I was sure that Tup Ladletender had found me appealing.
I did not know if he had bought me or not.
I bent again to my arduous labors.
Suddenly I straightened myself. "Bran Loort!" I cried.
He stood a few feet from me, a coil of rope in his hand. My hands clutched the handle of the hoe.
He looked at me.
I flung it down. A girl dares not raise a weapon against a free man. Some girls have been slain, or had their hands cut off, for so much as touching a weapon.
"I have come to fetch you, Dina," he said.
I looked about. There was another peasant lad on my left. He, too, carried rope. I turned quickly. Four others were behind me. Another was on my right. Two others, too, appeared, behind Bran Loort. One of them carried, too, a coil of rope.
There was nowhere to run.
"She is the clever girl who eluded us in the game of girl catch in the village," said one of the lads.
"Greetings, clever girl," said another.
"Greetings, Master," I said to him.
I extended my wrists, crossed for binding, to Bran Loort. "You are going to take me to my master," I said.
He laughed.
I drew back my wrists. I looked about, fearfully. The boys approached more closely, closing about me.
I spun and ran, but fled into the arms of one of the young males, who roughly threw me back to the center of the circle. I tried again to break the circle and was again caught and flung again to its center. They were now close about me.
I extended my wrists, crossed, to Bran Loort. "Bind me," I said, "and take me to my master."
He smiled.
I trembled, and shrank back before him, almost into the arms of one of his brawny young cohorts.
"Are you going to rape me, Bran Loort?" I asked.
"And more," said he.
"Thurnus will not be pleased," I said.
"Tonight," he said, "you will belong to me."
"I do not understand," I said.
"Tonight," he said, "you will be a feast and a festival to us, Dina."
I trembled.
"Hold her," said Bran Loort.
Two boys held my arms.
"Ankle-leash her, both ankles," he said. This was done. I stood before them, ropes on my ankles.
"Put your arms at your sides," said Bran Loort, "out a bit from your body."
I did so.
I then stood before them, double wrist-leashed, ropes placed knotted on my wrists. The ropes on my wrists and ankles, serving as leashes, were cut from the coils of rope brought to the field. The remainders of the coils swung in the hands of Bran Loort and one of his cohorts. I knew I might be beaten with them.
"You will obey," said Bran Loort.
"Yes, Master," I said.
"Remove your kerchief," he said.
I lifted my leashed wrists and pulled away the kerchief, shading my head, freeing my hair.
"Pretty," said one of the boys.
"Tear the kerchief," said Bran Loort.
"Please," I said. I did not wish to destroy the kerchief. It. like the girl, Dina, whom I was, belonged to my master. Dina was responsible for it. The master might not be pleased if it were torn or soiled. Dina might be beaten.
"Tear it," said Bran Loort. I, with difficulty, tore the kerchief, the boys amused at my weakness.
"Drop it upon the ground and, step upon it, grinding it into the dirt," said Bran Loort.
I did so, with the heel of my leashed foot. I was sure now that I would be beaten upon my return to the village.
I looked at the boys. I realized, suddenly, I had more to fear from them than from the swift switch of an angry Thurnus or Melina. Their eyes terrified me. My limbs were leashed. I stood alone among them, their prisoner.
I knew I must please them.
"Are you docile and cooperative?" asked Bran Loort.
"Yes, Master," I whispered.
"Strip," he said.
"Yes, Master," I said. I reached to pull the coarse, brief tunic over my head. I hoped they would be soon done with me.
But my hands, held by the ropes on my wrists, could not reach the bottom of the tunic. My fingers struggled to reach it, but an inch from its wool, clinging about my thighs. I tried again to seize the tunic but was prohibited by the ropes from doing so. I looked at Bran Loort in alarm, in protest.
"Strip," he said. He swung the coil of rope which he carried, whiplike, easily in his hand. Behind me there was another lad, with such a coil of rope.
Wildly I tried to seize the garment, to pull it over my head, but the boys would not let me touch it. I struggled to get my fingers on the white, coarse wool, but I could not reach it.
"Are you docile and cooperative?" asked Bran Loort.
"Yes, Master!" I cried. "Yes, Master!"
"Strip," he said.
Again I tried to reach the garment but again was not permitted to do so. Then I tried to seize the garment at the neck and tear it away but the boys would not let my hands reach the garment.
"You are a rebellious slave," said Bran Loort.
"No, Master!" I cried.
"Obey then," he said.
I tried again to tear away the garment. Again I was not permitted to do so.
"Rebellious slave," said Bran Loort.
Suddenly the rope, coiled, held by the boy behind me, hissed and cut into the back of my thighs.
"Oh," I cried.
At the same time Bran Loort himself struck down at me with the rope he carried, striking me across the shoulder and neck.
The boys yanked the ropes on my ankles, and, by their means, and by means of those held by the other two boys, those fastened on my wrists, I was turned and thrown to my stomach, in the dirt, spread-eagled.
Bran Loort and the other lad struck me again and again with the ropes they carried and then I, sobbing, cut by the ropes, marked even through the tunic, was, by the leashes on my limbs pulled to a kneeling position before him, my arms held out from my sides. There was dirt on the side of my face and on my body, blackening and staining the sweat-soaked tunic. I could taste dirt in my mouth.
"Bring her," said Bran Loort.
I was jerked to my feet by the ropes on my wrists and stumbling, dragged among them, was conducted from the ml field. The ruined kerchief and the hoe lay behind.
Many are the clever things which may be done to a girl who is, as I was, fully limb-leashed. Much sport had the cruel peasant boys with me. They made me fall when they pleased, and as they pleased; sometimes they threw me forward, sometimes backward; sometimes they carried me, face up or face down, suspended between them: sometimes they dragged me by an ankle or a wrist on my back or stomach, or twisting; sometimes they dragged me or made me walk where they wished, though it might be through rocks or gravel.
I did not know if I could live, so led.
We stopped once. I was still clothed at.that time. I was held by the ropes before Bran Loort. I was covered with sweat and dirt; I was gasping; I was trembling, shaken with muscular stress from the cruel march, as well as with fear, knowing myself fully in their hands, not knowing what fate they might choose to inflict upon me. We stood in the vicinity of a thicket of thorn brush, of the sort which is occasionally used to wall camps.
"You are still clothed," said Bran Loort observing me.
"Let me tear away my clothes before you," I begged, "that the beauty of a poor slave girl may be bared to you."
"Do so," he said.
I cried out in anguish. Again the ropes would not let me strip myself.
"You have apparently not yet learned your lesson," he said.
"Please, Master!" I wept.
"Let the thorn brush strip her," said Bran Loort.
"No!" I cried.