The leader of the strangers regarded us. We kept our heads down. We dared not meet his eyes. I think there was not one of us who would not have rather, a thousand times over, been elsewhere, almost anywhere, in the heaviest of chains in the foulest of dungeons; pitching, sick, bound to our pallets, almost immobile, in the holds of stinking slave ships, covered with vermin; sweating in the mills, chained to our looms; carrying water, shackled, in the fields; even drawing sleds or wagons, padlocked in our harnesses, draft beasts. But we were beautiful, and a different sort of slave. But what would even our beauty, and our hope to please, to be spared to serve, avail ourselves with these men? And we had perhaps, they might judge, seen too much.
The leader of the strangers turned away from us.
The black-tunicked men then, following him, withdrew from the cell.
The officer of Treve followed them.
A moment later Gito, fearing to be alone, scrambled out, to join the black-tunicked men.
The pit master snapped his fingers.
We struggled to our feet, aligning ourselves, standing, the tallest first, Fina was third of the ten, I was seventh.
At a gesture of the pit master, discerned in a lamp from outside the door, held by one of the men, we filed out of the cell. We followed the officer of Treve, Gito, the black-tunicked men. The pit master came behind us.
I tried to free my wrists, but I could not do so. They, like those of the others, had been bound by men, our masters.
The water in the corridor was cold on my feet.
I was sick with fear.
33
“The gate has been thrust up,” said the leader of the strangers, angrily.
“It seems it was not secured,” said the pit master.
“He could be anywhere in the depths,” said the lieutenant.
“We will return to the quarters of the depth warden,” said the leader of the strangers. “We will make that our headquarters.”
“You will be most welcome,” said the pit master.
“We will require a map of the depths,” said the leader of the strangers.
“None exists in the city, by policy,” said the pit master,” just as no map of the city, either, may be prepared.”
This, as I understood it, was not uncommon in this world. In some cities it is regarded as a capital offense to make or be found in possession of a city map. The motivations for such policies, one assumes, are military.
“I will be pleased, of course, to furnish guides,” said the pit master.
“We shall manage on our own,” said the leader of the strangers.
“I know the depths well,” said the pit master.
“You two,” said the leader of the strangers to the pit master and the officer of Treve, “will remain in our headquarters, as our guests.”
“As you wish,” said the pit master.
I myself, of course, would not have cared to tread the passages of the depths unguided. I knew some myself, of course, but I knew only areas in which I had been permitted.
“There are many passages,” said the lieutenant, uneasily.
“I think we shall find him easily, systematically,” said the leader of the strangers. “We shall mark each passage searched. Eventually we shall have searched them all.”
“You are thorough,” said the pit master.
“Guards are set at the tunnel entrances, of course,” said the leader of the strangers.
“Yes,” said the pit master.
“He is as good as ours,” said the lieutenant.
“Do you have sleen?” asked the leader of the strangers.
“Most were killed in the tunnels, recently,” said the pit master. “Two survived.”
They were magnificent beasts. It was not surprising that they had been the two which, released in the tunnels, defending the depths, attacking the raiders earlier, had survived. Both of them had taken the peasant’s scent, but the leader of the strangers would not know that. One of them was also one of the two which had earlier, been imprinted with my scent. The other had died in the tunnels, in the fighting.
“There are two who might hunt?”
“Yes,” said the pit master.
“Sleen will tear him to pieces,” said the lieutenant. “There will be little, if anything, to return to Lurius of Jad, to prove the successful discharge of our office.”
“They are to be utilized only as a last resort,” the leader assured his lieutenant.
“They will not be necessary,” said the lieutenant.
“They are trailers or hunters?” asked the leader.
The distinction, in fact, is sometimes a subtle one, particularly if the beast’s bloodlust becomes aroused.
“Hunters,” said the pit master.
Sleen are trained variously. The five most common trainings are those of the war sleen, which may also be utilized as a bodyguard; the watch sleen, to guard given precincts; the herding sleen, which will kill only if the quarry refuses to be herded rapidly and efficiently to a given destination, usually a pen or slave cage; the trailing sleen, which is used, in leash, to follow a scent; and the hunter, which is trained to hunt and kill. It is next to impossible to use a hunter as a trailer, because, when the quarry is near, and the killing fever is on it, it will even turn and attack its leash holder, to free itself for the strike on the quarry. A trailer is usually a smaller beast, and one more easily managed, but it is, when all is said and done, a sleen, and trailers not unoften, at the hunt’s end, their instincts preponderating, break loose for the kill. When they begin to become unmanageable they must sometimes be killed. The hunters are used generally, of course, in the pursuit of fugitives, free or slave. Unleashed, they are not retarded in their hunt by the lagging of their keepers. I was terrified of sleen. I had seen how they could tear apart great pieces of meat. Most houses in which female slaves may be found, it might be mentioned, as it may be of interest to some, would not have sleen. The sleen is, as least in civilized areas, a rare, expensive and dangerous beast. They do about in some areas in the wild, as, for example, in the surrounding mountains. The sleen often burrows, and it is predominantly nocturnal. There are also several varieties of the animal apparently, adapted to diverse environments. The most common sleen in domestication, as I understand it, is the forest sleen. It is also the largest, animal for animal. There are also, as I understand I, prairie sleen, mountain sleen and snow sleen. There is a short-haired variety found in some tropical areas, the jungle sleen. And one variety, it seems, is adapted for an aquatic environment, the sea sleen.
“Excellent,” said the leader of the strangers.
He then turned to the fellow who carried the sack. “Return to the cell and get the prisoner’s blanket,” he said. “Put it in the sack, and seal the sack, that there may be no mistake as to the blanket in question.”
The man turned about and hurried back to the cell. In a few moments he had returned, with the sack sealed.
“Lead us to your quarters,” said the leader of the strangers to the pit master. “We shall organize our searches from that point.”
“I should be honored,” said the pit master, graciously.
We then continued on. In a moment I had passed beneath the spikes of the lifted gate. I had turned my head to the side, just a little. The pit master was now in front. Perhaps one might drift back, to crouch down, and hide somewhere? But they would search all the passages, eventually, and I would be found. Too, I was not eager to be alone in the passages. Indeed, the peasant must be somewhere in the. I heard a cry behind me, from the last girl in the line. I turned about. Perhaps she, too, had had such thoughts. But there was, I now saw, one of the black-tunicked men at the end of the line. He had apparently taken up his position there when the pit master had moved forward. Perhaps the girl had dallied. She had been thrust forward, I gathered, not gently. I saw him turn and draw down the gate. It was not locked down, but I could not have lifted it, even h ad I not been bound.
“Move!” he said, irritably.
We hurried on, in front of him, bound, in single file.
34
“What time is it now?” demanded the leader of the strangers.
“It is near the tenth Ahn,” said a man, inspecting the level of the water in the clepsydra. In the depths one cannot tell day from night, except by the clocks.