The Sword and the Sorceress

 

Lord Eberulf, bearer of the mighty Nightshadow, one of the eight Swords of the Dominion, strolled along the cobbled road that led to the Great Bazaar. He guided his horse through the busy flow of traffic, pedestrian as well as carriages and carts, that flowed towards and away from the Bazaar. The vehicles leaving the Bazaar were mostly loaded with young, healthy looking people. Only a few were in chains, these being criminals who had been given permission to work off their sentences. Eberulf's eyes followed a particularly comely half-naked woman who smiled and waved at him from the passenger seat of a wagon. He wasn't particularly in search of a new bond-servant, but the contracts of several of his servants were coming up soon, so there was no harm in keeping a look-out for new ones. Given his tastes, it wasn't as easy as picking a pretty face and shapely body, so regular visits to the bazaar in his spare time frequently paid off.

The guards at the entrance to the bazaar recognised Eberulf, and cleared the way through the waiting crowd for him. He noted with approval that the guards used no more than pushes to part the crowd. The temptation for armed and armoured men to use more force than necessary has always been hard to resist, and was often a trigger for peasant discontent. Once through the tall stone arch of the gate he turned left, away from the area assigned to labourers and servants, as well as convicted criminals. There were much fewer people moving in this direction, and a glance at the posters on the walls displaying yesterday's high contract prices explained this relative lack of custom. The bond contracts on offer in this area were for skilled services of all kinds, ranging from tutors to sexual companions, this latter being what had drawn Eberulf today. He strolled past collections of gaily decorated tents, decorative pavilions and smaller individual temporary cubicles set up by the labour agents who acted as the salesmen and contract managers for the people who desired to become bond-servants. Unlike all the other lands in the known world, the Dominion did not allow legal slavery. Bond-servants were bound by their contracts for a fixed period which could not be extended. Instead, the servant had to be deemed free in compliance with a set of rules according to the law, before they could enter into a new contract.