"It is terribly painful, impalement, is it not?" she asked.
"It depends on how it is done," I said.
"I am a traitress," she said.
"Once," I said. "No longer."
"I am afraid," she said. I kissed her, gently. I wished I had something to cover us with. "There is no hope," she whispered.
"There is always hope," I said.
"You are kind," she said.
"Do you wish to be beaten?" I asked.
"No," she smiled.
"There is hope," I said.
"How?" she asked.
"It is quiet outside," I said.
"Yes?" she said.
"You have not now, for some time, heard the crashing of buildings," I said. "Cos has the city now. There is nothing to keep them from undermining the foundations, firing the buildings, clearing paths through debris."
"I do not understand," she said.
"They have finished their work," I said.
"I do not understand," she said.
"The engines are probably in place," I said.
She looked at me, frightened.
"I would expect the attack to begin in the morning," I said.
"I am afraid," she said.
"I will defend you, as I can," I said. "They will have to enter the cell to fetch you out."
"Do not risk your life for me," she said.
"Why not?" I asked.
"Because I am really only a slave girl," she said.
"It is for such that men most cheerfully risk their lives," I said. "Oh?" she smiled.
"Certainly," I said. "You would not expect them to go to all that trouble for a mere free female, would you?"
"Monster," she said.
"And if you save her," I pointed out, "you can often keep her." "I see," she smiled.
"The slave girl, after all," I said, "is good for something. She has her uses. You can even sell her."
She laughed. "Enough free women, too, in their time," she said, "have doubtless been sold."
"Yes," I said. "They can be captured, bound and turned over to a slaver, and such."
"Had you captured me, somewhere, as a free woman, would you have sold me?" she asked.
"I might have kept you that evening in my tent," I said, "to see what you could do."
"I wish that we had met under different conditions," she said, "in the fields, or in my own bed."
I did not speak.
"If you had first met me in a slave market, I on a slave shelf or bench, chained there, a property, waiting to be purchased, would you have considered buying me?"
"Certainly," I said.
"Am I that attractive?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"That pleases me," she whispered. Then she shuddered. "But woe," she said, "I am a free woman."
"Yes," I said.
"I am afraid," she said.
I held her more closely to me.
"That is why they have been feeding me, isn't it?" she asked. "For tomorrow?" "I think so," I said.
She sobbed, against me. I felt her tears on my chest. Then, suddenly, she looked at me, concerned. "But what of you?" she asked.
"Do not concern yourself with me," I said.
"No," she said, "what of you?"
"Willful free woman," I chided her.
"What of you?" she pressed.
"I do not know," I said. "I am not sure."
She put her head back, against my shoulder. The moonlight streamed in through the high, barred aperture. It was quiet outside. I held her in my arms, for a time, the naked spy, in the straw.
"Am I to be beaten tonight?" she asked.
"Is it necessary?" I asked.
"No!" she whispered.
"You are eager to serve, and be pleasing?" I asked. "Yes!" she said.
"Then it does not seem that there would be much point in it," I said. "No!" she hastened to assure me. "But if you were not pleased, you would, wouldn't you?" she asked.
"Yes," I said, "or if I wished to do so."
She shuddered against me, with pleasure. "I wish," she said, her voice soft, thrilled, vibrant with soft, frightened emotion, "that I had met a man such as you, long ago."
"Had you done so," I said, "you presumably would not be here now." "I do not regret having known you, and having served you, and as you have made me serve you, even under these circumstances."
"You enjoy serving," I said.
"Yes," she said, "I do, and had I the choice I would choose to have no choice but to serve, and serve as you have made me serve, totally."
"It is time to go to sleep," I said.
"Can you sleep at this time, on this night?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
She then lay down in the straw, next to me. I heard her sob.
"I do not know if they will feed you in the morning or not," I said, "before they come for you, near noon. They might. In the event they do, do not eat the food. Give it all to me."
"All of it?" she said.
"Yes," I said.
"You would take the food, that food?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"You could do that?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
She looked at me, puzzled.
"Surely you recognize that I would get more good out of it than you would," I said.
"Undoubtedly," she said, shuddering.
"Certainly," I said.
"I do not think I would be able to eat it, anyway," she said. "Good," I said. "Then there is no problem."
"No," she said. "There is no problem."
"Excellent," I said. I then, in a moment or two, I cannot remember it, was asleep.
14 Morning
"They are going to come for me before noon," she whispered.
The cell was in darkness.
"I know," I said. "I heard."
A few Ehn ago I had awakened instantly, hearing the movement of the observation panel. The warder had lifted a small, tharlarion-oil lamp to the aperture. "Prisoner Claudia, forward," she had whispered.
Lady Claudia had gone forward to kneel, before the door, dimly illuminated in the tiny bit of light coming through the aperture.
I had pretended to be asleep.
I conjectured it was something like an Ahn before dawn.
"Glory to Ar!" whispered the warder.
"Glory to Ar," moaned Lady Claudia. I do not think she had slept.
I then saw, in the light of the lamp, which had then been set on the floor outside the lower panel, the water pan put beneath the door. This was emptied into the small cistern by Lady Claudia, and the pan returned to the warder. "Is he awake?" inquired the warder.
"I do not think so," said Lady Claudia.
"Food pan forward," said the warder.
In a moment Lady Claudia knelt behind the cell's food pan, brought forward. "Glory to Ar!" whispered the warder. "Glory to Ar," sobbed Lady Claudia.
I think that the whispered tones of the warder were motivated primarily by her desire that Lady Claudia obtain her food and finish her feeding before I might awaken. In this fashion I might not take the food from her, or force her to share it. Perhaps she even expected her to be drawn out of the cell before I awakened, that I might awaken and simply find her gone. That might be easiest for them. Still I expected they would send two or three men to fetch her. Lady Claudia was now again kneeling before the cell's food pan, and the head of the warder, again holding the tiny lamp up, reappeared in the observation aperture.