by Noah Layton
I stood from my seat and paced slowly around the room for a moment.
‘Okay, listen; I’m going to let you out of here and take you back to my main land, but when we get there you’re going to tell me everything you know about the slavers. You’re also going to stop being so on-the-fence about where you want to be. Either it’s my tribe or I drop you off a cliff into a river, and I’m guessing that you’re not a massive fan of water.’
‘No, I’m not. Only when I have to bathe… And what is on-the-fence?’
‘Up and down all the time in your attitude. Choose to be a part of my tribe or you’ll become a prisoner.’
‘You would really sell me to these people?’
‘No, I’ll make you my prisoner.’
I locked eyes with her from the end of the bed. In her struggling her smooth, slender legs had become exposed, and the blankets had pushed up over her toned navel. If anybody other than members of my tribe were to walk in right now this situation wouldn’t look ideal.
Talia rested her head against the pillow and relaxed again.
‘Fine,’ she finally replied. ‘I will tell you everything you want to know.’
***
We got pack to the land by midday, stocked up with precious metal bars and the gift of several stacks of bacon and eggs from Jeremiah and Lola.
I kept an inventory of the animals currently occupying the homestead, and mentally added up my future purchases to increase our livestock numbers. Jeremiah and Lola were more than happy to take on bigger numbers of taurem, chickens and piglets.
Back at the land Santana set the horses free into the pasture while I packed away our haul into the storage building.
I briefed Lara, Ariadne and Elera on what had happened once we got back to the treehouse before returning to the stable to fetch our guest.
‘This is inhumane,’ Talia complained as helped her out of the cart, her wrists still bound behind her back as I walked her up to the treehouse.
‘So is sneaking onto my land and hiding above the space where I sleep, but you don’t see me complaining. You know my wives could have shot you, right?’
‘From what I heard that is not their only skill. You sounded like you had a very pleasant morning thanks to them.’
I paused at the foot of the steps.
‘You were listening to us?’
‘No… I was watching you.’
I frowned at her and eventually nodded.
‘Why?’
‘Why not?’
‘True. You got a verdict on that?’
‘A verdict on what?’
‘My performance. Or does it not match up to the quality of Prince catman or whoever the fuck your husband was back at your tribe.’
‘I have never married. I was so far down the chain of command that me getting married was pointless.’
‘Your people sound charming.’
I carried my captive up to the treehouse and let her sit down against the wall by my bed.
A short while later my four wives joined me, Santana handing me a plate of steaming bacon and eggs and a canteen of milk which I set down in front of Talia.
Santana and Elera sat on the edge of the bed, Lara blocking the door, and Ariadne sat on the edge of the bathtub.
They were relaxed, but their respective weapons all sat in close proximity.
‘Are you at least going to undo these damn bindings on my wrists?’
I looked over my shoulder at Lara.
‘She tries to leave, put an arrow in her forehead.’
Lara nodded in calm acknowledgement, and I pulled my dagger out of my inventory. I crossed to Talia and cut her bindings, then stepped back and sat on the floor across from her.
Talia straightened her posture, sitting perfectly still and scanning my face with repressed rage, before looking down at the food before her.
I could see in her eyes that she was starving.
‘Go ahead,’ I said. ‘I won’t judge you for eating, princess. And if I wanted to poison you I would have done it already.’
She hesitated for a few more moments before starting at the food, using her hands to delicately pick up a strip of bacon and chew on it.
‘Here’s the deal,’ I continued. ‘I’m looking into freeing slaves, but as I understand it most tribes are pretty keen on keeping their slaves on their land so they don’t make a break for it. Now, I’m either going to buy some slaves and give them their freedom, or I’m going to kill the dickheads holding them captive and still give them their freedom.
‘Now you seem to know a lot about this Garrison guy and his slave-buying antics, so I’m going to need you to tell me everything that you know about the slave trade in the north, including where these tribes are, how they exchange slaves, where they get them from in the first place, and anything else you know.’
Talia chewed on a little bacon, then drank deeply from the canteen of milk like it was the first she had had in months. She sighed deeply with satisfaction.
‘Firstly, when we say north, I mean far, far north of here. Seventy, perhaps eighty miles before things get very bad.’
‘How bad?’
‘Fighting, executions, slaughters, skirmishes. These lands are peaceful in comparison. The north is filled with fighting, and it is slowly spreading, little by little. Out there, the tribes that exist are often overrun. Those that fight are killed, those that don’t fight are taken into slavery by the victors of the battle. That’s where much of the slave trade begins.
‘Much of the time the victors will take the slaves into their stead and work them hard. Crops, mining, livestock care – anything that needs completing. If they have no desire to keep the slaves that they have plundered, they take them to The Market.’
A powerful gust of wind suddenly burst through the trees overhead. The door behind Lara burst open and clattered against the inside wall. She shut it and shoved the lock to bar it.
‘One of tribe members has already told me about this place, but he didn’t remember much. What exactly is The Market?’
