The Call of Ancient Light

by Ben Wolf

  Colm shook his head. “Nothing you’ll enjoy, I’m afraid.”

  Three men circled around the back of the wagon, and one unlocked the door with a large gray skeleton key. Two of the others held swords in their hands and began to climb up into the cart.

  “Up against the bars, all of you.” One of them grunted. Colm complied immediately, as did the woman, and Lilly mimicked their actions.

  The man sleeping on the wagon floor didn’t move until one of the slave traders kicked his ribs. He jerked awake, yelped, then scrambled toward Lilly. She recoiled as he lunged for her, but he got ahold of her long blonde hair and yanked her over to him.

  “Let go!” she yelled and resisted him, but he held her between the approaching slave traders and himself. “Colm?”

  Colm didn’t so much as look over at her. He just faced the bars, his legs spread, and stayed still.

  “Let her go, you sack of slime,” one of the slave traders said. “Or we’ll gut you right now.”

  “N-no.” The man shook his head so wildly that his long brown hair smacked against Lilly’s cheeks. He curled his arm around Lilly’s throat, and she caught a foul whiff of body odor. “No, you’re n-not gonna t-t-touch me. You let m-me leave, or she d-dies.”

  “Not gonna happen. Let her go, or you’ll get twice the thrashing.” The slave trader grinned a crooked yellow smile. “And I’m gonna enjoy it, too.”

  The man holding Lilly backed against the bars. “I—I’m serious. I’ll k-kill her. I know she’s w-worth a lot to you. I heard you s-s-say it. You want her alive, d-don’t you?”

  The slave trader and his buddy glanced to the man’s left, to something just outside the cage, then they snickered at each other. “Fine, you win.”

  “That’s right. I w-win. Now—you t-two s-s-step back out of the wagon and let me g-go. She and I are g-going to—”

  The wagon shifted. A loud thump, like something hard banging against metal, resounded behind Lilly, and the man’s grip around her went slack. He crumpled into a heap behind her, unconscious.

  When she turned around, Lilly saw the man in the brown armor with the spiky red hair. He clutched the man’s long hair in one hand and held onto one of the bars with his other. A dark splotch stained one of the bars red, and a wound oozed blood on the back of the man’s head.

  “Get to it, already,” the spiky-haired man said. “Take him to the other wagon. No one touches her, crystal?”

  “Clear, boss.” The slave trader with the yellow teeth sheathed his sword, and together with his buddy, he hauled the man out of the wagon, then out of sight.

  The spiky-haired man dropped down from the wagon and grinned up at Lilly with one eyebrow raised. Her stomach churned at the sight. He nodded to the third slave trader, the one who’d opened the cage to begin with. “Go on. Check them. Find it.”

  The slave trader at the door hopped inside the wagon and drew a dagger from his belt. He bypassed the woman and headed straight for Colm.

  “Easy on me, Luggs. I’m just a bag of old bones.”

  Luggs shoved him against the bars. “You’re a thief and a liar, you are.”

  “Come now, Luggs.” Colm shot Lilly a look and a wink—why, she didn’t know—and grumbled. “I don’t call you names. Seems to me you ought to be nicer to your merchandise. Maybe we’d fetch higher prices if you took better care of us.”

  “No one would buy your old husk anyway.” Luggs patted Colm’s arms and legs at regular intervals. “Believe me, we’ve tried.”

  “If I’m really a thief and a liar, then surely you’d have found someone in need of those unique skills by now.”

  Luggs jolted him forward again, and Colm’s head smacked against the bars. A line of blood trickled down Colm’s pointy nose from a small cut on his forehead.

  “Face forward,” Luggs ordered.

  After three solid minutes of searching Colm, Luggs still hadn’t found anything.

  The spiky-haired man rapped the bars, and Lilly jumped. “Well? We don’t have all day. I want to make the pass sometime before the end of this season.”

  “He’s clean, sorry to say.” Luggs huffed and spun Colm around. He pointed a finger at Colm’s face. “You sit down and don’t move. Crystal?”

  Colm nodded and sat, but a smirk curled his lips.

  Luggs sheathed his dagger and rubbed his dirty hands together, his gaze fixed on Lilly. He licked his chapped lips. “Alright, missy. Your turn for friskin’.”

