The refugee caravan that had originally been heading toward Paradise City was still heading toward Paradise City, only much faster than before.
The Slave Knights set down the Sand Cages in the caravan.
They were metal cages that looked like land-boats, shaped like enormous pumpkins. The cages were made from many metal rods of varying lengths. The Slave Knights carried these rods at their sides, like long-handled weapons for self-defense. When fitted together, they formed crude but sturdy cages.
The parts touching the sand were long rods, allowing the cages to slide across the desert relatively quickly, like skates on ice. This meant they did not have to spend too long in the sand driving a group of slaves onward, which could lead to insufficient supplies. And because the cages were completely hollow, they did not need to resist the storms.
If the slaves lay on the ground, they might choke on sand or get sand in their eyes. If they did not want to sink into quicksand and have both legs snapped by the twisting force, they could only tread carefully on the iron rods.
Even then, they might step into empty space, accidentally touch the ground, and injure themselves. Thus, the slaves could only be extra careful, doing everything they could to maintain their balance. None of them had the leisure to think about escaping.
The Parthians called these Sand Cages simply "cages." Of course, they pronounced it in the Parthian language.
Foreigners, however, called these simple cages made of iron rods "Parthian Cages."
For one thing, only Parthia had cages that could conveniently be dragged across the sand. For another, some Parthian caravans carried iron rods for self-defense. When the opportunity arose, they kidnapped passengers and travelers, temporarily assembling the rods into cages of various sizes to