Steps on the deck alerted him to someone’s approach and when he turned, he found Brigid a few feet behind him. She smiled and sidled up beside him. “Dorthy invited us to dinner at her daughter’s farm. I don’t know about you, but a home-cooked meal sounds good to me.”
“Sure, but will her family complain if she shows up with three total strangers?”
“She says not. Apparently, they always cook a large evening meal, so a few extra mouths won’t be a problem. Anyway, Tom, he’s the son-in-law, enjoys company. Likes to brag about how well his farm is doing from the sounds of it. Seems a small price for a free meal.”
Yaz suspected that spending one last evening chatting with her friend interested Brigid at least as much as the food. “Did you talk to Silas yet?”
“No.” She cleared her throat. “I already accepted on our behalf. You don’t think he’ll be mad?”
“Nah, but he might not feel like going either.” Yaz shrugged. “I’ll talk to him. Even if he prefers to stay at the inn, I’ll be happy to join you.”
She gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Thanks.”
Yaz smiled and watched her hurry back to Dorthy and start chatting again. Looked like she’d gotten over being mad at him for killing his former master. That came as a relief since it felt weird having her angry. Hopefully the food would be good.
They were a hundred yards out from the dock when Silas’s game finally broke up. The wizard scooped up his winnings and joined Yaz in the front of the barge. A group of locals stood waiting for them to tie up. Probably people picking up family from upstream.
“How’d you make out?” Yaz asked.
“I finished the trip up ten scales. Hardly earth-shaking money, but better than being down. I wasn’t even the big winner. One of the other guys won twenty. What’s the plan for our one day in port?”
“Funny you should ask. Brigid accepted a dinner invitation from her new best friend at her daughter’s farm. You in?”
Silas shrugged. “Why not? We’ll need to get rooms first though. With this many people arriving in town all at once, the inns will fill up fast.”
“You’d think a town built on barge trade would have plenty of rooms for rent,” Yaz said.
“No, build too many inns and you can’t charge as much for the rooms. Supply and demand, you know.”
And Yaz thought he was cynical. Silas put him to shame. Either way, it wouldn’t take long to find lodging. As the barge pulled up to the docks, he could already see three inns waiting for them.
It was early evening when Yaz stopped at the end of the gravel walk leading up to a neat farmhouse. It had nothing on Randall’s manor, but it still looked like a nice place. Two stories with a red roof and white siding, glass windows and a brass weather vane. A cozy place to raise a family. Beyond the house stood a matching barn nearly twice as big, a long house for the workers, a storage shed, and acres of fields filled with waist-high, deep-green plants Yaz couldn’t identify from a distance. Dorthy hadn’t been exaggerating when she said her son-in-law had a successful farm.
Brigid led the way down the path to the front door where she knocked. A few seconds later the door opened revealing a woman in her mid-twenties who looked like a younger version of Dorthy. The woman smiled, showing a lot of straight white teeth. She wore a blue-and-white dress with a white apron over it.
“You must be Brigid,” she said. “Mother hasn’t stopped talking about you since she arrived. It was very nice of you to keep her company on the barge. I know she often finds the long trip tedious. Please come on in.”
“And you have to be Anna,” Brigid said. “Your mother told me all about you and your husband.”
“I hope she didn’t say anything too embarrassing.”
She stepped aside to let them enter and Yaz followed Brigid inside. The smell of stew filled the air and he breathed deep. This would be a fine meal, he could almost taste it. The inside of the house had a rustic but welcoming feel. On the right was a living room filled with furniture of wood and leather. On the left, a long table in the dining room had been set for six with fine porcelain plates and silverware. Yaz’s parents didn’t even have this nice a dining set. They must have been even richer than he first thought. There was a door in the wall to the left that he assumed led to the kitchen.
“Mom’s upstairs with the little ones.” Anna closed the door behind them. “Have a seat. Dinner’s almost ready. Tom’s just finishing out in the fields. Harvest isn’t far off so the poor man’s outside from dawn to dusk.”
