by Allan Joyal
As I approached, I could see that someone had carried Jeff over and carefully laid him on the ground. Kariy was sitting behind his head and holding it up as Shaylin and Gertrilla slid one of our packs under him. Jeff was listless. Esme was kneeling next to him and examining him closely.
Everyone stood quietly as Esme finished her examination. She was holding Jeff's wrist and checking his pulse when Kariy spoke. "Well?"
"Oh, Jeff here isn't well," Esme said. "But he's not dying. It's pretty clear he's not had enough to eat for a couple of weeks and I don't like the color of some of the skin on his feet. It doesn't look like he'll lose them, but they definitely got colder than they should have."
"How?" Kariy asked.
"The slavers stole my shoes when they captured David and me. They forced us to walk across some snow to a cave," Jeff said slowly.
"Slavers?" Jennifer asked with a gasp.
Jeff's response was to point toward his right leg. There was a heavy leather cuff around his ankle. The cuff had a metal ring attached.
"You escaped?" Steve asked.
"Hold it," I said. "First, let's give Jeff a few moments to rest. Next, the dwarves are feeding us as usual, so why don't we all get a bowl of stew and something to drink. Heather, easy on the dwarven beer today, please."
"Awww, but it was so much fun having you drop cold water on me to force me to wake up," Heather said.
"Dwarves?" Jeff said as he raised his head a little.
"We are traveling with a caravan of dwarves," I said. "They are taking the ore they mined to a market and we are taking advantage of that. Traveling alone underground is rather dangerous I understand."
"David? Did you save David?" Jeff asked.
I sighed. "He was already dead. One of those strange cave fishing monsters had caught him and reeled him in like a fish. I'm sorry."
Jeff nodded and then looked around. "What do I do for food?"
"I'll bring some!" Kariy cried. She jumped to her feet and started running toward the sleds. About halfway there, she turned around and looked at me. "Ron? We don't have any extra bowls."
I sighed. "He can use mine. Just bring me some of our dried meat and hard cheese. I needed to go on a diet anyways."
"Ron!" Lydia cried. "You don't tease Kariy."
I nodded as Esme stood up. The nurse had a frown on her face as she walked over to where I stood. As she passed me, she grabbed my arm and pulled me away from the rest of the group.
"Ron," she asked, "will we be resting here?"
"Mertiln told me that if we stay more than a night here we'll be ambushed once we leave. The delay would only provide time for our enemies to gather."
"Enemies?" Esme asked.
"Troglodytes," one of the dwarf warriors said from behind me. "They don't mine so they'd love to attack us to steal the ore we have."
"Damn," Esme cursed.
"What?" I asked.
"Ron," Esme said. "Jeff is in no condition to march for a day. I'm not sure he could keep up our pace for more than an hour. He's got several bad cuts."
"Infected?" I asked.
"Not that I could see," Esme said. "But they also aren't healing. Jeff needs rest and food."
"Can we have him ride the sled when he gets tired?" I asked. "I know that Natalie was going to use it, but ... ."
"She's found a cute crutch to help her," Esme said with a giggle.
"Shaylin?" I asked.
"Yup," Esme said. "They talk while they walk. Natalie has been trying to teach Shaylin a bit about modern farming methods. At least as much as she understands. Shaylin says many should work, and that she knows that there used to be spells for helping improve farming yields."
"Magic fertilizer?" Steve asked.
"I'm not sure it's magic fertilizer or it somehow summons something to leave fertilizer," Esme admitted. "I only heard part of the conversation, but I guess the spells were lost when the old empire fell."
"Do you think Jeff will be able to tell us what happened to him? Would it help him?" I asked.
Esme nodded. "I'd let him finish eating first, but he's healthy enough for that."
I looked around. Gertrilla seemed to realize the private conversation was over. The young lady dashed up. Once she was in front of me, she held her hands out. "Sorry," she said.
"Ah, she brought you your food," Steve pointed out.
