Back in the streets the crowds had increased, and they learned of the festivities to be held that evening. Edvard had prepared for an argument with Yuila over the prospective night-life, but the girl stayed at Mina’s side, clutching the older girl’s hand tightly. Mina glanced at the following of children that had gathered ahead of them around a man with two monkeys. One of the animals was sitting on the man’s shoulder, wearing a hat with a tall yellow plume feather. The other monkey was doing summersaults in a circle, bringing laughs from the onlookers.

Yuila dropped Mina’s hand. “Can we go closer?”

Edvard nodded and they joined the crowd. The monkeys were no bigger than a common chicken and wore fringed vests and bells on their wrists. The acrobatic monkey did a series of back flips and then paused, shaking its head dizzily as the crowd laughed.

Yuila moved a few feet closer for a better view as more adults gathered to watch. The acrobatic monkey circled the crowd, shaking hands with some of the children. It paused at Yuila and took her hand, kissing it, then chattered and ran to the other side of its audience.

Yuila wrinkled her nose and titled her face to see Mina. “His lips felt like Makka’s.”

Mina smiled at the girl. “He didn’t kiss anyone else’s hand.”

Yuila nodded and turned to watch the monkey trainer give orders in a foreign language. The animals stood at each end of the circle and tossed colorful gourds to each other. The crowd pressed closer to watch, jostling Edvard and the girls nearer to the show. The monkeys pitched the gourds to each other, then the trainer added two more balls of colorful yarn with streaming tails, and then rings of brightly painted wood. After a few minutes the monkeys started screeching and pelted the objects at each other rather than toss. After another moment, the animals were at each other, teeth flashing and wrists bells ringing.

The crowd laughed as the trainer barked orders at his performers. Edvard looked to Mina. “I guess the show is over. Where’s Yuila?”

She turned to where the girl had been a moment ago. “She’s ... Yuila?”

“Probably moved closer.” He nodded to the shifting crowd beyond her. “You go that way and I’ll meet you on the other side.”

Mina turned and pushed through the crowd that was now taking bets on the fighting monkeys and their master. She searched every young girl’s face for the Crone, but found only unrecognizable children staring back at her.

“Yuila,” she said loudly. “You better appear this instant. Edvard will have your hide if you fool around here!”

There was no response except for a few children who shied away from her. She turned to where the puppet show was setting up across the cobbled street. She glanced to through the crowds, monkeys, and irate trainer to see Edvard making his way around the other side of onlookers. She started to make her way to the puppet theatre when a familiar form caught her eye.

The heavily robed man had grabbed Yuila, and was covering her mouth, grimacing as the girl struggled and bit his arm. Mina raced there and kicked the man as hard as she could in the leg, her hand closing on Yuila’s wrist.

“Let her go!” Mina tried to get a better hold on Yuila, but another man pulled her from behind. In a fleeting moment Mina’s scarf was pulled over her head and she was lifted from her feet. She was slung over the man’s shoulder, her cries muffled by the scarf. She tried to reach for something, anything, but only received a sharp blow to the back of her head. She fell silent, trying to remain conscious as she was carried quickly away, the smell of unwashed odor thick around her. She heard Yuila sobbing as they moved, but Mina couldn’t function enough to pull her scarf from her head. She fought the engulfing blackness for what seemed half an hour, but knew it was probably only a matter of minutes.

She was dumped on the ground, and reached for the scarf as it was wrenched away. She looked around at the half dozen men in thick robes and cowled turbans standing over her. Beside her Yuila was curled into a sitting position. They were still in the city, but deeper in the maze of back alleys amid the three story buildings. Behind the men a line of trees separated the city limits from the wild. Mina forced herself into motion, still groggy from what she realized had been a brief period of unconsciousness. She gathered Yuila close and the girl clung to her.

One of the men pulled back his cowl and studied them closely. The smell of body odor grew stronger as he reached for Yuila and made her face them. Mina tried to block his hand, but received an abrupt slap at the back of her head.

“Crone,” the man said, but it sounded more like drone with his thick accent. His glare fell on Mina. “What are you?”

Mina swallowed the dryness in her throat. “Asian.”

He repeated the word, as did several of the other men. His hand moved from Yuila to Mina’s eyes. She withdrew as his finger pulled curiously at the sides of her eyes. “You’re with the Crone?”

“Yes.”

He suddenly stood and turned to the other men. “In the third row, but not together.”

