"Hahl" cried Kamchak.
I spied Elizabeth Cardwell approaching the wagon, two leather water buckets fastened to a wooden yoke she carried over her shoulders. Some water was spilling from the buck- ets.
Aphris cried out with delight and ran to Elizabeth, to my astonishment, to kiss her and help with the water. "Where have you been?" asked Kamchak.
Elizabeth lifted her head innocently and gazed at him frankly. "Fetching water," she said.
The sleen were trying to get at her and she had backed away against the wagon, watching them warily. "They are vicious beasts," she observed.
Kamchak threw back his head and roared with laughter.
Elizabeth did not so much as look at me.
Then Kamchak seemed sober and he said to the girl. "Go into the wagon. Bring slave bracelets and a whip. Then go to the wheel."
She looked at him, but did not appear afraid. "Why?" she asked.
Kamchak dismounted. "You were overly long in fetching water," he said.
Elizabeth and Aphris had gone into the wagon.
"She was wise to return," said Kamchak.
I agreed with him but would not say so. "It seems she was fetching water," I pointed out.
"You like her, don't you?" asked Kamchak.
"l feel sorry for her," I said.
"Did you enjoy her yesterday?" asked Kamchak.
"I did not see her after she left the enclosure of the dance," I said.
"If I had known that," said Kamchak, "I would have had the sleen out last night."
"Then," I said, "it is fortunate for the girl that you did not know it.
"Agreed," smiled Kamchak. "Why did you not make use of her?" he inquired.
"She is only a girl," I said.
"She is a woman," said Kamchak, "with blood."
I shrugged.
By this time Elizabeth had returned with the whip and bracelets, and had handed them to Kamchak. She then went to stand by the left, rear wheel of the wagon. There Kamchak braceleted her wrists thigh over her head about the rim and over one of the spokes. She faced the wheel. "There is no escape from the wagons," he said.
Her head was high. "I know," she said.
"You lied to me," he said, "saying you went to fetch water."
"I was afraid," said Elizabeth.
"Do you know who fears to tell the truth?" he asked. "No," she said.
"A slave," said Kamchak.
He ripped the larl's pelt from her and I gathered that she would wear the garment no longer.
She stood well, her eyes closed, her right cheek pressed against the leather rim of the wheel. Tears burst from be- tween the tightly pressed lids of her eyes but she was superb, restraining her cries.
She had still uttered no sound when Kamchak, satisfied, had released her, but fastening her wrists before her body with the bracelets. She stood trembling, her head down. Then he took her braceleted hands and with one hand raised her hands over her head. She stood so, her knees slightly flexed, head down.
"You think," said Kamchak to me, "she is only a girl." I said nothing.
"You are a fool, Tarl Cabot," said he.
I did not respond.
Coiled, in his right hand, Kamchak still held the slave whip. "Slave," said Kamchak.
Elizabeth looked at him.
"Do you wish to serve men?" he asked.
Tears in her eyes she shook her head, no, no, no. Then her head fell again to her breast.
"Observe," said Kamchak to me.
Then, before I could realize what he intended, he had subjected Miss Cardwell to what, among slavers, is known as the Whip Caress. Ideally it is done, as Kamchak had, unex- pectedly, taking the girl unawares. Elizabeth suddenly cried out throwing her head to one side. I observed to my amaze- ment the sudden, involuntary, uncontrollable response to the touch. The Whip Caress is commonly used among Slavers to force a girl to betray herself.
"She is a woman," said Kamchak. "Did you not see the secret blood of her? That she is eager and ready that she is fit prize for the steel of a master that she is female, and," he added, "slave?"
"Nor" cried Elizabeth Cardwell. «Nor» But Kamchak was pulling her by the bracelets toward an empty sleen cage mounted on a low cart near the wagon, into which, still braceleted, he thrust her, then closing the door, locking it. She could not stand in the low, narrow cage, and knelt, wrists braceleted, hands on the bars. "It is not truer" she screamed.
