“I think slavery is a terrible idea,” said Ram Odin. “But the whole idea of the wallfolds was to see what humans would do, what they would become with eleven thousand years of non­interference. Gathuuriex did absolutely nothing to promote slavery. He only stepped in to become the Lord of Walls—at my instructions—when there were getting to be too many murders among the top families.”

“How kind of you,” said Rigg. “Maybe that would have brought down the whole system, did you think of that?”

“I did,” said Ram Odin. “But this was only two hundred years ago, so I knew the end was coming, and these feuds had turned into wars before during the previous seven centuries of universal slavery. So I sent in Gathuuriex to become the owner of the top owners. He broke up the conspiracies, ended the feuds, arranged a few key divorces, dispersed the children who were the most tyrannical to learn some humility farther down the slave chain. I thought it wouldn’t hurt anything to have a few centuries of peace in this place.”

“Why not eleven thousand years of peace?”

“I didn’t create the slave system,” said Ram Odin. “For a long time I truly hated this place worse than any except Vadeshfold. I thought of it as a failure.”

“So you intervened.”

“No. It had already stopped being such an evil place a couple of thousand years ago. But no more talking about it, Rigg. I could have given you a history lesson about Gathuurifold and heard your tut-tuts and tsk-tsks back in Larfold. We have work to do.”

“Work?”

“There are certain responsibilities involved in being a slave directly owned by the Lord of Walls. Because everybody answers to someone who answers to someone who answers to the Lord of Walls, nobody can tell his slaves that they don’t have a right to travel wherever they want. But in return, such traveling Wallmen, which by the way is your official title, function as itinerant judges, auditors, inquisitors, and arbiters.”

“I have no idea how to do that!”

“Neither does any other human being, yet we do all those jobs, all the time, whenever we get the chance. Rigg, you’re the one who wanted to tour all the wallfolds. I can assure you that if you don’t travel as a Wallman, you don’t travel at all unless you have an owner who sends you on a specific errand. And since you don’t belong to anybody, you would only have two choices.”

“Become a Savage,” said Rigg.

“Which you would not like, and which would not tell you much about how the vast majority of the people in Gathuurifold live.”

“And the other choice?”

“Find somebody willing to take you on as his slave.”

“And who wouldn’t want a fine specimen like me?” asked Rigg.