different ambiance in the camp. Ina, even though a free woman, could detect the difference in the men now, intuitively, unmistakably. She was now being looked upon quite differently than she had been before. These men had fed, and they now had hope. No longer were they the ragged, defeated stragglers among whom she, even though an attractive female, would have been safe. I wondered if she had now become much more acutely aware of the fact that she was in slave strips, that she was bound, that she was on her knees. I wondered if she had now, suddenly, become much more aware, and perhaps fearfully so, of her own attractions, of the luscious curves of her body, of the excitements of her figure, of the soft perfections of her breasts, so perfectly formed, of her graspable waist, of the flaring of her hips and the sweetness of her love cradle, with its softly rounded belly, like a stove ready for the stoking of slave fires, of her thighs, calves, or her small feet and hands, of those lovely shoulders, and that lovely neck, and the beautiful head and face, now so sensitive, now so softened by her emergent femaleness, and the hair, that might have been the envy of a paga slave, like a sheen of tawny gold, loose about her back and shoulders.
'Is she tall?' asked Labienus.
'No,' I said. 'She is perhaps a bit less than medium height for a female.'
'You call her 'Ina'?' asked Labienus.
'Yes,' I said.
'Is she pretty?' he asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'Beautiful?' he asked.
'Yes,' I said. 'I would think so.'
'What color is her hair,' he asked.
'She is a blonde,' I said.
'Is she slave desirable?' he asked.
'She is not a slave,' I said.
'But if she were a slave?' he asked.
'If she were actually a slave,' I said, 'I think then, yes, she would be slave desirable.'
'So attractive?' he asked.
'Yes,' I said.
'And you call her 'Ina'?' he asked, again.
'Yes,' I said.
He put forth his hand and I held Ina in place, my hand in her hair, as his fingers lightly touched her face.
He then drew back his hand, and sat upright again, on the rock.
I then, by the hair, flung Ina to her stomach in the sand before Labienus. She lay there then, her ankles up behind her, her wrists, by the fiber linking them to her ankles, pulled back, toward them.
'She bellies to you,' I said.
I then, by the back of the neck, moved Ina's head over Labienus' feet. She pressed her lips to them, kissing them.
'Aiii!' cried a fellow.
I then, she wincing, pulled her up, by one arm and her hair.
'She now, again, kneels before you,' I said. 'Ina,' I said, 'do you beg to please the captain?' She cast me a wild look.
'One whimper for 'Yes',' I said, 'two for 'No'.' She turned to the captain, and whimpered once.
'Aiii,' cried more than one man.
But Labienus, smiling, waved his hand, dismissing her. I thrust her to her side, to the side, in the sand. She looked back at me, startled. She had been dismissed. She had been rejected.
'I am grateful to you for your generosity with the captive,' said Labienus. 'It does you honor.'
'Her use is yours, whenever you wish,' I said.
'My thanks, Warrior,' said he.
'It might be well for you to avail yourself of her,' I said.
'I think not,' he said. 'There is another matter more pressing to which I wish to give careful consideration.'
'As you wish,' I said. I did not understand what this other matter might be but, at the time, supposed it to have to do with our impending journey.
I turned to look at Ina. She lay on her side in the sand, terrified. The men had gathered about her, some crouching, looking down at her. She looked small and luscious, helplessly bound, in the sand. She looked about herself, from face to face, as she dared, then, again and again, looked quickly away. She could not help but note that the eyes of the men were eagerly and unabashedly feasting themselves upon what was apparently to them some vulnerable, delicious object of incredible desire, and that this object was she herself.
'Do not be afraid, rence girl,' said Plenius.
She looked over to me, pleadingly, pathetically, the once-rich, once-powerful, once-haughty Lady Ina, of Ar, she who had been of the staff of Saphronicus, she who had been mistress of the purple barge, she who was confidante to, and observer for, Talena, once the daughter of Marlenus of Ar.
Plenius turned to regard me.
Ina looked at me, wildly. She might as well have been a slave girl, tethered to a stake for a squad's pleasure.
'You may untie her ankles,' I informed Plenius, 'then hand her about.'
He turned back to the girl, bending to her ankles. The others, too, then crowded about her.
I heard her gasp, probably as her ankles were jerked apart, preparing her for usage.
She was a highly intelligent woman, was the lovely Lady Ina, and I did not doubt but what she would keep well within the character of a mute rence girl Surely better that than the impaling spear.
I heard her gasp again, startled.
I supposed that when she had entered the delta in the purple barge, she, a high lady of Ar, in her silks and jewels, had not expected to serve common soldiers in one of the familiar modalities of a lowly captive.
I heard her utter a sudden, inarticulate cry.
'Ah!' cried a fellow.
'I, I!' cried another fellow.
I heard her gasp, again, startled, and then, in a moment, utter another cry.
'Ai!' said a fellow.
It had doubtless been weeks since these fellows had had a woman. And the Lady Ina, even though she was not a slave, was yet a juicy pudding.
She began to sob, though whether with sorrow, confusion, protest, passion or excitement, it was difficult to tell.
In another moment or two she was in the arms of another fellow.
'I!' cried another. 'I!'
'No, I!' cried another.
I feared they might fight for her, as might ravening sleen over the first piece of meat thrown to them in days.
Ina cried out, again seized, and was thrown back, again, into the sand.
I heard the sound of striking against her body, the subjection of it to the blows of a fellow's mastery and joy.
She was gasping.
I feared they might not be showing her sufficient respect. They did not know, of course, that she was the Lady Ina, but they would know, or believe, presumably, that she was a free woman. She was, for example, not branded. To be sure they would presumably accept her as a simple, lowly rence girl, and much had they suffered at the hands of rencers. There is a tendency, of course, to be stricter and crueler with women of the enemy than with others not so distinguished, making them in a sense stand proxy for the foe. It sometimes takes a new slave weeks, for example, to convince a master that she is no longer really a citizeness of a foreign state but now only an animal who belongs to him, one who solicits his indulgence, one who begs his kindness, and one who hopes to
