Late at night, a wagon pulled by a woman and a man on horseback, and tailed by four other riders, rolled down the streets of Ketra as it had done many years prior. It was an ominous-looking thing, like the skeleton of some long dead beast: a covered wagon enclosed with iron bars like a cage, which is exactly what it was.
For within the barred walls were a group of eight young slaves, men, women, and children, all huddled together without much space to spread out. A few of them wore strange collars around their necks, and all of them wore manacles, and they were all unmistakably Serenian with their strange-colored hair and fair skin. All street rats she and her men had snatched off the streets.
Gwendolyn, the female half of the duo pulling the wagon, always made sure to sell her stock across borders; it was easier to avoid complications that way, and easier to ensure the slaves did not successfully escape.
Gwen pulled the wagon to a stop before the inn she routinely stayed at, and swung down off of her horse, smoke from the cigarette in her mouth trailing her. Inside the wagon, a couple of the slaves whimpered, and a few were crying openly, as they'd been doing the last few hours. Ugh. So annoying. Gwendolyn rolled her eyes and stepped around to the side of the wagon to bang on it loudly a few times, hard enough to startle them and get a few blessed seconds of silence.
"Oh, shut up, will you?" she said around the cigarette. She plucked it from her lips and breathed a stream of smoke into the wagon as she stared them down. A couple coughs answered her. "Behave yourselves. Good slaves get good masters, remember that. Jessen! Karo!"
The man that had been riding beside her slid down off his horse, followed by one of the men that had been bringing up the rear.
"Yeah, boss?"
"Make sure they're all fed and watered," Gwen said, nodding toward the wagon. "I want them cleaned up for tomorrow. If any of them give you lip or cry or resist, punish them, but don't leave any marks."
She turned to the others. "The rest of you, get the horses taken care of, help these two out, and then you're free for the night. Don't get too wild. It's going to be a busy day tomorrow."
There were murmurs of assent, and Gwen was already heading inside the tavern, because she needed a drink. Hey, she knew her limits! She just didn't trust them to.
And besides.
It was one of the perks of being the boss.