considering the mark on her breast, and so, too, then might well have been the other fellow. She straightened her body, timidly, but beautifully. This was, I suppose, the first time she had ever thought of herself in exactly that light, a woman being looked upon, who wore a Kajira sign.
The fellow had now finished sharpening the knife. It was beside him, on a rock. He was wiping the stone with a cloth. The stone and the cloth he would replace in his pack, in a wrapper. I assumed he would soon address himself to the cutting of the meat.
'What is that mark?' asked Plenius of Ina, be standing over her.
I feared, for an instant, she might speak.
But she looked up, her lips a bit apart, and made a tiny sound.
'As a rencer,' he said, 'you probably do not know the meaning of that sign.'
I was pleased that Ina did not whimper affirmatively to that, for, in the past few years, slave girls were not as unknown in the marshes as earlier. She would, presumably, in one of the rence villages or another, on one of the rence islands, have seen such a brand on some beauty, perhaps stolen from a slave barge.
One or two of the men about looked at Plenius, idly, puzzled.
He crouched down before Ina. He pointed to the mark. 'That mark,' he said, 'goes here.' He then slapped her bared left thigh, high, close to the hip, familiarly, in the place, or about the place, that a slaver or iron worker would be likely to place his iron. To be sure, there are various marking sites utilized by Goreans. High on the left thigh, under the hip, however, is the most common site.
Ina looked at him, frightened.
'That is where it goes, isn't it, Ina?' he said.
Ina looked at me.
'She may never have seen a left-thigh-branded girl,' I said.
'Have you ever seen a left-thigh-branded girl, Ina?' he asked.
She whimpered, once. I supposed that her own girls might well be left-thigh branded.
'That is where it goes, then, isn't it?' he asked.
Ina again looked at me, frightened.
'That is surely where it could go,' I said.
Ina looked at me, gratefully.
To be sure, if she were branded, I would expect her, too, to be branded on the left thigh, high, under the hip. That is the usual place.
Plenius then stood up. 'You make excellent bait, Ina,' he said. He then gave her head a shake, much as one might roughly fondle a sleen. Normally she would have responded warmly, affectionately, to such a caress, deeply appreciative, even joyful, to receive even so small a token of a male's favor, but now, I think, she was afraid.
I, too, was apprehensive.
'You are pretty, aren't you, Ina?' he asked.
She looked up at him, frightened.
'Think carefully before you respond, Ina,' said he, 'for if you lie, you will be beaten.'
She whimpered, once.
'Good,' he said, and then turned away from her.
I, and I think, Ina, then breathed more easily.
'Stop,' I said to the fellow with the knife, suddenly.
'What is wrong?' he asked.
'What are you doing?' I said.
'I am going to cut out the teeth of the shark,' he said, 'for a necklace.'
'I would wait,' I said.
'It is dead,' he said.
'You do not know that,' I said.
'I do not understand,' he said.
I took one of the spears from a fellow nearby and thrust the butt end into the mouth of the shark. No sooner was the wood within its jaws than they snapped shut. I withdrew the splintered end of the spear. It had been bitten in two.
'I would wait,' I said.
'I will,' said he. 'My thanks, warrior.'
'And even then,' I said, 'it might be well to make certain the mouth remains open, perhaps by stones, or stout wood.'
'Yes,' he said.
'Let us cut the meat,' said a fellow. 'We must eat. We must rest.'
'Au,' said the fellow with the knife.
'What is wrong?' asked a man.
'The knife is sharp,' he said. 'I just sharpened it. But still it is hard to force it through this hide.'
'Do you need help?' asked a fellow.
'No,' he said.
'Where is the fish?' asked Labienus.
We turned toward him. We were surprised that he had spoken. In the last few days he had spoken very little. He had seemed, rather, to be absorbed in his unusual practices.
'Lead me to it,' he said. 'Put my hands upon it, behind the head.'
He was led to the fish, and he knelt beside it, and his hands were placed on it, about a foot behind the head.
His hands groped, feeling the abrasive surface.
We watched him.
He lifted his hands, his fingers like the talons of a tarn, and then, suddenly, struck down into the side of the fish. We saw the fingers, like iron hooks, disappear into the hide of the fish, and then, he stood, rearing up in the sand, lifting that great weight, and shook it, and the fish spun and rolled, and fell again into the sand, the skin, in a swath a foot wide, excoriated. Twice more he performed this feat and twice more great swaths of the excoriated hide were flung to the side.
'Now,' said Labienus, 'it should be easier to reach the meat.'
'Yes, Captain,' whispered the fellow with the knife. The rest of us were silent. Titus conducted Labienus back to his place, where he now sat quietly, cross-legged, as a warrior, looking out over the marsh.
'Let us eat,' said one of the men.
The fellow with the knife began to cut the meat.
In a few moments there was again small talk in the camp, and food was passed about.
Plenius came and sat near me, cross-legged.
'Tal,' said I to him.
'I am curious as to your captive,' he said.
'Oh?' I asked.
'So, too, are some of the others,' he said.
'Speak,' I said.
'May I summon her?' he asked.
'Of course,' I said.
He snapped his fingers and Ina, who had not yet fed, hurried to kneel beside us, back a little, so that her presence would not be obtrusive.
I held out a bit of fish to Ina, and she bent forward and, turning her head, took it delicately in her mouth. She had not received permission to use her hands.
'You have trained your little slut, Ina, well,' he said. I took another piece of meat and offered it to Plenius, but he refused it.
'She is pretty,' he said.
'Yes,' I said.
'Pretty enough to be a slave,' he said.
'I think so,' I said.
