"Arlene," I said.

"Yes, Master," she said.

"Is it a slave girl's first duty to be interesting?' I asked.

"No," she said. "That is a concern of free women."

"What is the first duty of a slave girl?" I asked.

"To be pleasing to the master," she said.

"Let that be your concern," I said.

"Yes, Master," she said.

Then the lovely slave bent again to her sweet task.

22.

Imnak And I Hunt Sleen; We Consider The Nature Of The World "Over there," said Imnak, indicating the place in the water.

"Yes," I said.

I laid the two-headed paddle on the leather of the kayak behind me. I pulled off the mitten on my right hand and held it in my teeth. I picked up the beaded throwing board and the light harpoon, and fitted the harpoon shaft into the notch on the throwing board. The harpoon had a foreshaft of bone, with a bone .liead and point. A light rawhide line, of twisted tabuk sinew, ran to the head. In a flat. rounded tray directly before me, on the leather, there were coiled several feet of this line. At my right, alongside the outer edge of the circular wooden frame, bound with sinew, within which I sat, lay the long lance.

"There," whispered Imnak, in his own kayak, a few feet from that which I was using, which belonged to Akko.

The head of a sleen, glistening, smooth, emerged from the water. It was a medium-sized, adult sea sleen, some eight feet in length, some three to four hundred pounds in weight.

I had missed four sleen in a row and I was not too pleased with my performance.

I looped some of the line loosely over the palm of the mitten on my left hand.

I tried to keep the stem of the kayak pointing roughly toward the beast in the water. One does this, when not using the paddle, by moving one's legs and body inside the frame.

The head of the sleen disappeared beneath the water. I put down the harpoon and throwing board; I took the mitten which I had held between my teeth and pulled it back on. It had two thumbs, like the one on my left hand. They were paddle mittens. When they are worn on one side they may be turned to the other.

"You are too slow, Tarl, who hunts with me," said Imnak.

"Last time," I said, "I was too hasty."

"Yes," Imnak agreed, "last time you were too hasty."

"The kayak moved," I said.

"You should keep it steady," said Imnak.

"Thank you, Imnak," I said. "That would not have occurred to me."

"What are friends for?" asked Imnak.

"Imnak!" I cried. His kayak had suddenly flipped over and was bottom side up in the chilled water. In an instant, however, it was right side up again. Water was running from the kayak and Imnak's gutskin jacket. "It is too dark to see under the water," he said.

"You did that on purpose," I said.

"Yes, someone is a big show-off," he said, grinning. He was in a good mood. He had taken two sleen which now lay near us in the water. With a tube he had blown air under the skin of the sleen and, with wooden plugs, closed their wounds. This served to keep the animals afloat. When he returned to shore he would tow them behind his kayak.

"It is difficult to throw from a sitting position;" I said, "and I am not used to the throwing board."

"It is lucky for the sleen that you are here," said Imnak. "Otherwise it might be dangerous for them."

"With encouragement such as you afford," I said, "doubtless I shall soon become a great hunter of sea sleen."

"Perhaps you are not friendly enough to the sea sleen," said Imnak. "Perhaps they think you do not like them."

It had not hitherto occurred to me that one might like sea sleen.

"Perhaps that is the trouble," I admitted.

"Talk to them, be friendly," said. Imnak. "Coax them. They like to be coaxed."

"They would cheerfully permit themselves to be harpooned by someone who is friendly to them?" I asked.

"Would you like to be harpooned by someone who was an enemy?" asked Imnak.

"No," I said, "but I would not like to be harpooned by someone who was a friend either."

"But you are not a sea sleen," said Imnak.

"That is true," I admitted.

"Come now," said Imnak, "would you not prefer to be harpooned by a friend rather than an enemy?"

"I suppose so," I said, "if I had my choice."

"There you are!" said Imnak triumphantly.

"But I would not like to be harpooned by either," I reminded him.

"But," Imnak reminded me, "you are not a sea sleen, are you?"

"No," I granted him. That seemed incontestable. It was sometimes difficult to enter into disputation with Imnak.

"Be friendly," said Imnak. "Do not be a sour fellow. Do not be morose. Be outgoing!"

"Hello, Sleen!" I called.

"Good," said Imnak. "That is a start."

"How do you do this?" I asked.

