[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
."It seems the next stroke must be upon your body," said the fellow with thewhip."No, no, Master!" she wept.He held her left arm with his left hand, and was behind her."Aii!" she suddenly cried.There was, again, laughter, but this laughter was one not only of amusement,but one also of genuine interest.Gently, but surely, and unexpectedly, had the whip, coiled, touched her.The proud woman was now no more than a humbled, scarlet mass of shame in hishand."It seems your body betrays your mouth," he said."Yes, Master," she said."Lying is not permitted to a slave girl," he said."No, Master," she said."Do you think, truly, you are different from other slaves?" he asked."No, Master," she said."Do you think you will be an inert slave?" he asked."No, Master!" she said."Please, Master, let me be won swiftly!''"Inertness is not permitted in a slave," he said."No, Master!" she said.She was soon won.Swiftly, eagerly, she crawled to her new master.Another woman, one eager to be won, was brought to the circle."Hold, Abrogastes!" called Farrix, of the Borkons, who had risen to his feet.The woman in the circle shrank down, tiny.Page 123ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlThe dice stopped rattling.Abrogastes turned toward Farrix, for Farrix was on his feet, and a chieftain."Let the pellets be cast," said Farrix, grimly."Beware, father," whispered Ingeld.Abrogastes gave no sign he had heard the warning of Ingeld, Ingeld, who kepthis thoughts muchly to himself.Huta, lying in the dirt before the dais, trembled, sensing suddenly that herfate might cease to depend on such simple matters as guilt or justice, or herdesirability or lack of desirability as a female slave, but on other matters,subtle political matters, on rankings, on contests of will, on maneuveringsfor power."Of course," said Abrogastes, affably.She knew that Abrogastes despised and hated her, for her role in the businessof theOrtungs, but she also suspected that he, the thought both alarming andstirring her, found her not without interest as a slave.Surely more than onceshe had detected in his eyes, or thought she had, keen desire, even fiercedesire, as for a slave to be uncompromisingly mastered and ravished.She hadno hope of winning his love, that hope of almost every slave girl, to win thelove of her master, but hoped that she might, if only by years of an abjectslave's service and devotion, win perhaps at least some particle of abegrudging sufferance."How will Abrogastes, lord of the Drisriaks, cast his pellet?" inquiredFarrix."Sacrifice her, father," whispered Ingeld."How will Farrix cast his pellet?" inquired Abrogastes."She is not worth the collar!" said another Borkon."But she is not without interest," said another Borkon, evenly.The hand of Farrix went to his dagger, but he withdrew it, and it was almostas though he had not moved."The matter is trivial, and it had escaped my mind," said Abrogastes.He nodded to the clerk."Let the pellets be cast!" called the clerk.Huta was pulled to her knees, and turned to face the scales, that she mightwitness the deciding of her fate."Death to her!" cried a man."Life!" cried another.The feasters then, the women in the circle forgotten, even she in the smallerPage 124ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlcircle, waiting, small, kneeling there, to be won, began to leave the tablesand file, one by one, to the table of pellets, and then each, to cries ofacclamation, or anger, or derision, cast their pellets, those small, leadencounters, into the pan of their choice.Huta could scarcely kneel."Straighten your body, head up," said the fellow who had positioned her."Place your hands, wrists crossed, as though they were bound, at the small ofyour back."She tried to comply.Pellets struck into the pans.The pan of death began to descend even more."See she who was once the proud Huta!" laughed a man."See the slave," said another."She trembles," said another."She cannot even hold herself upon her knees," laughed another."Tie her wrists behind her back," said Abrogastes."Blindfold her," said Abrogastes."Put her on a double leash," said Abrogastes.These things were done, that she might better hold her position, and then sheknelt much as she had, save that now her small wrists, in reality, werefastened behind her back, her eyes were now bandaged, with a folded scarf, andon her neck were two leashes, the straps, short and taut, extending from thetwo leash collars on her neck to the fists of her keepers, one on each side.The residual lengths of the straps were muchly coiled, the higher coilswrapped about their fists.Huta moaned.The pellets, unseen by her now, continued to strike into the pans.She could not now, held as she was by the leashes, slip from her knees
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]