“I have no idea, but better them than us. Now I know why Karl was so quick to volunteer to sleep in the stable loft.”
Joan left the door open a bit so that they could see the guys when they passed by to go to their room.
A few minutes later, Chris knocked on the door and eased it open. “Just thought we’d check on you on the way to our room. Do you need anything?” Chris asked from the hall.
“No, but thanks,” Joan said. “I do have a question though. How are the three of you going to manage to sleep in a room this size?”
“I don’t know. It is kind of small, isn’t it,” Chris answered as he looked around the room. Then he turned his head towards the hall and said, “Either one of us is going to have to go back to the stable and sleep in the loft with Darrell and Karl, or someone’s going to have to sleep on the floor. There’s no way all three of us are going to fit on one of those beds.”
“I don’t mind either way,” Kevin said. “I like a hard mattress, so the floor won’t bother me. As long as I have a blanket, I’ll be fine.”
“Okay. Well, I guess that takes care of that. Good night, see you in the morning,” Chris said as he started to shut the door to Joan and Theresa’s room. Just before the door shut, he added, “We’ll just wait out here to make sure your lock works.”
Chris finished shutting the door, but didn’t walk away until he heard the tumblers in the lock click.
“I’d be willing to bet you money that Karl asked him to do that,” Joan said with a little laugh after she locked the door. “Well, shall we flip a coin to see who gets stuck against the wall?”
Chapter 18
A Night Off
By the middle of Saturday afternoon, Joan felt really tired. She had not had a good night’s sleep since Palladin had given them their weapons, and she just didn’t think she could face another strange town and another performance that night. She rode up beside Karl and asked him to wait for the others.
Since the road in that area was fairly wide, Kevin pulled his wagon up beside Theresa’s. Once they were all together, Joan said, “Look, I don’t know how the rest of you feel, but I need a break. We haven’t been by ourselves since we landed on Terah and I want a night off. How would you feel about finding a secluded spot in the woods and camping out tonight?”
“I’m all for it,” Chris answered quickly.
“We’ll have to stand guard through the night if we set up camp,” Darrell said.
“That’s not a problem,” Steve replied as the others nodded.
“Shall we try to find a spot now or do you want to go on for a while?” Karl asked, looking at Joan.
“I’m ready to find a spot now,” Joan said. “I’m afraid that if we go much farther we’ll come out into farmland and be stuck staying in town again. The forest isn’t very dense along here. I think the wagons will go through okay, don’t you?”
“Yeah, but why don’t I ride in a little ways and see if I can find a good campsite? That way we won’t get the wagons in there just to have to turn them around and get them back out. I won’t be gone long,” Karl said as he turned to ride into the woods.
About thirty minutes later, Karl returned and told them that he had found a nice quiet clearing large enough for both wagons with plenty of room left over for their sleeping tarps and a campfire, and that there was a second clearing not too far away with a small stream running through it that would be perfect for the horses.
By late afternoon, the horses had been cared for and were securely tethered in the second clearing. The tarps had been set up like tents and a fire was burning in a shallow pit. A stew was cooking over the fire, and coffee was perking. Everyone was seated around the fire, relaxing for the first time in days.
“This was a good idea, Joan,” Chris said. “I think I was more tired than I knew. I love the idea that we don’t have to do anything else tonight.”
“Well, we do have to come up with a watch schedule,” Darrell said. “I was thinking about it while we were setting up camp. Since there are seven of us, I thought we could use three shifts. I feel like Karl and Joan should have the same watch.”
“I guess I could put up with her for a little while,” Karl said as he slid his arm around Joan’s waist.
“As far as the rest of us are concerned, it really doesn’t make that much difference,” Darrell said. “I was thinking that maybe Kevin and Chris could share a watch, and then Steve, Theresa, and I would make up the third. What do the rest of you think?”
“Fine with me,” Chris answered. The others nodded their agreement.
“How are we going to split up the night?” Joan asked.
“I was thinking of three-hour shifts,” Darrell answered. “How about nine to midnight, midnight to three, and three to six?”
“Okay,” Joan said. “But who gets which shift tonight?”
“Well, the worst one is the midnight to three shift,” Darrell said. “We won’t be camping every night, so it’s not like we’ll be doing this all the time. We could draw straws for the shifts for tonight, and then whoever gets the early shift tonight takes the middle shift next time we camp, and so on.”
“That’ll work,” Steve said with a nod.
“Here, I’ll break these three twigs off at different lengths,” Karl said. “One person from each group draws one of the twigs. The shortest twig is the first shift, middle twig is the middle shift, and the longest twig will be the last shift.”
“I’ll draw for us,” Chris said and pulled out the shortest twig.
“Theresa, you draw for your group. Joan and I will take the one that’s left.” Karl turned towards Theresa to let her draw.
“I think we’ve got the longest one,” Theresa said. “Karl, let me see which one you have left.” Karl opened his hand and held up the twig that was left. He had the middle twig. “We have the early morning shift,” Theresa said to Darrell and Steve. Then she turned towards Joan and said, “I guess that means we make breakfast, right?”
“Sounds good to me,” Joan answered.
