“I demand she be put down at once.”
“I ain’t wasting good stock. The mines will have her.”
“I’ll take her!”
The buyer and slaver both spun in unison, staring at me. “What?”
“I said I’ll take her,” I repeated, holding out my remaining silver.
“Did you see what she just did to me?” the injured man cried.
“Yes.” I smiled coldly. “And perhaps that will teach you a lesson about sticking parts of your body into people’s mouths without permission.”
A growling noise escaped the Thracian. It sounded almost like a laugh.
“What did you just say to me, slave?” The buyer took a menacing step closer, raising his uninjured hand to strike me.
I felt Penelope press in close at my back, putting a protective hand on my arm. But then came an eerie, jangling sound, and we turned to see the Thracian shaking her chains loudly, glaring at the injured man. When he turned to look at her, she bared her bloodstained teeth in warning.
Even in chains, she was formidable.
The man’s face paled as he shoved past me. “Get out of my way. I need to see a doctor.”
The Thracian grinned as she watched him flee before turning to wink at me.
“You don’t have enough for her,” the slaver said once the commotion had settled.
“She just bit a man’s finger off in front of an audience.” I motioned to the crowd. “Do you really think you’ll sell her now?”
He shrugged. “Plenty more ports to visit, ain’t there? Ithaca is a small fish in averybig sea, love.”
“And how many more potential buyers will she attack?” I challenged, stepping closer. “I bet that man wasn’t the first, was he? And he won’t be the last.”
“So? Not my problem if those rich idiots can’t handle themselves around a Thracian.”
“No, it’s not.” I nodded. “But it is your problem if that Thraciangives you a bad reputation, and word spreads fast, especially in big cities. Tell me, how many ‘rich idiots’ will want to buy from a slaver with violent stock?”
The slaver glowered at me, then stared at the Thracian for a long moment, his jaw flexing. Finally, he grunted his defeat and moved to unshackle the woman.
“Bite me, and I’ll skin you alive,” he threatened her.
The Thracian only grinned in response, rubbing her wrists where the shackles had left open sores. The slaver then began binding her with coarse ropes.
“She doesn’t need those,” I said.
The nasty little man threw me a dark look. “Trust me, girl. This one does.”
28
“You can’t have thatthingas a handmaid!”
I massaged my temples as Eurycleia continued squawking, trying to dispel the headache that had taken root. It had been light outside when the old witch had come to Penelope’s quarters to lecture us. Now it was dark, andstillshe prattled on.
Penelope listened quietly with a level of patience I could not fathom. Beside me, the Thracian smirked as she watched the drama unfold while Eurynome stared at Penelope, likely still processing the fact that she was not a slave, as her disguise had implied, but rather the future queen.
“She is a danger to us all, mistress!” Eurycleia continued. “She could very well slit our throats in our sleep!”
“Slit throat? I would not slit throat,” the Thracian said in a thick, rumbling accent. “I would strangle. Much less messy.”