‘The Market is a trading post in the north where slaves are bought, sold and exchanged. They do not operate like a regular trading post, though. Beings that stand on two feet, unlike crops, require care, even if they are slaves. They cannot simply be marched back and forth across miles of land for days. They must be taken care of, otherwise they will become injured or die, and their, umm… Value falls, as a slaver would say. In order to bypass this issue the trading post only opens twice per month at the half-moon in order to accommodate the value of the slaves.’
‘The value of the slaves,’ I muttered, shaking my head. ‘This place sounds like a fucking nightmare.’
‘On the contrary, it is quite pleasant. Those who have tribes large enough to afford and keep slaves do not want to be slumming through a rut filled with corpses, faeces and sweat. The Market is well-kept, at least from what I have heard.’
‘You seem to have heard a lot about it.’
‘When you work in a tavern you hear many things, particularly from those who cannot handle their ale.’
‘Right,’ I nodded. ‘Do you know where this place is?’
‘Mmm…’ She said through a piece of bacon, ‘I can create a map if you would like?’
Santana returned a minute later with a piece of parchment and a quill alongside some ink that she used for writing – an old solution to a constant problem.
‘I need to know where we are first before I can tell you where to go,’ Talia said, turning it around and pushing it back to me.
I bit the inside of my mouth to resist kicking her ass out now.
But I needed her.
I drew up a composite of where we were and returned it to her.
‘Okay…’ She said, commanding the quill. ‘You head north and follow the path for around twenty miles. There’s a path that goes west around here to an abandoned village called Cedarhorn, but apparently it’s well-hidden, so you’ll need to keep your eyes open, but… Sure
ly you are not planning on going to this place, are you?’
‘How else am I going to free slaves than going to a slave trading post?’
‘In very few ways, but know that the tribes you will be dealing with are dangerous.’
‘I think I’d already figured that out based on the fact that they tie people up and force them to work until they die. We’ve crossed paths with people like this before.’
‘You have? What happened?’
‘I killed them all single-handedly. One of those slaves that I rescued is the one who was on lookout the night you jumped my fence.’
‘You killed an entire tribe on your own? Please…’
‘Well, technically there were only five of them, but…’
‘Five? That hardly even constitutes a tribe. If anything that’s a group. There are five of you here right now. These people move in tribes of eighty, ninety at the least, and that doesn’t include the slaves.’
‘I seriously doubt that slaves would be loyal in a time of war.’
‘Maybe, but you’re still drastically outnumbered.’
‘Not when I’ve got a tribe of sun-elves who’ve got my back.’
Talia went to talk, but her protestations were backed into a corner.
‘Looks like you’ve got this all figured out, hmm?’
‘I’d like to think so. Now we need to think about you – what are you doing?’
‘I… Think I have decided to stay, as long as you all will have me, that is.’
‘I’ll see. You need to pull your weight in the meantime. What jobs did you complete back at your land?’
‘Nothing, admittedly, considering my position… But I was a good barmaid. I know everything you could possibly want about ale and cider.’
‘What about making it?’
‘Making it?’ She said reluctantly, looking around at us. ‘I… I suppose I could.’
‘This hot season is coming to an end, and in order to get through the cold snap we’re coming up on we’re going to need something strong to keep us going. We’ve got food and water, sure, but we need something heavier to warm the nights approaching. Think you can cook something up?’
‘I suppose so.’
‘Head to the house directly north of this tree. Tormus and Eri are farmers. I gave them a wolfapple tree but they haven’t planted it yet. I expect to be drunk no less than a week from now.’
Talia smiled lightly and stood, slinking past me gracefully and leaving through the door. Lara stood aside and closed it behind her.
‘Do you really think we can trust her?’ Ariadne asked. ‘She just got here.’
‘I trust her for the time being. She’s deceived us more than once, but she seems to have good reason for it.’
‘And if she does it again?’ Elera asked.
‘Then I promise you,’ I said, pocketing my dagger in its sheath at my waist. ‘I’ll deal with her myself.’
Chapter Eight
Before the end of day I moved the wooden shack that Morok had been using on the eastern side of the land to a spot just outside of the circle of totems near my treehouse. I placed a bed in there and offered it to Talia.
She looked like she had something to say about it but kept her mouth shut.
After a hard day of interrogations and travelling, I turned into bed with my wives and drifted off to sleep fast. We awoke the next day in silence, listening for any sign of Talia moving overhead, but there was nothing.
The half-moon was two nights away, along with the next meeting of the slavers at The Market.
I took the opportunity with the new day to continue with improvements to the land and the hoarding of food for Autumn.
With the abundance of gold that we currently had available there was no need to offload our crops at the trading post. Instead, I elected to store as many stacks as possible in the Storage Building as I could.
Belying all the other junk and valuables in their we now had:
Carrots x1782
Tomatoes x1245
Corn x2103
Beef x687
It was enough for a decent chunk of time, but we would need to continue hoarding supplies if we were going to prepare for anything longer without resorting to rationing.
And there was no way that I was going to let that happen.
