"Forgive me, Mistress,” begged the slave.
"How stupidly bold you were, how presumptuous, how insolent!” said the Lady Bina.
"And now you are as you should be, a collared slave!” said the Lady Bina.
"Yes, Mistress!” wept the slave.
"Did you, truly, in the container,” asked the Lady Bina, “think to compete with me?"
"Yes, Mistress,” she said. “Forgive me, Mistress! But I then thought myself a free woman!"
"And thought yourself my equal, or better?” scoffed the Lady Bina.
"Yes, Mistress. Forgive me, Mistress!"
"How foolish you were!” said the Lady Bina.
"Yes, Mistress,” wept the slave.
"Rise, back away, and kneel,” said the Lady Bina. “Too, don again your tiny, meaningless rag, for it goes nicely with your collar, brand, and slave's body."
"Thank you, Mistress,” whispered the slave.
"She is plain, and stupid,” said the Lady Bina to Cabot. “What do you want her for?"
"She can gather berries, wood for the fire, and such,” said Cabot.
The Lady Bina laughed.
"Lord Grendel,” said Cabot.
"Grendel,” said he. “I am not of station in the world."
"Have you and Lady Bina,” inquired Cabot, “entered into the Companionship?"
"No,” said Grendel.
Lady Bina laughed, scornfully, at the preposterous nature of so untoward a supposition.
"But yet you protect her, and permit her to accompany you,” said Cabot.
Grendel did not respond.
"Why do you not put her in a collar?” asked Cabot. “We could then have a brunette and a blonde, a nice pair, which we might then, throat-linked by a chain, sell for a handsome profit."
The Lady Bina regarded Cabot uneasily, angrily.
The slave looked up at him, frightened.
She well knew she could be sold, at a master's whim.
"I trust that you jest,” said Grendel. “The Lady Bina is a free woman."
"That is true,” said Cabot, “but she would look well, branded."
"Do not jest,” said Grendel.
"It is true that I am beautiful,” said the Lady Bina.
"If she were a slave,” said Cabot, “it would be easier to assure ourselves that she would not contact Kurii and implicate Lord Arcesilaus and Peisistratus in the matter of treasonous plotting."
"I would not speak!” she said.
"You would speak instantly, and abundantly, if you thought it in your best interests,” said Cabot.
"No,” she averred.
"I watch her,” said Grendel. “Too, there is the raft, from which she dares not escape while it is on the lake, and when we come to shore, it is a simple matter to put her on a rope, and, at night, I chain her to a tree."
"She bears no impediments now,” observed Cabot.
"I am watching her,” said Grendel.
"You do not trust me,” said Lady Bina, reproachfully, to Grendel.
Grendel looked down, confused, hurt.
"If you loved me, as you have claimed,” she said, “you would keep me free, and trust me."
Grendel seemed torn, agonized.
"And, too, how dare one such as you, a monster, aspire to the love of a free woman!"
"Forgive me,” said Grendel, his head down.
"Do you think yourself worthy of such a thing?” she asked.
"No,” said Grendel.
"And so much the more so of a free woman such as I?"
"No,” said Grendel. “No."
"If you like,” said Cabot, “I will take her into custody, binding her, leashing her, and such."
"No,” said Grendel.
"I am a free woman!” said the Lady Bina.
"Even a free woman,” said Cabot, “may be subjected to controls of various sorts, a limitation to specified locales, imprisonment, leashings, the restrictions of light chains, and such, if the interests of states are at stake. There is much precedent for that sort of thing."
"True,” said Grendel.
"You do not truly love me,” said the Lady Bina.
"I do love you,” protested Grendel.
"If you truly loved me,” she said, “you would trust me, and leave me to be as I wish, to do as I wish, and go where I wish."
"Please!” he begged.
She turned away from him, coldly. “Thus,” she said to Cabot, “you see he does not truly love me."
"I think he loves you muchly,” said Cabot, “and foolishly."
"I am beautiful,” she said. “No man can love a beautiful woman foolishly."
"Those are perhaps the easiest to love foolishly,” said Cabot, “and that is an excellent reason why one should not trouble oneself with them, but rather put them in collars, and own them."
"Beast!” she said.
"Do you have meat?” Cabot asked Grendel.
"Some pieces torn from tharlarion,” said he.
"Excellent,” said Cabot. “Let us eat, and then you can kill me afterward."
"The fire has served its purpose,” said Grendel, looking about.
"Very well,” said Cabot.
With the butt of his improvised spear he scattered the embers of the fire. In a moment the tiny points of light had faded into darkness.
"I do not much care for raw tharlarion,” said Cabot.
"Nor Kurii for raw human,” said Grendel.
"But it is meat,” said Cabot.
"So, too, is human,” said Grendel.
"Your mother was human,” said Cabot.
"I do not eat human,” said Grendel.
"That is good news for the Lady Bina,” said Cabot.
"For all of you,” said Grendel.
"True,” said Cabot.
"Do you eat Kur?"
"No,” said Cabot.
"Why?” asked Grendel.
"—I do not care for it,” smiled Cabot.
"Perhaps we should withdraw into the trees,” said Grendel. “The beach is muchly open."
"Let us do so,” said Cabot.
"I will not eat raw tharlarion,” said the Lady Bina. “We are now on land. You must find me something better."
"In the trees,” said Cabot, “we have a small camp, and there are edible leaves there, some gathered roots, and berries."
"It must do,” said the Lady Bina.
"I will get some tharlarion from the raft,” said Grendel.
"Lita,” said Cabot, “hurry to our camp, set out provisions for our guests, and later arrange bowers for them, sheltered beds of moss, grass and leaves, that they may sleep softly."
"Yes, Master,” she said, and hurried toward the trees.
"See her run,” said the Lady Bina, amused.
"Dalliance is not permitted to her,” said Cabot. “She is a slave."
"She should be a slave,” said the Lady Bina, sneeringly.
"Yes,” said Cabot, “and that is what she is, and what many other women should be, as well."
"It was clever of you to send her away, while my gross cohort fetches tharlarion from the raft,” said the Lady Bina. “In that way we can speak privately."
"I do not understand,” said Cabot.
"I must speak to you,” she said.
"You may do so in the presence of Lord Grendel,” said Cabot.
"No,” she said.
Shortly thereafter Grendel joined them on the beach, some blankets over his shoulder, a long ax in his right hand, and some strips of tharlarion dangling from his left hand.
The three of them then proceeded toward the trees.