In a town south of Calormen lived a boy named Shasta. He lived with a poor fisherman named Arsheesh who treated Shasta none too kindly. Shasta always wondered what lay to the north beyond the hills but his curiosity was punished by Arsheesh who demanded that Shasta attend to his work. It happened one day that a noble came from the south and stopped at Arsheesh's home. Over dinner, the two began to bargain over a price for which Shasta would be sold to the Calormene.