Yaz sat in a hard, high-backed chair. The leather ones in the living room looked more comfortable, but he wouldn’t complain. “What are you raising?”
“Wheat and rye. You can’t see it from the house, but beyond the fields is a pasture with fifty fine beef cattle.”
“It’s a lovely farm.” Brigid sat beside Yaz.
“Thank you,” Anna said. “It’s been a lot of hard work, but it’s finally paying off. I even got my first house slave to help with the cleaning. Tom brought him back from Port Steel with the two hands he bought. It was such a sweet gesture. Lord knows I can use the help.”
Anna turned at the sound of footsteps coming downstairs, so she missed Brigid’s disgusted expression when she mentioned the slaves. She had a worse poker face than the would-be card sharps on the barge.
Yaz gently nudged her in the side and when she looked his way whispered, “Careful.”
“What?”
He pointed at her frowning, wrinkled brow and narrowed eyes. She looked ready to kill someone.
“Oh, sorry.” Her expression smoothed an instant before Dorthy appeared.
“Finally got them to sleep. Dinner smells lovely. Hello Brigid, so glad you and your friends could make it.”
Brigid rose and gave the older woman a hug. “Thank you for asking. After eating camp food, we’ll all appreciate a home-cooked meal.”
The front door slammed and in stomped a hale, red-faced man in overalls and work boots. He’d barely taken three steps when Anna said, “Tom! How many times have I told you to take those dirty boots off before coming in the house?”
He looked down and gave a sheepish smile. “Sorry, dear.”
Tom went back outside and returned a moment later in his stocking feet. Brigid watched the scene with a wistful expression, visions of domestic bliss no doubt dancing in her head. At least she appeared to have calmed down after the mention of slaves.
Introductions and handshakes were exchanged all around. If Tom’s gaze lingered a moment too long on Brigid, no one was rude enough to point it out.
At last he took his place at the head of the table. “I’m starved. Is that stew I smell?”
“Yes, it’s your favorite,” Anna said. “I’ll go get it.”
She disappeared into the kitchen. To fill the silence Dorthy asked, “Did you have trouble finding rooms, dear?”
“No,” Brigid said. “There were plenty of vacancies. I think Silas even got us a deal by threatening to go across the street to their competitor.”
“A real negotiator, eh?” Tom said.
“I try,” Silas said. “When you’re broke, necessity is a great teacher.”
Tom grinned. “I hear you. When my parents started this farm all they had was a pair of mules and a two-room log cabin.”
The kitchen door swung open and Anna emerged with a large, steaming bowl in her hands. Behind her came a little boy with a plate of bread. He had an iron band on each wrist to mark him as a slave. He kept his head down, refusing to meet anyone’s eyes.
The moment she saw him Brigid gasped so hard she started coughing. Yaz patted her back. “Are you okay?”
“Just a hiccup,” she said, trying to cover up her honest reaction to the boy. “Is there a washroom?”
“No, but if you need to freshen up there’s a pitcher of water and basin in our bedroom upstairs. It’s the second room on the left,” Anna said.
“Thank you. I won’t be a minute. Yaz, would you give me a ha
nd?”
He couldn’t imagine what she might need help with but nodded. The two of them left the table and went quickly up the stairs. As soon as they were inside, she closed the door and said, “I know that boy. He’s my neighbor’s son.”
“Are you sure?” Yaz asked.
She nodded. “He’s got a very distinct scar on the back of his left hand. That’s him. Tom must have bought him in Port Steel when they sold off our people.”
Yaz grimaced. On the one hand, it was good to know at least some of the villagers had survived, but on the other, this was a complication they didn’t need right now.
Brigid went to the table, poured water into a white basin, and splashed her face. “We have to get him out of here.”
While she dried off with a towel placed there for that purpose Yaz said, “How? I doubt we can afford to buy him and killing the whole family to free him is crazy even for us. And assuming we free Cal, how will we look after him while we search for the others?”
