I then thrust the raft fully into the marsh. She observed me, facing me, lying on her side, as I did this, I in the marsh. I then climbed aboard the raft. I bent to her ankles, freeing them of the binding fiber. "Thank you," she said. She stretched her lovely legs. "What are you doing!" she said, suddenly. I lifted her up and dropped her into the marsh, behind the raft. She went under the surface but, in a moment, got her feet under her and came to the surface, wading, sputtering. "What is the meaning of this!" she cried, angrily.
"Why should I pole your extra weight?" I asked, picking up the pole.
"But I am a female!" she said.
She stood there in the water to her waist, the strap going up to her collar.
"I told you," I said, "that you would follow, bound, on a strap."
"No!" she said. "You can't be serious!"
I thrust the pole down into the mud and propelled the raft forward, and about.
"You can't be serious!" she said. "Oh!" I looked back and saw her following, on her strap. "No, please!" she said.
I did not respond to her.
"There are dangers in the marsh!" she said. "Keep a sharp lookout," I advised her. "I do not weigh very much!" she wept.
"True," I said. To a man she was little more than a handful of slave.
"Permit me to ride," she begged.
I did not respond to her.
"Please, please!" she said.
I continued to pole the raft, silently.
"You are strong," she said. "It can make little or no difference to you!
I did not respond to her.
"It is not because of my weight, is it!" she cried.
"No," I said.
"Why, then?" she cried. "What do you want? What must I do? What must I be?"
I did not respond to her.
"Why?" she wept. "Why?"
"You will learn to be humble and obedient," I said.
"I am humble and obedient," she assured me. "I am humble and obedient!"
"We shall see," I said. She began to cry. We continued on.
After a few Ehn she suddenly said, "Wait!" I stopped the raft.
"We are not going north, are we?" she asked.
"No," I said. "We are going south." I had wondered when she would notice that.
"I thought you were going north," she said.
"I changed my mind," I said.
"But Ar is to the south!" she said.
"So, too," said I, "is Brundisium, and Torcadino, and a hundred other cities."
"You are not going to turn me over to the men of Ar!" she cried.
"Perhaps," I said.
"No!" she cried.
"But you are of Ar," I said.
"I betrayed Ar!" she said.
"But surely that would not be known to them," I said.
"I was on the staff of Saphronicus," she said. "I have been an observer for Talena, of Ar. Those who have been in the delta will now have no doubt of the treachery to which they have been subjected."
"Probably not," I said.
"And they know me!" she wept.
"I would suppose so," I said.
"Do not turn me over to men of Ar!" she said.
"Do you not think they would like to have a Cosian spy in their power?"
"Do not turn me over to them!" she begged.
"I think you will learn to be humble and obedient," I said.
"Yes," she said. "I will! I will!"
"But perhaps the men of Ar would not recognize you," I said.
"Captor?" she asked.
"As you are naked, and in bonds," I said, "you might even have difficulty proving your identity, even if you wished to do so, that you are the Lady Ina."
"But then they might see me only as a woman naked and in bonds," she cried, "and treat me accordingly!"
"Yes," I said.
She uttered a profound moan.
"I could, of course, turn you over to Cosians," I said.
"You would not dare!" she cried.
"Come along," I said, poling the raft forward.
"Oh," she said, in misery, wading, hurrying after me.
"That might be interesting," I said, "considering your accent."
"No!" she wept.
"You could always explain to them, in chains at their feet, how you were actually a Cosian spy."
"They would never believe me!" she said. "They would think me a liar, one trying to improve her condition or obtain favorable treatment."
"I would think so," I said.
"And I might be severely punished, or slain!" she said.
"To be sure," I said, "it would be a protestation which I do not think you would care to make twice to the same master, or even twice to any master."
She moaned.
"Too," I said, "even if they believed you, I think you might learn that the average Cosian is no more fond of spies, of whatever side, than the average fellow of Ar."
"What would they do to me?" she asked.
"I do not know," I said, "but I do not think that I, if I were you, would care to wear my collar in their domicile.
"My only hope," she said, "would be to fall into the hands of those who know of me and my work."
"I would think that extremely unlikely," I said.
"But it is possible!" she said.
"Even so I would not entertain too sanguine a hope for deliverance from such a quarter," I said, "as your usefulness to Cos is presumably now at an end, their objective accomplished in the delta."
"They would not free me?" she said.
"I would not think so," I said.
"But what then would they do with me?" she asked.
"I do not know," I said. "Perhaps keep you, perhaps give you to someone, perhaps sell you."
"But I am privy to much information," she said. "I am the confidante of the Lady Talena of Ar!"
"Is she treasonous to Ar, as you?" I asked.
"Yes!" she said.
I turned about and looked at her.
"Archly treasonous," she said. "Why are you looking at me like that? Do not kill me!"
I then returned to the poling of the raft.
"You will be regarded as the suborned spy," I said. "Lady Talena will be above suspicion. By now she will have been dissociated from you."
"That may not be so easy," she said. "I am privy to much information."
"I see," I said. She laughed.
It interested me that she did not seem to understand that those who had been her paymasters might now regard her as a danger to their party.
"On the other hand," I said, "perhaps I should merely turn you over to anyone, say, fellows from Brundisium."
"But to them," she said, "I would be only a woman of Ar!"
"Yes," I said, "and merely another woman of Ar."
"What would be my fate?" she asked.
"You have a short, meaty, sexy little body," I said. "Perhaps you would become a dancer in a tavern in Brundisium."
"I do not know how to dance," she said. "Under the whip, women learn quickly," I said. I heard the water splash a bit as she struggled, futilely, with her bonds. Then she was again following.
"Why are you upset?" I asked. "You know you wish to dance naked, or scantily clad, in a collar and chains before men."
"Oh! Oh!" she said, angrily. But she did not deny my words.
"Perhaps you would prefer to be sold for sleen feed," I said.
"No!" she cried.
"Probably," I said, "like many women of Ar, and Ar's Station, you would be shipped overseas to Cos or Tyros, or another of the islands."
"And there?"
"Who knows?" I said. "Perhaps a scribe would buy you to clean his chamber and keep his papers in order."
"What?" she said.
"You can read, can't you?" I said.
"Yes!" she said.
"And to serve him in other ways," I said.
"Scribes," she said, in disappointment, "are weak."
"Not all of them," I said, "as you might discover under his whip."
She moaned, and gasped, stumbling in the water.
"Or," I said, "you might be purchased by a tradesman or artisan, to share his mat and kettle."