Spirit Case

The tent held a camp bed, with a single olive blanket folded on it. Daylight streamed through clear bands in the grey-green walls; the slick floor bore the imprint of muddy, booted feet. A stack of unopened camp furniture packs stood to one side, bearing General Yu‘s indigo seal. A small girl, ten or eleven years old, sat on the bed where the soldiers had left her, looking around her vaguely; listening to the tramp and bustle of a great military camp. Through the clear bands she could glimpse rocky slopes and distant crags that seemed familiar in a general way, but she didn‘t know where she was.

The tent door was opened, and a troop of different soldiers appeared. They stood to attention as a woman with stars on the shoulders of her uniform came in. This was Lady Nef, the wife of the General: someone of considerable rank in her own right. The captive, obeying instinct, quickly got down, knelt on the floor and pressed her forehead to the groundsheet. Lady Nef was a tall woman, dark-haired and still beautiful in middle age. She knelt and raised the girl up, so that she could see her face.

The woman and the child looked at each other.

‗Your name is Gwibiwr?‘

‗It is Gwibiwr. But I am called Bibi.‘

‗I offer you a choice,‘ said Lady Nef, in Bibi‘s own language. ‗You may join my husband‘s household, and become his concubine. That‘s the way of the world, we can‘t fight it. You will be kindly treated, as long as you are still a child. After that, it‘s a competitive life, but a decent career for you, with the opportunity of gaining status. If you bear my husband a child, especially a child with desirable traits, even better.‘

Lady Nef paused for a response. She was not sure if the girl was taking in anything that was said to her.

‗Or you may join my household. You will become a servant,