“That’s Laslo and Hambly.”
“Muties?”
“Mostly,” Brody answered. “They’re more norm than mutie, but they aren’t allowed to rut with the rest of us. The baron keeps them in the barn to shovel shit and clean toilets. Every once in a while he gives them a nonbreeder he’s all done with since once they go into the barn, they don’t usually come back out alive. They’ve probably got their sights set on your woman.”
“That’s all they’ll get of her, too.”
The crowd began chanting as one. “Mog! Mog! Mog!”
“Here he comes,” Brody said.
Ryan turned toward the orchard closest to the courtyard. Walking between two rows of plum trees, almost as tall as a tree himself, was what had to be the man called Mog.
He stood over six and a half feet tall, and his naked upper body bulged with well-defined muscles and flesh that was covered with a road map of scars. His head was shaved above the ears, and his remaining hair was cut short, bristling straight up from his head in a sort of cocomb that split the sides of his skull in two, like a wedge. Half of his left ear was missing, and his nose looked as if it had been broken several times.
“Mog! Mog! Mog!”
Mog was obviously the crowd favorite, getting slapped on the back by men and women alike all the way into the circle.
“And he’s as mean as he is big,” Brody said. “The sec men wanted to recruit him into the ranks, but he refused. Said he’d rather be a slave than a rad-blasted sec man.”
Ryan appreciated the sentiment. “Looks dangerous enough.”
“When he first arrived, the sec men had trouble keeping him in line. He broke the necks of two men the first week.”
“Why didn’t they chill him?”
“Baron wouldn’t let them. Mog’s offspring bring in top jack for the farm. Baron even gave him his own personal group of breeders.”
“Sounds like he’s got a good deal going. What’s he doing here?”
“I think he wants Krysty for himself.”
Ryan remembered something the Trader used to say and muttered it now under his breath. “A chilled man has no desires, no wants.”
“What was that?”
“Nothing,” Ryan answered, craning his neck to see the three men walking in Mog’s shadow. “Who are they?”
“Dorfman, Billingsley and Foghat. They’re Mog’s cronies and will be watching his back, like I’ll be doing for you. Stab you in the back if they can. Makes no difference to them.”
“Thanks for the warning.”
“Well, all of them will stab you in the back if they get the chance.”
Ryan nodded. “That’s what I figured.”
“Chill or be chilled.”
Grundwold entered the circle carrying a canvas duffel bag filled with weapons. When he reached the center, he upended the bag and let the contents fall to the ground. Piled in a heap were several lengths of heavy chain, an assortment of knives, a few long wooden pikes and a few rusty swords. However, included in the jumble were several newer pieces, including Ryan’s own panga.
Seeing the knife’s eighteen-inch blade, Ryan moved closer to the center of the circle.
“Back off, One-eye!” Grundwold bellowed. “You start anything while I’m in the circle, and my snipers will blow a hole through your skull big enough to drive a wag through.”
Ryan looked at the armed men in the towers and took a cautious step backward.
Mog moved closer to the circle’s center, as well, but instead of calling the man on it, Grundwold simply hurried out of the circle.
“Makes no difference to me, outlander,” Mog said, gesturing to the weapons. “I’ll chill you with whatever you leave behind.”
Ryan watched the giant man stop a few paces from the pile of weapons and wondered if he meant what he’d said, or was merely trying to put Ryan off.
“Take what you want,” Brody said. “Hurry!”
Ryan reached for his panga, slid his fingers around the handle and pulled it roughly out of the bottom of the pile.
Brody grabbed a six-foot-long pike, selecting the best weapon to keep the others at bay.
The sec men and muties also reached for the weapons, the sec men picking out knives and the muties selecting the aged swords. True to his word, Mog and his men took what was left behind. The giant took a length of chain for himself, while Dorfman, Billingsley and Foghat ended up with a knife, pike and sword respectively.