“Yes,” he said.
“What is her name?” asked the leader of the fur-clad men.
“Yata,” said the giant.
“A Herul name.”
“Yes.”
“I am Hortense!” cried the girl. “I am the daughter of Thuron, noble of the Otungs!”
“Thuron is dead,” said one of the men.
The girl drew back.
“She was a Herul slave?” asked the leader of the Otungs.
“Yes,” said the giant.
“No!” suddenly cried the girl.
“As a Herul slave, you are useless to us,” said one of the Otungs to the girl.
“You were taken with your maidens, while bathing,” said one of the Otungs.
“No!” said the girl.
“Your garments were found upon the banks, and in the mud, though soon vanished, the marks of transport poles,” said one of the Otungs.
“No, no!” said the girl.
“Where are your maidens?” asked an Otung.
“I do not know,” she said.
“They fell to Heruls, and were made slaves,” said an Otung.
“I escaped, and fled, and have been hiding, and wandering,” said the girl. “I was not made a slave. I can prove that! You see I have no collar, no anklet, no bracelet! Let me be examined by women. You will not find a mark on my body!”
“Why were you not with your maidens?” asked an Otung.
“I went into the woods, to gather flowers,” she said, hastily.
“Why did you leave them?” asked an Otung.
“Why did you not look out for them?” asked another.
“Surely you heard the sounds of their capture,” said another.
“No, no,” she said.
“Your own garments were found with theirs, on the bank,” said another.
“But I was not there!” she said.
“Why did you not return to the villages, to rouse the men?” asked an Otung.
“I was trying to elude capture,” she said.
“Where did you obtain the garments you are wearing?” asked one of the Otungs.
“I stole them, in my wanderings, from Heruls,” she said.
“You were long in your wanderings,” said one of the Otungs.
“I should have returned sooner,” she said, “but I was captured by this Telnarian dog! I am his prisoner, as you see, but not his slave! I am now rescued!”
“The maidens were comely,” said an Otung. “We have learned that they were sold in Scharnhorst, and thence transported to other worlds, where they were to be vended in slave markets.’’
“That proves my story!” she said. “Had I been enslaved, I would have shared their fate!”
“Perhaps you were insufficiently comely,” said an Otung.
She reacted, as if struck.
“She is comely enough to be vended in a market,” said the giant. “Indeed, I think her beauty was such that it was adjudged worthy of being retained among the wagons. Too, I think it amused the Heruls to keep in their lowest bondage, at least for a time, one who had been the daughter of an Otung noble.”
“She was a camp slave?” said the Otung leader.
“Yes,” said the giant.
“No!” cried the girl.
“You were not a camp slave?” asked the Otung leader.
“No!” said the girl. “I-I was not even a slave!”
“Cut the thongs on her ankles,’’ said the leader of the Otungs.
“Thank you, noble lord!” said the girl.
“Remain on your knees,” he cautioned her, as she made as though to rise.
“Milord!” she protested.
“In the village,” he said, “we shall look into the truth of these matters.”
“We have ways, as you know,” said one of the Otungs.
“And woe to you,” said one of the Otungs, “if you have lied.”
“Doubtless Citherix will be pleased to see you returned to the village, and as a slave,” said one of the Otungs.
The girl turned white.
“You refused his suits often enough,” said one of the Otungs.
The girl, her ankles freed, but her hands still bound behind her, on her knees, trembled.
To these matters the giant was attentive.
“Where did you steal the pelt of a white vi-cat?” asked the leader of the Otungs of the giant.
“It is mine. I did not steal it,” said the giant.
“Why are you in the forest?” asked the leader of the Otungs.
“I have come to find Otungs,” said the giant.
“But it seems that it is you who have been found by them,” said a man.
“It is my way of finding them,” said the giant. “Else, why would I build the fire so high?”
“You will now come with us,” said the leader of the Otungs.
“Of course,” said the giant.
“You know this is the Killing Time?’’ asked the leader of the Otungs.
“Yes,” said the giant.
“And yet you came?”
“Yes.”
“He has with him the pelt of the giant white vi-cat,’’ said one of the Otungs.
“That is the pelt of a king,” said another of the Otungs.
“I have heard so,” said the giant.
“It is all very strange,” said one of the Otungs.
“Put out the fire,” said the leader of the Otungs. “Destroy all traces of the camp. Gather up the meat. Tie it about the neck of the woman. Gag her. Bring the bearskin, and his goods, and the pelt of the white vi-cat.”
“Bring, too, the weapon,” said the leader of the Otungs.
“I will bring that,” said the giant.
One of the men looked to the leader.
“Very well,” said the leader of the Otungs.
“He has a knife,” said one of the men.
“A Herul knife,” said another.
“I keep that, too,” said the giant.
The leader of the Otungs nodded.
The group then left the scene of the small encampment and made its ways through the trees, and the black shadows, trudging through the pale, moonlit snow. The leader of the Otungs went first and, behind him, flanked by two Otungs, came the giant, the great blade upon his shoulder. Then came the rest of the Otungs, some dozen or so. Lastly came the woman, her hands tied behind her, the balance of the roast bear meat tied, rolled and thonged, about her neck. She was gagged. The men did not now wish to hear her speak. Accordingly, she was silenced. Her case, such as it might be, would be considered in the village. Too, in the event she should prove to be a slave, the gag, in its bands, which was a heavy and broad one, denied the meat to her, even that she might somehow touch it with her tongue. The feeding of a slave, as is commonly understood, is subject to the supervision of the master, subject, for example, to his generosity, his convenience, and even his discretion.
CHAPTER 25
“There are the men of Rolof,” said one of the Otungs.
Other figures, booted, similarly fur-clad, in jackets and cloaks, armed, were seen among the trees.
This had been after a trek of some two hours through the forest, from the giant’s small encampment, the fire from which had attracted the attention of the men of Ulrich, for that was the name of the leader of the Otungs, those with whom the giant was now in company.
Some quarter of an hour later another such group, consisting of some nineteen men, was detected, it, too, moving through the forest.
“Those are the men owing faith to the house of Valdemar,” said one of the Otungs with the giant.
As time passed, more and more of these groups were observed.
Interestingly, to the giant, these groups, though apparently all Otungs, neither hailed one another, nor marched together.
There were now several such groups, some almost side by side, several within at least yards of one another, who made their way through the snow.
Similar groups, though this was at that time not known to the giant, were converging on a given point from other directions.