Brigid tossed the towel aside and glared at him. “What do you suggest?”
She wasn’t going to like this. “We leave him where he is.”
The muscle in her jaw clenched.
“Just for now,” Yaz hastened to add. “We know where he is and Anna seems nice enough. I doubt she’d be the sort to whip a little kid. We need to free some adults first and set up a safe place.”
“I can’t just leave him.”
“In the morning we’re boarding a barge for a city literally filled with slavers. Not exactly the place you want to take an escaped slave. Plus, we’ve still got bounty hunters to worry about. If we get caught what do you think’s going to happen to Cal?”
“I know. I know.” She looked like she wanted to rip her hair out and cry all at the same time.
“We’ll come back for him,” Yaz said. “I promise. But for now, he’s safer here than with us. For all we know, the other slaves Tom brought back with him might be from the valley too. When we find out, we might be rescuing more than just a kid.”
Brigid took a deep breath and blew out a long sigh, visibly getting herself under control. “All right. For now at least we leave him here. But if there’s a mark on him when we get back, so help me…”
“I understand. If they’ve hurt him, you can have the dagger.”
To say that dinner the night before had been a strained affair would be to greatly understate matters. Yaz and the others ended up excusing themselves the instant dessert was finished. Brigid complained of an upset stomach and the need for an early departure.
Dorthy seemed to smell a rat, but no one said anything as they made their escape. At least Cal never looked up at her when he made his brief appearances. If the boy had recognized Brigid and said anything about wanting to escape, Yaz doubted he could have stopped her from doing something about it.
As it was, Brigid’s eyes were bloodshot from crying all night. Yaz had offered to stay up with her, but she insisted he get some sleep. Like he could sleep with her weeping twenty feet away. At least she seemed to have herself under control this morning.
The rest of the passengers had joined Yaz and his friends on the dock. The bargemen were taking on supplies and when they finished, the passengers would board. Yaz saw plenty of people he recognized from the first leg of the trip, including all but one of Silas’s card buddies. There were also ten new faces joining them for the next leg of the trip.
There was one more stop before Port Steel, but that was a supply depot where they’d pick up food and water. Everyone getting on board now would most likely be going all the way to the city.
When the last of the supplies had been stowed the barge master said, “All aboard.”
The line shuffled forward, each person handing their ticket to the barge master. Yaz frowned as he passed his ticket to the gaunt, middle-aged man. The barge master for the first part of the journey had been a fat fellow with a bald head, not this hollow-cheeked ghoul.
“What happened to the other guy?” Yaz asked.
“Oh, Andy never goes all the way to Port Steel.” The new barge master scrunched up his brow in thought. “He never really said why, just that he couldn’t. I don’t know. We always swap off in Roval.”
Yaz shrugged and climbed aboard. It didn’t matter who ran the barge as long as they arrived on time at their destination, but he hated when something happened and he didn’t know why. That sort of thing went against his sense of order.
While Silas and Brigid had their tickets checked, Yaz studied the rest of the passengers. As he did, his gaze locked for just a second with a woman in dark traveling clothes who was clearly checking everyone out just as he was. She looked to be in her early twenties, with long, dark hair and a pale complexion. A flash of understanding passed between them and then they moved on. Whoever she was, she wasn’t just another passenger, that was for sure. Perhaps he’d seek her out for a chat later.
“Everything okay?” Silas asked.
“Sure, why?” Yaz asked.
“You questioned the barge master.”
“Oh, just excess curiosity. It’s a curse that comes with perfect memory. Whenever something’s out of place, I get this overwhelming need to find out why. It’s annoying, but I’ve come to accept it as a part of how my brain works.”
Brigid had moved a little ways off and spread her blanket out on the deck. Considering how much sleep she got last night, she probably needed a nap. Yaz certainly did, but he couldn’t sleep during the day. A partial day’s memories just messed with his mind too much.
