Orders were swiftly given.

In two Ahn we were ready to withdraw from the complex. Sleds were readied; prisoners, men of the complex, now in furs, some forty of them, were tied, their hands behind them, their necks linked by a long rope of rawhide, placing them in coffle. There was no fight left in them; they knew that on the ice, away from the technology of the complex, they could survive only if the red hunters chose to let them do so. Some would be sold to traders in the spring; others might be kept in the camps, to serve the red hunters; they, male slave beasts, would be stronger than female slave beasts. Perhaps eventually a hunter would take a trading trip south and take them with him, bound, to dispose of them in, say, Lydius, with his furs and other trade goods.

I regarded fifteen women who had been in the complex. women being trained as Kur agents for work in their cause. All were kneeling naked; most already had bondage strings on their necks; those that did not the hunters could sort out or do contest for.

"Put them in the sacks," I said.

Each was thrust in a deep furred sack, which was then placed within another heavy fur sack, larger than the first. There was an opening in the sacks only for the head, which was then rimmed with a hood, so that only the face was exposed, and that could be withdrawn to protect it from the cold. The rawhide straps on the sacks were then drawn tight. looped about, and tied tightly behind the hoods; the women could not reach the straps; they were, thus, effectively imprisoned.

"Tie the sacks on the sleds," I said. It was thus that the women would be transported.

The women moaned as they were carried helplessly to the sleds.

They would eventually learn to serve red masters.

She who had been the Lady Rosa was not, of course, with them. She was elsewhere, where I wanted her.

"Are we ready for departure?" I asked Imnak.

"Almost," said Imnak. Poalu, already furred, was with him.

"Come with me," I said to Imnak. "And bring, too, the bravest and best of your hunters, who performed for our cause in this place the best and noblest works of war."

There was a cheer.

"Surely Karjuk stands highest among them," he said.

"Come with us, Karjuk!" I cried.

"Go on without me," he said. He smiled wryly. "I am a sour and solemn man."

"Surely you would like a little thing to warm and pleasure you in your house?" I asked.

"I might grow too fond of it," be said. He bent down. tying a bundle, which he would put on his sled.

Imnak winked at me. "Come along, grim friend," said he. "You can help us make our choices."

"I know little of such matters," said Karjuk. "I am a lonely man."

"Come along," said Imnak. "Surely you can tell us which would be best at pulling sleds."

"You must look at the legs," said Karjuk. "Strong legs are important."

"Come along," said Imnak.

"Very well," said Karjuk.

We walked along a hallway. With us were many of the red hunters, some seventy or eighty, and Ram, and Drusus.

We entered a large room, off the hall.

In the room, alone, in its center, knelt a young red woman, her head down. She had been the only woman of her race, other than Poalu, who had been slave in the complex. She had been found in security chaining, in one of the slave rooms. She looked up.

"No one wants this one," said Imnak, "She has been a slave to white men."

There were tears in the girl's eyes. She was very pretty. She was short and plump like most of the women of the red hunters.

"What are you going to do with her?" asked Karjuk.

"Put her out in the snow," said Imnak. "She shames the People."

"I live apart from the People," said Karjuk.

"Do you want her?" asked Imnak.

"Of course not," said Karjuk, quickly. "She is too pretty for me."

"Do you know her?" asked Imnak.

"She was Neromiktok, of the Copper Cliffs Camp," he said. The word 'Neromiktok', in the language of the People. means 'Smooth-and-Soft-to-Touch'. I had learned this from Imnak. I had learned, too, that she had once been the beauty of the Copper Cliffs Camp.

"Do you know him?" inquired Imnak, innocently, of the girl.

"He is Karjuk, Master," she whispered, "once of Bright Stones Camp, who became the guard."

"It is said he left the camps and became the guard," said Imnak, "because his gifts were once refused by a proud girl of the Copper Cliffs Camp."

She put down her head.

"How did you become a slave," asked Imnak.

"I was too good for men," she said.

Several of the red hunters with. us laughed, to hear a slave so speak.

"I ran away from Copper Cliffs to avoid an unwanted match," she said. "I was captured. I was made a slave."

"Are you still too good for men?" asked Imnak.

"No, Master," she said.

"You have shamed the People," said Imnak sternly.

"Yes, Master," she said, her head down.

"What sort of woman are you?" asked Imnak.

"One who wants to kneel at the feet of men, and love them," she said.

"Shameful! Shameful!" cried Imnak cheerfully.

"Yes, Master," she said, sobbing, not raising her head.

"Do you know the fate for shaming the People?" he asked.

"Please, no, Master!" she said.

"Seize her," said Imnak, to two of the red hunters. They seized her, each taking an arm, and dragged her to her feet.

"They are going to put me out in the snow!" she cried to Karjuk, agdnized.

"Are you going to put her out in the snow?" asked Karjuk.

"Of course," said Imnak.

"But she has strong legs," said Karjuk.

The girl struggled in the arms of the red hunters. They released her and she flung herself to her knees before Karjuk. head down, sobbing, holding his legs.

"I suppose she could draw a sled," said one red hunter.

"Perhaps," said another.

"She might be pretty in the furs," said another.

"Keep me, Master! Keep me, Master!" begged the girl of Karjuk, sobbing. "I beg of you to keep me, Master!"

"No one wants you," said Imnak.

"Please, Master!" begged the girl, tears in her eyes, looking up at Karjuk.

"You are too good for me," said Karjuk.

"No, No, Master," she cried, "I am only a slave, a slave!"

"You are very pretty," said Kaijtik.

"A slave is pleased if her master should find her pleasing," she said.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"To kneel at your feet, and to serve you and love you." she wept.

"Shameful!" cried Imnak.

"One cannot have everything," said Karjuk, defensively.

"Please, Master," she begged.

"Let us consider important things," said Karjuk. "Can you sew, and cook?"

"Yes, Master!" she cried.

"Can you make a good sleen stew?" he asked.

"Yes, Master," she said. "And though I know you are above such things I can show you wonders in the furs, which I have been taught as a slave."

Kaijuk shrugged. "It is not wrong to broaden one's experiences," he said.

"Keep me, Master," she begged.

"I will call you Auyark," he said.

"I am Auyark," she said, joyfully, putting her head against his leg, weeping.

He looked down at her. "I think you will make a summer in my house," he said. Auyark is a word in the language of the People which means Summer.

"Look up at me," he said, "Girl."

She looked up at him.

"I will keep you," he said, "but you must understand that you are kept as a slave, completely as a slave, and only as a slave."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"And if you are not pleasing," he said, "I will put you out into the snow."

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Come now," he said. "On your feet. We must load a sled."

She stood up.