Kelderek obeyed, gasping, and as he did so caught a glimpse of Shouter, clutching his ankles and grinning up at Genshed. The slave dealer forced his handful of rags into Kelderek's mouth and pulled off the bandage tied round his head.
"Right, get on with it," he said to Bled. "Turn his head this way."
Bled twisted Kelderek's head to the left and immediately he felt the lobe of his right ear sharply pinched, then crushed and pierced. A spurt of excruciating pain shot down his neck and along his shoulder. His whole body convulsed, almost throwing off the two boys. When he came to himself, all three had released him and were walking away.
Kelderek pulled the rags out of his mouth and put his hand to his ear. His fingers came away bloody and blood was dripping over his shoulder. The lobe was pierced through. He bent his head, breathing deeply as the worst of the pain began to subside. Looking up, he saw Radu beside him. The boy thrust aside his long, matted hair and showed him his own pierced ear.
"I didn't warn you," said Radu. "You're not a child and I wasn't sure whether he'd do it to you or not."
Kelderek, biting on his hand, recovered himself sufficiently to speak.
"What is it--a slave mark?"
"It's for sl--for sl--for sleeping," muttered a white-faced, blinking boy nearby. "Yer, yer, yer--for sleeping." He laughed vacantly, closed his eyes and laid his head on his folded hands in a foolish pantomime.
"Goin' home s-soon," he said suddenly, opening his eyes again and turning to Radu.
"All the way," replied Radu, in the tone of one who takes up a catch phrase.
"Underground," concluded the boy. "You hungry?" Radu nodded and the boy returned to his listless silence.
"At night they pass a chain through everyone's ears," said Radu. "Shouter told me once that every child who's ever been through Genshed's hands has a pierced ear."
He got up and went to look for Shara, who had run to hide in the bushes at the slave trader's approach.
Soon after, Shouter and Bled distributed to each child a handful of dried meat and one of dried fruit. Some of the children went as far as the river for water, but most merely drank from the dirty holes and reed patches round about. As Kelderek and Radu, together with Shara, were making their way toward the river, Shouter came up to them, stick in hand.
"Got to keep an eye on you," he said to Kelderek with a kind of malicious amiability. "Making yourself at home, are you? Enjoying yourself? That's right."
Kelderek had already noticed that while all the children went in terror of Bled, who was obviously deranged and almost a maniac, several seemed to be on some kind of uncertain terms with Shouter, who from time to time--whether or not he was actually engaged in cruelty--assumed a certain bluffness of manner not uncommon among bullies and tyrants.
"Can you tell me why I'm here?" he asked. "What use am I to Genshed?"
Shouter sniggered. "You're here to be mucking sold, mate," he said. "Without your balls, I dare say."
"What happened to the overseer you replaced?" asked Kelderek. "I suppose you knew him?"
"Knew him? I killed him," answered Shouter.
"Oh, did you?"
"He was all in when we got back to Terekenalt, wasn't he?" said Shouter. "He'd gone to pieces. One day a girl from Dari scratched his mucking face to bits. He couldn't stop her. That night, when Genshed was drunk, he said if anyone could fight him and kill him he could have the job. I killed him all right--strangled him in the middle of Genshed's yard, with about fifty kids watching. Old Genshed was tickled to death. That's how I kept my balls, mate, see?"
They reached the river bank and Kelderek, wading in to the knees, drank and washed. Yet his body remained full of pain. As he thought of his own situation and that of Melathys and the Tuginda, despair overcame him and during their return he could find no spirit for any further attempt at talk with Shouter. The boy himself also seemed to have grown pensive, for he said no more, except to order Radu to pick up Shara and carry her.