I looked down and could see she was holding several large pieces of jerky as well as a large wedge of cheese. I took the offered food and smiled at Gertrilla. "You have nothing to be sorry for," I informed her. "I needed to sit in on the conference before I could eat."
Gertrilla smiled. "Am I helping?" she asked.
"Are the puppies fed? Has anyone not had someone to walk next to them when they were feeling down?" I asked. "Gertrilla, you brighten up everyone's day just by being with us. I'm very happy to have you."
Gertrilla smiled and then jumped forward to put her arms around my waist. "I worried," she said. "I kind of forced you to take me."
"No, you didn't force us," Heather said as she walked up and put her hands on my shoulders. "Gertrilla, we could have said no."
"You didn't!" Gertrilla shouted shrilly.
"No, we never thought about saying no. It's not our way," I responded softly. "And we are happy to have you. You are helpful and friendly and funny. Just keep helping and smiling."
Gertrilla smiled at me. "I can do that!" she chirped before running off to find Corwar.
I began eating the meager dinner I had been handed. Heather stood behind me and rubbed my shoulders.
The meal was surprisingly filling. I had finished eating and was licking my fingers when Heather started pushing me toward where Jeff lay. Kariy was holding a bowl of stew and carefully feeding the man spoonfuls. He looked up as I approached and then struggled to sit up straight.
"Don't push yourself," I said as I raised a hand. "You need rest."
"But you saved me," Jeff replied. "At least that's what the others have said. They say that there was something in that chamber which would have killed me and fed on my corpse."
"That doesn't mean you have to get up on my account," I said. "We don't insist on that kind of formality in this group."
Jeff's eyes opened wide. "Roy would never allow someone to be informal," he muttered.
"So you were with Roy," I asked. "That must mean you were in Galmin's inn the third day we were on this planet."
"Planet? So you're sure we aren't on Earth?" Jeff asked in a panic. "I had a fiancée back home."
"I'm sorry," Heather said. "We actually went all the way to a city of wizards to ask about returning to Earth. They told us that we are stuck here."
Tears fell from Jeff's eyes. "We knew that," he mourned. "At least David was pretty sure we couldn't be on Earth even before the slavers grabbed us."
I looked over at Kariy. She looked up at me with fear in her eyes. "That's not the first time you mentioned slavers," I said to Jeff. "Can you tell me more about this? We haven't encountered anyone involved in it."
Jeff looked at me. "First, how did you get here? We have to be hundreds of miles from where we first appeared. I guess you were that other group we ran into at the inn on the third day."
"We are," I replied. "We walked. Well, we did get one boat ride across a large lake and later we were offered some assistance in going up river. A sorceress summoned some water creature to pull a raft for us and we covered at least forty miles in just a couple of hours."
"And you started out ahead of us," Jeff said. "I do remember that morning in the inn. Roy was livid that you left, but James was hurt and the group would have splintered right then if he tried to force us to chase you."
"How long did you spend there?" I asked.
"The morning and into early afternoon before James could be moved. Someone told Roy that we had to leave as we had no money. James forced Kristi and Amy to give the mayor and the innkeeper blowjobs before they'd let us stay as long as they did. We even got some food from
the innkeeper, although he complained that he'd have a hard time replacing it."
"We stole his cook," Heather said with a giggle.
Jeff looked confused. "Well, he didn't want us around, that's all I know. He kept asking how soon James would be on his feet and even helped assemble a stretcher. I think he told Roy that there was no one in town who could help James, but there were nearby cities where he could find someone."
I nodded. "So you left later that day? Where did you sleep?"
"The mayor guy," Jeff said. "I never caught his name. Well, anyway he told us that if we followed the trail down the hill and took the left fork we'd find a meadow next to the trail where we could sleep in safety. He said there would be another halfway down the mountain and a third at the bottom where we'd encounter a trade road. That night we stopped at the first meadow."
"Wow, we were at the next meadow down the mountain," Heather said. "You were a lot closer than we thought."
