Another explosion filled the air and Silas dusted off his hands. He must have gotten the last of them.
“Watch out!” Brigid screamed.
A moment later there was a loud thud. Yaz spun to see Brigid standing over the barge master. He had a small hand crossbow beside him.
“Thanks.” Yaz crossed the deck and kicked the crossbow aside. He bent and checked the man’s pulse. Still alive. Good, he had plenty of questions.
Yaz kicked the pirate whose head he bashed in over the side of the barge. The rest of the passengers had finally calmed down, but having the corpse staring at them wasn’t helping the situation. The polemen were shoving them along again at the same slow, steady pace they always used. If nearly getting robbed by pirates bothered the men, they kept their concern well hidden. Did they know about the barge master’s deal with the pirates? Probably, but since they hadn’t tried to shoot him in the back with a crossbow, he was willing to overlook his concerns. Plus, someone had to push the barge out of this swamp.
Yaz crossed the deck to join Silas and Brigid beside the unconscious barge master. “You two okay?”
Silas nodded. “Tired, but fine. I hope these guys don’t have friends. I need to rest before casting again.”
“It was lucky we had another wizard on board.” Yaz spoke just loud enough for the lady wizard to hear him.
As he hoped, she took the words as an invitation to join them. Brigid shot her a frown but didn’t speak. Was she going to be this way with every attractive woman they encountered? Yaz hoped not, but so far, the facts weren’t in his favor.
“She’s not a wizard,” Silas said when the woman stopped beside him. “I don’t know how her magic works, but it’s not wizardry.”
Yaz considered everything he knew and came up with a single answer. “You’re a bard.”
“Shh!” She looked around to make sure no one overheard. “Yes, but it’s not something I’m eager to share.”
Yaz didn’t blame her. There hadn’t been bards in Carttoom in centuries. The only explanation was she’d come to the kingdom from Rend.
“You’re a spy,” he said.
“No. My name is Tonia and as you guessed, I’m a bard from Rend, but I’m not a spy.”
That explained why she helped fight off the pirates. An outsider in a hostile country with no supplies wouldn’t last long. People from the valley weren’t on the best terms with the Carttoom government so finding a Rend agent didn’t worry him. She’d helped them out and that was what mattered. Still, he couldn’t ignore his curiosity.
“Then why are you here? If you’re caught…” Yaz let the rest stay unsaid.
“I’m aware.” Tonia looked around again. “I’m hunting a traitor. One of the bards from our school ran away and fled across the border. We don’t know why, but I was assigned to track her down and bring her back or, failing that, eliminate her.”
“You’d kill one of your own?” Brigid asked.
“She knows things we don’t want to share with Carttoom. If she gets caught and questioned it would be a disaster for Rend. Preventing that is my job, one way or another. I’m trusting you with this in the hope that you’ll keep it to yourselves. As soon as you saw my magic, I knew you’d figure it out, so I’m not giving up much by sharing my mission.”
“Your secret’s safe with us,” Yaz said. “None of us is on good terms with the government anyway.”
Tonia nearly slumped with relief. “Thank you.”
A groan from the barge master cut the conversation short. He slowly sat up and looked around. Most of the passengers were talking amongst themselves, but the few who noticed him coming to shot angry glares. They all knew he’d betrayed their trust. What Yaz wanted to know was why.
“We need to talk,” Yaz said.
He groaned again. “What have you done? The pirates wouldn’t have hurt anyone. They just wanted an easy score. Now they’re going to be furious.”
“Doubtful,” Silas said. “Everyone that attacked us is dead.”
The barge master’s laugh was short and bitter. “You think that’s all of them? This lot was part of a larger group. They have road agents as well as river pirates spread over half of Carttoom. Their business model has changed in the past five years. Now they make deals with the transport companies.”
“What kind of deals?” Brigid asked.