Kamchak laughed at her. `'Female slave," he said. She buried her head in her hands and wept. She knew, as well as we, that she had showed herself that her blood had leaped within her and its memory must now mock the hysteria of her denial that she had acknowledged tows and to herself, perhaps for the first time, the incontrovertible splendor of her beauty and its meaning.
Her response had been that of an utter woman.
"It's not true!" she whispered over and over, sobbing as she had not from the cruel strokes of the whip. "It's not truer"
Kamchak looked at me. "Tonight," lie said, "I shall call the Iron Master."
"Don't," I said.
"I shall," he said.
'Why?" I asked.
He smiled at me grimly. "She was too long in fetching water."
I said nothing. Kamchak, for a Tuchuk, was not unkind. The punishment of a runaway slave is often grievous, some- times culminating in death. He would do no more to Elizabeth Cardwell than was commonly done to female slaves among the wagons, even those who had never dared to speak back or disobey in the least particular. Elizabeth, in her way, was fortunate. As Kamchak might have said, he was permitting her to live. I did not think she would be tempted to run away again. I saw Aphris sneaking to the cage to bring Elizabeth a dipper of water. Aphris was crying.
Kamchak, if he saw, did not stop her. "Come along," he said. "There is a new kaiila I want to see near the wagon of Yachi of the Leather Workers' Clan."
It was a busy day for Kamchak.
He did not buy the kaiila near the wagon of Yachi of the Leather Workers though it was apparently a splendid beast. At one point, he wrapped a heavy fur and leather robe-about his left arm and struck the beast suddenly on the snout with his right hand. It had not struck back at him swiftly enough to please him, and there were only four needlelike scratches in the arm guard before Kamchak had managed to leap back and the kaiila, lunging against its chain, was snapping at him. "Such a slow beast," said Kamchak, "might in battle cost a man his life." I supposed it true. The kaiila and its master fight in battle as one unit, seemingly a single savage animal, armed with teeth and lance. After looking at the kaiila Kamchak visited a wagon where he discussed the crossing of one of his cows with the owner's bull, in exchange for a similar favor on his own part. This matter was arranged to their mutual satisfaction. At another wagon he haggled over a set of quiva, forged in Ar, and, obtaining his price, ar- ranged to have them, with a new saddle, brought to his wagon on the morrow. We lunched on dried bask meat and Paga and then he trooped to the wagon of Kutaituchik, where he exchanged pleasantries with the somnolent figure on the robe of gray boskhide, about the health of the bask, the sharpness of quivas and the necessity of keeping wagon axles greased, and certain other matters. While near Kutaituchik's wagon, on the dais, he also conferred with several other high men among the Tuchuks. Kamchak, as I had learned before, held a position of some importance with the Tuchuks. After seeing Kutaituchik and the others, Kamchak stopped by an Iron Master's wagon, and, to my irritation, arranged for the fellow to come by the wagon that very night. "I can't keep her in a sleen cage forever," Kamchak said. "There is work to be done about the wagon." Then, to my delight, Kamchak, borrowing two kaiila, which he seemed to have no difficulty doing from a Tuchuk warrior I had not even seen before rode with me to the Omen Valley.
Coming over a low, rolling hill, we saw a large number of tents pitched in a circle, surrounding a large grassy area. In the grassy area, perhaps about two hundred yards in diameter, there were literally hundreds of small, stone altars. There was a large circular stone platform in the center of the field. On the top of this platform was a huge, four-sided altar which was approached by steps on all four sides. On one side of this altar I saw the sign of the Tuchuks, and on the others; that of the Kassars, the Kataii and the Paravaci. I had not mentioned the matter of the Paravaci quiva which had al- most struck me last night, having been in the morning dis- turbed about the disappearance of Elizabeth Cardwell and in the afternoon busy following Kamchak about in his rounds. I resolved to mention the matter to him sometime but not this evening for I was convinced this would not be a good evening for anyone in the wagon, except perhaps for Kamchak, who seemed pleased about the arrangements he had made with the herder pertaining to crossing livestock and the bargain, it seemed, he had contracted with the fellow with the quivas and saddle.