After guard duty was settled, conversation around the campfire lapsed into a comfortable silence as each of the Tellurians entertained private thoughts while gazing into the fire.
Theresa fingered her pendant, thinking about its power. She could feel the heat that came from the fire that danced deep inside the black opal in its center, and the faint coolness that came from the turquoise stones surrounding it. After a bit she said, “While we have a few minutes, I want to tell you about this pendant. All of the sisters wear them. The turquoise stones around the outside are healing stones. They help us focus our powers. They’re harmless, but the opal is a very dangerous stone.”
“Dangerous?” Chris asked.
Theresa nodded. “Do you remember hearing any legends on Earth about the fire in the opal being connected with the soul of its rightful owner?”
Several of the Tellurians nodded.
“Well, the fire in this opal is not only connected with my soul, it’s also linked with my mind and my emotions.”
“What do you mean?” Joan asked.
“If I’m threatened, if anyone tries to hurt me, the flame in the opal will reach out and burn them. I’m not sure how, but from what I understand, it can burn from quite a distance.”
“Does it kill the person it hits?” Darrell asked.
Theresa shook her head no. “I saw a man who had a long narrow burn on his forehead while I was in Drisden. Drusilla said that it was the mark of an opal. She said that no sister will ever treat him or give him any herbs, and I noticed that the people in town wouldn’t have anything to do with him either. Anyway, I’m not sure that the opal would know the difference between friend and foe once the fire begins to strike, so just be careful about getting in the middle.” Theresa took a deep breath and looked around.
“No wonder Drusilla told Kalen that you didn’t need any self-defense lessons,” Steve said. Then he frowned, “He did know about the pendants, didn’t he?”
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“According to Drusilla, everyone on Terah knows,” Theresa answered. “But she didn’t tell him that I’d been initiated into the Sisterhood until a few days before we left for Drisden, and after she told him, he relaxed about the self-defense, but I notice he sent me a dagger anyway.”
“Yeah, like you might actually need it with that thing around,” Darrell said.
“Well, you never know,” Kevin said. “Getting burned might not stop some people. They might try even harder to hurt you since the opal had marked them for life.”
“I don’t know,” Karl said. “If that thing is meant to protect her, it might keep on burning him until he either gave up or died.”
“You could be right,” Theresa said. “I don’t know very much about it, and I don’t know how to stop the stone from striking. I’m not even sure that I can.”
“Are there any other little surprises we need to know about?” Joan asked with a touch of wariness in her voice.
“Well, there is one more thing,” Theresa said quietly. “Don’t ever try to take my pendant off my neck, even if I’m dead. Only another sister can safely remove it. Drusilla said that the fire in the opal would explode and consume anyone else who tries to take it.”
“What if someone tries to take it while you’re alive?” Chris asked. “What happens to you? Do you get burned, too?”
Theresa took a deep breath. “I don’t know. Maybe it would just burn them. I hope so, but Drusilla didn’t really make that distinction and I was afraid to ask. I didn’t want to seem ungrateful.”
“I imagine the opal’s need to protect you would override everything else,” Joan said reassuringly.
“I hope so,” Theresa sighed. “But you know how things work on Terah. They tend to go to extremes.”
For a few minutes, no one said anything. Then Darrell said, “I want to change the subject.”
Theresa smiled and said, “Please,” as the others nodded.
“We need to schedule some time on a regular basis for sparring. It’s easy to backslide if you don’t practice.”
“That’s a good idea, but how?” Steve asked. “When we stay in town we spend the whole day on the road and then we’re busy with the performance until time for bed.”
“Setting up camp and having some time to ourselves is sort of nice,” Chris said. “What if we plan to camp out every third or fourth night? We could work out for an hour or two before dinner.”
“We’re not the only ones who need a break,” Karl said. “I’ve been thinking that we need to try to take a day off every week to rest the horses. We’d have the whole day, so we could really get a good workout then.”
“Not the whole day,” Joan said. “At some point, clothes are going to have to be washed, things mended, and so forth, and that’s going to have to be taken care of on our day off, too.”
“What do you think about trying to work out for an hour or so at lunch everyday?” Darrell said. “At least it would get us out of the saddle and let us move around a bit.”
“I’m not too sure about stopping for an hour,” Chris said. “We won’t know how far away the next town is, and we might not make it before dark if we stop for too long.”
“What if we try thirty minutes and see how it goes?” Steve asked.
“Okay. Just as long as we get in some regular practice,” Darrell said.
By then, dinner was ready so Joan dished up a plate of stew and warm bread for everyone while Theresa poured their coffee. After they finished eating and the dishes were all stored away, Joan made a fresh pot of coffee and everyone settled back down around the campfire. It wasn’t dark yet, but the sun was going down, and it would be dark within the hour.
“You know, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about what you told us about slavery here, Kevin,” Darrell began.
“I know. I haven’t been able to shake it either,” Kevin answered.
“I feel like maybe that has something to do with why we’re here,” Karl added.
“How?” Joan asked. “I mean, what can we do about it anyway?”
“I don’t know,” Karl answered quietly. “I just feel like we were sent here to do something about it. You know we can’t just go along with it.”
