She nodded, vigorously, again.
I then loosened the hood and pushed it up, about her head and forehead. I had not remembered she was so beautiful. I then loosened the two ties of the gag and pulled the wadding out from her mouth, letting it hang over the loosened cords, putting the whole by her throat. She looked at me, wildly, gratefully.
"Speak," I said.
"I am a slave!" she said.
"She is a slave!" said Lady Claudia softly.
The prisoner shrank back, frightened, shuddering, helpless, thrilled, now knowing herself a slave.
"You are now a slave, Publia," said Lady Claudia, wonderingly.
"She is not longer Publia," I said to Lady Claudia. "She had not yet been named."
The slave looked at me, in awe.
Then she cried out, suddenly, as I replaced the wadding in her mouth, tightening it in again, with the cords.
"What are you doing?" asked Lady Claudia, frightened.
I saw the slave's eyes regarding me, wildly, just before I drew the hood again, over her beautiful features, securing it in place, tying the cord at the back of her neck.
"What are you doing?" cried Lady Claudia.
"She has got us this far," I said. "This is as far as we could expect to get with her, unchallenged, she in her guise as you. She had done as much for us as she can. She had thus served her purposes."
"What do you mean?" whispered Lady Claudia.
I reached for the impaling spear.
"No," said Lady Claudia.
I pressed the point of the spear against the interior of the slave's thigh. She threw back her head, and moaned.
"You knew she would declare herself a slave!" said Lady Claudia.
"She is a slave," I said. "It is fitting."
"I am no less a slave than she!" said Lady Claudia. "That is true," I said.
"And now," she cried, "that you have won from her her confession that she was slave, and she has said the words themselves, enacting imbondment upon herself, you would put her, now, not even in the dignity of the free woman, but in the misery and degradation of a shamed slave, upon the spear!"
"Do you not think this slave, when she was a free woman," I asked, "would not have enjoyed seeing you on the spear?"
"No matter!" cried Lady Claudia. "No matter!"
"Those of Ar's Station," I said, "will expect to see her on the spear. If she is not there, I do not think we will get very far. When we leave the platform here, let them think our work has been done. Then we will draw away somewhere, I removing this mask, you retaining your rags and veil."
"No!" said Lady Claudia.
"It may be our only hope at escape," I said, "you falling to Cosians, I perhaps managing to mingle with them."
"You are a brave man," she said. "I admire you. You have been strong with me. You have been kind to me. You have risked much for me. I want to escape. I see your reasoning. But if there must be a body on the spear, let it be mine. It is I who am guilty of treason, not she. Thus, it is I who should be impaled, not she."
"But you are a free woman," I said. "She is only a slave."
"You know, truly," she said, "she is no more, if as much, a slave as I. Surely in the cell, often enough, I gave you ample evidence that my fitting destiny was to give my entire being to the selfless love and service of a man!"
"You pity her because you are yourself no better than a slave," I said. "I would pity her if she were a free woman," she said, "and I pity her now, that she is a slave."
"Because you, yourself, are a slave," I said.
"Perhaps," she wept. "I do not know."
Within the hood, I smiled. Slaves, as is well known, are on the whole far more loving and compassionate than free women. That is probably because they are so much more female then the free woman.
"We must hang her on the spear," I said, jocularly. Suddenly Lady Claudia flung her body across that of the slave, as though she would protect her from me. It was a touching gesture, I thought. To be sure, it was a little silly. I could fling her a dozen feet away at my will, or, if I wished, with a judicious blow, little more than a quick tap on the diaphragm, have her instantly on her back helpless, gasping for breath. If necessary, I could bind her, or, if I wished, in an instant, strike her senseless.
"You would protect her, wouldn't you?" I asked.
"Yes!" she wept.
"She is perhaps your worst enemy," I reminded her.
"It does not matter," she wept.
"You have incredibly deep feelings and emotions," I said. "You would make a superb slave."
She looked up at me, puzzled. Her veil was wet with tears.
"Well, we had better hang this slave on the spear," I said, removing my sword belt.
"You have been joking," she said, suddenly. "You never intended to put her on the spear!"
"She is going to hang on the spear all right," I said. I then removed the sword from the sheath and thrust the sheath up, between the slave's back and the ropes, and then forced the point of the spear up, high, into the sheath. This did not do the sheath any good, distending it, but then it was not one, I reminded myself, for which I had had to put out my own tarsks. I then buckled the sword belt, making a new hole in the belt with my knife, tightly about the slender waist of the slave, up a bit, so it, too, was hidden behind the thickly coiled ropes. The spear's point was now entered into the sheath, the sheath held in place behind the slave by her ropes, and the slave's body held against the sheath and spear by the rope and belt. She could not slip down the spear because of the spear's insertion in the sheath. In this way, when the spear was placed in the mount, it would appear, I hoped, that the slave had been mounted on the spear. To see that this was not so, I thought one would probably have to be rather close. There is not much blood, incidentally, with the sort of impalement which, I had gathered, they had intended for the prisoner, as the spear itself, in such an impalement, packs the wound.
"You are sparing her!" breathed Lady Claudia. "Of late," I said, "she has been concerned to be pleasing." The former Lady Publia shuddered, realizing what might as easily have been her fate.
I then lifted the spear up and inserted it, down, into its mount.
We heard some cheers from down on the wall, a handful presumably greeting the appearance of the impaling spear, seemingly burdened. Most of the fellows, though, I suspected, had other things on their mind. Behind the slowly approaching towers, partly in their cover, advanced hundreds of men. the towers themselves were now little more than seventy-five yards from the wall. They had now aligned themselves, and the dropping of the bridges, when the towers were in position, would be simultaneous. Surely men should be drawn up from below to help defend the wall. The smaller probes, now, those of the scattered grapnels and single-pole ladders, had ceased. There were dozens of supporting grapnel and ladder crews, however, now approaching between the towers.
"Wriggle," I commanded the new slave, bound on the spear. "Wriggles well, and deliciously, or I shall set you on the spear properly!"
She then wriggled, and writhed, helplessly.
"Could you really put her on the spear?" asked Lady Claudia, softly. "Certainly," I said. It was true.
We heard laughter from down on the wall, and, I think, even from Cosians below the wall. They, too, had little respect for traitresses.
Lady Claudia shuddered.
"Not too much," I cautioned the new slave, "mostly at first, then less. Then hold yourself tense, trying not to move."
The new slave, hung in the ropes, moaned her acquiescence.
"What is wrong?" I asked Lady Claudia.
"It could have been I, truly impaled," she said.
"But it is not," I said.
"The ram pounds the gate," she said.
We could feel the vibrations, even here.
"Let us leave," I said to Lady Claudia.