I spent another 200GP to upgrade the size of the Storage Building, as well as 100GP to upgrade the security requirements on the door – a heavy wooden block of a door with a strong lock that could only be opened by the key stowed away in my inventory.
From there, Alorion and I readied Arabelle and a cart and headed out to the trading post to start a new day of work, but not before being caught by Talia.
‘I’m preparing the land with Eri.’
‘You are?’
‘You don’t have to sound so surprised, Jack.’
‘I’m not… Well, no, I am, but still. Anyway, what do you need?’
‘Yeast for the cider… And some clothes. These old rags are becoming tiresome.’
‘You don’t have any other clothes in your inventory?’
‘I do, but… They are perhaps not appropriate right now.’
‘Okay. What do you usually wear?’
‘I’m sure you can figure something out.’
She smiled at me warmly and set off back to the farmers’ house.
‘She wants me to pick out her outfit for her?’
‘Is that something that you people often do?’ Alorion asked, sitting atop the ledge of the cart and swinging his legs with a raised eyebrow.
‘If I were a controlling husband, maybe,’ I replied. ‘But that isn’t me.’
‘How strange…’
‘Hell if I know, man. See, you don’t have to worry about stuff like this. You can just do a dance and get down to business.’
‘Business?’
‘What you and Nyah got up to the other night at our new land.’
‘Ah, yes. So you are seeking to, umm… Get down to business with Talia?’
‘What? No! I mean, she’s… Totally good-looking and everything, but… No.’
‘Because it sounded like…’
‘No-o-ope,’ I said resoundingly. ‘Come on, let’s get to the trading post.
We had a growing population of piglets, taurem and chickens at the homestead farm, but I was intent on tripling those numbers. Livestock numbers were steadily returning to normal in the forest but there was still a surplus number of animals available for purchasing.
We acquired a flurry of new animals for a total of 720GP, as well as the 5 units of yeast we needed for 5GP. Not a bad price to pay for keeping my tribe alive through an approaching cold-snap, though.
Then came the matter of Talia’s clothes. I didn’t know what would be ideal for someone like her, so I stuck with the outfit that my wives sometimes went with; leather pants, a loose overshirt, and a pair of boots that would hopefully be her size. All I could do was guess.
At the homestead we herded our taurem into the pasture, then helped Jeremiah and Lola organise the piglets and chickens into pens in the yard with the others already there.
Referring to the former as piglets anymore was actually a little inaccurate – they were fully-grown now, overshadowing the new piglets massively.
‘I hope this isn’t too much to take care of,’ I said, looking around at the pigs and chickens.
‘Not at all,’ Jeremiah replied, ‘we have plenty of time to take care of them, and plenty of resources. That being said, there are two jobs you could help me out with while you’re here.’
‘Name it.’
‘We need to build a bigger stable for the taurem for when things get colder, as well as a small barn for the chickens and pigs.’
‘Absolutely. And the second thing?’
‘Well, if we’re going to prepare enough food for the coming months, we need to start preparing and curing the meat now. Lola spent the morning preparing one of the pigs yesterday, but we didn’t have time for the second.
Do you feel like doing the honours?’
‘If it has to be done, it has to be done.’
I had never slaughtered an animal before for the purpose of eating it, so this was a first.
At the back of the yard there was a small building where Jeremiah, Lola and I had once prepared a slain taurem for the purpose of consumption, and this was where we headed now.
Alorion kept watch from the front of the land while the three of us led the largest of the pigs into the slaughterhouse.
I didn’t view this unaware animal as a living thing – even if I wanted to, I couldn’t. Just like killing one of my enemies, it was a question of us or them.
Jeremiah fed the pig a milky concoction, which quickly acted as a sedative that set the animal on its side into a docile position.
Within minutes the pig was unconscious.
‘I wouldn’t have thought you’d be so humane,’ I remarked, looking down at it.
‘It is as Lara says,’ Jeremiah replied, ‘there is no need to invoke pain unnecessarily when killing a beast. To do it quickly and cleanly is best.’
Quickly was one thing, but cleanly was still on the fence.
Lola handed me a sharpened, blood-stained blade, and I got a feel for the weight.
‘Straight through the neck, I’m guessing?’ I said.
‘Straight through the neck,’ Jeremiah repeated. ‘And be hard and swift. This is going to cause enough of a mess as it is without him rolling around on the floor after he wakes and finds his head hanging off.’
‘You sure do know how to paint a picture, my dear,’ Lola said, running a hand up his shoulder as they both watched me.
‘Well…’ I sighed, guiding the blade to the pig’s throat and measuring my swing. ‘No time like the present.’
I raised the blade over my head, felt the power run through my back, and brought the blade slamming down.
***
‘An excellent haul,’ Lola commented as we looked down at the prepared meat. ‘What is the final count?’
‘100 stacks of bacon ringing in at 3 slices each,’ Jeremiah began. ’10 ham hocks, 200 ground sausage meat, and another 100 low-quality cuts that can be fed to the taurem. The circle of life, if you will.’