"Listen," said Imnak. He spoke out, over the icy waters. "Tal," said he, "my lovely brothers, my dangerous brethren. How beautiful and strong you are. How fast you swim. And your meat is so good in soups. I am Imnak, only a poor hunter. I would like very much to harpoon you. I have a little harpoon here who would like to see you. I would take it as a great honor if you would let me harpoon you. I would be very grateful."

"That is the silliest thing I have ever heard," I told Imnak.

"How many sleen have you harpooned today?" asked Imnak.

"I have harpooned no sleen today," I said.

"I have harpooned two," said Imnak. "Try it."

"Very well," I said. I wondered if I had been on the water too long. Sometimes there is an affliction which affects those in kayaks though it is usually the case when it is clearly daylight and the rocking, the endless waiting, the reflections off the water, make one suddenly lose all sense of time and place, and one seems lost in nothingness, and then one must sing or scream, and strike the water with the paddle, or go mad and die, sometimes cutting one's own kayak to pieces.

I. looked out over the water. "Greetings, lovely sleen," I said. "I have been out here a long time waiting for you. I would certainly like to harpoon one of you. If you could see your way clear to coming over and being harpooned, I would certainly appreciate it."

"Not bad," said Imnak.

"Arlene would like to have something for a soup," I said. "Do you think you could help me out?"

"Now you are catching on," said Imnak.

"I admire you very much, you long, sleek swimmers," I said. "You are very beautiful and strong, and you swim like lightning." I looked at Imnak. "How was that?" I asked.

"Splendid," said Iinnak. "Look out!" he cried.

The sleen had risen up under the kayak and It lifted a yard from the water and tumbled from the surfacing back of the glistening, wet mammal. I and the craft, one functional unit, slipped from the animal's back and fell sideways into the water. I wrenched myself to the side and righted the light, narrow vessel. The sleen shook itself in the water and then snapped away some yards from the kayak. My face felt frozen from the sea water freezing on it. I jerked a mitteu off and rubbed my eyes. I still held the paddle but the harpoon and lance were in the water.

"You see," said Imnak, "you are catching on."

I spat out some water.

"There is the sleen," said Imnak, pointing.

I looked out across the icy water, where he had pointed. To be sure, there was the head of the sleen, about a quarter emerged, the eyes and nose flat with the water. What I could see of the head seemed very large. It was eighteen inches or more in breadth. I pulled the mitten back on. My hand was cold.

"I think he likes you," said Imnak.

I drew the harpoon toward me by the line fastened to the kayak.

"Do not move too swiftly," said Imnak, "lest he charge and kill you."

"It is well he does not dislike me," I said. "Otherwise I might he in real danger."

"Oh, oh," said Imnak.

"What is wrong?" I asked.

"Perhaps you should not have talked to that sleen," said Imnak.

"Why not?" I asked.

"That, I think, is a rogue sleen," said Imnak. "It is a broad-head, and they are rare in these waters in the fall. Too, see the gray on the muzzle and the scarring on the right side of the head, where the fur is gone?"

"Yes," I said.

"I think it is a rogue," he said. "Also, see the way he is watching you."

"Yes," I said.

"I think it has been hunted before," he said.

"Perhaps," I said. Generally a sleen watches you warily and then, as you approach, submerges. Normally, though it is swift to attack an object moving about in the water, like a swimmer, it will not attack a vessel. Its attack instincts are apparently not triggered by that configuration, or perhaps there is no stimulating smell or familiar pressure patterns, such as it would commonly associate with its prey or a vulnerable object, in the water, from the passage of the craft and the stroke of the paddle. This sleen, however, did not seem to be watching us warily. Rather there was something rather menacing in its attitude.

"Hello, Sleen," I said.

"Do not be silly," said Imnak. 'That is a very dangerous animal."

"Am I not supposed to talk to it?" I asked. I thought I might give Imnak back a bit of his own medicine.

"One must be careful what sleen one talks to," said Imnak. 'There is a time to talk and coax, and a time to be quiet."

"I see." I said, smiling.

"You may talk to it if you wish," said Imnak, "but I would not do so if I were you."

"Why not?" I asked.

"It might listen," he said.

"Is that not the point?" I asked, chuckling.

"That is one sleen you would just as soon not have listen to you," said Imnak. "That is a rogue broad-head, and I think he has been hunted before."

"One must be careful what sleen one takes up with," I said.

"Precisely," said Imnak.

I fished the lance out of the water. I now had both. the lance and the harpoon beside me.

"Arlene would like something for a soup," I said to the sleen. "Can you help me out?"

"Be silent." whispered Imnak, horrified.