“Ours was simple. Every third barge gets hit. We don’t resist and they only take scale and jewelry from the passengers. No violence, no deaths. Why do you think we don’t keep guards? They know me now, so I take the barges they’re due to rob, hopefully to keep something like this from happening. I didn’t expect to find a pair of wizards on my barge. I mean, what are the odds?”
“What’s to keep ordinary people from fighting back?” Brigid asked.
“Are you kidding?” the barge master asked. “We transport regular folks, farmers and merchants, not soldiers. Pirates with crossbows combined with me reassuring them that everything will be okay as long as they cooperate is all that’s needed to keep the people docile. But now you’ve ruined everything. When word gets back to the bandits’ leadership, the next barge will get slaughtered.”
“Then you’d best tell your employers to invest in competent guards,” Yaz said. “Assuming anyone will take your barges once word of this gets out.”
“You can’t tell anyone.” The barge master reached for Yaz, but got his hands slapped aside by Brigid’s staff. “We’ll be ruined.”
The barge master’s outburst had drawn the rest of the passengers their way. Yaz intended to let them know exactly what had happened.
“You expect our sympathy after admitting to leading a third of your passengers into the hands of pirates?” Yaz shook his head. “I don’t think so. You’ll be lucky if the authorities in Port Steel don’t throw you in chains when we arrive.”
Behind him the passengers were grumbling.
“Assuming these good people don’t throw you overboard first.” Silas grinned.
Chapter 5
Moz and his unwilling companion, Alva the bandit, had been riding southeast for three days when he finally spotted the settlement. It sat in a clearing with a brook flowing to its west. While there was no precise line separating Rend and Carttoom, this place came as close as any he’d ever seen to straddling the border. There was no way the border guards hadn’t spotted it which meant that either King Rend approved or the local fort commander hadn’t sent in a report about it.
Moz doubted the king would care one way or the other given all the other matters he had to worry about. If a group of optimists wanted to get themselves killed in the next war, who was he to argue? Moz didn’t know much about the government in Carttoom but doubted their king would be as understanding. Of course, building in the middle of nowhere probably helped keep them from drawing attention.
The settlement had a twenty-foot-tall wall made of green timber sharpened to rough points with a single entrance. Small figures patrolled the battlements. At least they took security seriously. No doubt the bandits helped motivate them. Still, though the wall might slow an attack, if a large enough force came against them, they’d fall eventually.
His prisoner had maintained a sullen silence since Moz tied him up and threw him over his horse’s saddle. His wrist didn’t appear infected yet, so he’d most likely live long enough to take Moz where he needed to go. At least his directions had proven accurate. Hopefully he’d be equally forthcoming when it came time to find the Dark Sages’ base.
He was about to nudge the horses forward when the bandit finally said, “If we go in there, they’ll hang me.”
“While you certainly deserve it,” Moz said, “they aren’t going to hang you. No one’s going to hang you until you lead me to the Dark Sages’ fortress.”
“How reassuring,” Alva said.
The man retained his sense of humor anyway. Moz set the horses in motion and guided them down a gentle incline toward the settlement. He hadn’t covered half the di
stance when the wall guards spotted him. Moz made no effort at stealth and kept his hands well away from the hilts of his swords. He wanted to talk, not get feathered.
Ten yards from the wall a guard shouted, “Halt!”
Moz reined in. A group of four soldiers armed with longbows had gathered and all of them had arrows nocked and ready.
“Who are you and what do you want?”
“I’m Moz of the Alteran Rangers. On an unrelated mission I encountered a burned-out wagon and two dead people. I tracked down the bandits responsible and the sole survivor told me about your ambitious project. I came to see what you’ve done and warn you that your enemies are planning on destroying everything you’ve built.”
The guards muttered amongst themselves. Finally the spokesman said, “How do we know you’re really a ranger?”
“How many others do you know that wear dragonscale armor?”
That brought on another round of conversation. “Stay right there.”
Moz wasn’t going anywhere so he crossed his arms and settled in.
