Dragon-Bound Thief: Teaser Chapter

Dragon-Bound Thief: Part 7

Chapter 4

"Hey, Pig Girl! Get over here."

Symiss looked up. Tiara Webberoth glared at her from across the garden, and Symiss immediately lowered her eyes. Now what? she thought. "Yes, m'lady?" She answered Tiara softly, giving an obsequious little bob of her head. Her long, matted hair scuffed roughly on her neck. She set down the basket of turnips she had pulled and hurried over to the other side of the garden.

The older woman frowned. "Look," Tiara said, pointing to the ground between the rows of cabbages.

Puzzled, Symiss looked at the ground. A few green sprouts showed along the ridge of soil between the cabbage plants she had worked up three days before.

"Weeds," Tiara announced.

Weed sprouts, sure enough, but scarcely enough to notice, thought Symiss. Surely Tiara would not make an issue of them. But then again, few things seemed too small for Tiara to notice when she was in the mood. An idea flitted across her mind—That time of the month. She could have smiled, but that might make Tiara angry—or angrier. Other insolent thoughts bubbled into her head, thoughts that would get her beaten. But Oyia had taught Symiss well how to act like a good slave. She stood there submissively, saying nothing, with her eyes downcast, waiting for whatever Tiara had to say.

"I distinctly remember telling you to weed between the cabbages."

"Yes, m'lady, and I did. Three days ago."

Although she did not look up, Symiss knew Tiara's frown had turned into a scowl. "You mean to tell me those weeds have grown that much in three days?"

"Yes, m'lady. Rain makes weeds grow fast." Symiss kept her words simple. She was Pig Girl, and Pig Girl had few words. Her real thoughts were more eloquent and pointed—and private. Pig Girl had to work hard, but it was honest work. A slave could be forced to do much worse.

"Well, it needs weeding again." Tiara almost shouted as if that would help the thick-witted Pig Girl understand. "You're as much use as an udder on a bullock. I don't know why we bought you in the first place. I have to tell you everything and tell it to you twice."

"Do it now, or finish the turnips?" Symiss asked. She judged Tiara to be at a simmer, rather than a boil. A request for clarification would be an annoyance rather than an affront.

"Oh, bother. Finish up your picking, but be sure you get back to the weeds before supper."

Supper would be late again, but that scarcely mattered with what the house slaves were fed. At the best they got the cold leftovers from the family meals, but most often it was just kitchen scraps.

#

Later that evening, Symiss got another chance to eat.

"Pig Girl?" The tentative call sounded just outside the female slaves' hut, where Symiss, Oyia, and Thalae slept. "Slave? I need my fortune told."

Symiss blinked her eyes open and smiled. She recognized Leedee's voice. The Webberoths' nineteen-year-old daughter was quite different from her older sister. Leedee was a few years younger than Symiss, and Symiss had cultivated an air of mysticism when she was around Leedee. In the thirteen years Symiss had been on the Webberoths' farm, she had convinced Leedee that she was a seer.

The other women were on their mats but not asleep. Oyia looked up and smiled wryly. "You get to tell fortunes," she whispered to Symiss, "while I have to go fuck old Orret. How is that fair?" Oyia, three years older than Symiss, had been here when Orret Webberoth had purchased Symiss and brought her back to the farm. Oyia had taken Symiss under her wing, explained everything. Orret took his ownership rights into the bedroom with Oyia. That was why Symiss became Pig Girl. Oyia had helped Symiss make sure she would not have to service old Orret by not bathing. Her hair hung in long, matted hanks, and she wore extra padding under her already shapeless slave clothes to make her look stocky. But it was the pig excrement that made Symiss, "Pig Girl." It didn't take much, just a few juicy smears on her tunic, and she smelled of the sty.