In the half-light and rising mist Genshed stood snapping his fingers to summon one boy and another. As each approached and stood in front of him the slave dealer examined eyes, ears, hands, feet and shackles, as well as any wounds and injuries that he came upon. Although many of the children were lacerated and two or three seemed on the point of collapse, none received any treatment and Kelderek concluded that Genshed was merely looking over his stock and assessing their capacity to go farther. The children stood motionless, heads bent and hands at their sides, anxious only to be gone as soon as possible. One boy who trembled continually, flinching at each movement of Genshed, was left to stand where he was while the dealer looked at others immediately behind his back. Another, who could not keep quiet, but kept muttering and picking at the sores on his face and shoulders, was silenced by means of the flytrap until Genshed had done with him.
Shouter and Bled, receiving the boys as they left the slave dealer, fastened them together in threes or fours by thin chains drawn through the lobes of their ears. Each chain was secured at one end to a short metal bar, the other being hooked to the belt or wrist of an overseer. When these preparations were complete, all lay down to sleep where they were on the marshy ground.
Kelderek, chained like the rest, had been separated from Radu and lay between two much younger boys, expecting every moment that a movement by one or the other would pull the chain links through his wounded lobe like the teeth of a saw. Soon, however, he realized that his companions, more practiced than he in making misery bearable, were less likely to trouble him than he them. They stirred seldom and had learned the trick of moving their heads without tightening the chain. After a little he found that both had moved close to him, one on either side.
"Not used to this yet, are you?" whispered one of the children in a broad Paltesh argot that he could barely understand. "Buy you today, did he?"
"He didn't buy me. He found me in the forest--yes, it was today."
"Thought as much. You smell of fresh meat--new ones often do, doesn't last long." He broke off, coughing, spat on the ground between them and then said, "Trick's to lie close together. It's warmer, and it keeps the chain slack, see, then anybody moves it don't pull."
Both children were verminous and scratched continually at the sodden, filthy rags covering their thin bodies. Soon, however, Kelderek was no longer aware of their smell, but only of the mud in which he was lying and the throbbing of his wounded finger. To distract his thoughts he whispered to the boy, "How long have you been with this man?"
"Reckon nearly two months now. Bought me in Dari."
"Bought you? Who from?"
"My stepfather. Father was killed with General Gel-Ethlin when I was very small. Mother took up with this man last winter and he didn't like me, only I'm dirty, see? Soon as the dealers come he sold me."
"Didn't your mother try to stop it?"
"No," answered the boy indifferently. "Suppose you had food, had you, only he took it away?"
"Yes."
"Shouter said almost no bloody mucking food left," whispered the little boy. "Said they'd reckoned to buy some before this, only there's no mucking place to buy it here."
"Why did Genshed come into this forest, do you know?" asked Kelderek.
"Soldiers, Shouter said."
"What soldiers?"
"Don't know. Only he don't like soldiers. Thats why he put the rope across the river--get away from the soldiers. You hungry, are you?"
"Yes."
He tried to sleep, but there was no quiet. The children whimpered, talked in their sleep, cried out in nightmare. The chains rattled; something moved among the trees; Bled leaped suddenly to his feet, chattering like an ape and wrenching every chain fastened to him. Raising his head, Kelderek could see the hunched figure of the slave dealer a little distance off, his arms clasped about his knees. He did not look like a man seeking sleep. Was he--like Kelderek himself--conscious of the danger of wild animals, or was it, perhaps, possible that he had no need of sleep--that he never slept?
At length he fell into a doze, and when he woke--after how long he could not tell--realized that the child beside him was weeping, almost without noise. He put out his hand and touched him. The weeping stopped at once.
"There's a lot can happen yet," whispered Kelderek. "Were you thinking of your mother?"
"No," replied the boy, "bout Sirit."
"Who's Sirit?"
"Girl was with us."
"What's happened to her?"
"Gone to Leg-By-Lee."
"Leg-By-Lee? Where's that?"
"Don't know."
"Then how do you know she's gone there?"
The boy said nothing.
"What is Leg-By-Lee? Who told you about it?"
"Where they go, see?" whispered the boy. "Only anyone goes, we say they've gone to Leg-By-Lee."
"Is it far away?"
"Don't know."
"Well, if I managed to run away and he brought me back tomorrow, would I have gone to Leg-By-Lee?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Cause you don't come back from Leg-By-Lee."
