Travel and Restraint
Moving a slave is not complicated. What varies is whether she travels with someone or is shipped.
Alone
She does not travel alone, and neither does anyone else with any sense. The Fyndrecht is part of it: a slave found alone beyond the walls belongs to whoever finds her, and nothing about her collar prevents that. Usually she is returned — the collar carries her owner's sigil, name, and address, and the Oathbond asks it of the finder — but a finder who would rather not has broken no law; he has only told anyone who hears what kind of man he is. The real reason is that the country between cities is full of things designed to kill people, and a free man will not walk it alone either.
Restraint
Binds exist and are not the default. A thistle slave is bound because she will run; an ordinary slave is bound so she is not lost, or does not panic into something worse. Most travel involves neither. The word is bind rather than pose because these are done to her rather than performed by her, and where a bind is used she offers her wrists — Adreshm — which makes it a thing she participates in rather than a thing that happens to her.
- The Travel Bind
- For moving several slaves at once, and a slaver house wagon uses it most: seated against the wagon wall, wrists bound in front and lined to a fixed ring with slack to move and eat but not to reach the fastenings, ankles hobbled short. Institutional, and escape is what it is for.
- The Journey Bind
- A private carriage outside the city, for one or two: one wrist lined to a fixed point with slack to shift, eat, and sleep. Bound against what is outside, so that nobody goes out of the door suddenly. A good owner uses the least the purpose requires, and anyone looking can tell which purpose is being served.
- The Leash Bind
- A leash from her collar to her handler, walking where she always walks. It adds nothing to her.
- The Chain Bind
- A group walking, collar connected to collar in a coffle with the lead handler at the front.
What she carries
Not much: her clothing and whatever her owner has handed her. He carries the money, the food, and anything that matters. A slave trusted with the purse on a road has been trusted with a good deal.
At a Roedhaven
The Muyra is charged per head and per animal, and which she counts as depends on the gate. Most count her as a head; some count her with the animals, which is cheaper and is a statement everyone at the gate hears. Nobody asks for papers; the Sigring and the mark are all the gate needs. She sleeps where he does, and nobody at the inn has an opinion about it.
By sea
A passenger is a passenger. Nothing needs restraining at sea; a ship is the one place a slave can be left alone with no risk of losing her. The crew is the part that needs attention: her refusal holds at sea as ashore, and whether it is respected is the captain's affair. A captain who lets his crew treat a passenger's slave as available has a problem the next time that merchant looks for a ship, and merchants talk.
Shipped
A slave moved as cargo goes in the hold — a slaver house moving stock, a raider with what he took — below decks, caged or chained to a bulkhead, brought up when there is a reason. The bind matters at transfer, when someone goes over the side. Conditions vary by ship and captain, and there is a floor under all of them that is not commercial: a captain who has taken people into his hold has taken on their keeping, and a hold full of sick people says what his Oathbond means to everyone on the quay when he opens it. The Iron Coves has no magistrate for this and does not need one; what it has is men on a quay who can see what came out.