The possibility that she was a runaway slave seemed certain.
“Oh really? Looking for your Master?” the guard who was questioning her yelled in her face.
“Yes.”
“And how were you going to find him with your eyes shut?” the second guard mocked, he was purposely roughing her, by her wrist, to expose more of what was beneath her cloak.
“I─”
“I’m asking you again, what’s your Master’s name? Where is he from? Speak.”
“How did you end up here? Don’t lie to me bitch.”
Cotiso stepped in. “What’s going on?”
“Mr. Cotiso, we found this one sleeping on the side of the road.”
The other guard confirmed, “A runaway slave.”
“No. Not a runaway! I’m lost. Really. I swear!”
The girl’s accent was clearly Dacian but she had a real hard time getting the words out of her mouth as if her tongue was made of stone.
Cotiso attributed it to her fear. “Calm yourself child,” he said. “What’s your Master’s name?”
“She says she doesn’t know!”
“How can you not know your own Master?” He came closer but had to cover his nose right away. “Good gods!” The girl’s cloak stank with the awful stench of rotten leather.
“Master, he bought me─”