The two girls regarded me, furiously. They struggled in their bonds. “You are a man!” hissed the first. “We are panther girls! Do you think we would tell you anything?” “Release their hands,” I said to a seaman, “and feed them.” The girls looked at one another, wonderingly. The seaman unbound their wrists from behind their backs, and filled two trenchers, steaming now with bosk and vulo, which he thrust in their hands.
I watched them while, with fingers and teeth, they devoured the food. When they had finished, I regarded them. “What are your names?” I asked. They looked at one another. “Tana,” said the first. “Ela,” said the second. “I wish to learn,” I said, “the location of the camp and dancing circle of the outlaw girl, Verna.” Tana sucked her fingers. She laughed. “We will never tell you,” she said. “No,” said Ela, finishing the last bit of roast bosk, her eyes closed. Tana looked at me angrily. “We don not fear the whip,” she said. “We don not fear the iron. You will not make us speak. We are panther girls.” “Bring candies,” said I to a seaman.
He did so.
I tossed one to each of the girls. They took the candies. They were sitting now, on the deck, but not cross-legged. They knew that posture would not be permitted them. Their chains dangled to the rings.
When they had finished, I merely regarded them.
“You are a man,” said the first. “We will not speak. It does not matter what you do to us. We do not fear the whip. We do not fear the iron. We will not speak. We are panther girls.” I threw each of them another candy. Then, not speaking further, I rose to my feet, and left them.
On the fore quarter I spoke to Rim and Thurnock. “Tomorrow,” I told them, “briefly, we will put into land.” “Yes, Captain,” they said.
“Take the chains from their necks,” I told a seaman.
The girls looked up at me.
It was not the next night, that following my first interrogation of the panther girls, the evening of the day following that of my acquisition of the two male slaves.
We would make landfall in Lydius in the morning, an important river port at the mouth of the Laurius.
The chains were removed from the necks of the girls. They had been well treated today. They had been fed well, and sufficiently watered. After their meals, candies had been given them. They had been permitted to wash themselves, with a bucket of warm water, and to comb one another’s hair.
“Tie their ankles tightly,” I said, “and their wrists, too, behind their backs.” We had put into land briefly this afternoon. And Thurnock, and Rim, with snares, had gone into the forest. Other men had accompanies them, with water kegs. The girls, chained on the sanded deck of the stern quarter, fastened by their yard of chain, blocked by the kitchen area, and behind crates and lashed boxes, could not see what transpired.
Had they been able to see, they would have seen men returning to the Tesephone, with water kegs, and Thurnock and Rim returning too, Thurnock carrying an object on his back, bulky but apparently not particularly heavy. The object had been covered with a canvas.
The girls were thrown forward on their belly on the sanded deck.
Each felt her ankles lashed together, tightly. Each then felt her wrists jerked behind her back, and similarly lashed.
They lay before me.
“Take them to the lower hold,” I said.
The lower hold is the tiny crawl space, of some eighteen inches, between the deck of the first hold and the curved hull of the ship, divided by its keel. It is unlit, and cold and damp. It contains much sand, used as ballast for the galley. It also contains the sump, or bilge. It is a briny, foul place. The girls were carried from the deck. They were handed down the hatch to the first hold, and then, by others, handed down the hatch to the lower hold, which lies near the fore quarter of the ship. I gave the orders that they be placed on the sand well within the lower hold, which lies near the stern quarter, far from the hatch. They were so placed. The heavy grated hatch was then replaced over the opening to the lower hold. Bolts were shoved in place. Then the grating was itself covered, with two sheets of opaque tarpaulin, fastened down at the edges. The lower hold would now be in pitch darkness.
In the forests, this afternoon, Thurnock and Rim, who were familiar with such matters, the first as a peasant, and catch, returned to the Tesephone, in a cage, covered with canvas, carried on the back of Thurnock, had been six, rather large forest urts, about the size of tiny dogs. This evening, after the evening meal, we had opened the cage into the lower hold. They had scurried from the cage, dropping down to the sand, scampering off into the darkness.
I, with Thurnock and Rim, went back to the kitchen area. There was again fried vulo, and there was some left. I did not think it would take long for the girls to discover that they were not alone in the lower hold.
I nibbled at the fried vulo.
There was suddenly, from below decks, muffled, as thought far off, a terrified scream.
Had they heard movements in the darkness? Had they seen the gleam of tiny eyes? Burning at them from the blackness? Had one of them heard the breathing of tiny lungs near her face in the darkness? Had another felt fur brush against her calf, or tiny feet scampering unexpectedly over her bound body?
Both girls were now screaming.
I could imagine them, nude, bound, thrashing in the sand, terrified, hysterically jerking at the binding fiber which would continue to hold them. The screams were now piteous. They had been proud panther women. They were now hysterical, terrified girls.
I continued to nibble on the vulo leg.
A seaman approached. “Captain, said he, “the wenches in the lower hold crave audience.” I smiled. “Very well,” I said.
In a few moments, both girls, covered with wet sand, on their bodies, and in their eye lashes and hair, were placed, kneeling, before me. They were still perfectly secured. I sat, as before, on my stool behind the kitchen area. They knelt, as before, near the rings to which they had been chained. Only now both of them thrust their heads to the deck at my feet. They were shuddering uncontrollably, spasmodically.
“The camp and dancing circle, of Verna,” said the first girl, Tana, “lies north and east of Laura. Then, where the forest begins, look for a Tur tree, blazed ten feet above the ground, with the point of a girl’s spear. From this tree, travel generally north, seeking similarly blazed trees, a quarter of a pasang apart. There are fifty such trees. At the fiftieth there is a double blaze. Go then north by northeast. Again the trees are blazed, but now, at the foot of the truck, by the mark of a sleen knife. Go twenty such trees. Then look for a Tur tree, torn by lightning. A pasang north by northeast from that tree, again look for blazed tree, but now the blazing is, as before, high on the trunk, and made by a girl’s spear. Again go twenty such trees. You will then be in the vicinity of Verna’s dancing circle. Her camp, on the north bank of a tiny stream, well concealed, is two pasangs to the north.” Both girls lifted their head. Would I return them to the lower hold? Their eyes were terrified.
“What is your name?” I asked the first girl.
“Tana,” she whispered.
“What is your name?” I asked the second girl.
“Ela,” she said.
“You have no names,” I told them, “for you are slaves.”
They put down their heads.
“Chain them again by the necks,” I said to a seaman. It was done.
“Unbind them,” I said.
The girls’ bonds were removed.
They looked up at me, kneeling, terrified. They were chained by the neck. I looked into their eyes.
They looked up at me, piteous, the slaves.
“In the morning,” I said, “sell them in Lydius.”
They put down their heads, sobbing.
3 I Buy a Thief
A girl bumped into me, black haired, briefly skirted in brown, bare armed, barefoot, tanned, a small, sensuous wench, free.