Vagabonds of Gor

38 There will be News from Torcadino

"There will soon be news from Torcadino," I told Marcus. He looked at me, puzzled.

"Here, girl," I said to Ina, and she hurried to me.

"Why are you hooding me?" she asked. "It may already be in the paga taverns," I said.

"I myself," he said, "have heard something the import of which I might like to convey to you."

"I think I have heard the same," I said. "It is much about the camp."

"I cannot see," said Ina.

"That is the purpose of a slave hood," I said.

"I am not a slave," she said.

"They fit quite as well on free women," I said. "You refer," I said to Marcus, "to the supposedly secret news, that which is not to be posted on the boards in the Cosian camp."

"I would imagine so," said Marcus.

"That which pertains to the sum of one hundred pieces of gold?"

"Yes," he said.

"A tidy sum," I said.

"Why are you leashing me?" asked Ina.

"Why should there be news soon from Torcadino?" he asked.

"I have reason to believe that such will arrive soon," I said.

"Perhaps you would enlighten me as to the source of your conjectures?" he remarked.

"It has to do with something which I saw this evening, returning from the sutlers' area, on the road, near the Cosian camp."

"That is all you will tell me?" he asked.

"That is all, for now," I said. "Put your hands behind your back," I told Ina.

I then snapped them into slave bracelets.

She moved her hands behind her back, her wrists fastened closely together, helplessly confined in the light, attractive, inflexible restraints.

I gave the leash two tugs, testing the leash ring against the collar ring.

"Where are you going?" he asked.

"Brundisium," I said. "With good fortune I should be back toward morning."

"Why are you removing my sandals?" asked Ina.

"You will be led barefoot," I said.

"Shall I accompany you?" he asked.

"I think it best that I go alone," I said.

"As you wish," he said.

I gave Ina's leash another tug, this one to alert her to the fact that she would soon be led, and the direction in which she would move.

"Why are you going to Brundisium?" he asked.

"There are three reasons," I said.

"Perhaps you would be so good as to enlighten me as to at least one of them."

"Certainly," I said. "One is that I seldom forget a slave."

"Tomorrow," he said, "you will finish your business with your friend?"

"I think so," I said.

"Then you will wish to start for Torcadino."

"That will no longer be necessary," I said.

"I do not understand," he said.

"Dietrich of Tarnburg," I said, "is no longer at Torcadino."

"Where is he?" asked Marcus." "In Brundisium," I said.

"What makes you think that?" he asked.

"I have an excellent memory for slaves," I said.