Blinded by the Sun (Erythleh Chronicles Book 4) by Catherine Johnson Page B

then. We will set out early. I wish to see the full offerings, not just the dregs." Kavrazel tried to sound more enthusiastic for the endeavour than he felt, but the slave markets had never been known as anything other than an exhibition of the worst of human behaviour, a necessary evil to perpetuate the Vuthroan way of life.
     
    Since the blood toast was not a tradition that he intended to try and legislate against, the least he could do was make life bearable for the slaves, and the greatest headway could be made in their introduction to the Vuthroan culture. It was no wonder that many arrived expecting their masters to be tyrants; the slave traders were a selfish and unscrupulous lot. Kavrazel hoped to see that change in his lifetime.
     
    "I will send word. If they know the king is to visit, they will hold their stock for your arrival."
     
    "Bring a large purse, I expect our household to be grown by more than one body tomorrow."
     
    Shinu smiled indulgently. There was a good reason that the king's visits to the slave markets were a rarity, and it was not because of the time-consuming burden of his duties.
     
    "You are a good man, Sire," Shinu said gently.
     
    Kavrazel spoke the only truth he was halfway certain of. "I am merely a good king."
     
     

Chapter Seven
     
    She had been right about Seff's preferential treatment of her driving an incontrovertible wedge between her and her fellow captives. All of them, even the ones who were mere wisps of the women that they had been, looked on her with scorn and hatred. The group had divided into two parts. One might have supposed that it would have divided into the strong and the weak, but that had not been the case; it had divided into Lyssia versus everyone else. She had grown thin through lack of food, and weak through lack of exercise.
     
    Having to remain awake to avoid being stabbed in her sleep had taken its toll. The girls fashioned weapons from whatever scraps they could find, often working on them for days. Sometimes they tried to use them against their tormentors, but that never ended well. For the most part, they reserved their illicit blades for Lyssia. Some seemed to wish more to maim her, as if destroying her worth and rendering her at their level would grant more satisfaction than her death. Lyssia had learned to arm herself, and to fight, even with her limited range of movement. She felt as though she might be losing her wits and all her senses. Everything had a veneer of unreality, everything except pain.
     
    The journey to Vulc, the capital of the country, had been no less horrendous than any other part of the nightmare. The rickety cart had jarred her aching leg. It had been almost three moons since she had been made lame, but she was still frightened to take the splint off, or to try and walk without the aid of some kind of crutch. She hadn't been able to fashion any permanent support, and even if she had, the other girls would have smashed it to pieces to spite her. The mind-twisting pain had lessened to a grinding ache, but the progress had not assured Lyssia in any way that she would ever have full use of the limb again. Her torn skin had healed, leaving a patchwork of shiny, pink skin. It was not the first scar on her body, but it was by far the worst. The flesh was indented and uneven where an inevitable infection had taken its due.
     
    Lyssia arched her back and rotated her shoulders to work out the knots in her muscles and the stiffness in her joints. She and the other girls had been herded into a building was long and low, and constructed from the dusky grey stone that she had seen quite often on her journey through the country. It seemed to Lyssia that the glassy black bricks were reserved for buildings of higher value or importance, but there was no one that she felt she could ask to confirm her assumption. The only thing she knew for certain was that they were currently in Vulc, the capital of Vuthron.
     
    The interior had proved to be