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prize. If you care to sell later, let me know. I'll make sure the offer is agreeable to us both."
Their talk turned to smaller things, and as the man stayed at Bentol's table, no other
merchants could approach. Soon Man-karr brought the music to a halt, and Donquoan
returned to his own table.
"There will be much extra gold floating around tonight," Bentol whispered without moving
his lips. "But we should still have enough." Dion fingered the jewel pouch she had taken
from her boots and hung from her belt on a whim. It contained the total wealth of the
twins the sum of the healing she had done in the last three years since her Internship, the
money Rhom had earned in the smithy in the same amount of time, and the payment for a
tract of land beside their father's. There was some gold, two cut and two uncut sapphires, a
deep black ruby, three emeralds, a yellow taliv gem, and a few strange carvings of rare
stones done by the Ethran people. They could add those if they had to, she told herself,
questioning Rhom with her eyes and relieved at his barely perceptible nod when he saw
her fingering the pouch.
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"The appraiser has arrived," Mankarr finally announced. "The sale is open. First bids are
for "
"Wait a minute, Mankarr," a slender man interrupted, a curved pipe in one lazy hand and
a sneer on his darkly handsome face. "This is a closed bidding." He pointed the pipe at
Bentol. "Why is that dour-faced tamrin here?"
"It is indeed a pleasure to bid with you once again, Nefarg," Bentol said smoothly, oiling
his voice. "Do you not remember that I am always welcome in this house?"
"This may not be the time to exercise your poorly perceived rights, Altiss," a richly garbed
man warned with contempt.
108 Tara K. Harper
"Why, Clintner, you are the wealthiest merchant of us all. What have you to worry about?''
Bentol asked in mock surprise.
Clintner's face darkened, and he turned back to the front and ignored the trader. "I have
no objection. Let us begin the bidding."
Mankarr nodded. "First bids are for two coastal virgins." He turned the bidding over to a
small, almost unnoticeable man in gray and gestured for the two girls to be brought out.
Cheeks flaming, dressed in nearly sheer tunics and pants, the two girls were chained
together. They would not raise their eyes from the floor as they hunched their shoulders
against the appraising looks of both men and women in the room. A raider hauled them
forward and struck them sharply on the back to stand up straight; Dion's eyes flashed as
she saw how young the girls were. Why, they're no older than Kabrun's daughters, she
thought in shock.
"These two lovelies are only fourteen," the raider said, forcing them to pivot in front of the
men. "Good teeth, beautiful long hair. With ebsin not mature enough to carry a child, so
they're guaranteed to give at least three more years of undisturbed pleasure."
Ebsin, Dion thought in shock. If Aranur's sister had been given such a drug and he found
out about it...
But the raider had stepped back, and the bidding had begun.
"The bidding starts at twenty pieces," the small man said quickly, his voice droning quickly
into an indecipherable pitch. "Twenty pieces twenty pieces doflieartwentyfivepieces . . .
Ihavetwentyfivepieces twentyeightpieces dolhearthirtypieces . . .
lookattheiriovelyfacesandvirginalbodies Ihavethirtypieces-thirtypieces . . .
dolhearthirtyfivelhavethirtynvedolhear ..." The voice buzzed on, finally pausing and
snapping Dion's attention back to the front. "Thirty-eight pieces. Do I hear forty?" His
voice slowed as he sensed the end of the sale. "For thirty-eight pieces. Do I hear forty
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pieces? Do I hear forty? Thirty-eight pieces. Forty pieces. I have forty pieces. Do I hear
forty-one?"
Dion looked around, but it was not until Rhom nudged her and directed her attention to
the malevolent glare that passed from one of the men to Clintner that she figured out who
had just bid the first man up again. Clintner smiled indulgently. The other man, with a
barely contained gesture, angrily signaled the
WOLFWALKER
109
auctioneer. "I have forty-one," the small man droned on. "Are there any more bids? Going
for forty-one pieces of gold each, two virgins from the coast, forty-one pieces. Going.
Going. Sold to Aldor Copiandi, cash up front." The small man nodded to the new owner,
whose servant rose and carried a heavy purse to the front.
Mankarr gestured for the next girl to be brought forward, and the auctioneer went through
the same pitch. Bentol bid a few times, never seriously, just keeping the drone of the
auctioneer going, while people shifted and stretched as the bids went on. When it came to
the dancers, the musicians played again, and each dancer showed herself off for several
minutes before the bidding started again. Dion watched in fascination as the men and
women contorted wildly to the music. One woman writhed obscenely like a sand sucker
and was sold for forty-two pieces of gold. By the time the dancers had been sold off, the
wolf-walker's eyes were burning with the smoke and Hishn's nose was clogged from the
smells. They both felt dizzy with the cloying drugs that wafted through the room, and Dion
wished she could wear a veil, too, so she could filter out some of the smoke. Hishn coughed
and pawed at her nose. Dion could do nothing. The bids went on. Ob Clintner bid two men
up as high as they could go, infuriating them and then waving off their protest as if it were
not worth a thought. Finally Mankarr announced the last sale. Clintner remained in his
lazy pose, but his eyes sharpened when the three girls were herded onto the stage.
The girls stood as the first had done, their faces red with mortification and the thin chains
on their arms and legs dragging them down. They would not look up, and the raider had to
yank their faces forward for the men to see. They were beautiful girls, and the healer felt
pity for them, wishing she could give them some comfort.
Beside her, Hishn growled deep in her throat, and Dion caught her uneasy thought. This
place smells more and more like a rabbit trap, the Gray One warned.
But the auctioneer was still talking. ". . . such beauty already in girls so young. They are as
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