“Yes, Master,” she said, hesitantly.
“No, you are not,” he said.
“Yes, Master,” she said.
“Are you a proud woman?” asked the first man.
“I do not know, Master,” she said, uncertainly.
“If you are,” he said, “you will soon be cured of that.”
“Yes, Master,” she said, frightened.
“We do not coddle slaves here,” he said.
“No, Master,” she said.
“You have ten Ihn,” he said, “to strip, and kneel where you are, on the straw.”
Frenziedly Aynur fumbled with the string at her vest, at last jerking the vest open and slipping it back. With her right hand she seized the golden clasp at her left hip and opened it, flinging the silk to the side and dropping to her knees.
“On your back,” said one of the men.
Swiftly Aynur obeyed.
She then served them.
After a time, I heard one of the men ask her, “Are you proud?”
“No, Master,” she cried. “No, Master!”
and then I realized that Aynur, indeed, was now no different from the rest of us. She was now only another slave, at the mercy of masters.
That had occurred, I think, three days ago, at any rate within a few minutes of our having come to this place. I could now see Aynur though the perforations of the slave box. She was sitting at the wall, naked, on the straw, her knees drawn up, her head down, hair before her face, her wrists up, tied together, over her head, fastened to a ring in the wall. I thought the men were very cruel to her. Surely they showed her little mercy. Sometimes felt sorry for her, even though she had brought me into their power. These men, masked ruffians, brigands, I thought, were not gentle with slaves to begin with. They were the sort of men who would master a woman with great strictness, the sort of men whom we know we must please and obey, with no nonsense about it. But, too, I think they were cruel to her because she had not kept properly the office of the first girl, because she had dishonored her trust, because she had entered into an intrigue, because she had coveted gold, because she betrayed her master. Such things tend not to be overlooked by the men of this world. They tend to disapprove of such slaves. She was now theirs, and helpless. I did not know what they would do with her.
I looked at her, though the perforations in the slave box.
She now had her head turned toward me, looking at me, or the box. I did not know if she could see me within or not. Much would depend, I supposed, on the light. She shook her head a little, to move the hair from before her face. She would certainly realize that I would understand, if only from the voices, and the sounds, what had been done to her, and the sort of treatment which she had been accorded. Many times she had been made to thrash, and squirm, and howl with pleasure, within feet f me. She had been forced, many times, to show herself, to prove herself, helplessly, irreservedly, a female and a slave before me. Perhaps that cost her much, I such a lowly slave, and only a barbarian. Was she not made to squirm and thrash before me like the commonest pleasure slave in a tavern or brothel? Did she not kick and howl like the lowliest kettle girl? But why was I not used? These men had not so much as touched me. Her feelings must be complex, and mixed. She was a passionate woman, and all her passion had been liberated by her slavery. She, then, like the others, must have been starved in the gardens. How often could she have lain in the arms of her Camillus? Surely, seldom! And now she found herself, suddenly, at the mercy of masters who were callous, lustful brutes, being put frequently, mercilessly, to their pleasure. Her needs now, it seemed, were richly satisfied, and, as the men would have it, ruthlessly so. But her pride had been stripped from her, and before one she despised. With what joy and anguish must she have suffered, never knowing, too, what her fate was to be. And I, my feelings, too, were mixed. I envied her her uses, and had even, upon occasion, begged that I, too, might serve, but, for some reason, this had been denied to me. My slave needs were aroused, but I must not satisfy them. Once I was cuffed when I begged to hard. Too, I did not know for what I had been brought here, or who had arranged that it be so. And I did not know, either, what my fate was to be. The tiny things said to me upon occasion, or overheard, served in no way to allay my fears. I looked out at Aynur, through the perforations. She turned her head away. Her golden collar, too, had been removed, cut from her neck, the fillings, even gathered in the napkin. She, too, now, as she sat at the wall, her hands bound together, over her head, fastened to a ring, wore on her neck only a simple collar, like myself, a rounded, shaped bar of metal. And these were fitted closely to our necks.
We heard, suddenly, a tapping from above, on the other side of the trapdoor. It was not an ordinary tapping, but manifested, rather, a certain pattern, a complex pattern, which was thrice repeated.
I did not doubt but what it was a prearranged signal.
The men looked at one another.
Then one came toward me, carrying the cloak which had originally been put about Aynur in the house of Appanius. As he neared the box. I could see only his feet. He tossed the cloak over the box. I could then no longer see out through the perforations.
I heard the other man climbing up the stairs, toward the trapdoor.
44
I lay tensely in the box, on my side, my head lifted, trying to listen.
The men conversed with the newcomer in hushed tones. I could not determine what they said.
At one point the box was struck and I jerked back. One of the men had apparently kicked it, the cloak spread over it, indicating it.
“Masters?” I heard Aynur ask, fearfully.
Then I thought she was being removed from the wall. I also heard, a moment or two later, to small clicks, from which sounds I gathered that she had been bracelted. I also heard a stirring of straw, and supposed that she was pulled forward, presumably to kneel, as free men were present, closer to the box.
A moment later the box, with the cloak, was turned, so that my head was oriented away from the men, toward the opposite wall. The cloak was then lifted away from the box. But I could see nothing but the room though the perforations before me. “Close your eyes,” said a voice, that of one of the men whose captive I was, he whom I took to be first of the two. I closed my eyes. I heard the locks undone, the lid put back, in its hinges. I was on my side in the box. I felt a hand in my hair. I winced, as it urged me up. Too, it turned my head toward the wall, away from the men. “Kneel upright, back straight, head down,” said the voice. I was then kneeling in the box, my head down, my eyes closed, facing the wall, away from the men. I felt my wrists pulled together, behind my back, and corded together. The cord was then run down to my ankles, which were crossed, bound together, and tied to my wrists. “Put a knife to her throat,” said the man who was near me. I was afraid, but it was Aynur whom I heard whimper. Certainly I felt no blade at my throat. “We will now see if you have given us the right girl,” said one of the two men, he whom I took to be second of the two. He was some feet away, in the room. “Let us hope, for your sake, you have delivered the right slave to us.”
“I have tried to do so, Master!” wept Aynur.
“have you sought to trick us, or betray us?”
“No, Master!”
“Have you made a mistake?”
“I hope not, Master!”
“Is she the right girl?”
“I hope so, Master!” cried Aynur.
“If she is not, you will die,” said the man.
I heard Aynur cry out with misery, as though her head had been jerked back by the hair.
I was startled as a cloak, doubtless that which had been put on Aynur in the house of the master, and which had just been over the box, was put about my shoulders. Too, it was loosely draped about me. I felt it on my calves, as I knelt. I was then lifted from the box, in the cloak, and turned, and knelt facing the men. I kept my eyes closed, as I had been commanded. A salve does not disobey such commands. Too, now that I was again kneeling, I kept my head down. Disobedience is not permitted to us. We are kajirae.