Chapter 19: Property
The next morning began with suffering and humiliation, which, unfortunately, was becoming a recurring story in Jin’s life.
"Again."
Jin stared at Sir Gareth and Sir Gareth stared back.
The knight’s expression remained completely unchanged despite the fact that he had been slowly destroying a man’s will to live since sunrise.
Jin adjusted his stance.
The correction lasted only a few seconds.
"That stance is completely wrong, young master."
He adjusted again.
"Its still wrong."
Jin made another attempt at clumsy adjustment.
"Now it’s worse than before."
Jin lowered the wooden sword and looked towards the heavens.
The heavens, of course, offered no assistance.
He had the urge to throw the wooden sword at Gareth’s face, if only he wasn’t old and powerful.
"Perhaps," Jin announced, "I was born for greater things."
Sir Gareth folded his arms across his chest holding the urge to ask a follow up question for which he was sure the young master would sprout some nonsense, but curiosity won him over.
"Such as?"
"Giving orders."
The knight’s face immediately filled with disappointment not with Encrid but himself because he expected too much.
Jin considered that a personal victory.
The surrounding guardians failed to hide their amusement, several of them laughed including Harun who has been enjoying this show for the past day.
Sir Gareth however didn’t seem amused, the man possessed the emotional range of a stone wall.
"Gus," Jin called out across the yard. "Come here."
Gus, who has been pretending very hard to be busy with the horses, froze mid-motion. He set down the brush, wiped his hands on his trousers, and walked over as if he was approaching his own execution.
"Yes, young master?"
Jin picked up a second wooden sword from the rack and held it out.
"I told you yesterday. You’re training with me."
Gus stared at the sword like a starved man would state a meal that he is not allowed to eat. His hand actually twitch.
Jin saw it clearly - his fingers rose an inch before the boy caught himself and pressed them flat against his thigh.
"Young master, I really don’t think-"
"Take it."
"Young master Encrid."
The voice came from behind him.
Jin turned and met with Gareth who was walking over. Something about him had changed.
The mild long-suffering expression he wore while destroying Jin’s will to live was gone. What replaced it was flat and serious face of a man who was about to say something unpleasant that he considered his duty to say.
The other knights had stopped their drills. Harun was watching with an expression Jin couldn’t read, wich was unusual because Harun’s expressions were normally very easy to read.
"It would not be wise to place a sword in that boy’s hands," Sir Gareth said.
Jin looked at him.
"And why is that? He’s my attendant. If he’s coming to the Wall with me, he should at least know which end of a sword to hold."
"That is not the issue, young master"
"Then what is the issue?"
Sir Garet glanced at Gus once. The boy had gone very still, his eyes fixed on the frozen dirt, his shoulders drawn as if he were trying to take up less space in the world.
"The boy is a slave, young master," Gareth said. "By imperial law, a slave who takes up arms without his master’s written sanction can be executed on the spot. Any freeman who witness it has the right to carry out the sentence. It does not matter which household he belongs to."
He paused.
"It would put him in danger everywhere he goes, I ask you to reconsider."
The training yard was quiet.
Jin stood there with the wooden sword still held out, and for a long moment, his mind simply refused to process the sentence,
’A Slave?’
He looked at Gus.
Gus did not look back at him.
He boy was staring at the ground with an expression Jin had seen before. It was same expression he had in the corridor on that first night. Careful, neutral and terrified underneath - except now Jin finally understand what it was he had been looking at all this time.
’He said he served the household for five years. Since he was ten.’
Jin’s thoughts moved slowly, connecting the things one by one.
The way Gus always ate alone, even during the training by the storage shed while even the servants sat together. The way he stood when Jin sat beside him, as if sitting beside him was a crime. The way he has answered -
You’ll need someone to attend to you at the wall.
They were not a choice, but something he had to do because Gus was not a freeman - he was by the definition of his word a slave - a property that belonged to someone else.
’He didn’t follow me because he was loyal.’
The realization settled in Jin’s stomach like a stone.
Jin lowered the wooden sword.
"Whose slave is he?" he asked quietly. "The household’s?"
"No, young master." Sir Gareth’s voice was even. "Yours. He was purchased under your name five years ago. He is your personal property."
’Mine?’
Jin looked at Gus again.
The boy had followed him on this journey because he had no choice, because he was Encrid’s property. He never asked whether he wanted to go to the wall, because nobody would ask the pack horse if it wanted to carry the goods.
Jin felt terrible.
It is not that he was a saint and didn’t like this slavery - for him, being a reader of the very novel he currently lives in - he had already expected the cruelties that the author had explained.
He felt terrible because the target of that cruelty was just a fifteen year old boy.
What things must he have experienced as a child? What must have left him as a slave so young?
And to think Encrid Gannon had brought a human being the way a man buys a coat.
"I see," Jin drew in a deep breath.
His voice came out flat and calm.
"Sir Gareth. What is the procedure for freeing a slave?"
✦ ✦ ✦