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“Do I?” he asks.

“Yep,” replies Miko. “Now, let’s go back to the others.”

James gets a slight panicked look at the though of others seeing him like this, but what else can he do? Face slightly red, he follows Miko out of the room and then over to the room where the others wait. He hesitates just a moment before entering behind him.

Every eye is on him and he feels very self conscious. “Well?” he asks.

“Remarkable,” Aleya says. “If I didn’t know it was you, I wouldn’t have recognized you.” The others nod their agreement.

“Are you ready?” the young man asks.

“No,” he replies. “But let’s just get this over with.”

The young man moves toward the door and James steps aside to let him pass. “Be back as soon as I can,” he tells them.

“Good luck,” offers Shorty.

As he leaves the room and closes the door behind him, James turns to follow the young man.

“Just keep your eyes down and follow me,” he says.

“What if someone tries to speak to me or stop me?” he asks.

“One person isn’t likely to accost or bother another person’s slave without their approval beforehand,” the slave explains. “That would be a severe breach of etiquette. In fact, depending on whose slave it is, there could be more serious repercussions.”

Descending the stairs, James hears the noise from the common room. In his loincloth, he feels very exposed. If it wasn’t for the mixture Brother Willim put on him to darken his complexion, he’s sure his skin would be beet red in embarrassment. Stepping off the bottom step, he follows the slave as he skirts the edge of the common room and leaves through the back door. He was sure that everyone in there was staring at him, but having kept his eyes lowered in proper slave fashion, he couldn’t tell.

Out in the street, he soon realizes just how tender his feet are. Walking barefoot as the other slaves are, he tries to ignore the rocks and other hard items that seem to find their way under his feet with every step.

“How far is this place we’re going to?” he asks.

“Not very far,” he replies. “Just down a couple more streets.”

As he continues to follow the young man, he glances to the people on the street. Almost unbelievably, not one of them is even giving him a second look. He could be a bug crawling on the ground for all they care. Growing in confidence that he’s not going to be found out, he begins to relax. He even grows accustomed, to a point, in wearing nothing but a loincloth.

If this had been the middle part of the day, the sun would have burnt him to a crisp. But seeing as how dusk isn’t very far away, it kind of feels good to have this much skin exposed.

After the slave leads him down one of the side streets, he begins to notice that they are moving into the poorer section of town. The streets are not nearly as kept up as they had been where they came from. Also, the people on the street begin to get a more bedraggled appearance.

Up ahead and to their right lies a narrow alley. Barely wide enough for two men to walk side by side, it’s wedged in between what looks to be a tannery and a rendering shop where they separate fat from animal remains. The smell coming from both places is appalling. To his disgust, the slave turns and leads him to that narrow alley. Having no choice, he follows.

“Stay close,” the young man says as he enters the alley.

Holding his breath against the stench of the two businesses he’s passing between, James steps into the opening. Several times during the course of moving deeper into the alley, his bare feet squish into something soft and feeling very nasty. In the faint light which illuminates the alley, he’s not sure if it’s human excrement he’s stepping in or something else equally offensive. He tries to control his rising gorge as he hurries to catch up with the young man.

The alley grows lighter as they approach the other end. James actually tries to hurry the young man along a bit in order to get out into what he hopes is fresher air. As they reach the end and step from the alley, he takes a deep breath of air that is only slightly better than