'No,' she wept. 'No!'
'Your plaints are meaningless,' I said.
'Your touch,' she cried. 'Please stop!'
'I am taking you there,' I said, 'whether you wish it or not.'
'No!' she wept.
'You have no choice,' I said.
'No!' she cried.
'You might as well be driven with a whip,' I said. 'You might as well be being dragged in a collar and chains. You might as well be a slave girl.'
'Aiii!' she cried, head back, eyes closed, hair about, rearing up, twisting, thrashing in the sand. Then she was looking at me, wildly.
She tried to press against me.
'I am bound and helpless!' she wept. 'Hold me! Hold me, tightly! Take me in your arms. I beg it!'
I took her in my arms, as she wished. I could feel her heart beating wildly.
'I did not know it could be like that,' she said. 'I could not believe it.'
'Such things,' I said, 'are only the first horizons, of an infinite number of possible horizons.'
She pressed herself desperately against me, sobbing.
'You are a woman,' I said.
'I have no doubt of that now,' she said. I kissed her.
'I did not know being a woman could be anything like that,' she said. 'How precious is my sex! How wonderful it is! I love it! Now I never want to be anything else!'
I kissed her again.
'But I have these terrible and frightening thoughts,' she said. 'Now I want to love and serve men!'
'They are not such terrible thoughts,' I said.
'And I dare not tell you the other thought that cries out within me!'
'It is that you sense now that you are owned by men, and wish to belong to them,' I said.
She cried out, wildly, shuddering.
'Rest now,' I said. 'I must do some hunting and then we will go to the camp of the men of Ar.'
I then gently rose to my feet. I regarded her there in the sand, naked, her hands bound behind her, the strap from the raft running to the improvised, buckled collar on her throat, which, as tether, would keep her in the vicinity of the raft. She was looking at me, in consternation, in awe. I think she was still trying to cope with the feelings she had felt, with the insights she had obtained.
28 Labienus
'The camps will be small, scattered, and carefully concealed,' I said, 'even from the air. They will serve primarily for rest and sleep. There will be no stirring from them during the day, and little or no motion within them. The eyes of men and tarns can detect even a tiny movement within a large visual expanse.'
The men looked at one another. Labienus, their captain, whose rank was high captain, and had been commanding officer in the vanguard of the central columns in Ar's entry into the delta, sat upon a rock. Ina knelt in the background, her head down, her hands bound behind her back, fastened to her crossed, bound ankles, in binding her hands I left a yard or so of fiber loose, wrapped about her left wrist, that it might serve, at my discretion, as convenient ankle binding. It was with this length of fiber that her ankles were now secured to her wrists. A cord was about her waist, snugly. It was fastened with a bow knot on her left. The knot, being on the left, was not only convenient for her, reaching across her body, perhaps at a captor's or master's command, but was readily at hand, as well, for the attentions of a right-handed captor or master. In either case, the bow knot, of course, loosens with a casual tug. Over the cord, in front and back, were two narrow slave strips. These, too, of course, may be jerked away at the discretion of a captor or master. The nature and control of a captive's or slave's clothing, and even if she is to be given any, is an additional power of the captor or master. Indeed, some masters seem to think that that is one of the major reasons for permitting a girl clothing, to make possible the exercise of this additional power over her. It may be denied to her, for example, as a discipline. Few girls desire to be sent shopping naked, through busy streets. To be sure, in such a case, they would probably be put in the iron belt. I myself tend to see the disciplinary aspects of clothing as interesting, and not to be overlooked, but minor. More important reasons, in my opinion, are such things as to mark the girl as captive or slave, to enhance her beauty, to heighten her sexuality, and stimulate the master. The major reason I had put Ina in slave strips, of course, was rather different yet. It wished to make it somewhat easier for the men of Ar to control themselves in her presence than it might otherwise have been. It would not do at all, for example, to have to fight off several fellows a few moments after entering the camp. Another reason for permitting a girl clothing, incidentally, is that she may have at least one veil, so to speak, which the captor or master may at his will, and for his pleasure, remove. I had, however, it seems, seriously miscalculated in one matter. The men of Ar, sullen, hungry, defeated, resigned, exhausted, miserable, terrorized, sick, scarcely seemed to notice her. I was much surprised by this. Had Ina been a slave I think she might have been disturbed by this lack of attention to her, and active consideration of her not inconsiderable charms. As a mere free woman, however, she probably did not understand how unusual this was, and, if anything, was more than pleased to be allowed to remain inconspicuously in the background. She knelt with her head down, incidentally, of her own will. I think this was partly because she was frightened, and partly because she had now begun to learn her womanhood and knew herself to be among strong men, thus appropriately submitted.
'We will move at night,' I said, 'feeding ourselves from what the marsh offers.'
'It offers nothing,' said a fellow, sullenly.
'This is your choice,' I said.
'How shall we see?' asked another man.
'By the stars, the moons,' I said. 'The difficulties you experience would be experienced as well by any who would seek you, and most such, not even knowing you in the vicinity, will be abed at such times. Too, if attacked, it is easier to scatter and slip away in the darkness.'
'There is the sand,' said Plenius.
'There is not so much of it,' I said, 'really, and we may, if you wish, go roped together, and closely enough to one another that even soft cries may be heard, to summon succor.'
I cut into the small tharlarion I had killed, its leathery hide already stripped away. I had brought it with me, over my shoulder, when I had announced myself at the camp's periphery, calling Plenius forward to assure my safe entry into the camp. It had been my supposition the men of Ar might be appreciative of food, even of such a nature.
I took a bit of the raw flesh and held it toward the fellow who had expressed his disinclination to believe in the delta's ready provender.
'No,' he said.
'You are hungry,' I said.
'I cannot eat that,' he said.
I ate the bit of meat myself, and cut another.
'It is not even cooked,' said another.
'You will make no fires,' I said. 'A line of smoke can mark a camp. At night the flame of a tharlarion-oil lamp can be seen hundreds of yards away, even the flash of a fire-maker. Such things, spotted from the air, for example, I assure you, will not be neglected by a tam scout.'
'Who wishes this viand?' I asked, holding up the next piece of tharlarion meat.
'Not I,' said a fellow, warily.
'Nor I,' said another.
'It makes me sick to look at it,' said another.
'I cannot eat that,' said another.
Perhaps if they were hungrier, I thought, they might be less fastidious. Yet I reminded myself that men had
