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Then I fled from her side, through the spaces between the dark huts.
I hoped that what I had said to Do
I heard a young man ru
I did not want them to catch me. I was locked within the palisade. There was no place to hide!
I heard a girl scream, far to my right. They had taken one of us. I did not know whom.
I did not want a rope put on my throat. I did not want to be dragged to the circle of the torch, a caught girl.
Two young men came by, with torches. I hid back, among the pilings.
Shortly after they had passed, the sleen in a pen, some fifty yards off, began to squeal and hiss. They ran toward the pen. Something had disturbed the sleen. Perhaps it was a girl.
Two more young men were approaching, one holding aloft a torch. Again I shrank back among the pilings, holding my breath. They passed.
I saw them stop beside a hut several yards away. The one lifted the torch. It illuminated what appeared to be a pile of canvas. They stood there, one on each side of the pile, it almost at their feet. Cruelly they stood there, not moving. Do
"Please, Master!" she wept. Lehna was a larger woman than I. She was strong among us girls. Slave Beads lived in terror of her. But in the arms of a male, even a lusty boy, she was slight and helpless, small, to them only another pretty slave girl in their power. I bit my lip. Men were our masters. With the boy who had captured Lehna came four others, two with torches. The boy who had captured Do