Dakon smiled. “Surely you have noticed during your journeying that slavery is outlawed in Kyralia.”

Takado’s nose wrinkled. “Oh, I couldn’t help but notice. Nobody could fail to see how badly your servants attend to their masters. Surly. Stupid. Clumsy. It wasn’t always that way, you know. Your people once embraced slavery as if it was their own idea. They could again, too. You might regain the prosperity your great-grandfathers enjoyed.” He downed the wine in a few gulps and then sighed appreciatively.

“We’ve enjoyed greater prosperity since outlawing slavery than we ever had before,” Dakon told his guest as he rose to refill the Sachakan’s goblet and top up his own. “Keeping slaves isn’t profitable. Treat them badly and they die before they become useful, or else rebel or run away. Treat them well and they cost as much to feed and control as free servants, yet have no motivation to work well.”

“No motivation but fear of punishment or death.”

“An injured or dead slave is of no use to anyone. I can’t see how beating a slave to death for stepping on your foot is going to encourage him to be careful in the future. His death won’t even be an example to others, since there are no other slaves here to learn from it.”

Takado swirled the wine in his goblet, his expression unreadable. “I probably went a bit too far. Trouble is, after travelling with him for months I’ve grown utterly sick of his company. You would, too, if you were restricted to one servant when you visited a country. I’m sure whichever of your kings came up with that law only wanted to punish Sachakans.”

“Happy servants make better companions,” Dakon said. “I enjoy conversing and dealing with my people, and they don’t seem to mind talking to and working for me. If they didn’t like me, they wouldn’t alert me to potential problems in the ley, or suggest ways to increase crop yield.”

“If my slaves didn’t alert me to problems in my domain or get the best out of my crops, I’d have them killed.”