"She's Cassen's property." Annora pressed her ear to the dank wood of the door, desperate to hear more of the conversation that would determine her fate. "So she is," came the voice of the viler man. "And even more reason for us to have a taste. I'd give her a lesson in obedience that cockless daint is unable to teach." As best Annora could tell, they'd been sailing for no more than three days, yet the green crystal seas and white powder beaches of her people's islands seemed forever distant. These foreign men spoke with a coarse accent tinged with menace. And when they had stared at her prior to cramming her into this closet that now served as her cabin, she felt their eyes defiling her. How have you been so foolish to arrive here? she demanded of herself. Annora had always wished to leave her home, to be free from her father's rage and her mother's ambivalence. Now, however, she found herself longing to be sheltered by them-not the parents she had always known them to be, but the generous, pleasant people they had transformed into months earlier. It was a front, she knew, yet she'd allowed herself to enjoy those weeks leading up to the event, her father showering her with gifts and her mother smiling with pride. What did you expect would happen when you disgraced them so horribly? That your life would return to normal? Not allowing her ear to part from the door, Annora felt around in the darkness for anything sharp. It would be little good as a weapon against the countless men aboard this ship, but she could use a piece of glass or rusty nail on herself, dragging it from eye to lip just as she should have done before. It would have precluded her from having to become one of the many wives had by their island king, and with far less shame brought to her family than the method she had chosen in its stead. She feared, though, even a horrific scar may not be enough to prevent these foreigners from the acts their leers promised. "You think all he teaches them is how to tidy things? It makes no difference, though. If his cargo is touched, Cassen will bar this ship from
