Charmian writes: #Are they really serfs though? I thought they were peasants and just #required to pay taxes. _Athyra_, page 198 (Ace edition , printed April 1993; Chapter 15): [Vlad to Savn, a Teckla peasant boy:] "[...] First of all, the only reason you think he's so wonderful is because you know people from Bigcliff, who have a real scum of a Dzurlord. So what makes your Darin so great is that you have someone horrible to compare them with. As I recall, you weren't very impressed when you learned that I could have done worse things to you than I did, and you were right. As far as I'm concerned, saying someone could be much worse is not much of a recommendation." Savn shook his head. "But he's never done anything to us." Vlad's eyebrows twitched. "Doesn't he come by and pick the best portion of your crop, and take it for himself?" "Well of course, but that's just --" -------- Yes, all we have here literally is taxes, but I think it plainly implied that there's a lot more. -- Mark A. Mandel http://cracksandshards.com a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website [This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]