"She must be ugly," said one of the women.
"I am not uglyl" I said.
"Then why didn't he keep you?" asked the woman.
"I don't knowl" I said.
"You are a slave," said a woman.
"Nol" I said.
"Liarl" said another.
"I am a free woman," I sobbed. "I am a free woman.
"If you are a free woman, and are not from this area," said one of the slaves, "I think you should flee. It is not safe for you here."
"I do not understand," I said.
"Surely it would not do for you to be caught here," she said.
"No!" I said, frightened.
"Then I think you should flee, now, while there is still time.
"Where can I go?" I asked. "Where can I run?"
"Anywhere," said a woman. "But hurryl"
"Why?" I asked.
"It is nearly time for slave check," said a woman.
"Slave check?" I asked.
"Yes," she said.
"It is too late!" whispered a woman.
I looked wildly about. Not feet away I saw a lantern approaching the back of the wagon. I quickly lay down, with.the others, huddled against them, as if asleep. I heard the wagon gate being lowered in the back. It swung down on its binges, striking against the wagon. I heard the boards of the wagon bed creak as they were subjected to additional weight. I sensed the light of the lantern in the wagon, under the tentlike tarpaulin, illuminating bodies.
I lay very still.
"Well," said a voice, "what have we here?" I felt a foot kick me. I turned about, blinking up into the light of the lantern, terrified.
"You have been caught, Slavel" said a woman near me, elatedly.
23 The Chain
"On your back," said the man, "and put your hands, palms up, where I can see them."
I did so.
"Now cross your wrists, in front of you," he said.
I did this and he, with one hand, grasped them both. In this grip I was held as helplessly as a child. He pulled me to my knees and, lifting the lantern, examined where I had lain.
He then put me again to my back and released my hands.
"I am unarmed," I said. "I have no weapons. I am utterly defenseless. Please be kind to me."
"Durbarl" he called. He then hung the lantern from a hook on the ridgepole, beneath the damp, brown tarpaulin.
"I am not what you think," I assured him. "I am a free woman. I am not a slave. I am neither collared, as you can see, nor branded, as you may easily determine."
"You are a free woman?" he asked skeptically.
"Yes," I said. "And I am desperately in need of help. It is my hope that you will be kind to me, giving me food and clothing, and money and guidance, so that I may return to my home in Lydius. That is on the Laurius river. The town Laura is east of it."
"Is Lydius north or south of Kassau?" he asked.
"North," I said.
"No," he said. "South."
There was laughter from the women.
"Your accent," he said, "suggests that you might be from Tabor." "Yesl" I said, seizing on this. "I am. My parents had arranged an unwanted companionship for me. I fled. I now want to go somewhere else."
"Tabor is far away," he said. "Did you come all this way on foot?" "Yesl" I said.
"That is amazing," he said, "for Tabor is an island."
Tears sprang to my eyes. The women in the wagon laughed.
"What is going on?" asked a fellow coming up to the wagon, fastening a belt of accouterments about himself.
"See what we have here," said the first fellow.
"Ah!" he said.
"She claims to be a free woman," said the first fellow.
"Of course," said the second.
"A man captured me," I said. "He took my clothes! He sheared my hair, for money!"
"If you are a free woman," said the second man, he, I gathered, who was Durbar, "what are you doing here, crawling about with slaves?"
"I was afraid," I said.
"If you are truly a free woman," said the first man, "what were you afraid of?" "You are right," I said. "I am a free woman. I should not have been afraid." The two men laughed, and the chained women, as well. I looked about, at them, from face to face. I saw their amusement. I saw the collars and chains on their necks. How foolish I felt. I had again been tricked. obviously, in a situation like this, a free woman might have a great deal to fear.
"I am hungry," I said. "I am desperately hungry. I am starving. Please give me something to cat."
"Bring her something to eat," said the first man to him called Durbar "something appropriate."
Durbar left. In a few moments be returned with a small wooden bowl filled with dried, precooked meal. He poured some water into this.
I was then handed the bowl.
Some of the women laughed.
"Mix it with your fingers," said the first man. Then be turned to Durbar. "Look about the camp," he said. "See if there are any more skulking about." "I am alone," I told them.
But Durbar went to check.
I, mixing the water with the precooked meal, formed a sort of cold porridge or gruel. I then, with my fingers, and putting the bowl even to my lips, fed eagerly upon that thick, bland, moist substance.
By the time Durbar had returned I had finished, even to the desperate wiping and licking of the bowl, that I might secure every last particle of that simple, precious, vitalizing provender.
"You eat slave gruel well," said the first men. There was laughter from the chained women.
I put down my head. The bowl was taken from me. So that was slave gruel, I thought. I knew that it, with its various supplements, was extremely nourishing. It had been designed for the feeding of slaves, to keep them healthy, slim and trim. On the other hand, although I had devoured it eagerly, I could see where a slave who was not starving might, after a time, desperately strive to improve her services to the master, that he might see fit, in his kindness, to grant her at least the scraps of a more customary diet.
"Do you still claim to be a free woman?" asked the first man.
"Yes," I said.
"You have the body of a slave," be said.
"It is not my fault," I said, "that I have the body of a slave." "Can you read?" he asked.
"No," I said.
"What is your name?" he asked.
I thought wildly for a moment. Then I said, "Tiffany, La Tiffany!"
"What sort of name is that?" he asked.
"I do not know," I said.
"It is an unusual name," he said.
"Maybe it is a barbarian name," suggested Durbar.
"Are you a barbarian?" asked the first man.
"Maybe," I said. I saw scorn in the faces of several of I chained women. "Look," said the first man, taking me by the upper arm, and turning it to the light. "The barbarian brand."
I did not see how I could explain this vaccination mark the men without making clear that my origin was not Gorean. The vaccination was in connection with a disease which, too, as far as I knew, did not even exist on Gor.
"Get on your feet, here by the lantern," said the first m "And open your mouth, widely."
I complied.
"Durbar, come up here," said the first man. He was joined by his fellow. "Back there, see?" he asked Durbar.
"Yes," said Durbar.
As a child I had had some fillings in the molar area, on lower left side. "They are common in barbarians," said the first man.
"Yes," said Durbar. "But, those of the caste of physician do such things. I have seen them in some Gorean girls."
"That is true," admitted the first man.
These fellows must also know that doubtless such things might be found occasionally in the mouths of some Gorean men. On the other hand, of course, they would not have been likely to have seen them there. They would have seen them presumably, only in the mouths of girls, slaves. One of things that a master commonly checks in a female he is considering buying is the number and condition of her teeth.