And then all in an instant it was over. My mind had wandered and I hadn't seen the last bid. One of the slavers took the end of the rope that had tied me to the other slaves and led me down off of the platform. In a fog of pain and trepidation I limped after the slaver to meet my new master. When the slaver handed me over, I sighed inwardly with relief. It was the lean man who looked like my father. Life as a slave was sure to be hard no matter what, but at least it looked like I wouldn't be somebody's pleasure-slave.

The man looked me over and then smiled. It was not a nice smile. It was more like the kind of smile a hunting cat might give his prey. "My name is Lucius Morren, but you will address me as Lord Morren, or Master Morren. You now belong to me. Serve me well and your life will be relatively comfortable. If you try any foolishness you will find that your life can be most unpleasant. What is your name?"

"Ashen," I responded. I almost gave him my full name, but something held me back. I abruptly realized that I did not like this man, and that, looks aside, he was nothing like my father. He turned to a heavily muscled man standing next to him and said, "Bring him along." The man, who had a collar around his neck and a house mark on his forehead, grabbed me by the arm and dragged me after Lord Morren. Before long we reached a carriage. A footman handed Lord Morren inside. The other slave boosted me up to ride on top. I nearly fainted as the rough motion jostled my infected leg. I could only hope that Master Morren valued me enough to have it seen to soon!

The rest of the trip was a blur, but at last we arrived. Lord Morren's house consisted of a single huge tower built not from stone, but from roughly hewn beams, with several low wings clustered around it. I was dragged inside, hardly able to walk. I was first taken to a room on the ground floor where I was unceremoniously stripped of my filthy clothes and scrubbed down by an impersonal slave under the direction of the big slave, who seemed to be in charge of things. Then I was taken to the main tower. I felt a little bit better for the bath, though not the way it was administered, but I was still in a blur of fatigue and pain.

The tower had a huge spiral staircase that wound up the center of it, with rooms off of landings along the way. Lord Morren was standing at the bottom of the steps, and when the other slave and I came into sight he set off up the stairs. The other slave followed, still dragging me along. By the time we were half a flight up I was completely unable to walk. Lord Morren looked back, and with an expression of irritation commanded, "Just carry him, Jascin, I don't have all day."

The big slave picked me up as easily as I might have lifted my little brother and carried me the rest of the way to the uppermost floor. We went inside what was obviously a mage's workroom. The room was cluttered with all kinds of magical paraphernalia, odds and ends that were very familiar to me both from my father’s workroom and from my years of study. Jascin set me down on a clear spot on the floor. Lord Morren bent over me and examined my leg. "Just a simple infection, good. Now Ashen, you are going to learn two lessons. Firstly, you will learn that I can be a good master." He placed his hands on my leg and began a healing spell. I recalled my days at the university. The words, the feel of power, it was all so familiar. But if I had ever had a chance to use such power myself, it was certainly gone now. After a few moments the spell was done. For the first time in weeks I felt free of pain.

"Now, let me get a better look at you." He looked me over, carefully inspecting me from head to toe. I had a feeling he was looking with mage sight as well as with ordinary eyes. "As I thought. You're part Ritah, aren't you?" I nodded mutely. "And you've some mage blood in there too. Interesting. You'll do even better than I'd hoped. Now, I said I had two lessons. I have healed your wound, showing that I can show kindness when I am so inclined. Now I will show that I can be cruel when it is necessary." He smiled again, that predator's smile, and I revised my opinion of him. He was anything but warm-blooded. No hunting cat he, no, he was a snake. He raised his hands in a second spell. The words and gestures were again familiar, but I'd never seen them strung together like he strung them. I tried to see what the spell would do, what its purpose was. I began to have an idea as it neared completion, and I didn't like it. There was pain woven into it, and bondage. Then the spell hit me and all thoughts left my head.

I've never had a particularly high pain tolerance. When I broke my arm and a child I'd blacked out when it was set. Now I felt a pain at least that bad. It was centered in my forehead, but it spread like lightening throughout my whole being. I writhed on the floor, screaming, for what seemed like eternity, but was actually only a few seconds, before the pain overcame me and the world went away.

I must have been out for only a few minutes, for when I came to I was still lying on the floor with Lord Morren and Jascin standing over me. The mage smiled his predator's smile, then reached down and pulled me to my feet. "Now I have marked you as my own. Look." With a gesture he conjured a mage mirror. I saw in it my own face, roughened and sunburned from long weeks on the slaver's ship and with a new weariness in my eyes, but the greatest difference was the mark on my forehead. It was a house mark, presumably the Morren house. It consisted of a golden serpent coiled in an elaborate pattern. I knew enough about such things to know that setting a house mark in place didn't usually hurt. But I knew that this was the result of the painful spell I'd felt, Master Morren's "lesson" for me.

"And here is the final seal of my ownership," said the mage. He motioned to Jascin who stepped forward and clasped a golden collar around my neck. It too was in the form of a serpent, this one devouring its own tail. "And lest you ever think of escape, or of harm to me, know that there is a spell on that collar. Unless I reset it periodically it will gradually shrink until it chokes you to death. Now," he turned to Jascin again, "convey my new servant to his room."

Jascin took me by the arm again and propelled me out of the room. There was a second door on the highest landing where Master Morren's workroom was located. Jascin opened it, revealing a room little larger than a closet. He casually tossed me inside and shut the door. I heard a key turn in the lock.