Silas nodded toward Brigid. “Is she okay?”
“That might be an overstatement, but I think she will be. Leaving one of our own behind, especially a kid she knew, wasn’t easy for her. It wasn’t easy for me either, but at least it wasn’t personal.” Yaz shook his head. “It makes me wonder how the rest of our people are holding up.”
“It hasn’t been that long,” Silas said. “And people don’t buy slaves just to kill them.”
“True enough. On another subject, do you see the woman in the dark blue tunic and black leather boots off to my left?”
Silas flicked a glance that way and whistled. “Best not let Brigid catch you looking that way. What about her?”
“Does she strike you as different than the other passengers? Warier?”
“Not especially. Do you think she’s a danger?”
“I don’t know. She was doing a threat assessment earlier and when I looked in her eyes there was something… I might be imagining things. Getting paranoid.”
“How did you catch her eye?” Silas asked.
“I was in the middle of my own threat assessment. She’s the only one that stood out.”
“What do you want to do?”
“There’s nothing we can do.” Yaz stretched and sat beside Brigid. “I’m going to rest. You?”
“Looks like the guys are getting the card game going. They’ll probably want to win back some of their scale. Wish me luck.”
“Good luck,” Yaz said to Silas’s back as he departed for the circle that had formed mid-deck.
The barge lurched as they pushed away from the dock. Brigid never flinched. She must have really been done in. Yaz rubbed his tired eyes. She deserved the rest. The journey had been difficult on her. On him too, but his militia training, as well as living with a warrior like his dad, had prepared him for some of what they’d faced. Brigid’s life had been pretty sheltered.
He brushed a stray hair off her face. She’d lost a lot of innocence since they left the valley and he feared what else she might lose before they got their families back.
When Yaz looked up, the woman he noticed earlier was watching him. Might as well get it over with.
He stood and crossed the barge, picking his way past passengers and stacks of supplies to where the woman stood near the rear right rail far enough away from the other passengers that they wouldn’t be overheard. Whoever she was, she was definitely more than a simple traveler. She was also pre
ttier than he’d thought from a distance and he’d been fairly sure she was a knockout before.
Yaz smiled and crossed his arms. “Morning.”
“Good morning.” She had a slight accent he couldn’t quite place. “You and the blond make a cute couple.”
“Is that why you’ve been watching me?” Yaz asked.
“No. I was watching you because you’re dangerous. You and your other friend.”
“What makes you think that?”
A slow smile spread across her face. “The fact that I’m not blind like the rest of these people. The way you two move and constantly watch for trouble. I doubt you’re even aware of it, but whenever anyone comes your way, you shift to protect your girlfriend. The other guy’s eyes never stop moving. Even now, when he’s playing cards, he’s watching. He’s checked on you twice since you joined me. I don’t know what you’re scared of, but there’s certainly more to you than meets the eye.”
“Funny, I was thinking the same thing about you. You’re not a mind reader are you?”
Her expression hardened, just for a second, then she calmed as if nothing had happened. “Hardly, just someone that’s been trained to spot trouble.”
“Then you need more training. My friends and I aren’t here to start trouble. We just need a ride to Port Steel.” Yaz held out his hand. “It was nice meeting you, Miss…”
She ignored the proffered hand. “Likewise.”
The woman walked off, leaving Yaz to contemplate one of the stranger conversations he’d ever had. It would be interesting to see what Silas and Brigid made of it when they set up camp.
Chapter 2
At least Rondo didn’t have to look through trees to spot the tower this time. Standing at the rail of the flying ship and looking down, miles and miles of shimmering desert stretched in every direction, broken only by the occasional dot of green that marked an oasis. The one-time home of the Terran Empire, the land was now a parched wasteland peopled by roving bands of nomads. According to the experts whose books Rondo had read, men who’d made studying the desert their life’s work, there wasn’t a single fixed settlement in the area. If those were the same experts Lord Black had relied on when making his plans, he was going to be disappointed.
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