So far Rigg had experienced only the privileges of Wallmen, and none of their duties. They had taken the Larfold flyer to a fairly remote city, where a carriage was waiting for them, along with letters of authority and a complete set of clothing for the journey. Wallmen, it seemed, wore an unbelievably silly style of clothing involving a puffy hat and intricately arranged bright-colored straps across the chest. It could not be put on without the help of a servant. And since Ram Odin had never arranged the straps either, they spent a good deal of time in the flyer, getting instructions from the ship’s computer, until they finally got it down.

“I’m too old to learn mechanical tasks like this,” said Ram Odin.

“I think this costume is a sort of safety valve,” said Rigg. “If they make the wielders of authority look ridiculous, it takes some of the sting out of their authority.”

“I don’t see how that would help,” said Ram Odin. “And you haven’t seen yet what the other people wear.”

Soon enough he saw that every job and every social level had its uniform. The messages were complicated, but the fundamental one was this: At what level of slavery were you, and how prestigious was your owner? A single band around your neck put you at the lowest level. But what was it made of? Leather? A thin red ribbon? A gold chain? A simple string? And when the straps moved away from the neck and onto the arms, then around the chest, it expressed such nuances as your years of education, and where you were schooled, and how highly your master esteemed you, and more, till Rigg’s eyes glazed over.

The rules were all so complicated that Ram Odin was now wearing a transmitter in his ear, allowing the ship’s computer to prompt him so he could “advise” Rigg. “We’ll tell anyone who dares to ask—and almost no one will—that it’s a device for delivering medicine very slowly, directly into my brain,” said Ram Odin. “This will be taken as a sign that you esteem me highly—thank you for the great honor, O Master—and that the Lord of Walls esteems you so highly that he allowed you to festoon your prize servant with such a rare and prized adornment.”

“Which no one else in the history of Gathuurifold has ever seen or heard of before.”

“That’s what makes it rare. But you can be sure that within six months, highly prized servants of very rich slaves will all be wearing intricately decorated ear-thingies. It will probably make them half deaf and give them headaches, but . . . anything for status.”