[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
tharlarion-oil lamp set in its copper bowl. I put the bit of rence stem back,
as I
had seen Telima do, in the small bowl of petals, where, with the flaming
petals, it was soon extinguished. The tharlarion-oil lamp, now lit,
flickering, illuminated the interiour of the hut with a yellowish light.
She was eating a rence cake. Her mouth was half full. She looked at me.
I shall not bind you tonight, she said.
Holding half the rence cake in her mouth she unrolled her sleeping mat and
then, as she had the night before, she unlaced her tunic and slipped it off
over her head. She threw it to a corner of the hut, on her left, near her
feet. She sat on the sleeping mat and finished the rence cake. Then she wiped
her mouth with her arm, and slapped her hands together, freeing them of
crumbs.
Then she unbound her hair, shaking it free.
Then she reclined on the mat, facing me, resting on her right elbow. Her left
knee was raised. She looked at me.
Serve my pleasure, she said. No, I said.
Startled, she looked at me.
Just then, from outside, there was the wild, high, terrifed scream of a girl,
and suddenly the music stopped. Then I heard shouts, cries of fear, confusion,
the clash of arms.
Slavers! I heard cry. Slavers!
6 Slavers
I was out of the hut.
My response had been instantaneous, that of the trained warrior, startling me.
The girl was but a moment behind me.
I saw torches in the night, moving at the periphery of the island.
A child ran past me. The circle of the dance was empty. The barkless pole
stood alone. A woman was screaming among the refus of the feast. The marsh
torches burned as quietly as they had. There were shouts. I heard the clank of
arms, overlapping shields. Two men, rencers, ran past us. I heard what might
have been a marsh spear splinger against metal. One man, a rencer, staggered
backward drunkenly toward us. Then he wheeled and I saw, protruding from his
chest, the fins of a crossbow bolt. He fell almost at our feet, his fingers
Page 28
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
clutching the fins, his knees drawn to his chin. Somewhere an infant was
crying
In the light of the moving torches, beyond them, toward the marsh, I
saw, dark, the high, curved prows of narrow marsh barges, of the sort rowed by
slaves.
Telima threw her hands before her face, her eyes wild, and uttered a
terrifying scream of fear.
My had caught her right wrist and locked on it, like the manacle of a slave. I
dragged her stumbling, screaming, toward the opposite side of the island, the
darkness.
But we found rencers running toward us, men, and women, and children, their
hands outstretched, stumbling, falling. We heard the shouts of men behind
them, saw the movement of spears.
We ran with them toward yet another part of the island.
Then, from the darkness before us, we heard a trumpet, and we stopped,
confused. Suddenly there fell among us a rain of crossbow bolts. There were
screams. A man to the left of us cried out and fell.
We turned and ran again, stumbling in the torchlit darkness, across the woven
mat of rence that was the surface of the island.
Behind us we heard trumpets, and the beating of spears on shields, the shouts
of men.
The before us a woman screamed, stopping, pointing.
They have nets! she cried.
We were being driven toward the nets. I stopped, holding Telima to me. We were
buffeted by the bodies of running rencers, plunging toward the nets.
Stop! I cried. Stop! There are nets! Nets! But most of those with us,
heedless, fleeing the trumpets and beating of spears on shields, ran wildly
toward the nets, which suddenly emerged before them, held by slaves. These
were not the small capture nets but wall nets, to block a path of escape.
Between their interstices, here and there, spears thrust, forcing back those
who would tear at them. Then the long, wide net, held by slaves, began to
advance.
I heard then from another side of the island as well the terrifying cry,
Nets, nets!
Then, as we milled and ran, here and there among us were men of Port
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]