Page 156

He stopped on the street, lowered his sea-bag and took out the remaining cindin.

He broke a small piece off the stick and tucked it into his cheek.

Not much, just enough to help him look lively until he had a proper meal aboard.

Odd, how a couple nights of a near-empty belly could make even hard-tack and salt beef sound good.

For a moment the cindin stung, then he shoved it into a better position with his tongue and it was fine.

He took a deep breath past the bitterness in his mouth and felt all the world come into a sharper focus.

He tossed his sea-bag to his shoulder again and headed toward the docks.

It would be good to have a definite place in the world again.

And the Springeve promised to be an interesting ship.

As often as he’d been up and down the Inside Passage on the Vivacia they hadn’t done much stopping.

Captain Vestrit had done most of his buying to the south of Jamaillia.

Brashen had been to a hundred exotic little ports in that part of the world.

Now it would be interesting to reacquaint himself with the Pirate Isles.

He wondered if anyone would remember him there.

Midday had come and gone, as near as Wintrow could tell.

At least, that was what his stomach told him.

He touched his face again, then looked at his fingertips.

The ooze from the new tattoo felt tacky.

He wondered what it looked like. He could see the same green sigil on the faces of the others in the pen with him, but somehow he couldn’t imagine it on his own visage.

They were slaves, it was somehow not shocking to see them tattooed.

But he was not a slave. It was a mistake.

His father was supposed to have come and rescued him.

Like a bubble popping, he saw the complete illogic of this.

Yesterday, their faces had been as clean as his own.

Like him, they were newly come to this status.

But somehow he could not yet think of himself as a slave. It was all a great mistake.

For some time, he had been hearing sounds, the murmur of a crowd, voices raised to speak above the din. But no one had come to see them, save a solitary guard making his rounds lethargically.

He cleared his throat. No one turned to look at him. He spoke anyway. ‘Why aren’t there any buyers? At the other pens, there were buyers walking up and down, taking slaves.’

The dirty boy spoke wearily. ‘Then you musta been by map-face pens. They take whatever offer they can get for them, almost. Skilled slaves get bought up by companies that rent them out. They get auctioned so the companies will bid against each other. New slaves,’ he suddenly paused, then cleared his own throat.

He was a bit husky as he went on. ‘New slaves like us get auctioned, too. It’s called the mercy law.

Sometimes your family or friends will buy you, and then give you your freedom back.

I used to think it was pretty funny. Me and my friends used to come down to the auctions, and bid on new slaves.

Just to run the money up, watch their brothers or fathers break a sweat.

’ He cleared his throat again abruptly and turned back to the corner of the pen. ‘Never thought I’d be here.’

‘Maybe your friends will buy you,’ Wintrow suggested quietly.

‘Whyn’t you shut up before I bust your teeth?

’ the boy snarled at him, and Wintrow guessed there would be no family or friends bidding for him.

Or any of the others by their looks. One was a woman past her middle years.

Her face looked as if she normally smiled, but it had collapsed on itself today.

She rocked slightly as she sat in the straw.

There were two diffident young men, probably in their middle twenties, dressed in rough farmers’ clothes.

They sat beside each other, silent and empty-eyed.

Wintrow wondered if they were brothers, or perhaps friends.

The other woman in the pen was of an indeterminate age between disillusioned and hard.

She sat huddled in a heap, her arms clasping her knees.

Her lips made a flat line, her eyes were permanently narrowed.

There were disease lesions on her mouth.

The short winter day was nearly over when they came for the slaves.

These were men Wintrow had never seen before.

They carried short clubs and a length of heavy chain.

As each slave was unshackled, he was fastened to it until they had a coffle of new slaves.

‘That way,’ one of the men said. The other didn’t bother with words.

He just gave Wintrow a heavy prod with his stick to hasten him along.

Wintrow’s reluctance to be sold on a block like a cow warred with his weariness of the uncertainty of the last few days.

At least something definite was happening to him now even if he had no control over it.

He held his handfuls of chain and shuffled awkwardly after the others.

He looked around as he went, but there was not much to see.

Most of the pens they passed were empty now.

The crowd noises grew louder, and they suddenly came out into an open courtyard.

Slave-sheds ringed it. In the middle was a raised platform with steps going up to it, not unlike a gallows.

A crowd of folk stood before it, gaping up at the wares, laughing, drinking, exchanging pleasantries and comments with one another.

And buying other humans. Wintrow suddenly smelled spilled beer and the tantalizing smell of fatty, smoked meat.

There were food vendors working the crowd.

Beyond the platform, Wintrow caught a glimpse of a row of tattoo stands, all quite busy.

A lively market day, he thought to himself. No doubt some folk had woken up early today, looking forward to this. A day in town, seeing friends, dickering for bargains. A stroll to the auction to see what was available in slaves today.

For a time they were kept bunched at the bottom of the steps while the auctioneer finished with the batch on the platform.

A few serious buyers pushed through the crowd to view them more closely.

Some shouted questions to the handlers, as to age, condition of teeth, past experience.

These the handlers repeated to the slave in question, as if they could not hear and understand the buyer themselves.

One queried Wintrow’s age. ‘Fourteen,’ he replied quietly.

The buyer made a derogatory noise. ‘I’d have taken him for twelve. Push up his sleeve, let’s see his arm.’ And when the handler complied, ‘Well, there’s a bit of muscle there. What kind of work do you know, boy? Kitchen? Poultry?’

Wintrow cleared his throat. What was he?

A slave with good skills was treated better, or so he had been told.

He might as well make the most of what cards he did hold.

‘I was in training to be a priest. I’ve worked in orchards.

I can do stained-glass. I can read, write and figure.

And I’ve been a ship’s boy,’ he added reluctantly.

‘Too full of himself,’ the buyer sneered. He turned away, shaking his head at a companion. ‘He’ll be hard to train. He already thinks he knows too much.’

While he was trying to think of an appropriate reply to that, a jerk on his chain brought him to attention.

The others were already climbing the steps and Wintrow staggered up after them.

For a few moments, all he could concentrate on was the steep steps and the short chains that linked his ankles.

Then he took his place in the row of slaves on the torchlit wooden stage.

‘New slaves, fresh slaves, no bad habits yet, you’ll have to teach them those yourself!

’ The auctioneer began his spiel. The crowd responded with half-hearted chuckles.

‘Now here’s what I’ve got, see for yourself, and you decide which one will lead off the bidding.

I got a couple of stout hands here, good for farm, field or stable; got a warm-hearted granny here, perfect for keeping an eye on your little ones; got a woman here, seen a bit of hard use but still got some good years in her; and a couple of boys, lively, healthy boys, young enough to be taught anything.

Now who wants to open up the bidding? Don’t be shy, you just shout it out and let me know what one’s caught your eye.

’ The auctioneer gestured invitingly to the field of faces that looked up eagerly at the merchandise on the platform.

‘Mayvern! The old woman! Three silvers!’ Wintrow found the desperate young woman in the crowd.

A daughter perhaps, or a younger friend.

The old woman on the platform beside him lifted her hands to her face, covering it as if she were ashamed or afraid to hope.

Wintrow thought his heart would break. Then he caught a glimpse of something that made it flip over in his chest instead.

His father’s height and fair hair stood out in the crowd like a flag beckoning him to home and safety.

He was discussing something with a man behind him.

‘Father!’ he cried out, and saw Kyle Haven’s head turn to the platform in disbelief. He saw Torg beside him, his hand going to his mouth as if in amazement, mimicking his astonishment very well. One of the handlers thudded Wintrow in the ribs with his stick.

‘Be still. Wait your turn,’ he commanded him.