Mina and Yuila were pulled to their feet and bound separately with thick ropes at the wrists, then prodded into the opening between the stone buildings where five rows of young women were similarly tied to short posts. Mina’s head throbbed from the initial blow that had taken her senses earlier, and she wondered where exactly they were in the city. Definitely an outer edge, she thought. The two men in their escort tied their ropes to two separate, but close posts in an empty spot in the row, then another man poured water over the knots in the ropes. Mina didn’t understand this, until the men had left and she tried to untie the ropes. The water was salted, and within minutes had shrunk the knots tight.

Yuila began to cry, and Mina sat as close to the girl as the short tether allowed.

“Don’t cry, Yuila,” she said softly, glancing around them at the other hunkered bodies of women also tied to the posts. “Don’t let them hear you.”

Yuila wiped her face on her scarf that now hung askew at her neck. “He’ll never find us here.”

Mina looked to where the men were sitting at a canopied table at the city side of the wide alley. The sun overhead was still high, and she guessed it was late afternoon. The men pointed in the direction of her and Yuila.

“Can you go invisible?” she asked lowly.

Yuila sniffed, crouching near the post. “I can’t concentrate, Sapo.”

Mina saw a few of the women tethered nearby glancing at them. All were in their teens or early twenties, she determined, most curled and quiet at their posts, some rocking back and forth, hugging their knees. All were dirty and some were rubbing the loose dirt over their faces and hair.

She looked to Yuila’s hands. The rope at her wrists was wet, but not entirely soaked. “Can you pull your hands out, Yuila?” she asked quietly.

The Crone composed herself for a moment, then fidgeted with her bonds. Mina looked to her own ropes, trying to work within the few inches of slack she had. She pulled at the post until she had rubbed the back of her writs red, swallowing down the terror that threatened in her mind.

“I got one off, Sapo,” Yuila whispered.

Mina looked to her, then to the men at the canopy. “Don’t let them know, Yuila. Keep your hands together.”

The girl nodded, busily pulling at her still-bound hand. Mina watched as the girl slowly forced her slender wrist from the thick rope, leaving a bloody scrape.

“Good. Now go invisible, Yuila.”

The girl looked to her, shaking her head. “I can’t.”

Mina moved as close to her as she could. “You have to, Yuila. If you wait much longer, they may come to check us.”

Yuila lay down in the dirt, pulling her ropes and hands beneath her as she curled up. Mina watched as the men at the canopy talked amongst themselves. After a few long moments, two of the men left back into the city. Of the remaining four, two sat at the table and the other two began walking among the rows of girls.

Mina looked back to Yuila to see her fade from view. She’d never been so relieved to see the girl disappear. “Yuila,” she said barely above a whisper. To her surprise, a small hand rested on her shoulder. “Good. You can get away now. Do you remember how to get to the inn we’re staying at?” When she heard nothing, she tried again. “I can’t see you shake your head, Yuila.”

“I didn’t see how we got here, Sapo. My scarf was over my head.”

Mina sighed, trying to crouch at her post as the two men waked slowly through the rows. “Whatever you do, stay invisible, Yuila. Go back into town and try to find the puppet show or the food house or the inn. Edvard will be somewhere there.”

“I don’t want to leave you here, Sapo. What are they?”

Mina didn’t say what she thought, but took the hand at her shoulder, thinking how odd it was to hold a hand she couldn’t see. “Get out of here. You’ll find Edvard and tell him. Okay?”

A sobbing started, and Mina tried to keep her voice calm. “You have to get out of here now, Yuila. Quickly. Promise me.”

The hand slipped from Mina’s, and she heard no more crying. Mina settled closer to the post as one of the men neared her row. They all wore the same nomadic style headdress with scarf-cowls and the thick, stench-filled robes of assorted browns and tans. She estimated their ages at twice hers, and several days of dark beard hung at each chin. Each was armed with long curved swords and doubled edged knives at their belts. Mina had seen an assortment of nationalities as they passed through town earlier, and Edvard had pointed out to her and Yuila some of the more elaborately costumed foreigners, but the men now guarding the rows of women had not been among ones Mina had seen before. She couldn’t even determine which had abducted her and Yuila in town.

She lowered her head as the man came closer, his leisure gait quickening suddenly. He paused where Yuila had been, then jerked Mina’s head up by her hair.

“Where is other?” he demanded.

She grimaced at his hold. “I don’t know.”

He crouched and brought her face closer, making her recoil as much from body odor as fear. “Where is she?”

“I don’t know. She ran away.” As he stood and looked around the rows of girls, Mina glanced to either side to make sure the Crone was indeed gone.