"Not really," Jeff said. "We stayed a day at that meadow. Nathan died that night and James wasn't able to walk the next morning. Worse, two of the women snuck out that night. Roy wasted half the morning searching for them."
"You know where they went," I said.
Jeff nodded. "They continued down the trail. Roy was worried about Nathan and didn't get an orgy going. That meant the girls were not being held in some horny jerk's arms all night. Chloe and Jill just walked away. David told me because he watched them. He almost went with him, but we thought the goods we had were worth something."
"Except you had stolen armor off the dead dwarves," Heather pointed out.
"I had nothing to do with it," Jeff said defensively. "Roy and Nathan were the ones who insisted the armor needed to be taken. It was Roy's little group that took the armor off the bodies. I just collected the packs I could find."
"And probably grabbed a few things out of them," Heather said cynically.
Jeff turned his head so he could look at her. "Roy was already acting like he ran everything. I took items I could use to escape him. The truth is, by the time we ran into your group in the inn, only six or so people wanted to follow Roy, but those six were the ones with the good weapons."
"So the group didn't last long?" I asked.
"It didn't survive the second night in the meadow," Jeff said. "After Nathan died, two of Roy's best buds started arguing about who would be in charge and what they should do. Roy actually encouraged the argument. It was frightening to watch, so David and I started planning on sneaking out in the morning. Early the next morning, we joined with Hank and Martin. We took one of the suits of armor, thinking we could sell it and left the campsite. The other girls were already gone and it looked like they had taken most of the remaining food."
"Smart girls," I mused.
"None of us blamed them," Jeff said with a frown. "Anyways, we knew Roy would probably try to catch up so we pushed hard to get to the meadow at the bottom of the hill. James was the brother of one of Roy's best friends and we figured he'd slow them down enough for us to escape if we pushed hard. We arrived at the meadow and then choose to go to the left down the road."
Heather and I looked at each other. That decision would have put Jeff and his companions heading toward Linktrum on the day we informed the dwarves of the suits of armor. We looked back at Jeff. He had his head back and eyes closed as he continued.
"We knew there was a chance that Roy would catch up to us, but what really surprised us was the next night, we found this campsite in a forest. There was a man there offering food and a bit of information. He was nice, but just as we were setting up a cold camp several dwarves appeared. They demanded that we give them the armor."
"It belonged to their family," I said.
"We didn't argue with them. They had weapons and clearly knew how to use them. Hank tried to give them some kind of song and dance about how we knew it belonged to them and would have returned the suit, but I'm pretty sure they didn't believe him. Once they left Hank and Martin got upset that David and I had refused to stand up to the dwarves," Jeff continued.
"So you didn't stay together the next day?" I asked.
"No," Jeff said. "When we reached the city, they insisted on entering. David and I felt that we needed to find a less crowded place so we took the road that followed the river. We followed that path for two weeks. Well, seven days of travel. We stopped at one farm for four days, offering to help bring in the crop in exchange for food and a place to stay and we stayed at an inn for three while David repaired a number of broken benches."
"He was skilled at that?" I asked.
"Very," Jeff replied with a smile. "The funny thing is that we were interns for the law firm Roy was a partner in. Roy loved to brag that he was the youngest partner ever, but never admitted that his father purchased the partnership. But David grew up on some farm in Upstate New York before coming to the city for law school, and he knew how to fix things. We made money each time we stopped."
"It was at the inn that we started to believe we weren't on Earth. There were a few travelers every day and they all named cities and kingdoms we had never heard of," Jeff said. "And then we heard a rumor that a dwarven clan had told every city on the plains to be looking for two suits of armor. We guessed that it had to be the armor Roy still had, but had to wonder why it was such news."
"We don't deal with humans much," Mertiln said as he walked over. "Too many prove to be dishonorable and unwilling to keep their promises and oaths."
"I took no oath and made no promises to your people," Jeff said. "Nothing I have done should be seen as a failure."
