‘Oh, yes. That she is.’
‘That’s what her dancing’s all about, and I can definitely handle that
part. The steps aren’t really important. It’s her attitude that matters, and
I have an attitude of my own. Give me a week, mother, and I’ll be a better
dancer than she is.’
‘My, aren’t we confident.’
‘Trust me. Where to now?’
‘Yar Nadrak, the capital. You’ll need to select an owner and then we’ll
get started.’
Most of you are probably unfamiliar with the peculiar nature of
Nadrak society. Women are property among the Nadraks, but
they’re not property in the same sense that horses, boots, or wagons
are property. Nadrak women select their owners, and if the chosen
one doesn’t live up to her expectations, she can always fall back on
her daggers to persuade him to sell her to somebody she likes better
– and she gets half of her sale price every time. A Nadrak woman
who pays close attention to business can die wealthy, if she wants
to.
Yar Nadrak is a mosquito-infested, tar-smeared city built on a
marshy point where the surrounding forest has been cleared by
setting it on fire – and those are its good points.
There was no reason to avoid it any longer, so when I resumed
my own form, I wore the leather clothing mother had provided for
me. I strutted through the city gate, noting the polished steel mask
of Torak gazing down at me as I did. The presence of that dreadful
reminder may have had something to do with what happened next.
‘Don’t be in such a rush, Dearie,’ one of the half-drunk gate-guards
said, leering at me suggestively and taking hold of my arm. I decided
to establish some ground-rules right then and there. I swept one leg
against the sides of his knees and he buckled and fell. Then I
dropped on top of him, one of my knees driving into the pit of his
stomach. I drew my Ulgo daggers from my belt and crossed their
sawtoothed edges against his throat. ‘Any last words?’ I asked him.
‘What are you doing?’ he wheezed.
‘I’m getting ready to cut your throat,’ I explained patiently. ‘You
touched me, and nobody touches Polanna and lives. Everybody
knows that. Brace yourself. This’ll be over before you know it.’
‘It was an accident!’ he squealed. ‘I didn’t mean to touch you!’
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t realize that. You should have been more
careful.’
‘You’ll forgive me then?’
‘Of course I’ll forgive you, silly boy. I’ll still have to cut your
throat, but I’ll really regret it. just lie still. This won’t take but a
minute.’
Now what was I going to do? I’m sure everybody around me was
terribly impressed, but how was I going to extricate myself without
actually killing this idiot?
‘Polanna! Let him go!’ The voice was deep and masculine, and it
seemed to be coming from somewhere behind me. It was not behind
me, though, and the speaker wasn’t a man. Mother had come to my
rescue.
‘But he touched me!’ I protested.
‘It was a mistake. Let him up.’
‘I’ve been insulted. I can’t just let that slide.’
‘We don’t have time for this, Polanna. Nick him once and let it
go at that. A little blood will wash away the insult. You don’t have
to fill the gutter with it over an accident.’
‘Oh, all right.’ I gave in. I gave my terrified victim a little slice on
the point of his chin, got up, and jammed my daggers into their
sheaths. Then I marched on into the city. I don’t think anybody even
noticed that I appeared to be alone.
,A little excessive there, Pol.’ Mother’s tone was acid.
‘It got out of hand, I guess.’
‘Polanna? Where did you come up with “Polanna”?’
‘It just popped into my head. I thought it sounded sort of Nadraky.’
‘Nadraky?’
‘Let it pass, mother. Let’s shop around and find me an owner.’
I’d never shopped for an owner before, and it’s not quite the same
as shopping for a pair of shoes or a side of beef. We finally settled
on a rich fur trader named Callak. He was prosperous enough to
have the necessary contacts and not to live in a hovel. Like most
Nadraks, he was a lean man with shrewd eyes. The only real
problem we had with him was that he was much more interested in
money than he was in the finer things in life – including women. it
took a bit more effort to insert some memories into his mind as a
result of that peculiarity, but mother and I got around that by
playing on his greed. We waved the notion of the profit he’d make when
he re-sold me in front of him, and that was all it took.
I slipped into his house late one night while he was sleeping,
scattered some of my possessions around and fixed up one of his
spare rooms to make it look like my personal bed chamber. Then,
just as it was starting to get light, I built a fire-in his kitchen and
started cooking. When everything was ready, I went to his bedroom
and shook him awake. ‘Your breakfast’s ready, Callak,’ I told him.
‘Get up.’
He stretched and yawned. ‘Good morning, Polanna,’ he said
calmly. ‘Did you sleep well?’ He clearly remembered buying me in
a back-country tavern about six weeks ago, and in his mind I’d been
around long enough for him to get to know me.
He ate his breakfast and complimented me on my cooking – which
in his own mind he did every time I cooked for him. Then he
checked my collar to make sure it was still locked, told me to have
a nice day, and went off to work. So far as he knew, I was now a
fixture in his life, and he had no way of knowing that he’d never
seen me before that very morning.
‘Now then,’ mother said after he’d left, ‘we want to-find a man named
Yarblek. He’s going to be fairly important later on, so we’d better get to
know him.’
‘I don’t exactly have total freedom of movement, mother, I reminded her.
‘Whatever gave you that idea?’
‘I’m a slave, mother. I can’t just wander the streets as I please, can I?’
‘You’re missing the point, Pol. Gailak’s your owner, not your master.
You’re property, not a slave.’
‘Is there a difference?’
‘There’s a world of difference, Pol. Your collar gives you absolute
freedom, and it tells everybody that if anyone interferes with you, GaII4rk will
have him killed. You’ve got more freedom here than you had as the Duchess
of Erat. You can go anywhere you want to go, and you don’t have to do
anything you don’t want to do. Nadrak women have more freedom than
any other females in the whole world – except for wolves, of course.’
‘What a fascinating concept.’
Despite the fact that he was only fifteen or so at the time, Yarblek
was already well-known in Yar Nadrak. Well-known or not, Yarblek
was a little hard to find, and my search for him led me into the
seedier parts of town. Evidently, word of the incident at the city
gate had gotten around, because all manner of evil-looking
scoundrels went out of their way to stay out of mine. Obviously, my
description had accompanied those stories, so the rascals of Yar
Nadrak knew me on sight. It’s hard to get information when nobody
wants to talk to you, though, so I picked one scruffy fellow and
pointed my finger at him. ‘You,’ I said peremptorily, ‘come here.’
‘I didn’t do anything,’ he protested.
‘I didn’t say you had. Come here.’
‘Do I have to?’
‘Yes.’ I pointed at the street in front of me. ‘Here.’ I instructed.
‘Now.’
‘Yes, Polanna. At once.’ He almost ran across the street, and when
he stopped where I’d indicated, he carefully put his hands behind
his back to avoid any mistakes.
‘I’m looking for a young fellow named Yarblek. Do you know
him?’
‘Everybody knows Yarblek, Polanna.’
‘Good. Where can I find him?’
‘He usually spends his time in the Rat’s Nest – that’s a tavern
over near the east gate. If he’s not there, the tavern-keeper should
know where you can find him.’
‘Thank you. See? That didn’t hurt at all, did it?’
‘I don’t seem to be bleeding from anyplace – yet.’ Then his eyes
grew curious. ‘Did you really cut that gate-guard’s head off with
those saws you carry instead of knives?’
‘Of course not. All I did was nick him a little.’
‘I sort of thought it might have been an exaggeration. You don’t
seem all that blood-thirsty to me.’ Then he winked at me. ‘I won’t
tell anybody, though. You’ve got the whole thieves’ quarter
terrorized, and I just love to see all those rascals quaking in their