With a flash of the knife at his belt, the man cut Mina’s rope from the short post and jerked her to her feet. He said nothing as he towed her to the canopied table at one end of the strange camp. There he threw her before the men who were seated and said something in another language. The men at the table stood and the taller one, the one who had given the order to tie her and Yuila in the third row, came around to look at her.

“Where is the Crone?”

She shook her head. “I think she ran away.”

He stooped to see her better, his eyes going from hers to the earrings she wore. He stood and addressed the guard who had cut her loose.

“Make sure she stays.” He gestured to a campfire behind the canopied area.

Mina was hoisted to her feet again and pushed before the guard to the fire, where the second man from the table joined them. For a moment she stood there trembling as the man poked at the fire with a black iron rod and the guard stood behind her. When the end of the iron rod glowed red hot, he raised it and turned to Mina.

She bolted as he stepped toward her, but the guard held her tight, forcing her to the ground. The man with the rod grabbed one of her feet as she squirmed and kicked. The guard wrapped an arm around her neck and her foot immobilized in the second man’s vice-like grip, stripping off her moccasin.

The rod end seared into the sole of Mina’s foot, ripping a scream from her. She fought the arm at her throat as the hot rod was removed and her foot released.

“I don’t know where she is!”

“Do not want you running, too,” the guard behind her said, repositioning his arm around her. The second man’s hand closed on her other foot.

The taller man from the table shouted something she didn’t understand and the man with the rod dropped her foot.

“We cannot sell a cripple,” the tall man said. “Take her back.”

The guard half dragged Mina hobbling back to her post in the third row. He retied her hands to the post and poured the water over the knot, and then left. She slumped beside the anchor, drawing her knees to her chest and holding her injured foot with both hands. For a long while she didn’t even look at it, sobbing into her skirt as the sun overhead surrendered to the far horizon. She was only vaguely aware of the voices around her that whispered among the rows, of the frantic warnings sent her way. She didn’t even realize they were speaking to her.

When she finally looked at her foot, the seared red flesh was blistered and dark at the edges and open, oozing red and white in the center.

“I’m sorry, Sapo,” a sobbing voice said suddenly.

Mina startled, looking around quickly. “Yuila?” She felt a hand on her arm. “I told you to get out of here.”

“I don’t want to leave you, Sapo.”

Mina wondered if the voice was real at all or another trick her mind had fathomed. “Yuila, you need to get out of here before they find you.”

“But your foot -- “

Mina put her hand over the hand at her arm and pulled the girl closer, still unable to see her. “They’ll do the same to you if they find you, Yuila. Promise me you’ll leave here. Now.”

“Will Edvard find you?”

I hope so, Mina thought. “Not unless you go find him. Promise me, Yuila.”

She felt the hand slip from her arm. She waited for a long moment for Yuila to speak again, but nothing was said. She sighed, inspecting her foot again.

It took half an hour to pick out the bits of dirt and sand from the wound, each touch irritating the tender open flesh and reviving the pain shooting along her ankle. She sat awkwardly hunched over the foot, trying to hide as much as possible with her scarf over her shoulders, able to move only a few inches with the rope attached to the short post.

“Cover yourself,” the girl in the next row said lowly.

Mina looked to the blonde haired girl about the same age.

“Cover.”

The girl demonstrated by scooping dirt onto her face and rubbing it in, then dusting her hair. “They’ll leave you alone.” She nodded to the guards that were walking the rows.

Mina frowned, hesitating. “Who are they?”

“Slavers. Tomorrow is auction.”

Mina felt like vomiting at the thought. “But it’s illegal.”

The girl laughed without humor. “No matter. Not to Derans.”

Mina felt more ill. “Derans?”

The blonde girl nodded. “Cover yourself.”

Mina rubbed her hand through the powdery dirt and spread it on her arms up to her shoulders. The light film of grime made her cough, but she continued, seeing others doing the same. She looked back over to the blonde girl. She was pretty, under the layer of dirt, and had added enough dust to her hair to make it hang in clumps. She kept her head lowered, her eyes rising only when the guards were in other rows.

“There was another with you,” the girl said to Mina. “When they brought you in today.”

Mina sneezed from the dust in her hair. “She ran away.”

The girl only nodded, then hugged her knees close as a guard passed her. Mina wanted to find out more about the auction, but said nothing. As night fell the guard rounds became more frequent. Mina kept her face turned down, waiting breathlessly for the guards to pass her by at the fifteen minute intervals.

