Monday, October 11, 2004
Day Nineteen
Memree and I are back in our room, at last, after a long day's ride. Kreston and his fellow ex-slavemen had had their collars removed the previous evening, and Ashil had provided more suitable garments for them; Fran and Natella had had their Churmuk armour removed, and they now wore slave collars of a more delicate and decorative nature.
Really, Memree and I were doing very well out of this. We'd not lost any of our gear, that was all on Hengist - and for some reason of Churmuk honour, the "weight of gold" I'd...we'd won in the "rope and tie" had been delivered that morning, so there was a rather heavy purse in the bags too. The Churmuk horses we'd liberated were, Ashil assured us, exceedingly valuable... and the gravy on the joint was that Kreston was insisting on buying Natella as his slavegirl!
Which left Fran, of course. Memree and I have discussed her, and come to the conclusion that she had genuinely wanted to leave the Churmuk way of life, and had been attracted to Memree-as-slavegirl. While she did betray us, she really didn't have much option in that, as Natella knew what she was doing all along, as she had ordered it in the first place... and, well, how hard did she fight to beat Memree, did she want to lose, to be the one in cuffs?
Oh well, this evening my room has got a genuine chained slavegirl on its floor, not Memree's impersonation of one - quite a pretty one, too. Not something we can make a habit of, but we'll have to do a bit more talking in the morning. All that horse-riding and fresh air is making me very sleepy, so I think this brief report is all I can manage for tonight.
Really, Memree and I were doing very well out of this. We'd not lost any of our gear, that was all on Hengist - and for some reason of Churmuk honour, the "weight of gold" I'd...we'd won in the "rope and tie" had been delivered that morning, so there was a rather heavy purse in the bags too. The Churmuk horses we'd liberated were, Ashil assured us, exceedingly valuable... and the gravy on the joint was that Kreston was insisting on buying Natella as his slavegirl!
Which left Fran, of course. Memree and I have discussed her, and come to the conclusion that she had genuinely wanted to leave the Churmuk way of life, and had been attracted to Memree-as-slavegirl. While she did betray us, she really didn't have much option in that, as Natella knew what she was doing all along, as she had ordered it in the first place... and, well, how hard did she fight to beat Memree, did she want to lose, to be the one in cuffs?
Oh well, this evening my room has got a genuine chained slavegirl on its floor, not Memree's impersonation of one - quite a pretty one, too. Not something we can make a habit of, but we'll have to do a bit more talking in the morning. All that horse-riding and fresh air is making me very sleepy, so I think this brief report is all I can manage for tonight.
