quarry slaves for Chenbar, the Sea Sleen.'
I rather doubted that she, who was slight, delicious and well-curved, would have to fear that fate. Too, most women would spend very little time in a crossing stall. How long, after all, she placed there without slave wine, at the exactly ideal moment in her breeding cycle, does it take to impregnate a slave? Most such slaves are used in this fashion only once or twice, and then they are assigned other duties.
'I formed the habit of going to the wall with the other women, 'fishing, as we spoke of it. I made certain, of course, that I went to the same place on the wall at the same time each night. The first few times I put money in the basket. Later, when I increased the amount of money, I received some bread and vegetables. Can you imagine? A silver tarsk for a few suls?'
'The prices are higher now,' I said. I recalled there had been a golden tarn disk in the basket which had been lowered to me at the foot of the wall. 'Then,' she said, 'I began to put messages in the basket, innocent ones at first, asking questions about the position of the relieving forces, and such.' 'I understand,' I said.
'But my intent seemed quickly grasped,' she said, 'for shortly thereafter, with food, concealed under the cloth, in the bottom of the basket, were questions pertaining to conditions in the city.'
'Did you respond to these?' I asked.
'Yes,' she said.
'You were at that point a spy,' I said.
'I did not think so, yet,' she said. 'Such information was surely general knowledge.'
'Not necessarily to those outside the city,' I said. 'To be sure, there are usually informers, if not traitors, sometimes several, who can be relied upon for such details.'
'the next time I drew up the basket,' she said, 'there was a very specific question, concealed in a wedge of Sa-Tarna bread. 'Are you for Cos? it asked. The next night I lowered the answer, 'Yes. '
'You were then a traitress,' I said.
'Ar's Station had betrayed me!' she said. 'It had not given me what I wanted! It had not even given me missions to Ar. Too, do you think that I, a person such as I, wanted to remain out here, on the Vosk River, all my life?'
'What happened then?' I asked.
'I then made clear my position, that I would bargain, and bargain severely.' 'You requested food?' I asked.
'I had food,' she said. 'I had hoarded it from the beginning of the siege, when it was still thought that Ar, any day, would arrive with her banners fluttering in the wind, dispelling the Cosians like the sun the fogs on the river!' 'For gold then?' I asked.
'Yes,' she said, 'for gold, and jewels!'
'It seems you have little gold and few jewels now,' I said.
I heard her move angrily in the straw.
'Once you had declared for Cos,' I said, 'I think you would have been wise not to begin bargaining for monetary returns.'
'Why not?' she said.