“They’re trying to work up the nerve to kill us,” Alva said.
“At this range their bows won’t pierce my armor and if they hurt my horse, I’m liable to lose my temper. Besides, they need friends, not more enemies.”
After a short wait that felt like a long wait, the gate swung open. The guard from above came out with an older couple dressed in simple homespun tunics. As they started across the clearing Moz dismounted so he could talk without looking down on them.
The group stopped a few feet away. The older couple nodded in greeting while the guard kept a shaking hand near the hilt of his arming sword.
“Welcome, Ranger,” the man said. “We’ve been expecting an official visit from one of the kingdoms. Lieutenant Gordy must have finally sent a message to the capital.”
“I don’t know anyone named Gordy and I’m not here on official business. In fact, I’m in the middle of another matter, but stumbled into your situation on the way. Did the guards not tell you what I said when I arrived?”
“They said you brought a warning,” the man said. “I assumed it was from King Rend.”
“Bernard,” the woman said. “You’re being rude to our guest.”
Bernard smiled. “Forgive me. My wife’s a stickler for protocol. We lead this community. I was born in Rend and Ella in Carttoom. We built this place to show that the people of the kingdoms could work together instead of constantly killing each other. We hoped the example might change people’s thinking.”
Moz loved the naïveté of that thought. Unfortunately, there was so much hate on both sides, a single settlement no one knew about was hardly likely to change anything.
“As I was telling your guard, I stumbled across a bandit attack. This turd is the only survivor of the group.” Moz jabbed Alva in the side. “Tell them what you told me.”
“We got orders to meet up and attack this place. Our bosses want you all dead.”
“When and how many?” Bernard asked. His lack of panic was impressive. Moz suspected the man had seen combat.
“I don’t know, figure ten days for all the gangs to meet up and another three or four to make plans and march here. Two weeks tops. As for numbers, I’d say a couple hundred. My crew was the smallest of the lot.”
“For what it’s worth,” Moz said. “I wouldn’t plan on more than ten days.”
“You read my mind, Ranger. I assume you’ll hand this pig over to hang for his crimes.”
“Nope, I still need him breathing. How many soldiers do you have?”
Bernard’s smile was thin and bitter. “Real soldiers? Maybe ten. Triple that capable of shooting a bow.”
Forty against two hundred, even with the walls, wasn’t good odds. Moz’s internal debate didn’t last long. “Would you be interested in a hand?”
“From a ranger? Absolutely.”
“Good. If you’ve got somewhere I can lock up my prisoner, I’ll get started setting traps in the forest. The more of them we can kill before they reach the walls the better.”
“Why would you risk your life and your mission to help us?” Ella asked.
“In my line of work, I’ve seen a lot of death and a lot of little towns burned. You’re trying to do something good here. If I can help keep your dream alive, I will.”
Moz didn’t mention that plenty of the little towns he’d seen burn had been set ablaze by him and his squad. Now that he had a chance to make amends for that, he couldn’t ride away.
Chapter 6
A little over a day after the battle with the pirates, Yaz’s barge reached the last stop before Port Steel. The transport company’s supply depot wasn’t even in a town. Instead they’d built a freestanding warehouse on stilts at the edge of the river. There was a hole in the bottom that allowed a block-and-tackle system to raise and lower large boxes filled with supplies. It looked like attacking it would be a difficult prospect. The bottom ten feet of the stilts were sheathed in steel plating so you couldn’t cut it down. Considering the place was loaded with food, a siege would take forever.
The polemen pushed the barge over to the bank where a simple dock sized for a single vessel had been built and tied them up. The other passengers all looked to Yaz and his companions even though they were easily the youngest people on the barge. Since they had killed the pirates and tied up the barge master, some of the responsibility for getting everyone safely to their destination did fall to them. Yaz needed this complication like he needed a hole in the head.
The barge master sat on deck, his hands tied behind him and his ankles bound. Yaz grabbed him by the collar and jerked him to his feet. “So, what’s the resupply procedure?”