“Don’t you even think about going off on some suicide mission to kill raiders and free the slaves! I won’t have it! You are not going to leave me alone in a strange new world Karl Stanton! And I mean it!” Joan was on the verge of tears, picturing her husband riding off like an avenging angel.
“Whoa, I’m not even thinking about doing anything like that,” Karl said as he put his arm around his wife. “Settle down, honey. You know better than think I’d ever leave you.”
“Well, I have to admit that the thought of trying to track down a few slavers and take them out did cross my mind,” Darrell said, “but I just can’t see how it would be worth the risk. As soon as we took out one group, another would pop up to take its place. It’s sort of like the drug dealers back home. Attacking them isn’t going to really help the situation in the long run.”
“Maybe we should try attacking the demand since we can’t do much about the supply,” Chris said. “You know, like the ‘say no to drugs’ campaign to stem the demand for drugs?”
“I’m afraid it probably wouldn’t work any better here than it has against drugs,” Kevin said. “I imagine most of the peasants would love to say no. After all, they’re the ones who get captured and taken away as slaves. It’s the ones who use slaves that we need to target and they aren’t likely to say no to something that makes their lives easier.”
“I haven’t really had a chance to think it through,” Steve said slowly, “but what if we could find out exactly why they think they need slaves, and then find a better way to meet that need? We might be able to get the people of Terah to put an end to slavery themselves.”
Darrell shrugged and said, “From what Kevin said, they mainly need slaves to protect them from the slavers.”
“No, there has to be more to it than that,” Steve said. “I know that they need slaves to fill out the army now, but I bet it all began because someone wanted servants and there weren’t any people willing to do it, so someone else went out, captured some relatively helpless people, and sold them to the highest bidder. Maybe that’s where we need to start.”
“I sort of understand what you’re saying,” Joan said. “If we could find some way to make being a servant an honorable way to earn a living, then there would be people who wanted to work as servants, shutting down the market for slaves.”
Steve nodded.
“How do we do that?” Karl asked.
“I don’t have the faintest idea,” Steve said. “Of course we can’t do anything yet. We’re just a band of traveling minstrels at the moment. But when Myron becomes the Master Sorcerer, he might be able to do something about the tradition of owning slaves.”
Kevin frowned. “If he becomes the Master Sorcerer, and that is still one really big if, he can definitely ban the use of slaves at the castle where he’ll be living.”
“Yeah, and since free people work better than slaves, we could show that our way is better,” Darrell added.
“Maybe better by our standards, but we have to be able to show that it’s cheaper in the long run, more efficient, and more satisfactory,” Steve said. “And we’d have to be subtle about it. If the upper class thinks that their privileged way of life is being threatened in any way, they’ll fight it tooth and nail and we won’t get anywhere.” He paused and thought for a moment. “If we’re going to have any impact at all, we’re going to have to show them a better way and make them want to copy it, or better yet, give them a reason to want to stop using slaves and let them come up with an alternative themselves. That would be best.” Steve paused again, thinking. “You know, we need a battle plan. We’ll be in Nandelia for nearly eight months. Maybe we can come up with some ideas then.”
“That’s a good idea,” Karl said. “We’ll have plenty of time to w
ork on something while we’re there.”
“But keep in mind that even if we come up with a workable plan, we’ll be lucky to see any results within the next twenty years,” Steve said. “A custom that has lasted for centuries won’t just die overnight. I seriously doubt if any of us will live to see the end of slavery, but maybe we can trigger the beginning of the end. That’s about the best we can hope for.”
The crackling of the fire was the only sound for the next few minutes. Then Theresa spoke up. “I didn’t want to say anything earlier, but I wasn’t there when Kevin apparently told the rest of you about this slavery bit. Steve, you and Darrell can fill me in during our watch tonight, but now, if no one has any objections, I’m going to turn in. Does it matter which of the tarps I take?”
“No, you can have whichever one you want,” Steve said as he stood up and stretched. “We set out four. One is for you and one is for Karl and Joan. The rest of us could bunk with the person we have watch with.”
Theresa nodded and said, “Then I’ll take the one next to my wagon.”
“Okay,” Steve said. Then he turned towards Darrell. “Which tent do you want to use? It makes no difference to me.”
“The one closest to Theresa’s would be best since she’s on watch with us,” Darrell answered as he too stood up.
“Shall we take the one next to Kevin’s wagon, Karl?” Joan asked. “I’m ready to get some sleep, too.”
“Fine with me,” Karl answered. “I’ll join you as soon as I check on the horses one more time.”
After a couple of minutes, only Kevin and Chris were left at the fire. Chris poured himself another cup of coffee and offered some to Kevin. Then he built the fire up a bit and sat back down to watch it burn. After a while he said, “I could get used to this. No briefcase to lug around, no high pressure sales meetings, no memos.”
“No hot showers, no stereos, no computers …” Kevin added, a touch of longing in his voice.
“Except for the hot showers, none of the rest particularly bothers me. I never did care much for TV, and telephones could be a real nuisance,” Chris said. “Although a microwave would be nice.”
The Master's Chair (The Chronicles of Terah) Page 23