  The spiky-haired man clanged his gauntlet against the bars. “Luggs, don’t you lay a grubby finger on her.”

  Luggs’s grin melted into a frown. “But what if she’s the one who—”

  “She’s not, Roderick,” Colm said. “She just woke up ten minutes ago.”

  Shing. Luggs’s dagger leaped into his hand and lurched toward Colm’s neck. It stopped just under Colm’s chin, but he didn’t so much as flinch.

  For a fat guy, Luggs moved well.

  “I told you to sit down and shut up,” Luggs repeated.

  Colm cleared his throat and raised his chin. “You told me to sit down and not move. You never said anything about talking.”

  “Well, I’m tellin’ you now.” Luggs spat a dark glob of something into the hay near Colm’s boot. “So shut up.”

  “The old buzzard’s right.” Roderick eyed Lilly slowly—too slowly—from head to toe. “Just look at her. She’s barely wearing anything to begin with. She’s not hiding anything. At least nothing I intend to let any of you idiots have a go at.”

  Lilly shrank away from the bars and huddled close to herself. Now, for the first time in her life, she understood what it meant to be exposed. She might as well be a roasted quail in the center of the Premier’s table.

  Luggs ogled her too, his gaze somehow even more suggestive and revolting than Roderick’s. He pulled his dagger away from Colm’s throat. “I’ll check the other one, then.”

  “You do that.” Roderick still hadn’t removed his gaze from Lilly.

  As Luggs approached the woman, she whirled around. Silver flashed in the sunlight—a knife. She stabbed at Luggs’s throat, but he blocked her attack with his forearm and bashed the pommel of his dagger into her face. She dropped into the hay, stunned.

  “Stupid harpy,” Luggs scoffed. “They never learn, do they?”

  The woman screeched and slashed at Luggs’s leg, but she missed by a solid foot. She lunged for him again, but Luggs stomped on her wrist and she dropped the blade. She wailed and clutched her wrist, and Luggs grabbed her by her hair and wrenched her upright.

  “You’ll learn one of these days not to fuss.” He raised his hand to strike her with the dagger’s pommel again.

  “Stop!” Lilly didn’t realize she’d yelled it until Colm stared at her wide-eyed, his eyebrows up. Now Luggs, Roderick, and the woman all stared at her as well.

  “What’d you just say?” Luggs released his grip on the woman, and she shrank into the nearest corner, her eyes aghast.

  “I said—”

  Luggs stormed toward her. Lilly backed up, but the bars kept her from escaping. He raised his free hand, but this time, she didn’t recoil from his blow. She’d watched how he moved when he hit Colm and dealt with the woman. She was ready.

  Roderick yelled at Luggs to stop again, but Luggs’s arm was already in motion. Lilly ducked under his swat and rolled along the hay. On her way up, she snatched the woman’s knife from the floor and darted for the wagon door, which still hung open. Cape or no cape, they’d given her a chance to get out of there, and she intended to take it.

  Lilly flung herself through the open door and hit the ground running.

  She didn’t run often—why should she when she could fly?—but the sensation of her feet thudding along the bumpy road and her legs pumping against gravity’s pull invigorated her almost as much as the thought that this nightmare would soon end. She’d escaped the wagon, and soon she would be—

  She skidded to a halt in front of three armed men who’d em
erged from the trees. She turned to her left, but two more men with bows and arrows emerged from the brush and took aim at her. A quick pivot and she faced the woods on the other side of the road, but two more archers stepped forward, their bows ready.

  What she wouldn’t give to have her bow in hand right then.

  A slow rhythmic clapping sounded behind her. She spun back to find Roderick approaching. A smile split his square chin. “Well done, Angel. Well done.”

  She hissed a curse upon him and a prayer to the Overlord in the same breath—wrong on every level except for how honestly they both reflected her feelings. If only she had her cape.

  “You didn’t really think the wagon was the extent of the precautions we took to contain you, did you?” Roderick shook his head and wagged his forefinger, still coming closer.

  He towered over her by almost two feet, and he had to be at least three times as wide. His armor made up some of his girth, sure, but the rest had to be muscle. She hadn’t met many humans, but he certainly dwarfed any Windgale she’d ever seen, including General Balena.