“Figure it out for yourselves,” he said. “You’ve ruined my career and probably gotten me killed. You’ll get no help from me.”
Yaz shrugged. “Have it your way.”
He dragged the barge master to the far rail and pushed him halfway out over the water.
“Hey! Whoa! What are you doing?” The barge master wriggled like a worm on a hook.
“If you’re not willing to help us, what good are you?”
The barge master looked to Silas and Brigid, but they stood silently with their arms crossed. He’d find no sympathy there.
“Think you can swim with your hands and feet bound?” Yaz asked.
“I can’t swim with them unbound. Fine, I’ll help, but I need something from you.”
“You’re not in a good position to bargain.”
“Don’t I know it. Look, I just want you to promise not to tell anyone I was helping the pirates. The owners already know, but if other customers found out, I’d have no prospects. And if the guys in the warehouse find out, they’ll hang me from the floorboards.”
“You mean they don’t know you and your bosses are in bed with murderous thugs?”
“Only me, my crew, and my bosses know. Most people wouldn’t approve.”
“No kidding.” Yaz sighed. “Fine, I won’t say anything. Now let’s go.”
He jerked the barge master clear of the railing and pulled his dagger. The ropes fell away and he nudged the man toward the dock. Silas, Brigid, and Tonia fell in behind them as they stepped onto the creaky boards. Yaz didn’t dare step too hard for fear of falling through. You’d think the barge company would spend a little scale on maintenance.
When he stood directly under the trap door the barge master shouted. “Picking up!”
The door opened and two bearded men’s faces appeared in the opening. “Phineus. What do you need?”
“Supplies for forty-three to Port Steel.”
“Forty-two,” Tonia said. “This is where I get off.”
“Check that,” Phineus said. “Forty-two.”
“Hang on.” The faces vanished and thuds from above said they were gathering supplies.
“You’re leaving here?” Brigid said.
“This is the middle of nowhere,” Yaz added. “The nearest civilization is fiv
e days away on foot.”
Tonia smiled. “I appreciate your concern, but this has always been where I planned to get off.”
“Meeting someone?” Silas asked.
Her smile broadened. “You’ll forgive me if I decline to answer. Best of luck finding your families.”
She took a step then turned back. “For what it’s worth, Rend has a policy of accepting any slave that makes it across the border as a free person. If you need a safe place you might want to think about it.”
“Thanks,” Yaz said.
Brigid hugged her. “Be careful.”
Tonia appeared nonplused for a moment then she patted Brigid on the shoulder. “You too.”
Then she whistled, a gust of wind swirled around some leaves and dust, and she was gone.
Brigid sighed. “I liked her.”
Yaz nodded. For a Rend agent, a nation Carttoom had fought a war with not that long ago, Tonia seemed a decent sort. And the information about Rend would be especially useful. Yaz had been racking his brain trying to figure out where they might hole up once they’d rescued the first batch of their people, now he had a target in mind. Not that making it to the border would be easy, but it was something.
Above them, the trapdoor opened again and a heap of crates and sacks slowly lowered to the ground. Food for five days then they’d reach Port Steel.
Chapter 7
Shade’s feet gently sank into the sand up to his ankles and the faint pressure from Jax’s spell vanished. He doubted he’d ever get used to floating out of the sky on an invisible rope. Shade started walking toward the tent city. It would have been nice if he didn’t have to start so far out, but everyone agreed a man falling from the sky would attract more notice than they wanted. So instead he got to walk a mile under the blistering sun.
After three more days of scouting, he had a pretty good idea how the tent city worked. The Sun Clan, those with the red stripes in their robes, were the largest clan and oversaw security for the city. They also saw themselves as the leaders of the gathering. Plenty of the other clans saw them as excessively proud bullies with too high an opinion of themselves. Resentment, especially among the Water Clan, which was the smallest in the city, ran high.
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