“Look,” said Fel Doron, “the tarns are aloft.”
The men then, shading their eyes, observed the tarns. Speaking as though one might be on Earth, and ignoring the complexities of the Gorean compass, which points always to the Sardar, each of the four tarns, each with its suspended basket, went to a different quadrant, one to the north, the others to the east, south and west. At these points they alighted.
“They are doubtless discharging some men,” said Portus Canio. “In time, giving those afoot time to approach us, they will rise again, and attack from the air.”
“They should wait for darkness,” said the spokesman.
“No,” said Portus Canio. “They might then lose some of us.”
“Masters!” said Ellen. “It may be I whom they want. That is possible! It is said Tersius Major is with them! He may want me! Many times in the tarn loft have his eyes greedily roved me! A slave is not unaware of such things! If this should be true, if it is I whom they want, give me to them!”
“Vain slave,” said Selius Arconious.
“Master!” wept the slave.
“Do not flatter yourself, property-slut,” said Selius Arconious.
“Please, Master!” she begged.
“Do not forget you are worthless collar-meat,” he said.
“Master!” she protested.
“Yes!” he said, angrily.
“They may want me,” said Ellen, determinedly. “It is possible! Surely I am valuable. Men bid silver upon me, silver!”
“You are worth no more than a handful of tarsk-bits,” said Selius Arconious.
“If it should be I whom they want,” said Ellen, “give me to them! Save yourselves!”
“They are not thinking slave,” said Selius Arconious. “They are thinking vengeance, and gold.”
“Master!” protested the slave.
“You are not important,” said the spokesman. “You have served your purpose.”
Ellen looked up at him, startled.
“How is that?” asked Mirus.
“Surely you did not think we followed these barbarians through the grasslands with nothing more in mind than the disposing of an inquisitive slave,” said the spokesman.
“You were to aid me in her recovery,” said Mirus.
“Do not be naive,” said the spokesman. “She is to lead us to the tarnster, who is to lead us to the gold. She may then be disposed of later. She has seen too much.”
Ellen sobbed, kneeling bound at their feet.
The spokesman then regarded Portus Canio. “We want the gold, tarn keeper,” said he. “We have our own purposes, for which it would prove useful.”
“I am sure of that,” said Portus Canio. “But none here now knows where it is.”
“And it seems,” said Selius Arconious, “that as you may have followed us with such in mind, so, too, with such in mind, have the Cosians followed you.”
“Masters!” said Ellen. “Even if they have not come for me, perhaps you may, at least, arrange a truce, and then use me in your negotiations! Perhaps you can bargain with me! Try to buy your safety with me, and perhaps with the tharlarion and wagon! Save yourselves.”
“Are you so fond of Tersius Major?” inquired Selius Arconious.
“No!” she said.
“Do not think you can so easily escape my collar,” said Selius Arconious.
“Master?” she asked.
“Do you allow your women to speak without permission?” asked the spokesman of Selius Arconious.
“Please, Masters!” sobbed Ellen. “Let me speak!”
“Spread your knees,” snapped Selius Arconious.
Ellen instantly obeyed.
“Please, Masters!” she begged.
Selius Arconious regarded her, not pleasantly.
“Untie my hands,” she begged. “Take the rope from my neck! Let me run! Perhaps they will be distracted, and you may make away!”
But Selius Arconious was paying her no attention. He was rather scanning the grasslands about.
“My ankles are not bound,” said Ellen. “Let me run as I am!”
“You would run directly into the arms of a Cosian,” said Fel Doron, “and then your ankles would indeed be bound, surely with the leash rope. You would be left in the grass until later, when they remembered you.”
“If they remembered you,” said a man.
“And, if they did not,” said another man, “you would lie in the grass, crying out for help, with no one to hear, helpless in your ropes, knowing that in three days you would die of thirst.”
“No,” said another man, one of Portus’s fellows, “she would be eaten by wild sleen. I have seen their spoor.”
“I do not think they would forget her,” said Portus Canio.
“And then,” said Fel Doron, “you would find yourself put as the slave you are to their diverse services and pleasures.”
“Yes, Master,” whispered Ellen.
“If you run,” said Selius Arconious, “as soon as you are caught, by whomsoever catches you, I or another, you will be treated as a runaway, and will be subjected to the sanctions appropriately levied against a runaway girl.”
“I do not think, in any event, I would break into a run in the vicinity of sleen,” said Portus Canio.
Ellen shuddered. Such a behavior, she realized, might startle the sleen, and activate the hunting response.
“Tie the slut’s leash to the wagon,” said Selius Arconious, irritably.
Ellen looked at Selius Arconious, tears in her eyes. How he hated her!
Fel Doron drew Ellen, on her knees, to the vicinity of the left, rear wheel of the wagon, thrust her under the wagon, and then tied her leash about the rear axle. She then knelt there, miserable, in the shadows beneath the wagon bed, bound, roped in place. She, slave, it would be done to her, and appropriately, as men wished.
“The tarns are aflight,” said Portus Canio.
“The Cosians must be close now,” said Fel Doron, straightening up.
“See the swing of the baskets,” said Selius Arconious. “I doubt that there are more than three men in a basket, two archers and a strapmaster.”