Oops! I did that without thinking.
He is sexually interested. Your tassel must be in the position of urgent invitation.
She had done that when she so blithely tossed her head? Sexual invitation? I didn’t know it could say that!
There is no spoken language among humans of this reality. Signs of several types suffice. We allow humans to choose their own times and partners for procreation, provided they are proper workers. You signaled him that you find him desirable and wish to conceive by him.
What disastrous luck! I don’t want sex with him! How can I get out of it?
That will be difficult without causing a commotion. Human males are unsubtle creatures.
What else was new! I don’t care how! Just do it!
Seqiro considered, while the man attempted to embrace her. Her two bags of grain got accidentally-on-purpose in the way. But that dodge would not last long. He was starting to untie his loincloth. Hurry! she thought.
Smile and make a fist. Move it slowly down, then open your hand.
She did as bid. The man watched intently, then did the same. Then he got out of her way.
She walked on toward the stall. What did I tell him?
That you would meet him here at sundown with your loincloth off.
But I don’t want to do that!
We shall be gone by then.
Oh. But I didn’t mean to lie to him either! That’s not right.
Actually there were qualifications; sometimes a lie was necessary. It depended on the situation.
I will mind-touch another female and suggest to her that one who finds her desirable will be there at that time.
So she would go to meet the man. That might do it. Obviously he had no great prior relationship with Colene! But I thought you couldn’t telepath to other humans.
I can do so. But my own servitors have been confined, and it is bad form to mind-touch others. However, a subtle touch on the mind of a female not otherwise occupied should pass unnoticed. It is any effort to gain freedom for myself that the authorities are guarding against.
But I’m helping you do that!
He made a mental suggestion of unconcern. You are not of this reality. They do not know of you.
And that made all the difference for them both! She needed help, he needed help, and they both needed to have nobody else know what they were doing. I guess it’s all right. I hope she gives him a good time. I never meant to be a tease.
When he sees her without her loincloth, he will not care about any other matter. This is the nature of humans.
These were primitive humans, she realized, stultified by having no real power over their own affairs, no pun. But perhaps not much different from those of her reality. She knew boys who would grab any girl they could, and girls who would tease unmercifully. She had done her share, when she got that key for Darius. In fact, she had done more than her share of teasing when she had come to sleep with him in her bottomless nightie and told him no sex.
Straighten your tassel.
She paused to do it. She didn’t need any more hot encounters!
She finished hauling the grain and got to work on the other things. There were small tools, and bags of water, and a kind of harness so that he could carry the things on either side of his body. She followed his mental guidance and got the harness put on correctly and the things set in it, working with far greater facility than she ever could have by figuring everything out for herself. This mental contact was like riding the bicycle: it tripled efficiency in a fun way.
She went for other things, and brought them back and put them in their loops in the harness. The horses were mental creatures here, but obviously they could handle physical work too. It was probably easier than making the relatively puny humans do it. The humans were for minor chores.
She loaded her bicycle on top of his other things, because he thought she would be unable to use it in this vicinity. She was amazed at how much of a load he could bear, but he was unconcerned.
But as she was fetching one of the last items, a block of salt, there was a different mind touch. What are you doing?
That wasn’t Seqiro! Which meant it was another horse. Which meant trouble. What was she to do? She shouldn’t answer, but if she didn’t there might be trouble too.
She kept her mind quiet. As far as she knew, a thought had to be conscious to be read. The ordinary mind was such a jumble of this and that and reactions and temporary concerns that it was hopeless as far as any outside perception went. But when she made something conscious, she formulated it, and that was what Seqiro read. So if she formulated no response, the other horse should find her mind a muddy slate. She hoped.
Identify yourself, the thought came imperiously.
Could she risk a thought directed to Seqiro? She doubted it, because she wasn’t sending, he was reading, and the other horse could do the same. Maybe Seqiro was able to read the other thought, so already knew. In that case he probably couldn’t send to her, because the other horse would pick it up. The other horses might not even know it was Seqiro she was working for; that was why they had to inquire. So she maintained her mental silence, or at least her mental mud. In fact, she should stop thinking of his name, in case they picked that up. It was best if they thought she was just a simple human intruder stealing things.
Pain lanced through her. It felt like what she thought a heart attack would be, hurting from shoulder to gut. The other horse was whipping her with its mind!
The block of salt fell from her twitching hands. She staggered and almost fell. These horses did have ways to enforce their demands!
Identify!
Instead she focused on her legs, and broke into as much of a run as she could manage. She had to get to Seqiro’s stall before that creature knocked her unconscious or worse. The boss-horses must have caught on that something was happening, and were investigating.
Now she heard rapid human footsteps. They were summoning the minions! She had to reach Seqiro before the others intercepted her.
But as she rounded a corner, she saw that she had not made it. Three young men were between her and Seqiro’s stall. How was she to get past them, even if the other horse didn’t blast her mind?
A notion percolated up through her mud-mind, and she put it into effect before a horse could read it. Humans! They are catching me! she thought loudly. That should satisfy the horse that he didn’t need to stun her; the situation was in hand. One threat sidetracked, maybe.
Meanwhile she reversed her course and broke into a run, away from the men. It was also away from Seqiro’s stall, but that was part of the point: if they didn’t know about Seqiro, this would keep the secret. Maybe she would be able to lead them astray, then duck back to the stall unobserved.
She whipped around the corner she had just rounded from the other direction. There was a supply nook here; she knew because she had recently fetched things from it. She swung herself into it, ducked down, and held her breath.
The men rounded the corner and pounded down the aisle. They ran right by the nook. It had worked! She had given them the slip by acting fast—by stopping here immediately after turning the corner, when they expected her to keep running. They couldn’t read minds; they depended on the horses for that, and meanwhile the horses thought the humans had the situation in hand. She was slipping through a crack.