A single warrior fell out of formation, gestured the quintet into a little knot before him, and pointed the way down a side avenue. The warrior captain, smirking with satisfaction, spurred his company on its journey.
An hour later all five were parcels of merchandise in the slave mart of Imperial Khundru.
CHAPTER XVIII
The Control Tower
Standing there in the slave mart of Imperial Khundru, Gary Lane realized—as millions of his human brethren had discovered in past ages—that it is one thing to experience an emotional uprising when reading about a situation, but quite another to be involved in that situation yourself.
In his university history classes Gary had read of the day when unenlightened Earthmen enslaved their human brothers, offering their flesh and services to hire on the auction block. From a purely rational standpoint he had disapproved of this barbaric custom, in this age happily abandoned. But now, here on a planet inconceivably far from the little world called Earth, he himself was not only witnessing such a deal in human wares but was, indeed, one of the chattels to be auctioned!
As his mind busied himself with abortive plot and speculation, his eyes roved covertly about his surroundings. He saw the raised central dais upon which a lean and hawknosed auctioneer singsonged the merit of a thick-thewed and filthy serf. He saw the encircling throng of bidders, Magogeans ranging through all walks of life from the lowest freedmen land-owners, through the merchantmen exporters, to the elaborately caparisoned lords and nobles who lolled in their scented boxes, raising listless fingers in token of bid when an offering took their fancy.
What turn this contretemps would take he could not guess. But he was not left long in wonderment. For the warrior into whose hands they had been placed was impatient to rejoin his troop; with a stern command that his charges await his return, he shouldered his way through the mob to the auction block.
As soon as he had gone, Lark turned to Gary, a question in his eyes.
"Make a break for it?"