Chapter
Thirteen: A Game of Slaves
Yishana was deep in slumber, her soft
body curled up next to mine on the deck of the Larl as we were maybe
ten minutes away from the first rays of dawn. Naomi, our first girl
was already up and was walking around the mast with the key to our
ankle fetters, for each night we slept secured to a coffle chain that
was in turn locked to the mast. No soft bed with rich furs and silken
sheets for Yishana last night, rather just the hard wooden boards and
some cheap hessian sack cloth for a covering. She slept with the
slaves you see, for she wore a collar now and was assumed to be a
slave. But her ordeal last night had worn her out to the point where
sleep came easy I think. I lay next to her, partly because I was used
to doing so often when I shared the couch bed in her cabin, but also
to look after her, for the proud pirate Queen was very much out of
her depth as a slave-girl. She dreamt delicious dreams no doubt for
her body twitched at times, her fingers grasped at thin air, and when
I touched them I could feel that her nipples were aroused. She dreamt
of men perhaps – strong men, men who knew how to treat Yishana, the
Ubara of the Black Coast, as but a common slave-girl. I listened to
her contented sigh as she dreamt, lost in her delicious fantasies and
oblivious to the harsh reality that awaited her when she would awake.