"You mean Sirit's dead?"
"Don't know."
They fell silent. A man may be forced to set out into bitter cold, and in the very act of doing so be conscious that the future is desperate and his chance of survival small. Yet this mere reflection, coming at that moment, will not of itself be enough to break his spirit or penetrate his heart with despair. It is as though he still carried, wrapped about the core of his courage, a residue of protecting faith and warmth which must first be penetrated and dispelled, little by little, hour after hour, perhaps day after day, by solitude and cold, until the last remnants are dispersed and the dreadful truth, which at the outset he perceived only with his mind, he feels in his body and fears in his heart. So it was with Kelderek. Now, in the night, with the sharp, ugly noises of wretchedness all around him and the pain crawling about his body like cockroaches in a dark house, he seemed to step down, to review his situation from an even lower level, to feel more deeply and perceive more clearly its nature, devoid of all real hope. He believed, now, in the prospect before him--the passage of Linsho and the long journey up the Telthearna, actually passing Quiso and Ortelga, to Terekenalt; and then slavery, preceded perhaps by the vile mutilation of which Shouter had spoken. Worst of all was the loss of Melathys and the thought that they would remain ignorant forever of each other's fates.
It was Shardik who had brought him to this--Shardik who had pursued him with supernatural malevolence, avenging all that his priest-king had done to abuse and exploit him. He was justly accursed of Shardik, and in his punishment had involved not only Melathys but the Tuginda herself--she who had done all she could, in the face of every obstacle put in her way, to preserve the worship of Shardik from betrayal. With this bitter reflection he once more fell asleep.
50 Radu
WHEN HE WOKE IT WAS SUNRISE; and as he stirred, a centipede as long as his hand, dark red and sinuous, undulated smoothly away from beneath his body. Shouter was drawing out the chains and coiling them into his pack. The forest was raucous with the calling of birds. Already, where the sun shone, the ground was steaming, and everywhere flies buzzed about patches of night soil and urine. A boy close by coughed without ceasing and all around, the children raised their thin voices in foul language and oaths. Two boys lay quarreling over a fragment of leather which one had stolen from the other, until Bled's stick brought them cursing to their feet.
Shouter gave out small handfuls of dried fruit and watched while they were eaten, his stick ready against any snatching or fighting. He winked at Kelderek and slipped him a second handful.
"Mind you eat it yourself, too," he whispered, "mucking quick."
"Is that all until tonight?" answered Kelderek, appalled at the thought of the day's march.
"It's nigh all there is left anyway," said Shouter, still keeping his voice down. "He says there's no more to be had until we get to Linsho, and that's supposed to be tomorrow evening. I reckon he didn't know what this place was going to be like. We'll be lucky to get out alive."
Kelderek, looking quickly to either side, whispered, "I could get you out alive."
Without waiting for an answer, he shuffled away to where Radu was feeding Shara from his own handful.
"You can't afford to do that," he said. "You've got to keep up your own strength if you want to be able to look after her."
"I've done it before," answered Radu. "I'll be all right as long as she is." He turned back to the little girl. "We're going home soon, aren't we?" he said. "You're going to show me the new calf, aren't you, when we get home?"
"All the way, underground," said a boy standing near; but Shara only nodded and fell to making patterns with her stones.
Soon they began to move off, following Genshed toward the river bank. Once there the slave trader turned upstream, making his way along the open, pebbly shore.
Now that they were no longer among the close trees and he could see the whole column, Kelderek understood, as he had not on the previous day, why their progress was so much interrupted and so slow. What he saw was an exhausted rabble, which surely could not be far from complete disintegration. Continually, one child or another would stop, leaning face forward against a rock or bank and, when Bled or Shouter came up to threaten him, only staring back as though too much stupefied even to feel fear. From time to time a boy would fall and Genshed, Shouter or Bled would pull him to his feet and slap him or dash water in his face. The slave dealer himself seemed well aware of the perishable condition of his stock. He was sparing with blows and called frequent halts, allowing the children to drink and bathe their feet. Once, when Bled, in a frenzy of rage, set about a boy who was fumbling and hesitating at the foot of a pile of rocks, he cuffed him away with a curse, asking where he thought he could sell a dead slave.