She learned the increase in guard duty was not all to keep the girls from running away. There was little chance of it, not when they were securely tied, the ropes knotted and shrunken. At the far end of her own row she saw a guard halt before the last girl and cut loose her rope from the post. He pulled her to her feet and pushed her ahead of him into the thicker part of the trees. She went without a whimper, Mina noticed. She closed her eyes against the wail that went up from the first row of older girls.

So these were Derans. Images from the slaughtered wagon camp flashed through Mina’s mind. She squeezed her eyes shut. Where was Edvard? Had he found Yuila yet?

She heard footsteps stop beside her and forced herself to open her eyes. A pair of boots stood beside her and a moment later a roll of cloth dropped next to them. She looked up to see the guard that had held her while her foot was burned.

“Wrap your foot.” He turned and left.

She sighed, and used her good foot to nudge the cloth closer. At least Yuila had gotten away. She spent a few minutes working the cloth around her tender foot, wrapping the thickest part where the wound was still seeping. She tied it clumsily at the top of her foot.

Darkness had nearly fully fallen when another set of guards resumed rounds duty. Mina saw many of the girls in the rows apply a fresh layer of dirt to their faces, arms, and hair. She followed their example, fighting the tears that kept forming in her eyes.

She pulled her skirt over her legs, trying to cover her feet with the hem. The blonde girl in the next row had lay down on her side, her hands at her head near the post. Most of the other girls had done the same. Mina felt along the tight ropes that held one wrist. She had been able to loosen it only minutely. The knots were tight, but the rope itself did not cut off circulation to her hand. Already both her wrists were scratched and rubbed raw and stinging. It was pointless, she knew. Even if she could free both hands she couldn’t run fast enough to get away. She watched with despair as another guard took a different girl into the woods, this one protesting and pulling at her binds. Mina crouched lower, trying to make herself as small as possible, as many of the girls were doing.

It was nearly another hour later in the half clouded night when a set of boots paused beside her again. She kept her eyes half closed, then sat up as she recognized them. Their owner crouched next to her, touching her dusty hair. “Edvard?”

It was. He brushed her hair back, studying her face through the dark and dirt. “It is you.” He pulled her closer, murmuring lowly not to say anything. He pushed her matted dark hair away, holding her as close as the short tether permitted. She leaned against his chest, the familiar scent of balsam hanging on his clothes. As he always smelled, she thought, wishing her arms were free.

He stroked her hair for a long moment, feeling her tremble when she exhaled. She looked up after a while, her face smeared with dirt.

“I’ve looked everywhere for you, Mina. Every alley in the city. I was hoping you wouldn’t be here.”

“Did Yuila find you?”

He frowned. “You found her?”

She nodded. “She was here, too, but she got away. I told her to go to the puppet area or inn.”

He wiped the dirt from her cheeks. “We’ll find her yet.” He took his knife from the holster and prepared to cut her ropes.

“Not here,” a voice said from nearby. Mina looked to the guard who had burned her foot standing a few yards away. “At auction. Tomorrow.”

Edvard stood, holstering the knife. “How much for her now?”

“Tomorrow.” The guard looked to Mina. “At auction.”

Edvard felt Mina’s pleading eyes on him. “I’ll take her tonight. How much do you want?”

The guard shook his head. “Tomorrow.” To emphasize this, he drew his curved sword. “At auction.”

Edvard looked to the two other guards who had paused in their rounds. “Who’s in charge here?”

“Tomorrow,” the man repeated, his hand tightening on the sword hilt. “Now you leave.”

Edvard turned back to Mina. “I can’t take you now.”

She scrambled to her knees. “Please, Edvard. Don’t leave me here tonight.”

He knelt to her as the guard stepped closer. “I’ll be there as soon as the auction opens, Mina.”

“We trade Asian for Crone,” a second Deran said as he approached.

Edvard stood and looked to the man who had ordered Mina’s foot burned. “I don’t have the Crone. How much do you want for this girl?”

The tall Deran crossed his arms. “She sells tomorrow at auction. You come then.”

Mina felt her hopes slipping as Edvard looked to her. “I’ll be there tomorrow, Mina,” he said gently. “I promise.”

She closed her eyes as he touched her cheek. She knew there was no other way, not tonight. She nodded. When he stepped away she looked up. He glanced back to her as the Derans escorted him out of the row, both with swords drawn. She closed her eyes as he left the wide alley and turned down the narrower one. She folded into a slump by the post, and this time she didn’t care about the streaks the tears made on her face.