Joust Author:Mercedes Lackey Vetch was an Altan serf. Day after day he heaved heavy leather water buckets under the pitiless glare of the sun--buckets far too heavy for his slight, nearly starved young frame. Vetch was tied to the land, not to his Tian master, but his treatment was seven worse than that of a slave, for a slave would be valued as property and shielded from ... more »extreme abuse by that value. Vetch was only worth the work that his master beat out of him week after blistering week, month after grueling month.« less