Later, as he and Radu lay gazing out across the glittering, noonday river, Kelderek, carefully keeping his voice low, said, "Shouter must know that he's got all he ever can out of Genshed. Surely he must fear returning to Terekenalt? The best thing he could do would be to cut and run, and take us with him. I know how to survive in this sort of country. I could save his life and ours if only I could persuade him to trust me. Do you think Genshed's made him some promise?"
For a time Radu answered nothing, looking sideways into the shallows and stroking Shara's hands. At length he said, "Genshed means more to him than you think. He's converted him, you see."
"Converted him?"
"That's why I'm afraid of Genshed. I know we all fear his cruelty, but I fear more than that."
"You mustn't let him break your spirit," said Kelderek. "He's nothing but a contemptible brute--a sneak thief--mean and stupid."
"He was once," answered Radu, "but that was before he got the power he prayed for."
"What do you mean? What power?"
"Where he's concerned, it's no longer a matter of thieves and honest men," said Radu. "He's gone beyond that. Once he was nothing but a cruel, nasty slum-creeper. But evil's made him strong. He'd paid its price, and in return he's been given its power. You don't feel it yet, but you will. He's been granted the power to make others evil--to make them believe in the strength of evil, to inspire them to become as evil as himself. What he offers is the joy of evil, not just money, or safety, or anything that you and I could understand. He can make some people want to devote their lives to evil. That's what he did to Bled, only Bled wasn't up to it and it drove him mad. Shouter--he was just a poor, deserted boy, sold away from his home. It's not a question of how long he'll last with Genshed or what he'll get. He admires him--he wants to give him everything he's got--he isn't thinking about rewards. He wants to spend his life beating and hurting and terrifying. He knows he's not much good at it yet, but he hopes to improve."
Their hunger was like a mist in the air between them. Kelderek, looking about him for Shara, caught sight of her kneeling beside a pool a little way off and pulling out long strips
of bright yellow and dark red weed, which she laid side by side on the stones.
"All this is only your fancy, you know," he said. "You're lightheaded with hunger and hardship."
"I'm lightheaded, that's true enough," answered Radu. "But I can see more clearly for that. If you don't think it's true, you wait and see."
He nodded toward Shara. "It's for her sake that I've not given in," he said. "Genshed wanted me to become an overseer in place of Bled. Bled's become a nuisance to him--he can't be relied on not to cripple boys or kill them. He's killed three boys since Lapan, you know."
"If you became an overseer, mightn't it give you a chance to escape?"
"Perhaps--from anyone but Genshed."
"But did he only try to talk you into becoming an overseer? Didn't he threaten you? You told me he once used the flytrap on you."
"That was because I hit Shouter to stop him interfering with Shara. Genshed would never threaten a boy to make him become an overseer. A boy who's going to become an overseer has got to want to do it. He's got to admire Genshed of his own accord and want to live up to him. Of course Genshed wants the ransom money for me, but if he could persuade me to become an overseer; that would mean even more to him, I believe. He wants to feel he's had a hand in making a nobleman's son as evil as himself."
"But as long as he doesn't threaten you, surely there's no question of your giving in to him?"
Radu paused, as though hesitating before confiding in Kelderek. Then he said deliberately, "God's given in. Either that or He's got no power over Genshed. I'll tell you something that I shall never forget. Before Thettit there was a boy with us--a big, shambling lad called Bellin. He could never have crossed the Vrako; he was clumsy and a bit simple. Genshed put him up for sale along with the girls. The man who bought him told Genshed he wanted to make him a professional beggar. He kept several, he said, and lived off what they brought in. He wanted Bellin mutilated, to excite pity when he was begging. Genshed hacked off Bellin's hands and held his wrists in boiling pitch to stop the bleeding. He charged the man forty-three meld. He said that was his rate for that particular job."