"Undoubtedly," said Plenius.
"Speak," I said.
"I am not certain about her," said Plenius.
Some of the ether fellows, too, had now gathered about us.
"Does she not put her head to the sand quickly enough for you?" I asked. "Does she not lick and kiss with sufficient alacrity?"
"Only a slave could do better," said Plenius.
"So?" I asked.
"It is not only that she seems unusually beautiful for a rence girl," said Plenius, "but it is many other things, as well. It is how she carries herself, how she acts."
I was silent.
"She does not have the simplicity, the roughness, I would expect from a rence girl," he said.
"Surely that is a point in her favor," I said.
"She seems rather," said Plenius, "a lady of refinement."
"On a slave block, naked, in chains, being auctioned," I said, "there would seem to be little difference between a rence girl and a lady of refinement."
"We have often had her unbound," he said, "and yet she has not slipped away, into the rence."
"I see," I said.
"We do not think she is a rence girl," he said.
"And who do you think she is?" I asked.
"We think she is the Lady Ina, of Ar," he said.
Ina shrank back, trembling.
This reaction on her part was sudden and apparently involuntary, almost reflexive. Surely it was noted by the men. She had, I feared, given herself away. I feared, too, she might bolt. But she had the good sense not to. Pursued by the men she would have been securely in hand and perhaps on her belly, her hands and feet bound, within a few feet.
"It seems she has heard of the Lady Ina," observed Plenius.
"She probably has," I said, "and would fear to be identified with her."
I finished chewing on a piece of fish, and swallowed it. This gave Ina time to compose herself.
"Look at her," I said.
The men regarded Ina, who put down her head.
"Is she not pretty?" I asked.
"Yes," said a man.
"And is she not hot, considering that she is not a slave," I asked, "and for her time in captivity well trained?"
"That she is," said a man.
"And what is the Lady Ina?" I asked.
"She is a haughty, arrogant she-sleen," said a man.
"So, then," I said, "it is surely not likely that this pretty, hot, well-trained little slut is she."
The men looked at one another.
"It does seem improbable, does it not?" I asked.
"Yes," said a man, "unless she had been put under effective male discipline."
"That brings out the female, irrevocably, in any woman," said a man.
Ina began to tremble, uncontrollably.
"You think she is the Lady Ina?" I asked Plenius.
"Yes," he said.
"Yes," said another fellow.
"Let us see if she behaves like the Lady Ina," I said. I then snapped my fingers and pointed to the men. Immediately Ina, humbly, desperately, with a zeal that would have befitted a threatened slave, began to move about, on her knees, and all fours, and on her belly, among the men, kissing and licking, and caressing. I watched her pressing her lips to their feet, her golden hair about their ankles. I watched her kneel beside them and lick their calves and thighs, piteously. I watched her holding them, and touching them, and caressing them, as though she feared she might be struck away, hoping to insert herself delicately into their attention, hoping to be found of interest, hoping to please them. Then she lay among us, on her belly, frightened.
"Does it seem that such," I asked, "could be the Lady Ina?"
She lifted her body a little, in a common female placatory behavior.
The men laughed.
"Perhaps," said Plenius.
"In any event," I said, "she is mine."
Plenius grinned.
"Perhaps you intend to rescue her?" I asked.
"For the impaling spear?" asked Plenius.
I shrugged.
"You drew me from the sand," said Plenius.
"Were it not for you," said the fellow who had cut the meat, who had been interested in garnering the shark's teeth for a necklace, "I might have lost a hand or arm."
"Were it not for you," said another, "we would be lost in the delta somewhere, perhaps dead by now."
"I do not think she is the Lady Ina," said Plenius to the others, "do you?"
"No," said the others.
"Captain?" asked a man.
"No," smiled Labienus. "She is not the Lady Ina."
"You are safe, Ina," I said to the prone captive.
She began to sob with relief, on her belly in the sand. I could see the small places on the dry sand where her tears fell.
"You might permit her to speak," said Plenius.
"Captain?" I asked.
"Certainly," said Labienus.
"Even if, perchance, she might speak in the accents of a lady of Ar?" I asked.
"Certainly," said he.
"That will be delicious," said a man. "Many is the time I have wished to take one of those high ladies of Ar, strip her and subject her to suitable female usages."
"Yes!" said another.
"You may speak, Ina," I said.
"My thanks, captor," she whispered.
"Good," said a man.
"Good," said another.
"And thanks to you all, my captors," she said, lifting her head, looking about.
"Perhaps it would be appropriate," I said, "if a captive now sought, by. Suitable means, to express her gratitude to her captors."
"Yes, my captor!" she said.
She crawled to the nearest fellow, who took her lustfully in his arms, turning her to her back.
"Female," said Labienus.
"Yes, Captain," she said, from the fellow's arms.
"Whose are you?" he asked.
"I am Tarl's, of Port Kar," she said.
"By right of capture?" he said.
"Yes, Captain," she said.
"And are his, to do with as he pleases?" "Yes, Captain," she said.
"That is heard, is it not?" asked Labienus. "Yes, Captain," said the men.
"Ina," I said.
"Yes, my captor," she said.
"That you now have a general permission to speak," I said, "does not mean that you may speak when and however you might please, with impunity. One might not wish, at a given time, for example, to hear you speak. You will, accordingly, particularly if you are not sure of the matter, if you have not been accorded tacit permissions, and such, not simply begin to speak, but first request permission to do so."
"As might a slave?" she asked.
"Yes," I said.
"Yes, my captor," she said.
She looked up, into the eyes of the fellow who held her. "May I speak?" she asked.
"Yes," he said.
"Use me!" she whispered.
"I shall," he said.
"I beg it," she whispered. "I beg it!"
"I think," said Plenius, "she could make a slave."
"I think so," I said.
Plenius and I started, and I think some of the others, too, for there was a sudden tearing, ripping sound. Looking about, we saw that Labienus had torn a large piece of bark from a stout branch, like a small trunk, which had been brought to him. There were even marks in the exposed wood. He then, looking out, over the marsh, immersed his hands in salt and water.
I offered Plenius a piece of the fish, which he accepted, and we ate together.
30 The Tor Shrub
I looked off, through the shrubbery and trees, behind Titus. There was something there of interest.
Plenius was beside me. We were in a camp. Trees, generally not common in the marshy delta, were more common now, as we were approaching its southern edge.