"You were captured by slavers," Mertiln noted.
Jeff frowned. "Yeah, I know. What's funny is that it was while we were in the inn. David had finished all the work available and we were thinking of moving on as the innkeeper told us he'd start charging for the room." Jeff blushed. "He wasn't happy with our sleeping arrangements."
I glanced behind Jeff at Kariy. She had a puzzled expression on her face. Heather put a hand on her shoulder just as the young woman was about to speak. I jumped in.
"You two were close I take it," I said.
Jeff's face started to turn red. "It wasn't normal for me. I had girlfriends in college and even had a fiancée on Earth, but once it was just David and me, we weren't comfortable around anyone else."
"Nothing wrong with that," Heather said.
"You aren't going to throw me out of the group? Roy threw a gay couple from Europe out of the group after they started kissing while we were clearing the battlefield of stuff," Jeff asked.
I sighed. "That means nothing now. Anyways you were saying you got thrown out of the inn."
"Not thrown out, but we were encouraged to leave. That's when it all fell apart on us," Jeff said. "A young man about our age met us just as we were leaving the inn. He told us that he had heard some tales of strange men walking the lands and that there was a rumor one had vanished in a flash of light. The man swore that the location where the man did it was only a short walk from the inn."
"Didn't your mother tell you not to talk to strangers?" Heather asked.
"He sounded convincing, even describing a business suit perfectly. Mine was already beat up, and David wasn't wearing a shirt anymore because his had been torn too badly," Jeff said, justifying what happened. "But you are right, we shouldn't have followed him. He led us into a grove of trees. Once we were out of sight of the road, a dozen men jumped from the branches and quickly tied us up. We'd been brought to some slave catchers. They took all of our belongings and chained us together."
Jeff held up his right leg and pointed to the leather wrapped around his ankle. "They used a heavy rope through a metal loop on these anklets. You could only walk as fast as the people in front and behind you. The biggest surprise was when we were brought to the camp. One of the slavers started asking us if we knew where others like us were. He especially wanted to find ... ."
Jeff paused and looked right at Heather. His eyes widened and then
he looked around the room. "You," he whispered. "The man wanted you and the rest of your group, but he said you had eleven women. I see only eight."
"Tuttle. I should have known that even after leaving our group he'd look for ways to cause more trouble," I snarled. "He's still trying to put himself in a position to be our master. Somehow I'm not surprised he joined with slavers."
"But how?" Heather asked.
"He was a trader back on Earth. He made deals. I'm sure if he met the leader at the right time he could have convinced the leader that he could bring in a large payoff. There are no machines in this land, so muscle power matters. That means that slaves are very valuable to the right people. We'd be more valuable than some because we are healthier thanks to our diet from Earth. And the women are ... ."
Heather giggled. "True, by the standards of this world, we're probably more experienced at sex than most of the whores."
"Is he still with the slaver group?" I asked.
Jeff shrugged. "I don't know. After David and I were caught, they marched us away from the village we had been in. We were part of a string of about twenty people. I thought they were going to add more, but they led us into a cave. From there, we wandered underground. I thought it only a day or two, but David was saying they kept us up with some herbal drink they forced on us. All I know is that we did stop occasionally and during one of the stops David managed to find a sharp rock. He cut the rope that chained us and the next time we started to walk we just slowed down until the light from their torches died out. Then we tried to find a way out, but ... ."
"David got captured by one of the many monsters down here and is dead, and you stumbled into that crevasse. You were too tired and hungry to move, but we found you in time," I said.
Jeff nodded. "What do I do now?"
I took a deep breath and looked at Heather. She had a smirk on her face. Shaking my head, I looked down at Jeff. "Well, we seem to be the place for strays. It sounds like you didn't get a good look at a city, but I can tell you that the cities here are dirty and a bit unwelcoming. We decided that rather than try to force our way into a city, we'll strike out into the wilderness and build our own community. You can join, as long as you aren't afraid of work."
