Everything Begins

Chapter 51

An hour later, Frank was back in the square giving a similar lesson to the second group of thirty students. They were all women except for Mathi and two others. Sophyra told him this was because male slaves rarely lived past the age of thirteen in Grama. Since thirteen-year-old Asabya were considered men, so were thirteen-year-old slaves, and one of the favorite spectacles of the Feast of Yud’dha was when the male slaves were herded into the clearing where Frank and his friends had placed the dead bodies. Once there, they were used as fodder while being subjected to torture and torment and death at the hands of their masters. Those lucky enough to survive two sennights of this were spared the horror for two years by law. Mathi had survived his first trip to the clearing when he was thirteen, but he had been scheduled to return this year. Frank had saved him from having to go through that again, and that helped bolster the Anmah’s mood more than anything except Sophyra’s forgiveness.

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