  “And even if you did escape, where would you go? You’re barely clothed, without your cape, and with no weapons in this wilderness.” Roderick eyed the knife in her hand. “Oh, excuse me. You have a knife. I take it all back. You’d be fine.”

  Lilly ground her teeth and squeezed her fists tighter.

  “Look, Angel, you can either drop that knife and come back with us, and I’ll let you off with a warning this time, or you can try to carve our eyes out with that toothpick while we take you back by force, and then you don’t eat for two days.” Roderick tilted his head and grinned at her. “Which will it be?”

  Lilly clenched her eyes shut and exhaled a sharp breath. Carving his eyes out with the knife sounded pretty good, but she had to be realistic about her chances. Without her cape, her armor, and her bow, she didn’t stand a chance.

  Though she didn’t want to do it, Lilly dropped the knife.

  Chapter Five

  Eastern Kanarah

  A few minutes before sunset, Calum cracked open another rock and then bashed it into small enough pieces for Hardink to sift in his bowl tomorrow. Sixteen more and he’d be done.

  He rolled a new rock into place, and this time he imagined it was Jidon’s head when he swung the pickax. It was more or less the right size, but the rock was probably more intelligent.

  Most of the other men had stopped by the shed to deposit their tools for the evening. Calum garnered more than one surly glare from the group, mostly from the men who’d been closest to Petyr, but he ignored them. It wasn’t his fault Petyr had died, and he wasn’t about to let anyone guilt him into believing otherwise.

  About fifteen minutes later, Calum finished crushing the last of his pile and headed to the shed. He deposited his tools, but as he stepped outside, the plank leading up to the entrance shifted under his foot.

  Calum stared at it for a moment, then he bent down to inspect it. Someone would need to repair that tomorrow if it had come loose. He pulled, and it separated from the parallel support rails underneath with little resistance. A glint of something crystalline stopped Calum’s heart.

  Gemstones shimmered under the moonlight.

  Not many of them, but more than enough to bother Burtis. Well, one hidden gemstone would be enough to bother Burtis.

  But these looked different. Brighter, somehow, and all with a greenish hue. They were stones from the Gronyx’s Pit.

  Burtis had once explained to him why the gemstones from the Gronyx’s Pit were so much more valuable, so much more worth the risk, but Calum couldn’t remember why. He’d been just a kid at the time, and he hadn’t bothered to ask again.

  Regardless, these were Gronyx stones, no doubt. But who had put them here?

  Perhaps Calum should take them. Maybe he could use them to get himself out of this place, to start a new life somewhere else.

  But if Burtis found out—

  “Heys.”

  Calum dropped the board in place and whirled around.

  Hardink stood there with a shovel in his hand, leaning on it to give his bad foot a break. “What’re yous doin’ there?”

  “This board’s loose, and I—I found—” Careful, Calum. “—I found it like that when I stepped on it. Was gonna try to fix it real quick.”

  “What’re yous gonna fix it withs?”

  Calum tapped the board with the corner of his boot. “Maybe there’s a hammer and some nails in the shed.”

  Hardink chuckled. “In all my years, I never seens neither of those things in the shed where just anyones can get at ’ems. Burtis keeps ’ems somewheres else, same as the last foremans, and the foremans before. Yous might as well let someone else find that spots and fix it in the mornin’. Go back to camp and eat somethin’s before Burtis gives your rations aways.”

  Calum squinted at him. “Why are you out here?”

  Hardink held up his shovel. “Found this on the ways back to camps. Decided I oughta bring it backs. You know how Burtis is in the mornin’ when he finds out a tool’s missin’. We all suffers.”

  Calum nodded. It made sense… but it didn’t completely allay his suspicions.

  A smirk cut into Hardink’s left cheek. “Yous gonna move so I can put this backs?”

  “Yeah.” Calum stepped aside. “Sorry. Just watch your step. Don’t want you to trip with that bad foot of yours.”

  “I’ll be fines. Yous runs along, now. Don’t want yous complainin’ that you’re hungry in the mornin’.”

