Scores of swords, bows, and spears were to be seen raised on every
hand, but no arrows were nocked and no spearheads aimed her way, for
she held no weapon herself and represented no threat to them or their
leader Kadrug. Indeed, she could only regard herself as a natural
target to them. Si'Wren resolved that she must not allow herself to be
treated as just another conquest by this lunatic mob and their leader,
Kadrug.
What if these, mad with lust, intended to take her?
Kadrug suddenly said loudly, "Who is this woman?"
Then, getting no answer but shrugs from the ranks surrounding them both
in an irregular half-arc, he said directly to Si'Wren, "Woman, look at
me!"
At this, Si'Wren lifted up her eyes, and regarded him eye to eye, well
aware that the men surrounding both herself and Kadrug were no doubt
prepared to commit any evil upon her person at the other's slightest
word or nod.
"What is this child's fable I hear from those we captured, about a
flood that is to destroy the whole world?"
To this, Si'Wren, by now in a state of complete and utter exhaustion,
responded neither by word, sign, nor gesture, but only continued to
regard him expressionlessly.
Becoming visibly more impatient, he repeated contemptuously to Si'Wren,
"I said, What is this talk we hear from our captives of a great flood?
Answer me!"
Still Si'Wren said nothing.
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