Nesho stood and shuffled to where he pointed, head down looking at his feet. Sosho looked up and ran to him grabbing the edges of his breast plate. "Oh Dent..." she wailed.
Crack! Dents backhand spun her head around and threw her to the deck where she lay sobbing.
"Sosho, as we had discussed before, when in public you will call me Master, is that understood?" Still sobbing the young woman slowly stood along side her mother, head down, an angry red blotch on her cheek.
"Prettiest of the bunch naturally. Hmm, I don't see their tattoo or salidin. Are you sure they're your slaves?" red-beard asked softly. "Because if they're not your property, then they belong to the crew. Can't break precedent and contract you know."
"They are mine as much as any could be. Maybe I allow a bit of familiarity when we're alone -- maybe too much -- but I enjoy it and I generally do what pleases me when I can. As for tattoos, where I come from it isn't our custom to disfigure our property and I must admit ignorance as to nature of this salidin you spoke of."
"Salidin, know as 'wizards collar' or 'slave's collar', is a band of metal once in place around a slave's neck it's impossible to remove. Doing so results in the death of the slave. It or a tattoo is required by Jeevel to identify a slave. They will not be allowed in Harv'el until one or the other is visible."
"Well then if it is the law, then it must be done. Now as for my trunks and armor, I'm assuming you will sail the prize back to your port for unloading and at that time I will be able to claim them?" The giant nodded his head in an almost amused fashion. "Very good, then I am yours to command. Do you wish me aboard this vessel or yours?"
"Oh I think mine, most definitely. If for no other reason than we still have a contract to sign, don't we? Take your baggage, all of it, to the Death Grip and ask for the ships Bo'sun; he'll get you settled in. My name is Torken Vel and I am master of the good ship Death Grip and captain of this company. I am to be addressed as Captain or Master depending on which function your business concerns. Now go. I will call for you later."
"By your leave, Captain," Dent bowed warrior to officer and turned to the two women. "You two follow me and remove my things from the cabin." Without waiting he strode past them heading for the forward hatch.
Dent entered their cabin noticing that their belonging had been riffled and scattered on the floor. Holding the door open allowing the women to enter, he closed the door and made sure it was barred tight.
Turning he was hit by the flailing fists of a young wildcat out for blood.
"Who do you think you are hitting me!" Sosho screamed pounding on him as hard as she could. "If you ever touch me a... murph!" Slapping his hand over her mouth and holding her tightly he placed his mouth next to her ear and whispered, "Shut up, you idiot!" She froze in place and tried to bite his hand.
"Listen to him, Sosho" Nesho hissed in her other ear. "He saved your virtue if not your life out there! Now be quiet and behave!" Slowly she relaxed until Dent was confident enough to take his hand away from her mouth. She glared daggers at him but remained silent.
Suddenly, exhaustion and the reaction to adrenalin turned his legs to rubber and he collapsed onto the stool still standing in the room. The room seemed to spin and he closed his eyes. It took considerable effort just to remain upright. Hands cupped his cheeks and he looked up into Nesho's eyes staring down at him with worry.
"Are you all right?" she whispered.
"Me?" he sighed. "Yes, I'm fine. But what about you two?" Looking over he could see his cousin standing, hands clenched into fists at her sides, watching him with red-rimmed tear-stained eyes filled with anger.
"You hit me!" she hissed.
"I'm sorry, Sosho..." he said wearily. "They were going to take you..."
"You hit me!" she interrupted taking a step towards him raising one of her fists.
"Sosho, it was the only way..."
Crack!
Sosho fell backward as Nesho strode forward ready to deliver another blow.
"Hush, you stupid girl! Don't you realize what he did for us? Do you realize what they would have done to us? What they're doing to the other women right now? What they can still do to us if we aren't careful?" Dent had never see Nesho in such a rage and on she came until Sosho cowered back lifting her hands to protect her face.
"They were going to rape us, you silly bit! Rip off your fine clothes, spread those pretty legs and one by one mount you like a dog takes a bitch! And when they have used us as much as they pleased, they're going to take us and sell us to some other bastard to be used as his sex toy for the rest of our lives. Grow up, Sosho! Dent has them believing we are his slaves and for the moment it looks like they will let us stay with him!" The fire suddenly left her face and she turned back to Dent.
"You fought them, Dent. Why, not that I don't praise the gods, but why did they let you live?"
"It seems their captain, the big red-bearded one, liked my fighting ability," he tried to smile but even that effort seemed to take too much effort. "It would appear I am now contracted to the captain, a warrior under his command. Part of the bargain was that I get to keep my own personal property. I'm sorry, but I couldn't think of anything else to do. I think we'll be all right, for a while anyway. But he did say if you were anything but my slaves, you would belong to the crew and would be sold as part of their war prize."
Struggling to his feet he continued, "We don't have much time now. We are to move over to his ship and need to clean out what we can from here." Looking around at the mess, he sighed. "I don't think there's much of real value left here except our clothes, but let's gather up what we can and get moving."
Stumbling over to Sosho he looked at her as she sat on the deck sobbing, looking up at him like a mouse seeing the snake that would eat her. Reaching down, wincing at the way she pulled away from him, he pulled her to her feet and wrapped his arms around her.
"Sosho, Sosho, I am so sorry," he whispered in her ear. "I wish I could make this all a dream and that we would wake up and it will never have happened, but I can't. It has, and we need to survive. You two must survive; nothing else matters. Do you hear me? Nothing else matters. Remember that whatever happens, no matter what I say or do I love you. I really love you." He could feel her begin to lose some of the tension and she began to press herself against him looking for whatever feeling of safety was available.
Turning his head he said, "Nesho, we need to get going. And that's another thing: no more 'cousin' or 'daughter' or 'aunt ' or 'nephew.' I am Dent or Master and you are Nesho and Sosho. I don't know if it's better if you two are mother and daughter or sisters, but no one will ever mistake the fact that you two are related. With me, it's not so obvious so we probably won't have to worry about it. Can you do this, Sosho? For all our sakes?"
The girl seemed to pull herself together and pushed away from his gently. Looking up at him she smiled just a tiny bit and shook her head.
"I can do it... Master," then she even giggled a little. "The worst part about this is I think you're going to like this part too much."
"What?" he said shaking her slightly, "getting to boss around my bossy little cousin? Why I can't think how I could possibly get any pleasure from that!" Again she giggled softly, then she sniffed and held her head up. Looking into his eyes she nodded her head to tell him she was ready. Leaning down he kissed her forehead and turned back toward her mother.
"Let's pick up what we can and be off."
There wasn't much except clothes left, a comb here, a book there. In fact it seemed all the books remained although a few of them had been ripped and otherwise damaged. Dent wasn't all that surprised. Even at the school most of the students weren't what you would call voracious readers. If it wasn't about battle tactics or combat engineering it wasn't worth reading. He didn't suppose it would be much different here. Regardless, they bundled up what they could salvage and prepared to leave. Three large bundles were all they had left until Dent would be able to retrieve their trunks in port. Dent bent down to pick up the larger two but was stopped by Nesho's hand on his arm.
"A man with slaves would never even think of carrying these himself. Just as we need to get used to the role of slave, you need to assume the role of master. Here, we can use these straps. Lift the two smaller ones onto my back and give the larger one to Sosho."
It seemed reasonable, so carrying what little they owned they left the cabin, the women following their new master up to the main deck.
...........TBC
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