Whenever he came, he
commanded the ever-present runner boys to wait outside. Then he would
enter in and give her tea and broth at his own hand. When Si'Wren tried
to whisper secretly to him once, his eyes widened in alarm and he
immediately put his hand firmly over her mouth and shook his head and
frowned in an urgent but barely perceptible negative.
Then after each visit, he would depart again after speaking scarcely a
word, and that only to L'acoci.
In the face of such scandalous activity, none dared bring rebuke
against Si'Wren before Master Rababull, lest they incur in turn the
thinly veiled wrath of Habrunt in his official capacity as Slavemaster
of the House. Habrunt was careful in all of this to make certain, with
every opportunity, that all saw his total devotion and unfailing
allegiance to Master Rababull.
Thus, mercifully, there were no complaints against Si'Wren, and she did
not suffer nearly as much as she might otherwise have done.
* * *
Si'Wren chewed her food, as she pretended not to notice the other
slaves filing out of doors to their day's labor in the fields. They in
turn shunned her company, for she was the despised idol-breaker, in
spite of the well-known fact that it had been Nelatha who had taken the
actual blame for this.
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