Lord of Avalon Read Online Free

their future owners, it brought home
to them their true position. Second, it allowed the Damons an excellent vantage
point to see them, while not actually being close enough to touch them.
Touching them was prohibited, although some Damon tended to think they were
above such laws. But this way, only by jumping down into the pit could they
approach them and strict social customs would prevent anyone from attempting
it.
    “Slaves, you may look up,” Syminton intoned and as one,
forty faces, including her own, tipped up toward the men. Immediately, they
each broke into big smiles designed to attract a rich Damon.
    By some chance, Jenya was standing right below the man
she would come to know as Lord Rydah when she heard the command and found
herself looking right into his piercing brown eyes. She blushed and glanced
down again, fearful she might annoy him somehow. The lord’s expression did not
change, so she risked another look as the slaves began walking their circuit
again.. She turned her head over her shoulder to catch his eye again.
    * * * * *
    Lord Rydah, still bent over this scrolls, rubbed his eyes
and cast a glance back at Jenya. She was standing still, her eyes closed,
swaying slightly on her feet. She looked so inviting.
    For eight long rynes , he’d been waiting. He
remembered the sun he first saw her like it was just a dal ago. She had
been with many other girls, but when she looked up and smiled, it was as if she
suddenly had been the only one in the pen.
    Seeing this young girl, so shy and yet so curious,
touched him. His eyes roamed over the other girls, but kept coming back to this
small, fair-haired girl. His mind gave conflicting point-counterpoints as he
studied her. She hardly seemed the breeder type. Her legs were rather thin,
although her hipbones seemed adequately wide. She had no breasts for nursing,
although she was quite young yet. And she seemed to be intelligent, although it
could be just the way she smiled at him.
    He looked around at the other lords and saw them pointing
out girls for closer inspection, yet none chose the little blonde. They seemed
to prefer the ones with fuller hips, more developed breasts and a slightly
saucy gait or flirtatious look. Oh, these older breeders knew all the tricks!
    But not this girl. He thought maybe she had been paraded
out too soon. She seemed unsure of herself, as if puberty was too far away to
give her a hint of what she might become. He started to select another girl for
a one-on-one examination, an older girl who had nice wide hips and budding
breasts that promised to be well-able to nourish a Damon child, but he couldn’t
bring himself to point.
    His eyes roamed over the circling line of girls, coming
back again and again to the girl he would come to know as Jenya. He knew that
only if he selected her for Inspection would he learn more about her.
Inspecting her didn’t mean she was “the one”. Many Damons carefully studied
many girls before selecting their breeder.
    Rydah realized that he was reluctant to choose her
because of what the other lords might think. Perhaps they’d surmise that he
chose this thin one because he preferred boys, or because he couldn’t afford a
full-figured breeder.
    He laughed at himself when it became clear that this girl
was the one that most interested him, and he was only rejecting her because of
his shaky social standing. Here he was, surrounded by Damons of much higher
social order, and he was deferring to them without even being aware of it.
Though he swore such things did not matter to him, here was evidence that they
did.
    He shook off his embarrassment and caught the elder
Syminton’s eye. “That one,” he said, pointing to the thin blonde. “I’d like to
hold her for Inspection.”
    He purposefully did not look at the other Damons, though
he could feel their stares.

Chapter Three
     
    Lord Rydah came out of his daydream and was surprised to see
the light fading outside. He rubbed his eyes. Just a few