  “Shouldn’t I wait for you? If you fall on your way back to camp—”

  “Then I’ll gets up and keeps goin’.” Hardink turned back to him. “My foot’s messed up, but I can still walks. I’m not an old lady, yous know.”

  Calum feigned a laugh, then he regretted it. Too obvious?

  Hardink shook his head. “Go ons. Gets outta here. I’ll be fines.”

  Sweat trickled down Calum’s back. He couldn’t stay there. If he did, it would give something away, whether Hardink had stashed those gems or not. He nodded and started walking. He glanced over his shoulder once, but Hardink had already disappeared inside the shed.

  Calum sighed and headed back to camp. He’d check the stones again tomorrow night after work. If they were still there, maybe he could make a run for it.

  “This is for you.” Axel leaned forward and passed a small pouch no bigger than a man’s fist across the table to Calum, then he scoured the tavern with his eyes. A few other quarry workers sat around some of the other tables, but no one seemed to be paying them any mind.

  Calum squinted at it, then he met Axel’s dark-blue eyes. He loosened the string, poked his fingers inside, and pulled out two small red peppers.

  “These two ripened early, before the rest of the crop.” Axel smiled. “Well, a few others, too, but these are the ones I managed to hide. Might be able to get you a few more over the next couple days.”

  “Thanks.” Calum matched his smile.

  Axel leaned back. “Don’t mention it. Ever. Seriously. To anyone.”

  “Obviously.”

  “You’re like a little brother to me. It’s the least I can do. Actually, it’s about the most I can do, too.”

  The men who worked at the quarry got the vast majority of their food from Axel’s family farm. Ever since Calum had landed in that quarry camp, he’d gone along with the men every evening to collect their share of food.

  When Calum first showed up, Axel was ten and already almost twice his size. Now, at sixteen, Calum had caught up a bit, but Axel, at nearly eighteen, still had three inches of height and a solid fifty pounds on him. Unlike Calum, he had dark-brown hair with a bit of curl to it, a stark contrast against Calum’s short blond hair.

  Axel had looked out for Calum ever since his first night with the workers, at least as much as he could. He worked on his farm all day while Calum worked the quarry, so they only got to see each other in evenings, and usually not for longer than an hour.
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  “What else did they ration out for you?” Axel asked.

  Calum tucked the peppers back in the pouch and dropped it into his satchel along with the rest of his food. “Looks like a boiled potato, a roasted chicken leg, and a slice of barley bread.”

  Axel rested his fists on the table. “Heard something happened today. You alright?”

  Calum nodded at the sobering reminder of the Gronyx’s pit and what had almost become of him. “Yeah. I’m fine. A bit bruised up, but I’m alright.”

  “Heard a Saurian pulled you out. Big green brute. Might as well be a monster.” Axel scratched at a rough patch on the table with his fingernail. “Lucky for you they’re keeping him in line. He had plenty of lash marks all over him.”

  Calum’s stomach soured. The last thing the Saurian deserved was that kind of treatment.

  “Hey.” Axel reached across the table and slapped Calum’s bare shoulder. “After a day like that, you’ll sleep real good tonight.”

  Calum smiled. “Burtis also told me I could be foreman someday.”

  Axel’s grin melted.

  Calum exhaled a sigh when he noticed it. What was Axel going to say now?

  “He said you might make foreman, huh?”

  “Yeah, he did.” Calum read the frown on Axel’s face. “Look, I know it’s not much, but it’s as good as it gets in this type of life.”

  Axel shrugged. “If you say so.”

  For all of his good brotherly qualities, Axel sure had some bad ones too.

  “Not everyone gets to inherit a massive family farm when their parents are gone,” Calum said. “Not all of us even have parents anymore.”

  “Come on, Calum. My parents work for the King, same as you do. Same as I do. This farm may be ours in ink, but we all know it belongs to the King and his soldiers, the same people responsible for what happened to your parents.”

  Calum shook his head. “Doesn’t mean you should look down on me for wanting to accomplish something with my life.”

  “You think being the quarry’s foreman is ‘accomplishing something with your life?’” Axel scoffed. “It’s the exact opposite of that. It’s a waste. I want something better for you than that. I want something better for myself than inheriting a farm that doesn’t really belong to me.”