Toba looked at Ito helplessly. Ito came to Dura hesitantly, her hands folded together. "It really would be better if you left your things here, Dura. I think I understand how you feel. I can't imagine how I'd cope in your position. But you don't need those things of yours, your weapons. You do understand they couldn't really be much protection to you here anyway..."

"That's not the point," Dura said. In her own ears her voice sounded ragged and a little wild. "The point is..."

Toba pushed forward impatiently. "The point is we're getting late. And if you want to be successful today, Dura — and I assume you do — you're going to have to think about the effect those crude artifacts of yours would have on a prospective purchaser. Most people in Parz think you're some kind of half-tamed animal already."

"Toba..." Ito began.

"I'm sorry, but it's the truth. And if she goes down the Mall with a knife at her waist — well, we'll be lucky not to be picked up by the guards before we even reach the Market."

Farr moved closer to Dura, but she waved him away. "It's all right, Farr." Her voice was steadier now. More rational. "He's right. What use is this stuff anyway? It's only junk from the upflux."

Slowly she unraveled the rope from her waist.

—

The noise of the Market heated the Air even above the stifling clamminess of the Pole. People swarmed among the stalls which thronged about the huge central Wheel, the colors of their costumes extravagant and clashing. Dura folded her arms across her breasts and belly, intimidated by the layers of staring faces around her.

Farr was quiet, but he seemed calm and watchful.

Toba brought them to a booth — a volume cordoned off from the rest of the Market by a framework of wooden bars. Inside the booth were ten or a dozen adults and children, all subdued, unkempt and shabbily dressed compared to most of the Market's inhabitants; they stared with dull curiosity at the nakedness of Dura and Farr.

Toba bade the Human Beings enter the booth.

"Now," he said anxiously, "you do understand what's happening here, don't you?"

"Yes," said Farr, his eyes tight. "You're going to sell us."

Toba shook his round head. "Not at all. Anyhow, it's nothing to do with me. This is a Market for work. Here, you are going to sell your labor — not yourselves."

Four prosperous-looking individuals — three men and a woman — had already emerged from the Market's throng and come over to the booth. They were studying both the Human Beings curiously but seemed particularly interested in Farr. Dura said to Toba, "I doubt it's going to make much practical difference. Is it?"

"It's all the difference in the world. You sign up for a fixed-term contract... Your liberty remains your own. And at the end of it..."

"Excuse me." The woman buyer had interrupted Toba. "I want to take a look at the boy."