Chapter 4: The Journey to Tarnova
The wagon moved further to the City of Tarnova in Dracor, a neighbouring kingdom situated north of Ardel.
The light chat between the men revealed that Anna was captured near the border of the two kingdoms on an abandoned route.
The men were a group of slave traders who frequented the hidden or deserted roads for their illegal operations. Ardel had banned slavery long ago, but its neighbour, Dracor, still permitted it.
Slave trading flourished rapidly in Dracor, and the City of Tarnova had the biggest slave market in the kingdom. They were not only vastly used as a labour force in plantations but also pr*stitution.
As such, young women were keener to be traded at a higher price for better profit.
The journey to the city took two weeks from the border of Ardel through the usual route in Dracor by wagon. To expedite and arrive before the mid-summer auction, the slave traders crossed the border of Cassian, a kingdom next to Dracor and Galicia.
Once they trespassed the kingdom’s boundary, they proceeded for about sixty miles before reaching the other part of the border between Cassian and Dracor.
Anna, the precious merchandise for the slave traders, could only see the light of day from the small barred window of the prison wagon.
The abrasions and lacerations on her wrists stopped deteriorating as her hands were already freed from the handcuffs.
The slave traders took them off to reduce her injury as merchandise with fewer flaws would sell for a higher price in the market. However, it would take some time for her hands to heal, and they would eventually become scarred.
Days passed.