Not that there wasn’t real pain involved. Tandro couldn’t quite swallow a hiss when the first stroke of the switch reached his backside, and the sound of the thin branch striking tender flesh even made Jake wince. As Tandro himself had once pointed out, no one in their right mind wanted to experience a second switching right on top of a previous one. But the observation hadn’t been enough to save Tandro, and now an opinion was being turned into reality.

The second switching was given at the same pace as the first, and Tandro’s body writhed even when the switch wasn’t striking his backside. Every stroke added to the red the skin of his behind had turned, and by the third stroke Tandro was making soft sounds of pain. By the sixth stroke the sounds weren’t quite as soft, but the last four strokes, landing

“smack! … smack! … smack! … smack!” with precision and strength didn’t change the volume of the sound. At that point Himlin gestured to his man with the switch, and the man stepped back.

“All right, slave, you can come back now and kneel in place again,” Himlin said, his tone showing how much he’d enjoyed the show. “If you liked the punishment and want more of it, just continue to be displeasing. Your master will be more than happy to oblige you.”

Tandro straightened and began to return to his place at the feet of

Himlin, but Jake could see that the other man was holding his breath against the added pain of movement. And Tandro was so aroused that Jake wondered why the other man’s skin hadn’t yet burst. By rights the pain should have ended Tandro’s arousal, but thanks to those insertions he and Tandro were being allowed nothing of any kind of relief. Jake’s knees had started to hurt from the way he was being kept kneeling, but that wasn’t doing him any good either.

And it seemed that nothing would do him or Tandro any good. Once the native was kneeling, Himlin signaled to one of his men and a second female slave was allowed into the room. This second girl was easily as beautiful as the first and dressed in the same kind of silks, and when the flute player began to make music again Jake really did wish he could cry. His first thought was a silent demand to know just how many of these girls Himlin meant to parade in front of him and Tandro, but then Jake realized that he didn’t really want to know.

Whatever the number, the time would be as far from pleasant as it’s possible to get. Without the least chance of escape…

Tain started to lead Ennie back in the direction they’d come from, having decided that reaching the gate they’d used to enter the town would be a better idea than trying for a different gate. She kept close to the back of the building, moving through shadow whenever possible, but hadn’t gone far when a strange woman stepped out of a doorway only a few feet ahead of them. The woman wore the thin, knee-length smock of a free woman of the lower classes, and held up a hand toward Tain.

“Don’t be afraid, I only want to help you,” the woman called softly.

“Come inside and we can talk.”

“Do you think we can trust her?” Ennie asked in a whisper from behind Tain. “What if there are men inside and she’s only luring us into slavery again?”

“Why would men bother doing it that way?” Tain murmured back, having already considered the point. “As far as they would know, they’d only have to step outside and order us to come to them. And now that you mention it, there’s something I should have done sooner. Don’t take orders from anyone but me.”

A glance back showed Tain the way Ennie nodded almost distractedly, the momentary animation already beginning to slip away. Being in danger obviously let Ennie escape the depression holding her for short periods of time, but the relief wasn’t, unfortunately, permanent. Well, Tain knew there was nothing she could do about the problem right now, so she led Ennie toward the doorway the strange woman had come out of.

The door stood slightly ajar, so Tain pushed it open further before stepping inside. Three women stood waiting in the empty warehouse, all of them dressed alike, and the woman who’d spoken a moment before took one step away from her companions.

“It’s all right, we won’t hurt you,” the woman said with a smile. “I’m

Risdin, and I also used to be a slave, but now we’re all free. To prove it, I’ll say don’t take anyone’s orders ever again. It’s just that easy to be free of the drug.“

Tain knew that being freed would have been just that easy—if she hadn’t been given orders not to take orders from anyone but Killen. And if Ennie hadn’t been given orders not to listen to anyone but Tain herself. She felt the urge to tell the woman Risdin about not being able to take orders from her, but since she didn’t really have to protect herself from Risdin the urge was easy to push aside. Since she knew that the order she’d been given had been meant for use with men, ignoring the required response was easier than it would have been ordinarily.

“Why are you risking yourselves by helping us?” Tain asked, a question that really did have to be put. Risdin was of average height and build, just like the two women behind her, but she was the only one of the three smiling. She had brown hair and seemed to have matching eyes, and was only faintly pretty. The two women behind her were downright plain.

“We’re risking ourselves for you because others risked themselves for us,” Risdin answered, her face sobering. “We saw you run when your owners were attacked, but we didn’t show ourselves right away. Some slaves in your place would have gone back to the men once the fighting was over, and if you’d done that we couldn’t have helped you. But you didn’t go back, which meant you wanted to escape, so now we can help. Let’s start with giving you some real food to eat.”

“I—think we need a few more answers first,” Tain said, ignoring the way Risdin’s gesture directed them more deeply into the building. “You seem to be saying that you and those others were once slaves yourselves, but if that’s true then I don’t understand why you’re in this town. You ought to be out of here, to make sure you aren’t caught and enslaved again.”

“We were out of here, but we volunteered to come back,” Risdin said, her face wearing an odd expression. “We fear slavery as much as the rest of our group, but some of us can’t bear to just hide out and do nothing to help free as many women as we can. We stay here for about a month at a time, and then others of the group come to take our place. During the seasons when these warehouses are in use we hide elsewhere, but we prefer this place because it’s closest to our secret way out of town.”

“You shouldn’t have told her that, Risdin,” one of the other women said at once with a frown. “We still don’t know if these two are real runaways or decoys to help catch us.”

“She didn’t tell me anything I hadn’t already guessed,” Tain said just as quickly before Risdin could speak. “If you three had come in through a gate without any men to act as your protection, you probably would have been taken as soon as you were out of sight of the guardhouse. And you don’t have to worry that we’re acting for the slavers. I’d sooner cut my own throat than give a slaver the time of day.”

“I don’t think they’re decoys, Celene,” the third woman said just as the second opened her mouth to argue. “Look at that other one, at the way she’s staring at nothing. The slavers would never use someone like that as a decoy.”

“She’s … had a hard time,” Tain said, turning to put an arm around Ennie. “Once we’re out of here I’m sure she’ll do better, but right now… Come on, Ennie. Our new friends here are inviting us for a late breakfast, and it would be rude to refuse them.”

Ennie didn’t really respond to Tain’s words, but she did let herself be urged into motion. The woman Celene, who had limp blond hair and hard blue eyes, was the only one who hesitated before coming forward to help with Ennie, but after a moment she did the same as her friends. Ennie’s pain and distance were too deep to be an act, and all three women seemed to know that.